Emiri Uchi

Uchi Emiri
Information
Title	Emoji Face
Gender	Female
Hair	Blonde
Eyes
Family Members
Voice Actor

Emiri Uchi (内笑美莉, うちえみり^?), better known in the English translation of her surname as "Ucchi," is Tomoko's second year classmate. Because she could not form a group of five with her friends for the school trip to Kyōto, she along with Yoshida and Tamura are put in Tomoko's group.

Overview

Ucchi is first seen in Chapter 59 during Tomoko's second year of high school. She and Tomoko end up sitting next to each other on the bus to a baseball game but do not interact at all. Ucchi spends the whole ride chatting with her friends who are sitting behind them. This is a parallel to her actions in the future where end up in Tomoko's group for the school field trip (Chapter 69).

During this trip, Ucchi spends most of her time with her friends in Group Two and leaves the trio to their own devices. Occasionally she would come back to their room to gather her things or to check up on them but, at every visit, they were either hostile towards her or were doing something she considered weird, making her decide to stay away from them as much as possible. She and Tomoko share a room together on the last night of the trip, and comic misunderstandings lead to Ucchi to fear that Tomoko is interested in her. From that point, Ucchi invariably misinterprets Tomoko's behavior as "perverted" interest in her; yet, she begins to follow Tomoko and even feel some pride that, in her mind, Tomoko is attracted to her while becoming severely jealous when she interprets any interaction Tomoko has with other girls as "flirting" or worse on their part. She eventually tries to find the opportunity to be near Tomoko and has a tantrum when she learns she will not be in Tomoko's class. For her part, Tomoko has little interest in her and does not bother to learn her name. Instead, Tomoko refers to her as "Emoji" (絵文字 えもじ) in reference to her expression resembling an emoticon.  

Personality

From her initial appearance, Ucchi appears only interested in her small and consistent circle of friends who miss her when she is separated from them. Her friend with glasses claims their group is "boring" without her. With some she appears very shy to stand-offish. She shows no interest to talk to Tomoko when they sit together on a bus. She shows similar disinterest in her assigned field trip group and instead spends most of her time chatting with her friends. Due to some comic misunderstandings and Ucchi's own behavior towards Yoshida, she vows to have as little interaction with them as possible.

Ucchi's personality gradually reveals itself as her interest in Tomoko develops. Due to a few more comic misunderstandings and Tomoko's attempts to seem mature and experienced, Ucchi believes Tomoko is a "pervert" who is sexually attracted to her. Ucchi is not completely innocent, however. Like Tomoko, she has curiosity about sexuality, but she inwardly dismisses such thoughts as "disgusting!" In Chapter 77 when she finds the other members of her assigned group all asleep in the room during dinner time she figures she should at least wake them. When she attempts to wake the difficult to arose Yoshida for dinner, she pauses and then takes the opportunity to touch her. The sleeping Yoshida dreams it is Tomoko "pinching" her "nipples": "乳首つまんで. . ." again, and she viciously elbows Ucchi in the stomach. A very hurt and angry Ucchi leaves and takes revenge by marking her entire group as present at dinner.

While Ucchi concludes that Tomoko is a lesbian and inwardly declares her "disgusting," she takes pride in her imagined interest from Tomoko. She becomes angered whenever she observes Tomoko interact with other girls. In later chapters Ucchi's apparent disgust with her belief that Tomoko is attracted to girls mixes with her own apparent desire to be with her. Whether this is just jealousy, curiosity, or actual feelings has not been defined yet. Her friends do notice and remark that she spends a lot of time talking about a girl. For her part, Ucchi tries to avoid being separated from Tomoko, but thus far she has only briefly talked to Tomoko, such as to ask if Tomoko finds roller coaster rides scary and to request to have their picture taken together at the amusement park. Otherwise, even when together, she still does not try to converse with Tomoko.

Ucchi will approach others. When she sees Mako Tanaka looking in Tomoko's direction, Ucchi talks to her freely about her fantasy that Tomoko is sexually attracted to her, to Mako's confusion and despite the fact Tomoko has little regard for her. Later, she corrects Hina Nemoto's impersonation in front of Akane Okada, Suzuki, and Yoshinori Kiyota.

Appearance

Ucchi loses her "Emoji Face."

She is blonde with a hairstyle that looks exactly like Yū's. Unlike other characters, her face looks like an emoticon with dots for eyes, a similarity that Tomoko notes with irritation, referring to her as "Emoji Face." A few times, her face is drawn more conventionally when she becomes incensed, such as when she thinks Tomoko has been staring at her only to see she has been staring at some other girl.

