Snake of Retaining Eyes

This article is about the Snake of Retaining Eyes. If you are searching for Ayano Tateyama, please visit this article.

---

Information

Relationships

History

Gallery

Snake of Retaining Eyes
Snake Ayano ▾ Music/Novel Manga Anime
Name
Kanji	目に焼き付ける蛇 楯山 文乃 アヤノ
Rōmaji	Me ni Yakitsukeru Hebi Tateyama Ayano Ayano
Information
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
Gender	Female
Species	Snake Human (formerly)
Height	155 cm (5'1")
Weight	43 kg (94 lbs)
Blood type	B
Age	18
Birthday	November 22
Occupation	Snake of Retaining Eyes Founder of the Mekakushi Dan Mekakushi Dan Member No.0
Ability	Favoring Eyes (formerly)
Status	Current: Disappeared (Implied) (Mekakucity Actors) Past Routes: Becomes Snake (Manga Route 2) Shintaro's Eye Ability (Music Route, Novel Route, Manga Route 1 & Unknown Manga Routes)
Relatives	Kenjirou Tateyama (Father) † Ayaka Tateyama (Mother) † Hiyori Asahina (Aunt) Tsubomi Kido (Foster Sister) Kousuke Seto (Foster Brother) Shuuya Kano (Foster Brother)
Voice Actors
Japanese	Mai Nakahara
First Appearance
Music	Losstime Memory
Manga	18. Kagerou Daze I
Novel	Kagerou Daze III -the children reason- (Children Record II)
Anime	Act 01: Jinzou Enemy (As Ayano) Act 11: Otsukimi Recital (As a snake)

“	Judging from your reaction, you don't remember me? That makes me sad. Last time, you swore that you would never forget me.	”
—The Snake of Retaining Eyes to Shintaro

The Snake of Retaining Eyes (目に焼き付ける蛇 Me ni Yakitsukeru Hebi), formerly Ayano Tateyama (楯山 文乃 Tateyama Ayano) / Ayano (アヤノ), is a snake created by Marry Kozakura's strong wish to "never forget this Tragedy". In Manga Route 2, Ayano told Marry to use Combining Eyes to turn her into a Medusa's snake and to give her to Shintaro Kisaragi.

In every Route after Marry completed her request, the Snake of Retaining Eyes is with Shintaro from conception to death as the source of his eye ability, Retaining Eyes, which allows both of them to remember everything he sees, including past Routes. She observes nearly everything Shintaro does and can talk with him in his dreams, whenever he fully activates his ability, and after the end of a Route.

Appearance

The Snake of Retaining Eyes appears as a girl with long brown hair that has two red clips attached to its left fringe. Her eyes are dark brown, and she wears a white dress and a red scarf until she gives it to Shintaro at the end of the Manga Route. She appears in her middle school's winter uniform without her scarf in Mekakucity Actors and Losstime Memory.

In her other form, she appears as a snake with black scales and red eyes.

Cover for 69. Mekakucity Actors.

Ayano in Additional Memory.

The Snake's silhouette appearing around Shintaro in Act 11.

Personality

The Snake of Retaining Eyes is a cryptic being who is mainly seen smiling and speaking mysteriously to her only point of contact, Shintaro. Above all, the Snake of Retaining Eyes wishes to save her family and friends by stopping the Snake of Clearing Eyes, a driving force that began when she was a young girl and has since not ended.

As a child, Ayano founded the Mekakushi Dan after her mother adopted Kido, Kano, and Seto to research their eye abilities. Her member number at the time was "0". She was a good older sister who treasured all of her adopted siblings; she was even able to sense them through Kido's Concealing Eyes before she met them. When Seto brought Marry to the Tateyama household, Ayano welcomed her new sister into the family with open arms.

However, her overall demeanor and mainly her attitude towards Marry changed drastically when, one August 15th, she and her parents died in a landslide on the way to visit Marry's cottage. Ayano was taken into the Kagerou Daze, where the Snake of Favoring Eyes heard her wish to learn about the Medusa and how her eye abilities could affect her siblings. It showed her Azami's memories, which lasted thousands of years, on repeat so that she could thoroughly understand her, and Ayano stated that the experience was enough to make her feel like she was going to go insane.

During that time, Ayano also learned of the Snake of Clearing Eyes' plan to create his a new Medusa through Marry, which required killing all current snake owners, including Kido, Kano, and Seto. Once she returned to the real world, Ayano immediately saw her parents' bodies and blamed Marry, who survived the accident, for all of her family's suffering. When they returned home, she told her adopted siblings that they must kill Marry to be saved, causing all four of them to move out of their family home. Alone, Ayano began planning on ways to stop the Snake of Clearing Eyes without the Mekakushi Dan's help.

