Shio Kōbe

* Anime
* Manga

**Shio Kōbe** (神戸 しお *Kōbe Shio*) is the deuteragonist of Happy Sugar Life. She is a young girl who lives with Satō Matsuzaka in her apartment.

Shio cares for Satō deeply, but she often remains blissfully unaware of Satō's endeavors aside from Satou's necessary attendance in school and work, as she is not allowed anywhere outside of the apartment.

## Appearance

Shio is an eight year old girl with Dark blue hair that is tied into two messy pigtails and has big blue eyes. When her hair is down, it extends to her neck.

She usually wears a sailor school uniform which includes a light blue long-sleeve shirt, a striped blue/black bow tie, and a blue plaid skirt. Since Shio rarely ever goes outside, she is never seen wearing shoes but she wears black under-the-knee socks.

## Personality

Shio is shown to be a kind, naïve and innocent little girl who doesn't know many things outside of the apartment she resides in. She tries her best to work hard as she can and watch over the house while Satō Matsuzaka is away at school and work, and routinely greets Satou whenever she returns back home and is always happy to spend time together with Satou, showing a genuine love and kindness towards her. Shio believes that both she and Satō need to stay together, otherwise they would both be broken and incomplete forever, thus further exemplifying her love for Satō.

While her interactions with other people besides Satou are limited, she still displays the same kindness and sincerity she would with Satou, which draws many people to her and sometimes draw obsession with other people. She is typically referred to as an "angel", a "light", "the Moon", and other otherworldly symbols and beings, suggesting that her purity is a rare and enlightening trait of her personality that makes her almost ephemeral, though she is shown to not be as pure as she retorted to Taiyō Mitsuboshi that she is not pure.

## Background

When Shio was born, Yūna Kōbe (Shio's mother) felt sorry for her because she was born into a cruel world with her abusive father. However, Asahi Kōbe (Shio's older brother) suggested to his mother that they should work hard to protect her, and Shio soon became a ray of hope for the two of them. At some point, Asahi urged his mother to run away with Shio and he would stay behind so that their father wouldn't try to find them. He promised to return to his mother and Shio, and made a vow.

Eventually, Shio's mother found a place for them to settle in, waiting until the day Asahi returned, but struggled to keep up with paying rent because of her inability to get a well-paying job. Shio was starting to notice that her mother was slowly breaking apart and tried her best to cheer her up, however Shio's attempts at comforting her mother were often futile, as her mother fluctuated between many emotional extremes due to her past and current circumstances. Because of her mother's fear that her father would find them again, Shio's mother forbade Shio from leaving the house and got angry whenever Shio disobeyed her, despite Shio's intentions to help her mother feel better (such as going outside to pick a flower for her).

As her mother's state was gradually diminishing waiting for Asahi to return so that they could be happy, Shio begged her mother to take her outside so that she could find something to help fix her, but almost got hit by truck because of it. Shio was immediately brought back home and was scolded for wanting to go outside. For the first time in her life, Shio's mother slapped her, but quickly broke down due to the resemblance between her actions and her husband's abuse.

Soon after that incident, Shio's mother decided to take Shio outside again during a rainy night, and pushed Shio into an alleyway. Despite Shio begging for forgiveness and promising to be obedient, Shio's mother stated that she no longer needed her, and left Shio by herself. Then it was at that moment that Shio encountered Satō Matsuzaka who then took her to The Painter's apartment. There, the Painter attempts to strangle an unconscious Shio for his own selfish reasons but is killed by Satou instead. Shio noticed that Satou's "jar was empty, but not broken" because she still believed in something, unlike her mother's "jar", which Shio believed was broken. This caused Shio to forget everything that happened, and the reason is she has a hard time remembering her life before Satō.

Shio lived with Satō in their apartment and is often left alone for most of the day because of Satou's school and work obligations. She is perfectly capable of leaving the apartment and does one night which results in her running into Taiyō Mitsuboshi and later having hallucinations of her mother's figure in the park. After that incident, Satou installs a lock from the outside and does not leave again on her own will due to Satou telling her about the dangers of the outside world. She was unaware of the fact that Asahi is searching for her.

In the final episode of the anime and final chapter, she sustained minor injuries and ended up in the hospital after hugging Satō as well as pushing them both off the roof of the apartment with Satō (who died from the fall). After Satō's death, Shio keeps Sato's wedding ring and her hair ribbon as a memento to remember her by, she also claims that she has been reborn as Satō, much to Asahi's horrific shock and believes that Satō will be reborn in the future.

In Volume 11's "Extra Life", Shio's love for Satō has grown to a point where she started to adopt girlish hobbies and interests that she feels are in line with Satō's own. The fear of death is also something she has since shed, as shown when she was held hostage by a robber at knifepoint. She responds with amusement instead, even deliberately moving her neck toward the knife's edge. The robber was held aghast and pulls the knife away, inadvertently freeing her in the process. As the police take the robber away, he asks Shio if she isn't afraid to die, to which she responds: "That's not what matters right now... that aside, the teddy bear is more important".

Years later, 16-year old Shio visits the burned ruins of a certain apartment with a present in hand: a pastel-colored cupcake that she made herself for her beloved Satō. She talks to the "latter" about her life in school and how every day is just the same old stuff. She has also made a firm resolve to be able to do everything on her own. Up to now she still has not been able to figure out why Satō let her live, but as long as her love remains, it doesn't really matter. Shio will continue to keep those feelings until the time when they meet again.

