Sanae Kouzuki

A Tokyo-born lady with a strong sense of self-consciousness

## Favorites

### Food

Food that can be cooked by pouring hot water or using a microwave (i.e., instant food)

## Media

### Debut

Episode 02: "The Gathering of the Five Champions"

**Sanae Kouzuki** (香月早苗, *Kouzuki Sanae*) is one of the main characters of *Sakura Quest*.

## Summery

Sanae is a woman who made the move to the countryside half a year before Yoshino, and is very conscious about appearing interesting to other people. She was born and raised in Tokyo, and got a job at an I.T. company after graduating college, but she eventually quit. She longed for a healthy lifestyle of conservation and sustainability, and began renting an old Japanese-style house. She does web design for a living.

## Appearance

Sanae is a young women with tan skin, light brown hair that is sometimes tied with a pony tail in the back, and two sets of hair dreads that lay out in the front, light brown-es, yellow colored eyes and light pink lip-stick. When going outside, Sanae usually wears smart casual attire, ranging from shirts and pants, to dresses, while also wearing slip-on shoes or sandals.

At home, Sanae usually prefers wearing a green tracksuit.

## Personality

Because of her work experience in Tokyo, Sanae has developed a practical personality. She is quick to make decisions and has a professional work ethic. However, this experience has also enlightened her about working in the metropolis, and often advises anyone that is eager to work in Tokyo (i.e., Yoshino) to reconsider. She is extremely entomophobic towards any bug she sees.

## Chronology

By the time of Yoshino's arrival in Manoyama, Sanae has been staying in an old Japanese-style house for two weeks. Here, she spends most of her time blogging about her life in the countryside and, occasionally, having to fend off bugs that crawl into her house. In one such incident, Yoshino and Shiori were present to ask for her help in making a website for the manju buns that they needed to sell. Sanae accepted the request, and spent the next several days in planning and programming the website with the help of resources gathered by Yoshino and the others. Sanae was dismayed at the poor reception of the site and eventually helped in making a Chupakabura-themed video advertisement for the manju buns. Sadly, the video did not improve the results, but Sanae is relieved to have worked with Yoshino, Shiori, Maki and Ririko, especially as she had been starting to have second thoughts about her decision to leave Tokyo.

Sanae was absent during most of the time where Yoshino first appeared in live television as queen of the Chupakabura Kingdom due to working on other projects. She later joined Yoshino and the others in the log cabin for a discussion about the history of the Chupakabura Kingdom, and later helped in looking for an alternate costume for the Regional Mascot Contest.

## Etymology

* The name **Sanae** means "already, now, early" (早) (**sa**) and "seedling, sapling, shoot" (苗) (**nae**).
* Sanae's surname **Kouzuki** means "fragrance, fragrant" (香) (**kou**) and "moon" (月) (**tsuki**/**zuki**).

## Trivia

* Sanae bares a striking resamblents to Ikuko, one of the main characters of the anime movie that came out in 2011, *A Letter to Momo*, from the similar hair stile, both being young women, to having red lip-stick, and right down to them wearing very similar outfits.
	+ Sanae also strikingly resembles Mizuho, the main female protagonist of the anime show, *Please Teacher!*, including having similar hair styles, red lip-stick and also wearing glasses.
* Sanae is the only main character in *Sakura Quest* to wear glasses.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Episode 02: "The Gathering of the Five Champions"
2. ↑ Episode 03: "The Cry of the Mandrake"