Fuuka Ayase

Fuuka Ayase
Japanese	綾瀬 風香
Romanized	Ayase Fūka
Gender	Female
English voice actor	None
Japanese voice actor	None

Fuuka Ayase (Japanese: 綾瀬 風香 Ayase Fūka), is the middle Ayase sister. Fuuka is 17 years old and in her second year at a local high school. She is the most responsible of the sisters and is the main target of Asagi's pranks.

Development

Fuuka first appeared in two webcomics published in 1998 and a one-shot manga called "Try! Try! Try!", where she appeared substantially similar as at the start of Yotsuba&!. Instead of having her final brown, she had dark red hair done in a ponytail and notably thinner eyebrows.

Fuuka as she appears in "Try! Try! Try!".

Appearance and personality

Despite being the second oldest, Fuuka is the most responsible of the Ayase sisters. She is quite dilligent and studies a lot (though she claims she hates it). She is active in the neighbourhood commitee, and is well-informed on the neighbourhood procedures, shown when she informed Koiwai on the trash schedule. She also holds the title Vice-President in her school, proving her active involvement in several activities. While she is mature for her age, Fuuka can be childish and mischievous at times, particularly when Yotsuba is involved.

Fuuka is often teased by the other characters, especially about her fashion sense and sense of humor. She is fond of making bad puns, which irritates most people around her, such as Koiwai, Jumbo, and her family, with the exception of her father. She also likes wearing shirts with odd or interesting graphics. Fuuka is of average height and medium build, with short dark hair. She is sensitive about her own looks, often thinking that she is not skinny enough and that her eyebrows are too thick.

Fuuka is also fond of chips, though she seems to be a bit ashamed of it herself, possibly because they cause her to gain weight. She is seen eating chips in various scenes, as well as on a title page where she is looking somewhat uncomfortable and hiding a bag of chips behind her back.

Fuuka has been shown to be a bit of a romantic, such as when she sees her crush with another girl and gets heartbroken immediately. Although she takes these setbacks quite hard, she is quick to recover. She claims to be quite popular in her school, and once received a love letter from someone, though she rejected him. One of her schoolmates was shown to hold affection towards her during the festival.

Relationships

Yotsuba

When they first met, Yotsuba was afraid of Fuuka, as she was told to never talk to strangers by her father. After she finds out Fuuka is her neighbor, she warms up to the older girl. They share a close relationship and often play together. Fuuka takes a mature role when with Yotsuba, watching over her and sometimes being the voice of reason to her, reprimanding her when her actions cause negative repercussions. Fuuka is comfortable enough with her that she shared her feelings to Yotsuba when she was heartbroken, though Yotsuba struggles to grasp the concept of a heartbreak. Despite their closeness, Yotsuba seems to see her as inferior to her older sister, calling Asagi "the beautiful one" and Fuuka "the not so beautiful one" after their first meeting. She also stated Fuuka was cooler than she thought when she saw Fuuka's cellphone.

Koiwai

Fuuka was the first Ayase Koiwai met after moving and the first of the family to set foot inside Yotsuba's house. Though she was initially more formal to the older man, she begins to adopt a much more casual approach to him as the series progresses, such as teasing him about his inability to swim. She often goes along with him and Yotsuba on trips, although on some of these occasions she invited herself. She has been shown twice blushing because of Koiwai; when she was "caught" by Asagi talking with him through a cup-and-string phone, and when he tells her her eyebrows are cute when she inquires him about them being too thick.

Asagi

Fuuka and Asagi generally get along. However, Asagi has very little patience for her sense of humor and is very irritated at her, at one point of pinching her cheeks when she makes a bad pun. In return, Asagi derives amusement when Fuuka gets in trouble, and does not hesitate to make the situation worse or more embarassing for her younger sister, such as when Fuuka gets stuck in the Koiwais' bathroom.

Ena

Fuuka shares a more positive relationship with Ena compared to her older sister. They are seen to get along well together and has not been shown to have any disagreements.

Mrs. Ayase

Mrs. Ayase is very proud of Fuuka and considers her a role model child comapred to Asagi. However, she shares Asagi's disdain for her sense of humor, once giving away her cream puff because she wrote her name with a pun on it.

Mr. Ayase

Mr. Ayase and Fuuka have a lot in common with one another. He is the only person so far to show appreciation for her jokes. Both also share similar ways of thinking, such as there being "no such thing as a useless thing".

Jumbo

Fuuka was first amazed by Jumbo because of his size. Jumbo first saw her as a beautiful girl, calling her "bishoujo", although he immediately gave the title to Asagi. He often insults her when they meet, much to her irritation, but they have good relationship in general.

Trivia

• At one point, Fuuka is seen wearing a T-shirt with the motif of Chiyo-chichi from Azumanga Daioh, and upon seeing it, Miura remarks "Your fashion sense isn't very good, is it?" Chiyo-chichi also appears as a keychain on Fuuka's bag and as a plushie in her room.
• She is 158 cm tall (5'2'').
• As Fuuka states she is 16 in chapter 4 (which takes place in July) and 17 in chapter 107 (which takes place in December), her birthday is sometime in the second half of the year.