Takako Sugiura

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.

Personality and Traits
She is shown to be concerned and serious about the class 3 countermeasures, working closely with Izumi, who appears to be her best friend. Though she can usually be seen scowling, Takako can be compassionate, taking care of Junta in episode 8 when everyone thought he was car sick.

However, ever since Episode 8, where she witnessed Junta Nakao die, Takako has been emotionally unstable.

While on the summer trip, Takako finally snaps, and thinks killing Mei would end the curse. She also developes a strong fixation on Izumi, commenting she (Takako) wouldn't want to keep living if Izumi died, and sparing Koichi because Izumi was "fond" of him.



Appearance
Takako has short 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 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.

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.

In Episode 8, Takako accompanies Kouichi and the others when they go to the beach to relax. During the trip, Takako is seen taking care of Junta who was suffering from car sickness. Later on in the episode, while playing volleyball, a strong gust of wind causes the ball to fly into the water which Junta goes after, only to be killed in the process. Takako was devastated by his death, and in Episode 9 Izumi accompanied her home to ensure she was alright. Later on, Izumi commented that Takako had become increasingly unstable as a result.

In Episode 11, at the start of the episode, 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 instead encounter a bloodstained Keiko Numata, who had apparently attacked Takako and killed her. The three fled in terror as Keiko began her rampage.

But Takako reappered 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, filling in her own commentary and telling everyone to kill 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 found" 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 arrived immediately after, and seeing Mei standing underneath the body of her friend, drew the wrong conclusion and vowed to kill her.



Gallery
Main article: Takako Sugiura/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * She is seen to be Izumi Akazawa's best friend, and shares a room with her on the class trip.
 * In episode 8 Takako is seen with red frame glasses, instead of purple.
 * Her home address is 5-3 Akatsukicho Yomiyama City.
 * She is ranked A in Another character ranking.
 * In the original novel and also the 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, 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 Kubodera, which is the bloodiest death in the series), only beaten for length by Izumi's, although the latter was apparently in shock for most of it.
 * She doesn't appear in the film, but Naoya's death seems to be a reference to hers.