Aiko Iwase (Born May 8, 1993 in Saitama-ken, Japan), was a classmate of Mashiro and Takagi during Jr. High. When she appeared with Miyoshi Kaya at Takagi's house after his suspension, she revealed that she liked him, but didn't want him to be a mangaka. She reappears in chapter 60 as a student at To-oh University along with Ko Aoki. She now writes stories for manga in order to continue her rivalry with Takagi.
Personality & Characters
Iwase is an academic achiever in school. She's difficult to get along with anyone due to her strict and high-standard nature; she leads a rather lonely life. However, it doesn't bother her as she's always focused in studies. In her world, she only respects people that rivals her ranking in school. However, she would focus the latter of her life in attempts to out match her love interest, Takagi.
She took notice of Takagi during their middle school days as the only person that managed to out-rank and out-score her in academic performance. For her, giving out a simple hand-shake was a huge deal, as it meant a physical sign of respect and even going out together. However, she was so subtle to Takagi that she entirely missed the chance to properly convey her feelings. Her occasional mouth of challenge to Takagi only suggested to him to maintain this one-sided rivalry, but in reality, she was encouraging him in her subtle romantic intentions.
Things started to change when she realized Takagi dropped in his school ranking and even stopped caring about his scores. In a unexpected confrontation between Takagi and Miyoshi, it was only then that he realized her feelings. When he was pressed to choose between her and Miyoshi, Takagi made it clear he's focused on being a mangaka more than romance. When Iwase wanted Takagi to not pursue his ambitions to continue their academic rivalry, to her surprise, he's happy with his life choice and intends to attend North Yakusa High (a less challenging school) for the sake of working close with Mashiro. Disappointed and saddened, she left Takagi alone, but she never given up on him.
Iwase worked in publishing to prove her line of literary works are superior to Takagi, unfortunately, it was another unofficial rivalry that he didn't realize until she pointed it out later. Still affected by Takagi's choice as a mangaka and choosing Miyoshi over her, she decided to venture into becoming a mangaka herself; she wrote the stories while having Nizuma draws the art. This created a renewed one-sided rivalry with Takagi with her manga, Natural, but also her unusual attempt to convince Takagi she's the superior woman to him in career and love. Unfortunately, her means to gain Takagi's attention failed as Takagi chose marry Miyoshi. With her chance with Takagi was no longer possible, both Takagi and Iwase agreed to continue working hard with their mangas as colleagues in the field. Most recently, because she needs a goal to focus in life, she transferred her romantic feelings onto Hattori. However, Hattori felt pressured and uncomfortable in the matter; he maintained a professional distance until he later left to work on Reversi with Ashirogi Muto.
While it was never explained why does she have such a competitive nature, it's that very ultra-competitive side of her that always kept her from ever having the very things she fought for in life. Because nobody ever told her the truth of the vicious cycle she created on her own, Iwase often leaves herself feeling confused, inadequate, and lowered confidence as she can't understand why her beauty and over-achieving abilities can't attract the men she wants. Due to her pride, ego, and ignorance of her own nature, she continues to maintain a rivalry with Ashirogi Muto; she would've gotten more out of life if she stopped challenging people and always trying to be the superior one.
Appearance
Iwase has short black hair with a small flip at the bottom. When she reappears later in the story, she has her hair cut slightly shorter, though it still has the same shape. She is considered to be very beautiful by many people, including herself and Miura.
History
Beginnings
Iwase's past is unknown, however, it seems there are elements within her past that motivated her to be a competitive person. Driven to be a superior student, she studied hard and worked hard to be the top student. While she became the top-ranking student in middle school, she was difficult to be approached by anyone as she often maintains a cold nature to everyone else. However, things changed when she encountered her greatest rival, Akito Takagi.
Rival-Love for Takagi
One day, while checking her school-ranking, she was surprised that someone out-ranked her in academic performance. Upon learning it was Takagi, she took romantic interest in him as she saw him as the only one that can challenge her. Unfortunately, Iwase is poor in being an effective communicator and couldn't successfully convey her feelings to Takagi. In her own personal logic and methods, she went up to Takagi and congratulated him with a Let's do our best-handshake; she at best left Takagi feeling confused as he never understood her reasons for approaching him and the handshake as a romantic gesture. To her, it actually signified the beginning of their romance and even "seeing one another." However, things got complicated after a series of events between Miyoshi Kaya and Moritaka Mashiro (both classmates).
Love Confrontation at Takagi's
Iwase continued her egotistical and one-sided rivalry with Takagi, however, things began to change when he befriended fellow classmate Moritaka Mashiro. She noticed the two are together often and didn't think much of it until his grade-ranking dropped. At first, she thought she was just being on top, but realized it was something else after Takagi got suspended for punching out classmate Hidemitsu Ishizawa.
After Takagi's suspension, she decided to go visit him to see if he's alright. Unfortunately, Iwase was surprised to see Miyoshi at his apartment as well. The two talked and was surprised to find out Takagi was two-timing them as both claimed to be involved with him. Shocked to know there's even a relationship with either two, the situation remained tense until Mashiro made his badly-timed appearance.
To-Oh Universtiy
Rekindling Things with Takgai
Iwase as she currently appears in the manga
Aiko wrote her first novel while in University, but since she sees Takagi as a rival, she decides to write stories for Shonen Jump artists to see if she can beat him at his own game. Her editor is Hattori, who worked with Takagi and Mashiro. She becomes the writer for Eiji's new manga +Natural. She also teams up with Eiji for a collaboraiton in Crow for a few chapters. After Hattori returns as Takagi and Mashiro's editor, her new editor is Miura. Her writing and plot are praised for being very well made. However, she comes in last place for the Super Leaders' Love Fest.
As she becomes daunted by the prospect of Eiji ending a manga, she is beset by worries from her fellow mangaka in Team Fukuda, who worry that Eiji is planning on ending +Natural, of which Eiji states contains a boring story due to its repeated plot of enemies being beaten down by the main characters. The rankings also decrease from single to double digits as it veers on the edge of cancellation. She brings this concern to Eiji, and upon hearing that he planned to end Crow, she immediately leaves to write the plot for +Natural, which seems to become more popular due to Eiji's success at ending Crow on a high note. Iwase becomes depressed and is unable to write the next plot, but with encouragement from Takagi and Mashiro, she is able to get back up and continue writing.
Notes & Trivia
- Iwase resembles Kiyomi Takada from Death Note another manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.
- She placed 10th in the popularity polls.
- Iwase greatly resembles Katsura Hoshino, mangaka of D.Gray-man, in appearance.
Articles & References