10 Days of Ronery – Kitaoji Hanabi from Sakura Taisen 3

2. Kitaoji Hanabi

Hanabi is the trademark shy girl of the Sakura Taisen franchise. Although, why it took them until the third game to add one is something odd because you’d think they would have added someone of that personality type from the start. No one even comes close to being shy in the first two games. Well, maybe Reni but she (almost wrote he ;;>_>) is more cold at first than shy.

If you haven’t realized I like docile and shy girls in anime and games. Hanabi is pretty high up there even to the point that she wants to become just that perfectly. Hanabi is a young Japanese woman living in Paris when you meet her in Sakura Taisen 3. She wants to become a Yamato Nadesico which is essentially Japan’s equivalent of an ideal woman. Hanabi uses a bow and arrow which is kind of odd since most Japanese woman learned how to use the Naginta to protect their husband/family, but Sumire already wields one so this is probably why. Also, throughout the course of the game she goes to Oogami who is also a fellow Japanese person about various customs from Japan and just to have that same nationality bond. Very nice.

Maybe it’s because I’m a foreigner and falling into that trap of liking the typical submissive Asian woman, but I can’t help it. She’s Japanese, has short black hair, shy, and very feminine. Hanabi’s gestures in game are like really shy. Putting her hands to her face and blushing. Sighing when embarrassed, and just that overall silent but understanding tone. Though, the silence and somewhat angry face she give you when you make a bad choice is just as killer in a bad way.

Hanabi’s Koubu is really neat because when it gets upgraded she uses a crossbow and she always bows when her turn is over, and it looks like it’s actually wearing the garb Japanese archers wear. That’s what was really cool about the later ST games how they made their Koubu look more personalized.

In Sakura Taisen 3, Hanabi had lost her fiance in a shipwreck and is pretty much trying overcome that. Oogami, the main male character, helps her get through this, and what not. It was pretty odd to see Hanabi still wearing black in Sakura Taisen 4 after the fact Oogami helped her get over the death of her fiance, but it’s reconcilable because the Dreamcast was dying and they needed to get 4 out soon. The ending between the two of them in 4 was cute. Oogami dressed up and Hanabi dressed in a kimono walking down the streets of Paris. In the new DS game, she is still wearing black, but I guess this is her trademark attire.

In Hanabi’s ending, Oogami makes a good reaction to her in a swimsuit here. Also, she isn’t afraid of water anymore. Yay!