Waifu Wednesday: Satomi Tachibana (How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift?)
As I get older, I start to notice that I have less and less time for the things I love to do. Like Satomi Tachibana from How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? I am forced to work a contemptuous day job, which continually eats into my “fawning over 2D anime girls” time. Even when said day job is to fawn over 2D anime girls, I just don’t have enough hours in the day, which is why this waifu is such an inspiration to me.
I’ve been diving back into the How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? manga lately and found myself identifying more and more with the cosplaying teacher of the group, which usually means it’s time to celebrate her with a Waifu Wednesday feature.
Who is Satomi Tachibana?
All we know about Satomi Tachibana when she first appears in the anime is that she teaches World History at the school where Hibiki and Akemi attend. It isn’t until she also joins Silverman Gym that we get to know her a bit more. Her motivations for working out are a bit different from the other girls; she isn’t doing this to impress a boy or anything unsavoury like that.
Just like whenever I decide to hit the gym on the regular, she’s doing it for cosplay purposes.
Unknown to her students or the other faculty, Tachibana Satomi spends her free time and money building a successful cosplay career under the name Yuria Riko. It is something that she wants to keep from the school board, lest they fire her for the crime of having a hobby that falls outside societal norms. So she works out to keep in cosplay shape and tries to balance her job, hobby, and physical well-being in an increasingly chaotic game of spinning plates.
Why we love her
Because so many anime take place in high schools, we don’t often get to see working-age people’s struggles, but oh man is this one that I’ve dealt with in the past. While most jobs aren’t likely to fire you for dressing up as anime characters in your spare time, you can quickly find yourself as the weirdo of the office when word gets out. It sucks to feel like you’re being judged simply for liking something.
So when Satomi went out of her way to hide her hobby from her students, I got it. When she tried to play off a weird tan line she got on her stomach while wearing a costume, I’ve been there. When she experienced The Fear of having her secret exposed, it was a feeling I’ve had plenty of times. Satomi quickly became the most relatable character in one of the most wholesome anime in recent years.
Why you’ll love her
Like everyone under Muscle Bro Machio’s expert tutelage, Satomi is on a quest for self-improvement, but that comes with its own difficulties. Balancing a job, hobby, fitness, and the unending admin that comes with being an adult is hard and it is something that not every anime gives us the chance to see. The show never lets us forget that she is a touch older than the other girls, both in how they speak to her and in how she acts.
The young adult phase is something that I wish more anime would focus on because it is when you truly discover who you are and how you’re going to carve your place in the world. Satomi’s plight is mainly played off for laughs, but it makes her one of the best characters in a show that is brimming with them.
If you’re aching to get your swole on, you can check out How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? on Crunchyroll.
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