#if im being fair I could talk about kokomi A LOT MORE

[senshisdaughter]

THE TERUHASHI KOKOMI DOCUMENT (that I forgot I made for like, the past 2 months lmao)

This is a thing I made almost in one sitting while listening to this playlist by CASP, It literally is the best character playlist i've ever seen, it resumes her character arch so well!!

Enough said, he's the thing:

Part 1: Introduction

Kokomi Teruhashi is my favorite character from saiki k. As much as I see myself in Saiki or find characters like Kaido and Akechi funny, no other character has grasped my attention like teruhashi. Her bits were funny, she had some of the most interesting dynamics with other characters, mainly Saiki, and she was the one of the characters that best reflected the themes of the series together with Kusuo.

So, seeing the utmost love I have for her character, you can probably imagine my surprise to find out how so many people who have “watched” the show simply hate her. Some will say she’s annoying, some will say she’s narcissistic, mean or a bitch. Some will hate her for getting in the way of their headcanons or for any other reason you can easily see flowing around. Even worse, this teruhashi hate is not a small minority but quite a big amount of the fandom, to the point that teruhashi lovers will tag any teruhashi positive posts with the saiteru tag, even with the ship not present, so that the few teruhashi lovers from the ship can see it.

In this essay I will firstly analyze Teruhashi’s character, mostly from the anime as I have not read the manga, and after that I will point out some of the reasons people say they hate the character and after question the real reasons behind this hate.  

Part 2: The perfect pretty girl:

Teruhashi, like most characters in the show, gets introduced as a shallow character. The whole joke at first is the expectation breaking that comes from Saiki’s power: the perfect pretty girl does not have a perfect personality like we would expect. She is overly aware of her beauty and uses it to benefit herself. She gets surprised by someone simply ignoring it, to the point of becoming obsessed with Saiki without even knowing his actual name.

Her characterization at the beginning of the series is very straight forward, she is a living illusion, a egocentric person who will manipulate people to get what she wants using her beauty, while pretending to be perfect in all aspects. Most of her jokes come from the absurd levels of power she demonstrates because of her appearance or from Saiki running away from her love schemes, as he doesn’t want all the attention that Kokomi brings with her.

At first, like ALL characters in the first season, Teruhashi is not painted in a good or deep light, mostly being very exaggerated in her worse traits and being targeted by Saiki’s funny remarks. This is the way the show first introduces us to characters. Nendo simply starts as the stupid one, Kaido is the shy and awkward Chuunibyou, Yumehara is the love crazy girl and so on. Here is where I personally find most Teruhashi haters get their distaste from, even though, as it will be further analyzed later, there are still some questionable things about the amount of hate this version of the character gets.

At this point in the series most characters are there only to be funny, without too much depth. But, as the season continues, the show starts to allow its characters to gain more depth. As much as Teruhashi still continues to mostly stay as the “perfect pretty girl who actually has a bad personality deep inside” we finally start seeing more depth to her during the later half of the first season. We start to see her develop friendships with Yumehara and the others, allowing us to see more of her personality than just her crush on Saiki and her contradictory personality, even if those are still the main focus of the character. 

But, as with most characters in the show, there is a very important change in tone after season two. We do not see Teruhashi Kokomi simply as the pretty perfect girl, but we actually get to see a bit more than that.

Part 3: The real girl

Kokomi Teruhashi is, above anything else, simply a girl. And that fact gets more and more obvious as we continue in the series. Her behavior that appears perfect is a mask, her thoughts that were very judged by Saiki in the beginning become clearly normal thoughts a teenager would have. Even the way she weaponizes her beauty: we see how all of that is placed on top of a real, normal human girl. 

Kokomi uses people as much as she is used, we get to see clearly how hard it is to “be perfect”, and how much it is expected of her. She isn’t allowed privacy even in her own home (I WILL NOT TALK ABOUT HIM), she isn’t allowed to have common hobbies and behaviors, any change she makes to her appearance is seen and judged and she is not treated like a normal person. The show starts to deconstruct the idea that Teruhashi is faking her perfection out of malice or narcissism, giving us a new view of it.

We see Teruhashi’s internal thoughts: how she thinks she's giving people happiness, how she knows people expect her to embody perfection, how she knows the responsibility and power she got from birth. It changes her relationship with her beauty, no longer is she abusing it, but simply taking back as much as it is taken from her. 

With A LOT of the jokes in the anime, when thinking about them for a little bit, some things become concerning: this 16 years old girl is certain that people will get depressed if she doesn’t show up and perform her perfection (which we know to be true seeing how they all react when she is simply sick), this 16 years old girl is sure that giving chocolates to her crush will start world war three (which, even if we see it as hyperbole, is taken completely seriously by her, and whatever it would actually happen or not is irrelevant, as she feels responsible to stop it even at the cost of her happiness). We see time and time again how much she constantly feels responsible for others feelings and actions, completely changing the reason we think she puts up an act.

