Liselotte Meggendorfer

**Liselotte Meggendorfer** (リーゼロッテ・メッゲンドルファー, *Meggendorufā Rīzerotte*), known as **Rize** (リゼ) is one of the supporting characters of Shōwa Otome Otogi Banashi. She is the daughter of Jintaro Shima's patron.

## Appearance

Liselotte had blonde hair and green eyes. Her hair is long and wavy, and keeps them in long pigtails.

## Personality

Liselotte is bratty and spoiled, and tends to feel entitled to anything she desires. She has a low opinion of Tokoyo Kurosaki, mainly due to her jealousy of the girl's connection and love for Jintaro Shima, whom Liselotte is infatuated with. While she insists her feelings for Jintaro will never change despite him marrying Tokoyo, she would never do anything to hurt him, which is why she accepts her love is unreciprocated.

After learning household chores, including sewing, she develops a love for fashion and aspires to become a fashion designer of children’s clothes. She is also extremely gullible and naive.

## Background

Liselotte was born in Japan but her parents were from Germany. Her father is a wealthy German businessman who doted on and spoiled Liselotte. At age 10, she met Jintaro, who had recently been adopted by Tamayo Shima, who did business with Liselotte's father. He spoke German to greet her and she instantly developed a crush on him. She spent a year trying to win his affection to no avail and then discovered a photo of him and Tokoyo from their childhood. She immediately deduced Tokoyo was the girl Jintaro loved, as he smiled and spoke fondly of her. Despite this, she decided to continue pursuing Jintaro and become his ‘princess’.

## Plot

After Jintaro runs away from Tamayo and flees to Kobe, Liselotte follows him there to help secure him an apprenticeship at one of her father's shops. Upon meeting Tokoyo, Liselotte is hostile towards her and deems her unworthy as a girl whom Jintaro deserves to be with. Jintaro moves into an apartment at the Shima Cinema and allows Tokoyo to live with him after she confronts her abusive stepmother, and when Liselotte learns of this, she decides to move in as well, much to the couple’s chargin. Jintaro also catches a fever after saving Tokoyo from nearly drowning, and Liselotte angrily blames Tokoyo for his sickness. The two girls take care of him.

When Tokoyo stays away from the apartment for a while, Liselotte grows suspicious and follows her, and finds her at the Tachibana house. Tokoyo explains she is learning household chores from Yuzuki Tachibana for Jintaro's sake. Liselotte demands that Yuzuki take her as a student as well. Although Tokoyo is against it, Yuzuki agrees to teach her. She becomes a whiz at sewing after 2 or 3 lessons, and begins designing western style clothes. She then begins to play dress up with Yuzuki's son (and Jintaro's cousin) Tsukihiko Tachibana with the clothes she makes and buys. Overtime, Liselotte starts to understand that Jintaro can never reciprocate her feelings as she notices he only smiles at Tokoyo. She acknowledges that the current Jintaro whom she likes is not the true Jintaro.

When Jintaro and Tokoyo fake their death to escape from Tamayo and begin renovations to open their own guest and parlor house, Liselotte receives a letter from Jintaro explaining his reasons for leaving and expresses appreciation at Liselotte for her companionship, comparing her to that of a little sister. Liselotte decides to go visit him, taking Tsukihiko with her, as he worries she could easily get lost along the way. Upon arriving at his house, Liselotte is thrilled to see Jintaro but is annoyed when Tokoyo is happy to see her. Liselotte helps with making new cushions for the futons and later takes a bath with Tokoyo, who reminds Liselotte that she and Jintaro are married. Liselotte doesn’t care because her feelin FFA for Jintaro will never change but she says that she would never make Jintaro sad and will accept Tokoyo because of that. The next day, Liselotte and Tsukihiko leave, but Liselotte returns the next day and announces she will be staying with them.

She is amused when Jintaro and Tokoyo have their first heated fight over their differences on how to operate the guest and parlor house, and their lack of intimacy. She and Chitose talk with Jintaro and convince him that he was too harsh to Tokoyo and he should apologize but he ignores their suggestion that he kiss Tokoyo as an apology. Before Tokoyo is diagnosed with tuberculosis, Liselotte steps in to help take care of her, such as taking a part-time job as a waitress to learn to make delicious meals for Tokoyo. She learns a friend of her father’s, who is a doctor, has returned to Japan from Germany and brings him and his apprentice, Hakaru Shiratori to examine Tokoyo. Tokoyo undergoes treatment for tuberculosis and Jintaro becomes occupied with tending to her, Liselotte, Ritsu, and Chitose help start up the couple's parlor and guest house.

Before the outbreak of World War ll, Liselotte goes to Germany to study fashion design.

## Relationships

### Tokoyo Kurosaki

Because she is infatuated with Jintaro, Liselotte sees Tokoyo a rival for Jintaro's affection. Even though he doesn't reciprocate her feelings, she still competes to prove herself a better ‘princess’ than Tokoyo. However, as she notices how Jintaro smiles and laughs only around Tokoyo, Liselotte acknowledges her love will always be unreciprocated but insists it will never change. Because she can’t bear to watch Jintaro be sad, she decides to accept Tokoyo as Jintaro’s lover.

#### Jintaro Shima

Liselotte became infatuated with Jintaro due to his calm and cool attitude, and refers to herself as his mistress/princess. Her feelings are unreciprocated as he is in love with Tokoyo but she refuses to give up on him, although she gradually begins to stop competing with Tokoyo over his attention. She will do anything to help Jintaro, even if it’s out of her comfort zone or something that will make her sad, as she can’t bear to see him sad.

#### Tsukihiko Tachibana

Tsukihiko thought of Liselotte as a weird person. As she learns to make clothes, she gets Tsukihiko to dress in them, as she finds him to be cute wearing western clothes. Tsukihiko often worries about her naivety and sees her as a little sister, despite her being older than him.

## Etymology

Liselotte is a German combination of the names Liese, from Elisabeth, and Charlotte, a French feminine pet form of Charles. It means *' God oath, pledged to God'*.

## Trivia

* Because she has Japanese and German heritage, she speaks both languages.
* Liselotte refers to herself in the third person,
* Jintaro nicknames her the *Sasadan Princess*, after the flowers in the garden of her home where she spent time with Jintaro as a child.
	+ In the language of flowers, sasadan flowers symbolize charm and earnestly, and unreciprocated love.

## Gallery

*Main article: Liselotte Meggendorfer/Gallery*