Tetora Nagumo

An idol working hard in order to become a man among men. He is the captain of the Karate Club in Yumenosaki Academy. He is an earnest and hardworking person, but struggles when it comes to thinking things through. With a boyish, reassuring singing voice, his performances are powerful.

He is RYUSEI Black in Starmaker Production's RYUSEITAI.

Appearance
Tetora is a slightly shorter than average boy with a regular build. His hair is black and spiky with red streaks on the bangs and side of his head. His eyes are a bright amber.

Casual
Tetora wears a short-sleeved black and orange hoodie with orange straps, and a ring at the front of the hoodie with a string. Underneath is a white long-sleeved shirt with shorter sleeves that end at his forearm. Tetora wears a black watch on his left wrist with a purple screen. He wears gray sweatpants with white strings.

In the winter, Tetora wears a black button-up down jacket with thick gray stripes and a long white shirt underneath. He wears black pants with thin red side stripes, and a large gray stripe on his left leg. There are yellow and green designs following the large gray stripes on his jacket, as well as a large yellow flap in the middle with snap buttons. In the corner of the middle flap is a green rectangle, and two yellow drawstrings hang from the bottom. There are two pockets on his jacket around the button flap with black zippers and a round pull tab. The hood of the jacket has a sideways T-shaped design in gray, with the insides of the hood yellow. The logo of the jacket can be seen on Tetora's left arm. The bottom half of Tetora's jacket has folds, with two gray bands on the innermost folds. His jacket sleeves are thick, and are puffed at the end with gray velcro straps. The bottom of Tetora's jacket is round, almost making a very light M-shape at the front.

School Uniform
Tetora wears the school's uniform with an untucked white shirt, and unbuttoned blazer. Along with a blue tie, he wears the uniform with rolled up sleeves. He wears brown sneakers with dull yellow laces.

On Stage
He wears the black color version of RYUSEITAI's uniform on stage. It includes a black and white leather jacket with gray accents and gold trimming and detailing. The jacket is longer on the back than it is in the front, and the inside is designed with a sparkly purple fabric, reminiscent of a galaxy. He wears a black shirt underneath and a gold necklace with a black star as well as white form-fitting pants with a sparkly purple stripe down the outer sides. This is accessorized with a gray and white striped belt with a gold and black star-shaped buckle. The belt has golden strings dangling from it and a sparkly black and white wrap tied to it. He also wears tall black boots with white accents and gold detailing, along with a pair of black fingerless gloves.

Personality
Tetora is an earnest, hard-working guy. His ultimate goal is to become a “man among men,” which ends up being much less clear-cut as Tetora’s journey of self-discovery continues. His idea of what a “manly man” is often influenced and shaped by his idolization of Kuro. The traits Tetora tends to point out as being manly often include physical strength, cool-headedness, determination , as well as honesty and ability to care for others. He notably values certain skills that are traditionally associated with femininity, such as cooking and sewing.

Tetora’s desperation to become a man among men often manifests as impatience, due to his dissatisfaction with his current self. He considers himself “girlish,” and is constantly deferring to people who can act as role models for him. While his main role model is Kuro, he also looks up to Chiaki and even Arashi as examples he can follow.

Tetora has strong internal conviction, and his determination to change himself is his biggest driving factor. However, many of his motivations are external, taking the shape of these role models throughout the story. He rarely questions their guidance and lets them shape him into specifically who he thinks they think he should be, and this can get him into quite a bit of trouble because of his impulsive nature, and can lead to people taking advantage of this. And yet he doesn’t often waver in his blind faith in people, even toward the person in question and even if his initial opinion of them changes. He also tends to take things at face-value, to the extent that people have to scold him for how gullible he is.

Because he puts so much blind trust into the people he chooses as role models, and because his image of a “man among men” is very fluid and particularly dependent on who his role models are, this gives the impression that Tetora has a shaky sense of self and doesn’t actually trust his own judgment. This conclusion also draws from his vocal dislike of his current self, and his desire to change himself to be better. He is very quick to put himself down, especially to elevate others, and he talks about himself using very harsh language, even going so far as to say he hates himself.

