Characters/Touka Tsukioka
 | |
| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Surname Name | Tsukioka Touka |
| Birthday (Age) | February 9th (n/a) |
| Type of Character | Main |
| Additional Information | |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Dark Red |
| Height | 5′ 6′′ (167cm) |
| Family |
|
| Affiliation |
|
| First Appearance |
|
Touka was born into a very wealthy family and is unfamiliar with the day-to-day lives of those less fortunate than herself. The very definition of sheltered, Touka hopes Sensei will be her foot in the door to understanding the rest of Kumon-mi.— Official Lessons in Love website
Touka Tsukioka is part of the Main Cast of in Lessons In Love. Touka was the 19th girl to join Sensei's class, doing so in v.0.16.0p2 She lives in Room 9 with Yasu Yasui.
Background
Touka is the firstborn daughter and primary heir of the current generation of the Tsukioka family. As such, she lived a life in absolute luxury, which includes many expensive and extravagant gifts, enjoying travels to private properties around Japan and private lessons by top-tier educators and instructors.
She rarely, if ever, left the private properties of her family in any meaningful capacity, which resulted in her being completely unaware of how everything works or goes in the outside world. While she was a student at Kumon-mi Academy, Otoha says she was taught in an exclusive classroom with dedicated teachers and other benefits during Touka’s first day, while Touka herself admits that she never was in a class with other girls before.
Sensei met her once during her visit at Osako’s dojo in First and Second. After the collapse of Kumon-mi Academy, she stayed in the manor, as there’s no mention of her being migrated to Kumon-mi High. After Nodoka and Otoha joined Sensei’s class, Makoto informed him that he will receive two more girls with special circumstances. One of these was the daughter of the richest family of the city as he was specifically requested by the girl’s mother, which he could confirm was Tsubasa, though, at the time, he didn’t understand why she wanted him as her daughter’s teacher considering what she knew about him. Touka joined the class shortly after.
Characteristics
At first, Touka comes across as a rich girl stereotype – a description she admits fits her ‘depressingly well’. She’s highly educated, eloquent, focused on status, thinks highly of herself and her family, gets easily upset when not getting her way, uses money or her status in an attempt to receive special treatment, lacks any real life experiences to the point where she struggles with common appliances, like a vending machine, and is rather gullible when she learns new things about the outside world. Most of those qualities are a result of her sheltered life, but once she started attending Sensei’s class and spent more time with other girls, those characteristics either came up less or disappeared entirely.
Despite having a lot of things due to her wealth, the one thing she didn’t have was friends. She was unable to make a single friend in her old school due to her status and, because of her reputation and first impression, she had a hard time getting close with the girls in Sensei’s class. As a result, she was feeling lonely during her early days. It’s a big reason why she was happy whenever she was included in social interactions. This is another quality that became less prevalent as time went on, though it’s a big reason why she feels sympathy for Yasu, who has an even harder time making friends.
After the initial barrier of her status faded away, Touka shows that she is actually a kind, open-minded and mature person. Her kindness is both a great strength and her biggest weakness, as it makes her an easy target for being toyed with, something Sensei loves to do whenever she gives him an opportunity, but it also helps her to overcome her initial impression as a ‘princess’ and she gets closer with some of her peers.
Touka also adapts fast to new situations as she was able to let go of most of her unpleasant habits and adjusted to Sensei’s personality and sarcasm in a short amount of time.
Relationships
Sensei
Due to his behavior and lack of respect, Touka initially disliked him and only begrudgingly accepted him as her teacher because her mother expected it from her. Her opinion changed as she spent more time with him, moving from disliking him to accepting him as a decent person and even enjoying his company.
There are three reoccurring jokes she has to endure from him – inappropriate comments about her body, taking advantage of her naivety and calling her by the wrong name. The first one annoys her the most, the second one comes up rarely but still bugs her when it happens, while the third one annoys her the least, even being unfazed at times.
So far, there is no concrete evidence that she has any kind of romantic feelings for Sensei, though some of her behavior during the outing trilogy starting with A Commoner's Tour of Summer and Somewhere Far From Here shows that she might want to get closer to him on some level.
Yasu
Like everyone else, Touka was terrified of Yasu due to her eccentric behavior and learning that she has to share a room with her filled her with dread. After Sensei recommended her to give her a chance and try her best to get to know her, she followed his advice, even if it wasn’t easy due to her unusual behavior and habits. While it was an unpleasant experience at first, Touka indeed grew closer to Yasu.
Touka considers Yasu her first friend and acts as her substitute mother, either keeping her in line when she scares or annoys her classmates or helping her during day-to-day interactions, apparently even carrying her around by her collar. Yasu’s eccentric behavior still annoys her at times, though.
During The Color White, Touka tells Sensei that she and Yasu have a similar view of their role as outsiders in the class. The difference is that Touka knows that she can be a part of the group with time, whereas Yasu doesn’t even consider this possibility, which makes her hope that everyone can learn to look past her usual behavior and see the shy and lonely girl behind it.
Ayane
Knowing that she’s the daughter of the second richest family in Kumon-mi, Touka always treated Ayane with kindness and saw her as someone she could communicate with. They haven’t spend a lot of time together outside of a few events after her introduction, but they still have a friendly relationship.
Makoto
Touka admires Makoto as a class representative. As of Friends (The Maya Route), they officially became friends.
Tsubasa
Touka has a good relationship with her mother. They even have a slumber party in her dorm room once every month. She also brought her along during her outing with Sensei, intending to bring her to further outings so both of them could learn more about the outside world.
Tsukasa
Due to her attitude, Touka is mostly annoyed by her little sister.
Memorable Quotes
- "Boop~"
- "But I will accept you for who you are now as well. Because I know, deep down in this...suspiciously hard chest of yours, there is a heart. It is not as big as mine, nor is there as much room inside for love, but it exists. And I think you should stop pretending it doesn’t."
- "You can act brave and strong all you want, but that façade won’t last forever. But at least now you have somewhere it can crumble in private."
Trivia
- Touka has a bed with rapid sleep technology in her dorm room – known by commoners as a love hotel bed.
