Chisame Hasegawa

Chisame Hasegawa is a fictional character from the manga series Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, created by Ken Akamatsu. The 25th student in Japanese alphabetical order of class 2/3-A, she is the grumpy, unsocial computer hacker of the class, intentionally isolating herself due to her dislike of freaks and weirdos. However, Chisame secretly lives a double life as the famous web idol Chiu, where she can be popular without putting up with the local idiots. Her logical nature eventually figures out the secrets of Mahora Academy and her teacher Negi Springfield, leading to Chisame drawing closer to the magical world. Ken Akamatsu's previous series, Love Hina, centered around the lives of several girls, particularly in the main lead of Naru Narusegawa. Although typically depicted by her beautiful, yet fiery nature, Naru was also a genius in studies. She has an alternate appearance, which included braided hair and a pair of glasses. This is intended to hide her more studious side while attending the cram school and maintain the image of the fiery Naru of the Hinata House. With the establishment of Negima!, Akamatsu knowingly split up Naru's personality into two separate characters: the fiery, powerful yet concerned lead part went to Asuna Kagurazaka and the more reclusive girl with the split personality went to Chisame. The split in Chisame's own personality is more dynamic compared to Naru because of the contrast between her forms with and without her glasses. The typical Chisame, ponytailed and wearing glasses, is depicted as a smart but extremely cynical girl with a logical view of the world. On the other hand, the alternative free-hair and glasses-free Chiu is a joyous personality, who expresses a sense of exhibitionism via her manipulations creating popularity through her own website. Early renditions of Chisame merely had her as Chiu Hasegawa in both forms, with sketches depicting her "idol" side more like a singing idol compared to a web idol and her student form more restrained with a braided ponytail. Through the creation of Chisame, Akamatsu not only has taken Naru's own split identity to another level but created the most grounded of the students in the entire class. Unlike many, who mostly follow their feelings no matter what, Chisame chooses to look at the world with reason. While she still shows off feelings and emotions, both controlled and spontaneous, sensibility remains her preference, from the mundane to the fantastic. Chisame is a cynical computer geek living a double life. An overly serious pragmatist in public, Chisame is highly unsocial, intentionally secluding herself from interaction. She cynically views her classmates as idiots and freaks. Any attempts of interaction are immediately shrugged off by Chisame, choosing to either keep her nose in a book or her personal laptop computer she brings to class. Similarly, she distances herself from everyone by sitting in the farthest reaches of the class, alongside her seatmate Yue (who herself is known as a Baka Ranger who can't stand studies) or placing herself in the back of a crowd of people while letting the others act in stupid or silly ways. However, as much as Chisame avoids any and all attention in the real world, her affairs and interaction on the internet are a completely different matter. In the privacy of her own room, the reclusive Chisame transforms into the beautiful Chiu, a famous Net Idol who runs a webpage completely devoted to herself. The page is filled with pictures of Chiu cosplaying in various cute and sexy outfits dependent on her mood and the interest of her audience. Although the pictures are essentially Chisame with her hair down and in different outfits, she doctors them through the editing program "Photoshock" (a parody of Photoshop) to make herself look even more perfect than she could do on her own. Yet as much as Chisame tries to keep her Chiu side away from the knowledge or understanding of the other Mahora students, she finds out to her dismay that her teacher Negi has become a big fan of her alter ego and goes to her webpage every day. Because of her ability to blend in or avoid interaction, Chisame is able to gain a personal, critical voice in regard to the actions and thoughts of her school, her teacher, and particularly her class. As other students celebrate or get a feel for the various interactions, she makes small comments to herself about the stupidity either of the action or of the students who applaud what is said. Similarly, Chisame nitpicks at the stupidity of the various students she is forced to surround herself with, usually getting away with the commentary outside a couple who are easier peeved than other. (such as Chizuru, whom Chisame nearly gained the wrath of for calling her an old lady in regard to her taste in activities). She particularly dislikes a group of eccentric members of her class for a variety of reasons, including Chachamaru (robot), Mana (too old for junior high school), the Narutaki twins (underage), Kū Fei, Chao, Evangeline, Kaede and Zazie ("foreign" students). Yet her most particular hatred is aimed at Negi, going crazy over the whole concept of having a ten-year old acting as their homeroom teacher. Yet in the midst of calling others crazy, Chisame worries that being a net idol would label her just as crazy as the rest of them. The only people who know about her double life are Negi, Kotarou, Kazumi, Ayaka, and Makie. Chisame has seen and recognized Negi's inherent gift for attracting girls' affections and has tried to keep him at arm's length. This proved to be more and more difficult as she was pulled deeper and deeper into Negi's world during the Mahora Festival arc. Despite her greatest effort in trying to not associate herself with Negi and his magic wielding friends, she is inadvertently pulled deeper and deeper into their world to the point of considering the people she once thought of as weirdos and freaks as her friends. She is much closer to Chachamaru then to most in their group, mostly because the latter often drags her into Negi's group meetings or their silly escapades. Ironically, while Chisame gives her best efforts not to associate with real life and the magical world, it is only Chisame, along with Makie, who withstand Poyo Rainyday's fake Cosmo Entelecheia. They manage to resist the fake Cosmo Entecheia because she is a so-called "Rea-Juu", an internet slang for people whose 'Real lives' are 'completly Fulfilling'. By hearing this, Chisame suffers the biggest shock of her life, because she considered herself the extreme opposite of a "Rea-Juu" and was very proud of it.