Now that we talked about characters who might have inspired Tia and the ones who did not, let’s talk about those who, in one way or another, made me think strongly of her, so much that I could think either “This is exactly how Tia would act!” or “This is exactly the kind of stuff I would write for Tia!”
Let us start with yet another iconic anime character: Ryūko Matoi.
When I first watched Kill la Kill, I instantly took a liking to Ryūko, I loved her visual design at first sight, and it did not take long for her personality to endear her to me even more. I also quickly noticed that there was a good reason why I liked her so much. In a lot of ways, she reminded me of Tia’s like no character had ever before.
Tia has Ryūko’s willpower, her tenacity, her stubbornness, her angst, and even resilience to an absurd degree! Furthermore, like Tia, Ryūko gets beat up quite a bunch through the show, ending up in peril a fair amount of time, and suffering many losses. Yet, she never ends up a damsel, and always rebounds (admittedly quicker than Tia likely would). I remember that, at one point while watching the show, I found reasons to be worried that Ryūko could be killed off in a big plot twist to be replaced by Satsuki as the protagonist. It was probably a silly thought at the time, but this feeling of fear for my favorite character is part of what drive me to make the content I create. Kill la Kill was the first time I found a show I could direct people to and say “If you want to get a feel as to what Tia is supposed to be like, just watch this!”.
Of course, that is not to say that Ryūko and Tia are carbon copies of one-another. They still have distinct personalities despite hitting very similar notes. Notably, while Ryūko finds quite a few reasons to blush through her journeys, this is not for quite the same reasons as Tia. And while she deals with her fair share of perverts, the situations are not quite the same either! When all is said and done, though, one cannot deny that both tomboys take a beating on more than one occasion, and deal with their fair share of perverts!
