Touma Tsubaki

**Touma Tsubaki** (椿 当麻, *Tsubaki Tōma*) is a character from the manga Shimanami Tasogare, the ace of the Shimanami High volleyball club and Tasuku Kaname's crush. He and Tasuku are on the Health Committee together. Overtime, as he keeps going to volunteer and spend time in Cat Clowder, he learns to accept his sexuality, as well as his feelings for Tasuku.

## Appearance

Touma is tall and slightly muscular, with broad shoulders and a strong jawline. He has dark hair and eyes with long lashes.

He is almost always seen in either his school uniform or gym clothes, though seems to dress rather fashionably in his free time.

## Personality

Touma is an outgoing young man admired by many of his peers for his charming personality and athletic ability. However, like Tasuku, he struggles with inner conflicts about his sexuality. He also likes goldfish and takes care of the ones in the health committee room and at his home.

## Plot

**Summary**

Touma is a member of Shimanami High's Health Committee, the ace of the volleyball team, and Tasuku Kaname's crush. As he gets closer to Tasuku, he also gets closer to the other lounge visitors and as a result is forced to confront his repressed confusion about his sexuality.

### *Volume 1*

**Chapter 1**

Touma is seen in the background looking over when Tachibana outs Tasuku for watching Gay Porn. This scene is from Tasuku's point of view and frames Touma in the background.

**Chapter 2**

Tasuku is seen in the background of the first couple of pages framed between the warping panels before Tasuku runs away from school to Cat Clowder.

**Chapter 3**

Touma seems interested when Tasuku tells Tachibana to stop making homophobic jokes but does not talk to them.

**Chapter 5**

Touma is walking outside of the demolition site. Even though it is unknown whether this is Tasuku's imagination or not, it convinces Tasuku to come out to the Lounge members.

### *Volume 2*

**Chapter 6**

Touma goes to the health committee meeting that Tasuku is also apart of. They have a short talk at the end of the meeting, which makes Tasuku happy but self-conscious.

**Chapter 7**

Touma greets Tasuku while he walks home with his friends, unknowingly flustering him.

**Chapter 8**

Coming back home, Touma's dad, who previously realized that Tasuku was wearing the same jacket from the school his son goes to, tells Touma that in the Lounge there was this kid from his school (implying that is where "gay people hang out"), which picks Touma's interest.

**Chapter 9**

The day of the festival, Touma, who was surrounded by other people, immediately spots Tasuku in the crowd. Touma calls Tasuku's name and as they are talking, someone from the crowd that passes by, accidentally pushes him forward, making him fall over Tasuku, getting both of their faces extremely closer to one another. After a moment of silence between them, they quickly separate, and Touma walks away, waving a "later".

Later, Touma breaks Tasuku and Misora's fight because during it, Misora lets the fish he was holding in a bag fall and get out of the water. Touma quickly grabs the goldfish in his hands, scolding Tasuku and Misora because the fishes were going to die. Before he leaves with the fish, Touma hears Misora calling Tasuku gay slurs.

**Chapter 10**

Touma asks his dad again about the guy he saw at the Lounge and asks him if his surname was "Kaname", clearly showing his interest in Tasuku being there.

### *Volume 3*

**Chapter 11**

Touma accompanies his dad to volunteer at Cat Clowder's workshop. There, he meets Tasuku, and starts acting as if he did not hear anything of the things he heard Misora say at the festival.

As Touma sees Utsumi working on some physically taxing task, he offers to help him. Utsumi praises his work and asks him if he plays any sports, mentioning volleyball. Touma blushes instantly at this and asks Utdumi how he knew this, to which Utsumi replies he also played volleyball at school.

Later, at school, on the health committee, he and Tasuku start working on preparations for the school festival. All of a sudden, Touma begins making homophobic and transphobic remarks about the frequenters of the Lounge, basing himself only on what his dad has always fed him. And lets Tasuku know that he heard what Misora screamed at him during the summer festival, since he found it "funny". After leaving Tasuku speechless, he calls him by his first name and with no honorifics for the first time, which shocks Tasuku even further, and invites him to go to a ship launching together to take photos for their school project.

