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This article is about a character in Hotarubi no Tomoru Koro ni. |
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Miyoko Takano (鷹野美代子 Takano Miyoko) is a mysterious researcher who knows much about the strange circumstances in Hirasaka.
Appearance[]
Sketch by Nokuto Koike
Takano has long hair, depicted as blonde on the front cover of volume 4. She is often seen wearing a leather vest over shorts and leather boots. She carries a shotgun with her.
Background[]
The First and the Last Gift shows that Takano was created by Lambdadelta as her “other self”, a piece created for the purpose of playing in Bernkastel’s game board.
Takano is a researcher who studies folk legends, gaining a love for it because of her grandfather's work. She has memories of her grandfather trying to make a grand theory but being harshly criticized for it. The First and the Last Gift shows that when her grandfather passed away, he left her a large sum of money. Takano used this money to pursue research and learned about Hirasaka and the legends of it being a gateway to Hell, seemingly connected to the strange disappearances reported there. Takano traveled to Hirasaka in 1983 and, true to her suspicions, wound up in Hell.
It is later revealed that Takano eventually died when she went to Hell and became a demon. However, Takano managed to maintain her human form for a long time despite the changes to her appetite because of her strong attachment to her human life.
Personality[]
Takano is very mysterious and mocking at times, yet fearless. She rarely falters when fighting off the horrors in Hell, attributed to the fact she owns a gun.
She carries around a box full of tiny country flags, her lucky charm.
Story[]
The First and the Last Gift[]
Takano is created by Lambda and inserted into Bern’s game board.
Takano travels to Hirasaka by motorcycle in 1983 after doing much research into the village, planning to camp out there and test her hypothesis. She describes the religious precepts of the villagers and how they ostracize people who break the rules. Takano goes to the wash basin at the entrance of the village and purposely drops the water ladle, thinking about any villagers nearby would surely be offended.
Takano and some other villagers suddenly get transported to another world with two suns. Takano finds her motorcycle will no longer start and sets off with her shotgun. She runs into a girl named Chiharu Nakamura, whose family moved to Hirasaka a year ago. Chiharu offers Takano to come back to her house and stick with her family, seeing as there are only six other people in the village. Takano agrees and then writes down the event in her notebook. Inspired by Chiharu talking about some pretty fireflies she saw last night, Takano decides to title her notebook "When the Fireflies Glow".
Hotarubi no Tomoru Koro ni[]
Takano appears in the prologue traveling to Hirasaka in 1983.
Takano excuses herself
Takano is introduced saving the Tadamura family from wild dogs using her shotgun. Takano goes home with them, where she introduces herself as just Takano and explains many things about how this village works: there's a protective charm in their house, food rots faster, the fog gives headaches, and the best times to travel are at dusk or twilight since monsters roam the land at other times; they really are in Hell. Takano stresses that the family can't expect rescue services to come, so they should learn to use their survival skills. After looking pained for a moment, Takano leaves and refuses the family’s offer to eat dinner with them. She hopes they'll meet again.
"I will certainly make my wish come true."
In her safehouse, Takano writes in her notebook and expresses her desire to escape Hell and show her research to the world, thinking of her grandfather and looking at her flags as she says this. Suddenly, she sees the Tadamuras driving towards her house in the distance. Takano thinks it's unfortunate and giggles since they'll find "her", looking towards a hatch in the floor. Takano realizes that she's also in a bad state herself, sweating and biting her hand.
Takano abandons the house and leaves the Tadamuras to take it over, who open the hatch to find a naked and bound Chiharu. The group finds a journal talking about how Chiharu was friends with a woman named Miyoko, who became bedridden and was vomiting up everything she ate.
Chiharu transforms into a demon when she leaves the house, and the family struggles to bring her back inside and under the protection of the charm. Takano watches from afar and laughs, commenting that they would've had a much harder time if they did it at night and not dusk. Demons start to encroach upon the house because the charm protecting it got destroyed. The family runs from the house on foot and soon contend with Chiharu, who has transformed fully into a demon because of the night time. Takano buys time for the group to escape by shooting her with her shotgun.
Takano reads the picture book
Takano reunites with the family at the Hirasaka Community Center and becomes confused since she's never seen the place before. She sees that the group is reading a picture book titled "Tales of Hell" and is pleased since those were the kind of ancient documents she wanted. Takano explains her research methods, saying that she had no choice but to take certain occult texts as undeniable truth. She eventually was able to discern how and when Hirasaka would transform into Hell, ending up there herself at the right time. Thus, they should assume "Tales of Hell" was a firsthand account of someone traveling to Hell and getting out alive, which should contain the hint to escaping. As they read on, Takano explains some of the etymology behind Hirasaka's name and its background.
The group learns that they must travel to Hell's Cauldron and pray for their parents' salvation, which should allow everyone to escape. The family members all remember it being a regular area from their childhood, and Takano says she's been to the place and has pictures. She holds up an old roll of film and acts surprised when Teruya asks if she's really still using film cameras. Takano clutches her stomach and excuses herself, leaving the family to debate if they really want to make the perilous trek to Hell's Cauldron. In a corner somewhere, Takano throws up and wills herself to keep going. When she rejoins the group later, she takes a puzzled look at Teruya's smartphone.
The five set off for the cauldron the next day during the dawn. Takano says that oni hate the light and that this was the most opportune time to travel since at other times they would be running into oni heading outside. Once they reach the inside of the cauldron, several oni appear. Takano draws their attention by shooting her gun and leaves the others to find their parents. Takano shoots at the oni a few times when she accidentally drops her gun and is seemingly crushed.
Takano emerges unscathed and rejoins the group, watching them succeed at praying for their parents and sending them off to the afterlife. The next morning, Takano sees that Terumi is writing down her experiences in a book titled "When the Fireflies Glow" and shows off her own book with the same coincidental title. They set off for the entrance to Hirasaka to travel back to the living world, however Takano still looks very pale and weak. Before they can cross the threshold, Yue suddenly grabs Takano and tells her she can't go, as she can see her true form now. Yue explains that Takano's been dead for years: Not once has Takano ever eaten human food when she was with them. Takano's first name name must be Miyoko, the woman mentioned in the journal as being bedridden and throwing up everything she ate, the same as what Tsunemasa went through. The article they found about Chiharu's family proved they came to Hirasaka in 1983, and it's 2016 now. Takano wasn't aware that film cameras were out of style, she didn't know what a smartphone was, and she had no idea about the community center's existence since it was built after her time. Yue declares that Takano died in 1983 and became a demon when she went to Hirasaka, but she's hung on to her human form all this time.
Takano transforms and crushes Yue
Takano demands to be let go and shoots Yue with her gun. She grows to a massive size, similar to the other demons, and crushes Yue before creating several weapons out of dirt and attempting to attack the others. However, Yue regenerates herself and restrains Takano with tentacles emerging from the ground, slicing her to muddy pieces. Takano tries to mend herself and Yue takes pity on her, saying that she has suffered all this time but will now be saved. Yue prays, and Takano melts into the ground.
Trivia[]
- Takano has a similar name, appearance, and background to Miyo Takano from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Their backgrounds are similar in that both love researching and got it from a grandfather, who suffered from people not recognizing their work. Both Takanos also have an interest in collecting tiny country flags and were active in 1983.
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