Yagami "Nelly" Nerimaru

Name: Nerimaru (given the Yagami family follows American middle name tradition, Daisuke) Yagami; Nickname: Nelly
Birth Year: 1981
Career: Farmer; Takes over family farm after Jill leaves
Wife: Elli (ex)
Connected to Harvest Moon series?: Based around HM64 and HM: BTN farmer
Known Likes: His family, liquor, hassling Koji
Known Dislikes: Initially any male that associates with his female family members, Elli at the moment

Description: Despite being twins, compared to Koji, Nelly has always been the more laid back leisurely good-natured one. Doesn't appear to have changed much personally from his teen years to his adulthood besides the obvious maturing. Unlike his twin, Nelly was never sickly, the healthier of the two. Nelly is a cheerful type of guy, often joking and messing around with everyone. That is, up until the events with Elli. After that, Nelly seems much more unstable, going into isolated depressions or having angry outbursts, a lot like Koji in a sense.

Nelly is affectionate with his family, to a certain extent. To a point he seems to view his sons as something of an extension of his brothers, treating them with hard tough love. Like Koji, he gets very firm with them if he thinks they are doing something that will bring harm to themselves or others.

Like his twin, Nelly will usually rile his mother up somehow, usually because he's involved in something Koji started. Nelly doesn't seem as close with his mother as others, however, not even calling her to tell her about him and Elli's predicament, the woman finding out through other sources. Nelly is not often seen associating with his father but him and his siblings all respect the man greatly. Nelly respects Shin quite a bit, like Koji, and even jokes with his sons that if it weren't for Shin bailing him and Koji out, they'd have been in prison to that moment. Nelly is very sensitive to Koji, worrying about his twin more than perhaps any of the other family. Nelly differs from Koji in that he didn't really count on Koji wanting to be independent from him. An often mentioned story is that upon their birth, Koji and Nelly were separated and Nelly cried endlessly until he was finally put beside Koji. Indeed this reflects that Nelly is much more dependent on Koji, not understanding things like why his brother would go to a different college and confessing to him that he was worried when he moved to Mineral upon marrying Popuri. Also, Nelly controls a deep secret about Koji, often changing the subject of their early childhood as not to irk up something. Seems to feel he's responsible for this and even believes that Elli could be karma for what happened, shockingly observing that even what happened wouldn't be enough to make up for it. Outside of that, Koji and Nelly have a very jostling close relationship and still prone to making trouble even in late adulthood when with each other.

Nelly has a super unseen relationship with Tony. He, though amused, scolds Koji for saying that he views Tony as the "crazy, slutty type", declaring that's their little brother, denoting some affection though a few sentences later declaring Tony's an idiot. Nelly, much like Koji, had trouble handling Jill's entry into maintaining relationships. In general, like all the male siblings save for Shaun, isn't comfortable with Jill's sexuality and is the first to freak upon seeing her dressed scantily in a club. Along with Koji, they used to threaten and do bodily harm to Jill's potential suitors before their presence was known, thus leading Jill to believe that men just weren't interested in her. However, unlike Koji, Nelly seems largely to have resolved his issue with Jill being married and isn't often seen seething over them being romantic. Like Tony, Nelly doesn't seem to associate with Shaun much but probably views him in the same light.

Nelly's relationship with his oldest son, Jyun, has been described as characters as more of a friendly one. Kyo and Hoshiko observe that Nelly sees Jyun as an adult and more someone he can confide in than his "two babies". Indeed Nelly does seem to have more faith in Jyun, upset but not concerned when Jyun leaves the country rather erratically because he knows his son is level headed and that he just needed time to himself. However, as much as he sees Jyun as an equal, he's just as likely to scold or punish him for silly behavior, such as when Jyun drunkenly mixes pills and liquor, causing Nelly to punch him for doing something so dangerous. Also, he does worry as when Jyun blacks out as a result, tells him to be more careful. Nelly likes Roomi quite a bit, like Koji, taking her in as another daughter, indeed treating her very much like any of his children, indistinguishably. He doesn't even make a big deal out of what happened between her and Jyun or when she makes a unkind assertion about him and Elli, very forgiving of his daughter-in-law.

Kyo is something of a different case though Nelly doesn't seem to have much command with his middle child, Kyo often running off and disappearing. At some point, Nelly just doesn't seem to care, almost using it as a point to how 'bad' his children are. He does however worry a lot more about Kyo doing stupid things as he's apt to do. This is why Nelly is heartbroken with the events of the last few chapters of Lessons in Life as the cause wasn't because Kyo did anything wrong but in fact because he was doing everything he should have been. Much like Roomi, Nelly treats Gwen like one of his own, soothing any concerns she may have had. However in one incident he did slightly "turn" on her when he was the one presented with the harrowing decision about Kyo, wanting to know why it wasn't her choice.

With Hoshiko, Nelly takes on more of a Koji vibe, protective of her as his only daughter. Nelly often punished Kyo and Jyun for their cruel treatment of her growing up. After Hoji's attempt, Nelly actually had Shin break the law and allow him into prison along with Koji for retribution, Nelly actually being the only close family member Hoshiko told about what happened. But strangely, Nelly was only hard on Julius early on and only shortly as Julius was able to take anything Nelly dished out. Upon finding out about Nelly and Hoshiko's engagement, he was a little upset but shook Julius' hand and told him he was going to be a very weird son-in-law. Bizarrely keeps Jyun and Kyo from railing on Julius too much, telling them often to give it a rest. However, he does almost knock Julius over with a "pat on the back" when he finds out Hoshiko's pregnant.

