Hanako Ikezawa: Difference between revisions

{{Japanese|Hanako Ikezawa|池沢華子|Ikezawa Hanako}} is one of the five primary heroine characters in [[Katawa Shoujo]]. She is badly scarred on the right side of her body, due to a house fire that claimed the lives of her parents. Having lost her only family, Hanako grew up in an orphanage, eventually becoming the oldest resident. Hanako developed an extreme social anxiety in response to years of teasing and bullying by her peers due to her scars. As a result, she is extremely shy and only trusts a few people in whose presence she seems to relax and be comfortable in. Hanako grows her hair long and uses it to hide her facial scarring from casual observation. An honest girl, she believes in equality between friends and highly values the few people she chooses to spend time with. As a result of her social isolation, Hanako developed a number of solitary interests including chess and reading. Surprisingly, and in contrast to her personality, she is also fond of both karaoke and billiards.__TOC__

 

Hanako is a girl of average build and average height with long, dark purple hair that nearly reaches her waist, as well as a slick of hair on the right side of her face that covers one of her eyes and partially covers her facial scars.

Hanako is a quiet and extremely shy girl, being likely to run away when an unfamiliar person tries to make contact with her (e.g Hisao on his first day at Yamaku). Despite her shy demeanor, she does get along with certain students that she is acquainted with; such as Lilly, Shizune, Emi and Misha, more so with Lilly who is her closest friend. She is initially very shy and evasive around Hisao, but soon they may[[Hanako's route#Act 3 | become close friends.]][[File:Hanako_Bad_Ending.png|thumb|181x181px|left|Enraged Hanako|link=http://katawashoujo.wikia.com/wiki/File:Hanako_Bad_Ending.png]]

She is usually very friendly despite not being very outspoken, especially with her close friends. However, she lashes out at Hisao when he tries to get close to her on her birthday if the bad ending is achieved, stating that she hates to be treated like a weak, broken person.

Hanako has few acquaintances outside of Yamaku. She is shown to be very fond of [[Akira Satou]] ([[Lilly Satou]]'s elder sister), who even attends Hanako's birthday party with a gift of two wine bottles. Akira takes Lilly, Hanako and [[Hisao Nakai]] for a night out in the city just before Lilly leaves for Scotland to visit her family. It is also mentioned that Hanako visits a therapist every weekend.

 

 

Ten years before the story, Hanako's house inexplicably caught fire while her family slept (this was hinted to have occurred on the night of her birthday), which killed her parents and badly scarred Hanako herself. Hanako told [[Hisao Nakai]] that the only reason she survived was that her mother shielded her from the fire before succumbing to the heat. After spending a length of time in the hospital recovering, Hanako lived at an orphanage where she was constantly bullied, even by those who used to be her closest friends, because of her appearance. This made her become very aware of her scarring, and this self-consciousness developed into paralyzing social anxiety, prompting her self-isolation. She secluded herself in the orphanage's library until she was offered the opportunity to attend [[Yamaku Academy]].

==Trivia==

*Rin points out that she saw Hanako go to the bathroom a few times in a row. This might be a reference to a Japanese urban legend of a young WWII-era girl named [[wikipedia:Hanako-san|Hanako-san]], who haunts school bathrooms.