Tsubaki Yayoi

Tsubaki Yayoi is Jin Kisaragi's childhood friend, Noel Vermillion's former roommate from the Military Academy, and a member of the NOL's Zero Squad Division. She is a playable character in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.

Information
During the Military Academy, she was close friends with Noel and Makoto. She's described as a straight A student, and has a rather no-nonsense personality. She's very serious and reserved, and is a member of the dignified Yayoi family. By the end of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger's True Ending, she is assigned by Hazama to kill Noel and Jin. She originally appeared as a non-playable character in the Calamity Trigger Story Mode. In BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, Tsubaki heads to Kagutsuchi to search for Jin Kisaragi and Noel Vermillion.

She uses an Armagus called "Izayoi". Tsubaki's Drive is called "Install" which allows her to charge her attacks. When Tsubaki found Jin, he told her to get rid of Izayoi because it "steals the light from the users eyes", implying it would, after a certain period of time, cause her to go blind.

Tsubaki is revealed to be a fan of Hakumen, going so far as to own all the books and movies based on the exploits of the Six Heroes. In Hakumen's story mode he indirectly reveals that in the past she had been his secretary instead of Noel. While they had more time together he ultimately neglected her for his own exploits. She plead for him to stay when he had left but continued on and she was killed as a result. To remember the mistake he had made, he named one of his attacks in her honor. After her fight with Noel, Hazama tells Tsubaki that because of Noel's continued presence, she took Tsubaki's place as Jin's secretary, relegating Tsubaki herself into assassination tasks. Tsubaki, already slowly losing her sight due to overuse of Izayoi, becomes depressed and angry at Noel believing she stole everything from her (though Hazama left out that Tsubaki would have died anyway in the timeline where she is with Jin). As such, she remains with NOL and Imperator Saya despite Jin already opposing her. However her behavior in the True Ending almost makes her appear brainwashed, either due to the effects of the Ouroboros or Phantom's sorcery.

In the ending of her Arcade Mode Story, it was revealed that Hazama was just using Tsubaki to kill Jin and Ragna, and also hurt Noel who became Mu (μ-12) so Hazama could easily capture her and continue his plan.

Material Collection Information

 * Hobbies: Singing
 * Likes: Historical dramas
 * Dislikes: War

Powers and abilities

 * See here for movelist.

Tsubaki's fighting style is an interesting interpretation of the standard "sword and shield" style of traditional Western swordplay, where her oddly shaped, floating book acts as a small buckler shield. Tsubaki's short sword is capable of adopting a variety of shapes, sometimes as appearing as a fencing foil, a whip sword, a floating claymore or even a staff. Her book, similarly, can change its form. Lights and angelic imagery feature prominently in Tsubaki's fighting style, such as wings and feathers appearing around her for various attacks. Because of how her drive works, her style is punctuated by moments of gathering light energy before rushing down opponents with long protracted combination attacks.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

 * Condemnation Wings - Tsubaki's theme.
 * Memory of Tears - Tsubaki Yayoi VS Noel Vermillion
 * Condemnation Wings ~Cry Camellia~ - Tsubaki's Theme with Asami Imai's vocal
 * Memory of Tears ~Don't Look Back~ - Noel vs Tsubaki, with Kanako Kondō & Asami Imai's vocal

Gallery
Click here to view all images of Tsubaki.

Trivia

 * Tsubaki's birthday, March 14th, falls on the same day as White Day in Japan and Korea which is an mirror equivalent to Valentine's Day where girls respond to boys who gave them gifts on the said holiday. This reflects her relationship with Jin as his birthday is Valentine's Day.
 * "Tsubaki" means "Camellia" in English.
 * Her seiyu, Asami Imai, is regularly a part of Bururaji (BlazBlue Radio) along with Kanako Kondo and Sugita.
 * Tsubaki's Astral Heat uses what is believed to be the NOL statue and bears a great resemblance to the move Nibelung Valesti from the Valkyrie Profile series.
 * Tsubaki's Guilty Gear counterpart could be a reference to Zato-1/Eddie, as he sacrificed his eyesight for power, and her weapon will eventually claim hers. Additionally, both Tsubaki and Zato-1/Eddie had romantic feelings for someone who had defected from their organizations, Jin defecting from the Library, and Millia abandoning the Guild of Assassins. Gameplay wise, many compare her fighting style to Order Sol, in regards to the both of them requiring to charge a special meter to pull off more powerful attacks (though in her "Help Me, Kokonoe!" segment, she politely asks Kokonoe to refrain from the Order Sol jokes).
 * Another Guilty Gear counterpart Tsubaki could be a reference to is Ky Kiske, due to both characters' devout sense of justice and right and wrong to the point of seeing the world in 'black and white' as the phrase goes. Tsubaki even has a palette swap that greatly resembles Ky available via DLC.
 * In Taokaka's gag reel, Tsubaki admits to having a secret "fetish" for period adventures, even going so far as introducing herself as Robin Hood to Carl Clover.
 * During her gag ending in Continuum Shift, Tsubaki admits that she hates pandas, upon seeing the panda (Lao Jiu) in Litchi's hair. Though the reason for this is unknown. Strangely, she is extremely gullible in the gag ending, as she even believes that Litchi (who at the time was drunk) had been taken over by Lao Jiu and gets 'coerced' into cosplaying and getting a new peking duck.
 * The name of Yayoi's Armagus, Izayoi, means "sixteen-day-old moon" in Japanese. A sixteen-day-old moon has just passed its fullest phase, so it is at this point that its brightness begins to decline. This is another clear reference to Izayoi's blindness-inducing nature.
 * Within the game's files, mainly the images for character name graphics from places like the selection screens, a file for a name "Tubaki Yayoi" is found. This is a common mistake Japanese people make when romanizing the "tsu" sound.
 * Some of her special moves bear names from movements/chants for a Requiem Mass. All of her special moves have latin phrases for names.
 * Asami Imai the Japanese voice actress that provides Tsubaki's voice is also the same person that sings Shinsō (Deep Blue) the opening theme to Continuum Shift II. As well as singing a duet with Kanako Kondō the Japanese voice actress who provides the voice of Noel Vermillion to the vocal version of Memory of Tears. Asami also voices the character of Chihaya Kisaragi in [mailto:IDOLM@STER IDOLM@STER], an idol game involving singing, which, happens to be Tsubaki's hobby.