Izumi Akazawa

"Do you remember?"

- Izumi Akazawa

Izumi Akazawa is the head of countermeasures and later on becomes the Class Officer of Class 3-3 of 1998 at Yomiyama North Middle School. She is in the drama club with Aya Ayano and Yumi Ogura. She has an older brother named Kazuma Akazawa.

Appearance
She has long reddish-brown hair that she wears in pigtails held up by two blue ribbons, and brown eyes. She is typically seen wearing the school's standard uniform, though she has worn different outfits - a pink-and-white dress in Episode 6 and a red blouse with a white miniskirt in episode 8. Her hair is shorter in the manga, though it's worn in the same style.

Personality
In the manga, Izumi isn't very sociable to new people, rarely conversing with anyone aside from close friends such as Yukari Sakuragi. When she does speak with someone, she is straightforward and sometimes confrontational. This stems from a troubled home life, where she often has to deal with her reclusive and unstable older brother. Her troubles also cause her to resent anyone who is able to deal with heavy burdens with hardly any suffering, especially Mei Misaki.

As the calamity claims several people around her, including people she cares about, Izumi grows more and more unstable, culminating in her attempting to kill Mei after she becomes convinced that Mei is the extra. After Mei survives the assault and assures her that despite the calamity, she is still alive, izumi regains her mental stability and even develops a sense of humor.

In the anime, Izumi is the straightforward, unabashed and strong leader of the Countermeasures at Yomiyama Middle School's  3rd year  class. She has a bit of a tsundere personality. Izumi is impulsive and irascible, even though she puts on a show of being tough she is actually rather fragile and can be shown to have a tender side. While she doesn't hesitate to blame others when misfortune occurs, she is humble enough to admit responsibility herself if she makes mistakes.

Over the course of the series she grows to resent Mei for apparently starting the calamity, and also seemed to dislike Kouchi for constantly fraternising with her. It was eventually revealed that she was actually quite fond of him, with hints of romantic attraction. However, at the end of the series, the death of her loved ones and the threat of the calamity eventually makes her homicidal and mentally unstable, and she makes a series of murder attempts on Mei and eventually Kouchi that ultimately end in her death.

Background

Manga Continuity
Not much is known about Izumi's history, but she is close friends with Yukari Sakuragi. She also has a troubled home life, having an older brother who failed to find a job after leaving school, and now shuts himself up in his room. Her brother would often spend nights violently punching the walls of his room out of depression, placing severe strain on Izumi.

On the first day of Class 3-3, Izumi watched as fellow student Mei Misaki was chosen as the 'non-existent'. Misaki was seemingly unaffected, and calmly accept the role. Having a troubled home life, seeing Misaki so unaffected even when having such responsibility led Izumi to develop a deep resentment, bordering on outright hatred, but she did not reveal this to Misaki.

Anime Continuity
One and a half years before the events of Another, Izumi had a cousin, thought they were raised more like siblings. Unfortunately he died as a result of the 3-3 class calamity, possibly either by suicide or accident. On the path next to the riverside, a distraught Izumi called her cousin an idiot for dying and furiously kicked a can lying on the ground. The can flew and accidentally hit someone on the path at the bottom of the grassy hill. As Izumi rushed down the hill to apologise she lost her balance and fell, landing at the bottom. The boy she hit with the can, Kouichi Sakakibara, offered her a hand. Touched, Izumi accepted. Kouchi noticed that Izumi looked upset, and she tells him that she lost someone close. He admits that he has also lost someone, having visited Yomiyama that day to attend the funeral of a relative. It is unknown how their encounter ended, but Koichi later returned to Tokyo.

After the calamity began one and a half years later and the extra one for that year entered the class, Izumi's memory of this encounter was altered along with Koichi's, but she still recalled the impression of Koichi's hand when it held hers, and for most of the series she would struggle to recall her memory. At the very first day of the school year (before Kouichi transferred), Izumi volunteered herself to be the head of countermeasures for Class 3-3, out of determination to ensure that the calamity that killed her brother never happens again. At the same time, fellow student Mei Misaki is chosen as the 'non-existant', to balance out the number of students and prevent the calamity, and it became Izumi's job to enforce this countermeasure. However, complications arose when Koichi returns to Yomiyama to live with his grandparents and aunt Reiko and becomes the transfer student for Class 3-3. Since the non-existant had already been chosen, they could not tell Koichi about the curse as it would mean acknowledging Misaki's existence, leaving Izumi and the rest of the class in a difficult position for the first half of the series.

