Saya Otonashi

**Saya Otonashi** (音無小夜, *Otonashi Saya*) is the main protagonist of the series *Blood+* and the first born of the daughters of the Chiropteran Mummy. She is a pure blooded Chiropteran queen and Diva's older twin sister as well as Hagi's lover.

## Appearance

### Normal Mode

Saya has the rosy-cheeked appearance of an average high school girl of age 16 with a height of 5'2" and weighing 89 lbs. She is black-haired with different hairstyles throughout time and brown eyes. Back in the zoo, she used to have long hair falling down her waist with the bangs tied behind. She had a pixie haircut by the time of the Russian Revolution. In Okinawa, she likes to keep her bangs and hair again in a pixie cut. After Riku's death, her bangs are shown to have grown past her chin, making her hair resemble a bob cut. In the last episode, Kai trims her hair to resemble her Season 1 appearance. She looks very similar to Diva, though Saya is slightly tanner from being out in the sun and has a different hairstyle and eye color and has light beige lip's. Her brown eyes change to glowing crimson whenever she feeds on blood, changes to chiropteran mode or senses the presence of Diva.

### Chiropteran Mode

Though Saya retains her human appearance, her eyes in this form become narrower and glow a bright red. Her lips also become darker, looking more red. Her pupils also turn into slits and her nails grow exceptionally long and sharp.

## Characterization

### Personality

During her years at the Zoo, Saya was spoiled by the original Joel, and therefore became very immature, self-centered, and rude. She herself realized this as a result of her friendships with Diva and Hagi, which help reveal and nurture her compassion for others. Overall, however, Saya was a bright, cheerful, and innocent person. After she unwittingly released the vengeful, bloodthirsty Diva upon her foster family and friends and accidentally turned Hagi into her chevalier, coupled with learning the truth about her life and her own inhuman nature, Saya lost her happy demeanor and becomes much more serious and plagued with doubts and guilt.

As a result of losing her memories and spending a year in Okinawa as an ordinary girl, with family and friends, Saya develops a sweet and caring albeit somewhat reserved personality. Kai later refers to her as being "a crybaby and a glutton". The latter name suits her as she is much inclined to eating. According to Kaori, no matter how much she eats, she never gets fat. The constant hunger is possibly due to insufficient consumption of blood. At this time, she is troubled by her amnesia, but only becomes increasingly insecure and worried as she learns more about her true identity and experiences more loss because of the Chiropterans.

Once she gets her memories back, Saya becomes broken and bitter, but gains a significant resolve to take down Diva no matter how long it takes or whatever the cost may be. She dedicates her life solely to correcting the mistake she made in releasing Diva by killing her, then forever ending the chiropteran threat by killing herself. She views killing Diva as her own personal task and refuses to let anyone else do it for her, not only because her blood is the only thing that can kill her, but also because she was the one who let Diva loose in the first place.

Saya is shown to have a bad habit of viewing the world in black-and-white; despite being one herself, she believes that any and all Chiropterans are evil and must be destroyed, due to the pain they had caused her and her adopted family. She also believes that Red Shield are simply fighting back against them and so aren't doing anything wrong and even accused Kai of making them look like the killers when he questioned this. Because of her biased hatred, Saya refuses to believe that the Schiff aren't evil even after learning that all they want is her blood, causing Kai to point out that, if all Chiropterans are enemies of humanity, then she, Hagi and Riku (who had been turned into her chevalier) are as well. She also refuses to believe that Solomon had turned his back on Diva and joined her side, for no reason other than he's Diva's chevalier.

A year after Riku's death, Saya exhibits a much darker and embittered disposition, having fully regained her memories but in the process of lost hope, as Moses and Lulu both note. She is unwilling to associate or work with others, particularly Kai and the rest of the Red Shield, not wanting to have to experience losing more loved ones. She refuses to accept help from anyone but Hagi, claiming it was their task alone to take down the Chiropterans and During the last half of the series, however, she slowly comes to accept their help.

In the last episode, Saya tries to save Diva after having delivered her a fatal wound. She then attempts to kill herself and Diva's children to end the Chiropteran threat forever. After a lecture from Kai and a love confession from Hagi, however, Saya refrains from killing them or herself, leading to her confession that she really does want to live.

## Skills

**Fencing:** Saya is trained at the Zoo in fencing. She is shown to be agile and quite apt with her sword. This skill comes in handy while killing chiropteran as she wields her katana to do so. However, at the start of the series, Saya has largely forgotten both of these abilities and must relearn how to fight with a sword.

