Sakura (Ginga Legend Weed)

Sakura is Gin's mate, making her the mother of Weed, Yukimura and Joe.

Appearance
Sakura is a beautiful white Kishu mix dog with blue eyes (brown eyes in the anime).

Personality
Sakura was a very kind and loyal dog. She was not very strong physically, but she was very brave. She loved Gin greatly and got very worried when she thought he was badly wounded. She was somewhat naive when she believed Lucy's lie, but after all, she thought she was her friend.

When first seen in the story, she is dying and only thinks about the safety of her son. She was a very caring mother and eventually starved because she gave her food for her young, growing son. According to Meishoubu Retsuden databook, she was very brave and has charisma as well.

Manga
Sakura was a pet dog. When she first meets Gin, she was trapped in a snare. When Gin approached her, she thought of him as a wild and dangerous dog and bites him in self defense. After being released from the snare by Akame, Gin takes her back to her owner. However, Sakura can’t stop thinking about Gin and decides to leave her owner to live with Gin forever.

Gin and Sakura eventually fall in love while she travels with him, John, Akame and Tesshin. She becomes pregnant and Tesshin takes her to Ouu where she befriends Lucy, who actually dislikes her out of jealousy and lies to her that Gin was mortally wounded. Believing that Lucy is her friend, Sakura thinks the lie is true and hurries to find her mate from the Northern Alps.

She gives birth to Weed, Joe and Yukimura. She soon becomes weak from the lack of food and sickness. Saheiji appears and gives Sakura a rabbit he had caught. As Joe and Yukimura fight over the rabbit, Weed doesn't. He suckles his mother for milk and Sakura asks Saheiji to take care of her sons. Saheiji adopts Joe and Yukimura but Weed is too close to his mother so he stays with Sakura.

Sakura only has a brief appearance in the manga when she is very ill and taking care of Weed who still is not named yet. Sakura asks GB to take care of her son but before GB gives a firm answer, she dies. Sakura is then shown to have been buried in the Northern Alps by GB and Weed, who is still very young at the time. Sakura's spirit appears throughout the manga when Weed or Gin are lonely or in a dire situation. Weed often thinks about her.

In the last battle against Hōgen, her spirit helps Weed to defeat the evil dog. After the battle ends, she appears and gives Weed a smile.

Anime
As Ou gets attacked by P4, one of Smith's Soldiers persuades Smith to guide the pregnant Sakura out of Ou. On the way, Smith sees the setter, GB, about to get hit by a truck. Smith jumps in to save him and therefore takes his eyes off of Sakura.

Sakura gives birth to Weed in the Northern Alps. Later on, she gets sick which causes her death. No one knows what disease she died from, but some think she was severely poisoned by a human, caught a parasitic sickness from a prey source, or possibly drank polluted water.

Trivia

 * There are two different stories about how Sakura and Gin met, most likely because Yoshihiro Takahashi forgot the original backstory: In Ginga Densetsu Weed volume 13, Tesshin explains that they met while Gin was traveling with Akame, John and Tesshin. Sakura traveled with them until she became pregnant and had to be escorted to Ōu by Tesshin. However, in volume 35, Gin explains that he, Akame and John met Sakura while she was still a pet dog and trapped in a snare. She lost consciousness and Gin carried her back to her home. A month later, she traveled to Ōu by herself and asked to join the Ōu army.