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The fandom and his juniors from U.A. High School may reverently call him by his hero name, Suneater, but rumor has it that Tamaki Amajiki is diagnosed with the classic case of being a cinnamon roll. How do you ask?
Well, the answer is in the way he acts and carries himself. Despite being a part of the U.A.’s “Big 3”, our beloved hero is too shy to admit that he is a hot shot. He doesn’t want to attract any attention, but his perennially lazy and hilarious expressions in any given situation certainly work against him.
Half the time, he just wants to be home, and I say let my man do what he wants. Though maybe not entirely, because even though Amajiki has become a representative figure of all the introverts around the world who share the same energy as him, unfortunately, his power is just way too cool and forceful. Such a powerful character can’t live an ordinary life.
Because heroes are heroes, they must live by their name and status, and the same goes for our Suneater, whose idealistic principles guide the way to becoming a great hero.
Today I’ll be exploring the character of Tamaki Amajiki. While in the My Hero Academia universe, every other character is a hero, not every other side character enjoys the privileged fame that Tamaki does (and he has every right to that privilege). So, let’s delve deep into his character without any further ado. This is my Tamaki Amajiki Guide.
Bottom Line Up Front
Takami Amajiki is an incredible character. He’s a mighty hero, but he’s also a human. He stands by his beliefs and tries so hard to be what and who he wants to be — a hero and a good friend!
One of the reasons I and many others love Tamaki is the fact that despite being one of U.A.’s Big 3, he still suffers from social anxiety and lack of self-belief that he did as a child. Many of us can relate to his vulnerability, which makes us want to cheer for Tamaki’s success.
Fun Fact: The Inspiration Behind Tamaki’s Character
In 2017, Horikoshi (the author of My Hero Academia) visited the Jump Festa expo held by Weekly Shonen Jump. The prospect of getting on stage and facing a massive crowd at the event made him very anxious. Horikoshi’s social anxiety inspires Tamaki’s anxious nature. In fact, Tamaki’s experience of moving to a new school was also inspired by real-life events in Horikoshi’s life.
How Does The Sun Look?
Before delving deep into his personality, let’s take a look at our hero’s appearance. Standing at an impressive height of 5’10”, he is not exactly slim but not buff either. He sports a lean figure with an ashen skin complexion.
A significant aspect of his physical features is his ears which are long and pointy, just like that of an elf. Apart from that, his messy indigo hair is his signature feature. His hair is spiked and sticks out in all directions. He also has droopy eyes partially covered by his bangs.
He seems to look rather exhausted all the time, which becomes palpable through his hunched shoulders and his downward-facing face as he tends to avoid making eye contact with people in general.
Moving on to how he dresses – well, his school uniform look is relatively standard, except he does not precisely tuck his shirt all the way in and keeps his tie loose. In contrast, his hero outfit is rather flashy, comprising a black bodysuit with gold plating on his shoulder, arms, and hood.
He pairs it with a white tunic, a matching white cape, and a hood connecting to a scarf-like collar around his neck. This collar has a silver mask in the front, and he wears a transparent purple tint mask to shield his eyes. He also carries a purple belt of sorts with multiple pouches. Moreover, he fights barefooted, which gives him more mobility in terms of manifestations.
Getting The Vibe Check
Anyone seeing Tamaki for the first time, either in the manga panels or the anime series, is bound to deduce how much of a shy and introverted person he is. Now combine that with a twinge of depressing aura, a little bit of intimidation, and a whole lot of exhaustion from maybe just…breathing on a regular basis?
The worst part about his entire constitution is his anxiety, which oftentimes gets the better of him. When he feels his anxiety is reaching its limit, he will face away from the crowd to lean his head against the wall so that he can avoid them effectively. This also happens when Tamaki feels humiliated or gets a bad feeling about something.
Despite his unique Quirk and fantastic physique, he is usually socially awkward and lacks confidence in his powers. He often feels very pressured since he is a part of the “Big 3,” so he must always maintain the perfect image.
