Tomo Aizawa

* Manga
* Anime

**Tomo Aizawa**  (相沢 智, *Aizawa Tomo*?) is the protagonist of Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!. She is a tomboy who excels in sports and she has a crush on her childhood friend Junichirou Kubota, but he remains oblivious to her feelings.

## Appearance

Tomo is a tall fair-skinned girl who has a somewhat "wild" appearance with slightly unkempt neck-length red hair, red eyes, she frequently sports small fangs (she sometimes has only one fang on one side of her mouth or sometimes both) that fits her boisterous and fiery personality and she has a muscular and lean appearance with large breasts, which is noted by many characters to be attractive. According to Misaki Gundou, she comments on how Tomo strikingly resembles her mother Akemi Aizawa.

She wears her uniform with the top button undone and she wears compression shorts (known as 'spats' in Japan) under her skirt, to which she explained that she shortened her skirt to give her legs freedom; having worn the compression shorts underneath for modesty.

## Personality

Tomo is very competitive when it comes to sports, sometimes scaring people with how strong she is. However, when it comes to Junichirou Kubota, she is very shy and often lashes out when he asks her something as simple as walking home together, and she can be aggressive towards him like punching or hurting him, though she doesn't do it on purpose.

While she is considered a tomboy with a very upfront and boisterous personality, she is also shown to be very flustered and innocent at times, especially with things with subjects concerning romance and her femininity. She is usually extremely kind and shown to have a very valiant habit to help those in need and is even described by Carol Olston as an angel. However she is a tough kid that isn't afraid of a fight going down and can be very confident when there is a fight going down.

This habit does have a negative effect at times as she is seen as "princely" to many characters that get to know her and has attracted both men and women. Misuzu Gundou notes in Chapter 61 that in junior high, she was known by students as the "Air-headed ladykiller"

## Background

Tomo met Junichirou Kubota ten years ago after he moved from Tokyo when she climbed his fence to greet him. She returned the next day and accidentally broke his handheld game; Jun punched Tomo (believing she was a guy) in retaliation. Tomo tells him to keep punching, but her answer freaks out Jun. A few hours later, Tomo's father came to Jun's house to apologize for Tomo's actions, even groveling at his feet. Her mother then came by and sorted him out. Tomo then asks Jun if he wants to be friends, and he accepts. Sometime later, Tomo introduces her childhood friend Misuzu Gundou to Jun; she doesn't seem to share the same interest as Tomo.

During middle school, Jun finally realizes that Tomo is a girl after she shows up in her sailor uniform, initially believing it to be a prank and that Tomo is still a guy. Eventually, he accepts the fact, but still treats her as a guy.

## Plot

Shortly after starting high school, Tomo Aizawa confessed to someone she liked, that someone was her childhood friend Junichirou Kubota. However, he didn't understand her confession as he thinks of her as a guy.

The next day, Jun greets Tomo with a friendly smack on the butt; Tomo is initially embarrassed but is okay with Jun doing it; she later gets mad because he meant nothing by it and jabs him in the ribs.  Later during the day, Jun goes to show Tomo a video on his phone, wrapping his arm around her and his hands pressed against her breast; Tomo gets very flustered with Jun's minimal understanding of personal space. In class, Jun starts talking to Tomo about his friend trying to take off a girl's bra and how hard it is; Tomo states that she wouldn't know as she's always wearing a sports bra, Jun forgets that Tomo is a girl sometimes too.

As a birthday present from Misuzu Gundou and Carol Olston, Tomo gets a makeover to look more feminine. She ogled at herself in the mirror in disbelief that it was her. Carol and Misuzu then agree that she looks beautiful and doesn't look like a guy anymore. Under the direction of her friends, Tomo tried speaking more girly-like; it was ultra-cute, only for Carol to add that she won't get many friends if she only speaks like that, and Misuzu chips in saying that she shouldn't be seen with the two of them.

After Carol and Misuzu long for ice cream, Tomo realizes that they've stolen her clothes, so she has no other option but to go out dressed as she is. She wasn't given much choice as Misuzu pushed her out the door, wishing her luck, while also fueling her anxiety by saying that she'd totally get heaps of strangers staring at her.

While at the convenience store, Tomo gets increasingly more uncomfortable as she notices more and more people looking at her; she then notices Jun and starts to freak out. Tomo continues to freak out and tries to think of a plan if Jun were to notice her. She doesn't know what she would say to him. With Jun looking away, Tomo tries to get the ice cream and get out.