**Music:** She is also taught to play violin and cello when she was in the zoo. She is an accomplished cello player and even teaches Hagi to play the cello when he was a kid. However, she rarely plays the cello in modern times because of her focus on hunting chiropterans.

**Athletics:** Saya is a skilled athlete. In Okinawa, she is seen to be very sportive being a remarkable high-jumper.

## Exceptional Abilities

**Strength:** Although not to the extent of Diva's, Saya shows efficient strength in killing the chiropterans and Diva's chevaliers. Kai even calls her "a dragon slayer". But because she chooses not to feed freely on humans and refrains from drinking Hagi's blood as often as she can, her abilities barely matches that of Diva.

**Speed:** Saya shows herself to be adequately agile.

**High Jump:** Saya is able to perform high jumps from top of buildings as part of her chiropteran ability.

**Telepathy:** Saya has heightened senses, being able to sense the presence of chiropterans and Diva. However, she cannot detect chevaliers for some unknown reason. Saya possibly possesses a telepathic connection to Diva and vice-versa. She is able to hear Diva's song when normal humans cannot, could verbally communicate with Diva when the latter did not know how to speak.

**Blood Attributes:**

* **Healing:** Saya, being a chiropteran, has the usual ability to heal herself instantly from any normal injuries. This was first witnessed by Joel the first. As the queen, she has the ability to use her blood to heal others too. But that leads to creating chevaliers. Both Hagi and Riku became her chevaliers being given her blood to heal mortal injuries.

* **Anti-aging:** Her special blood stops her growth after aging 16 years. That is why she looks the same even after originally surpassing 173+ years. This applies not only for herself but also for her chevaliers. Time stops for them at the age when they imbibe her blood.

* **Producing Chevaliers:** An unique ability of the queens. When their blood enters the bloodstream of a human who has lost most of their blood, it revives them in chevalier form, as demonstrated with Hagi and Riku.

* **Possible Power Drainage:** After she turns Hagi into her chevalier, she spends only a few years awake from periodically entering a 30-year hibernation cycle, before which she experiences a slow in her regenerative abilities and bouts of fainting spells.

* **Berserker mode:** In the first half of the series, Saya sometimes slips into a "berserk" trance in which she becomes much more aggressive and violent, which is mainly how she defeats enemies before she regains her memories. She tends to enter this mode from feeding blood of Hagi. Due to similarities it has led to her frenzy during the Vietnam War. It is possible that this "berserker" trance is a consequence of her being prematurely awakened during the Vietnam War and the subsequent year-long delay in receiving Hagi's blood.
* **Crystallization:** When mixed with Diva's blood, Saya's blood crystallize. This is lethal to her. In turn, her blood can crystallize Diva and her blood products. So, Saya uses her blood to crystallize the chiropterans and chevaliers created from Diva's blood. In her final duel with Diva, she plunges her katana loaded with her own blood into Diva who begins to crystallize. Saya is stabbed with her sister's blood soaked sword too. However, due to Diva having lost her blood power, Saya isn't affected.

**Power Gain:** All queens require daily blood to stay healthy. Saya used to drink human blood in the guise of medicine made by Joel while she was in the Zoo. After waking up at Okinawa, she has regular blood transfusions too. As a queen, the intake of her chevalier's blood probably gives her more nutrition and has impact on her chiropteran power. After drinking his blood, she gains strength to fight as a chiropteran. Hagi's blood caused her untimely awakening and triggered her into berserk mode during Vietnam War. It also helps her regain memories.

## Weaponry

Saya's trademark weapon is a special katana with a groove that branches out throughout the blade. Thus, when Saya cuts her thumb on the top edge of the katana, while gripping it so as to draw blood, the specially designed grooves allow her blood to flow into the channel and become distributed throughout the katana. Once loaded with her blood, it is a deadly weapon against Diva and any chiropteran of Diva's bloodline.

After Saya's first blade is broken in a fight with Amshel, David gives her a new one that has a red crystal at the base of its blade, symbolizing her membership in the Red Shield organization. The crystal is a piece of George's body, which crystallized when she killed him with her own blood in order to spare him the fate of turning into a chiropteran.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Saya Otonashi is part of Kokichi's evil secret organization, The Happy Clowns, as the enforcer. She tries to restrain herself from drinking human blood as often as she can.

