Tsukasa Taira


 * This article contains major plot spoilers from the manga that have not been revealed in the anime. Proceed at your own risk.

Tsukasa Taira (平 つかさ) is the female protagonist of the Devils' Line series. She is a first-year graduate student at Keio University where she originally studied Humanities and Geography. She is a kind-hearted human girl who falls in love with Yuuki Anzai at almost first sight. Despite the difficulties of being in a devil/human relationship, she stays positive and is always trying to make it work. She cares about Yuuki and his suffering as a devil very much and is constantly looking for something she can do.

After becoming more aware of the devils' situation in society and learning more about them, she is thinking about studying sociology and about devil problems, as she thinks that devil problems are human problems as well.

History
Tsukasa had a normal childhood without any serious conflicts or troubles; she was born as an only child to Hirokazu Taira and Machiko Taira and was raised in the Kagawa Prefecture. She is close to her grandmother, Yen Taira, and she also has a pet dog named Kojiro.

Tsukasa visited many places as a child, but she forgot most of those trips. However, she felt like one event meant much to her and she asked her mother about it. It was when she went to Hokkaido to see the snow, and while strolling around, she saw a snow penguin that someone had molded. Thinking it was very cute, the penguin had been Tsukasa's favorite animal since that day.

When she grew older, she decided to move to Tokyo to attend university there, and she has since been living alone in her apartment. She enrolled at Keio University Graduate School of Sociology and Human Geography, where she became good friends with Miwako Toda and Shouta Akimura.

Appearance
Tsukasa is a young woman noted to be beautiful, with a short and petite figure, standing at. As noted by Juliana Lloyd, she seems to have quite the bust despite her short stature. She has short, light-brown hair which freely falls down to her neck, tucked behind her ears, and side-bangs that she lets frame her forehead. She has brown eyes.

In Line 6, she is wounded when she tries to protect Anzai from shattering glass from Zero Seven's bullet. The wound starts on the left side of her nose, drags diagonally downward, and stops below her right eye. The scar is permanent.

After the three-month timeskip, Tsukasa's hair has grown longer and is now nape-length. Her bangs are also rather messy and have grown longer, in which it now frames her face more than before.

After the six-month timeskip (in a total of nine months), Tsukasa has grown longer bangs and she also cut her hair to lower-chin length, styled into a bob-hairstyle.

Gallery
Manga Depiction

Anime Depiction

Personality
Tsukasa is a very gentle, caring and kind-hearted person, and is accepting of people whether they may be humans or devils, stating that all of them are the same. She is quick-witted and has relatively good instincts, but she is very slow on the uptake when people like her. Tsukasa is very responsible, mature and capable of the things she is good at, and wants to help people in fields where she can be helpful. This is why she wants people to be straightforward with her and frankly tell her what she should and shouldn't do since she doesn't want to tie people down, especially Anzai. She is very patient and supportive of people, and has a strong sense of right and wrong. She is almost never seen being angry at other people and usually carries a calm demeanor.

Although she was relatively oblivious to the devil matters in society, she has grown to understand more about them and is able to sympathize with them due to her relationship with Anzai, whom she loves deeply. She is positive and is always trying to make her relationship with Anzai work, and she is very loving, devoted and supportive of him and accepts him just the way he his. And even though she has involved herself in more dangerous and serious matters; like being targeted by the CCC and almost getting killed, Tsukasa has developed more as a person because of this, as she has grown more mentally strong, persistent and stubborn. She will stand up for herself and will firmly hold on to her own opinions and things she wants to do; she is always ready to take action, especially when it comes Anzai's safety. She is also very straightforward and will speak and move without hesitation; she always faces people head-on.

After learning more about devil problems in society, she is interested in changing majors to sociology instead and study self-defense. It is mentioned that she became a private tutor and that she spent a lot of time in the lab, and Tsukasa claims that she does these things because she wants to. This shows that Tsukasa is hardworking, and she also hopes that doing these things will give her some real results. After a long time of feeling anxious about her future, Tsukasa has found something she genuinely wants to do.

At times, a childish and meek side of Tsukasa can be shown. However, it is noted by Anzai that Tsukasa can say some really "wild" and "vulgar" things in their love-life (which can make Tsukasa herself embarrassed sometimes), and she also appears to be very straightforward in their relationship. At times, she is rather lively and she was initially portrayed to comically "hit" people such as Anzai when they insulted her, as for example when Anzai once said that she was skinny and would be more popular if she ate more.

Etymology

 * The name Tsukasa is written in hiragana (つかさ), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (司, 官, 宰, 士, 吏, 主, 典, 束, 司紗, 司沙, 束早, 津香紗 or 都加沙), it could possibly mean:
 * 司 - "officer, boss".
 * 官 - "bureaucrat, the government".
 * 宰 - "superintend, manager, rule".
 * 士 - "samurai, gentleman, warrior".
 * 吏 - "officer, official/an official".
 * 主 - "head, master".
 * 典 - "rule, ceremony".
 * 束 - "bundle, bunch, sheaf, wad, coil, handbreadth".
 * 司紗 - "officer, boss" (司) (tsuka) and "thread, silk" (紗) (sa).
 * 司沙 - "officer, boss" (司) (tsuka) and "sand" (沙) (sa).
 * 束早 - "bundle, bunch, sheaf, wad, coil, handbreadth" (束) (tsuka) and "already, now, fast, early" (早) (sa).
 * 津香紗 - "haven, port, harbor, ferry" (津) (tsu), "fragrance, fragrant" (香) (ka) and "thread, silk" (紗) (sa).
 * 都加沙 - "metropolis, capital" (都) (tsu), "add, increase" (加) (ka) and "sand" (沙) (sa).
 * Tsukasa's surname Taira means "flat, broad, level, even, peaceful" (平).

Trivia

 * Tsukasa's favorite animal is penguins, and this is due to a childhood event.
 * When Tsukasa left for university in Tokyo, her family gave her a penguin plushy "so she wouldn't be lonely".
 * Tsukasa has a high alcohol tolerance and rarely gets drunk.
 * Although Tsukasa speaks standard Japanese, her dialect sometimes slips out when she's on the phone with her family and she is unaware of this happening.
 * Tsukasa is good at cooking and crafts.
 * Tsukasa's favorite food is sardines with grated daikon.
 * Tsukasa's average sleeping time is 7.5-8 hours.
 * Tsukasa has had a class 1 driving license since 2009 (for four years), but she never really drives.
 * Tsukasa isn't bothered by the scar on her face. In fact, she has stated that she rather actually likes it.