Totoko Yowai

**Totoko Yowai** (弱井 トト子 *Yowai Totoko*), created by Fujio Akatsuka, is a supporting cast member in Osomatsu-kun. She also serves as part of Akatsuka's Star System, much like the other prominent characters in the series.

She is notable for being considered the heroine of the title, though often simply used as the girl the sextuplets and Chibita are interested in. The surname of "Yowai" tends to only exist in her early appearances or when she is specified as the daughter of a fishmonger, otherwise she may be simply "Totoko" and her family situation may differ.

## Overview

> "Her face is the same as 'Akko-chan's Got a Secret!' She loves cool boys and everybody loves her. Well, after all, she is a girl."
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> *- A quote attributed to having been said by Akatsuka in his lifetime, from the early Koredeiinoda website.*
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Introduced in the 10th chapter of the series, Totoko becomes one of the recurring side characters of the series but is often less prioritized when it comes to screentime or any major roles (due to the shonen demographic). She is a young girl that lives in the sextuplets' neighborhood, and who they all share feelings for in one of the things that they can agree upon.

As with her parental situation, her age may vary for specific settings; she is usually set at the same age as the sextuplets (10) or slightly older for a given story, but may at other times be a young adult. This is particularly evident in the final Shonen Sunday -kun story.

Her first appearance in -kun fell two weeks after the debut of Akko-chan; Akatsuka may have re-used the design as a nod or to convey the image of a similar cute heroine (if having not even initially intending the two to be the same). It is said that Akatsuka claimed that when he drew a "gentle face", the re-use of Akko's design only became natural.

## Physical Appearance

She is a slim, tall young girl, designed in the fashion of having considerable stature over the boys the same age and falling in line with other Akatsuka heroines' proportions. As with Akko, she has a very characteristic hairstyle of pigtails and a large bouffant/bun-like swell of hair atop the crown of her head. A headband is often worn over it, along with a pair of ribbons for the pigtails.

Her fashion can vary a lot more than the sextuplets', but she can usually be seen wearing some form of dress or jumper skirt, or a two-piece top and skirt. Modern Fujio Pro color artwork tend to depict her fashion as a peach/orange color as to not stand out more than Akko, although other different covers and illustrations can have a variety of color schemes for her. The color of the headband and hair ribbons may also depend on the illustration, but it is common to see the headband depicted red and the ribbons as yellow.

The manga artwork has her hair inked in a simple monochromatic black with no highlighting, though color anime adaptations will tend to give her deep brown hair instead.

## Personality

She is serious, studious, and a friendly young girl who is the idol of many young boys at school and around town. But her gentle appearance and kindness is not infinite, and she can easily be short-tempered and violent, having little patience for being wronged or frustrated by any fooling around or upset caused by the sextuplets (in particular Osomatsu). When angered, she will showcase her "body blow" punch which can easily floor a target, or she will take some other form of violent revenge.

The strength setting was downplayed through the manga, however, with Totoko more often being shown as an ordinary girl considered morally above the sextuplets and out of their reach when it came to their futile attempts to find out who she liked or to impress her. Even so, she may still get frustrated and jealous if they ignore her for another girl (as with Kinko), and she seems to be relied upon by the boys to help with their grades. Though she is excellent at school work, her cooking skill is absymal and will make others sick.

By the third run of the -kun manga, she is still set in a heroine role but is considered a bit scummier than her original depiction. She will join in unreasonable acts or even instigate them, and her language becomes rougher. Another instance has the sextuplets comment that her "image has fallen" for them, when they witness her being eager to eat the space poop and gladly trying it.

## Relationships with Other Characters

### The Sextuplets

Totoko is idolized by all the sextuplets, who compete against each other for her affection and attention. This leads to the other five being sabotaged by Osomatsu in one early manga story, who "wins" but is then punched out by Totoko for having ruined her day of fun. The sextuplets like to do what they can to please her, but often wind up frustrating her anyway by some means and wind up beaten up or snubbed for it.