**Chapter 12**

On the day of the ship launching, as soon as Touma sees Tasuku, he waves at him and presents to him some girls from the volleyball team. While the ship was launching, Touma and Tasuku were together alone in the big crowd of people. Touma suddenly grabs Tasuku and pulls him closer into a hug, which makes Tasuku break down crying in frustration since he still does not understand Touma and thinks he is toying with him. Afterward, they go to have eat some food with two girls Touma introduced to Tasuku, and the girls ask them how the two of them meet, so Touma starts explaining it all. Until he arrives on the topic of the Lounge, and he starts making homophobic and transphobic points again. However, one of the girls abruptly cuts Touma, telling him he can not be talking like that, since her friend's sister is trans and it is not at all the way Touma was describing "those people" to be. So Touma apologizes and later just walks away, waving bye to everyone.

**Chapter 13**

Touma goes to volunteer to Cat Clowder again the next day, and starts acting nice to the members of the Lounge, as if he never said the hurtful things he said the other day in front of Tasuku, which obviously confuses Tasuku. Later, while they are working with Tasuku, he also mentions the fact that maybe taking a picture of his work here for the school project can cause trouble by making Cat Clowder public, which makes Tasuku uncomfortable and flustered.

**Chapter 14**

Touma goes to the observatory to take pictures and there he meets Anonymous. Touma, out of nowhere, starts a rant about how despite he was reluctant to get involved with what he describes as "that gay and gender identity stuff", he was surprised and relieved to see how "normal" they all are at the Lounge. And then mentions the fact that Tasuku then might be gay. So Anonymous nonchalantly asks Touma what would he do if Tasuku was gay. When Touma replies that that is just "disgusting", Anonymous asks him again: "what are you scared of?" They let Touma know that he can share anything with them, which shocks Touma, who keeps asking them what do they mean by those questions. When he starts to get visibly upset with Anonymous questions, Touma asks them if they are a lesbian, or if they are trans. And Anonymous asks him the same questions back. As Anonymous walks away serenely as usual, Touma starts getting more and more agitated and angry, as he shouts to them: "keep your comments to yourself and just shut up!"

**Chapter 15**

The day after Anonymous' questions deeply affected Touma, he starts getting worked up over every little thing. Suddenly, during his volleyball team's practice, Anonymous appears in front of Touma, asking him the same question: "are you gay?" And he gets worked up again.

At the health committee class, as Tasuku talks calmly and happily about his plans for the school festival, Tasuku starts getting fired up and starts attacking Tasuku out of nowhere, outing him and making what he claims to be a "joke" about Tasuku's sexuality. After his outburst, he storms off the classroom, leaving his classmates, and more importantly, Tasuku, very uncomfortable.

The day of the school festival, Tasuku ends up doing all the work and doing the presentations all by himself, so when Touma arrives to the classroom again, and Tasuku invites him to Triangle Manor, since they are going to be waxing the floor, Touma explodes and starts verbally assaulting Tasuku and the Lounge, acknowledging the fact that Tasuku is gay and saying how mad it makes him to see the people in the Lounge be so open about their sexualities, "when they could just hide that they are gay". As this is all happening, Tasuku sees Touma getting further and further secluded in the space ship he was on, getting away from Tasuku's understanding. However, Tasuku is tired and fed up of his attacks and breaks the entrance to the space ship, literally entering into Touma's space, firmly saying: "don't belittle me or the others!" Touma stares at him, speechless, and Tasuku decides to come out as gay to him and to confess his feelings for him. He lets Touma know clearly that although he spent some nice moments with him, that that is not going to work anymore.

As a ship with all Touma and Tasuku's memories starts forming around them, in the place where the spaceship was, Touma breaks down crying and apologizes to Tasuku. Later, while he leaves school, he tells Tasuku that he is glad he talked to him.

### *Volume 4*

**Chapter 16**

As Touma was walking by the hospital, Tchaiko spots him and says "hey" to him. So Touma approaches him and agrees to lend a hand for Triangle Manor, after Tchaiko asks for his help with installing some large furniture. Coincidentally, Tasuku was there with Tchaiko too, so once again Touma confuses Tasuku by saying hi to him in a completely normal manner, as if Tasuku hadn't confessed his feelings for him just the other day, and as if they did not share such an intimate moment.

At Triangle Manor, while working on the installation of said large furniture, Touma starts asking questions to Tchaiko about him and his partner.

**Chapter 17**

Touma starts spending more and more time at the Lounge. And with the holiday season near, he helps with decorations there. When Haruko asks him how he is he planning on spending his holidays, he replies that he does not know, but that he has a lot of invitations since he is very popular, especially with girls. At that moment, he starts flirting with Tasuku, which leaves Tasuku blushing and deeply confused once again, asking himself why is Touma doing this to him.

