A perverse individual who adores anyone and anything that's fragile and child-like. He sometimes blurts out his true thoughts without thinking. Though he has a cowardly and servile personality, he can't ignore a person in need. He seems to struggle with going out in public. With a voice that wavers deeply as he sings, his performances are soft and lingering.
Mayoi is a member of Starmaker Production's ALKALOID.[1]
My name is Mayoi Ayase. I have been working as an idol as a member of ALKALOID. Introducing someone such as myself would be extraordinarily boring to listen to, so please allow me to acquaint you with the ES Building instead. Equipped with a staff cafeteria and shower rooms... It is a place where idols spend much time, so the security is, naturally, impenetrable. However... as is the case in any place humans frequent, it has its own ghost stories associated with it. They say if you linger alone within its halls late at night, the ghosts within the building will spirit you away... Thus, I implore you, please take care. Fufu, fufufufufufufu...[1]
AiraMayo-san’s a serious weirdo, but he’s got this mysterious air about him and these quirks that set him apart that make him super idol-like, so like, I’m kiiiinda envious of that~! And both his singing and dancing are incredible, so it’s seriously a mystery to me why he hasn’t made it big by now; he’s that amazing. ALKALOID’s overflowing with individuality, and someone like me being there will only hold them back a ton, but I want to stay with them as we move forward! Ai looove them![1]
Appearance
Mayoi has long, messy, dark purple hair that he usually wears in a braid that falls along his left shoulder. The end of his braid is tied with a sleek black ribbon. The hair that isn't braided curves around his head, including a long ahoge atop his head and a longer strip of hair on his right shoulder that nearly matches the length of the braid. He has light turquoise eyes. He's been described as having "handsome features".[2]
On stage as a member of ALKALOID, he wears a mostly black jacket that is cropped above his waist atop a shirt that is split diagonally into turquoise and black. The turquoise occupies the top half, while the bottom half is black, and a line of gold separates the two. The jacket has gold accents, including cuffs that rest atop his forearms, segments that wrap around his shoulders, the inside of the jacket itself, a horizontal line by the right side of his chest, and a few stripes on the black collar that extends from the top of the jacket. The jacket also has red accents, such as a single stripe that runs across the edges of both of his sleeves, a singular epaulette that rests upon his right shoulder, and four clover symbols on each side of the jacket's middle, resting on a strip of white that makes them stand out. On the left side of his chest, he wears a golden clover symbol with a red outline and an opening to insert a key. Beneath it hangs a small turquoise ribbon with a black stripe running down the middle and a golden strip on the bottom. A small golden diamond with another key opening hangs from it. He wears fingerless black gloves with a golden trim and a clover symbol by the wrist. The hat he wears is wide and black with a red stripe across it and a turquoise diamond in the center. On the diamond, a golden 'A' is written, and multiple other thin golden lines and pins adorn it. He wears white pants with a golden stripe down the sides of each leg that cumulates in a stripe of gold where the pants end, and wears a belt that consists of diamonds that horizontally repeat in a red-black-red pattern. On the left side of the belt hangs a braided turquoise lanyard and several other golden beaded strings. He wears short black boots with a red heel and curved golden accents by the top.
Personality
Mayoi is a very skittish and reclusive person, and will avoid direct contact with others as much as possible, or run and hide when he gets suddenly approached.[3] He is especially bad with large crowds of people, often shutting down completely or falling ill when faced with them.[4][5] Because of this, he tends to watch over others from the shadows, hiding out of sight while observing those living normally.[6][7] This is due to him being accustomed to leading an extremely solitary life, having been shunned by society for a significant amount of time before the beginning of the !! Main Story.[8][9]
Likely as a result of the same circumstances, he struggles with being incredibly insecure and self-depreciating, talking about himself as if he's subhuman, insulting himself in conversations, or insisting that others shouldn't want to get close to him or care for him.[10][11] He's also wholly unused to receiving praise or compliments from anyone, getting overwhelmed easily when he does.[12]
Also likely as a result of his solitary lifestyle, he can be a very independent and secretive person, as shown by the fact that there are several secret rooms in the ES building that he uses without anybody else's knowledge. Despite this, he is quite generous, often sharing the knowledge of the building's shortcuts and secret passageways with others in need, and even handing over one of his secret rooms for Switch to use, when they are incredibly valuable to him.[3]
He is shown to be an incredibly observant person, often picking up on subtle changes in other people’s moods. He's also very intelligent, and has displayed the ability to learn new things very quickly with little to no instruction, such as mastering how to cook a dish just from reading the menu.[13] He has also been repeatedly noted as being a remarkably talented idol and teacher, often being the one to help train the other members of ALKALOID, and enjoys being able to help others in this way.
