Naoya Teshigawara

"That's how to stop the calamity. How you interpret this is up to you. Just make sure to carefully consider your actions. Think it through, and discuss it with your friends...so you'll have no regrets."

- Naoya Teshigawara

Naoya Teshigawara is a student of Class 3-3 in 1998. He is more often than not the show's comic relief, due to his easy-going nature. He is one of Kouichi Sakakibara's best friends, and seems to have a crush on Izumi Akazawa.

Plot
Teshigawara was the first student to talk to Kouichi on his first day of school, and became his friend soon after. He, along with the rest of the class, was hesitant about explaining the curse to Kouichi, though Naoya promised to explain things to Kouichi in June (which never happened).

In "Put Flesh", Naoya was scolded by Izumi for telling Kouichi unncessary things about the curse and putting them all in danger, and both of them were arguing when Sanae called Kouichi, and were present when he heard her death.

In "Sphere Joint", after witnessing Kubodera-Sensei's death, he called Kouichi, Mochizuki, and Izumi to meet for further discussion of the class 3 calamity.

After learning about Katsumi Matsunaga, they set off in "Hair Stand" to look for him, in the hopes they could replicate his method for halting the curse. During this time, they had fun at the beach while waiting for Matsunaga's return. Naoya organized a competition for lunch. He also picked the teams (pairing himself with the girls, Izumi and Takako), jokingly referring to Kouichi and Mei's team (along with an indignant Yuuya) as "the nonexistent team." The results of the game were inconclusive, although Naoya managed to catch a bundle of kelp, which he promptly dropped on Izumi's head.

As the group was preparing to leave, Takako's beach ball blew back into the water. Naoya watched as Junta went to get it, and was the first to notice when his classmate stopped moving. Naoya, along with Kouichi and Matsunaga, rushed into the water, but were too late to rescue Junta, who was hit by a yacht and eviscerated.



In "Body Paint" Naoya appeared in Kouichi's guilt driven dream. Later, he met up with Kouichi, Mei, and Mochizuki to look for the item that Matsunaga left in the old classroom. There they found an old tape recording and began to listen to it. However, they heard a teacher coming and ran to hide, in the process of which Naoya broke the tape. Yuuya offered to help fix it, but explained it could take a while.

In "Body Paint", Naoya was among the students who went on the class trip, taking the group picture. By this point Yuuya had repaired the tape, and he, Naoya, and Kouichi listened to the repaired tape, and learned how to break the curse: kill the extra student.

At dinner that night, a tense atmosphere came to a head when Izumi stood up and accused Mei of being responsible for the curse, demanding that she apologize. Naoya took Mei's side and defended her, alongside Kouichi and Yuuya.

Shortly after, Naoya barged into Mei's room in order to tell Kouichi he'd "done something terrible." He elaborates in "Makeup", explaining he thought Kazami was the dead student. To make sure, he started to interrogate him and when Tomohiko didn't remember the things they used to do in their childhood, Naoya accused him of being the dead student. Tomohiko denied this, and in their argument Naoya accidentally pushed Tomohiko out a window. Horrified and sure he'd killed his friend, Naoya had come looking for Kouichi, who assured him a fall from that height probably wouldn't be lethal. However, upon going to check on Tomohiko, they found he was gone.



Naoya later met with Yuuya and started to look for Tomohiko, urging everyone to evacuate the building because of a fire. Instead, they met Keiko - who'd already stabbed Manabu and assaulted Takako in her room - when they went looking for Ms. Mikami, and proceeded to attack them. Her knife falls and cuts Naoya in the leg, preventing him from walking, but Yuuya was able to help him escape by dragging him out a window. After Mochizuki and Naoya escaped from Keiko, he opened an emergency door, only to find her inside waiting to kill them.

In "Stand by Oneself", Naoya was pushed out of a window by Mochizuki as Keiko continued to chase them. Before Yuuya could follow he was grabbed by Keiko, who tried to pull him back in and finish him. Naoya hurried to the rescue, inadvertently pulling Keiko out of the building and onto him as all three crashed to the ground. Keiko prepared to stab him when Chibiki in the nick of time and turned her knife on her. Naoya and Yuuya followed him to his car, where Chibiki treated his injury. A few minutes later, Kazami's body was brought out. Noaya screamed at his friend to wake up, and broke down in tears upon realizing he was dead.

The anime ends with Naoya and Mochizuki putting a tape they recorded into the locker where they found Matsunaga's original one. Naoya last lines of dialogue (from the tape) are instructions to Class 3-3 of 1998, telling them how to break the curse but advising them to work things out as a group, "so you'll have no regrets."