Not only that, but we see how much she appreciates being treated as a normal person. Her crush on Saiki, born initially from spite, becomes genuine affection as she grows fond of him mainly because he treats her like she is not special. Of course she hated it at first, she never knew what being treated like a person was! Not only that, Teruhashi feels that she is responsible for others happiness, and here she sees a boy that isn’t happy to see her. As much as it hurts her pride, which is the way Saiki sees the situation, it also directly hits the only thing she sees as her worth, as her responsibility. 

Kokomi at first seems very prideful, and it would be a lie to say she isn’t, but mostly we see how to a certain extend that was a side effect of her mask, and as she gets more and more used to being treated like a normal person, especially by Saiki and Yumehara, she starts to care less about it, even allowing herself to make a “mistake” by forgetting a random thing about what a boy changed after fainting from exhaustion trying to be perfect.

Yumehara herself is one of the most important characters for Teruhashi’s growth. We do not know much about Kokomi’s past, but she clearly doesn’t have a lot of friends at the start or before the series. She, as all of Saiki’s friends, is deeply lonely, as even though she is popular she isn’t close to anyone. That is, before she and Yumehara become friends.

Part 4: Being human

One of the main challenges we see Saiki going through the series is his feelings of alienation from the rest of humanity. He doesn’t feel human, always feels like he is different from others and needs to put on a mask to exist in society. We also see this mentality slowly being melted away by having friends, as they pretty much grab Kusuo by the neck and throw him away from this idea, by showing him love and understanding. This is one of the most important themes of the story, and one Kokomi Teruhashi embodies just as well.

Teruhashi at the start pretty much lived simply to fulfill the role that was given to her by society at her birth: be as perfect as she looked. Boys were too shy to interact meaningfully with her while girls were too intimidated to be friends. When people did talk to her it was mostly to compliment her on her appearance or to try and get something out of her. That at first changes with Saiki.

This random boy from her class, a boy that she still finds the need to make a little happier with her presence (a thing that has ALWAYS happened since she was born), a boy she doesn’t even know the name of. This boy simply gave no fucks about her beauty. He saw Kokomi like he saw everybody else, both in appearance and personality, so he treated her like he did everyone else: indifference.

  Of course Teruhashi doesn’t believe it, something like that never happened before. Of course her first reaction is that something is wrong and that she needs to fix it. At this point she is so immersed in her mask that she can’t even see it is not her real self. And the more she tries the more Saiki treats her like a normal human being.

Then we get the second most important character for Teruhashi’s growth: Yumehara. Yumehara is the first girl we see that not only decides to treat Kokomi as a normal human being, but also to be her friend. We clearly see both of them struggle at first, as Yumehara finds it weird to talk to “the perfect girl” and Teruhashi simply has no experience talking with girls. But we see them building a relationship, caring for eachother and, most importantly, we see Teruhashi being allowed to be a normal girl.

With both of them by her side Kokomi slowly starts to truly become herself, gaining a bigger possibility then the role she had been put since birth. And with time even her other friends in the group start to treat her more and more like a human being. From Hairo and Mera (aroace icons fr) that don’t seem to really care about her beauty, to Kaido and Nendo, who even if they do care about it still end up treating Teruhashi as a friend first.

We can clearly see how much this connections change

Teruhashi's mindset: she becomes less egotistical while still being aware of her beauty, she understands what's more important to her than her perfection, she finally starts to understand that she is allowed to be human.

Part 5: Parallels painted pink and blue

It is so easy to think of Teruhashi’s crush on Saiki as any other joke, like Yumeharas, but there is a very important reason why she and Saiki are placed side by side so much: they are perfect mirrors.

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K is a show about loneliness. Not the psychic powers of quirky people, the main thing everyone in the cast has in common is that they are all deeply lonely. Kaido, Nendo and Kuboyasu are social outcasts, Yumehara and Mera while not being isolated by their peers are also not very social with them, and Hairo, even though he’s popular, doesn’t have anyone to match his freak energy. They all find connection in their weird little friends group. And in this group there are two opposite but mirroring characters: Saiki Kusuo and Teruhashi Kokomi.

Saiki doesn’t feel human, but like a monster. He feels disconnected from his peers as he was born with powerful abilities that, while they can be used for personal gain, he feels responsible to hide as a way to keep others safe. So, he wears a mask of normalcy, not allowing anybody near him and hiding everything that makes him special. He has to deal with the weight and troubles of hiding a part of himself from others, and finds it difficult to show it even to those he knows would accept him.

Teruhashi doesn’t feel human, but like a goddess or an angel. She feels disconnected from her peers as she was born with a powerful beauty that, as it is impossible to hide, she feels responsible to make it as visible and perfect as possible, in an attempt to make others happy. So, she wears a mask of perfection, making it impossible for people to completely get close to her as she hides everything that makes her normal. She has to deal with the weight and troubles of hiding a part of herself from others, and finds it difficult to separate between her mask and herself.

