Yukari Tenkawa

* Middle schooler
* Adult

**Yukari Tenkawa** (天川 ユカリ, *Tenkawa Yukari*) is one of Takagi's and Nishikata's classmates as well as a good friend of Sanae and Mina.

## Appearance

Yukari is a young girl with long brown hair tied into a high ponytail and brown eyes. She wears glasses and she is the tallest among her friends. She wears a spring/summer sailor uniform as her school outfit.

As an adult in the spin-off manga, she is still tall but Sanae becomes taller than her. She doesn't wear clips in her hair. She either wears formal attire comprising a blazer, shirt and skirt or she wears and when more casual, it includes a long skirt and top.

## Personality

Yukari is always quiet and doesn't talk much unlike Mina. Even though she adores her friends, she often gets frustrated by their antics and acts like their mother, reprimanding them when necessary. She is interested in talking about more mature topics like love. For example, she likes discussing Nishikata and Takagi's closeness and often talks to her friends about having a boyfriend of her own.

As Mina put it in Ashita wa Doyōbi 5, Yukari does not have any specialties, except having no specialties. She prefers to stay inside and away from hot weather, reading manga and lazing about. She is not athletic and does not know how to swim. She is studious, always completing her homework on time and she even scolds her friends when they slack off in their studies. She tries her best to get good grades in tests and top rankings in class but fails to do so and still remains an average student.

She loves romance even as an adult. She has a case of pre-wedding blues. Thankfully, Takagi invites Yukari, Sanae and Mina to her house, probably to comfort her and give her advice about marriage. Despite being nervous about married life, Yukari seems perfectly calm and happy on her wedding day.

## Relationships

### Mina Hibino

*Main article: Mina Hibino*

Mina is one of Yukari's best friends. They hang out together all the time both in and out of school along with Sanae. Outside school, they often meet up at each other's houses. They even go to other places like the beach and the summer festival together. Even though Yukari really loves Mina, she often gets annoyed with Mina's antics and when Mina and Sanae team up to tease her. Yukari always reprimands Sanae for pinching Mina's cheeks. Mina does not like to study and hence often slacks off in her studies and even forgets to do her homework, this very much irritates Yukari and she always scolds Mina for slacking off but it doesn't help. Mina usually has to ask for Yukari's notes and help so that she can complete her homework which is another thing that irks Yukari. Yukari says that she won't help but always ends up helping Mina. Mina does not share Yukari's passion about romance, another thing that annoys Yukari. Of course, Mina loves her friend a lot and she does a lot of nice things for Yukari which the other girl really appreciates. When Mina is upset, Yukari always tries to cheer her up and Mina always does the same for her.

As adults, they are still close. Yukari is seen to sometimes visit Mina at the kindergarten where she teaches. Even as adults, they once tailed Takagi and her family together along with Sanae. Being one of Yukari's closest friends, Mina was there to calm her down when she was having pre-wedding blues. Of course, she attended Yukari's wedding her wedding.

### Sanae Tsukimoto

*Main article: Sanae Tsukimoto*

Sanae is one of Yukari's best friends. They hang out together all the time both in and out of school along with Yukari. Outside school, they often meet up at each other's houses. They even go to other places like the beach and the summer festival together. Though they love each other, Sanae often teams up with Mina to tease Yukari which really gets on Yukari's nerves. Sanae also annoys Yukari by slacking off on her studies and always asks for Yukari's notes and help. Yukari reprimands her for slacking off and says that she won't help but always ends up helping her anyway. Sanae does not share Yukari's passion about romance, another thing that annoys Yukari. Sanae has a habit of pinching Mina's cheeks when she is annoyed with her but always stops when Yukari scolds her for doing it. There are times when Mina annoys Yukari and Sanae with her overly bright and slightly silly personality, on those occasions, Yukari tells Sanae to go ahead and pinch Mina's cheeks and Sanae gladly does so. Yukari and Mina had managed to get Sanae to wear a Yukata for the summer festival and tie her hair in a ponytail. Sanae neither likes to dress up like that nor does she like tying her hair but the compliments from her friends made her happy and she decided to stay dressed that way for the sake of her friends. Once when a cat stole Yukari's food, Sanae chased the cat for a very long time to get back Yukari's snack for her which shows how much she cares for her.

As adults they are the same. Sanae annoys Yukari and Yukari scolds Sanae.

### Takagi

*Main article: Takagi*

In middle school, they do not interact much but are on friendly terms. Yukari loves with Nishikata's and Takagi's relationship and often hopes to have a special someone the same way that they have each other. Yukari is seen tailing Takagi and Nishikata once with her friends because she wanted to observe how a couple would act together.

They interact more often as adults. Yukari tails the Nishikata family with Mina and Sanae because she wanted to observe how a family would interact with each other, they were tailing the family because Yukari wanted to see what married life is like since she herself would get married soon. Takagi suggests that the trio come over to her house sometime so that they can discuss Yukari's marriage. Takagi, Nishikata and Chi attend Yukari's marriage.

## Etymology

* Yukari's surname **Tenkawa** means "heaven/heavenly, sky, imperial" (天) (**ten**) and "river, stream" (川) (**kawa**).

## Trivia

* Yukari enjoys talking about romance, but her friends do not share the same interest during school.
* Yukari is quite the picky eater, as she likes to trade her lunch with her friends a lot.
* Yukari is very sensitive to the cold.
* In the anime, it is inferred that Yukari is heavier than her friends, leaving her unable to swim. She needs floats as per Ashita wa Doyōbi 19.
* In the Season 3 opening, Yukari is seen secretly tailing Takagi and Nishikata with Mina Hibino and Sanae Tsukimoto.
* Yukari is the class representative.
* Although Yukari is seen to do homework on time—unlike her friends—and studies and reviews the material, she is still ranked in the average of her class.
* In Yukari's free time, she reads manga, watches TV and eats sweets.
* Yukari is one of the main characters in the spin-off manga, Ashita wa Doyōbi by Sōichirō Yamamoto.
* In Chapter 90 of Karakai Jouzu no (Moto) Takagi-san, Chi (Takagi and Nishikata's daughter) was scared of Yukari because of her pointed eyes until she learned that she was going to be a bride.
* Yukari's age in the spin-off is never revealed, but estimated to be around 26 - 27 year old.
	+ Her age being around 26 - 27 year old is due to the fact that she went to the same school and class with Takagi/Nishikata. In Chapter 31, Takagi mentioned *"it has been over 10 years since those days in middle school"* while reading through her middle school graduation album. Since the age students graduate from middle school in Japan is 14 - 15 year old, then add **over** 10 years to it. 14 to 15 plus more than 10 is around 26, at the least.