(Manga)
(Anime 2016)
(Anime 2023)
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Kanji: 吉屋 信子
Rōmaji: Yoshiya Nobuko
Namesake: Nobuko Yoshiya (Japanese novelist)
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Birthday: January 12
Age: 32 (Dark Era, Blood Altar)
36 (present)
Gender: Female
Height: 172 cm (5'8")
Weight: 58 kg
Blood type: AB
Likes: Smoking, romance, wine, Ōgai Mori
Dislikes: Snakes, insects, Elise
PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION
Status: Alive
Ability: Demon Fire
Reference: Demon Fire (鬼火, Onibi)
Occupation: Public Safety Bureau Commissioner
Affiliation: Port Mafia
RELATIONSHIP
Family: Unnamed younger sister
APPEARANCES
Anime Debut: Episode 33
Light Novel Debut: Ayako Miura and the Blood Altar
PORTRAYAL
Japanese Voice: Mariya Ise
English Voice: Katelyn Barr
Stage Actor: Yuki Odera
*******
"Sometimes to beat evil, you have to become a bigger evil."
-Nobuko Yoshiya to Osamu Dazai
Nobuko Yoshiya (吉屋 信子, Yoshiya Nobuko) is the head commissioner of the Public Safety Bureau and is affiliated with the Port Mafia, supporting many of their operations.
Appearance
Nobuko is a beautiful woman with a rather voluptuous and tall build with short smooth dark hair that reaches her chin with the bangs falling over her forehead and bright green eyes. She's considered attractive by many such as Atsushi, Tanezaki, and Dazai, and is known for her beauty. She wears an eye patch over her right eye and has a fair complex.
She's always seen wearing a business suit that consists of a white dress shirt, black jacket, dress pants, tie, and brown dress shoes.
When she was younger, Nobuko had longer hair that reached her shoulder and wore white bandages over her right eye before switching to the black eye patch.
ɢᴀʟʟᴇʀʏ
(Dark Era)
(Blood Altar)
(Wan! appearance)
Personality
(Nobuko's cheerfulness.)
Nobuko is shown to be a mature and experienced superior to the new recruits working under her. She generally carries herself with upbeat body language and is capable of staying calm under extremely stressful situations. Nobuko motivated Atsushi with a few words, implying that she's at least somewhat perceptive of the people around her. She's very efficient and blunt in her duty as a police commissioner, responding to small and seemingly insignificant cases and calls of duty. Nobuko is a rather caring and empathetic person, caring for the well-being of the police officers working under her. She has strongly internalized another old teaching of her master: that only detectives "who have a couple of screws loose" are ultimately successful, due to the general sense of unpredictability presented by their willingness to do unusual things to take down criminals. However, despite this cheerful presentation Nobuko also holds an extremely pessimistic worldview. This led to her developing a nicotine addiction as a coping mechanism.
Nobuko can be childish, greedy, and almost entirely self-motivated. She feels the need to boast about her superiority over her fellow police officers due to her status as the commissioner. Nobuko also enjoys the thrill of a fight and enjoys showing off her strength and proving her own superiority. She even jokingly claims she is capable of doing things she cannot actually do, only to abandon them halfway through when the situation turns sour for her. Nobuko is also a natural flirt, showing no shame in publicly flirting with other men from the bureau or the Agency, such as Dazai and Kunikida. She calls herself hopelessly romantic and is always in search of true love. Despite her childishness, she's extremely loved by everyone at the bureau as that impulsive side of hers is one of her strongest charm points as she's able to gain almost anyone's trust just for having an approachable face and strong charisma.
(Nobuko's cruel perspective about the world.)
But all of that is nothing but a mere façade to hide her true identity as a corrupt official. Nobuko's true face is of someone machiavellic, and calculating, who sees people around her as nothing more than "dogs" she can use as much as she likes and must obey her without any hesitation. She has demonstrated to be extremely cunning, cold, and manipulative. She shows grief over Officer Sugimoto murdering Yamagiwa to have to arrest a fellow officer, but turns her face smiling at his idiocy for being caught so easily. Ruthless and normally dispassionate, she will do whatever it takes to reach her goals, even at the cost of the people she should be protecting. Nobuko knows that she is not a good person and deems herself a "necessary evil"; a weapon under the control of the Japanese government. She is not afraid of her plans derailing, since whether her plans fail or succeed, she will achieve something she wants. She's a compulsive habitual liar, able to fool everyone at the bureau and hide the fact that she's been affiliated with the Port Mafia for a very long time. Nobuko even skillfully fakes her grief in the funerals over officers she was the reason behind their demise.