Appearance
Naoya is a young man with light brown hair and light brown eyes (he has longer light brown hair in the manga), and he shows a cheerful expression most of the time, yet can be serious if he needs to.

He wears a blue sweater and a white T-shirt, unlike the others who wear their school&apos;s uniform. He usually wears a colorful shirt or a Flowerish one (for summer) for his casual clothes, which Kouichi considered too attractive and embarrassing. In "Hair Stand", when he, Kouichi, Reiko, Izumi, Takako, and Yuuya were going to meet Matsunaga, he wore a white and purple shirt, and a yellow sun visor.

Personality
Teshigawara is usually superficial in nature. He is shown to have a sympathetic side, since he was the first one to talk to Kouichi, who was still not used to his surroundings. Naoya is very sociable, cheerful, energetic and is a sports lover. Teshigawara is a childhood friend of Kazami and a good friend of Yuuya, and after Mei is probably Kouichi's closest friend, possibly followed by Yuuya.

Teshigawara is very loyal toward his friends. He also seems to be (at least in his mind) a lady's man, pairing himself with Izumi and Takako for the catching contest (which was his idea in the first place) when the group was at the beach. Naoya is also quick thinking, immediately springing to the aid of both Junta and Yuuya when they were in mortal danger.

Academically, Naoya doesn't learn much at school, claiming that he doesn't know how he reached the 9th grade. Naoya is optimistic and always careless and carefree. However, following Tomohiko Kazami's death, Naoya was riddled with guilt, and became more serious and mature as a result.

He is also very selfless and compassionate, regardless of his feelings for Izumi as well as his fear or her during her run as head of countermeasures, he doesn't hesitate to tell her off when she accuses Mei Misaki of being responsible for the class 3-3 deaths.

Mei Misaki
Naoya finds Mei weird, and tells her this (to which she calmly responds that he's an idiot). Despite this, they are on good terms. Teshigawara takes Mei's side in "Glass Eye" defending her when Izumi blames her for the numerous deaths. He also enjoys teasing Kouichi about her, often suggesting the two are dating.

Kouichi Sakakibara
Naoya was the first one to talk with Kouichi in his first day at Yomiyama Middle School. They are in good terms, and Naoya often calls Kouichi "Sakaki." Teshigawara apologies for the fact that he is obligated to ignore him when he became a non-existent person, commenting he was lonely without Kouichi to talk to. When Kouichi collapsed due to his lung problems in the manga, Naoya and Takeru helped him back to his room. In the same scene in the anime, he took Kouichi's side against Izumi when the latter tried to blame the year's deaths on Mei.

He enjoys teasing Koichi about Mei, constantly harassing him about being on dates with her.



Izumi Akazawa
Naoya is known to have a crush on her, such as in "Hair Stand," when he attempted to get her to sit by him for the trip to the beach. However, she doesn't return his feelings for her as she thinks he's an annoying person, furthermore finding his constant meddling in countermeasures irritating and seeing them as exacerbating the problem.

In all iterations of the story, however, Naoya doesn't allow his feelings to dictate his actions, as he stood up to Izumi when she blamed Mei for the deaths caused by the curse. The two don't have many scenes thereafter, suggesting this may have irreparably damaged his chances with her, at least in the anime and novel.

In the manga, however he went to visit Izumi in the hospital following the catastrophe at the inn, and is there to greet Izumi after she awakens. He notices that she cut her hair and blushes, complimenting her on her new style, before she explained she'd cut it off after the fire. This scene suggests this universe's Naoya and Izumi are on friendly terms in the end.

This relationship isn't present in the film. Naoya and Izumi never really interacted; however, while trying to escape the Inn with Mei, Naoya took it upon himself to warn Izumi and Takako about the Curse. Instead, he found Izumi standing over Takako, having just stabbed her in the throat. Shocked, Naoya demanded an explanation, but Tomohiko, who was also present, interrupted, revealing he'd seen Naoya attack Yuuya and apparently kill him. Panicking, Naoya fled out the girls' window, only to become caught in a live electrical cable and killed. Though momentarily horrified, Izumi realized Naoya's death was a result of the Calamity, and therefore attacking Takako hadn't solved anything. Since Tomohiko was already present, Izumi decided Mei was the Extra and attacked her next.



Yuuya Mochizuki
Yuuya seems to be Naoya's best friend. Whenever meetings are arranged, they always show up together. In "Stand By Oneself", he helped an injured Naoya escape from Keiko. Naoya returned the favor, pulling Yuuya through the window, saving his life when Keiko grabbed him.

Tomohiko Kazami
Tomohiko is Naoya's childhood friend. They also seem in good terms, sharing a room together on the class trip, and Naoya often teases Tomohiko about his academic prowess. In the original novel their relationship is more developed as Tomohiko had a larger role.

