Chihiro Satou

## Signature

> ***"I love myself."***
>
>

**Chihiro Satou** is a first-year student at Hanasakigawa Girls' High School and the vocalist and leader of AMBiTiON.

## Background

Chihiro grew up an insecure girl, lacking confidence from comparing others to her own averageness. She felt so insecure that she eventually came to believe that people hated her, leading to her hating people in return.

Noticing that music and bands seemed popular in her school, Chihiro made a revelation and formed a band in order to get attention, leading to the start of AMBiTiON's Band Story.

## Appearance

Chihiro has dark brown eyes and orange-brown hair tied into a side ponytail on her left using a pastel yellow scrunchy, with the ponytail having a braid attached to it. Her bangs are swept to the side, and the hair framing her face is clipped with two white bobby pins in the shape of an X.

Her voice is usually low and warm. When trying to be cute, she raises her pitch and speaks overly sweetly. She has an average vocabulary for a teenager, though she talks more vulgarly than one would expect of her cute image.

Chihiro's casual attire is feminine with a neutral color scheme. She wears an off-the-shoulder knit beige sweater, a dark pantyhose under a plaid-patterned, warm gray pleated skirt, and dark brown loafers.

## Personality

Chihiro is a jealous, judgmental girl with an obsession for being cute and popular. Feeling that no one pays attention to her, she is desperate to make people love her in what she believes to be a vengeful effort to prove herself to the world. Unbeknownst to her in the beginning, her desire to be loved actually stems from a severe inferiority complex.

Although she doesn't admit such thoughts aloud for fear of betraying her positive image, Chihiro constantly judges the people around her for things like appearance or behavior. She usually holds no qualms with being so harsh since she thinks that, having felt judged and hated herself, her own judgment is justified.

She is stubborn and petty, sometimes acting for the purpose of spiting others.

Notably, she has some instinct for self-protection, going to various lengths to protect herself, especially psychologically. One of her ways of protection is to avoid caring about people, as not only does she believe that people don't deserve her affection, she also believes she can avoid vulnerability this way. As well, she tends to deny the truth if she is discomforted by it. These two self-protection methods result in Chihiro's unwillingness to admit when she does care for someone, further resulting in a *tsundere*-like disposition.

Chihiro tries to advertise herself to others as a cute, positive, and sociable girl, though she has trouble maintaining this image, as she is moreso pessimistic and socially inept. She often finds herself acting in ways that someone of her desired "cutesy" image would not, such as speaking brashly and sarcastically.

Having been starved of what she considers positive attention, when Chihiro gets complimented or praised, she usually short-circuits and plays up her cute-girl persona to the max, ending up in her acting self-absorbed and spoiled instead.

Chihiro is a *tsukkomi*-type character, usually the logical one in a comedic scenario. She tends to be on the recieving end of Izumi's shenanigans, though past the band story, this would double as a fuel for Izumi's distrust.

## Relationships

Aki Hoshinomiya: Fellow band member and classmate. Chihiro is envious of her talent and reputation and used to hate her for it, thinking she was secretly two-faced and mean. In the Band Story, Aki's kindness and vulnerability made Chihiro realize her own affection for the band, though the realization troubled Chihiro. She cares about Aki and wants to help with her problems, as much as Chihiro sees the sentiment pathetic of herself. At times, Chihiro is exasperated by Aki's optimism and has difficulty understanding her.

Izumi Takimoto: Fellow band member. Chihiro finds her childish and is frequently exhausted by her playfulness. As well, Chihiro is usually the victim of Izumi's teasing, which frustrates her. While vaguely aware of her secretive tendency, Chihiro doesn't understand enough to care. As Izumi didn't seem skilled at the start, Chihiro had no reason to recruit her, but only did so to spite Izumi's initial apathy.

Sorae Ishizawa: Fellow band member and schoolmate. While Chihiro doesn't think highly of Sorae, what with her introversion, appearance, and niche interests, Chihiro also has a slight protective fondness over her. Chihiro had little hope for her at the start, but now accepts her role in the band.

Mai Moriuchi: Fellow band member. Though Chihiro thinks Mai is overly uptight, she is also, at times, thankful for her logical and responsible personality. At first, Chihiro found Mai strange and hard to work with due to her initial uncooperativeness, but they are courteous with each other now.

## Etymology

* **Chihiro** (千尋): **Chi** (千) means "thousand" and **Hiro** (尋) means "inquire/search".
* **Satou** (佐藤): **Sa** (佐) means "help, aid" and **Tou** (藤) means "wisteria". This is the most common surname in Japan.

## Trivia

* In the early stages of Summery/AMBiTiON's conception, Chihiro was a seemingly friendly and cheerful but jealous girl who would act like different anime character tropes (e.g. shy, sisterly, energetic etc.) from day to day in an attempt to get attention.
* Chihiro is an only child.
* Chihiro wears makeup, even at school.

## References

1. ↑ AMBiTiON/Story/Prologue
2. ↑ She confronts Izumi in Chapter 4 partly to spite Izumi and her initial apathy, and partly to spite Aki's suggestion to "[not] go nagging [Izumi] again".
3. ↑ Her confrontation with AMBiTiON (minus Aki) in Chapter 17 is her attempt to protect herself from being trusted, as she became afraid of it.
4. ↑ Chapter 10, as told by narration: "[...] [I]t was only Chihiro's lack of sibling sense as an only child."
5. ↑ Chapter 17, as told by narration: "[Chihiro's] hand instinctively moved to fix her hair, and she checked her makeup [...]