In reality, Nobuko is a very stoic person and is blunt to the point of rudeness. She doesn't like people who do not take their job as police officers seriously or fight for a superficial and material goal like money. Nobuko is also ruthless, stating that she always makes sure the people she kills suffer in order to give them a slow and painful death. She can become intimidating with those she still doesn't trust enough, like when Elise said that she doesn't like her because she's "too scary." Nobuko holds a big hatred toward the whole world around her, calling it and everyone living in it "utter scum" and says that the very same hatred is what kept her sanity intact and didn't lose her mind just yet. She calls people "obstacles" that will hinder her way of achieving her goals, often saying to not get attached to anyone or it'll only bring pain and suffering. Knowing how charismatic she is, Nobuko uses that to gain what she wants from people in high authority, indicating that she's a very sly and manipulative woman.
Ability
Demon Fire (鬼火, Onibi) allows Nobuko to generate fire from her body and control its temperature and intensity. They're able to burn down anything they touch and melt them into nothing but ashes. The flames are seen to respond to her emotions as during moments of sheer anger they'd turn blue. The downside of this Ability is that when used continuously for a long time, Nobuko would suffer from heat strokes and would need to readjust her body temperature.
Quotes
• (To Osamu Dazai) "I love this city, its people, and even its darkness. So parasites must be crushed to preserve its beauty, don't you agree?"
• (To Ōgai Mori) "Desires, needs, those are what control mankind and ensure their survival. How can you even stay alive without the need to eat, sleep, or fall in love? If that is so, then where's the mistake in pursuing your needs and desires? Don't we all try to grasp them even at the expense of others? Then what makes us so different? I want to live the way I want, so I won't hesitate to become a monster in order to get what I want."
• (To Atsushi Nakajima) "I guess you can say... that I'm a necessary evil. You see, in my position, I stop the foreign mafia from crawling their way into the county and exploiting it until the last drop. Those kinds of people make the Port Mafia seem like angels. So, no need to thank me."
• (To Yukichi Fukuzawa) "You have an agency you want to protect, I have men I want to protect. So let's work together!"
• (To Ranpo Edogawa) "Wow... I wish I could solve cases with just a single placement of glasses. This should be illegal! If it was, I would've arrested you right away!"
Etymology
• The name Nobuko means "faith" (信) (nobu) and "child" (子) (ko).
• The surname Yoshiya means "good luck" (吉) (yoshi) and "house" (屋) (ya).
Namesake
Nobuko Yoshiya (January 12, 1896 - July 11, 1973)
One of modern Japan's most commercially successful and prolific writers, Nobuko specialized in serialized romance novels and adolescent girls' fiction, as well as a pioneer in Japanese lesbian literature, including the Class S genre. Several of her stories have been made into films.
Trivia
• Nobuko is known among her peers and seniors that she's a big sucker for romance and doesn't hesitate to show that side of hers, especially among men. While her author counterpart was the same but had a sexual relationship with a female mathematic teacher named Monma Chiyo for over 50 years.
• The author's parents came from samurai families and her father was a police officer, reflecting her current occupation as a head of the Public Safety Bureau and her said heritage.
• Nobuko's original face claim is Himeno from Chainsaw Man.
• Being a police commissioner, she has read many books concerning law and its history and is an expert on the topic.
• Her preferred weapon is a gun.
• In the anime, Nobuko referenced several iconic western romance novels such as Romeo and Juliet, The Notebook, and Pride and Prejudice, which reflects her love for the western culture. The same can be said about her author counterpart as she often dressed in an androgynous style and was one of the first Japanese women to emulate western fashion by cutting her hair short, the same way her hair is styled in the anime.
• Nobuko's infatuation with Ōgai Mori could reflect her author counterpart's relationship with Monma Chiyo.
• While Ayako's Ability represents the ice half of Shoto Todoroki from My Hero Academia, Nobuko's Ability represents the fire half.
• Her child Japanese VA Mariya Ise is known for her roles as Killua Zoldyck from Hunter x Hunter (2011), Guila from The Seven Deadly Sins, Levy McGarden from Fairy Tail, Reg from Made in Abyss, Nagisa Shingetsu from Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, Buntan Kurosuki from Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Ray from The Promised Neverland, and many more.
• Her English VA Katelyn Barr is known for her roles as Niki Hanada from Dr. Stone, young Takt Asahina from takt. op Destiny, Millie from Spy x Family, Ryukyu and Mika Jiro from My Hero Academia, Nox from The Case Study of Vanitas, and many more.