Meeting Kouchi
Izumi Akazawa debuts in Chapter 2, returning to school after an absence to find a new student in the class. Watching the student conversing with his fellow students from afar, Izume asks her close friend, Yukari Sakuragi, about the student. Yukari informs her that the student is Kouichi Sakakibara, the class's new transfer student, who arrived while Izumi was absent. Izumi chooses not to introduce herself to the new student.

It isn't until Chapter 4 that Izumi makes herself known to Kouchi. In the corridor, Izumi overheard Kouchi asking Naoya Teshigawara and Kazami Tomohiko about the story of Misaki Yomiyama's death. Angrily confronting him, Izumi asked Kouchi who told him the story and how much he knew. Though in actuality Mei Misaki told him the story, a startled Kouchi replied that he overheard the story from other students, and only heard the part about Misaki dying. Izumi appeared unconvinced, but at that moment Miss Mikami interrupted, ending the confrontation. Izumi then leaves and meets with Yukari, who was waiting at the end of the corridor.

Yukari's Death
Izumi is present during the exams at the end of May, and watches as Kouchi finishes early and is excused from the classroom along with Mei. Minutes later, a fellow teacher rushes into the classroom and informs Yukari that her mother had been in an accident. Izumi presumably watches as her best friend rushes out the classroom. As she makes her way down the stairs, Yukari slips and her umbrella impales her through the throat, killing her instantly.

The incident leaves the class terrified that the deaths of Yukari and her mother meant the the calamity had begun, and Izumi in particular was grief-stricken at the loss of her best friend. Near the beginning of Chapter 5, Izumi attends their funeral, and weeps at the sight of the dual coffins. At some point, Izumi learns that Takako Sugiura saw Yukari through the classroom window, seconds before her death. Yukari had intially made her way to the east staircase, which was closer, but encountered Mei and Kouchi. Shaken at the sight of Kouchi conversing with the non-existent, Yukari changed direction and rushed to the west staircase where she met her demise. Izumi blames Mei and Kouchi for Yukari's death, Mei in particular. In Chapter 6, Izumi enters the classroom later than usual and ignores Kazami when he comments on this. Brushing past Kouchi, Izumi coldly glares at him and tells him that she would not forgive him.

The New Countermeasure
In Chapter 7, the day after Takeru Mizuno's sister, Sanae is killed in an elevator accident, Izumi, Teshigawara, Sugiura and another student spot Kouchi discussing Sanae's death with Mei, treating her like she existed yet again. Growing more and more concerned that Kouchi's actions are endangering the other classmates, Izumi and her friends decide to hold a class meeting to deal with the situation. While Kouchi is called to the student council room for police questioning concerning the circumstances behind Sanae's death, the entire class is called to a meeting room. During the meeting, Izumi is made the new female representative, replacing the deceased Yukari, and a new countermeasure is made: they will turn Kouchi into a non existant along with Mei, hoping to undo the damage he had presumably caused by fraternising with her and strengthening the charm.

Izumi and the rest of the class place this countermeasure into effect the next morning, after Ikuo Takabayashi dies at home due to illness. At the beginning of the class, she, Mr Kubodera, Kazami over see the farewell ceremony for Takabayashi, and urge the class to keep the new countermeasure in place. When Kouchi, confused as to why no-one was acknowledging him, confronts Teshigawara, he is cries out in shock. Quickly intervening, Izumi approaches and tells Teshgawara not to talk to himself.

Izumi and the rest of the class continue to uphold the new countermeasure up until Chapter 11. One morning, Mr. Kubodera enters the classroom appearing slightly unstable. Unknown to the students at the time, he has become overcome with despair and had killed his bed-ridden mother hours before. Standing at his desk, Kubodera apologises to the students for being unable to teach them any longer, and suddenly begins twitching. Pulling a knife from his bag, Kubodera tells the students that the calamity is their problem from now on, and proceeds to stab himself in the throat. The horrified students fled the classroom, and those remaining were ordered out by school librarian Mr. Chibiki when he discovers the scene.

With it now obvious that making two students non existant had failed to stop the calamity, a traumatised and enraged Izumi tearfully confronts Kouchi and Mei outside the classroom, telling them that all the deaths so far was their fault for consorting with each other. Izumi continues to scream that it was all their fault as the chapter ends.

A Troubled Home Life
After Kubodera's death, the original classroom was closed off and the class was moved to a new room. Once the new countermeasure proved to be a failure, the class began acknowledging Kouchi and Mei's existance again. After her outburst towards the two students, Izumi kept her distance from them. Eventually, Miss Mikami informs the class that in a few weeks they would go on a class trip to the Yomiyama Shrine, hoping that praying to the shrine would stop the calamity.

