Aiko Hanazuki

10-11 (Season 3)

11-12 (Season 4)

Patissier

**Aiko Hanazuki** (花月 愛子 *Hanazuki Aiko*) is the main character and protagonist of the Pretty Country: Magical Life of Three Towns series. She is hopelessly in love with Pierre Kox and is constantly trying to hug or kiss him. She is a Lovely idol using pink as her theme color. She's Natsuki's best friend until Season 4 (where Aiko is in a group named I.C. Latina).

## Appearance

Aiko has long pink hair tied into two buns with two pink hair bows, giving her an odango hairstyle and wears pale pink ribbon earrings with ball-like furs. She has not visible eyes except when she is doing an audition and in some of the fan-art or manga artwork. Her bangs are framing left and right.

For winter, she wears pink dress with fur collar above it and an attached pink ribbon. On the center is pale pink love hearts and tied bow with white lace on the bottom. She also wears pink boots with pink ties.

For summer she wears pale pink dress covered with pink overall dress that has a tied bow attached with a white rabbit. Below that are five white rabbits and white laces, also a white frilled socks and pink Mary-Jane shoes.

#### **Personality**

Unlike most protagonists in shoujo manga and anime, Aiko is more childish and somewhat stubborn. She's very straight-forward, and sometimes has difficulty understanding certain situations, but her determination and hard work allow her to overcome any and all quests that hinder her. One of Aiko's most defining personality quirks is her love for pattisiere. This is a running gag throughout the series, since there isn't a single food she dislikes, and she has a humongous appetite.

## Background

Like Pierre, Aiko took a vow of silence at a young age and does not speak as a result. Aiko instead communicates with giggling, hissing, attacking, and growling sounds except for audition that she has her singing voice. By the end of Episode 178 (last episode), Aiko and Pierre are now grow more older and they were able to talk each other.

Several boys had also fallen in love with her, including a Western version of Pierre in Episode 44, a young French child star called Jacques Gregoire Tatou in Episode 90 and a talking Pierre in the episode 125.

## Plot

### **Becoming an idol and magical girl**

Aiko was first introduced in Episode 1 stumbles upon her older siblings watching a Universe Show on TV. After she attained the fruit she began scouted by Manager Léopold Honoré Chevalier, who insists Aiko on helping the office. Manager Léopold tells Aiko that she needs to find something she wants to do for herself, but Aiko replies that her dream is to becoming an idol too.

Aiko is thought of as the leader and can get envious or concerned when others show her up or perform better. At first she was hesitant about becoming an angel apprentice, but she changed her mind after realising she could have angelic magic.

### **Going to Idol Unit**

In Episode 129, Rinne has announced that she needs to make her own group Soft☆Germanic. As Rinne tries to search partners for her own unit, she finds herself turned down by everyone she asks. The members are chosen to be Karin Shiraishi, Hiroko Miyamoto, Yuko Himejima, Naru Aizawa, and Aiko Hanazuki. It seems like Makoto, Sango, Izumi, Haruka, and Mio notice the five seems perfect for each other.

Looks like Rinne did not made her unit as perfect members, so she needs to search 2 members for her own idol clan (this occurs in Episode 175). Aiko then leaves Soft☆Germanic after get permission from Rinne, where Aiko and Shizuko Kazemachi join as new members of Latin8.

Latin8 renamed into IC (Idol Club) Latina in Season 4 after their rivalry with SoftGermanic.

In Episode 186, IC Latina plays a challenge against ANGLICAN. However, IC Latina did not win.

## As a Magical Girl

**Angel France** (エンジェルフランス *Enjeru Furansu*) is the alter ego of Aiko Hanazuki. Angel France has the power of dessert and love hearts. She speaks in a beautiful voice, and uses Lovely pink magical wand as her weapon. In English dub, her alter ego is "Magical France".

* Introduction (Japanese): "The Big Love of My Heart, Angel France!" (あたしの大きく愛、エンジェルフランス! *Atashi no Ōkiku Ai, Enjeru Furansu!*)
* Introduction (English): "I'm an angel of sweet desserts and love, Magical France!"

## Etymology

**Hanazuki** (花月): **Hana** (花) means flower and **zuki** (月 *tsuki*) means moon.

**Aiko** (愛子): **Ai** (愛) means love - this is a reference to her love of pastries, **ko** (子) means child, referring to her childish personality.

## Relationships

Pierre Kox: Aiko has a huge crush on Pierre Kox. She is always chasing him whenever she sees him, and won't leave him alone. She will do anything to be with him.

Ren Harumiya: Aiko looks up to Ren and the two are very good friends, Aiko goes to Ren for advice and she usually goes to her for tips in cooking. They both reunited as a fully-member Latina in Season 3 second half.

Iori Kurosawa: Aiko and Iori get along well.

Rui Matsuyama: Aiko likes Rui, and sometimes Ren, Rui, and Aiko are seen as a trio of friends. But usually it's just Aiko and Ren. The three are still close friends, though.

Kanon Shijimi: Kanon has heard about Aiko's relationship with Pierre. She thinks Aiko and Pierre might marry when they were adults.

Lisette Hoshitani: Aiko knows Lisette when Lisette is transferred to IC Latina.

Matsuri Asasora: Along with Lisette, Matsuri is one of Aiko's teammate since L and M are transferred into IC Latina.

Yuriko Fujimiya: Aiko and Yuriko are shown to have a steady friendship throughout the series. She would often offer her advice and would commonly help her with her ideas no matter how ridiculous they were.

Lucy Haywood: Aiko upset Lucy at first, but befriended her after inviting Aiko to hang out later on. Lucy enjoys playfully teasing Aiko.

Rinne Hoshizora: Aiko has known Rinne through Natsuki.

Karin Shiraishi: Thinks Karin is too famous than other idols.

Hiroko Kiriya: Hiroko claims that Aiko is the only idol she acts good towards them.

Yuko Himejima: Likes her attitude.

Natsuki Aizawa: Natsuki is Aiko's best friend and is formerly usually with her.

Julius Rozenburg: Aiko thinks Julius is very cute despite his female-like deep voice and kept trying to convince him to stop using forbidden pitch. She sometimes shows a dependent side towards Julius.

Shizuko Kazemachi: Shizuko is Aiko's new friend when they become new members of IC Latina.

## Trivia

* Favorite foods: Baguette, croissant, chocolate cake, hotcake, milk, éclair.
* She can make different anime character parodies.
* In Episode 94, Aiko's hair is shown to reach chest when down.
* Aiko is the first Pretty Country protagonist to star in multiple series since her first appearance in Pretty Country: Angelic Days. The other being Haruno Aida, who also stars in *Story of World II: A Flowery Life* since her first appearance in Story of World II: Flowers Bloom with You.
* Revealed that in her own ways, eating is no problem. In "The World`s Famous Cake," she closes the episode by swallowing it whole.
* She is very similar to Pucca from the TV series of same name.