## Trivia

* Despite major dissimilarities in the two series, the original Saya of BLOOD: The Last Vampire and the Saya of Blood+ anime do share some similarities (most likely as homages to the former):
	+ Both work for or ally with the Red Shield, and have "handlers" in the form of David and Lewis.
	+ Both call for their sword from an ally (Blood+'s Saya from Hagi, The Last Vampire's Saya from David).
	+ Both infiltrated a school as a student to hunt for chiropterans.
	+ Both break their swords during a fight.
	+ Both are the same species as the chiropterans they hunt, but are "pure" versions of such.
	+ Both were raised as experiments.
	+ Both were alive during the 19th century and were photographed during this time.
	+ Both have twin sisters who lack their regard for humanity (Blood+'s Diva, The Last Vampire's Maya).
	+ During the last half of the series, Blood+'s Saya exhibits a somewhat similar personality as The Last Vampire's Saya.
* In Japanese, *saya* means "scabbard" (i.e. the sheath of a sword) or "shell" (such as the shell of a pea). Both meanings are relevant, as Saya is an accomplished swordswoman and she was born from and hibernates within a cocoon (a shell). Likewise, *otonashi* means "obedient" or "quiet", suiting her reserved nature. It should be noted that *saya* also means "evening" when written with the Kanji meaning "small" and "night." This translation can also be pronounced as *sayo*, as Akihiro notes in the anime.
* Ironically, Kai considers himself Saya's older brother even though she is over one hundred years older than he is.
* Although Saya and Diva are twins and hatched from their cocoons at the same time, Saya is dubbed the "older" sister and Diva the "younger" because of their personalities (Saya is serious and Diva is immature).
* Saya's decision to crop her hair short has never been explained in-series but was featured in two different mediums:
	+ In the manga adaption of Blood+, she cuts her hair after Diva slaughters the patrons of Joel's birthday party. As she does so, she thanks Hagi for having called her "beautiful" before.
	+ In Blood+: Adagio, she has a nightmare in 1915 (over thirty years later) that flashes back to Diva slaughtering people at the Goldschmidt estate and calling her "sister". When she wakes up, she mistakes her reflection for Diva and messily chops her hair off to better differentiate each other. Realizing how badly she butchered her hair, she then sheepishly asks Hagi (who had walked in on her) to "fix it".
* Saya's gluttony could be because of her reluctance to drink blood freely; because she feeds rarely, she burns through calories more quickly and must consume a great deal of human food to supplant her natural diet.
* Saya is associated with pink roses.
* Saya's personality while living at the Zoo is reminiscent of Diva's modern-day personality.
* Although Saya was the one who first taught Hagi to play the cello, she is rarely seen playing one. In Blood+: Adagio, she plays, but badly, judging from the reactions of other characters.
* Although usually referred as 'Saya', she is sometimes called 'Otonashi' by Mao (Which is an inconsistency).
* Both Riku and Diva (the younger siblings) died. In contrast, both Kai and Saya (the older siblings) survived.
* Saya's short haircut is donned by Kanade and Hibiki in the epilogue.
* Although she presumably has a chiropteran form (judging from the remains of her mother), Saya never transforms, either due to preference to remain in human form or inability to transform altogether due to her sparse feeding on blood.
* Despite Saya and Diva being twins, there are a few differences between the sisters. Saya's eyes are red, Diva's are blue. Saya has tanner skin due to being allowed to walk about in the sun, while Diva has a paler complexion, as she was locked up in the tower by Joel I.  However, their nationalities, facial features, and heights are exactly the same.
* Saya's astrological sign is Leo.

