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| “ | I will kill you, Diva. And once I kill Diva, it will all be over. This will finally end. | „ |
| ~ Saya Otonashi |
Saya Otonashi is the main protagonist of the anime/manga series Blood+. She is the first born of the daughters of the Chiropteran Mummy named "Saya". She is a pure blooded Chiropteran queen and Diva's older twin sister as well as Hagi's lover.
After waking up from a coma, she spends a year as the adopted daughter of George Miyagusuku and adopted sister of Kai and Riku, before recovering her memory and serving under the U.S. military faction Red Shield as their 'secret weapon' to take down Chiropterans.
She is voiced by Eri Kitamura in the Japanese version, and Kari Wahlgren in the English version.
Appearance[]
Normal Mode[]
Saya has the rosy-cheeked appearance of an average high school girl of age 16 with a height of 5'2" and weighing 89 lbs. She is black-haired with different hairstyles throughout time and brown eyes. Back in the zoo, she used to have long hair falling down her waist with the bangs tied behind. She had a pixie haircut by the time of the Russian Revolution. In Okinawa, she likes to keep her bangs and hair again in a pixie cut. After Riku's death, her bangs are shown to have grown past her chin, making her hair resemble a bob cut. In the last episode, Kai trims her hair to resemble her Season 1 appearance. She looks very similar to Diva, though Saya is slightly tanner from being out in the sun and has a different hairstyle and eye color and she wears either pink, nude or rose coloured lipstick daily. Her brown eyes change to glowing crimson whenever she feeds on blood, changes to chiropteran mode or senses the presence of Diva.
Chiropteran Mode[]
Though Saya retains her human appearance, her eyes in this form become narrower and glow a bright red. Her pupils also turn into slits and her nails grow exceptionally long and sharp.
Personality[]
| “ | Kai: You're always saying the same thing. You say this is a battle between the humans and the Chiropterans. But it's not that simple, is it? If you think about it, there are probably a lot of humans you hate too. But does that mean you hate all humans, Saya? Are all Chiropterans really enemies of all human beings? If that's the case, I guess you and Riku should be considered our enemies along with the Chiropterans! Saya: How dare you say that to me! My mission is to kill Chiropterans. That is my duty and purpose in life. And if it weren't for Chiropterans, Dad would be alive and Riku would be normal. Or have you forgotten about that, Kai? |
„ |
| ~ Kai and Saya argue about Chiropterans. |
During her years at the Zoo, Saya was spoiled by the original Joel, and therefore became very immature, self-centered, and rude. She herself realized this as a result of her friendships with Diva and Hagi, which help reveal and nurture her compassion for others. Overall, however, Saya was a bright, cheerful, and innocent person. After she unwittingly released the vengeful, bloodthirsty Diva upon her foster family and friends and accidentally turned Hagi into her chevalier, coupled with learning the truth about her life and her own inhuman nature, Saya lost her happy demeanor and became much more serious and plagued with doubts and guilt.
As a result of losing her memories and spending a year in Okinawa as an ordinary girl, with family and friends, Saya develops a sweet and caring, albeit somewhat reserved, personality. Kai later refers to her as being "a crybaby and a glutton". The latter name suits her as she is much inclined to eating. According to Kaori, no matter how much she eats, she never gets fat. The constant hunger is possibly due to insufficient consumption of blood. At this time, she is troubled by her amnesia, but only becomes increasingly insecure and worried as she learns more about her true identity and experiences more loss because of the Chiropterans. Initially. she doesn't wish to have any part in the conflict between Red Shield and Chiropterans, but after her adopted father George is killed, she allies herself with Red Shield.
Once she gets her memories back, Saya becomes broken and bitter but gains a significant resolve to take down Diva no matter how long it takes or whatever the cost may be. She dedicates her life solely to correcting the mistake she made in releasing Diva by killing her, then forever ending the Chiropteran threat by killing herself. She views killing Diva as her own personal task and refuses to let anyone else do it for her, not only because her blood is the only thing that can kill her, but also because she was the one who let Diva loose in the first place.
In spite of her newfound bitterness, Saya is still shown to be rather naive, having a bad habit of viewing the world in black-and-white; despite being one herself, she believes that any and all Chiropterans are evil and must be destroyed, due to the pain they have caused her and her adopted family. She also believes that Red Shield are simply fighting back against them and so aren't doing anything wrong and even accused Kai of making them look like the killers when he questioned this. Because of her biased hatred, Saya refuses to believe that the Schiff aren't evil even after learning that all they want is her blood, causing Kai to point out that, if all Chiropterans are enemies of humanity, then she, Hagi and Riku (who had been turned into her chevalier) are as well. She also refuses to believe that Solomon had turned his back on Diva and joined her side, for no reason other than he's Diva's chevalier. It's implied that Saya doesn't consider herself a Chiropteran even after learning she is one, likely because she was raised to identify as a human even before losing her memories.
A year after Riku's death, Saya exhibits a much darker and embittered disposition, having fully regained her memories but in the process of lost hope, as Moses and Lulu both note. She is unwilling to associate or work with others, particularly Kai and the rest of the Red Shield, not wanting to have to experience losing more loved ones. She refuses to accept help from anyone but Hagi, claiming it was their task alone to take down the Chiropterans and During the last half of the series, however, she slowly comes to accept their help.