Still, there are times that they can get along fine enough, but they may never get to know who Totoko truly likes out of all of them (if any). Attempts to impress her may backfire severely and end in humiliation or chaos. When it comes to anything one-on-one, it is Osomatsu that will often be seen with her in later instances, though there are scenes early on in the manga where Choromatsu holds a great interest in finding time alone with her.

#### 1988 series

Totoko is at times the object of the sextuplets' eye as usual, but can also be a hindrance or outright threat as needed by the storyline. She can effortlessly trick them and get them to adore her, but in the instance of encountering their clones in "Sextuplets Squared!" and even after seeing what the deal was, she refuses to stop her attempts at comically murdering the boys with grenades and keeps up the chase.

In the plot of "Iyami after 40 Years", she is depicted as conning herself into a marriage with the businessman Dayon out of her desperation to be married at age 50 and being fat and undesirable to men. But she confesses to Osomatsu that she wished she could have married him instead, before being unable to remember which sextuplet he was in her youth and what he'd bring her when sick. Osomatsu is shown to mutter "It was good to have never married Totoko" to himself afterwards, though he seems sympathetic to her plight and is willing to work on a youth medicine for her.

### Chibita

She gets along well with Chibita in some stories, showing
kindness to him where the sextuplets wouldn't, and Chibita in turn has feelings for her. But sometimes she too is a victim of Chibita, such as when he rigs her prize bike so she'd crash and break her leg all over again.

There are times where Chibita may come out the victor of her feelings, such as in a 3rd run story where he manages to buy a teddy bear for her and impress her or when the sextuplets' and Iyami's attempt to ruin his date with her backfires. Yet sometimes, even he won't be the one to win her over.

In the 1988 show, Totoko attempts to cheer him up on one of the occasions of him being bullied by the six, yet only gives backhanded compliments about his baldness and inferior looks. But in some settings, such as the Wild West tale and "White Christmas in the Skyline", she is a heroine grateful to help out or to be assisted by him in any way when she's in a pinch.

### Hatabo

Although Totoko's interactions with Hatabo are rare, there is one Western setting where the two are siblings and the children of Dekapan. This was adapted into the 1988 show for its 22nd episode.

### Dekapan

When Totoko is not set with a family separate from the main cast, it is often Dekapan that will serve as her father and protective figure.

### Dayon

Though there are not too many encounters between Totoko and Dayon, she does intend to use him as a pawn for her rental girlfriend service towards the end of the BomBom run only to wind up with her plan turned back against her when she and Osomatsu must pay for the high restaurant bill from all the food he ate.

### Iyami

Totoko is not often shown around Iyami much in the original manga, though she is once depicted as part of his dancing harem in "The Seat of Shigetaro Iyami" and Okiku is strongly suggested to be a role played by her in "Iyami Alone in the Wind".

By the 1980s run, however, Iyami is shown to have lewd feelings for the young girl and attempting to woo her on sporadic occasions by taking her on a date or lusting after her in his mind (to the point where he and Chibita even attempt to transform into copies of her to pervert her image for the sextuplets).

#### 1988 series

Initially, Iyami's attitude towards Totoko starts with him flipping her skirt (under the disguise of Dekapan in committing lewd acts), but he is then shown to suggestively appreciate the idea of Totoko being his primadonna for his ballet show, or wanting her to come to his laboratory for a date. Notably however, in "Watch Out for the Wild Iyami!", the starving and desperate Iyami craves to bite a young girl's butt, and sets out to make Totoko his prey. Another occasion has Iyami, disguised as an old woman, grope Totoko and flirt with her only to beaten up for being a "perverted granny".

The situation is also flipped around for episode 19, where Totoko is shown to bear feelings for Iyami as her teacher and attempt to praise and flirt with him in order to assure her good grades, while Iyami himself seems disturbed by her unsubtle nature.

Yet when Iyami has won the lottery in episode 47, Totoko uses her sly ways to agree to becoming his wife only as it'd mean she'd get a lot of money, but the two and Chibita wind up in despair when they arrive to claim their money a moment too late.

