Akira Takano

Akira Takano (高野 晶) is the president of the Tea Club and a close friends with Tenma, Mikoto and Eri. Akira is very perceptive, resourceful, intelligent, and very mysterious. She has an uncanny ability to see through the true intentions of people (like Harima's feelings for Tenma), and her enigmatic face always hides schemes she creates to help her friends or play pranks on her classmates. The only prank of Akira's that fails involves her dressing up in a penguin suit and trying to catch her Tea Club members in an embarrassing position as they are trapped half-way between two floors. The prank backfired upon herself as she also gets caught, unable to escape. She is almost never seen smiling. During Tenma's birthday party, Tenma demands Akira show her a smile. Akira agrees and her and Tenma go off screen behind a door where Tenma remarks about it. She can also be seen smiling briefly when attempting to console a distressed Tenma during Episode 20 of Season 2. Her favorite victim is Hanai, who she early on appeared to dislike, but later shows to have some romantic feelings for him. She takes part-time jobs doing various dangerous secretive jobs which she does not tell her friends about. She tries not to spend the earnings.

She is the daughter of a journalist and has a younger half-sister, Motoko Hiiragi (柊 素子), who tends to be sick frequently.

In School Rumble Z, she has taken the profession of an international agent. She is hired by Eri Sawachika to help Mikoto and Hanai with their current problem. Akira targeted Ganji Nishimoto who was the source of Hanai's problems. Using a high-tech camera she secretly takes pictures of Nishimoto trying to bribe others into voting for him. The pictures are then leaked to the public, causing Nishimoto to resign from his campaign to become mayor.

Overview
The smartest of the main female characters in School Rumble, Akira is the brains and strategist of the group. Always keeping a low profile, her quiet nature keeps her from drawing attention to herself, which Akira uses to her advantage to gather information on her classmates and seems to know every detail of their personal lives. Curious by nature, Akira analyzes everything she sees in a very meticulous way and always seems to be one step ahead of everybody.

Personality
As serious and cold-blooded as she appears to be, she's a very kind person and cares for her friends, but her pride and sarcasm often make her appear cold and merciless to others; her friends however, know better than that and they care for, and respect her, often relying on her to help them with schoolwork.

Akira presents an emotionless facade to the world in order to drive others away. She seeks to avoid contact with others out of fear that she is inadequate. Even though she is obviously quite skilled in certain areas she does not want to display those skills in front of others for two reasons. First that people might recognize her failings and point them out. Second that people might praise her, but knowing that she has not met her own impossible standards such praise only makes her feel worse. Thus by adopting an air of mystery she builds a barrier between herself and others and conceals the true extent of her abilities.

Talents and Interests
The president of the Tea Club, Akira is well-learned in the art of brewing and serving tea, as well as keeping the club free from unwanted people, as demonstrated in episode #5, where she tricks Hanai Haruki into taking a tea-tasting test in order for him to join the club and be able to be around Tsukamoto Yakumo; a test which he fails miserably, as it was arranged by Akira.

She is also an avid reader and maintains a part-time job at a bookstore in order to have more time to read. Her interest in reading stories has led to a corresponding interest in writing them. In fact, she was selected to write the script for the play class 2-C performed in the cultural festival. Due to certain unforseen curcumstances Akira had to rework the end of play while it was in progress, but with the help of her classmates she was able to make it a success.

Sensible and intelligent, Akira seems to be very financially savvy, a trait she also seems to value in guys. Though somewhat introverted, she frequently takes on the role of director or supervisor, such as in the Gun Battle arc, 2-C's class play and cafe, Tea Club, and the mountainside picnic cookoff.

In the Gun Battle arc of the Manga and Anime, Akira demonstrates her skills as a video editor, turning the student battle into an movie, apparently for her own amusement.

A very mysterious character indeed, Akira is rumored to actually be an international spy. This is shown briefly during a short CG animation in season 1 episode 17 and again in season two episode 7, where she demonstrates her great physical abilities, such as fighting and gymnastics, as well as riding a motorcycle. Fitting well with her job as a spy, Akira has displayed skill with the use and concealment of handguns.

Love Interests
Of the four female leads, Akira's romantic relationships are by far the most elusive. When Sarah Adiemus asks Akira about times when she confessed romantic feelings to a guy, she says that she'd rather not discuss it.

There are no confirmed reports of Akira being romantically interested in anybody, but it is speculated that she might have a crush on Hanai Haruki, as he is the guy she gives the most attention to, even if not in a very good way Though nothing was explicitly shown, in 61 Akira and Hanai were arranged in such a position as to be highly suggestive of a kiss. What, if anything, will come of this remains to be seen. At first, Akira disliked Hanai stating that he's "not right". Later, Akira then gains romantic feelings for Hanai but never confesses them to Hanai.

