"I am vulgarity itself..."
- Mamiya Takuji, It's my Own Invention
Mamiya Takuji (間宮 卓司) is the protagonist of the It's my Own Invention chapter. Originally appearing as a meek and timid otaku. Takashima Zakuro's death triggers an unexpected transformation within him.
Appearance
Takuji has light, messy brown hair. His eyes are usually black, but when he begins his transformation into 'the Savior', they appear to take on a lighter, gray shade.
Takuji is always seen wearing the regular male Kita High uniform. Unlike Tomosane and some of the delinquent characters we see throughout the story however, Takuji keeps his shirt tucked into his pants.
Takuji is noted to have a feminine appearance. During the scene where his bullies force him into wearing Takashima Zakuro's uniform, some of them remark that he looks so much like a woman they want to use him as a replacement for 'the real thing'.
Personality
Takuji is shown to have a very timid and reserved personality at the very beginning, with Yuki being surprised that he could even gather up the courage to talk to her at the very beginning of the story.
Throughout the It's my Own Invention chapter, we get more insight into Takuji's psyche. Traumatized by his mother's abusive treatment of him, and due to past experiences with rejection from his classmates, he became a bitter otaku secluded from the outside world, and someone who assumed the worst from every person he met.
He's also rather delusional, becoming lost in his own fantasies to the point he can't tell the difference between reality and his delusions. He's deluded himself into thinking his little sister, Mamiya Hasaki, is dead, and sees her as the Wakatsuki sisters. He also frequently erases anything that contradicts the reality he's built up from his mind.
Upon witnessing Zakuro's suicide on the 12th, and subsequently seeing that the words on her desk revolve around the same ideas his mother believed in, he finally snaps, taking on the persona of the savior as he convinces himself that he is the chosen one who will return the world to the End Sky on July 20th, and that his mother was right all along.
His personality as the savior is remarkably different from his usual personality, although he messes up a lot of his plans due to his tendency to get lost in his delusions, and needs Tachibana Kimika to cover for him often, he's confident, charismatic, smart and cunning. He manipulates everyone around him, breaking them to their lowest point to make them completely reliant on him so he can use them as a pawn.
Plot
Takuji is first introduced as the timid classmate of Minakami Yuki. He is shown to be constantly bullied and harassed by Yuuki Tomosane and his entourage.
He is a friendless recluse who loves anime, manga and eroge, and a huge fan of Magical Girl Riruru. He has a history of being bullied and rejected and is traumatized from the abuse from his mother, and isn't in contact with any of his family, believing them to be dead. So when he meets Takashima Zakuro and actually manages to hold a conversation with her despite his initial distrust of her, he immediately fixates on her, wishing she would come talk to him again.
Despite liking her, he doesn't do anything to help out when he finds out she's being bullied because he believes someone like him can't do anything to help someone else, when he can't even help himself. However, he still repeatedly attempts to talk to her to provide her with some comfort, though all of his attempts end up being unsuccessful. He finds that he can relate to Zakuro, as they're both bullied and unable to do anything to stand up for themselves.
His bullying has escalated to the point of the sexual assault in the past, Tomosane being the one to save him by beat up the people who assaulted him. Ever since then, he became Tomosane's target as Tomosane had all the thugs at school under his thumb.
On July 12th, he witnesses Zakuro jumping from an apartment building in Suginomiya alongside three other girls, killing herself. This experience deeply scars Takuji, and signals the beginning of his mental decline. He repeatedly hallucinates sights of Zakuro's corpse crawling towards him and sees visions of her in the anime Magic Girl Riruru. The next day at school, things get worse as he has suffers from delusions where his classmates and teacher tell him to die. Eventually losing all touch with reality, in his disoriented state, he runs to Zakuro's classroom and does some R18 things to her desk.
In the midst of this, he notices words scrawled on to her desk. Words that echoed the very same things his mother had drilled into him when he was a child, words repeating the prophecy of the White Lotus Association that tells of the worlds' end on July 20th, 2012. The prophecy his mother told him of was something he believed to be her delusion, but seeing those words on the desk gradually convinces him that his mother was right all along and that he was always meant to be the Savior who will return the world to the sky.
Over the next few days, Takuji's sanity slowly deteriorates more and more. His drawing of Riruru on the wall comes to life, proclaiming herself as gods' daughter who had been sent to help him. Riruru shows him his "genetic memory", putting him through hundreds of millions of years worth of memory in an instant. This makes him think that he has achieved all knowledge that can be obtained in the world, finally making him worthy of being the Savior.
Soon after, he sets his plan into motion. He uses his privilege as the administrator of the SAWAYAKA message board to send chain mail to everyone registered on the site through Zakuro's phone, which he picked up at the site of her suicide. He sends them messages prophesizing the end of the world, and threatens specific targets who were the biggest reasons for Zakuro's suffering like Akasaka Megu, Kitami Satoko and Senagawa Yui more harshly than anyone else. He uses the chain mail to weaken Megu and Satoko mentally, breaking their psyche down to their lowest points, by offering them comfort by stopping the chain mail and resolving their issue immediately afterward, he gains their trust, thus turning them into his loyal followers.