### Mother

Totoko's mother has a high pride in her daughter's cute side, to the point where she only ever focuses on her daughter's words and actions in the school's *Urashima Taro* play, but will faint and become upset when she sees her daughter being violent[4] and remark on how it's so terrible.

She is last ever seen in the -kun series when assisting her daughter in a wheelchair after she'd injured her ankle.

A mother figure only appears twice in the 1988 anime, once in its theatrical movie, and is depicted as a rich and nicely-dressed woman who is as vain as her daughter.

### Father

Totoko's (usual) father is very adoring and appreciative of his daughter, and relies on her to help with the fish store. In the original "Chibita the Safe-Cracker", both he and Totoko become distraught when Osomatsu and Choromatsu are locked in the safe, but he surmises there's little any of them can do to break the boys out.

In the remake of the chapter, he is redesigned to be more super-deformed and is now terrified of his very daughter being locked in the safe. He is grateful to Chibita when she is rescued.

The 1988 show uses the remake's version of her father in its own "Chibita the Safe-Cracker" adaptation, but displays an entirely different father in the following episode; he is a short, rich man with glasses.

### Brother (Fighting Yowai)

Totoko's strength and body blow ability are said to have been inherited from this young man, who is 10 years her senior (making him 20 and have come of adult age at the start of the series) and who goes by the boxing alias "Fighting Yowai"; this is a parody of the famous pro-boxer of the time, Fighting Harada. Totoko attempts to get the sextuplets to masquerade as him in a boxing match, due to perceived similarities in their appearance, but it goes off disastrously.

A later chapter where Fighting Yowai actually appears revolves around Totoko getting the sextuplets to convince her brother to return
home, as he aims to set out on his own (but in actuality wishes to live off of the Matsunos) instead of staying home to eventually inherit the fish store. In this story, we can see that her older brother has his own sly ways and will not be deterred by his sister's wishes, and even uses the fact she secretly finds Osomatsu "charming" against her (she insists it to be a lie, but eventually admits and regrets she ever thought that to be the case about the boy) as a way to make Osomatsu do as he pleases.

But while Fighting Yowai may be physically strong and have his own kind of tough will, he is weak to the thoughts of his mother and is a timid guy at heart.

### Grandfather

Though the first appearance of a grandfather showed him to be an ordinary old man being assisted by Totoko on walking out in the town, a later and more memorable grandfather character was depicted as a former soldier still bearing a very nationalistic and combat-oriented mindset. He uses this to aid the brothers in rounding up Chibita's cats and trapping them. His dentures will fly out of his mouth when angered or shocked.

The second "grandfather" design and character was in fact used previously in the series as an angry old man in the neighborhood, and this man would re-appear late in the series with a military mindset but no clear familial connection to Totoko. He can be seen being pranked by Iyami in episode 23 of the 1988 series, and is more memorable in manga usage for being "The Monk Assputin" in The Genius Bakabon's Old Man.

## Lookalikes

### Atsuko "Akko" Kagami

It is a common occurrence to see one of these two girls in a manga or a Fujio Pro art piece and wonder which she is intended to be; this is due to them being entirely identical most of the time with little way of distinguishing them at all. Akko may be differentiated by the presence of her mirror or the later mirror compact, but even then she does not always have it and can even serve as a "Totoko"-type role for the Sextuplets (as seen in the Nyarome's Classroom series) while being name-dropped as "Akko".

It is claimed that a way to tell the two apart would be the shape of their eyes, with Totoko having closer highlights in her own eyes and slightly sharper corners. While this is reflected in modern Koredeiinoda artwork, it appears it was not always the case before and sometimes Akko herself can have the sharper eyes or there can be no way to truly distinguish their faces.

### Momoko

As Studio Pierrot had still rights to the -kun characters when Toei made their second animated adaptation of *Extraordinary Ataro*, a new lookalike girl as created to be a recurring part of the cast and serve the purpose of being Ataro's "girlfriend". Her design was clearly inspired by Totoko, yet was drawn to have a much shorter, childish appearance and be Ataro's own height.

