so like, do u have any tamafumi thoughts?👀 tamafumichi is good as well~
boy do i ever anon. I really love these two girls. I think what makes their relationship so special is that they got to know each other at their worst - Fumi as a fresh dropout from Siegfeld and Tamao as a failed leader of the performance department. And they both put in work from that point on to uplift the other. It's a really beautiful mutual relationship.
There's a lot of understanding between the two, too. Tamao is the first person who Fumi admits to her envy of Shiori. Tamao never judges Fumi for her past decisions or feelings, and Fumi is the first to empathize with Tamao's situation when the department gets shut down. While the other girls are distraught and badgering her with questions, Fumi is the one to tell them to back down and give her space. She's a really, really good second-in-command to her.
As we all know, Fumi's the first one that Tamao recruits as well, and it's precisely because they don't know each other well at that point - she's the only one who isn't as sensitive to her feelings to be able to tell her what she needs to hear. It's exactly what Tamao needs. In her situation, a confidant who tells hard truths with kind words is an invaluable person to have around. And consequently, it's Fumi first who sees Tamao's hidden strength and determination.
I mentioned it offhandedly before, but Rinmeikan's pretty unique in that all three of the senpais have gone through a fall from grace. Despite not really knowing what to make of each other at first and having a pretty transactional relationship to begin (there's a reason Tamao is surprised when Fumi tells her that she likes her), the two are repeatedly shown to have a really intuitive understanding of each other. Of course, this chemistry only grows as they get to know each other better.
I wanna talk about Arcana Arcadia now. IIRC, Fumi's reasons for leaving Siegfeld in the story are tied almost entirely up in her own personal demons - arrogance and envy towards her sister. But I suspect that part of her downfall was also due to Siegfeld's hypercompetitive environment, something that I don't think she realized herself until she arrived at Rinmeikan. We see a retroactive of this realization play out through her exchange with Michiru (which, by the way, there is SO much to unpack there for Michiru as well, but that's a tangent):
This might be a stretch, but to me this scene almost read like a critique of Siegfeld's Frau Platin system. Michiru and Fumi are foils in this regard - the former uses its system to her advantage, while the latter abandoned it entirely when it comprimised her personal values. Temperance warns the Hierophant that everything she's collected will one day burn to ash - and there's nothing she can do about it. Fumi's telling Michiru that her departure was a cautionary tale - one day, her kingdom will burn down too.
This is where Tamao comes in.
It was Tamao's admission for help that let Fumi be reborn, and it was Fumi's selfless nature that allowed Tamao to begin to rebuild from their ashes.
Fumi repeatedly refers to Tamao as compassionate, kind, and gentle. It's precisely through their shared experiences and mutual understanding that they're able to connect with each other so well - something that Fumi's former classmates and her sister pick up on.
TL;DR: Though they seem worlds apart to each other at first, they're quickly able to realize that they're two people adrift on the same boat, and that makes their bond stronger than steel. Their destruction was their salvation, and that's something no one else can understand.
Bonus tamaichifumi caveat:
I like them because Tamao and Fumi both know what it's like to have failed catastrophically, and will therefore always put their best foot forward to make sure that doesn't ever happen again. Ichie on the other hand knows what it's like to have BEEN failed and abandoned by people she was meant to trust (the adults who established her idol group and consequently got it shut down when it stopped being profitable). Tamao and Fumi could use that light and endless optimism that Ichie provides (seriously, their conversations alone together are pretty grim - see "I'll follow you to our doom!") and Ichie could use that stability and trust for people she knows won't abandon her.
