Character discussion topic for ‘The Caretaker’ from Tomoyo After. Feel free to discuss the entirety of Tomoyo After here, but be sure to tag references to outside works with [spoiler], providing adequate context in parenthesis.
I was pleasantly surprised to see this character have a sprite. I mean, she’s unimportant to the core narrative of the arc, but Fumio still gave her a design. Kudos!
In my opinion, the Caretaker’s role is clear. She serves as a mediator between the villagers and our leads. Although she has an energy that is clearly lacking in the villagers, she shares their sense of resignation to the fate of villager. This is essentially a place where drained people go to die, and she’s accepted that fact.
Knowing this, her interactions with Tomoya, Kanako, and Tomoyo are even more interested. She’s skeptical, but moreso amused at their attempts to change Yuko’s mind on raising her daughter. She’s probably seen many Yuko’s in her time caring for this village, and she knows that they can’t bring Yuko out of the hole she’s dug herself into. Regardless, Tomoya’s signature hardheadedness keeps him from giving up and with the help of Kanako, Tomoyo, and the very villagers she said would never help him all pitch in to finish the school. Her reaction at having been proven wrong is heartwarming in a subdued way not common to Key.
So, yeah, I liked her a lot. She was a welcome element to Tomo’s route that I was NOT expecting to think anything much of after the conclusion of Tomo’s arc.
2 Likes
Yuko* not Yuiko.
My bad. 
I did a bad google search and got her name confused with a Japanese author named Yukio Mishima.
1 Like
She is a very interesting character. Tomoya does question her motivations for saying, but her retort is a simple “Nobody is is going to do it”. It’s so intriguing to me that she manages to keep her energy in supporting these people. Maybe she’s a little broken herself, but finds a small sense of worth in taking care of these people. There are many people like that in the world, after all.
3 Likes