Akira's Mother
Little is known about Akira's mother, however we do know that she divorced Akira's father and remarried a man presumably named Hiiragi. Together they have at least one child, Hiiragi Motoko.

Akira's Father
Likewise, there is a scarcity of facts concerning Akira's father. Aside from his separation from Akira's mother we know that he works as a newspaper reporter, and according to Akira she inherited his strong constitution.

Motoko Hiiragi
As the younger half-sister of Akira, it seems that she and Akira were close in the past. She was often hospitalized where she was entertained by stories written and told by Akira.

Another Sister
There is some evidence that Akira may have at least one other sister or half-sister, but this is yet to be confirmed.

Eri Sawachika
Being beautiful and half-Japanese made Eri always stand out in school, drawing attention from the guys and jealousy from the other girls. Akira was the first person to ever talk to Eri in school, since then, they've been inseparable friends and often enjoy gossiping and criticizing other people, as they both have similar wits and sense of superiority.

Both Eri and Akira present a facade to the outside world. Even though they have different reasons for doing so, this puts them in a unique position to understand one another. A prime example of this occurs during episode four of season two when Akira and Eri discuss the possibility of Akira writing the script for the class play. Eri's comments to Akira indicate that she understands Akira's outward demeanor is not a true representation of Akira's internal disposition. This is further corroborated by the script Eri writes to encourage her friend, affirming that doing something to help out others will make Akira happy.

On the other hand, Akira tends to tease and use sarcasm in order to point out the contradictions inherent in Eri's own facade and, in particular, her unwillingness to admit feelings for Harima. Akira is one of the few people able to ruffle Eri's feathers enough to let her true personality show through.

Tenma Tsukamoto
One of her three best friends, Tenma seems to amuse Akira with her antics, so she's always paying attention to her and her love life. As hard as she might be with her criticism sometimes, Akira seems very lenient towards Tenma, which is a sure indication of how much she cares for her feelings, but being as lovable as Tenma is, who wouldn't? It could be said that Tenma is the antithesis of Akira, so it's interesting to see their interactions, as they lead you to wonder how they became friends in the first place. It is perhaps this contrast that draws them together, as they both posses the exact qualities that the other one lacks.

Mikoto Suou
Mikoto's straight forward and open hearted nature makes for another nice contrast with Akira's character. If we were to compare their characters using analogies, we could say that Mikoto could be a samurai, whereas Akira would be a ninja, as their outward personalities are well-reflected in these stereotypes.

Tsukamoto Yakumo
Perhaps sensing that Hanai's feelings for Yakumo are not reciprocated, Akira protects Yakumo from his advances by first preventing him from joining and then outright banning him from the Tea Club.

Sarah Adiemus
When Sarah confesses to Akira that she feels unqualified to help people who come to her church seeking relationship advice, Akira consoles her. Akira is suprisingly open with Sarah, admitting that she may have confessed romantic feelings to someone in the past, but refusing to elaborate.

Osakabe Itoko
As the sponsor of the Tea Club, Osakabe-sensei is the faculty moderator and liason of the club. She and Akira get along well and like Akira she possesses certain skills one would not expect to find in a high school physics teacher. This has led many to suspect that the Tea Club may in fact be a cover for a more covert operation of some sort.

Hanai Haruki
He is Akira's only real rival, but strangely enough Hanai is also believed to be her only love interest. (It can be noted that during the Valentine's Day arc of the Manga, she tosses a chocolate in his window, which lands in his mouth...)

The relationship between the two started off on an ugly row from the moment they met. In their first encounter at the Tea Club, Hanai quickly became a sensationally irritating thug in the toe for Akira. To return the favor, she ensured that his attempts to join the club were as miserable as it could get. In this way, their relationship can be described as hate at first sight. Subsequently, their relationship has become one of the most enjoyable, funny, and complementary in the series. On many occasions, Hanai's loud and outrageous personality is answered perfectly by Akira's mischievous and merciless attitude.

It must be noted, however, that Hanai does not seem to hold a grudge against Akira despite the contrary being true; he always treats her with the same respect and level of politeness that he does with everyone else. He even prepared a lunchbox for Akira along with everybody else (except Harima) during the trip to the beach.

Fuyuki Takeichi
According to Fuyuki's trading card his weak point is Akira, his rival. However, to date there has been no substantial indication in the story that Fuyuki and Akira are rivals. In fact, in the rare instances where the characters interact at all, they seem to get along fine. As Akira is skilled with a camera herself - she produces a video of 2-C's gun battle - it's possible that Fuyuki considers Akira his rival in that regard.

Trivia

 * Akira is mentioned in the Wikipedia article on which references the CG scene at the end of episode 17 in season one.
 * Akira owns a PSP.
 * Akira is right handed.
 * Despite her prominence in the School Rumble story, Akira has yet to appear on the cover of a manga volume.