#4th time celebrating his birthday woooooo

[ginjithewanderer]

It’s me, back again with another essay for Tetora’s birthday, except this time I want to really look into his character and what makes him the hardworking boy Ryuseitai wouldn’t be the same without. I used a lot of stories as reference, so I put together the banners from ! events/gachas he’s in in chronological story order here, mostly for my own use (though like the wiki disclaimer says, some of it can be shaky). At the time of writing, there aren’t enough !! stories to warrant a whole timeline, nor have the ones he’s in been fully translated, but I tried to mention the parts I’ve read (either translated or in-game with my limited understanding of Japanese).

Tetora is first introduced in chapter 8 of the Enstars! main story, as a first year at the very beginning of the school year. From what we see of him in those appearances, it’s easy to dismiss him as an excitable boy with too much energy for his own good. While that hotheadedness is part of his character, there’s so much more to him than that and I feel like he’s really not given enough credit from the fandom as a whole for it. Tetora is a character who’s shown a lot of depth over the course of the Ensemble Stars story and that’s what I want to show through this.

We don’t really know much about Tetora’s childhood or family based on the currently released stories, but with the little bits of information we do have, it’s possible to piece things together to get a vague idea of what his home life is like. Tetora doesn’t come from a very rich family, and we know from multiple stories that his parents go to work early and/or work long hours as a result. Combined with the facts that he’s an only child and that he regularly gets his lunches from the school cafeteria and other meals from a konbini because his parents don’t have the time to make proper bentos/meals, it’s reasonable to conclude that he spends a lot of time alone at home.

It’s probably also because of that that he looks up to Kuro and Niki so much. In Niki’s third idol story, Tetora says that watching Niki’s show made even bland food taste delicious, but also that it saved him. While he didn’t elaborate aside from saying his parents were having a tough time with work and !! hasn’t provided any more lore yet, I interpreted that as him seeing Niki as a companion of sorts, since he was alone so much. He does also call Niki “Aniki” on instinct, and says that he feels closer to him thanks to their ways of speaking being similar (they both attach “ssu” to the ends of sentences, for example). As for Kuro, it’s mentioned in Motor Show that Tetora only got into karate because he admired Kuro, and the way he acts around Kuro in the ! main story says all it needs to on that front.

… but knowing more about that part of the main story says even more. The main story takes place after the first years have gotten into the units they applied to, and Tetora had just been rejected from Akatsuki, instead having to settle for Ryuseitai. At the time, he was pretty upset about the whole ordeal, especially since he had wanted to get into Akatsuki so badly. In fact, he spent pretty much the whole time between the start of the year and Supernova frustrated by it, only coming to terms with being in Ryuseitai by the end of the latter event. Because of that, his attitude in the main story is the first time we see him doing something he has a habit of doing — trying to put up a positive front, no matter how he’s really feeling.

Instead of wallowing in the negative emotions he felt after what happened with Akatsuki, Tetora tried to make something else work out in his favor instead: the Ryuuousen. The reason he was so excited about it, and so concerned about everything going as planned (and started panicking when Kuro showed up late), is because he was almost desperate to succeed at something after his failure with the unit he had his heart set on. In the end, though, that ended up going wrong too. The student council interrupted the match before it ended, even though he didn’t want to accept defeat, and that didn’t do his confidence any favors.

Of course, his confidence in himself wasn't really that high in the first place. Tetora has been shown throughout the Ensemble Stars story as someone who’s deeply dissatisfied with himself and takes every opportunity to belittle himself, whether it’s out loud or in his thoughts. He calls himself worthless, weak, hollow, and even goes as far as to say he hates himself in Orihime and Hikoboshi. He also tends to blame himself for anything that goes wrong when he’s around. Despite how he grows and changes himself over his time at Yumenosaki, these insecurities of his seem to stay as strong as ever. Even as a second year who got to lead Ryuseitai N and is captain of the karate club, he continues to feel like he isn’t good enough.

He’s equally quick to compare himself to other people, saying how they’re better than him in different ways. He’s open about how jealous he is of some people’s looks and sometimes other traits they have. He also uses people like Kuro or Chiaki as a standard to measure himself against, saying he can’t do things the way they can because he’s still inexperienced. With his insecurities, though, comes the way he recognizes his shortcomings. He knows what his weaknesses are and what mistakes he’s made, and he’s constantly trying to improve them — even if he doesn’t feel like he’s improved enough — to reach his ideal of becoming a “man among men”.

That goal of his is reinforced throughout the story, and he’s determined to reach it one day no matter what happens. Even when things go wrong, he tells himself that he’ll get there eventually, as long as he keeps working hard at it. He does get upset at his failures for a while and is prone to pessimism when they occur (which he acknowledges), but he always picks himself up in the end. His idea of a “man among men” isn’t really solid, though, and it really just comes down to what traits he admires in others. That includes traits like strength (both physical and emotional), kindness, honesty, and level-headedness, but also skills that are typically considered feminine, like cooking and sewing.

Part of that also comes from the fact that his concept of a man among men comes from the people he looks up to: his desire to learn to cook comes from his admiration of Niki, and his respect for things like sewing from Kuro. In fact, he even got into martial arts in the first place because he looked up to Kuro. In the same way, it was after the Beasts story that he decided he didn’t have to get rid of the parts of himself he considered “girly” or weak, and instead could convert them to strengths like those he saw in Arashi. Because he sees others as so much better than himself, he tends to admire a lot of people like this, and always tries to see the best in the people he does — even if they themselves think he shouldn’t.

