“Let me know if you need anything. I can take out the car on weekends too.”
Itaru Chigasaki (茅ヶ崎至 Chigasaki Itaru) is an employee at a prestigious company who’s kind, sociable, and has a mature personality that makes him refreshing to talk to. He’s done well at his job, earning the trust of his coworkers and superiors alike. Aside from his professional job, he is a hardcore gamer.
Appearance[]
Itaru is a handsome man in his early twenties with pink eyes and dark blonde hair that hangs over the left side of his face. His clothing style is as duel-sided as his personality.
In his professional appearance, he wears dark green pants in combination with a light blue shirt and a white vest, together with black leather shoes and a navy blue jacket.
After his work is done he quickly changes into something more comfortable, with gray sweatpants, a plain white T-shirt, and a yellow college jacket. Itaru also wears his bangs up so they don't get in his way while he is gaming.
Personality[]
Whenever Itaru is in professional mode, he is gentle and charming like a prince who genuinely cares about others, but he somewhat maintains his distance and likes to keep his private life to himself. He is very good at hiding his real feelings and maintaining calm.
Itaru is very isolating and doesn’t like to open up to people due to his childhood. He is a passionate hardcore gamer and somewhat of an otaku. When playing, he curses and can be rude. He also starts to get a bit of lazy and outright competitive.
History[]
Itaru had always been one of the least athletic boys, ever since elementary school. His classmates would often make fun of him for his bad athletic skills. He eventually isolated himself in his room and spent the days gaming. He looked up to Lancelot, the main character in the Knights of the Round series, often convincing himself that he was Lancelot. He even had Gwen, Lancelot's invisible fairy friend, at his side.
When he started high school, he changed his character (an idea by his sister) to fit in, which resulted with him gaining popularity.
He met Tonooka, who is a fan of Knights of the Round. Like him, Tonooka had been hiding his gaming side from his friends. They became friends. But, their friendship ended during the summer of their senior year. When Tonooka found Itaru and a classmate chatting about KotR, he started spilling Itaru’s secrets to his friends. After that, Itaru went back to his isolation and started to stream his games.
Before he joined Mankai he worked as a successful elite trading company and was quite popular within it. However, his only motivation to work hard was to finance his expensive hobby; gaming. To decrease his living expenses and save money for games, he searched for a new cheaper room. Izumi found him looking at Bulletin Board on Veludo Way and he quickly agreed to join Mankai once the director assured him a room to himself, so he would not get distracted while gaming.
Knights of the Round IV[]
In the Knights of the Round IV event story his past is revealed. He has been collecting Night Arthurian toys from his favorite game series, Knights of the Round (KotR) ever since he was a child. He even revealed that he got one of the games in Knight of the Round from Santa.
Izumi and Sakyo informs him that the developers of Knights of The Round wants Mankai to make a stage play based on the games, leaving him shocked. He meets Tonooka, the one in charge of promoting the KnotR series, who was his high school friend.
Itaru asks the director if the Spring Troupe can do the play and have him as the lead which she agrees to. Itaru decides to give it his all into his character, Lancelot.
After Hoshii, the CEO of End Line and writer of KotR, criticises their performance, Itaru blames himself for not meeting Hoshii’s expectations. After learning that Tonooka wants to raise the popularity of Mankai’s Knights of the Round IV by exposing Itaru’s game identity, Itaru agrees to the consequences. His troupe members disagrees because of how hard he tries to separate his private and professional life.
Relationships[]
Itaru is an easygoing person in general and rarely gets mad except when gaming. He has a rather good relationship with the other members, besides occasional moments of annoyance at Itaru's bad habits.
- Sakuya Sakuma: Sakuya is the only one oblivious to Itaru's bad habits, still admiring him for his gaming. He finds Itaru to be very prince-like and cool. Itaru has developed a closeness to Sakuya since he has notoriously good-luck with gacha-pulling.
- Masumi Usui Masumi sees right through Itaru's charming facade, saying Itaru's outward appearance was alright but inside, not so much. Noting his gaming and other bad habits, Masumi says that he never wants to be an adult like Itaru. Itaru, on the other hand, faces Masumi's constant battering without putting up a fight. Despite all the mean comments directed towards him, Itaru doesn't dislike Masumi, and even respects his honesty with feelings.
- Tsuzuru Minagi: Tsuzuru is frequently exasperated with Itaru and doesn't know how to handle him. Itaru thinks Tsuzuru is a real blessing that he is always there to do things for him.
- Citron: Citron finds Itaru to be extremely interesting, because of his two personas. Itaru is always extremely entertained by Citron's oddness and his speaking failures, always ending up laughing, and sometimes even crying.
- Chikage Utsuki: The two have a respectful relationship since they are colleagues at work, even being rather formal at home. Though they may seem close, there is still a lingering air of distance between them, and both keep inside their boundaries. Before Chikage joined the troupe, the two were quite familiar and spent a lot of time together in the little amount they had since Chikage was frequently overseas. Itaru always supplied him with tickets to their performances. They tend to have a lot of banter but understand each other and get along better than expected.
- Tonooka: Itaru and Tonooka were high school friends. Itaru enjoyed hanging with Tonooka because of their love for KotR, and how similar they were. They would often play games together after school and it was because of Tonooka that Itaru started to enjoy school. After he exposed Itaru’s secrets to his classmates, Itaru stopped hanging out with him. Once they met again, during the Knights of the Round IV story, Itaru acts very cold towards him.
Etymology[]
Chigasaki (茅崎): = Chi (茅) means "miscanthus reed" and Saki (崎) means "cape; peninsula".
Itaru (至) means "arrive".
Roles[]
These are the roles Itaru has played:
- Tybalt in Romeo and Julius
- Professor/The Mad Hatter in Alex in Wonderland
- Boyd in A Clockwork Heart
- Wizard of the West in The Wonderful Charlatan of Oz
- Lancelot in Knights of the Round IV
Trivia[]
- He has room 103 to himself in Act 1, but shares it with Chikage Utsuki later in Act 2.
- Itaru, as streamer Taruchi, is very popular among the Knights of the Round fanbase for being a hardcore fan, who plays the games with different limitations and upload videos of them.
- From time to time, Itaru games with Banri Settsu, both as a party and as rivals, as Banri is the only one who could pose somewhat of a challenge for him.
- He thinks of Banri, under the username NEO, as his online rival. They fight it out via rankings.
- He also respects Sakuya, as Itaru relies on him for pulling good gacha cards.
- He chose his current trading company as his employer because his older sister told him to choose a company that values his looks.
- He often uses gaming and internet terms in his speech whenever he is in casual mode.
- He once beat a so-called “impossible” dungeon RPG during his student days. It left him half-conscious so he doesn't even remember how he did it or how long it really took.
- Itaru would like to take part in a stage play that is set in a game-like world, or even a stage adaptation of a popular video game, which came true in the Spring Troupe's 5th play.
- To him, the Mankai Company is "The place where he can be himself".
- His character theme is “Gamer’s High”
- As revealed in one of Tsuzuru's blog posts, he actually needs glasses.[1]
- But he do wear contact lenses![2]
- During the Spring and Summer training camp, Itaru claims he cannot carry anything heavier than a portable console.
- His signature reads "Taruchi" (たるち) in hiragana.
- He was a "ghost" member of the Computer Club in high shcool.[3]
References[]
- ↑ Megane Day, October 8th, 2019 on the JP app
- ↑ A3! First Anniversary Book: Flower
- ↑ A3! Second Anniversary Book Sunshine