Tetora frequently tries to help his friends when they’re in trouble, going to exceptional lengths for them when he’s made a promise. He tends to throw his entire self into whatever he does, and he often doesn’t slow down long enough to question whether it’s a good idea or not. In fact, his fast-paced lifestyle is another big part of what makes Tetora himself. He has a lot of energy and doesn’t like to sit still, and he’s constantly on the move trying to work toward whatever goal he has in mind at the moment, whether it be a small-time goal like helping a friend out or preparing for a live, or his long-term goal of becoming manlier.

Despite his determination and go-get-‘em attitude, Tetora is extremely clumsy and lacks in a lot of places that he’s constantly trying to improve. While he seems hyper-aware of certain flaws, he can also be slightly airheaded and oblivious when it comes to others. A notable example is cooking, which he fails at spectacularly, to the extent that people constantly try to ban him from using a stove. Tetora claims to be good at cooking “over an open flame,” but it’s brought up on several occasions that he’s laughably bad at it. It’s later revealed that Tetora tends to overcook his meat (to the point of burning it) due to meat-related trauma from when he was a child.

While Tetora typically has a very easygoing attitude and takes most things in stride, he often speaks up against being treated like a kid. He very specifically does not want to be coddled or sheltered, even though he’s aware of his weaknesses and ignorance. When Arashi calls him “Tetora-chan,” mimicking her usual nickname for the other students at Yumenosaki Academy, he asks her not to call him that. Though it’s framed in a way that makes it seem like he thinks the -chan suffix is too girly, similar to his other qualms regarding his perceived “girlishness,” he later reveals that it’s because it sounds like she’s treating him like a kid. These reactions tie back into his overarching goal of changing himself and shows that his insecurities go beyond just a preconceived idea of him being too “girlish.” His efforts to change himself and become manlier connect to wanting to grow up, even down to the language he uses: he wants to become a “man,” a mature grown-up.

Tetora’s insecurities prove to run very deep in that even by the end of his first year, he still doesn’t perceive himself as having obtained his goals, and he still considers himself “girlish” and inexperienced. Even when others, such as Chiaki or Kuro, try to convince him of how much he’s grown, Tetora tends to brush it off by mentioning all of the things he still needs to work on. In this way, he shows to be very self-conscious, moving his goalposts constantly. It could be said that this is because he’s constantly comparing himself to his role models and trying to emulate them, and therefore always falling short.

Despite all of this, Tetora does acknowledge where he’s grown over time and what accomplishments he’s made —he simply doesn’t think they’re enough. However, his growth has led him to acknowledge that he can’t become someone else; he can only ever be himself. By the end of his first year, Tetora proclaims that he’s going to become his own version of a man among men, a “tiger who won’t lose to anyone” because he can’t become the “dragon” that Kuro is. This shows that even though all of Tetora’s insecurities and dissatisfaction with himself, he has grown over time and learned to accept himself as he is.

Over the course of his first year, Tetora learns how to be a leader, and he frequently takes up a pseudo-leadership position within RYUSEITAI. This manifests concretely in the new year, when he actually becomes the leader of RYUSEITAI-N. However, Tetora shows initiative and leadership qualities, along with a willingness to take on responsibility, well before then. Even by summer of his first year, Chiaki has named Tetora as the substitute captain for RYUSEITAI, and treats him as such. He takes his responsibility seriously, and tries to be a positive influence for his teammates, as well. He’s also very humble despite his growing responsibilities, and shows gratuitous humility toward the others in his life, most notably Chiaki and Kuro.

Etymology
Tetora's first name literally means "iron tiger," befitting of his energetic, fierce personality. His title and solo song are based on his name. His last name literally means "southern clouds."

Trivia

 * Tetora's autograph consists of only his first name, rendered in kanji. The final stroke of the character for "tora" (meaning "tiger") is slightly elongated and stylized like a tiger's tail.
 * His hair colour, black with red streaks, matches Kuro Kiryu. He's stated to have dyed it specifically to copy Kuro.
 * He gets extremely excited when he sees fire and gets a rising urge to grill food, but he's almost never allowed to cook or grill due to constantly burning all the food he tries to cook.

Voice Actor Comment
"Yuss! This is Yoshiki Nakajima, voicing Tetora Nagumo! Tetora-kun is a hot-blooded and straightforward boy... I was very excited during the recording sessions! I'm also looking forward to finding out what kind of character he will turn out to be! Everyone, please think of him as your little brother!"

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