Aiko Sato

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## Seiyū

**Aiko Sato** (佐(さ)藤(とう) 愛(あい)子(こ), *Satō Aiko*) is a freelance amateur writer with pseudonym **Poison♡Yami** (ぽいずん♡やみ, *Poizun♡Yami*), the part-time assistant manager of Miyako Shiba at Stray Beat. She is also the assistant manager of Kessoku Band since Miyako signed them and became their manager.

## Appearance

Aiko looks like a middle schooler with long black bunches of hair and purple eyes although she is currently 23 years old. Her neck is also wrapped with a bandage-like ribbon. Her fashion styles mainly resembles *Yami Kawaii* subculture of Harajuku fashion.

## Personality

She has a strong interest of music and bands, as shown from how she do her job as a freelance writer. She strives to find good bands so she may highlight them in the blog she is working in. She also has sharp senses to be able to judge on the bands she is listening to.

While her job as a writer requires her to be able to find news scoop everywhere and comment critically on bands, sometimes she tend to be carried away by her interest and job that she ended up causing troubles on places she go to do her work, like infiltrating Bocchi's school and interviewed students without permission and criticized Kessoku Band openly after their live that she was kicked out from STARRY afterwards. However she is still able to carry good judgement when she is under control and give encouraging comments.

One thing she is sensitive with is her identity, as in the blog, she works under the alias "Poison♡Yami". She is not willing to let her real identity leaked in the web and even when doing her writer job outside, she still introduces herself with her online name and uses fake age so she will not expose her true identity to others. With her childlike look, people will not suspect much of her real age.

## Relationship

### Miyako Shiba

Aiko is mainly colleague of Miyako as her assistant in Stray Beat. However, given Miyako lack of self-care, she always acted as a personal advisor of her lifestyle.

## Etymology

* The name **Aiko** means "love" (愛, *ai*) and "child" (子, *ko*).
* Aiko's surname **Sato** means "help" (佐, *sa*) and "wisteria" (藤, *tou*)

## Trivia

* Aiko's outfit is hugely influenced by *Yami Kawaii* subculture of Harajuku fashion, which style combines "sickly/death" and "kawaii" themes in its attire, accessories, and color combination.This theme is a derivation of *Yume Kawaii* subculture which mainly focus on fantasy-like "kawaii" theme.
	+ This subculture is originated from Menhera-chan, a character and series name by Ezaki Bisuko which tells about magical girl struggle against the evil which is symbolic of mental health issues. The combination of "despair" elements in established *Yume Kawaii* theme in the series spark self-expression ideas among youths on mental health issues, which led to the subculture growth.
	+ Aiko's pseudonym *Poison♡Yami* could also considered influenced by said subculture.

## References

1. ↑ *Bocchi the Rock!* manga - Volume 2, chapter 23, page 90
2. ↑ *Bocchi the Rock!* manga - Volume 2, chapter 23, page 90
3. ↑ *Bocchi the Rock!* manga - Volume 3, chapter 45, page idk
4. ↑ *Bocchi the Rock!* manga - Volume 3, chapter 46, page idk
5. ↑ Misha Janette "Yami Kawaii, the sick subculture of kawaii." Tokyo Fashion Diaries April 18, 2016 from http://www.tokyofashiondiaries.com/yami-kawaii-subculture/
6. ↑ Bisuko Ezaki on the Histroy of Yami Kawaii. Harajuku-Pop. December 1, 2022, from https://harajuku-pop.com/67775