Mako Tanaka

Mako Tanaka
Information
Title	High School Student
Nickname	"Makocchi" [まこっち] (Friends) "Crazy Lesbian" [ガチレズ・gachirezu] (Tomoko)
Gender	Female
Hair	Light Brown
Eyes	Blue (Chapter 132) Brown (Volume 13 Cover)

Mako Tanaka (田中真子, Tanaka Mako^?) Mako is Tomoko's second and third year classmate in high school. They become friends through Yuri. Her nickname is "Makocchi", though Tomoko inwardly calls her "Crazy Lesbian."

Overview

Mako is Tomoko's classmate and Yuri Tamura's bestfriend. She has a falling out with Yuri when she decides to accept an inviation from Minami to join her group during a field trip. They reconcile; however, Yuri often remains aloof around her. Mako subsequently makes the effort to become friends with Tomoko since she seems to be friends with Yuri. As is her habit, Tomoko stereotypes this friendliness and inwardly calls her "Crazy Lesbian/Lesbo" though she will admit it is only a nasty nickname rather than a belief.

Personality

Mako is shown to be quite caring, as she felt bad for leaving Tomoko alone to eat by herself at school one day. She also feels concern for Minami despite the former's tendency to denigrate others. She initially does not seem to be that assertive and never really stands out much. However, she is not clueless. She recognizes Minami's mean behavior. When she sees Yuri behave in a similar fashion to Tomoko in front of Yū Naruse, she takes Yuri aside and politely remonstrates her. Thus far, she has not similarly corrected Minami.

Appearance

Mako is always shown to have short hair, without color in the manga but depicted as light brown in a color panel. She had that color as a middle schooler. Mako is one of the few characters to have noticeable freckles. Her eye color remains unsettled: they appear blue in the color panel of Chapter 132 and light brown in the cover of WataMote Volume 13.

Anime

• None

Manga: WataMote

• Volume 8: Chapters 69, 73, 77
• Volume 9: Chapters 79, 82, 84, 86, 87, 88, 88.1, Omake
• Volume 11: Chapters 99, 105, 106, 107, 109
• Volume 12: Chapters 111, 112, 115.5, 116, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, Omake
• Volume 13: Chapters 124, 125, 128, 129, 130, 130.5, 131, 132, 133
• Volume 14: Chapters 134, 135, 136, 137, 138
• Volume 15: Chapters 143, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150, Omake
• Volume 16: Chapters 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159
• Volume 17: Chapters 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166
• Volume 18: Chapters 169.5, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175.5, Special Edition
• Volume 19: Chapters 183, 184-1,
• Volume 20: Chapters 185, 186-1, 186-2, 187, 190, 191, 192-2, Omake, Special Edition
• Volume 21: Chapters 194, 199, 199-2, Christmas Special Edition
• Volume 22: Chapters 200-1, 200-2, 201, 201-2, 202-2, 204-1, 204-3, 205
• Volume 23: Chapters 208, 209-1, 209-2, 210-1, 210-2, 211, 211.5, 212, WataMote Special Chapter,
• Volume 24: Chapters 213-1, 213-3214-1, 214-2, 214-3, 215, 216-1, 216.5, 216-2
• TBA: Chapters 217-1, 217.1, 217-2, 217-3, 219, 220-2, 220-3, 222-1, 222-2

Manga: TomoMote

• 10th Anniversary

(Strikethrough episodes or chapters indicate the character was mentioned but did not make a physical appearance)

Relationships

Yuri Tamura

In the early chapters, Yuri and Mako appear close friends which subsequent material confirms. Yuri enters the series having had a fight over the fact that Mako chooses to join the group of their previous associates before the school trip to Kyōto, which ultimately forced Yuri to be in Tomoko's group. They have since made up and continue their friendship, which has extended to include Tomoko in their daily lunches and even group texts. Yuri, however, retains a degree of mistrust and stand-offishness with Mako for many of the subsequent chapters. For her part, Mako notices some of the bad behavior on the part of Yuri; she politely and privately confronts Yuri when she tries to embarrass Tomoko in front of Yū. Yuri reveals that in her first year of high school Mako briefly had a boyfriend.

When their teacher reveals that Mako is one of four students to receive a perfect score in human health, other students assume that she has a great deal of knowledge of such matters. When Tomoko muses on such topics regarding boys, Yuri suggests they consult Mako, to Mako's surprise and embarrassment. Nevertheless, in the same chapter, Masaki seeks her out to explain the difference between "raw," "rubber," and "XXX!" In a gathering with Yū, Tomoko returns the condom Yū gave her as a joke. Yuri does not recognize what it is, to Tomoko's rather condescending surprise, and she inwardly vows to ask Mako later. In the Christmas Party, Yuri not only inwardly reveals that she did, she compliments Mako on her expertise in such matters to Yū.