They both grew up with a similar problem: they were alienated from others because of their uniqueness. But, both diverge at the fact that Saiki can hide his powers, while Teruhashi can’t. So while Kusuo fights a part of himself until he doesn’t see it as part of him, Kokomi is eaten by her mask, confusing herself with the mask she wears.

Both characters force each other to confront the truth, as Saiki needs his powers to keep up with Teruhashi and she is unable to mask in front of him. By their similarities they both push each other to become more in tune with their humanity.

Even their real personalities are similar, both being mean to others in their heads while acting very kindly in the end. Both are absurdly competitive, stubborn and even childish at times. They are both good but flawed people, who lost touch with their humanity as it was taken away from them by others because of their unique traits. Even if dealing with it in completely opposite ways, both are, at their core, very similar characters. They are the two who can understand each other the best, having similar problems, from god like abilities and bad brothers (I WILL NOT TALK ABOUT HIM)

Part 6: The haters

Here is where my main problems with Teruhashi haters lie. While anyone is entitled to like or dislike any character, the characteristics that are targeted on Teruhashi are, at its core, characteristics that are very clearly present on Saiki. But, when Teruhashi shows them instead of the protagonist they become a problem.

Saiki is a self-centered guy, who will do everything in his power to avoid others. He is constantly mean to his friends and strangers in his head while being quiet on the outside. Saiki constantly makes it clear, especially in the first episodes, how he needs to lower his abilities, be it physical or intellectual, to keep being normal, because he is better than his peers at both.  

Kokomi does the same, she is self-centered and does everything in her power to get what she wants. She is constantly mean to others in her head while being nice on the outside. She makes it constantly clear that she is prettier than her peers and she does not hide it.

They both have the same unlikable characteristics. but they get framed differently by both the show and the fandom. Saiki can be mean in his head, because if he doesn’t say anything he isn’t being fake, while Kokomi deciding to be nice to others is bad? If Kusuo uses his birth giving abilities to avoid people and manipulate situations it's relatable because he’s being a introvert, while if Teruhashi uses his birth giving beauty and luck (that works in the same level as Saiki’s powers) to get someone’s attention and manipulate situations she is manipulative and a bitch? 

And it’s not only traits she shares with Saiki that are badly seen. She is annoying to Saiki and never leaves him alone? So is Nendo, but when she does it it’s bad, even though we know Saiki never went and rejected any of his friends' affection directly. People will say she can’t take no for an answer when no was never said to her. 

People expect a character who’s whole life was told she is perfect to not think she is. People expect a character who’s been given everything she wants her whole life to not expect that? Saiko thinks exactly that, and like Teruhashi starts to learn that things are not like that, but he still will default to thinking this. But when he does it’s not a problem, but when Teruhashi does it she is entitled and bad.

Like it was said before, disliking a character is something anyone can do for whatever reason, but I do find it important to analyze why you hate a character, especially if the reasons you give are only a problem when given to a confident female character. The whole point of her bit is that, the fact she knows she is beautiful and uses it to her favor is something that would surprise and get people mad, and seeing it be realized by people outside the anime makes it ever so clear why her characters has such a hard time being true to herself. If she didn’t pretend to be perfect the hate that she receives from the fandom would be very similar to the hate she would receive in her world.

But then the question becomes why? In a show full of self-centered characters, who are inconvenient, who are entitled, who are arrogant, why is Teruhashi the one who gets the most hate for any of these characteristics? While I do believe for some people they just didn’t find her bit funny, I do really think that for most it was simply misogyny. She is a confident woman who knows and uses her beauty to get what she wants. In real life women like this will get targeted and harassed, they are hated simply because they don’t act “pure and innocent” as it is expected, as it is completely shown in the show through Teruhashi. She is a character molded by misogynistic stereotypes, and while I do think the show does well in using them while criticizing it, a big portion of the fandom simply was not able to see this character without the lenses of misogyny the character itself is made to criticize.

I find it to be very important to analyze why you hate Teruhashi if you do so. Did you not find her funny or were you bothered by a woman showing character flaws? Did you get annoyed she got in the way a ship you think is better? While I cannot convince everyone to stop hating a fictional character, I urge you to ask yourself WHY do you dislike her, and to see if you dislike male characters with the same flaws you say you hate. 

Part 7: The tragedy of Teruhashi Kokomi 

Of course, it does sound a bit contradictory for me to say that “anyone is entitled to like or dislike any character” and then write a big ass dissertation on why you should not hate Teruhashi. But there is a big reason why I really wanted to do this: I really really love her character.

It's tiring to see many many people hate on a well written character, and sadly, the reason she is hated is BECAUSE she is well written. The show doesn’t say out loud that Teruhashi is fine, that she is a normal teenage girl that was cursed with unending beauty in a world that will never allow her to acknowledge it. The social behaviors criticized by her character are only made more explicit by the way a portion of the fandom treats her, and sadly, that was inevitable with a character like her.

So in the end I can only hope to see more positive things about her in the future, as I do love this character as much as I do Saiki. And even though I know people will still hate Kokomi, I hope some people can see what a great character she actually is.