Soon after, Anonymous arrives at the Lounge and asks Touma and Tasuku to help them make some special cafe au lait. After this, they leave the Lounge, leaving everyone surprised, except for Touma, who wonders what was strange about Anonymous' actions. Haruko explains to him that this is unusual for Anonymous to do, since they usually do not get involved or show any interest in anyone or anything. In response to this, Touma says that Anonymous is human too, that they say things that get under one's skin and jerk one around at random, so they are very much human. Touma also mentions that the fact that they have their own recipe of cafe au lait, proves that it is not like they are not interested in anything. However, he does question who is Anonymous, in the end.

**Chapter 18**

Touma listens attentively to Tchaiko as he shares the story of how he and his partner, Seichirou, met Anonymous. Later, when they accompany Haruko to her house, with Tasuku, he passes by Tasuku and gently grazes his back. And back at the Lounge, he gets surprised to see his dad suddenly arrive at the Lounge.

**Chapter 19**

Touma's dad passes by the Lounge to apologize to Saki since he outed her to her parents without her consent. But Touma gets mad at him when he starts to excuse what he has done, telling him that the right moment a person decides to come out it is not his decision to make, but theirs. His dad starts questioning Touma, then, and as soon as he realizes Touma is there at the Lounge, he starts bombarding him with questions and yells "who was it?! Who lured you into becoming gay?!" at Touma. As a frustratedly angry Touma replies "no one", Tasuku decides to step up and he tells Touma's dad that he is gay, asking him that now that he knows that fact about him, how will he treat him from then on.

**Chapter 20**

Touma seems deeply moved by Tasuku's words as he tells Touma's dad that there is some people he wants to come out to, but on his own time. And that this is something really important to them, so he trusts he will not tell this to anyone. Touma's dad sees his error after listening to Tasuku, and as he reluctantly leaves Touma behind, he apologizes and leaves. Later, as the sun is setting, Touma and Tasuku walk together, just the two of them. Touma tells Tasuku that he thinks the way he lives his life is very cool, and that he finds the way in which Tasuku fearlessly faces people who say bad stuff to him impressive. He confesses that he finally realized that he wants to live that way too, saying goodbye to the way he used to be, which was making fun of and hurting others, without accepting himself. As he painfully laughs loudly, he fears what will await him back home with his family. As Touma hears what Tasuku did with his family, Touma tells him that he wants to help him if anything bothers him from now. And then asks Tasuku if he can give him a hug. As soon as Tasuku says "sure", Touma embraces him firmly with his arms clinging around him. As they stay in each other's arms for a long time, Touma tells him that he corresponds to his feelings for Tasuku, but that he still needs time to understand himself and his sexuality, which Tasuku fully supports, telling him there is nothing wrong with not knowing what to do.

**Chapter 22**

When Tasuku's friends, Tachibana, asks both Tasuku and Touma how did they meet each other, since they do not seem to have anything in common, but spend a lot of time together, smiling widely and putting an arm around Tasuku, Touma replies that they are so close that they share almost all activities together.

The day of Saki and Haruko's wedding, Touma meets Tasuku as a date at the entrance to Triangle Manor and they start walking around it. Suddenly, Touma realizes Tasuku has frozen, so when he gets closer to him, he realizes Tasuku's shock comes from seeing one of the walls of the place vandalized with horrible homophobic slurs. When he realizes Tasuku is starting to have a panic attack, he brings some paint thinner and the both of them start removing them. As they work, Tasuku confesses that he used to believe that people who were this hateful just hate gay people, but that he recently realized that maybe if people who are part of the community themselves see others in the same community enjoying themselves, they might find that "unforgivable", which would make them cause trouble. When he realizes he could have ended up being one of these people, he says that he is been looking forward to this day the whole time, sensing it would be a lot of fun. And as Touma says this, he breaks down crying, getting comforted by Tasuku instantly, who tells him there is no time to be crying.

During the wedding ceremony, he lets Misora know that he looks really good in the outfit he chose to wear for the ceremony.

**Chapter 23**

After summer starts, Touma passes by the Lounge and he and Tasuku share how happy they have been lately.

## Etymology

* The name **Touma** means "this, hit, right, appropriate, himself" (当) (**tou**) and "hemp, flax" (麻) (**ma**).
* Touma's surname **Tsubaki** means "camellia flower" (椿).

## Trivia

* Touma likes goldfish.
* Touma is part of the Drama Club.
* Touma's favorite singer is Daichi Miura.