Have you ever thought about how the theory of relativity isn’t a law?
I’m not an expert but as I understand it, for something to become a “Law” it needs to be proven airtight on all its applications, and relativity and its uses are still a work in progress, meaning that despite being being actively used in so many things, relativity is still a theory in the end.
Now let me propose another similar theory to you: The theory that the game’s secretary character, Tazuna Hayakawa, is based on Tokino Minoru.
For starters, it’s clear something off with Tazuna, despite wanting to look like the unassuming secretary of the academy, every girl knows that if you provoke Tazuna by breaking curfew it’s better to give up on the spot because you will NOT outrun her no matter your accolades.
There’s also that one scene in Mr CB’s campaign where she’s playing in a version of survival games but with water guns and she says that she hopes she can keep up with an active horsegirl… you know, because CB being actively running is the worrying part and not being against a horsegirl at all it seems.
There’s also THIS.
If that use of camera angles wasn’t on the nose enough, they share the same birthday (May 2nd) and her clothes are similar to the original’s Jockey outfit.
Still not on the nose enough? What about how Tazuna loves going to the movie theater (Tokino Minoru’s owner owned a film company) and in one event she and the player go to see a movie called “Phantom Horse Girl” which is a really old movie that was being rerun because “She left a mark on the grass, her legend is still being retold today”.
Not blunt enough? What about the fact that Tazuna has a watch on her right hand? If she was a quadruped, that would be her front right leg, the same leg where Tokino Minoru had a cleft that let the Tetanus seep in from.
Watch in Japanese is 時計, where 時 is time or “toki“.
Oh yeah, they stylize her name as “たづな” without any kanji, but “Tazuna” is an actual word.
手綱, it means “rein”, as in the thing you use to slow down and guide horses.
Unless they explicitly state it to be the case this will remain a theory, but god damn if it isn’t an airtight theory.
All of that aside, I really like Tazuna as a character.
For starters, her design actually has another of those cases of serendipituous synergy between horse racing and other things. Similar to how racehorses tend to only run for three years, which aligns with the three years of high school in Japan that dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial use in their narrative; Tazuna wearing green isn’t just a possible nod to the original horse, it makes her fall in line with all the secretary characters in Idolmaster whose primary color is also green.
The player is already bound to have SOME attachment to her from the mere fact that she’s there for anything the game needs a guide for. Be it the tutorial reminders in scenarios past the first one, buying things at the shop and so on.
But if the player WANTS to know more about Tazuna, there’s more to her than just being the overworked secretary holding half the academy together by herself.
The first one that sticks out is her friendship with Maruzensky, not only does it imply strongly that Maruzensky isn’t in high school (in case the whole “old enough to drive a car” part didn’t give it away), it lets you see Tazuna outside of work, having banter with Maruzensky. There’s something really refreshing about seeing the woman that speaks so politely with everyone all the time be suddenly casual with someone else.
There’s also that moment mentioned earlier where she’s playing with water guns. The scene describes that it’s basically a club that does that sort of thing, and it implies that Tazuna IS part of the club or at least frequents it, painting the image of someone that LIKES to have fun in some unexpected ways. Not to mention that she’s GOOD in the game meaning that she’s most likely played it a lot before.
Just in general, compared to the other “secretaries” mentioned before, it feels like you get a fuller picture of her. Her character isn’t just “Overworked Secretary”, in fact, her Support Card event is all about how Tazuna overworking herself has the chairman worried.
It actually gets to the point where, honestly, whether she’s actually a horse girl or not becomes fully secondary to everything. I’d actually argue that the constant push and pull adds to her, it makes her feel like a person with a full story, and it makes the world feel that much bigger.
I could, for example, go on about my theory that Tazuna having a human name and hiding her tail and ears (traits that ever since Starting Gate have been given a certain specific mysticism to them) is related to her evading, denying, or being done with the identity of Tokino Minoru in some way given how a girl’s name carries so much of its real world counterpart with itself.
It could also be a personal choice for completely unrelated reasons. There’s a playfulness that comes with it, a playfulness whose restraint makes it feel like the franchise respects my intelligence enough to not need to outright spell out things, which is why the production note of Tazuna with no hat feels so wrong.
I’m actually reminded of early seasons of The Simpsons, where Mr. Smithers’ gayness was a tongue in cheek element for the longest time. And while I won’t deny that making it explicit allowed the show to explore the topic directly more often, or the fact that when it was more coy about it it led to some… poorly-aged moments; I’d also argue that something was lost in the process because when him being gay was just inferred it also felt like he just had a whole life independent and separate from the main cast.
Dunno, there’s something fun in unsolved mysteries, especially when they’re related to an intimate part of someone’s personality, keeping the mystery can feel akin to respecting personal boundaries.
Not all mysteries exist to be solved, just like how not all nails are meant to be hammered in. What if you hammer in the nail that someone was gonna hang a portrait from, huh????