At home, the situation with her brother grew steadily worse: her brother's habit of punching the wall at night continues to distress Izumi, who would cover her ears every time in an attempt to shut out the noise. With the stress caused by her brother and the threat of the calamity looming over her, Izumi begins to grow terrified that she might be the next to die. One evening, Izumi lies in her bed, gazing at a picture of her and Yukari, when she hears a crash outside. When she goes out to investiage, she finds that her brother has just smashed a plate of his dinner on the floor. He glances at Izumi before rushing back into his room, leaving their mother to clean the mess up.

Later that night, after another round of punching the walls that drives Izumi to tears, the bedroom is too hot for Izumi to sleep, and she steps out into the corridor. She notices that her brother's bedroom door is open. Finding this out of place, Izumi investigates, and discovers that her brother had hung himself. Distraught at the sight, Izumi breaks down screaming. Knowing that there was no-one she could count on to save her, Izumi decides at that moment that from now on, she would count on herself.

The Class Trip
On the 8th of October, Izumi is one of the few classmates attending the class trip. On the hike up to the Sakitani Memorial Hall where the class would be staying for the next couple of days, Teshigawara expresses his condolences to Izumi for her brother's death. Izumi merely replies that it couldn't have been helped. When they reach the hall, Mochizuki suggests taking a commerative photo, to which the class accepts. Izumi does not participate and stands to the side, glaring hatefully at Mei all the while.

It is decided that the class would travel to the shrine tomorrow, and in the meantime the students are to wait in their rooms until dinner. While walking through the corridor, Izumi spots Mei going into Kouchi's room. Intrigued, Izumi listens at their door, and finds that the pair are listening to a tape that Katsumi Matsunaga, a student from fifteen years ago had made. What she learns amazes her: fifteen years ago, the class had also gone on a class trip to the shrine. Praying to the shrine failed to stop the calamity, and two students died that same night. Eventually Katsumi and another student got into a fight over the deaths, ending with Katsumi killing the student. The student disappeared without a trace the next morning, and the other students no longer remembered the student ever existing. Katsumi eventually figured out the truth: the student he had killed had been the extra one all along, and by killing him he had stopped the calamity for that year. Izumi is shaking by the time Katsumi gives the following advice: kill the extra one and 'send the dead back to death.'

That afternoon in the dining hall, once everyone had eaten their meals Izumi stands up to give a speech. Once Miss Mikami gives permission, Izumi openly confronts Mei and Kouchi, claiming that they were responsible for the misfortune the class has experienced. She places most of the blame on Mei in particular, for not properly playing the role of the non existant, and  expresses anger that after she stopped being the non existent she apparently continued acting as if nothing was wrong. Izumi demands that Mei apologize for her actions. Though Mei declares that apologizing would do nothing to help the class, she complies. A distraught Kouchi angrily defends Mei and claims that it was his fault, and an argument ensues as Mochizuki and Teshigwara also step in, declaring that stopping the calamity was more important. The argument is cut short when Kouchi collapses from his illness and is taken back to his room.

After dinner, Izumi becomes convinced that Mei is the extra one, due to her emotionless personality which Izumi likens to a doll, and makes plans to kill her. When Kouchi and Teshgawara leave the building to find an injured Kazami, leaving Mei alone, Izumi seizes her chance. She lures Mei to the kitchen, which hosts a variety of potential murder weapons, and reveals that she knows about the tape, and even questioned Teshigawara about its contents after dinner. Grabbing an ice pick, Izumi swings at Mei, but only manages to scratch her face and knock her to the floor. Izumi declares that killing Mei would stop the calamity and asks if she agrees, When Mei replies that she is not the dead one, an enraged Izumi grabs her by the hair and screams at her to shut up. Utterly convinced that Mei is the extra, Izumi throw Mei back to the floor and pins her, and in her rage reveals how much she has hated her since the beginning of the school year. Izumi shouts that has always hated that Mei is so emotionless even when she has the world on her shoulders, as if she was just a doll. Izumi's words causes Mei to recall memories of how her adoptive mother always treated her like another of her dolls, and shows emotion to Izumi for the first time, declaring that she is not doll, and she is not dead. Izumi screams at Mei to shut up, and thrusts the ice pick into her left eye.

Believing that now she had killed Mei, she would no longer need to fear dying, Izumi drops the ice and laughs in satisfaction. Suddenly, Mei moans, and tells her again that she isn't dead. When a shocked Izumi looks closer, she sees that the eye she stabbed is made of glass. As she takes this in, a stroke of lightning strikes the building, shaking the kitchen and knocking Izumi to the floor. As fire begins to consume the building, Mei gets up and tells Izumi to leave, lest she becomes a victim of August. Feeling no ill will towards Izumi for what she had tried to do, befor she leaves Mei tells her once more that she is not dead. She adds that Izumi isn't dead either: she is still alive. Mei's words greatly affect Izumi, and when Mr. Chibiki finds her in the kitchen minutes later and carries her to safety, she mourns for Yukari and her brother.