Anime

• None

Manga

• Volume 07: Chapters 59

• Volume 08: Chapters 69, 72, 73, 77

• Volume 09: Chapters 78, 79, 80, 82, 87

• Volume TBA: Chapters 93, 95, 99, 105, 106, 107, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 120, 122, 123, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129

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

Relationships

Tomoko Kuroki

Ucchi has a complicated and developing relationship with Tomoko. Due to several misunderstandings, Ucchi initially believes that Tomoko is attracted to her, which she repeatedly deems "disgusting" to herself and sometimes out loud. Nevertheless, she grows jealous whenever she mistakes Tomoko having an interest in another girl, and she eventually seeks opportunities to be with Tomoko.

Until the two share a room together on the last night of their field trip, the two have little regard for one another. However, previously when Ucchi returned to their room to retrieve some of her belongings, unknown to Tomoko, Ucchi notices her in the bathroom with a pair of scissors preparing to groom herself. Ucchi retreats only to encounter the returning Yoshida and Yuri. Ucchi notices that Tomoko left her pants outside the bathroom and stealthily tosses them into the bathroom without Yoshida or Yuri noticing. With that, Ucchi inwardly vows to avoid them during the trip.

When the two end up sharing a room, a number of comic misunderstandings arise that convince Ucchi that Tomoko is a lesbian. From that time forward, she secretly watches Tomoko and makes bizarre assumptions such as concluding that Tomoko is turned on by the sound of urination when she finds her in a bathroom in Chapter 84. In Chapter 93, she sees Tomoko at a mall with Yū who bears a striking resemblance to her. Ucchi assumes the worst when she notices Tomoko in a lingerie store holding panties similar to the ones Tomoko stole from her during the Kyōto trip. When she sees Mako staring at Tomoko, she asks Mako if Tomoko has done something perverted to her, such as stare at Mako while she was naked or try to look at her panties. Mako remains skeptical as Ucchi loses her "emoticon face," smiles, sweats, and claims that Tomoko did those things to her, and insists she is Tomoko's "fetish fuel." When Tomoko turns to look at them, Ucchi flees imagining that Tomoko is "molesting" her "with her eyes." This event encapsulates the developing ambiguous nature of Ucchi's feelings. From behind a tree in Chapter 116, she secretly watches Megumi Imae hug Tomoko believing Tomoko has "made a pass" at Imae.

In recent chapters, Ucchi appears obsessed with Tomoko. She creepily lies in wait behind her locker for Tomoko to put chocolate in her locker and, in Chapter 117, she goes so far as to travel on a train hoping to be near Tomoko having heard from Miyazaki that she was pressed against Tomoko when the train was crowded. She purposely sits next to her at the barbecue restaurant in Chapter 120 and cooks meat she then sneaks onto Tomoko's plate. When she discovers she is not in Tomoko's class, she becomes hysterical, rolling on the ground. Separated from her usual group of friends when visiting a park based on Disney World in Chapter 126, she refuses any help to call her friends or find them when she sees that Tomoko is in the group. It is later revealed that she lied when she claimed she did not have her phone to call her friends. She sits next to Tomoko on a roller coaster, and as they all scream, Tomoko's hand clutches Ucchi's on the railing and her hair blows into Ucchi's face. Ucchi does not resist or think "disgusting!" On the contrary, she immediately wants to ride the roller coaster again, but she becomes disappointed when it is Yuri who sits next to her instead of Tomoko. When Tomoko and Nemoto sit together on another ride in front of her, Ucchi inwardly seethes that the two are "flirting" in public. Yet soon after in Chapter 128 she asks Tomoko directly if she can have her picture taken with her. She does not, however, try to have a conversation with Tomoko.

Her true feelings towards Tomoko therefore remain currently unresolved and may be developing. On one extreme Ucchi may want Tomoko's attraction but remains uncomfortable with such feelings for another girl, while on the other extreme someone finding her "cute" simply satisfies her vanity. More likely given her more recent actions, Ucchi's feelings are developing more towards the former. Her attention remains focused on Tomoko. Other than taking the opportunity to pinch the sleeping Yoshida, Ucchi shows no apparent interest in other girls, or boys for that matter. Her unnamed friends identify Tomoko as "the girl Ucchi talks about." When asked by a Mouseland character to be his "girlfriend," she declines and declares, "I already have someone I love." In Chapter 129 one of Ucchi's unnamed friends ask if Yuri Tamura is "the girl" she keeps talking about while the other rhetorically asks her, "you finished what you needed to do, right?" Ucchi only mutters "um" in response.

Miyazaki and Unnamed Friends

Ucchi has a consistent set of friends which includes Miyazaki, Natsu, and two other currently unnamed girls.

