Karen Sakamoto

**Karen Sakamoto**is the female deuteragonist of Ariella Nikolai's novel, Winter Rain. She is the adopted sister of Kaorie Sakamoto who was born and raised in California. Fluent in English and a talented basketball player, Karen attends Yamabaki Academy with Kaorie on a sports scholarship.

Karen suffers from bullying and has been haunted by her biological parent's and adoptive mother's death endlessly. She eventually decides to end her own life after suffering from major depressive episodes following her adoptive father, Ikatsu's, death due to lung cancer. She drowns herself in the Sumida River.

## Appearance

   Being a half-blood, Karen acquired the tall genes from her father, but has her mother's face. She is extremely tall for a Japanese girl, being five-feet and eight inches, which makes her a target for bullying and teasing at Yamabaki Academy. She has short, dark brown hair that comes to the bottom of her neck, and bangs, as well as pale, creamy skin and almond-shaped dark brown eyes. Karen is broad-shouldered and has a larger build compared to most girls her age, due to her athletic body and the muscle gained from hours of exercising and playing basketball. Although many boys and girls tease her for being larger, Karen does not mind her body, as it allows her to excell in sports.

Karen often prefers baggy clothes made for men over feminine outfits due to her body type and tomboy personality. She hardly wears make up and keeps her hair loose. Because she has a rounder face with sharper, more square features, she isn't considered the ideal beauty in Asia, but was seen as rather pretty in the United States- the opposite of her adoptive sister, Kaorie. Often Karen is teased for her appearance, but she is completely at comfort with it.

## Personality

    In accordance to her preference of men's clothes, Karen has a very tomboyish personality. She loves sports and is extremely athletic, with an abundant amount of energy. Because she grew up in the United States, she is considered extremely rude and improper in Japan, as she speaks loudly, often forgets to bow, calls people by their first name and makes sarcastic, snarky remarks. Karen is a very outgoing person with a strong competitive streak. She is highly impatient, and does not like to study, even though she has the potential to be ranked first in her class, since she has a near-photographic memory. She is nearly the opposite of her best friend and adoptive sister, Kaorie, who is soft-spoken, gentle, sunny and a hard worker who isn't naturally smart but works hard to achieve good grades.
Karen seems to be the stronger of the two Sakamoto sisters. She portrays the most confidence, to the point that she can even be considered arrogant, as seen when she easily claimed she was the best basketball player at the school without knowing anything about the other player's skills. She is also highly assertive and has a strong sense of justice, never letting others be bullied or teased. Interestingly enough, even though she hates bullies and stands up for others, she fails to stand up for herself. When she is harassed by the

     girls in her class, Karen attempts to fight back, but gives up rather easily and takes the bullying. She also seems to have a great deal of insecurities, despite her confident facade, and easily doubts herself. Karen appears to be the toughest member of the Sakamoto family, but she is much more open about her feelings, letting her anger, sorrow, and fear show through despite attempting to hude it.

Likewise, her thrill-seeking, troublemaking streak comes from the death of her adoptive mother. Since she was the one who raised Karen, Karen was extremely close to Mary-Beth and saw her as her best friend and true mother figure, loving her as much as she loved her biological mother. She looked up to Mary-Beth, and the two were close. After Mary-Beth's suicide, Karen became extremely afraid of following in Mary-Beth's footsteps. As a result, she began to look for things that were exciting and dangerous to help her feel alive so that she wouldn't become depressed like Mary-Beth. This fear haunts Karen enough to make her do reckless things just to feel adrenaline running through her. Despite her rough, wild exterior, Karen is fragile and lacks the strenght to move past the obstacles placed in front of her. After Ikatsu's death, she is unable to handle the bullies at school and the guilt of having pulled Kaorie and Kyoya further apart. She then jumps into the Sumida River with stones on her shoes and drowns herself, showing how truly pained and fragile she was despite her exterior appearance.

## History

Karen was born to Mariko and Jacob Miller, a couple who had met and married in the same college that Kaorie's

    parents, Mary-Beth and Ikatsu, had met. Like Mary-Beth (Kaorie's mother), Mariko had become pregnant with Karen during college and had struggled to continue her studies with a baby. Thus, the two became very close friends. Jacob and Ikatsu had been friends since their first year of university, both being business majors. However, Jacob got a job working for a business in California, leading the Miller family to move there soon after Karen's birth.

Karen grew up in a normal, loving family for some time. She was close to her mother and father, who doted on her and encouraged her to do many things even from a young age. Karen was spoiled as a child by their love, nearly always given toys and things she wanted. She met the Sakamoto family at the age of four, after they moved in several streets away, and became best friends with their young daughter, Kaorie. The two families were close friends and happy together. Their happiness came to an end after a tragic car accident that occurred when Karen was six years old. During winter, a drunk driver crashed into the Miller's car, leaving heavy scars on Karen's back but killing both of her parents. She was devastated, but fortunately, Mary-Beth and Ikatsu Sakamoto decided to adopt her, since the two families had been so close.

    Thus, since the age of six, she was raised alongside Kaorie with the Sakamoto family. Although she mourned for her parents, Karen was happy with her new family, and especially became close to her adoptive mother, Mary-Beth. She formed a bond with Ikatsu through their mutual love for basketball, and he coached her competitively. It was traumatizing for Karen when Mary-Beth committed suicide, as Karen had looked up to Mary-Beth as a role model for her strength, courage and honor. Shattered by losing a parent for the second time, Karen began to fear that she would become depressed like Mary-Beth, and started behaving recklessly. This worsened as the months passed, and soon she could no longer handle living in the same house where her adoptive mother had killed herself. Karen - and Kaorie - were both forced into therapy by the school and social system. This did not help Karen, and after Ikatsu lost his job as a gym teacher and sports coach, the family decided to move back to Japan.

Karen was admitted into Yamabaki Academy on an athletic scholarship (since her low grades didn't allow an academic scholarship). Because she had grown up only in the US, unlike Kaorie, who'd lived in Japan before, Karen had a hard time fitting in, and was often teased or isolated from her classmates. She found solace in the basketball club, where she was eventually accepted by the club's members (who were all males) due to her impressive playing

skills. During this time, Karen continued her reckless behavior, but after meeting Kazuki Mori (with whom she fell in love with), she began to take more care of herself and tried to believe that her spirit was strong enough to avoid following Mary-Beth's footsteps. Ironically, after Ikatsu's death, that is exactly what she does. When Ikatsu passes away from his lung cancer, Karen becomes depressed, losing her appetite and motivation even to play basketball. While Kazuki attempts to support her, she rejects him, pushing all of her close friends away. After Kazuki's girlfriend, Asuna Yujo, confesses that the reason Kazuki rejected Karen's love confession was because he felt guilty about leaving Asuna's side (since Asuna had cancer and would be dying soon), Karen is able to push slightly past her depression. She decides to live diligently and be like Asuna, who lives every day despite knowing her time is limited.

Unfortunately, Karen is thrown back into a major depressive episode after she breaks her arm due to falling from the

     second floor of the school, a she was accidentally pushed by some girls who were bullying her.

With a broken arm, Karen is unable to play in the basketball championships, which she had managed to qualify for by working hard and winning the regional round. Feeling her future slipping away from her, Karen's mood is worsened, and she begins to remember the pain of losing both her biological and adoptive parents. She sees Kaorie's suffering at being left by Kyoya, and feels her own sorrow at not being able to be with Kazuki due to Asuna, but not being able to hate Asuna. Finally, Karen lost hope, and wrote a final suicide note before jumping off a bridge into the Sumida River and drowning herself.