## Relationships

### Satō Matsuzaka

Shio deeply cares for Satō and loves her but often remains unaware of Satou's dark actions, since Satō doesn't allow her outside of the apartment. While living with each other, Shio forgets her life before Satou, only having haunting hallucinations of her mother. It is not until Satou murders Shouko, that she demands Satou tell her everything so they figure it out together, which the latter does. She thinks of herself as Satou's equal and wants to be treated as such, sharing the burden of all her problems so they can get through it together. Even when finding out about Sato's evil deeds she stands by her and the two even have a makeshift fake wedding, saying their vows and exchanging rings.
Shio is shown to proclaim her love for Satou just the same, stopping Asahi from hurting her during their face off. Her devotion to Satou is so strong that when her brother Asahi begs her to come back to their family, Shio rejects him and stays by Satou's side.
Right before they hit the ground after their suicide jump, Satou shields Shio from the impact, something that Shio is confused about once she wakes up from the Hospital. Shio refuses her brother to the very end and states her love exists only inside her where the memory of Satou is. She continued to think of Satou forever, holding her red ribbon and ring with care, suggesting that she inherited the madness.
### Yūna Kōbe

Shio is her daughter, she regarded Shio as a more clingy child than Asahi but a sense of pureness to her soul (much like herself as a girl). Shio often saw visions of her mother when she was lost, causing her to delusion her mother's figure over her shoulder.

After leaving Asahi and living in another apartment with Shio, she became more emotionally unstable. When Shio runs into the street on a visit outside, Yunna slaps her because she rebelled and has a flashback to being abused by her husband and her mind collapses. Feeling as she though she became what she hated the most, she decided that it would be best to leave Shio out in a crowded street. "I don't need you anymore," she told her, and left her all alone.
After leaving Shio behind, she returned to her husband's house, poisoned him, and muttered to Asahi who came to the apartment to pick himself up, saying "It's too late", and she became a factor that makes him rush to search for Shio. After the death of Satou, she was standing alone outside the hospital where Shio was hospitalized.
### Asahi Kōbe

Asahi is Shio's older brother by eight years. Soon after she was born, Yuuna left her abusive husband with Shio to shield her from his rage and Asahi stayed behind to prevent their father from coming after them and would have joined them when it was safe. However due to the events that followed, Shio ends up missing after their mother abandons her. Asahi is frantic to find his little sister, putting up missing person posters everywhere. Asahi is shown to care about Shio very much and hates Satō Matsuzaka for taking her away from his family. He considers Shio's smile the "moon" because it is bright and full of hope for the future. He believes Shio is the happiness that keeps their family together thus without it, he would have nothing to live for.
When he confronts Shio and Satou, Asahi pleads with Shio to come home but Shio is still firm on staying with Satou. After the rejection, Asahi is shown to still care for his sister and is hopeful things can return to normal once Shio wakes up from coma but is once again rejected as Satou's influence over Shio remains even in death.
### Taiyō Mitsuboshi

Sometime after Shio escapes from the apartment room searching for Sato, she is met by Mitsuboshi. Realizing that this would probably be his only chance of being in proximity with Shio, who he believes can "purify" his soul, Mitsuboshi begs her to "kiss his boo boo and make it go away." Shio is confused at first but then lightly pats him on the head a few times. This seemingly does the trick and Taiyou decides to bring her home with him so he can touch her but two thugs show up and begin to beat Taiyou up in front of Shio, which causes to hallucinate and pass out due to the brutal scene in front of her. Satou soon shows up and murders the thugs herself before taking Shio back home. This is the first and last direct interaction between them yet Taiyou is still shown to be obsessed with Shio cleansing him and collects missing flyers of her.
In the anime ending credits, Taiyou is shown emotionless while looking at Shio's missing person reports, broken at how he had failed to retrieve "his angel."
## Etymology

* The name **Shio** means "Salt" (しお) in Japanese.
* Shio's surname **Kōbe** means "god, deity" (神) (**kō**) and "door" (戸) (**be**).

## Trivia

* Shio seemingly has the ability to "see" people's hearts as jars, noticing that Yuuna Kōbe's (Shio's mother) jar is "empty and broken" and Satō Matsuzaka's jar is "empty, but not broken".
* In attempts to remember Yūna Kōbe and Asahi Kōbe (Shio's family), Shio suffers symptoms ranging from dizzy spells, intense fear and anxiety that leave her curled up on the ground with a headache and she even hallucinations of her mother with her face scribbled out, speaking to her.
	+ Although there is no name for her condition, it may have originated from her past desire to forget everything that happened with her mother.

## Quotes

“*This is my happy sugar life.*”
–Shio, final words said in the anime.

## Gallery

### Character Design

Shio's full body and facial viewAnime RefFull Body ref in Manga
### Manga

shio happySatou and Shio before jumping off the apartment buildingShio giving Satou flowersShio at 16 years old in Volume 11
### Anime

Yūna Kōbe abandoning ShioShio's missing flyerAsahi and a younger ShioShio hugging Satō MatsuzakaTaiyō Mitsuboshi attempting to take Shio with himYunna hallucination behind ShioShio hallucinating Yuuna's illusion"I will never forgive you"Shio protecting SatouAsahi Kōbe trying to take Shio from Satou
#### Gifs

Shio hugging Satō MatsuzakaSatou and Shio huggingShio sitting in Satou's lapShio as the angel Satou sees her as, in the anime opening
### Other

Official Artwork of Satō Matsuzaka and Shio
## Notes

1. ↑ While Satō is obsessively in love with **Shio Kōbe**, she is never shown to have sexual feelings or intentions towards Shio and based on Shio's age, she likely never saw Satō in that light either.