| “ | "No, it's not supposed to be me! I don't wanna die!" | ” |
—Aya Ayano, after being saved by Kōichi Sakakibara | ||
| Aya Ayano | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Kanji | 綾野 彩 |
| Romaji | Ayano Aya |
| Personal Information | |
| Born | 1984 |
| Age | 14 |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 158 cm/5' 2" |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Hair Color | Light Brown |
| Occupation | Middle School Student |
| Family | Mr. Ayano (father) † Mrs. Ayano (mother) † |
| Vital Information | |
| Affiliation | Drama Club Member "Deaths of July" |
| Status | Deceased |
| Cause of Death | She fell off a cliff with her parents were driving. |
| First appearance | |
| Manga | Filler Character |
| Anime | "Rough Sketch" |
| Voice Actors | |
| Japanese | Mana Hirata |
| English | Margaret McDonald |
Aya Ayano (綾野 彩, Ayano Aya) was a student of 9th Grade Class 3 in 1998 at Yomiyama North Middle School. She was also a member of the Drama club, along with Izumi Akazawa and Yumi Ogura.
Appearance[]
Aya's casual clothes.
Aya was a fair-skinned girl of average height. She had short curly light brown hair with several tufts sticking out on either side and dark brown eyes.
Aya usually wore the standard female school uniform. Her casual outfit consisted of a black cap, a purple t-shirt with white sleeves, black pants, a few necklaces, a small black backpack, and a turquoise jacket tied around her waist.
Personality[]
Aya was a cheerful, sociable, and kind girl, and she is a member of the drama club with Izumi Akazawa and Yumi Ogura (Aya's classmates). She comments to Kōichi Sakakibara that she's a lot more laid back than the dramatic Izumi, though she appears to be more emotional, screaming when her teacher killed himself and gibbering with fear when Kōichi saved her from the falling glass. Despite this, she can be seen as generally laid back and free spirited through her ways of talking to people and not afraid to tease like she did to Kōichi and his taste of women, freely skipping class and not thinking on what could happen, and maintaining a positive attitude even with all the events towards those she finds close like Yumi, Kouichi and Naoya Teshigawara.
Plot[]
Aya first appeared in "Rough Sketch", where she talks with Kōichi Sakakibara. She, alongside Yukari, Tomohiko, Naoya, Yūya, Makoto, Noboru, and Ikuo, was among the students who enthusiastically welcomed their new classmate.
In "Put Flesh", Aya skipped class. Walking down the sidewalk, she met Kōichi and the two had a brief conversation. Suddenly, the wind picked up, and a large window pane almost fell on both students. Thinking quickly, Kōichi tackled Aya out of the way. Lying side by side on the sidewalk, a distraught Aya began to wail that she didn't want to die, much to Kōichi's confusion.
Aya watches in fear as her teacher brandishes a knife in class.
Aya eventually went back to school. In "Build Limbs", Kōichi returns to the empty classroom to see that the class had elected a new female class representative. Aya had received 2 votes to Izumi Akazawa's 24. Aya was in class at the end of "Face to Face", watching in horror with the rest of her classmates as Mr. Kubodera pulled a knife from his duffel bag and proceeded to stab himself. In "Sphere Joint," she and the others watched as he repeatedly stabbed himself with the knife and bled profusely across the classroom. She ran out of the classroom, screaming with the other students. Standing out in the hallway with her friends, Izumi tried to calm the traumatized Aya down.
Aya and Yumi see the boys after school.
In "Body Paint," Aya and Yumi went looking for Chibiki, when they met Kōichi and Naoya, as the boys were looking for Matsunaga's tape. Declining an offer to join them, the girls left. The Ayano's had decided the only way to protect themselves was to leave Yomiyama City, packing up their car for an extended trip, and several cartons in the front hallways for movers. Aya said goodbye to Yumi, promising to call her once she and her family were safe. It was the last conversation the two had.
Driving along a mountain road, the Ayano family had almost escaped when several loose rocks fell off the mountain, one landing directly on their car's windshield. Aya's father, who was driving, lost control of the car and plunged over the side of a precipice. The student gossip at the beginning of "Glass Eye" stated there were no survivors, suggesting that Aya and her parents were killed instantly or died in the hospital despite the efforts of the doctors trying to save them.
Etymology[]
- The name Aya means "color" (彩).
- Aya's surname, Ayano, means "design" (綾) (aya) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).
Trivia[]
Aya's character ranking.
- Aya sits in class in the third column of desks, in the center of the room, third from the front. She sits behind Sachiko Nakajima with Daisuke Wakui to her right and Yuuya Mochizuki behind her.
- Aya was shown to be close with many of her classmates as she would nickname and call them by their first names, like:
- Kōichi Sakakibara by his first name (Kō-chan in the Japanese version, with 'chan' meaning endearment and reserved for close friends).
- Naoya Teshigawara was called "Teshy".
- She also called Izumi Akazawa by her first name (Izumi) as well.
- Aya is the only character besides Izumi to use Takako Sugiura's first name, something normally reserved for close friends.
- Aya is Yumi Ogura's best friend. Her death, along with that of Yumi's older brother, caused Yumi to snap and resulted in her own death.
- Aya's home address is 2-9 Furuikecho, Yomiyama City.
- Aya is ranked A in the Another characters ranking.
- Aya is a filler character. No characters in either the novel or manga died from falling off a precipice. Suguru Yamada in the film is killed in a car accident, but under different circumstances, and the two characters are unrelated.
- She also has a bigger role than most anime-only characters. Her first line in the anime is present in the novel, though spoken by an unnamed character during one of the non-POV scenes early on. Her character itself, however, is almost totally anime-exclusive.
- It is possible that Aya had feelings for Kōichi as seen in their multiple onscreen appearances: They talk on the first day, she calls him by his first name on the spot, teases him on his choice of women, talks to him when she skips class, is saved by him from a falling window, talks to him and Naoya before they went to the old school building, notably asks him what they're up to, and directly says goodbye to him before leaving, the last time they'd ever see each other again.
- In other scenes, it's shown that Aya may have had some thoughts on Naoya as she is seen with him as the first two students welcome Kōichi on how Yomiyama is like, she was shown to be the only one interested in Naoya's explanation in why his apple had arms and legs, and there is a sketch from the show that was never used showing both Naoya and Aya wearing Yomiyama sports clothes, showing that they had possible common ground.
- Aya was the first student to die trying to escape Yomiyama City, the second being Junta Nakao, as he had a delayed death and ended up dying after leaving the city with the others for the beach trip. The two ended up dying from some sort of obstacle that caused their deaths before they left the city. Aya was killed by some falling rocks, and Junta died after falling down the stairs and ending up with a brain aneurysm that killed him later.
Gallery[]
Main article: Aya Ayano/Image Gallery