Today's Deep Dive For No Reason is one of the Azumanga Diaoh characters I have a newfound appreciation for: Miss Yukari Tanazaki.
As a kid I certainly found her funny, but now at 36 (for better or worse) she's one of the most relatable characters to me.
This is not great, as she is definitely NOT a role model in the series. She is bitter, resentful, selfish, has a terribly short fuse, and lazy as hell.
I think the major purpose of her character is that despite being the foremost adult in the kid's lives, she is not more (if not less) mature than they are. Though still an authority figure, she isn't interested in being a good example for the kids.
Deep down, she does take her teaching job seriously, but man does she hate it sometimes. She doesn't necessarily hate the kids so much as she just hates working in general. She's often weary of her profession, but in general she's just weary.
She's lazy and sloppy, as we are shown in the peeks into her home life. Messy and unorganized at home and work.
I've grown to understand her nature quite a bit. At the heart of it all, she just hates being an adult. Acting grown-up is a drag, as are basic responsibilities. She's just fundamentally too bitter about the pressures of adulthood. She often tells the kids how awful it will be when they grow up.
She has numerous vices, drinking being chief among them.
I don't drink, but I definitely share her love of videogames and their escapism.
If she had her choice, she would lay around the house all day, either playing videogames, drinking, or both.
She's single, and doesn't really seem interested in dating much. Again, she hates being an adult, and all the responsibilities that come with it. The episode of the show where she and Nyamo are set up with dates and then subsequently reminisce with each other about how they still don't FEEL like adults, is very relatable.
I feel a lot like Yukari in that I mostly hate adulthood. It's not what I expected it to be, and here I am at 36, still not feeling like I'm really there. I may not be quite as rage-prone as she is, but I definitely share a lot of her envy and bitterness about the world.
Kiyohiko Azuma often gets told that he writes very "childlike" adults, especially in Yotsuba&! but he claims this is just because he thinks of himself as childish. I imagine Yukari is him venting off the pressures of adulthood.
Yukari does have her soft side though. She does care for the kids, even if she does bicker with them on their level. She likes seeing them succeed and isn't afraid to help them in a jam.
But ultimately I think we all love her because she's quirky, lazy, and easily angered. Just as readers are meant to feel nostalgic for childhood through the other characters, we're able to empathize with Yukari's pessimism about having to be an adult.
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