Tsumire Hanagatsuo (, Tsumire Hanagatsuo?) is a minor female character in the story of Urusei Yatsura. An aspiring dancer with the Fushiana Creative Ballet Troupe, she is the antagonist of a single-chapter story arc, playing off of her rival, Kanna Hoshikuzu.
Biography[]
Appearing in only a single chapter, little time is spent on Tsumire's backstory. All that readers are told is that she is a dancer within the Fushiana Creative Ballet Troupe, and though she is a talented ballerina in her own right, she is inferior to Kanna Hoshikuzu. Because of this, she has embarked on a campaign of sabotage in order to make Kanna look bad and advance herself, with the ultimate goal of being named the troupe's prima ballerina.
This plan backfires when it leads to Kanna recruiting Ryūnosuke Fujinami as a personal trainer. Although Tsumire attempts to sabotage these training efforts at the last possible minute with the aid of Ryūnosuke's Father, it fails to succeed. At the final audition, she makes use of her trusty trademark trickery once again, pouring oil on the floor where Kanna is expected to land. This time, however, Kanna uses her new training to simply land with such force that she punches through the floor instead of slipping on the oil. The sight of this direct failure leaves Tsumire in tears on the floor, sobbing over having lost her last chance to be named prima ballerina.
Whilst Kanna would subsequently leave the troupe of her own free will to pursue a newfound passion for martial arts, it's never revealed what became of Tsumire after this humiliating defeat.
Personality[]
Tsumire is scheming, self-absorbed and cruel. She displays a fundamental streak of laziness and jealousy; when Kanna proves herself the more talented ballerina, Tsumire chooses to sabotage Kanna and drive her out of the troupe rather than work harder to improve herself, thus beating Kanna for the role honestly.
Trivia[]
- Hanagatsuo is an alternative spelling of "hana katsuo"; dried flakes of skipjack tuna, which are a popular cooking ingredient in Japanese cooking.
- For some reason, the Viz Media English Translation of the manga chose to give Tsumire a completely literal translation of her name, resulting in the alternative name of Violet Driedfish. This is similar to how Onsen-Mark is called "Hotsprings Emblem" in the same translation.
- Tsumire is one of the only people to get on well with Ryūnosuke's Father and interact with him in a friendly manner, even recruiting him to help her sabotage Kanna's training under Ryūnosuke.
- Although Tsumire describes herself as Kanna's rival, Kanna is never shown to think of her as such, or even to suspect that she might be behind Kanna's failed landings in class.