Takako Sugiura

""Don't torture yourself. What's done is done. The question is, what do we do about it?""

- Takako consoles her best friend over her failure to protect Yukari.

Takako Sugiura is a student of 9th Grade Class 3 in 1998. She and Yumi Ogura help Izumi Akazawa as the countermeasures's personal right-arm.

Plot
Takako is a background character for most of the series, though she's often seen with Izumi. She and Yumi are apparently her assistants as Head of Countermeasures, as the three are often together. She was present for Kouichi's first day of school ("Rough Sketch") but was not among the students who welcomed him to the class, instead remaining at her desk with Junta and Yumi, though she did occasionally stop to glare at him from time to time.

In "Put Flesh", she, Izumi, and Junta Nakao had a discussion about Yukari's death, the curse, and Kouichi's role therein. Takako suggested everything was merely coincidental, and tried to console Izumi when her friend tried to blame herself for Yukari's fate, telling her it couldn't be helped; she also advised against blaming Kouichi for their friend's demise, and suggested they should instead focus on protecting the rest of the class. She was present for Kubodera's suicide and like the other students, she sat and watched as Kubodera repeatedly stabbed himself with a knife. She was the only student not visibly disturbed by this event.



In "Hair Stand", Takako accompanied Kouichi and the others when they go to the beach to relax. Takako tried to assist Junta, who was apparently suffering from car sickness. She was paired with Naoya and Izumi for Naoya's fishing contest, though what, if anything, she caught is never shown. Later, while playing volleyball, a strong gust of wind caused her ball to fly into the water. Junta went after it, only to suddenly stop moving in the water. Naoya, Kouichi, and Matsunaga rushed into the water to save him, the girls and Yuuya watched from the shore. Unfortunately they were too late, as a speeding yacht hit Junta before anyone could reach him and eviscerated his body. Upon seeing Junta's body surface in pieces, Takako covered her head and screamed.

Takako was devastated by his death, and in "Body Paint" Izumi accompanied her home from Junta's funeral to ensure she was alright. Later on, Izumi confided Takako had become increasingly unstable as a result.



Takako was one of the students who went on the school trip, sharing a room with Izumi at the inn.

In "Makeup", Takako revealed to Izumi she was in elementary school with someone called "Misaki", who did not wear an eyepatch. Later on, a commotion in the main hall caused Izumi to leave Takako alone so she could go investiage. Upon encountering Mei and Koichi, the trio heard Takako scream. Returning to the room, Izumi, Koichi, and Mei to check on her, the trio find the girls' room covered in blood, and no sign of their friend. The group assumes the worst: someone had attacked Takako and killed her.

But Takako reappeared later, very much alive but covered in blood and carrying a knife, with one of her hands bandaged, her sanity apparently having deserted her. After expressing relief that Izumi was still alive, Takako commented she would prefer not to live if the other girl died, before attacking Mei. Only Koichi's intervention protected her. Takako fled to the inn's radio room and broadcast the tape Mochizuki found, telling everyone that Mei is the dead one and asking them to kill her. Izumi, hearing the broadcast and realizing Takako wasn't in her right mind, hurried to find her, leaving Kouichi to protect Mei.



Takako reappared in the stairwell after the explosion, stabbing a distracted Koichi in the arm to immobilize him, before explaining she didn't plan to kill him, because Izumi "seems fond" of him. Laughing hysterically, she then attacked Mei a second time, only to become entangled in a bundle of electrical cables and strangle herself, much to Koichi and Mei's horror.

Izumi arrives immediately after and sees Mei and Koichi standing underneath the dead of her friend. Drawing the wrong conclusion and heartbroken by her friend's death, Izumi vowed to kill Mei in revenge.

Personality and Traits
Takako is a serious young woman, rarely smiling and generally saying little. She worked closely with Izumi Akazawa, who appears to be her best friend, in preparing 1998's countermeasures. Though she can usually be seen scowling, Takako can be compassionate, taking care of Junta when everyone thought he was car sick and consoling Izumi when the latter blamed herself for Yukari's death. Academically, Takako is apparently only an average student, as she doesn't take part in her friends' discussion of what high school she plans to attend, and can be seen visibly stressing over a practice exam. An analytical individual, Takako seems to view the curse as a problem which can be solved, and consoles Izumi dwelling on the past won't make things better; the group needs to focus on making sure no one else dies.



Takako, much like Izumi, has a strong attachment to her friends, though being much less outgoing, this list is far shorter for her, mostly being consigned to Izumi and Junta. In all versions of Another Takako is devoted to Izumi, though this is present to varying degrees depending on the adaption. This doesn't mean she's completely blind to her other classmates: she was the only student who saw Yukari's death, for example, an event troubling enough she mentioned it to Aya Ayano, and she is visibly concerned about Daisuke when he had his asthma attack. Though she seems to have taken an initial disliking to him, she is at best neutral toward Kouichi by the end of the series, and doesn't wish him any particular ill will (this does not, however, extend to Mei, whom Takako unconditionally hates by that point). Seeing either of her best friends in danger is the only thing capable of breaking Takako's calm veneer, which once destroyed, is gone for good.

Takako's normally quiet personality lead her classmates to trust her almost implicitly, which ended up not being such a wonderful thing, either for the class or herself.

Appearance
Takako has short green ochre hair, in which she wears two green clips, with one on each side. They are yellow in the ED. She also wears spectacles with purple frame (red in episode 8). She has green eyes and wears a light blue sleeveless jacket instead of blazer for her school uniform. For her summer uniform, Takako wears a sleeveless blue jacket instead of the school vest. In the manga, she has braided black hair and doesn't wear spectacles; her appearance and costume in the film is based on this.

Gallery
Main article: Takako Sugiura/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * In episode 8 Takako is seen with red frame glasses, instead of purple.
 * Her home address is 5-3 Akatsukicho Yomiyama City.
 * Sugiura means "Cedar Field," while Takako usually translates as "Good" or "Noble" "Child." Her name is literally "Noble Child of the Cedar Field."
 * She is ranked A in Another character ranking.
 * In the original novel and manga, Takako dies, being one of the "deaths of August." In the novel, she is killed by Keiko Numata. In the anime, she survived this encounter, though it left her even more unhinged and caused her to attack Mei and Koichi.
 * Koichi and Mei are both visibly appalled by Takako's death in the anime, despite it being the result of her trying to kill them. Her death is one of the longest and most painful in the series (alongside Yukari and Kubodera, which is the bloodiest), only beaten for length by Izumi's, although the latter was apparently in shock for most of it. Her death occurs off-screen however in the novel and the manga.
 * She doesn't appear in the film, but Naoya's death seems to be a reference to hers. However, a composite character named Sakurako Wakui seems to be an amalgam of her and Daisuke (Sakurako is Izumi's best friend, the two share a room together on the class trip, and she has Daisuke's last name); interestingly, this character survives the film. Likewise, her appearance in the manga is drastically different, and appears to have been recycled for Sayuri Kakinuma, albeit with the addition of glasses.
 * She seems to have a crush on Junta, as he is one of the few people she isn't grumpy to. His death is the first time she visibly loses her cool, and Izumi mentions ever since she's been mentally unstable; it's highly likely Junta's death caused Takako to lose her sanity.
 * Takako is shown to be the only character to officially know Izumi's feelings for Kouichi and used that as a reason not to kill him along with him not being the dead one.