This has taken an enormous toll on his self-esteem. Being pessimistic by nature, Amajiki has even deteriorated his perception of himself to the point where he cannot be happy with his achievements. It is interesting to point out that Tamaki’s pessimism is always put in sharp contrast to his mentor, Fat Gum, whose idealistic and optimistic nature is infectious.
Even though Fat Gum has often praised Suneater’s achievements, he often tends to take that praise as a sort of mockery by his mentor.
Now onto the topic of his bravery; Well, we have seen how brave and serious he can be when the time and situation call for it. Although he is often dubbed as a character who is shy, uninterested, apathetic, tired, and reserved, Tamaki is the one who has trained and honed his skills to climb up the ladder to finally make it to U.A.’s “Big 3.”
Two Suns in The Sky: The Friendship of Tamaki Amajiki And Mirio Togata
Mirio Togata serves as a beacon of inspiration for Tamaki’s overall performance in both the anime and the manga. Their healthy interaction and constant cooperation remain throughout their lives, which has made Tamaki develop his own sets of beliefs that he wishes to follow, cherish, and uphold for the remainder of his life.
Tamaki’s admiration towards Mirio can be clearly seen when Tamaki notices that Class 1-A did not recognize the value of Mirio’s hard work in honing his skills and power. Tamaki overcame his anxiety momentarily to speak on this issue openly.
It is lovely to see how compatible they both are. Mirio is a great friend to Tamaki, and while appreciating Mirio’s value as a friend, the latter often sees him as an inspiration. As stated earlier, Mirio is like the always-ready source of endless inspiration for Tamaki.
He often looks toward Mirio whenever he is feeling low or anxious. Even during the battle with the yakuza, Tamaki was inspired to fight because of Mirio — thus ensues the epic battle between Suneater and the three yakuza. Inspired by Mirio, Tamaki pushes himself against all odds for the sake of his comrades.
Surprisingly and not so surprisingly, he was adamant while voicing his disappointment when facing the yakuza because they considered themselves inferior to Overhaul. Amajiki realizes how shallow the yakuza faith system is when he learns about their absolute belief in authoritarian power and that they are meant to serve the boss. He comments:
I might not understand your grief. Your rage. Everything that led you here… but I know all about solid bonds!! And my friends don’t use each other… because friends don’t eat friends.
Even though Tamaki disapproved of the relationship between Overhaul and the three yakuza, he understood the strength of the three yakuza as a group. This is because Yu Hojo, Toya Setsuo, and Soramitsu Tabe reminded Tamaki of his friends in the Big 3.
How Bright Does The Sun Shine? — Tamaki’s Abilities
It is pretty well-known that Tamaki has skills and abilities that outrank even many Pro Heroes. After all, he is not a member of the “Big 3” without good reason.
Like any other typical hero, Tamaki has achieved complete mastery over his Quirk through sheer physical training. His Quirk is unique and can prove fatal if not properly controlled. Tamaki has garnered many ways to use his body as a weapon in fights.
This involves his command over size manipulation, manipulating his feature selection, and, most importantly, his ability of multiple manifestations.
Naturally, the strength of his Quirk not only enables him to be unpredictable with his movement – making his body a site of power production. His logic states that he must consume Takoyaki (fried wheat balls usually made with octopus) and clams, both of which are necessary for him to manifest should he go under a strenuous situation that requires him to battle.
This is an intelligent decision on his part since octopus tentacles and the hardened shell of the clams or crab claws are excellent for acting as an offensive weapon as well as a defensive tool. Moreover, he also consumes chicken parts, as we have seen him using chicken talons in the manga.
The chicken talons combined with octopus muscles or crab shells accentuate his extraordinary physical prowess. Props to Amajiki for coming up with creative strategies that make the optimal use of his body to manifest animal parts. Even Fat Gum comments how Tamaki’s abilities surpass his own skills and a league of other Pro Heroes.