The next day, he encounters Tomosane and has a fight with him on the school roof, a battle which results in Takuji's loss. Takuji thinks of Tomosane as an obstacle his mother set for him, that he's meant to surpass to prove himself.
Soon after, Takuji makes his speech in front of the whole class after assaulting the teacher with a flower vase. Here, he declares himself as the Savior. He makes three predictions to cap off his speech: that a death would happen soon, everyone would witness it, that the deceased would speak of the ultimate demise. After proclaiming this, he rushes out of the classoom.
Takuji starts to set his plans into motion, which is when he meets his first follower, Tachibana Kimika. He seemingly succeeds in manipulating her, by feeding her lies about being the person Zakuro loved, and pretending like he knew what she had wanted before her death. His words about Zakuro bearing a particular grudge against Senagawa Yui having a strong effect on Kimika in particular. Once Kimika is on his side, he works on expanding his followers.
Kimika End
In the Kimika Ending of It's my Own Invention, Takuji manages to hold on to his sanity better due to not giving into his delusions as much and his developing relationship with Kimika. At the very end of the chapter, after Kimika jumps off the rooftop, Takuji finally lets go of his preoccupation with being the Savior, the End Sky, and saving the world, and jumps after Kimika, hugging her as they both fall.
Relationships
Tachibana Kimika
Takuji's most loyal follower and essentially his right hand man. She approached him with the intention of killing him at first, but when she saw that her own wishes aligned with Takuji's plans, she began wholeheartedly helping him out and played a big part in making sure his plans succeeded. She even developed feelings for him because he treated her like an equal, and like a human being.
Kimika is the only person Takuji ever shows real positive emotions around. When they get high on the roof in Kimika's Ending, it's the first time we see Takuji genuinely enjoy himself, laugh, and smile.
At the very end of her ending in It's my Own Invention, she finally opens up about everything she felt to Takuji, and they both end up jumping off the school rooftop together while holding each other.
Yuuki/Mamiya Tomosane
Tomosane and Takuji are enemies, Tomosane's very existence being the harbinger of destruction for Takuji and vice versa. Even as children while Takuji was still alive, Tomosane hated Takuji for his mistreatment of Hasaki, and Takuji hated him back. This eventually culminating in Takuji being killed in a struggle between Tomosane and himself.
The new Takuji and Tomosane continue to be enemies, with Tomosane being his bully. Takuji is afraid of Tomosane, but Tomosane is the one truly afraid of Takuji due to Takuji having the power the erase his existence at any second.
After many confrontations between them, Tomosane and Takuji have their final battle on the roof, a fight that Takuji wins. But soon after Takuji jumps off the roof on July 20th, Tomosane manages to come back and take control of his body once again.
Takashima Zakuro
Zakuro and Takuji were two people very similar to each other, bullied and isolated from everyone else, and both getting sexually assaulted by those bullies at one point. When Takuji meets her for the first time, his immediate reaction is hostility, but after he warms up to her, he develops feelings for her powered mainly by lust.
On the other hand, Zakuro has feelings for the Yuki personality within Takuji, but is disgusted by Takuji's real personality.
Zakuro's suicide and the messages left behind on her desk are the final trigger that makes Takuji break mentally.
Mamiya Hasaki
While Takuji was still alive, he hated, abused and even attempted to kill Hasaki due to his mother's constant brainwashing that Hasaki was the reason he couldn't awaken his savior powers.
The Takuji inside Tomosane still hates Hasaki, pretending she's dead and seeing her and her rabbit doll as the Wakatsuki sisters, and making his followers violate her doll in front of her.
Wakatsuki Kagami & Tsukasa Wakatsuki
Takuji harbors a strong dislike towards the Wakatsuki sisters, likely born out of his hatred for Hasaki. He is technically the creator of their forms. Despite being their creator, he hates Kagami and Tsukasa, likely because they are both symbols of his younger twin sister Hasaki, who he despises. He eventually loses his cool and ruins Kagami (The doll) by making his followers rape and crucify her in front of Tsukasa (who is actually Hasaki), but he can never truly break her.
Otonashi Ayana
Takuji is intimidated by Ayana's presence, finding her creepy and disturbing, as a result, he displays hostility towards her in an attempt to drive his fear of her away as an existence he can't understand.
Minakami Yuki
He had no real relationship with the original Yuki while she was still alive. Ever since his transformation into the Savior, he's openly antagonistic towards her, but regards her, alongside Tomosane, as the only people who can match him.
He essentially toys with her throughout the entirety of Down the Rabbit Hole II, leading her around by the nose through the various mysteries that keep growing more and more complicated. And right before he jumps, he confesses that he was behind everything that happened, and throws a fake love confession in to confuse her even more at the very end.
Trivia
- Takuji is the character that went through the least change from his Tsui no Sora version.
- He is the male character involved `in the most h-scenes in the story.