While Nelly is on the same level as Koji sexually wise, it is not often seen in the series. Elli in fact tells him at one point when he's flirting that his "playboy words don't work on her anymore". After the incident, he doesn't even get involved with anyone for five years and is practically forced to when he does. He does have relations with Eve for a time but a series of events lead them to no longer see each other. He laments over it and feels he has no reason to trust or love anyone again, unhappy.

Nelly's relationship with Elli is a source of some confusion. Elli is the one that led to their separation however a majority of their run-ins afterwards are a result of her. Nelly never leaves these meetings without being hurt and for some reason Elli almost seems to be stringing him along.


Appearance

Nelly and EVERYONE'S height changes SO effin' much but for a definite height I'd say 6'1". He's probably a lot more muscular than Koji as he's spent so many years doing hard labor on the farm. Nelly's got a darker complexion than his twin and his hair is a little lighter brunette with brown eyes. Nelly is 1/4 American and despite being a majority Japanese I always viewed him as having mostly Caucasian features with a little bit of Asian. His hair, like Koji's, seems to always be around his shoulders or shorter.
  
Origins

If Koji's a staple character, then Nelly is as well.  So I guess people are wondering...well, people that are acquainted with this guy...

Is Nelly named after HIM? Nelly is typically an effeminate name, or at least sounds effeminate to me, so why...? And isn't this guy supposed to be Asian, like, what?

Well, you know how when you like something you try to get other people to like it with you? I was just getting into Harvest Moon and I only had one file at the time, the "Koji" file where he was married to Popuri. I decided that I wanted my cousins to play with me so I thought I'd start a file for them. One of my particular cousins lived like three states down from me and I was talking to her about it over the phone. Naturally she wasn't interested, I'm the only Harvest Moon person (though the inspiration of Tony played it almost more extensively than I did...) but I told her to give me a name for the male character. I think she gave me weird names like Devon and Steve...I was like, whatever, and was going to go with it. I told her that I was going to give her the chick that made cakes and she seemed enthused about pastries... upon telling her the characters name, Elli, she said in a sentence I can remember to this day from ten years ago "Wait...if she's Elli, then shouldn't he be Nelly?"

So...was he? I guess. I'm sure that was her inspiration for it. I laughed about it and agreed...then when I started writing I naturally realized why the hell would a Japanese guy be called 'Nelly'? So I "changed" his name to Neri...however, no matter WHAT I did, nothing could convince me to write his name that way. I always would accidentally type 'Nelly'. Finally, I gave up, and that became his staple name. In the old series, his name was just 'Neri' but in the series I tacked on a "-maru".

I attempted to base Nelly around this particular cousin, we were super close back then. And it worked, to an extent. Nonetheless, as Koji started to drift from Nelly in seeking independence, I drifted from her so that's where that came into play....but Nelly indeed started to deviate from his original formulation. My cousin and I did foil each other so I guess at least that stayed in tact.

Nelly admittedly played second fiddle to Koji and Jill (and their children) for a long time. But with this three children's storyline, the whole formation of the series started to change. And with the addition of his own issues, things started taking a newer darker turn. Hmm, when will we find out what happened with Elli? I have five pages of Answers written so soon :)

What Stays True to Nelly of 2004-2011?

Protective: As with Koji, I was prepared to say Nelly wasn't anywhere as protective as he is in the new series but naturally, that's a laugh. He's really never been AS protective of his kids or family as Koji but regardless, he cares about them and their safety deeply. And he's a WEE bit extra protective of Hoshiko as seen in Jewel in the Rough.

Playboy: Like Koji, Nelly has a long history of being a man whore. In fact, as reflected on in Yume, Jill and Tony agreed that Nelly definitely had been promiscuous longer than Koji. While Nelly doesn't seem to have any apparent reason to be like this, it's most likely just because he can. He knows he's attractive, he knows it's fun, he knows he can get away with it. Despite this, he seems a lot less interested in returning to this lifestyle after the divorce, disdainful of the idea and being one of his initial reasons not to begin dating.

Nelly Can't Stand Being Without His Futago!: More aggressive than in the current series but Nelly and Koji had violent fights over Koji's attempts to identify himself as more of an individual than 'Nelly's twin'. Nelly never has been able to stand this for whatever reason, most likely because Koji believes that he must gain this independence through separating himself from Nelly.

What DOESN'T Stay True to Nelly of 2004-2011?

Nelly in a Gang: Lol, yea, sounds sketchy considering where his name came from and all but Nelly of course tagged along with Koji and joined this gang. Uh, yea...

No Sex?: Koji and Nelly, shockingly, just dated a lot. They seemingly even expressed that they wouldn't have sex before marriage... o.O Oddly, probably a result of my more conservative youth but it just seems funny now...

Cursing...: Koji and Nelly actually scolded each other for cursing. Lol, pretty hilarious, the two are like sailors now.

Nelly's Family Tree