"Black Haired" friend is obscured by Ucchi, Natsu sits to the right of "Glasses," and Miyazaki sits in between "Glasses" and "Braids."

"Black Haired Friend" discusses Tomoko with Miyazaki.

She spends time with them on the field trip and becomes separated from them during a trip to a famous amusement park. As of Chapter 129, only Miyazaki is specifically named though Natsu seems to be identified by process of elimination. They all notice that Ucchi talks a lot about "that girl," Tomoko. Other than Miyazaki, there are:

• Girl with Glasses: who has her hair, which is drawn between colorless and black in the manga, in a pony tail.
• Girl with Black Hair:
• Girl with Long Braids:
• Natsu (ナツ): Girl with Light Short Hair: in Chapter 129 she is absent from the group and the Girl with Glasses states that "Natsu ditched us to go with her boyfriend."

Mako Tanaka

Ucchi feels comfortable approaching Mako to discuss Tomoko with her to the point that Ucchi insists that she is Tomoko's "fetish fuel." Otherwise, they have little interaction detailed in the current chapters; however, Mako does have Ucchi's friend Miyazaki's phone number stored on her phone.

Yuri Tamura

Yuri at least remembers her from the field trip. When Ucchi tries to ride a train to Tomoko's stop so she will get pressed up against Tomoko, Yuri recognizes that she will miss her stop and helps Ucchi, who feigns weakness in her legs, off the train. During the field trip to the amusement park, Yuri is somewhat offended that Ucchi is disappointed to sit next to her during a ride rather than Tomoko. In response, she pinches Ucchi's arm hard. However, when Ucchi observes Mako walking away with Koharu Minami, she turns and asks Yuri if she is okay with the situation.

Futaki

In the midst of her tantrum over learning she is not assigned to Tomoko's class, Ucchi hears this girl remark that she is in that classroom and becomes jealous. Like Ucchi, her face is drawn like an emoticon, and she has blond hair gathered into two "twin tails." Ucchi appears to know who she is. Mako and Yuri recall that Futaki was part of their team in the cavalry battle when the see her again vigorously playing a video game, but otherwise know nothing about her. No further information regarding her is known; her last name was not revealed until Chapter 128. Looking for his sister, Tomoki sees her near the shoe lockers and tries to gain her attention, but he stops when he notices her stretching alone in full splits. This suggests that, like Ucchi, she is a cheerleader, which may explain why Ucchi knows her.

Trivia

• For much of her existence she is known by her surname "Uchi," or "Ucchi" in English due to her Japanese nickname うっちー. In Chapter 127, she reveals her first name is "Emiri" えみり笑美莉.
• 笑美莉 : 笑 means "laugh," 美 means "beauty," and 莉 means "jasmine." The kanji is not used for "Emoji," however.
• Her last name is shown in kanji in Chapter 114 as 内 or うち in hirigana. This should be "Uchi" in English, but most fan translations render her name as "Ucchi," and the Japanese Wikipedia lists her character name as うっちー／内（うち）. This suggests that "Ucchi" is a diminutive or nickname for her last name. In this case, the last "i" is long: "ī". Thus in Chapter 128, one of her friends tells another that she received a text message from うっちー. The English translations that give her last name as "Sasaki" for some reason add that name to two lists from the Field Trip. In the original manga her name is either cut off or covered by a speech balloon. This seems to fit with Tomoko's complete lack of interest in learning her name, and indeed, until Chapter 127 she does not know her first name.
• Her and Yū's hairstyle is known as a "bobcat"--ボブカット.

Gallery

Ucchi's Friends: from left to right: Miyazaki, Black-Haired Girl, Natsu, Braids Girl, Glasses Girl, and Ucchi

The original manga does not contain the name "Sasaki" It shows "Kuroki," "Yoshida," and "Tamura."

"Sasaki" is added in the English translation for some reason.

The English again adds "Sasaki."

Uchi's name is obscured by the speech bubble.

Ucchi in color from Volume 8 cover.

Uchi's last name on her locker: 内 = Uchi

A possibly jealous Uchi loses her "Emoji Face."

English translation has a person address her as "Ucchi."

Ucchi spying on Tomoko after the graduation ceremony.

Ucchi has a sudden tantrum when she learns she is not in Tomoko's class.

Ucchi cannot believe that Futaki, who also has an emoticon face, is in Tomoko's class rather than her.

Typically, whenever Ucchi sees Tomoko with another girl, she immediately concludes the two are flirting with one another.

Ucchi near completely loses her "Emoji-Face" talking about Tomoko.

Ucchi gives her first name えみり笑美莉. Tomoko exclaims, "That's Emoji's name?!!"

Ucchi pulls the costumed bears arms together to bring herself in contact with Tomoko.