Tomoako

 is the family ship between Tomoe Udagawa and Ako Udagawa from the BanG Dream! fandom.

Canon
Ako and Tomoe are sisters; Tomoe is older by one year. They are both high school students at Haneoka Girls Academy, where Tomoe is a second-year student, and Ako is a first-year student. They are both drummers of their respective bands, Afterglow and Roselia. Despite Tomoe's mature outlook, she is often as hotblooded as her younger sister, and the two especially enjoy playing games together and hanging out downtown. They both like chanting "soi-ya" (chant used by taiko drummers to pump themselves up) as well.

Ako admires Tomoe the most in the world and has admired her for as long as she can remember. Tomoe was the biggest inspiration for Ako to start playing the drums as well. In fact, she calls herself the "second coolest drummer", and regards Tomoe as the "world's coolest drummer", and often talks about how she aspires to be just like her. Although Tomoe doesn't always understand Ako's behavior and is perplexed by the things she says, she always supports her and helps her find her own definition of "coolness".

Tomoe and Ako are first shown interacting in the fourth chapter of Roselia's Band Story. Ako arrives home after trying to get Roselia's vocalist Yukina acknowledge and let her audition for her band multiple times, but so far all of her attempts have ended up failing. Tomoe pats Ako's head as they talk. Tomoe tells her that she's cheering for her, before mentioning that Lisa, Roselia's bassist and fellow dance club member, is best friends with Yukina. This shocks Ako, as she realizes that the "best friend" Lisa's always talking about is in fact, Yukina. The two are shown again in Chapter 11 when Ako returns home in low spirits after getting yelled at by Roselia's guitarist Sayo (due to the latter seeing her own sister Hina joining a band, and then getting angry about hearing Ako talking about nothing but her own sister). She instantly asks Tomoe if she's just a nuisance to her, but Tomoe smiles at her and pulls her into a hug as she asks the former to tell her everything. In Chapter 13, she enthusiastically tells Tomoe about how their costumes will look the coolest and represent their musical style super well, and how she feels like she's truly found her place in the band.

Tomoe SOS! Ako's Grand Nursing Operation
In addition to being the 4★ gacha pair for the event, the event centers on Tomoe becoming bedridden with a fever and leaving from school early. She then sends Ako a text message telling her to buy some medicine, and after finding out just how high her fever is, Ako proceeds to go around buying medicine, a sports drink and some ice cream as well. Arriving home, Ako is shocked at Tomoe's current state and helps her change into pajamas. Tomoe apologizes, but Ako just calls her a weirdo and goes to get the medicine and other items. As she waits for Ako to come back, Tomoe ponders on how Ako has matured in such a short time (as she told her Tomoe doesn't need to worry about a thing), and how she didn't imagine Ako would look after her since it has always been the other way around.

As Tomoe is laying in her bed, she suddenly brings up a memory where Ako was the one who got sick, and how she was crying and clinging tightly to Tomoe and even jumped back up to hug her after their mother had tucked her in. They two ended up sleeping together, and the next day Tomoe caught her fever. Ako apologizes but Tomoe tells her not to, and explains that she's happy to see how Ako has become a lot more reliable. Tomoe tries talking more about their childhood memories, but Ako stops her in embarrassment and tells her she needs to rest. Half an hour later, Tomoe is sound asleep and Ako pumps herself up, thinking how she wants to pay Tomoe back for everything she did for her back when they were young. Later Saaya, Tsugumi and Hagumi bring her some food after finding out that Tomoe got sick. Ako uses them to cook a meal for Tomoe and then feeds it to her after she wakes up. Tomoe thanks her for the delicious meal, and Ako tells her that the three came to visit her, which impresses Tomoe. Later Ako keeps insisting that Tomoe needs to sleep even if it bores her and then feeds her ice cream. After Tomoe falls asleep again, Ako wishes they could walk to school together next day. Morning comes, and Ako is happy to see Tomoe feeling better, while Tomoe is suprised the former is making breakfest. After leaving the house, they run into Saaya, Tsugumi and Hagumi, and Tomoe thanks them for their help. Hagumi expresses how she wishes she had a little sister like Ako too, but Tomoe tells no one else can have her.

