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Yukari Tanizaki
Yukari Tanizaki
Japanese 谷崎 ゆかり
Romanized Tanizaki Yukari
Gender Female
English voice actor Luci Christian
Japanese voice actor Akiko Hiramatsu

Yukari Tanizaki (Japanese: 谷崎 ゆかり Tanizaki Yukari), also known as "Miss Yukari" (ゆかり先生 Yukari-sensei) by her students, is a character from Azumanga Daioh. She is the homeroom teacher of Koyomi, Tomo, Chiyo, Sakaki, Ayumu, and Kagura, the six main protagonists of the anime.

Biography[]

She is not only the girls' English and homeroom teacher (class 3), but a teacher with very unconventional methods and a rather close relationship with the class. Her students are casual enough to call her by her given name (Yukari-sensei in lieu of Tanizaki-sensei, with a few, mostly Tomo, addressing her as the extremely informal Yukari-chan (Japanese); just Yukari in English). Depending on the day, time, and her mood, she can be either a horrible tyrant or one of the sweetest, most touching teachers ever. Her behavior ranges from mercilessly teasing Chiyo and hitting students with blunt objects to kind and gentle words and simple, encouraging notes on tests telling students she believes in them.[citation needed] She is often selfish, irresponsible, miserly, generally dysfunctional, and also easily angered, and shamelessly expects her friend and fellow teacher, Minamo Kurosawa ("Nyamo"), to not only tolerate all of this, but to enable it. She becomes jealous when Nyamo receives nicer birthday presents from her students, and will even give her students study hall so that she can ditch them and go swimming at the school pool.[1] In one episode, when Yukari is in a terrible mood about the lack of birthday presents, Tomo complains it's simply because Yukari's birthday is during Summer Break.

Off the job, she frequently drags Nyamo out on expensive drinking parties, which Nyamo usually has to pay for. Yukari is very fond of Korean barbecue, which becomes the object of many of her extravagant wagers involving the class. She even becomes incredibly jealous whenever anyone has eaten expensive food, such as snow crab or Matsusaka beef.[2]

She is also a huge fan of video games, and becomes angry when the store runs out of the newest game.[3]

Yukari's driving skills are infamous, showing no concern for the rules of the road, people, other cars, signs, or the speed limit, and the many dents on her parents' car (dubbed the "Yukarimobile" by Yomi and the others) is evidence of that.

Her insane driving has impacted Chiyo and Kaorin's psyches rather profoundly (causing severe mental scarring to Chiyo in the process), and has even caused Sakaki and Osaka to briefly lose their composures. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, Yukari loves to drive. The only one who can tolerate Yukari's driving is Tomo, who shares Yukari's love of destruction and mayhem.[4]

Yukari and Nyamo are alumnae of the school the girls attend, and she even appeared at a Sports Festival in her old uniform (which led to a prostitution joke from Tomo Takino in the manga).

Yukari and Tomo have similar obnoxious personalities: they are both boastful, jealous, delusional, lazy, and selfish. Rather than being hateful, though, they are amusing and likeable – one can see why their friends like them, even as they are annoyed by them. The balance between the dual natures of Yukari and Tomo's characters is a unique achievement of the author, and one of the peculiar charms of Azumanga Daioh.

Yukari can speak English fluently, and uses this ability to claim intellectual superiority over Nyamo. (Though the anime treats her speech as fluent, she has a very strong accent.) At one point in the manga, however, she tells her class that the only true purpose for studying English is to pass tests but gets angry when Tomo uses this statement against her.[5]

Yukari's car[]

Main article: Yukarimobile
Yukarimobile

The Yukarimobile

Yukari car, also known as the Yukari-mobile (Japanese: ゆかり車 Yukari-guruma) sometimes seems to have a personality and history of its own. Technically, it belongs to Yukari's parents. At one time a nice silver Toyota Corolla, Yukari's reckless driving habits have turned it into a scarred, beaten vehicle. Even the mere mention of the Yukari-mobile can cause terror and flashbacks to anyone who has ridden in her car. Chiyo in particular goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid riding in it or any other vehicle Yukari might possibly be driving. However, Tomo enjoys riding in it.

Trivia[]

  • She's 158 cm tall. Her BWH is unknown but Yukari seems to be pretty proud of them.
  • Yukari's given name means "related to (some place)."
  • In both the manga and the anime, Yukari is the first character to be introduced and speak – however, in different contexts. The anime opens with her complaining about problems with her bike and being late for school,[6] while the manga opens with her introducing herself to what she believes is her future class but is in fact Class 4.
  • Yukari's signature outfit consists of a light beige sweater with yellow, orange and red details combined with a red skirt. She wears it on a few occasions in the anime, as well as in Azumanga Daioh: The Very Short Movie, but in the manga, the outfit was only shown in two color inserts that appeared in the first volume.

Quotes[]

  • "Hey, I said you could ask anything, but my measurements are top secret! Not that I'm ashamed, of course. In fact, I dare say they're pretty spectacular. Oh, you impetuous boy! Look what you made me say on the first day!"
  • "BASKETBALL! Now is the basketball era! Come sweat with your teacher and live out your youth to its fullest potential!"
  • "Listen up, everyone! I have one word that I want to say to all of you. And that word is... FIRST PLACE!"
  • "Listen up! I'm tired of just being an English teacher, so today I'm teaching you kids Math!"
  • "All right, is everybody here? If you're not here, raise your hand! Just kidding!"

Voice Actors[]

Japanese

Akiko Hiramatsu

English

Luci Christian

Character songs[]

See also[]

Gallery[]

Wiki-wordmark
There is a gallery available on Azumanga Daioh & Yotsuba&! Wiki for Yukari Tanizaki.

References[]

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