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Hachiware (ハチワレ) is one of the main characters in the Chiikawa manga and anime series. In the Chiikawa-verse, they are best friends with Chiikawa and Usagi, and are often seen spending time with them on their daily adventures.
General Information[]
Hachiware is known to be cheerful and positive. They have an interest in reading books [1] and a rather competent vocabulary for a child of their age. They are also the most extroverted of the trio, often speaking on both theirs and Chiikawa's behalf, and easily striking up conversation and making friends with fellow animals and Yoroi-san.
Chiikawa Official states that "Despite the cat-like ears and the occasional blep, for the record, Hachiware is not necessarily a cat." At the Nagano exhibition, it is stated that “Hachiware is not a cat, so they are eating onions and chocolate. (Cats shouldn't eat them)“
They are also notably the most mature of the three. In the Pajama Party arc, they take responsibility for their mistakes on stage, and resolves to work harder. They also try their best to comfort Chiikawa when the latter is upset[2]. With their intelligence, Hachiware is also capable of creating solutions for problems they encounter, but has a tendency to hesitate or overthink their decisions.
Hachiware has shown interest in artistic pursuits. They spent a portion of time saving up money to buy a camera to pursue their photography hobby, and they also own a guitar and is sometimes shown playing and singing along with it.
Hachiware is shown to be capable of having hangnails, as seen in page 176 of the manga, where they meet a shooting star and ask for their hangnail to be healed.
Appearance[]
Hachiware is a cat with a distinctive blue-tipped tail and ears. They have the standard eye shape and blush of most characters in the Chiikawa universe, and they have uniquely short and tiny eyebrows. When talking, their mouth sometimes reveals small fangs. During bug hunts, Hachiware wields a blue sasumata.
Speech Pattern[]
Hachiware is the only character in the main trio who communicates in standard Japanese. Hachiware's fluency in Japanese is comparable to that of a young child's, and they are notably the most talkative of the three main characters. However, like a child, they occasionally makes mistakes in their reading of certain words. In Episode 5, Hachiware mispronounces Charumera (チャルメラ) as Charimera (チャリメラ). In Episode 136, Hachiware introduces Chiikawa to a store they call おかしのまち, おか (Okashi no Machi, Oka), misreading it as "Candy Town, Oka". In reality, the name of the store is simply おかしのまちおか (Okashi no Machioka), the name of a real-life Japanese candy store that has no special meaning or any connections to a town made of candy. They do appear to be embarrassed when they realise their mistake, but it is not a particular point of insecurity for Hachiware.
Trivia[]
- Hachiware's name is derived from "八割れ," which directly translates to "Eight cracks." It is used to describe a specific fur pattern for cats.
- Just like cats, Hachiware also canonically hacks up hairballs [3], which further implies that Hachiware licks their fur as a form of grooming.
- They passed the 5th grade Pulling Weeds test.
- They train under Rakko to get stronger.
- Hachiware lives in a cave because they cannot afford a house.
- The ending credit theme song for the anime is performed by Hachiware's voice actor, reflecting the character's musical interest and ability to sing while playing the guitar. Hachiware's voice also notably deepens over the course of the anime's three years of production, as their voice actor is a growing child.
- In this tweet, Hachiware's birthday is listed as 1st May, 2020, which is the date of their debut in the manga. This would make Hachiware a Taurus.