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.

Appearance
A young boy with light brown hair and light brown eyes, Teshigawara shows a cheerful expression most of the time. He wears a blue sweater and a white T-shirt, unlike the others who wear their school&apos;s uniform. He usually wears a colourful shirt or a Flowerish one (for summer) for his casual clothes, which Kouichi considered too attractive and embarrassing. In the manga, he has also longer light brown hair and light brown eyes. In episode 8, when he, Kouichi, Reiko, Izumi, Takako and Yuuya were going to meet Matsunaga he wears a white with purple blouse and a yellow sunvisor.

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. He is very loyal toward his friends.

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.

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 Episode 4, 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 Episode 7, after witnessing Kubodera-Sensei's death, he called Kouichi, Mochizuki and Izumi to meet for further discussion of the class 3 calamity.

After they acquired information on Katsumi Matsunaga, they set off in Episode 8 to look for him, about the solution to stop the calamity. During this time, they had fun at the beach while waiting for Matsunaga's return. Naoya organized a competition for lunch. Naoya also picked the teams (pairing himself with the girls, Izumi and Takako), jokingly referring to Kouichi and Mei's team (along with a reluctant 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 episode 9 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. They found a recording tape and began to listen to it. However, they heard a teacher coming and ran to hide, breaking the tape in the process. Mochizuki offered to help fix it, but says it might take a while.

In Episode 10, the class went on to the class trip. Naoya, Yuuya, and Kouichi listen to the repaired tape, and they heard the important part of the recording, which is the solution to free the class. Naoya took Mei's side when Izumi blamed her for the deaths which had occurred to that point. In the end of the episode, Naoya barged in Mei's room looking terrified and saying he has done something terrible.

In episode 11, he confessed that he thought Kazami was the dead student. He was absolutely sure about this and started to interrogate him to catch him. When Tomohiko didn't remember the things they used to do in their childhood, Naoya tells him that he is the dead student and they start to fight. Naoya accidentally pushed Tomohiko and he fell from the 2nd story. He is devastated and Kouichi tells him that he should be alive, because a fall from that high shouldn't kill him. They went to check this out. Naoya discovers that Tomohiko is gone. He later met with Yuuya and started to look for Tomohiko urging everyone to evacuate the building because of a fire. They met Keiko - who stabbed Manabu - when they went looking for Ms. Mikami, and she tries to kill them. She stabs Naoya in his leg and they ran away from her, with Mochizuki being forced to drag Naoya to safety because of his injury. After Mochizuki and Naoya escaped from Keiko, he opened an emergency door, only to find Keiko was inside waiting to kill them.

In Episode 12, Naoya is pushed out of a window by Mochizuki as Keiko continued to chase them. Mochizuki tries to jump out as well but he's grabbed by Keiko, who tries to pull him back in. Naoya jumps up and tugs back, sending all 3 crashing to the ground. Keiko then jumps on Naoya and is about to stab him when Chibiki comes and kills her. He then leads them to his car where he tends to heal Naoya's wound. A few minutes later, Kazami's body is brought out. Naoya begs him to wake up, but he breaks down and screams while crying when he gets no response. The anime ends with Naoya and Mochizuki putting a tape they recorded about how to stop the calamity into the locker where they found Matsunaga's original one.

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 Episode 10 defending her when Izumi blames her for the numerous deaths. He also enjoys teasing Kouichi about her, often suggesting the two are dating.

Izumi Akazawa
Naoya is known to have a crush on her, proved in Episode 8 when he wanted her to stay in the car next to him. However, she doesn't return his feelings for her as she thinks he's an annoying person. In the manga he is there to greet Izumi after she awakens in the hospital. He notices that she cut her hair and blushes before she tells him that it burnt off.

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.

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 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.

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, about discussing the tape with one's friends rather than acting alone, is likely a reference to his own guilt over Kazami's death.

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?"

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 often hangs around Kazami. Also, 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.
 * In the manga, he says he has an older sister.
 * He is the only character to use strong language in the anime, exclaiming "Shit!" when he noticed Junta was in trouble.
 * He seems to be on good terms with Kouichi. It's proved when he mentions how lonely he is when he and the other classmates are forced to treat him as the nonexistent student. It also seems that only he, Mochizuki, and Kazami (in the manga), don't blame him and Mei for all the deaths that occurred. He and Takeru also carried Kouichi to his room when he collapsed in Chapter 16.
 * 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, Naoya commented that Mei was weird. After he destroyed the tape, Mei replied that he was an idiot.
 * He is called "Teshy" by Aya.
 * 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.