While exiting the store, Tomo trips over her high heels and face-plants. Jun sees her fall and asks if she's okay, which she obviously isn't. With Jun so close to her, she gets embarrassed at the possibility of being found out; however, it seems that Jun didn't notice. As Jun helps her up, she notices how gentle he is, and she doesn't know why he's being so nice.

## Relationships

### Family

#### Gorou Aizawa

Gorou is Tomo's father. Although he is quite strict with his daughter and raises her to be a true martial artist, he seems to genuinely cherish her at the same time as a father might cherish his only daughter. For example, he reacts very jealously and nervously to the idea that Junichirou Kubota might have romantic feelings for Tomo while his wife Akemi Aizawa is more patronizing about it.

Gorou expects Tomo to take over his dojo eventually, but grooms Jun for them to take over together.

#### Akemi Aizawa

Akemi is Tomo's mother where it is implied that Tomo got her androgynous appearance and boyish personality from her mother. Although, compared to her daughter, Akemi is subjectively even more tomboy-ish.

Some scenes suggest that Akemi is aware of and supportive of the feelings between her daughter and Junichirou Kubota, although she does not interfere in their relationship.

### Friends

#### Junichirou Kubota

Jun is Tomo's childhood friend whom she has romantic feelings for, but he only thinks of her as just one of the guys. Tomo and Jun have been neighbors and friends since they were little. Even though they were neighbors, they lived in different school districts, so they didn't go to grade school together.

When they finally entered the same middle school together, Jun realized that Tomo was a girl and it was the first time Tomo realized Jun just thought of her as a guy.

#### Misuzu Gundou

Misuzu is another childhood friend of Tomo's aside from Junichirou Kubota where the three would all play together as kids. Also, their mothers were childhood friends so they grew up together.

When they ever got scolded for something, Misuzu would be elsewhere. With the addition of Carol Olston to the group, Misuzu and Carol Olston try to help Tomo win over Jun.

Misuzu seems to be fixated on Tomo's chest as shown when Misuzu looks over at Tomo's chest and in Episode 5 when Misuzu leans back on Tomo's chest while heading over to Misuzu's house to study.

#### Carol Olston

Tomo and Carol became friends in the first year of high school when Carol introduced herself and asked to be her friend.

Tomo calls Carol 'Cotton Candy' and wants to be as feminine as she is. She is shocked when Carol says that she has married Kousuke Misaki three times .

#### Kousuke Misaki

Kousuke and Tomo are in the karate club together where Misaki is a big fan of Tomo's; it can sometimes be mistaken for a crush. Tomo (as well as Jun) thinks that Misaki isn't that strong and has tried to help him improve.

## Etymology

* The name **Tomo** is a Japanese given name meaning “intelligent, wisdom, and knowledge” (智).
	+ It can also be read as **Satoshi**, a common boy's name.
* Tomo's surname **Aizawa** (相沢) is a common Japanese surname meaning "phase, aspect, countenance, mutually, fellow" (相) (**ai**) and "swamp, marsh" (沢) (**sawa**/**zawa**).

## Trivia

* Tomo's shoe size is 26cm.
* During the midterm exams, Tomo placed 70th on the leaderboard.
* Tomo has a strong sense of modesty; feeling uncomfortable in skirts as one accident can expose her underwear.
* Tomo's singing is hilariously awful and forced that Junichirou Kubota laughs his ass off when they do karaoke together.
* Tomo is in the boy's karate class because the girls are too scared to train with her.
* As a child, Tomo apparently used the very masculine pronoun "ore", which was part of Jun's confusion. In the present day, she uses the more feminine pronoun "atashi", though aside from that, her speech patterns are still rather masculine.
* Tomo is awful at handling ghosts and the supernatural in general. However, she's the 'deals with fear by attacking' type.
* Tomo's character design closely resembles Zombina from Monster Musume, without stitching and heterochromia.
	+ She also resembles Erika Chiba from The Irregular at Magic High School.
	+ She also resembles to Maki Aikawa from Air Masters.
	+ She has some similarities with Azuki Shinatsu from Maken-ki! as both are powerful fighters, have red hair and borh are energetic and butch.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/tomo\_chan\_ani/status/1544698310790852608
2. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 2
3. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 1
4. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 3
5. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 4
6. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 5
7. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 339
8. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 340
9. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 341
10. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 342
11. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 343
12. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 344
13. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 345
14. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 346
15. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 347
16. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 87
17. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 299
18. ↑ *Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko!* Chapter 313