Yomi Takanashi (OVA Character)

Yomi Takanashi (小鳥遊 ヨミ, Takanashi Yomi) is the secondary main character of Black★Rock Shooter OVA. Her other self is Dead Master.

Appearance
She has green eyes and wavy dark hair and wears the same uniform as her friend Mato Kuroi. Her beauty is comparable to an adult's. Mato often comments on how tall Yomi is; but Yomi says she has a "complex" about being tall. She is presumed to be 160cm tall.

Personality
Yomi is a gentle, good-natured girl who speaks politely and calmly. Her reserved nature makes her very mature for her age, and she is much more passive in her speech and thinking compared to Mato. She is supposedly a member of a well-to-do family, staying for some time in Germany before moving to Mato's neighborhood. Yomi reveals that her frequent moving from one place to another has caused her to develop a sort of distant attitude towards others.

However, she is prone to having very dark feelings of loneliness and jealousy; she tends to keep these to herself.

She seems to enjoy volleyball, which she picks up out of a desire to be with Mato on the court.

History
Yomi is first seen coming out of a car by Mato on the first day of junior high school. The two briefly notice each other before Yomi continues on alone. After the school's welcome ceremony, Mato catches up to Yomi and introduces herself, and while Yomi is initially startled by Mato's outgoing personality, she warms up to her quickly. She and Mato go on to become inseparable, turning to each other for everything, and Mato's skill on the basketball team even encourages Yomi to join the volleyball team. Eventually, she is taken by Mato to a hill with a large view overlooking the town. There, Mato gives her a cell phone charm with a star, identical to the one Mato has herself.

As the days go by, Mato and Yomi make fond memories throughout the year together, leading up to the new year. Sometime afterwards, Yomi sees Mato get injured from basketball practice and be tended to by the basketball team's manager, Yuu.

In their second year of junior high, Mato and Yomi are put into separate classes, with Mato in the same class as Yuu, whom she has befriended.

However, because of these recent changes, they start to drift apart. During class breaktime, Mato tries to introduce Yomi to Yuu and have the three of them hang out together, but Mato ends up spending more time with Yuu. Yomi can only watch their friendship on the other side of the gym court and behind them going home from school, feeling left out and jealous of their friendship. As she watches Mato and Yuu talking with each other outside of their class, she turns around and vanishes into a black shadow, which Mato briefly notices. Afterwards, Mato's calls and texts to Yomi go unanswered as Yomi has disappeared from their world.

Although Yomi's fusion with Dead Master was not explicitly shown, it is revealed they were one towards the end of the OVA, where after the end of a long battle between Dead Master and Black★Rock Shooter, the latter embraces the former. Dead Master attempts to resist her, but falls out of Yomi's body and disappears, leaving an unconscious but smiling Yomi in Black★Rock Shooter's arms. The area around them begins to collapse with Dead Master gone, and Black★Rock Shooter carries Yomi out to safety.

The post-credits scene reveals that Yomi and Mato have reconciled, although they are oblivious to Yuu's dark state as they invite her to come along with them.

Gallery

 * Full article: Yomi Takanashi (OVA Character)/Gallery

Trivia

 * Her surname, "Takanashi", is written with the kanji "小鳥遊", which means "little bird play". Mato, not knowing how to read Yomi's written surname correctly, refers to her as "kotori-asobi" (小鳥遊), which literally means "little birds play". Yomi later explains to her that her last name is read as "Takanashi" (鷹無し), which means "no hawks", and tells her that her surname stems from the saying that "When the hawks are away, little birds play".
 * The surname "Takanashi" can also be spelled with the kanji for "takai" (高) for "tall" and nashi (無) for "not", i.e. (高無) "not tall". It can be seen as a pun since Mato, right before Yomi's name is explained, mentions that she thinks Yomi is, in fact, tall.
 * "Yomi" is written in katakana, which has no meaning by itself, but the most common kanji writing for "yomi" is 黄泉, which means "underworld".