The Fujio Pro revival manga that ran alongside this anime also included Momoko in three select chapters, though her already-limited personality was written to be more vaguely identical to Totoko and Akko, and her design was virtually the same to both of the two. This in turn created a third heroine to their "same face" dynamic, though she was never used for anything else afterward and could be seen as an oddity; Akatsuka himself, going by her extremely limited usage, may have not really been pleased or motivated to do too much with her.

## Appearances in other works

*See also: Akatsuka's Star System*

* *The Genius Bakabon*
* *Extraordinary Ataro*
* *Oh! Great Jailbreak*
* *Let's La Gon*
* *Wanpei and Mo-chan*
* *There's no Wonderful Business like that of a Gag!*
* *The Great Stupid Detective Kogoro Hakuchi*
* *Reading Dai-sensei*

## Appearances in Animation

### Osomatsu-kun (1966)

Totoko is generally depicted close to her manga appearances, not differing too greatly in her usage. Though her military-minded grandfather appears once in an adaptation of the story he was used in, her father only gets use in "Chibita the Safe-Cracker" and her mother and brother are never seen (though the boxing story is adapted, leaving it to be known that she does have an older brother).

### Furious Ataro (1969)

Totoko is introduced in episode 44 of this series, as a childhood friend of Dekoppachi living out in a rural mountain town. After that, she is used in different ways as a Star, with her setting changing each time; episode 48 particularly has her as a young woman named Kaede who happens to be the sister of a swordsman named Tosuke (Iyami).

She can be the object of desire for Dekoppachi, Ataro, or Nyarome, the last who aims to try to get her heart however possible. In the colorized portion of the series, she is shown to have brown hair and pink hair accessories, along with wearing a dark pink dress. The opening, however, has her wearing a white top and pink skirt.

### We are Manga-ka: The Tokiwa-so Story

Totoko is seen in a short, non-speaking cameo as she cleans the streets in the summer and is shocked to see the steam form when she tosses water.

As with the previous *Ataro* adaptation by Toei, she is a brunette who dresses in pink and red, but she is given a third hairbow on the top of her head to differentiate her from Akko (who herself is depicted in her 1969 Toei anime design).

### Osomatsu-kun (1988)

Although there exist some episodes having her a little more in-tune with her manga characterization, Totoko was given a radical personality overhaul in this series, in part due to the casting of Naoko Matsui and the overhead influence of the Yomiko producer Kyotaro Kimura.

She is often a vain, greedy and self-centered young girl fixated on money and attention, and will only pay attention to those who can give her what she wants or manipulate them into doing so. The screenwriter Kazuhisa Sakaguchi recalled Kimura stating "Totoko seems to have an absolutely terrible personality" with his perception of the manga, and as basis for why they could change her character and make her even more over-the-top. Once Matsui was cast in the role, with Kimura stating Totoko was the closest to "her type", this direction was sealed and the writing for Totoko gradually emphasized such wild behavior and plots for her to get into.

While usually a child in settings, she can either be running her own business as one or even aged up for the purposes of the plot. The sextuplets angering her is taken to even greater proportions, with her even going as far as to attempt comical murder if she feels wronged by them. Her great physical and emotional strength remains in many cases, with her being able to scare off a lion.

Episodes such as "Chibita the Safe-Cracker" and "White Christmas of the Skyline" depict her in a milder, heroic type of role, but there also exist plots where she can retain both a mischievous nature and one of a focused heroine such as "The Tomboy Princess of Dekapan Castle" and "Totoko, the Riddling Genius".

To go with the trends of the 1980s in Japan, Totoko is at one point shown as a fan of the boy band Hikaru Genji. She also often incorporates "Nori-P language" (used by the idol Noriko Sakai) into her dialogue; in dubs like the Spanish one, this is localized as her speaking more slangy Spanish.

### Heisei Genius Bakabon

Totoko is limited to appearing in a brief, silent cameo in episode 45, when she is shown as one of Bakabon's 5th grade classmates.