In the recent School Festival Arc when Tomoko suggests adding yuri elements to their film, Yuri agrees to play such a role. She even states she will play it with any partner. She objects to playing it with Mako, since that would be like doing it with her own mother, to Mako's irritation. Inwardly, Mako feels Yuri puts her in the role of a "mother" or "protector."

Tomoko Kuroki

Mako initially only interacts with Tomoko through Yuri. In Chapter 99, when Yuri falls sick, Mako becomes overwhelmed with guilt for not having lunch with Tomoko after she mistakenly thought she saw Tomoko become dejected and start sobbing for being excluded. Viewing this as a repeat of what she did to Yuri during the school trip, she begs for forgiveness from Tomoko. In reality, Tomoko did not care, which she tries to explain to Mako. Thinking Tomoko was lying to spare her feelings, Mako becomes convinced that Tomoko is a good person and befriends Tomoko. For her part, Tomoko starts to inwardly refer her as ガチレズ (gachirezu) which most English translations render as "Crazy Lesbian." レズ does mean "lesbian." ガチ, as the link explains, can mean "serious," and "in earnest." When she next talks to Mako in Chapter 112, Tomoko inwardly adds the honorific san to her personal nickname for Mako, and uses it again in Chapter 129.

Koharu Minami

Minami and Mako are casual friends. Minami invited Mako to her group for the school field trip to Kyōto and additionally invited Mako to eat lunch together when Yuri was absent from school due to sickness. In Chapter 129 when she sees Minami alone and crying at the amusement park, she decides to accompany her. When Minami receives texts from Asuka Katō indicating that Akane Okada is sorry for their argument, she tries to encourage Minami to return. She later stays with her when Minami refuses. She does not directly challenge Minami over her mean-spirited gossip as she did with Yuri.

Emiri Uchi

They have very little depicted interaction; however, in Chapter 152, Emiri specifically refers to her by her nickname to Tomoko when she laments that her current class does not have friends she has been in class with for two years. The most significant interaction between them occurs in Chapter 99 where Emiri feels comfortable approaching Mako to discuss Tomoko with her to the point that Emiri insists that she is Tomoko's "fetish fuel." Nico Tanigawa confirmed on Twitter that she and Emiri attended the same middle school.

Masaki Yoshida

While they appear only as classmate with little direct interactions, Chapter 159 reveals that they not only text one another, Mako has reviewed possible career choices for Yoshida. She hears rumors of Masaki having been seen naked by a boy and castigates her for wasting the time she should spend preparing with her future by playing with boys. This understandably upsets Masaki; however, when Masaki overhears Reina and Anna discussing the difference between "raw" and "rubber," she turns to Mako to explain the "birds and the bees," . . . er . . . "bears and the bunnies."

She remains protective of Masaki. When in the recent School Festival Arc Tomoko suggests adding yuri elements to their film given the genre's popularity, Mako strenuously objects to the idea of Masaki playing a roll where she is "sexually assaulted" by other female characters.

Quotes

• "Let's see . . . she blurts out dirty jokes all the time, and while I don't believe it, she apparently is into women and peeks on them and steals their underwear."
• "No, I said with anyone else, but I can't do that kind of thing with Mako, even if it's acting." – Yuri Tamura
  • "E? Why not? We're friends, aren't we?" – Mako
  • "Doing it with you, Mako, would be like doing it with my mom. It just feels weird." – Yuri

Etymology

• "Mako" (真子) combines "truth (真)" with "child (子)."
• "Tanaka (田中)" essentially means "middle rice field," with as a possible origin referring to one who worked the middle field.

Trivia

• She shares her name with Chiba Lotte Marines pitcher Yasuhiro Tanaka.

Gallery

Mako, Yuri, and Tomoko eating lunch together in Chapter 82.

Most of Tomoko's main social circle watching the cheerleading team perform in Chapter 87.

Tomoko's internal nickname for Mako

Mako depicted in color in Chapter 132.

Mako's Eyes from Volume 13 cover

Drawn inside Volume 15 by the Artist for its release.

Middle School Mako

Shown: Mako explains to Masaki the mechanisms behind nitrogen fixation . . . probably.

Mako transformed by Asuka.