Tooe Gaen

Overview

Summary

Gallery

"If you can’t be medicine, be poison. Otherwise you’re nothing but water."

— Tooe Gaen

Tooe Gaen
Kanji Name	臥煙 遠江
Kana Name	がえん とおえ
Romaji Name	Gaen Tōe
Character Information
Alias	Tooe Kanbaru Crybaby Devil
Age	Unknown
Gender	Female
Personal Status
Classification	Human
Status	Deceased
Relatives	Suruga Kanbaru (Daughter) Unnamed Husband Izuko Gaen (Younger Sister) Uroko Gaen (Niece) Rainy Devil (Alter Ego, Formerly)
Abilities	Aberration Creation
Professional Status
Occupation	Unknown
Affiliation	Gaen Family
Media
Work of Origin	Monogatari Series
Novel Debut	Hanamonogatari
Anime Debut	Hanamonogatari
Voice Actor	Michiko Neya

Appearances
Novel Appearances
Series	Monogatari Series
Volumes	Hanamonogatari Zoku Owarimonogatari Orokamonogatari
Anime Appearances
Series	Hanamonogatari Zoku Owarimonogatari
Episodes	Hanamonogatari Episode 1 Zoku Owarimonogatari Episode 4, 5

Tooe Gaen (臥煙(がえん) 遠江(とおえ), Gaen Tōe) is a character from the Monogatari Series. She is the late mother of Suruga Kanbaru and the older sister of Izuko Gaen. During high-school, she created the Rainy Devil aberration, later splitting it apart by giving it a name.

Personality

In Tooe's few appearances, she gives off different impressions to those that know her. Tooe is described by Izuko Gaen as very harsh, both on herself and others; someone who couldn't permit herself to stray from her path in any way, her obsessive self-condemnation eventually leading to the creation of the Rainy Devil. When Koyomi Araragi met Tooe in the Mirror World, however, he noted how how different she felt from Izuko's description. Tooe stated that she'd loosened up somewhat after getting married, thus becoming less aggressive. During their conversation, Tooe showed a more playful side, having no trouble teasing Koyomi about erotic topics while the two talked. Despite this, she is also highly perceptive and observant. Tooe has a different view on knowledge from Izuko Gaen and Tsubasa Hanekawa, seeing their views as somewhat short-sighted. To her, the state of knowledge isn't limited to knowing everything or nothing; there are things someone may know that are wrong. Instead, she believes understanding is an important aspect of knowledge. Within only a few minutes of conversation, she was able to comprehend everything about Koyomi's situation, showing her abnormal powers of observation and perception.

Although she never really managed to understand her, Suruga sees her mother as sloppy and crude, also comparing her to Numachi Rouka, seeing her mother as a more cautious and calculating devil. While Suruga considers her a bad parent, Tooe's care and concern for her daughter are clear, the mother wishing for her daughter to not end up the same way as her. Her catchphrase, "If you can’t be medicine, be poison. Otherwise you’re nothing but water," is one which she originally used towards a young Suruga, though she later comes to believe it was meant for her as much as, if not more, than for Suruga. She sees herself as nothing more than a crybaby devil.

Appearance

Tooe is a seemingly young woman with short brown hair that transitions towards teal at the tips. She has brown eyes, similar to the eyes her daughter, Suruga Kanbaru, inherited. Her body is slim and youthful, with a large bust. Upon her first physical appearance, she is nude. When she first appears in front of Suruga, she is in the guise of Rouka Numachi; wearing the same jersey, bandaged areas, etc.

Background

Sometime before Suruga's birth and meeting her husband, Tooe began to notice things she had missing around the house. It first started small, just unnecessary items, before it got out-of-hand and almost made her friends and her boyfriend at-the-time disappear. It was found out that Tooe's self-discipline had manifested as an aberration which acted like The Darkness. Tooe had to face the aberration — her other side — though the only option she saw was to kill it. Thus, she gave the monster the name "Rainy Devil" and bound it, splitting it apart and destroying it.

She met Deishuu Kaiki at some unknown point in time, the man coming to rely on her and even developing feelings for her, though never acting on them, since Tooe was already in a relationship.

Some time afterwards, Tooe had scattered the parts across Japan. She had eventually met and got together with the son of the Kanbarus, even giving him a love letter/riddle hidden within a fusuma. Their relationship was full of scrutiny from both sides of their families, with the Kanbarus finding their son's relations with a Gaen to be terrible. Shortly after Tooe gave the fusuma to her lover, the Kanbaru family barred Tooe from entering, which she considers a barrier.

Once Tooe had settled down with Kanbaru, the two had Suruga Kanbaru, their daughter. When Suruga was in third grade, Tooe and her lover got married in Kyushu, before dying in a traffic accident. At the time, Tooe was seemingly aware an accident would happen, and yet departed anyways. It was at this point that Tooe had left Deishuu Kaiki with the Rainy Devil's head and Suruga Kanbaru with the Rainy Devil's left hand.

Tooe later returns in Zoku Owarimonogatari, being "brought back to life" when Koyomi Araragi accidentally brings the mirror world into the real world. Tooe having likely appeared due to some form of regret Izuko Gaen had. For some time afterwards, she appears in Suruga's dreams as a side-effect of the event.

Throughout the series, her death was seen with skepticism. Ougi Oshino believes her death to be unimaginable, especially if she saw it coming. It's also notable that Tooe seemingly sees the Rainy Devil as herself, going as far as to call it 'her mummy'. She even warns Koyomi Araragi that it'd be problematic if the devil parts got together, as it is a part of her. This may imply that Tooe may not actually be dead, or may return if the parts are united.

Abilities and Equipment

• Aberration Creation: As Tooe is a Gaen, she has the ability to create aberrations. This led to her unknowingly creating the aberration which would later be called the Rainy Devil, due to her strict harsh self-condemnation and discipline, which eschewed anything unncessessary or frivolous.

Quotes

• (Tooe's catchphrase to Suruga) "If you can’t be medicine, be poison. Otherwise you’re nothing but water."
• (Tooe when Koyomi states he hasn't met her before) "You're not someone I've just met. You've met my left hand, haven't you?"
• (Tooe reflecting on herself) "To [Suruga] I was a parent, and to Izuko I was an older sister, but to me, I was just a crybaby devil. A weakling."
• (Tooe when Koyomi asks what she knows) "Knowing and not knowing don't matter. After all, even if you don't know about something, you can guess just about everything if you look at it."
• (Tooe's advice towards Suruga) "... A mild complaint — you're always doing things in my name, claiming it's me — and I'm not cool with that. Do things out of your own will. If you're giving it your all, do it of your own accord."

Trivia

• Tooe's last name, Gaen, is made up of the kanji for "prostrating" and "smoke".
• Tooe's first name is made up of the kanji for "distant" and "creek". Both kanji are also used for "Tōtōmi" which is a former province located in the west of present-day Shizuoka Prefecture.
• Tooe is not depicted in the light novels' illustrations. It is presumed that VOFAN had a design for her before Akio Watanabe's depiction from Zoku Owarimonogatari.