In Ako's Card Story's first Episode, titled "Rhythm Games Together!", starts with Ako arriving home and Tomoe remarking she came home earlier than usual. She then gives Ako a bunch of her favorite snacks as a thanks for the latter taking care of her. They then proceed to play rhythm games, reminisce once again about their childhood and talk about Ako's growth. In the Special Episode, she tells the Player Character all about what happened and how she took care of Tomoe. Ako even goes as far as saying that seeing Tomoe having a fever made her heart stop and feel really scared because she had never seen Tomoe in such a state. Right afterwards she says that she can't remember everything she did, but how she went into action and helped Tomoe out with everything. In Tomoe's Card Story's first Episode, titled "Hero Of Justice", Ako enters Tomoe and Tsugumi's classroom to bring her forgotten jersey, as they're coincidentally talking about Ako's nursing skills. Tsugumi expresses how lucky Tomoe is for having someone like Ako by her side no matter when. Ako says she'd gladly help and nurse Tsugumi back to health, but takes her word back after Tomoe questions Ako's statement, and how she thought Ako was supposed to be her personal nurse. In the Special Episode, she tells the Player Character about their recent event, as well as how impressed she is about Ako managing to become more reliable.

Umbrella For The Autumn Rain
In the final scene of Chapter 2, Ako and Tomoe are shown talking at home where the former tells Tomoe all about Sayo's ongoing slump. Ako then quotes Sayo asking if Ako still aspires to be just like Tomoe, which she answered saying she'd ideally do it for eternity, before pondering just why Sayo asked the question. Tomoe smiles and is happy to find out Ako admires her so much, and tells her she'll keep doing her best to be Ako's ideal of a cool sister.

The next event that centers around them is "Growing Up Sisters!", where Tomoe is shocked to see Ako's growth once more.

Quotes
"In dramas they always say, "I feel like my heart stopped," but that was the first time I ever felt that, so I finally get it. I had never seen my sister that way before, so I got really scared. But then I thought, "This is no time to be scared, Ako..." I mean, my mom wasn't even home that day, so I was the only one who could take care of her! So I thought, I have to do something!"

- Ako to Player Character in "Taking Care Of Sis"

Fanon
Tomoako is a bit of a rarepair, both as a family and femslash ship. This is especially due to both girls having more popular ships, such as Tomohima and Kaotomo for Tomoe, and Rinako for Ako, respectively. It is more shipped platonically and as a family ship in both the Eastern and Western sides of the fandom, unlike SayoHina which has a lot of romantic art and shippers in the Eastern fandom (especially in Japan and South Korea). This is also because unlike SayoHina, Tomoako already had a better and more supportive relationship at the beginning of the story, meanwhile SayoHina had a broken relationship due to their differences and Sayo distancing herself from Hina because of her intense inferiority complex. Similarly to the SayoHina shippers in the Western side of the fandom, Tomoako shippers have been sent death threats and are generally looked down upon. This especially happened after some joked that Ako and Tomoe's untrained arts for the Growing Up Sisters! were so intense one could interpret it as them having a lovers' fight or trouble confessing their feelings.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

ART

Trivia

 * While Ako is just a drummer, Tomoe has also played the taiko drums during the taiko festivals around their home area for a long time.
 * They are both members of Haneoka's dance club.
 * In Tomoe's 2★ card story for the "Determined Darkness, Blue Rose Pride" event, she loaned one of Shakespeare's books in order to gain inspiration so she could help Ako become even cooler.

Variations

 * Sayohinatomoako refers to the ship between the two, Sayo Hikawa and Hina Hikawa