## Memorable Dialogue

*[Saya is going to kill Diva's children]*

*Kai Miyagusuku:* What do you mean you're going to die?
*Saya Otonashi:* We'll surely be used again as weapons of war. I don't want to see another war over our blood. I don't want to see anyone get hurt anymore.
[to the babies, raising her sword]
*Saya Otonashi:* I'm sorry.
*Kai Miyagusuku:* Stop it, Saya!
*Saya Otonashi:* We must not live on!
*Kai Miyagusuku:* Don't be stupid! Who decided that? If there's anyone saying you shouldn't exist, I'll kick his ass! And I'll make him understand you're just a normal girl; a crybaby and a gluten!
[Hagi blocks Kai from getting any closer to Saya]
*Kai Miyagusuku:* I'll look after you. One way or another I'll find the place where you belong. So just stay with me. Don't you think so too, Hagi?
*Hagi:* I am a servant of Saya. I will do as she wishes.
[Kai punches him]
*Saya Otonashi:* Kai!
*Kai Miyagusuku:* Who are you? Be yourself! Just say it in your own words: What do you want? Even you, don't you love Saya?
[pause. Hagi turns to Saya]
*Hagi:* I wanted to see your smile. Once more, like when we first met. I have been serving you and was glad to return to you, even if I had to give everything up. When I first awakened after becoming a Chevalier the first things you showed me were your tears. And, driven by rage, you chose to take up arms and fight. However, when I found you in Okinawa, you were wrapped in happiness. There was the smile I could not give you, no matter how much I wished to. It was you and your family, Kai, who gave that smile to her.
[he moves and kneels down with her]
*Hagi:* Saya, as your Chevalier I have been living according to your wishes. But now, I must go against your wishes, just this once.
[he gently takes away her sword]
*Hagi:* Live. Please Live.
*Saya Otonashi:* Hagi...
*Hagi:* Live today for tomorrow. You do not need to fight anymore.
[he kisses her check, and she is silent a moment]
*Saya Otonashi:* I want to live!
[they kiss, then he cradles her in his arms]
*Saya Otonashi:* I want to live together with Kai, Hagi, and everyone else! I want to live together with everyone!
[the babies giggle]
*Kai Miyagusuku:* They're saying they want to live too.
*Hagi:* From now on, you can live the way you want. Live today, and smile tomorrow. If you live life to the fullest, looking forward to tomorrow, things will work out. Nankurunaisa!
## Saya's Wardrobe

Saya is shown in a wide range of clothing throughout Blood+. Following is the list of her clothing:

1. She wears a soft white dress of medium length during Vietnam War. Used in: Episode 1, Episode 10-11, Episode 30
2. Her gym clothes consist of a white Tshirt with blue gym shorts. Used in: Episode 1
3. School Uniform (spring): It is a white shirt with red bow and black knee-skirt. Used in: Episode 1- 7, Episode 50
4. School Uniform (winter): The same as spring with an addition of black jacket and grey socks.
5. Casual Pink shirt and brown pants
6. Pink top with khaki short jacket and white knee length skirt
7. Powder blue turtleneck top with same jacket and skirt
8. Yellow sleeveless turtleneck top (worn beneath the dark red coat) with the same skirt
9. She has pink pajamas. During her stay at Glay's farmhouse, she wears borrowed pajamas which are lilac in color
10. Vietnamese Dress: The Vietnam School Uniform she wears a traditanal vietnamese lilac colored ao dai robe and white trousers along with purple flats. Used in: Episode 8 - 11
11. The nightgown Saya wears during her stay in Vietnam is white with pink bands
12. Saya is given a pink party dress by Min to wear on the ball night at Lycee. The dress slips a little down her shoulders and hangs to knee level. She couples it up with pink strap heels and a pink choker and clip on pearl earings and a pearl bracelate.
13. At the Vietnam jungle, Saya wears a safari outfit with pink inner tops and black short shorts.
14. While journeying on the trans-Siberian railway, Saya wears a red and white winter coat with brown boots. She also has a pink turtleneck top beneath the coat she also wears a short khaki skirt which falls to her upper thighs and thick black pantyhose.
15. In the Russia flashback Saya wears a red and black winter coat with a Russian style hat. Used in:Episode 17
16. 1880's Gown: It is a pink and white gown
17. Fencing Attire: Saya wears a white fencing suit with brown belt
18. Hibernating Gown: This dress is of a beautiful soft pink shade with large white frills
19. Travel Gown: It is a red and white gown accompanied with a red hat
20. Purple Leather Coat: Saya wears this purple leather coat throughout the last half of season three and most of season four. She also wears a pair of same colored boots with the coat. Used in: Episode 33 - 38, Episode 42, Episode 44 - 46
21. The White Gown: It is a gift from Solomon. It is a simple yet elegant white gown with petal shaped design forming the waistline and lower cut
22. The Opera Dress: It is a pink sleeveless gown with purple inner top and pink scarf. Saya buys this when she goes shopping with Kai. She wears this outfit for the final duel with Diva. She rips through its lower half for the ease of her battle.
23. Omoro Waitress: It is an addition of a pink apron to the spring school uniform.