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.

Background
As the disaster prevention section in the 3-3 class, she was obliged to find ways to avoid the catastrophe that happened in class. Izumi's hand is said to be able to recall the impression of someone who once shook hands with her.

Personality
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, irascible and sometimes really mischievous. She also seems to hate Mei and even goes as far as to blame her for the deaths of the students. Early in the series, she disliked Kouichi, but in the end was revealed that she was fond of him.

Appearance
She wears the school's standard uniform and has two long reddish brown and wavy pigtails tied with blue ribbons. Her eyes have the same color. In the manga, she has the same hairstyle, but with shorter hair. Also, her hair isn't as wavy as in the anime. In the manga, at the end of the series, Izumi cut her hair shorter. In episode 6 Izumi was wearing white ribbons and a pale pink with white dress. In episode 8 she was seen wearing a casual outfit which consist in a reddish blouse and a white mini skirt.

Plot
At the very first day of the school year (before Kouichi transferred to Yomiyama Middle School), Izumi volunteered herself to be the head of countermeasures for Class 3-3, saying that she can never allow the phenomenon to happen again. In episode 1, Izumi visits Kouichi along with Kazami and Sakuragi, and asks him if he ever lived in Yomiyama, but Kouichi says he didn't. Like the others, she hesitates to tell Kouichi about the class' curse after Sakuragi's death. She later blames herself for not telling him about it.

In Episode 4, while arguing with Teshigawara, they hear a huge crash through Kouichi's cell phone. 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 Kubodera-Sensei's death, she confronted Kouichi and the others on the rooftop. Later on, Izumi meets up with Kouichi, Teshigawara and Mochizuki in Inoya Cafe for further discussion regarding Class 3 issue. 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 Takako Sugiura home, who was still in shock after the events, after giving Mei a stern glare.

In Episode 10, at the beginning of the episode, Izumi was shown to be crying for her brother, who is dead. She kicked a can, which hit Kouichi. Izumi went to apologize for it but she tripped and fell down. Kouichi came and offered his hand to help her up. Izumi woke up and realised it was a dream. Later Izumi and her classmates went on the class trip, and during their first dinner together, she requested permission from Mikami Sensei and gave a speech on the curse issue. She demanded an apology from Mei and she feels that Mei was partly responsible for the curse's continuation. Later, their conversation cut off as Daisuke Wakui had a sudden asthma attack, and needed to be 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. Out of anger, she shouted at Mei, telling her that she was going to kill her.

In Episode 12, when Kazami attempts to kill Kouichi, Izumi steps in 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 and Kouichi, she attempts to kill them both, 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 is shocked and 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. She then smirks and tells him that he should at least pretend to remember before she dies. After that, the whole building begins to shake and Kouichi escapes in search of Mei as the ceiling collapses, crushing Izumi's body and burying it underneath 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. In Episode 11, Takako revealed that Izumi seems to be fond of Kouichi.

Mei Misaki
Prior to episode 9, Izumi seemed moreorless 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.

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.

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.

Gallery
Main article: Izumi Akazawa/Image Gallery

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 call him as "Kouichi-kun".
 * Izumi's hand is said to be able to recall the impression of someone who once shook hands with her.