In the Anime Naoya noticed Tomohiko couldn't remember clearly some of their shared childhood memories, and convinced himself Tomohiko was the other. The two argued and Naoya pushed him out a window, apparently killing him (Tomohiko actually survived, only to be killed by Izumi when he attempted to kill Kouichi later on). Naoya was horrified by what he thought he'd done, and devastated when he learned Tomohiko really had died.

His epilogue to other students of class 3-3, about discussing the tape with one's friends rather than acting alone, is likely a reference to his own guilt over Kazami's death, suggesting he will carry the weight of his actions for the rest of his life. From the point Naoya attacked Tomohiko on, he was much more serious and darker, as the gravity of his actions caught up with him.

In the manga, Naoya and Kouichi managed to locate Tomohiko before he came to. Kouichi left Tomohiko in the care of Naoya and Yuuya, while he went to find Mei. Because of this, Tomohiko survived the calamity, and was last seen at the hospital with his friends, checking on Izumi and the other survivors.

In the live action film Naoya and Tomohiko aren't especially close. Tomohiko warns Naoya not to do anything stupid when the former starts to suspect Yuuya of being the extra, advice Naoya ignores. Tomohiko sees Naoya attack his friend and assumes Yuuya is dead, angrily confronting him about it when Naoya was trying to escape the inn with Mei. Naoya panicked and fled, only to be electrocuted, revealing to Izumi the curse hadn't ended.

Aya Ayano
Although they don't interact as much, it's shown that Aya and Naoya were on good terms. Both were present when welcoming Kouichi to Class 3, with both saying how Yomiyama is a pretty boring place. In Episode 2, Aya is shown to be the only one who pays attention when Naoya explains his Apple drawing in Art class to Ms. Mikami. She also calls him "Teshy" in the series, one of the many nicknames she gives her friends. Naoya was the one who asked if she and Yumi would want to search the old school building with himself and Kouichi, in which she and Yumi pass on, after she leaves, it's the last time Naoya ever sees her. Naoya probably found out on her death later and was saddened with the rest of the class offscreen.

Gallery
Main article: Naoya Teshigawara/Image Gallery

Quotes

 * "Gimme a break."
 * "Another one who's trying too hard for nothing."
 * "What do you know about me?"
 * "I don't wanna die!"
 * "Don't mess with things that don't exist!" 
 * "At any rate, Four Eyes, you're stuck with me until Graduation. Keep your strength up."
 * "When we were kids, we did all kinds of stupid stuff together. But now he's turned into this pseudo-honor student who can't even keep up with my improv!"
 * "SAKAKI!!!! I think I might have fucked up!!!"

Trivia

 * He is ranked A in Another character ranking.Another 86.jpg
 * His first name, Naoya, means "straight arrow."
 * His home address is 3-5 Yuumigaoka Yomiyama City.
 * In the original novel, he is not the cause of the cassette tape being broken. The cassette tape was damaged when the boys were unwrapping the packing tape it was wrapped in.
 * He is the one of the only characters to use strong language in the anime, exclaiming "Shit!" when he noticed Junta was in trouble. In the dub, he also informs Kouichi he may have "fucked it up" when he pushed Tomohiko out the window. The others being Kouichi when he punched Yukito Tsujii after he hit Ms. Mikami, calling him an "Bastard" and then Kenzou Kawahori called Kouichi an "Asshole" after hitting Yukito.
 * It also seems that only he, Mochizuki, along with Tomohiko and to a lesser extent Takako (in the manga), don't blame Kouichi and Mei for all the deaths that occurred.
 * He also likes to tease Mei and Kouichi about being together. When he asked Kouichi to meet at Inoya in Episode 7, he also asked if Kouichi had a date with Mei. In Episode 10, he instructs Mei to move closer to Kouichi when he wanted to take pictures.
 * In Episode 9 (as well as Episode 7), Naoya commented that Mei was weird. After he destroyed the tape, Mei replied that he was an idiot.
 * He is called "Teshy" by Aya, there was also possibly more to the two them as seen in an sketch where he and Aya were are in the same school sports clothes and she is shown to have her hand on his shoulder when their backs are shown. In Episode 2 while the class is drawing fruit, Aya is shown to be one of the only people watch Teshigawara explain his views on the fruit to Ms. Mikami when she questioned why his Apple had arms and legs.
 * In the manga, Naoya's crush on Izumi is more obvious.
 * He is killed in the 2012 live action film after becoming entangled in electrical cables and electrocuted as he was fleeing the hall; his death is similar to Takako's, who does not appear in that adaption.