Despite the new, drastic measures she was now willing to take to save her family, Ayano's kind personality remained after her breakdown, as shown by how she she invited Konoha, a stranger, into her home when she found him in need of shelter on a rainy street. Unlike in other Routes, she does not know Shintaro before he meets the Mekakushi Dan, and she initially is cold towards him because she falsely assumed that he was uninvolved with the Kagerou Daze. After reuniting with Kano and hearing about the Snake of Clearing Eyes' attack on Kido, Ayano displays remorse over her actions and opens up to Shintaro by telling him her story. Thanks to him and Hiyori, she eventually reconciles with her remaining family, including Marry. Her love for them and her strong desire to protect them continue to show during the Mekakushi Dan's faceoff with the Snake of Clearing Eyes, like when she begs Kano to let her go with him to stall their enemy.

She has a strong affection for Shintaro after the events of Manga Route 2 and becoming his snake. When he visits her in a dream or at the end of a Route, she usually asks him if he remembers her and admits that she is sad when he cannot. She sometimes tells him her story with a smile despite knowing that he will always forget her until the Tragedy is finished.

Eye Ability

• Favoring Eyes (目をかける Me wo Kakeru): While she was still human, her eye ability allowed her to project her feelings, thoughts, and memories to others. She refers to this ability as "the power of caring". In Manga Route 2, she primarily uses this ability to show others Azami's memories, which the Snake of Favoring Eyes showed her in the Kagerou Daze, and uses it during the Mekakushi Dan's attack on the Snake of Clearing Eyes. She presumably loses this eye ability after her surrogate life from the Snake of Favoring Eyes is used to turn her into a new snake.

History

Main page: Snake of Retaining Eyes/History

Ayano's backstory before becoming the Snake of Retaining Eyes is different from that depicted in other Routes.

Key differences in her backstory include:

• The Tateyama family met Marry and adopted her into their family.
• The summer of her first year of high school, Ayano died alongside her parents in the landslide and entered the Kagerou Daze alone, where the Snake of Favoring Eyes showed her of the Snake of Clearing Eyes' plan to kill her family and make Marry the next Medusa.
• Ayano left the Kagerou Daze and, after expressing the need to kill Marry to end Clearing Eyes' plan, estranged herself from her siblings. Afterwards, she lived alone in her parents' house.
• Ayano worked on thwarting the Snake of Clearing Eyes on her own rather than recruiting Kano, who resented her.
• Ayano does not commit suicide to try to stop Clearing Eyes' plan of recruiting all of Azami's snakes in the real world.
• She never meets Haruka nor Takane and does not meet Shintaro until the present day plot.
• Some time before the present day plot, Ayano met and took Konoha into her home.

Relationships

Main page: Snake of Retaining Eyes/Relationships

Songs

Main:

• Losstime Memory

Trivia

• The Snake of Retaining Eyes is the first character to appear in the anime and is seen talking to Shintaro.
• Her ability as a snake has been called "Retaining Eyes" and "Imprinting Eyes" depending on translation. Her snake name's literal translation is "snake that sears into eyes".
• She is sometimes nicknamed "Yaki" or "Ayaki" by the Kagerou Project fandom, which is based off the phonetic spelling of her name as a snake, Me ni Yakitsukeru Hebi (目に焼き付ける蛇, Snake of Retaining Eyes).
• She used to wear her hair clips in a cross shape when she was younger, then wore them parallel as she got older. The way her hair clips are placed may be to resemble her mother, Ayaka.

Quotes

• "I say this every time, but I'll say it again this time. [...] Don't forget what happens today, no matter what." - the Snake of Retaining Eyes to Shintaro before August 15th in the Anime Route
• "I am your power, the power that was born within you long before this current you was born. Long ago, you and the queen made a vow to each other that you would never forget this Tragedy. Can you remember it now, I wonder?" - the Snake of Retaining Eyes to Shintaro after he fully activates his ability
• "So, tell me. Now that you know the tale thus far, what do you plan to do about the future that lies ahead?" - the Snake of Retaining Eyes to Shintaro
• "Today, his world is going to repeat. We'll meet, I'll lose him, we'll fight, and he'll forget it all over again... That's why I don't. Until the day come that he remembers, I'll keep all those memories safe. Until the world stops rewinding, and the moment comes when I disappear, let me you show you my feelings... just one more time." - the Snake of Retaining Eyes about Shintaro