Hanako Ikezawa

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Plot

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"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, 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. In response to years of teasing and bullying by her peers as a result of her scars Hanako developed extreme social anxiety. As a result she is extremely shy and only trusts a few people in whose presence she seems to relax and be comfortable. 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, reading and billiards. Surprisingly, and in contrast to her personality, she is also fond of karaoke.

Appearance

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

She's usually seen wearing the standard school uniform with a pair 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 and 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

Hanako is a quiet and extremely shy girl, being prone 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 she is acquainted with like 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 can become close friends

Enraged Hanako

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 and broken person.

Relationships

Family

Hanako's mother and father died in a house fire when she was eight. She survived only 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 at best. The only person at Yamaku with whom she has a deeper relationship is Lilly. 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 she did not react to Hanako's scarring. Although Shizune and Misha care for her well being as a student, they frown upon the liberties granted her due to her social anxiety. She 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 to become 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 Yamaku's staff members if necessary. Usually the teachers, including 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 through Lilly. She also sees a psychiatrist every weekend.

Plot

See Hanako's route for the full plot line.

Background

Ten years ago, at the age of eight, Hanako's house inexplicably caught in flames at night while everyone was asleep (hinted to have occurred on the night of her birthday), not only burning the house down and leaving Hanako with bad burns but taking the lives of her parents as well. Miraculously Hanako survived due to her mother shielding her from the flames. After spending a length of time in a hospital, Hanako lived at an orphanage where she was bullied and made fun of by other children, including girls who had been her friends before she was scarred by the fire. This made her become very aware of her scarring which developed into anxiety and eventually led to her self-inflicted social isolation. She secluded herself in the orphanage's library until she was offered the opportunity to attend Yamaku Academy.

Trivia

• Out of the five main girls, Hanako has only one H-scene, while the rest have at least two.
• Hanako's name can mean "flower child". This can either be in contrast to Lilly's name or to exemplify her inner beauty.
• Hanako appears to be more outgoing in Lilly's Route than her own "Good Route" (though this is understandable, as chronologically, Lilly's Route goes farther than Hanako's Route).
• In the leaked beta version, it was revealed that Hanako's original route was a "trap" of sorts. If the player chose Hanako's path the only endings the player could get were bad. In order to get Hanako's good ending, you would have to first achieve all three of her bad endings and then the option for Hanako's good ending would be available as a branch off of Lilly's route.
• In the leaked beta version, much of Hanako's backstory is revealed and several details are different from the final release. For example, it was revealed that she lived with foster parents instead of an orphanage. Also, that before the fire that claimed her parents lives, they bought her a stuffed rabbit named Petra. It is the only thing that survived the fire, and she still holds on to it as a memory. Finally, it is revealed that the fire is caused when a blackout occurs in Hanako's home town, leaving her mother to light two candles in the night. One of them is left unattended and spreads, causing the fire. Unlike in the final release, it is Hanako's father who saves her by being able to get her out of the house before it collapses. It is also revealed that she indirectly caused the death of someone she had romantic feelings for by running away during the middle of her confession, leading to the boy in question to chase after her, where it can be assumed he suffered some form of major injury.
• Although Hanako's route is average in length in the final release, her original story from the leaked beta version is the longest, with hers being the only route in both versions of the game to have 4 acts (excluding Life Expectancy).
• Hanako is reading "Life of Pi" when Hisao first meets Hanako. 
• Hanako is the only main character whose theme (Painful History) does not play when Hisao first meets her. Instead, the song Everyday Fantasy is heard.
• Rin points out that she saw Hanako go to the bathroom a few times in a row. Considering the name Hanako this might be a reference to a Japanese urban legend called Hanako-san, which is about a young WWII era girl that haunts school bathrooms.