Another instance that shows how smart, tactful, and powerful Tamaki is, is during his face-off with Toya Setsuno and Soramitsu Tabe of the Eight Bullets, and Yu Hajo in a legendary three against-one battle. Not so surprisingly, our slightly confident hero, who was highly motivated at that time, believed he could take down the entire group by himself.
True to his words, he was able to do so even at the expense of secretly consuming Yu Hajo’s crystals, which was a smart decision on his part as it caught the yakuza off-guard. Tamaki proved his mettle in the fight as he successfully neutralized the enemies before they could erase his Quirk.
An essential aspect of his power is his situational intelligence. As already mentioned, Tamaki displays a supreme level of tactical judgment during face-offs with his enemies. It did not even take him much time to disarm the group of yakuza so that the other heroes could go ahead with their mission.
Post-battle, he realizes that fighting the three yakuza with an equal number of heroes would have been such a bad decision. It was pretty evident that the villains were trying to stall the heroes as much as possible so that Overhaul could get away with Eri.
He quickly deduced that it would be wise for his allies, such as Eraser Head and others, to save their Quirks and energy so that they invest it later when they get into nastier fights within the yakuza fortress. The goal was for the heroes to be at their best to effectively break through the shifting walls – a phenomenon caused by Joi Irinaka’s Quirk called Mimicry.
While fighting the three yakuza, Tamaki exhibited a brilliant sense of aptitude. Very smartly, he was able to manifest the neurotoxin from the octopus’s saliva from his tentacle arms, knowing fully well that Soramitsu would not be able to show mobility if he were to consume that appendage.
Furthermore, he was able to disrupt their near-perfect teamwork by concealing Toya’s vision so that his object-stealing Quirk called Larceny would be ineffective against him. And he even consumed Hajo’s crystals to stop Toya by creating a powerful defense against him.
As the fight ended, Suneater kept the trio’s masks with him just to be safe since he had discovered that Toya had hidden a dagger inside his mask. Among his super moves, his abilities called “Centaur,” “Chimera,” and “Kraken” are the strongest.
These abilities enable him to have the highest chances of winning against the villains. All three of these names are taken from mythology, and as he manifests these forms, he bears a resemblance to the mythological figures.
FAQs
Question: How exactly is Tamaki’s Quirk related to consumption?
Answer: Suneater’s ability, known in the My Hero Academia universe as Quirk, enables him to manifest whatever he eats. So suppose he eats chicken feet; he could easily transform his own feet into that of a chicken. Similarly, eating octopus would let him grow a tentacle, much larger than the size he consumes.
Thus, whatever he eats and manifests, grows in strength due to its exaggerated size and prowess, like the crab claws he was able to manifest could cut through metal. This further suggests that the more he eats of that particular food item, the greater his strength would be. Additionally, he needs to constantly feed himself to sustain energy and his manifestation abilities. This also suggests that his diet is very specific, and his routine must be meticulous but tedious.
Question: Why does Tamaki wear a belt with pouches?
Answer: The simple answer to this question is that it is a food pouch with bits of food items in it so that whenever he is in danger or needs extra aid, he can just gobble those specific food items and manifest the body parts of the animal he has consumed. So, in other words, it is a piece of equipment rather than a fashion accessory.
Question: Is Tamaki Amajiki a popular character?
Answer: According to the latest popularity poll, Tamaki ranked 25th with 388 votes, overtaking many of the U.A. heroes. This shows that even after the Shie Hassaikai arc, Tamaki is incredibly popular among the fanbase.
Tamaki Amajiki Guide: Conclusion
In conclusion, Tamaki Amajiki might not exhibit qualities that attest to the personality type of someone who is called “the sunshine” within their friend groups. Part of the reason is how he acts and carries himself, but that should not be enough reason not to give him the title.
Sure, our hero does not always smile and is very introverted. But his emotional intelligence and others’ insurmountable belief in him make him one of those heroes that give them a ray of hope. His light might not shine the brightest, but at least it leaves a warmth in one’s heart as they utter Tamaki’s name with a strange fondness.