12 Days of Xmas – Day 9: Piecing Together Akira Kogami’s Backstory

Episode 1:
The first reader postcard to be read calls Akira a “well-known super idol” and asks how much an idol gets paid. Initially she is shocked by the question then goes to grouchy mode and admits that it fluctuates and is usually cheap pay. She is still on a fixed salary and has been working since she was three so her parents still get the money, implying that she is still a minor. (According to Wikipedia, she’s fourteen – Japanese Wikipedia confirms that while also stating she is a third-year junior high student.) She says they skimp on her allowance and remembers her mother has been purchasing brand name purses lately. Apparently Papa hasn’t sent Mama any money recently, which means they are divorced.

Episode 2:
Akira doesn’t really take the influx of postcards as a sign of her popularity because she is jealous of Minoru’s appearance in the main show. She responds to Minoru having only one line in his first appearance by reminiscing about her debut (when she was three, remember) and that she was happy to get lines then. Has trouble reading one word, “keiko”, in the script when she’s helping Minoru practice delivering lines.

Episode 3:
Has trouble reading the word “meiseiki”. Says she’s popular with “those pedophiles” and then the wrap-it-up trumpets sound. When off-camera, Minoru comments that Akira smokes a pack at a time backstage.

Episode 4:
Complains that long hair weighs a lot, is a pain to maintain, and isn’t in fashion right now. Perhaps she previously had long pink locks? Minoru’s warning that she was going out of character semi-confirms this. Also, Minoru suggested that many people wouldn’t get her “cowabunga” reference since it was an eighties (and earlier nineties) faddish word.

Episode 5:
Reveals that she was once addicted to MMOs and engaged in PKKing “back when [she] was young”. Off-camera, she gets angry about one part of the script where her name is listed as Yutaka (Konata’s pink-haired cousin).

Episode 6:
Says that A Dog of Flanders had the “whole cutesy, appealing character” to soothe Minoru. Admits that in the end, concert attendees are still customers and she has to work for her fans.

Episode 7:
Off camera, she seems to remember herself posing with pigtails and sunflowers like Minoru did at a real-life event except in a more lewd way, implied by Minoru’s “gero-gero-gero” reply.

Episode 8:
Her only letter informs her that her online subscription is almost expired. She also accidentally says her manager’s name, Seishi.

Episode 9:
Akira has Minoru take “candid” photos of her and begins to explain how to pose if you’re walking into a hotel with a guy when you get surprised by a camera but then the closing trumpets conveniently interrupt her.

Episode 10:
Off-camera, she tells Minoru she’s going to be eating dinner with the executive and producer from Minoru’s studio to discuss his future. I assume that as the “navigator” of the show, she also has deep influence over its production like sending Minoru to the forests of Mt. Fuji in episode 19.

Episode 14:
Akira complains about only getting a vocal, non-visual line in the actual show since an idol “depends on her looks”.

Episode 15:
Says her schedule is filled for the near future when asking if she’ll get a concert, something that may or may not have been a bluff to see if the producers would actually give her one (they did in ep. 16 but it was on the cheap).

Episode 17:
Anime manager Meito makes reference to her seiyuu’s previous roles and she replies that she has always been Akira.