Izuko Gaen

Izuko Gaen
Japanese	臥煙 伊豆湖
Romaji	Gaen Izuko
Character Information
Age	Middle Aged
Hair Color	Brown
Eye Color	Orange
First Appearance	Nekomonogatari
First Chronologic Appearance	Onimonogatari
Personal Status
Classification	Human
Occupation	Oddity Specialist
Relatives	Tooe Gaen (Older Sister, Deceased) Unnamed Brother-In-Law (Deceased) Suruga Kanbaru (Niece)
Production
Voice Actor	Satsuki Yukino

Izuko Gaen (臥煙 伊豆湖, Gaen Izuko) is the leader of an oddity specialist network, especially consisting of former members of the Occult Research Club in which she also lead in college.

She is known for her claim to "know everything."

Appearance

Izuko is a middle-aged woman with wavy long brown hair and orange eyes. Her outfit is reminiscent of hip hop fashion with a bright color scheme, consisting of a loose light green shirt over a black sweatshirt, loose maroon pants and running shoes. She wears a white baseball cap with a light green rim, and among her accessories include a smiley necklace and a pair of orange headphones hanging on her neck.

For some reason, where ever Gaen appears, a swirl of rainbow clouds can be seen in the background.

Designs for Nekomonogatari White

Personality

Despite her looks, Izuko is actually a very knowledgeable person when it comes to the supernatural. She also apparently knows some facts about Koyomi Araragi and Tsubasa Hanekawa and is updated in current events. In fact, she boasts about her wealth of knowledge frequently, to the point of adapting the catchphrase, "There is nothing that I don't know. I know everything," which is a stark contrast to Tsubasa's catchphrase.

Although the credibility of her claims over "knowing everything" may be debatable, it can be argued that she is good in taking advantage of what she knows and what other people do not know, allowing her to break down a person's confidence, like Tsubasa's confidence in her knowledge, for example.

Background

Izuko was the upperclassman of Meme Oshino, Yozuru Kagenui and Deishuu Kaiki during their college days in which they participated in the Occult Research Club together. She seems familiar of her juniors, but has shown some form of dislike towards Yozuru for some reason.

She also claims to be Suruga Kanbaru's aunt and Tooe Gaen's sister.

Plot

Shinobu Time

This section contains content from Onimonogatari.
As Koyomi encounters a mysterious entity that is pursuing him and Mayoi Hachikuji, Yotsugi Ononoki, who sees them by chance and eventually helps them elude the so-called "darkness", refers them to Izuko, who she thinks can help in their situation. Izuko welcomes them to her home. But, she feels that there is no other way to deal with the "darkness" because of its nature as a "non-existence", and she suggests that the only way for the "darkness" to leave the target, which she reveals as Mayoi Hachikuji herself, is for Mayoi to return to her original nature as the oddity called lost cow.

Izuko leaves behind Mayoi with Koyomi and Yotsugi to decide on her next step. Mayoi eventually chooses to pass on instead of returning as a lost cow.

Tsubasa Tiger

This section contains content from Nekomonogatari.
She appears in town after enlisting the help of Episode in a particular case. She mentions Yotsugi is also coming, but Episode does not know who that is. She also states that she wishes that either Deishuu or Meme were there instead, and that she doesn't want Yozuru there at all.

During Episode's short conversation with Tsubasa, she reveals that she knows about her and Koyomi, particularly Tsubasa's humility over her knowledge. In their conversation, she points out Tsubasa's faults in acknowledging her incapability to know everything. She later leaves for parts known, although telling Tsubasa that she refuses to intervene in the issues regarding the tiger-shaped oddity roaming across town and that only Tsubasa herself can do something about it.

Hitagi End

This section contains content from Koimonogatari.
By the start of January, through Yotsugi, Izuko attempts to bribe Deishuu Kaiki into giving up on the request he received from Hitagi Senjougahara regarding an attempt to swindle Nadeko Sengoku. Deishuu initially "agrees" to pull out from the job and takes the three-million-yen payment from Yotsugi, although Deishuu still continued the job regardless. Deishuu later thinks that Izuko knows of his decision to lie about pulling out of Hitagi's job.

Yotsugi Doll

This section contains content from Tsukimonogatari.
Similar to Hitagi End, Gaen makes no visual appearance in this arc. When Koyomi needs help figuring out why he can't see his reflection in the mirror, he and Shinobu try to figure out who to contact. They conclude with Gaen being the best option in order to meet up with Kagenui. When Koyomi grabs his phone, he finds that Gaen had already texted him a location to meet Kagenui before even asking her.

Catchphrases / Running Gags

• "There is nothing that I don't know. I know everything."

Appears In

• Nekomonogatari
• Onimonogatari
• Koyomimonogatari
• Owarimonogatari
• Shinobumonogatari
• Yoimonogatari

Gallery

On the cover of Owarimonogatari Volume 2

First appearance in Nekomonogatari.

In Onimonogatari.

Gaen with her tongue out from Owarimonogatari.

In the second part of Owarimonogatari