Hanako Ikezawa

Information

Image Gallery

Plot

"At a young age, Hanako Ikezawa had a traumatic experience that left her life in shambles. Her parents died when their home burned down in an accident, which also disfigured Hanako permanently and leaving her in an orphanage. She is extremely shy, shunning from most other people to the point of actually panicking from any social contact. Her only trusted schoolmate is Lilly Satou, who has taken Hanako under her wing ever since the two were introduced to each other."

— Official Description

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.

Appearance

Hanako is a girl of average build and average height with waist-length dark purple hair that has a slick of hair on the right side of her face that covers one of her eyes where it partially covers her facial scars and purple eyes.

She's usually seen wearing the standard school uniform with a pair of black stockings and a pair of brown leather boots. Her pajamas consist of a long-sleeved and ankle-length light pink night gown, with a small red ribbon in the middle of her chest. Her casual clothes consist of a long-sleeved dark blue denim jacket with a light pink frilly necked blouse with a small black ribbon, a pair of long black pants, and black shoes. She also wears a black beret to cover her scars from passersby.

Personality

Enraged Hanako

Hanako is a quiet and extremely shy girl who is likely to run away when an unfamiliar person tries to make contact with her (e.g Hisao Nakai 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 Satou, Shizune Hakamichi, Emi Ibarazaki and Misha, more so with Lilly who is her closest friend. She is initially very shy and evasive around Hisao, but soon they may become close friends.

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.

Plot

See Hanako's route for full plot line.

Back Story

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: while she got along somewhat with the children there, she couldn't make close friends and the kids from outside the orphanage, especially the students at her middle school, harassed her 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.

Relationships

Family

Mr. and Mrs. Ikezawa (Hanako's parents) died in a house fire when Hanako was eight and she only survived because her mother shielded her from the flames. Unfortunately, the entire right side of Hanako's body was badly burned and scarred. With no living relatives, Hanako became a ward of the state.

Students

Hanako has only brief acquaintances with her fellow students; the only person at Yamaku with whom she has a deeper relationship is Lilly Satou. Their friendship started when Lilly moved into the dorm room next to hers. Hanako was able to open up to Lilly, presumably because her blindness meant that Lilly would not react to Hanako's scarring. Ever since Lilly moved into the dorm, their friendship deepened, with Hanako depending the most on Lilly. Lilly deeply cares for Hanako, always looking out for her well being. She even bought Hanako a doll for her birthday and a phone for Christmas. Although Shizune Hakamichi and Shiina Mikado care for her well being as a student, they frown upon the liberties granted to her due to her social anxiety. Hanako is shown to be crippled in social situations on multiple occasions, and is prone to running away or even breaking down, going so far as becoming catatonic, only worsened by other students staring and speculating on what had happened. Later in Lilly's route she ends up joining the newspaper club and makes a few more friends, eventually overcoming her anxiety.

Staff

Hanako only interacts with the Yamaku Academy's staff members if necessary. Usually the teachers, mostly Akio Mutou, try to give Hanako time to herself, which often leads to her secluding herself in the library, even during class hours. Hanako is also acquainted with Yuuko Shirakawa the librarian through Lilly.

Outsiders

Lilly, Hanako and Akira

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.

Etymology

• The name Hanako means "flower" (華) (hana) and "child" (子) (ko).
  • The name complements the name Lilly (though it is spelled "lily").
• Hanako's surname Ikezawa means "pool, pond" (池) (ike) and "marsh" (沢) (sawa/zawa).

Trivia

• As an orphan, Hanako is a Ward of the State. The government pays for her enrollment at Yamaku.
• Hanako appears more outgoing in Lilly Satou's route than her own "good route" (though this is understandable, as the elapsed time of Lilly's route is longer than Hanako's).
• Hanako is reading Life of Pi when Hisao Nakai first meets her. Later she and Hisao discuss a book series that appears to be Frank Herbert's Dune.
• Hanako is the only main character whose theme (Painful History) does not play when Hisao first meets her. Instead the song Everyday Fantasy plays.
• Rin Tezuka 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 Hanako-san, who haunts school bathrooms.
• A small picture of a woman holding a baby can be seen in the CG that shows Hanako's doll collection. It's possible this may be a picture of Hanako and her mother.
• In addition to the doll Hanako was given last year for her birthday and the one she receives this year, she also has a large stuffed penguin that can be seen in her bad ending CG.
• In the beta version, many of the details of Hanako's back story differ from the final release:
  • Instead of living at an orphanage, Hanako lives with foster parents.
  • Before their deaths, her parents had bought her a stuffed rabbit named Petra. It was the only item that survived the fire. She still holds onto it as a memory.
  • The fire was started by unattended candles during a blackout. Hanako's father saved her by getting her out of the house before it collapsed.
  • She is afraid of the dark. One night, Hanako is not in her room and is in Lilly's room (who isn't present) due to a broken night light.
  • Hanako indirectly caused the death of someone she had romantic feelings for. During the confession, she ran away, but the boy ran after her. He was hit by a speeding vehicle and killed instantly.