It’s that devoted nature of his that manifests as determination when it comes to his goals. Whether it’s a person or an aim, Tetora gives everything his all, and it’s why he’s able to bounce back when things go wrong. He's willing to take on any number of challenges to reach his goals, and early in the ! year (like in Hero Show) even told himself it'd be pathetic to give up after minor setbacks. Similarly, his determination to have something work out in his favor is why he set up the Ryuuousen in the main story, as mentioned earlier. This persevering nature and the hard work he puts into things because of it are where his Ryuseitai introduction comes from - black flames are the mark of effort.

… Which he also thinks is his only merit, as he's stated more than once. Despite his other qualms with himself, he’s aware of his hardworking spirit and considers it his biggest strength. Tetora is someone who believes that he can achieve his goals as long as he works hard towards them, and that gives rise to his desire to be seen as responsible and independent (like by showing his seniors that he can handle things on his own). He’s even expressed how he likes when Chiaki doesn’t interfere with Ryuseitai’s activities after entrusting things to him, so that he can show some responsibility instead of being babied and having things taken care of for him.

In the same way, he got pretty upset in The Four Beasts of Fistfighting when Kuro arranged the Ryuuousen without talking to him about it, and when the former said he’d pat Tetora on the head if he won against him. Tetora hates being treated like a kid, or as someone who can’t take care of themselves. This is reiterated in several stories, too, including Beasts, where he says how he doesn’t like when Arashi refers to him using -chan, since it feels like she’s treating him like a kid. This ties in with him wanting to be seen as more mature — a man among men.

Continuing on that point, it's also why he puts up a strong front, even when he's not doing so great (Motor Show is a great example, but he's been doing this since the ! main story). He doesn't like giving up on things or appearing weak, and especially not if it means he'll be seen as someone who can't do things without outside help. Even if he's tired or upset about something, he tries to keep smiling and keep up his energetic character around others so that they won't worry about him. That applies even more when he's in charge of something, since he has a strong sense of responsibility and wants to be a capable leader.

He can put too much energy into trying to be a good leader, though, which ends up exhausting him in the !! timeline (for example, his second idol story, where he says he spent hours just thinking about how to reply to a member of Ryuseitai N in a way that didn't sound too dry). Even before then, though, he was always trying to do his best for the people around him, including things like staying calm before lives where the other two first years were nervous to try and help them relax. While he may have started off a little clumsy and tended to rush into things without thinking, by the end of the ! summer, he had already become a lot more reliable.

He also just really enjoys helping people out, saying in School Fes that he always wants to help when he sees a friend in trouble. He's always quick to offer anyone assistance, even with small tasks like moving things from one place to another. This has led other characters to say that he really is hero-like, as befitting of his status as a member of Ryuseitai. It also ties in with how empathetic he is towards others. He’s protective of his friends and has said many times (like in Sweet Halloween) that he gets upset when his friends are, and often tries to help them out or cheer them up when that happens.

There’s also the reason Ryuseitai N ended up with too many members — he didn’t want anyone to feel the way he did after his rejection from Akatsuki, and ended up making the entrance test for Ryuseitai too easy as a result. Even if it did cause the unit to struggle financially, it shows how much he took what happened to heart and how he doesn’t want people to go through anything bad, even if he had to face it himself. Similarly, he tries to take other people’s feelings and situations into account at all times — such as the time he argued with Midori in Climax but tried to be understanding of the fact that Midori was only in the idol course by accident — and doesn’t want to push his own opinions or ideals onto others either.

Tetora is a really honest and straightforward person, and doesn’t think people should hide things from each other either. This shows in the advice he gave to the Aoi twins and Tomoya in Christmas Live and Sweet Halloween respectively, though he says in the former story that he didn’t think he should be lecturing them as an outsider. More than that, though, it becomes obvious when he’s putting up a cheerful front, since a lot of the time other characters end up seeing through it. In Motor Show, it fails entirely after he accidentally let out that he was stressed in front of Chiaki, and ended up having to tell him everything.

Because of that, though, he’s also very trusting of people, and doesn’t always notice when someone doesn’t have the best intentions (à la Beasts). By the !! timeline, however, he’s gotten better with that. A clear example is his consistent distrust of Mayoi, even if the latter does give him reason to be suspicious. Then, of course, there’s Rinne, who’s the first person Tetora has openly said he dislikes. By the time of Sweets Box in autumn, he’s still annoyed by Rinne’s actions in the main story and says Rinne “pisses him off.” Despite that, he does still admit that Rinne can be open-minded when it comes to some things, which further shows his own willingness to understand other people’s situations.

With all of that said, it’s clear that Tetora is someone who does his absolute best, both for himself and others. He has a lot of energy and doesn’t like sitting around for too long, but that energy always goes to good use, whether it’s training himself or helping people out. Despite his deep-rooted insecurities about himself, he’s always striving to do better. That (along with everything else) is why I love him so much, and I hope this helps you learn a little more about him (unless there’s nothing new in here for you). There’s a lot more I would’ve liked to talk about but it’s already time to post this and I wanna finish reading some !! stories before I get into my opinions on his time as Ryuseitai’s leader (though I have a lot of thoughts on that already), but I’m really glad Tetora exists and is such a well-written character.