Mayoi is very loving, loyal, and protective towards the people and things he cares about.[14] This, plus his maturity, diligence, and strong sense of responsibility[11], lends itself to him having a generally maternal nature, often watching over others and wishing to nurture and spoil them, and have them rely on him in return.[15][16] This is especially true when it comes to cute, innocent people, namely his juniors in ALKALOID, his fellow Ninja Association member Shinobu, and other first and second year students.[17]
He is honest almost to a fault, often bluntly voicing thoughts that might be considered unpleasant or off-putting. Mayoi's most fatal flaw is that he struggles with intrusive thoughts, usually ones that appear perverse in nature, and will sometimes blurt them out loud, especially when under stress.[15] This, combined with his overall mysterious and strange nature, leads most other characters to be wary of or dislike him at first, finding him suspicious or fearing that he's dangerous[18]; his intrusive thoughts appear to twist his typical nurturing and protective nature into a more sinister version (for example, his desire to nurture and protect the younger students becomes a desire to corrupt them, or lock them away from the world completely).[6][14]
However, he is keenly aware that these are thoughts he shouldn't let himself fall victim to. He often rejects them before he actually acts upon them or does anything bad, and he expresses an explicit desire to not cause harm to anyone, especially those he's closest to[14][19], even going so far as to consider returning to his solitary lifestyle when he feels as though he's hurt or disappointed someone he cares about.[20]
Overall, despite everything he is grappling with, Mayoi tries very hard to be a good person, and is steadily working to overcome all of his struggles and better himself. With the help and support of his friends, he has learned what friendship, understanding, kindness, and love feels like, and wishes to return all of the care he has been shown in kind, and show everyone who loves him that their faith in him isn't going to go to waste.[21]
Etymology
Trivia
- During the Main Story, he shared a room with the rest of ALKALOID at Starmony Dorm. Following the dorm reshuffling, he was placed in a room with Tomoya.
- According to a 4gamer interview with Akira, Mayoi's character archetype is "a phantom" (マヨイが怪人).
- He likes grapes.[22]
- Mayoi has a hidden room in the basement that he lived in before moving into the dorms. Aside from this, he has access to multiple other hidden spaces within the ES Building, and has shown one of them, the ventilation room, to Sora Harukawa. He has stated that this is his favorite of the ES Building's control rooms.[7]
- He has a master key to almost every door in the ES Building.[16]
- He is afraid of the Sakuma family due to horror stories he was told about them as a child.[9]
- He mentions that he was a sickly child, but he has yet to elaborate on that.
- He tends to compare himself to fictional characters who are shunned by others for their appearances, such as the Phantom of the Opera[23] and the Hunchback of Notre Dame[8].
- Mayoi has both a small stuffed teddy beside his bed in his old Starmony Dorm room and a stuffed black and white bear beside his birthday cake, implying an affinity with stuffed toys.
- Sora described his color as "A color as black as night, but becomes a gentle color[24]". This is why Sora calls him "Murky-oniisan".
Voice Actor Comment
"If I were being honest, my first impression of Mayoi-kun was something like 'What is up with this guy...' (lol) At the same time, I was rather fascinated thinking about what his life must have been like to make him this way. It's truly mysterious, huh? Then I recalled how everyone tells me their first impression of me is 'What is up with this guy...' and so they start trying to figure me out, so I realized Mayoi and I are actually pretty alike! Hurray! Nice to meet you! Everyone, please befriend him and immerse yourself within Mayoi and Mayoiworld completely... Fufufu..."[1][25]
| Mayoi Ayase | ||
|---|---|---|
 Story Index • Idol Story • Birthday Story • Appeal Talk • Minitalk | ||
| ALKALOID | Hiiro Amagi • Aira Shiratori • Mayoi Ayase • Tatsumi Kazehaya | |
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Official Profile
- ↑ Dead End Land - Dead End Street 4
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 King of Thieves - Treasure 2
- ↑ Dead End Land - Dead End Street 2
- ↑ Mayoi Ayase Birthday Course - Party at the Agency
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mayoi Ayase Idol Story 1
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 King of Thieves - Treasure 3
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Troublemakers - 28: Senior
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Troublemakers - 31: Exorcist
- ↑ Troublemakers - 29: Quarrel
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Dead End Land - Dead End Street 7
- ↑ Feather Touch - Epilogue 2
- ↑ Dead End Land - Epilogue 2
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Mayoi Ayase Idol Story 3
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Feather Touch - Epilogue 1
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Mayoi Ayase Idol Story 2
- ↑ Troublemakers - 30: Relax
- ↑ Motor Show - Progress at a Snail's Pace 2
- ↑ King of Thieves - Treasure 7
- ↑ Dead End Land - Dead End Street 5
- ↑ Satellite - 冷戦＠Paranoia 1
- ↑ Mayoi Ayase Appeal Talk
- ↑ Troublemakers - 27: Elevator
- ↑ King of Thieves - Treasure 2
- ↑ Translation