Koyomi Mizuhara

Koyomi Mizuhara
Azumanga Daioh character
Yomi in a color insert from Azumanga Daioh.
Created by	Kiyohiko Azuma
Voiced by	Voice Roles
Profile
Nicknames	Yomi

Koyomi Mizuhara (水原 暦, Mizuhara Koyomi), usually known as Yomi, is a character from the anime and manga series Azumanga Daioh.

Her name was left unknown until the second volume, in which Azuma dedicated an entire strip to her in response to readers asking for her name. Her name is a pun, and alternately means read between the lines, in reference to her name being left "between the lines" until the strip in question.

Biography

Commonly called Yomi, she is a grade-school friend and general antithesis of Tomo's. She is the voice of reason, and the most mature and sometimes bitter of her friends—and as such, the comic foil to the others' silliness. She and Tomo are seen as manzai comedians; Yomi being the tsukkomi, and Tomo being the boke. Yomi often berates or is struck dumb by her friend's flippant behavior, and if pushed enough by Tomo, will even give her friend an uppercut that leaves Tomo unconscious on the floor. While Yomi likes to think that she's above her classmates' childish behavior, she can be just as bad as they are. For example, to pass her college entrance exams, she asked Chiyo to infuse an amulet with her intelligence (as Tomo and Osaka had done before). Yomi also has a rather evil sense of humour, shown when she took part in teasing Osaka when she had the hiccups (after causing them in the first place by feeding her something too spicy for Osaka to handle on purpose). It is suggested that she is much like her physical education teacher, Minamo Kurosawa, much as Tomo is similar to their homeroom teacher, Yukari Tanizaki.

Yomi is both smart and athletic: her grades are second only to Chiyo-chan's, and while she isn't as good as Sakaki or Kagura at sports, she holds her own. Despite appearing healthy and fit, Yomi is dissatisfied with her weight and struggles with her fondness for food, particularly sweets and spicy dishes. She is constantly trying new diets, and sometimes anonymously writes to radio talk hosts for advice or with updates on her progress, which amuses Tomo. She also has a soft side which is seen in her relationship to Chiyo whom she is always soft towards her and protective of her whenever Tomo teases Chiyo, or whenever Chiyo feels that she might be a burden to them during the sports festivals. She is also a terrible singer, as shown when the girls sing karaoke one Christmas when she tried to sing Sarabai which is the image song of Chiyo (ironically, her seiyū, Rie Tanaka, is known for her beautiful singing voice).

Likely because the schools she applied to were higher tiered, Yomi was the last of the friends to pass a university entrance exam.

Coincidentally, she is the last of the cast to have her name revealed in the manga: while the rest are listed in the first manga volume, Yomi's is in the second, having an entire strip (subtitled 'Read Between the Lines' in English) showing the girls calling her 'Yomi', and Yukari calling her by her full name.

Yomi's full given name means 'calendar' or 'almanac' and her surname means 'water meadow'.

Trivia

• In the supplemental strips, it's been revealed that Yomi is afraid of cicadas.

Voice actors

Japanese (television series and movie)

Rie Tanaka

Japanese ("Azumanga Web Daioh" short)

Satsuki Yukino

English

Nancy Novotny

Character songs

• "Sorezore no One Way" Words by Aki Hata, music by Kosuke Kanai
• "Oishii Kimitachi" Words by Aki Hata, music by Masumi Itō