Ultimately Izumi survives the calamity: while she is being rescued by Chibiki, Mei and Kouchi find the true extra one and kill them, ending the calamity for that year.

After The Class Trip
After the disastrous class trip, Izumi is sent to hospital with minor injuries, and her hair is cut into a bob after it was burned in the fire. While she is reading in bed, Izumi is surprised when a recovered Kazami shoves a reluctant Teshigawara into the room. Having had a crush on Izumi for some time, Teshigwara nervously greets her, and comments that she cut her hair. Findly his comment oddly amusing, Izumi giggles, showing happiness for the first time in the series, and tells him that her hair was burned.

Anime Continuity
In Episode 1, the new transfer student Koichi is admitted to hospital with a collapsed lung, forcing him to miss the first couple of weeks of school. As he was recovering, Izumi, along with class representatives Kazami and Yukari, paid him a visit on behalf of the class, and partly to see if he was the extra one that year. After they ask him several questions regarding whether or not he had been in Yomiyama before, Izumi offers to shake his hand, since there was a rumor that the extra one's hands felt cold to touch. When Koichi accepted, Izumi's hand remembered the impression of his, but Izumi was unable to recall the memory.

Like the others, she hesitates to tell Kouichi about the class' curse after Sakuragi's death, a decision she comes to regret later.

In Episode 4, she can be seen with Teshigawara in the background when they hear a huge crash through Kouichi's cell phone (which was Sanae Mizuno's elevator collapsing.) She holds a grudge against Mei and Kouichi for ignoring the rules and turning the countermeasures useless, causing the deaths to continue.

In Episode 7, after she witnessed Mr. Kubodera's death, she confronted Kouichi and the others on the rooftop. Later on, Izumi meets up with Kouichi, Teshigawara and Mochizuki in Inoya Cafe. They acquired information about Katsumi Matsunaga and decided to look for him for help to solve the calamity.

In Episode 8, the team went out of Yomiyama to look for Matsunaga and they had fun at the beach while waiting for his call. At the end of the episode, they witness Junta Nakao's death on shore.

In Episode 9, after Nakao's funeral she walks the still-shaken Takako Sugiura home.

In Episode 10, at the beginning of the episode, Izumi dreams of the day she met Kouichi, while mourning her brother's death. During the first dinner the class trip, she gave a speech on the curse issue, demanding an apology from Mei for allowing the deaths to continue. The confrontation is cut short by Daisuke Wakui 's asthma attack, and he's sent to the hospital.

In Episode 11, she talks about Mei's past with Takako. Later when Kouichi and the others are in the hall, she heard the ruckus and went to check. They heard a scream and Izumi recognized Takako's voice. They hurried up to Izumi's room and found the door stained with blood. Takako was missing, but she later appears with a blade and tries to kill Mei. Izumi was shocked and was pushed to the side. Takako later escapes and Izumi tells Kouichi and Mei about how she, as the head of countermeasures, had to listen to the tape. A few seconds later, Takako broadcasts the tape and tells everyone that Mei is the dead one, asking everyone to kill her. At the end of the episode, Izumi finds Kouichi and Mei with Takako's dead body. She was shocked and terrified. Izumi misunderstood the situation, thinking that Mei killed Takako. She shouted at Mei angrily, telling her that she was going to kill her.

In Episode 12, when Kazami attempts to kill Kouichi, Izumi steps in to save Kouichi and hits Kazami with a metal rod, knocking him unconscious. She then attempts to deal a fatal blow to Kazami as she believes Kazami does not deserve to live for murdering two classmates. However, she was stopped by Chibiki-Sensei as he feels classmates should not kill each other and Izumi runs off. Later, she finds Mei and attempts to kill her. However, Kouichi stops her to protect Mei and attempts to reason with her. She ignores him and says that she must kill Mei to end the calamity and protect everyone. When Izumi finally gets a hold of Mei, Kouchi knocks Izumi off of her then restraining her to prevent her from attacking Mei. Feeling the emotion of both anger and sadness she knee-jabs him in the groin then hits him the her metal rod causing him to fall backwards on Mei. Tears in her eyes, she shouts at him saying why he was protecting Mei and that all she wanted to do was protect him and everyone else. Asking if he had some sort of deathwish she angrily suggested  to him too (however being realistic heres he cannot because Kouchi was obviously stronger then her in terms of strength), but at that moment, lightning strikes.