### Osomatsu-san

*For additional detailed information, see also the Osomatsu-san wiki*

## Portrayals

### Voice Acting

* 1965 Sonosheet "We'll Do Anything In 6 Rounds!"- Junko Hori
* Osomatsu-kun (1966)- Fuyumi Shiraishi, Kazuko Sawada (understudy for episodes 4, 27-31)
* Furious Ataro (1969)- Kazuko Sugiyama (regular voice), Akiko Tsuboi (episode 48, as "Kaede"), Nana Yamaguchi
* Osomatsu-kun (1988), CR Osomatsu-kun, and Pachislot Osomatsu-kun- Naoko Matsui
* That's How Things Should Be!! Fujio Akatsuka★The Movie- Maki Horikita
* Osomatsu-san- Aya Endo

### Live Action

Yumiko Endo portrayed Totoko in the 1985 Fuji TV special *Iyami and Chibita's Cooking Showdown!*. In this adaptation, Chikako (played by Kyoko Takami) was depicted as her sister.

## Foreign Names

*Foreign dubbing involving Totoko usually tends to be based from the 1988 series, where she has no surname. However, this can sometimes change in a dub.*

 Mandarin (Taiwan)
 Castilian Spanish
 Galician
 Korean

## Trivia

* In the postscript to "Osomatsu-kun" in 1989, Akatsuka disputed the idea of Totoko and Akko being the same character or even looking similar, claiming that it was not the case (though some equate this to him feigning ignorance as a joke or displaying comedic "misplaced anger"). However, it has also been claimed that during his lifetime he had made statements such as "Totoko equals Akko" and there is also the quote where he acknowledges the design similarity. It is noticeable that in works featuring the Star System, only one girl or the other will be used, leading to the idea that they're roles of the same "actor". A frontispiece gag in *Reading Dai-sensei* pokes fun at the identical appearances, with Totoko and Akko introducing themselves to each other and the readers. They are also depicted as looking shocked to see each other in an Akatsuka 80th anniversary art piece by Katta Yoshi.
* Ultimately, Fujio Pro would clarify that these two are entirely separate people, citing their "different names and personalities" as evidence. In Totoko's current profile on Koredeiinoda, it also states that "it's charming that Totoko and Akko are like two peas in a pod" (lit: 瓜二つ, "urifutatsu", "two cucumbers", from a similar saying in Japanese). But as with cases like Kantaro and Chibita, or Camera Kid and Ryunoshin, it has also be theorized that the two may have even initially been developed as roles of the same design/actor, but then became separate. Still, if Akatsuka's anecdote on how her design came about applies, it would have been a coincidence from the very start, though any Fujio Pro manga of the two as possibly interchangeable seemed to stop after his hospitalization and death.
* As Tomoko Akatsuka's name was inspirational for the characters of Tomoko in O-chan's Eleven Friends and that of Moko in Akko-chan's Got a Secret! (to where her initial full name was "Tomoko Ina", referencing Tomoko's maiden name of Inao), and she also had early involvement in -kun, it is entirely plausible that her name also inspired that of Totoko but her husband altered it to make a pun on "toto"/fish to fit the fishmonger's daughter setting. It would be even more amusing if so, as the name of Akko came from her sister and her own name would be sourced yet again for a design that could very well look like some relative (to outright copy) of Akko.
* Due to the fact that the Yowai family were barely in her settings after a certain point of the manga and her name is mostly often given as just "Totoko" by Fujio Pro, there are some readers that would want to dispute the idea of "Yowai" being her regular surname when it was re-instated in *Osomatsu-san*, as Akatsuka's settings for characters can vary by story and need. The ***Osomatsu-kun's Burst of Laughter World-zansu*** guide itself does not give her any surname, but does keep the setting of her fishmonger parents and pro-boxer brother intact in her profile even long after they'd stopped ever showing up in the manga.

## External Links

* Totoko profile at Koredeiinoda (Japanese)
* Totoko profile at Fujio Pro (Japanese)