In the last episode, Saya tries to save Diva after having delivered her a fatal wound. She then attempts to kill herself and Diva's children to end the Chiropteran threat forever. After a lecture from Kai and a love confession from Hagi, however, Saya refrains from killing them or herself, leading to her confession that she really does want to live.
Powers & Abilities[]
Skills[]
- Fencing: Saya is trained at the zoo in fencing. She is shown to be agile and quite apt with her sword. This skill comes in handy while killing chiropteran as she wields her katana to do so. However, at the start of the series, Saya has largely forgotten both of these abilities and must relearn how to fight with a sword.
- Music: She is also taught to play violin and cello when she was in the zoo. She is an accomplished cello player and even teaches Hagi to play the cello when he was a kid. However, she rarely plays the cello in modern times because of her focus on hunting chiropterans, normally having Hagi play it for her.
- Athletics: Saya is a skilled athlete. In Okinawa, she is seen to be very sportive being a remarkable high-jumper.
Exceptional Abilities[]
- Strength: Although not to the extent of Diva's, Saya shows efficient strength in killing the chiropterans and Diva's chevaliers. Kai even calls her "a dragon slayer". But because she chooses not to feed freely on humans and refrains from drinking Hagi's blood as often as she can, her abilities barely matches that of Diva.
- Speed: Saya shows herself to be adequately agile.
- High Jump: Saya is able to perform high jumps from top of buildings as part of her chiropteran ability.
- Telepathy: Saya has heightened senses, being able to sense the presence of chiropterans and Diva. However, she cannot detect chevaliers for some unknown reason. Saya possibly possesses a telepathic connection to Diva and vice-versa. She is able to hear Diva's song when normal humans cannot, could verbally communicate with Diva when the latter did not know how to speak.
Blood Attributes:
- Healing: Saya, being a chiropteran, has the usual ability to heal herself instantly from any normal injuries. This was first witnessed by Joel the first. As the queen, she has the ability to use her blood to heal others too. But that leads to creating chevaliers. Both Hagi and Riku became her chevaliers being given her blood to heal mortal injuries.
- Anti-aging: Her special blood stops her growth after aging 16 years. That is why she looks the same even after originally surpassing 173+ years. This applies not only for herself but also for her chevaliers. Time stops for them at the age they imbibe her blood.
- Producing Chevaliers: An unique ability of the queens. When their blood enters the bloodstream of a human who has lost most of their blood, it revives them in chevalier form, as demonstrated with Hagi and Riku.
- Possible Power Drainage: After she turns Hagi into her chevalier, she spends only a few years awake from periodically entering a 30-year hibernation cycle, before which she experiences a slow in her regenerative abilities and bouts of fainting spells.
- Berserker mode: In the first half of the series, Saya sometimes slips into a "berserk" trance in which she becomes much more aggressive and violent, which is mainly how she defeats enemies before she regains her memories. She tends to enter this mode from feeding blood of Hagi. Due to similarities it has led to her frenzy during the Vietnam War. It is possible that this "berserker" trance is a consequence of her being prematurely awakened during the Vietnam War and the subsequent year-long delay in receiving Hagi's blood.
- Crystallization: When mixed with Diva's blood, Saya's blood crystallize. This is lethal to her. In turn, her blood can crystallize Diva and her blood products. So, Saya uses her blood to crystallize the chiropterans and chevaliers created from Diva's blood. In her final duel with Diva, she plunges her katana loaded with her own blood into Diva who begins to crystallize. Saya is stabbed with her sister's blood soaked sword too. However, due to Diva having lost her blood power, Saya isn't affected.
- Power Gain: All queens require daily blood to stay healthy. Saya used to drink human blood in the guise of medicine made by Joel while she was in the Zoo. After waking up at Okinawa, she has regular blood transfusions too. As a queen, the intake of her chevalier's blood probably gives her more nutrition and has impact on her chiropteran power. After drinking his blood, she gains strength to fight as a chiropteran. Hagi's blood caused her untimely awakening and triggered her into berserk mode during Vietnam War. It also helps her regain memories.
Weapon[]
Saya's trademark weapon is a special katana with a groove that branches out throughout the blade. Thus, when Saya cuts her thumb on the top edge of the katana, while gripping it so as to draw blood, the specially designed grooves allow her blood to flow into the channel and become distributed throughout the katana. Once loaded with her blood, it is a deadly weapon against Diva and any chiropteran of Diva's bloodline.
After Saya's first blade is broken in a fight with Amshel, David gives her a new one that has a red crystal at the base of its blade, symbolizing her membership in the Red Shield organization. The crystal is a piece of George's body, which crystallized when she killed him with her own blood in order to spare him the fate of turning into a chiropteran.
Trivia[]
- Saya makes a return in the sequel novel Blood#. In it, she is woken from her slumber a decade early by her nieces Kanade and Hibiki singing, to confuse chiropterans created by the rogue Dr. Collins as part of his plan to restart the Delta Project. After slaying the enemies with Haji's help, Saya is returned to her slumber.
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 Heroes
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