The lightning shatters the hall's giant window, and large glass shards are sent flying towards them. Izumi ends up being skewered against the wall by the glass shards. Kouichi, shocked, removes her from the wall. While lying on the floor bleeding, Izumi tells Kouichi that they had actually met before, one and a half years ago. She was upset over the loss of her brother and kicked a can from the top of the riverbank, which hit Kouichi who was down below. She rushed down to apologize but tripped and fell and had to be helped up by Kouichi. She asks whether Kouichi remembers this and he replies that he doesn't. Disappointed that he doesn't remember, she tells him that he should at least pretend to remember before she dies. As such, she dies, Kouichi escaping as the entire building buries her in the rubble.

Kouichi Sakakibara
Izumi first seems intrigued by Kouichi as she feels that they have met before. Izumi had held suspiscions that Kouichi was the dead student at one point. When informed of Kouichi asking about Mei Misaki, she vaguely warns him and shows signs of beginning to dislike him. However later on in the series she begins to like him and appreciates his presence. In Episode 11, Takako revealed that Izumi was actually fond of him despite her somewhat cold actions towards him.

Mei Misaki
Prior to Episode 9, Izumi seemed more or less indifferent to Mei although it is not exactly known how she truly feels about her due to Mei being the "non-existent" student. As of Episode 9, Izumi appears to dislike Mei, possibly because she blames Mei for starting the calamity. The reason for this being is that Izumi may believe that Mei could have resisted Kouichi's attempts to talk to her, but didn't. In the manga Izumi stabbed Mei's left eye (the artificial one; the doll eye; the green one).

Naoya Teshigawara
Izumi, after hearing of Teshigawara's promises to explain the history of Class 3 to Kouichi without her permission gives off the impression that she sees him as an idiot. Izumi also does not seem to return his feelings towards him and views him as annoying and often calls him a jerk.

Yukari Sakuragi
Izumi and Yukari were shown to be good friends since they were young. In the manga, Izumi cared a lot about Yukari and she blames Kouichi and Mei for Yukari's death as they ignored the class rules, causing the calamity to happen. She was seen in one of the chapters crying for Yukari to save her as she does not want to die. Also in the manga, a picture of her and Yukari is shown on her desk.

Takako Sugiura
Izumi and Takako are shown to be good friends and she seems to care a lot for Takako. In Episode 11, after seeing Takako's death, she was angry over Mei as she misunderstood that Mei killed Takako. She shouted out that she will kill Mei.

Kazuma Akazawa
Kazuma Akazawa is Izumi's cousin but they were raised as siblings. Her brother was mentally unstable and often locked himself in his room. He is yet to make an appearance in the anime, although his name was seen in the Class 3-3 list of 1996. At Chapter 17 of the manga, Kazuma commits suicide by hanging himself in his room. She was devastated after his death.

Gallery
Main article: Izumi Akazawa/Image Gallery

Quotes

 * "Don't judge a book by its cover."
 * "Let me apologize in advance. I'm sorry. But this is for all of us. Forgive us."
 * "Honestly, I miss one day of school, and this is what happens?!"
 * "Misaki...Mei...I'll kill you!"
 * "You're supposed to say you remember, even if it's not true..."
 * "It's your fault."
 * "We're the same."

Trivia

 * She is ranked A+ in Another characters ranking.
 * Her first name, Izumi, means fountain or spring.Another 87.jpg
 * Her home address is 1-1 Akatsukicho Yomiyama City.
 * In the original novel, Akazawa is a minor character that doesn't appear until page 256. While she is mentioned periodically, the first speaking lines she has isn't until her confrontation with Mei at the Sakitani Kinenkan near the conclusion of the book. Izumi dies in the original novel.
 * She shares a room with Takako Sugiura during the class trip.
 * Izumi resembles Rise Kujikawa with her pigtails from Persona 4.
 * In the manga, she tried to kill Mei, stabbing her left eye. A moment later, a cupboard fell on her, and she was rescued by Tatsuji Chibiki afterward. During this time, Mei disappeared, leaving the scene. Izumi later regretted her attempt to kill Mei. She was seen in the last chapter at the hospital, where she had cut her hair shorter.
 * In the anime it is revealed that she is fond of Kouichi and calls him as "Kouichi-kun".
 * Izumi's hand is said to be able to recall the impression of someone who once shook hands with her.
 * She survived in the Manga. However she dies in both the Novel and Anime.
 * Izumi is the first of three people that the audience can see the color of death on in Mei's POV. The second being Reiko Mikami and the third being Misaki Fujioka (Though chronologically she was the first.)