Sarasa Watanabe

* Anime
* Manga

**Sarasa Watanabe** (渡辺 さらさ, *Watanabe Sarasa*) is a main character in the Kageki Shojo!! series. She is an aspirant at the Kouka School who stands out of among the rest of the Kouka students, and not just because she's the tallest student in the school. She dreams of playing 'Oscar-sama' one day and strives to aim for the top. Sarasa's amazing balance and strength surprises many of those around her.

## Appearance

Sarasa is a tall 16 year-old girl with blonde hair that is tied in puffy pigtails with bangs swept to the right side, and she has green tips at the end of her hair and green eyes that contain stars in the irises.

## Personality

Sarasa has a very bubbly personality, and she is very friendly towards people and cares deeply for her friends and family. She is often willing to help those in need, such as when Ai Narata's ticket is blown into a tree, and when she helps out Ai's stalker. Sarasa is also shown to lack tact, as she refers to the stalker by whatever self-depricating names he gives himself. Sarasa is easily unnerved when someone criticizes her, like when Hijiri Nojima tried to get under her skin in order to make her nervous during the Sports Festival.

## Background

Sarasa was raised by her grandparents. As a child, she would often spend time at the Shirakawa household for kabuki lessons. She became close friends with Akiya Shirakawa. Sarasa dreamed of playing Sukeroku, a character in kabuki theatre. However, her kabuki instruction reprimanded her and said that she would never be able to play Sukeroku. This deeply hurt Sarasa, and her grandfather forbade her from continuing kabuki and maintaining her connection with the Shirakawas, except for Akiya. Later on, Sarasa's grandmother passed away, but her grandfather banned Akiya and Kousaburou from attending the funeral. It is also revealed that Sarasa is Kaou Shirakawa’s illegitimate daughter and Shiori Atarashi’s younger sister.

## Plot

While riding a bike, Sarasa's grandfather Ken rushes at her and handles it a letter from Kouka Academy of Music. She returns to his tatami shop where people have heard that Ken's grandchild got a letter from Kouka and gather. The people are happy that they may end having someone famous from their region, but wonder if she will be okay as she will need to live in a dorm with someone else. Sarasa starts to worry that she will leave her grandfather alone, but he yells at her to finally open the letter and that her grandmother's dream was Sarasa to enter Kouka. Sarasa gets excited that she may end up playing "Oscar-sama" as only the Kouka Troupe is doing that play. Opening it, Sarasa learns that she passed the first phase and is called for the second.

On the day of the second phase, she sees Ai Narata standing under a cherry blossom and as she finds the tree to be beautiful, she goes there and asks Ai to take a picture of her. Ai gets surprised and the wind blows away her letter, however as it gets on a tree branch, Sarasa easily reaches it and returns it to Ai.

## Relationships

### Akiya Shirakawa

Akiya and Sarasa are childhood friends. Sarasa would often visit the Shirakawa household for kabuki lessons, and she once performed on stage with him during a kabuki show. The two are dating and they often exchange messages over SNS as Sarasa updates him on her life at Kouka. Ai notices that the two aren't a typical couple because Sarasa chooses to give Akiya a handshake to say goodbye instead of a hug.

### Kaou Shirakawa XV

A Living National Treasure and considered the greatest Kabuki actor of all time, he is a legendary *tachiyaku* (i.e., a Kabuki actor who plays male roles) specializing in the *Aragoto* style (i.e., heroic characters and warriors of superhuman strength). Famous for his spectacular and outstanding portrayal of important *aragoto* roles (which made him receive the prestigious title of Living National Treasure or *Ningen Kokuhō*), his best role in his entire repertoire of successful Kabuki roles is that of Soga Gorō/Sukeroku from *Sukeroku* and his monumental portrayal of this role ended up being responsible for Sarasa falling in love with the art of theater and one day becoming the top star of Kouka Revue. Although he was originally believed to be Sarasa's grandfather, it is revealed that Kaou XV (whose real name is Hideo Atarashi) is actually her father, making her the younger sister of Shiori Atarashi and consequently the sister-in-law of Kabuki actor Kousaburou Shirakawa (who was believed to be the father of her originally).

## Etymology

* Sarasa's surname **Watanabe** means "transit, ford, ferry, cross, import, deliver, diameter, migrate" (渡) (**wataru**) and "environs, boundary, border, vicinity" (辺) (**be/hen/ata(ri)**).
	+ **Watanabe** is a pretty common surname in Japan.