Azumanga Daioh: “Tomo & Yomi, Appendum”
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
After my article on Tomo and Yomi, I got some interesting responses that made me see some of this show in a different light. In that article, I mentioned Yomi’s obsession with maintaining her already spectacular figure. This is usually because of Tomo’s constant teasing of her weight. I just chalked this up to “Tomo being Tomo”.
It didn’t occur to me until someone pointed out that perhaps Tomo is jealous of Yomi’s figure, and that comes out through her teasing. There is an exchange in Episode 4 to back this up, when they’re in the locker room, suiting up for their swimming class and comparing breast sizes(now THERE’S an episode I could have gone without. I don’t hold it against the show, but it just feels like the inner workings of the girl’s locker room is something I REALLY SHOULD NOT BE SEEING, SERIOUSLY. I’ve never felt dirtier.)
This would mean that she actually likes the way Yomi looks, but won’t admit to it. She makes it a case to be in very close proximity to her as often as possible, and gets terribly, theatrically upset when Yomi took a trip to Hokkaido without her.
Yomi isn’t like this. She sometimes even tries to convince the other girls to exclude Tomo just to get a little peace and quiet. Not permanently, I think. Just once to give herself some respite. She doesn’t initiate the friendship, because she’s not the one constantly hugging, head-locking and even riding Tomo. Tomo is the one who very, very pro-actively wants to be close to this person. She even casually enters Yomi’s room through the window while she’s studying one night, just to hang out.
This is actually a pretty good summary for this show.
In fact, that gets me thinking about some other Tomo-Quirks: How she finds amusement in seeing Yomi get angry whenever she is called an idiot. Why is she amused? Does she think Yomi looks cute when she’s angry?
This is one of my favourite lines.
I’m sure you can all see where I’m going with this. And I’m aware it’s far-fetched. It’s much more likely that this is just them being friends. This isn’t even jumping to conclusions. This is putting 1 and 1 together to make 2, but with only a single 1. But still, the more I watch this show, and these two characters, I’m starting to think maybe Kaorin isn’t the only lesbian here. Whether or not this theory holds weight, it has at least made the show a little more interesting for me.
On Yomi, as I re-watched some of the early episodes, it’s slowly dawned on me just how much I like this character. At first I thought she was superflouous(”the world needs only one tall, big-breasted character!”), but now I see her as the Lisa Simpson to Azumanga Daioh’s Simpsons. She’s the Larry to their Curly and Moe, their Phil Hartman, their “Glue”. She’s the voice of reason, takes pride in her studying, is kind, knowledgeable and always tries to steer those around her in the right direction. But she’s not whiny or on some high-horse. Yomi is the quiet hand that guides them, the under-appreciated force of gravity keeping her friends from spiraling out of orbit. And I doubt she’s anyone’s favourite character.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a picture of this girl smiling???
And now, more funny screen-grabs:
Take your punishment!
How flattering...
Say "aah"...
END OF LINE
~A.H.
