Kanoko Saimori

* Anime
* Live-action

**Kanoko Saimori** (斎森 香乃子, *Saimori Kanoko*?) is the second wife of Shinichi Saimori and the mother of Kaya Saimori who blames Sumi Saimori for the fact that she couldn't marry the man she loved and takes her frustrations out on Miyo Saimori.

## Appearance

Kanoko is a beautiful-looking woman apparently in her 40's, who has dark-brown hair that has bangs hanging on the right side and red eyes.

She has two different hairstyles in the anime and manga:

* In the manga, Kanoko has straight hair tied in a bun.
* The anime gives Kanoko short wavy hair that is more similar in texture to her daughter's Kaya Saimori.

## Personality

Kanoko possesses a spiteful, arrogant personality marked by her mistreatment of her stepdaughter, Miyo Saimori. Kanoko's actions and behavior towards Miyo are characterized by cruelty, similar to that of her daughter Kaya Saimori.

She consistently exhibits a lack of empathy, failing to recognize the emotional impact her mistreatment has on Miyo's well-being and she is not necessarily much better to Kaya, berating her cruelly whenever she failed at anything and telling her to not be "a failure" like Miyo.

After seeing is mansion in flames she cries in sorrow and dispair and becomes a broken woman.

## History

Kanoko was born in an ordinary family with no special powers. When she was younger, she and Shinichi Saimori fell in love and they became lovers. However, the Saimori family, wanted to improve the family's bloodline by arranging a marriage between him and Sumi Usuba. Kanoko was very angry at this turn of events, and started resenting Sumi since she saw her as the one standing between her and her lover.

After Sumi passed away two years after giving birth to Miyo Saimori, Shinichi wasted no time in remarrying Kanoko. Becoming Miyo’s stepmother, she despised the girl since day one. She would ensure that Miyo understood that by constantly remarking to her that if she hadn’t been born, then everything would be better, that the girl's mother was a thieving wench and called her a homewrecker's daughter.

Not long after their marriage, Kanoko gave birth to Kaya Saimori. Kaya had inherited Kanoko's extraordinary beauty and was a quick learner. Not only that, at the age of three, she’d already displayed the signature ability of the Gifted, the Spirit-Sight. Her husband praised Kanoko for giving him a Gifted daughter, something which made her glow with pride. Everyone in the house, even the servants, started worshipping Kaya and devoted less attention to Miyo. Despite the fact that her husband had married Sumi solely to pass their supernatural powers on to their heirs, and yet it had been her daughter Kaya, not Miyo, who’d been born with the Gift. In hindsight, Shinichi had nothing to gain from breaking up with Kanoko to marry Sumi. This discovery only further stoked Kanoko’s hatred of her stepdaughter.

One day, when Miyo was at elementary school, Kanoko decided to throw away the precious mementos Miyo had of her mother: kimonos, sashes, accessories and make-up. When the girl headed over to Kanoko’s chambers to ask if she knew anything about the strange disappearance of her belongings, she flew into a rage and accused the girl of calling her a thief, punishing her by shutting her in a storehouse at the back of the mansion. While Miyo is trapped in there, she dismissed Hana, a servant who had looked after Miyo, and immediately expelled her from the mansion for defending Miyo. Finally, she divested Miyo of her status within the household and would henceforth treat her worse than a servant.

In both the novels and manga, Kanoko also had extremely high expectations for Kaya and verbally mistreated her whenever she committed a mistake. She would often tell her to not be "useless" like Miyo, forstering and later enabling Kaya's envy and hatred of her step-sister.

## Plot

In Chapter 16, after Miyo was abducted where she was tied up and put in a shed, Kanoko went as far to beat and insult her before choking her around her neck, only to be saved by Kiyoka Kudou. Then, a female servant hurriedly announced that there is a fire and a frantic Kanoko immediately runs out of the shed to see that the entire Saimori residence covered in flames, which completely horrified Kanoko before she furiously blames Kiyoka for their downfall (this wasn't seen in Episode 6 of the anime as it only shows Kanoko walking out of the shed before she drops her to knees and cries in sorrow upon seeing the Saimori residence burning, as it's unknown that it was Minoru Tatsuishi did this, as he tried to stop Kiyoka while he protects himself and use his pyrokinesis to burn the mansion).

According to Kiyoka in Chapter 17, after the Saimori residence completely burned down, Shinichi Saimori and Kanoko moved to the villa nearby the captial, but they will be likely having a hard time at their new home. In Episode 7 of the anime, Kiyoka only states that Kanoko and Shinichi has moved to a house in the countryside after they dismissed all of the servants since they lost their home and most of their fortune.

## Abilities

Being born in an ordinary family, Kanoko doesn't possess any superhuman powers or abilities.

## Trivia

* It is unknown if Kanoko, Shinichi Saimori and Kaya Saimori learned that Sumi Saimori sealed Miyo Saimori’s powers because she possesses Dream-Sight that would make her and her daughter afraid that the Emperor has feared of the Dream-Sight.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 1