Yozakura

Yozakura (夜桜) is a playable character from the Senran Kagura video game series. She makes her debut in Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus. A second-year student at Gessen Girls' Academy. Being the oldest of twelve brothers and sisters, she knows how to discipline her peers, which comes in handy in her work as Yumi's right-hand woman and chief enforcer. She rarely allows her own discipline to slip, but she does know how to party, and when pushed far enough, she lets loose – not only with her huge gauntlets, but with the full verbal force of her hometown accent. Profile “As a foil Katsuragi, our kicker, I felt we needed a punching character. That wasn't the original plan, but Yozakura just sort of naturally evolved that way during the design process. Her special feature is her Okayama dialect, so when Kitajima-san wrote the script in regular Japanese, I had to change it myself. But I kept thinking, if I completely changed her lines into full-on Okayama dialect, people would be like "What? I can't understand a word she's saying!" I had to really struggle to keep a good balance between comprehensible and regional with her.” —Producer Commentary from the Shinovi Versus Shinobi Syllabus

Yozakura has short blue hair in a sort of bowl cut, with a cherry blossom in it, and she has blue eyes. She wears an outfit similar to a kimono, but exposes her midriff. The top parts of the outfit is white, which fades to a sea-foam green color, decorated with white, lavender and purple flower designs. The bottom half of the outfit resembles the bottom half of a regular kimono, but is open down the middle. It's sea-foam green in color, and slowly fades to a dark teal color as it goes down. Like the top, it's decorated with small flower designs. She wears a pale blue sash around her waste, which is decorated with white flowers. She wears long white tabi, and wooden sandals. On her arms are large, ornate gauntlets, which have pistons. Personality “Kicking is for men and girls with no shame. A real lady knows how to use her fist, and look good in doing it.” —Yozakura, taken from the Shinobi Syllabus. Yozakura is considered a no nonsense individual that takes a lot of things seriously while disciplining her peers when necessary. This is due to her harsh past where she was responsible of looking after her younger siblings while her father was at work. Yozakura also has a temper that causes her hometown accent to come out when pushed to the edge.

Despite her serious nature, Yozakura can be a kind, caring mother figure that is capable of knowing when to relax and take it easy, as seen when she is having fun interacting with her peers. On rare occasions, her childish side is shown either when she's frustrated or she wants to let loose. This is shown in Shinovi Versus when Yozakura was sparring with Yumi and she was getting frustrated at herself for not being able to approach Yumi and lay a hit, resulting in her complaining to Yumi on how she's not able to do so. In Estival Versus, while Shiki was out gathering information on the other teams, Yozakura was busy having fun as she was playing in the ocean, filled with excitement without a care in the world. Yozakura also has a competitive side as seen in her story in Bon Appetit where she mocks her opponents, telling them to give up as they're no match for her cooking skills.

Being the oldest of the family, Yozakura was responsible for looking after her younger siblings while her father was at work as a shinobi. Her mother died when she was eight years old on duty as a shinobi while a year later, her father died while on duty as well. This led to Yozakura being separated by her siblings as her other family relatives started to take each of them in, including herself. However, Yozakura rejected them as she stated that she wanted to be the one to look after her siblings. Sadly, she couldn't which caused her to run away.

With no food, water or proper shelter, Yozakura had no idea on what she'll do from there on out while also feeling hopeless about not being able to protect her younger siblings. Suddenly, a man who called himself Kurokage approached her as he gave out his hand to her, telling her this; ""I'll give you the strength to protect what is important to you." With nowhere left to go and no other plan, Yozakura accepted the conditions in hopes that one day, she'll be able to reunite with her younger siblings. By living with Kurokage, Yozakura met four other people named Yumi, Murakumo, Shiki, and Minori, where she developed a strong bond with them, thus allowing Yozakura to be part of a new family as she continued to work hard in getting stronger so that she can reunite with her younger siblings one day.

As Yozakura and the other Gessen Elites finish cleaning up Kurokage’s grave, they then start to give him their prayers while feeling proud about the lessons they’ve learned throughout the Shinobi Battle Royale. They all felt that Kurokage was happen for them and the decisions they’ve made. Suddenly, Hanzō shows up behind the Gessen Elites, which surprises them as they thought it was Wang Pai. Hanzō then explains to them that he was Wang Pai all along as he was fulfilling was a promise he made to Kurokage, which was to take care of them if something were to ever happen to him. While they all understand, Yozakura asks Hanzō why he ate all of their strawberry daifuku and groped them earlier, which Hanzō then tells them that he needed to find a way to provoke them in order to motivate them to go through the Shinobi Battle Royale in order for them to grow.

With everything explained, Hanzō put down a Sushi container filled with sushi rolls and nigari-sushi as it was for both Kurokage and the Gessen Elites. As they all dig in, Yumi thanks Kurokage for everything he did for her and the others. Hanzō National Academy 1-04: The End of Peace Yozakura along with the Gessen Elites invade Hanzō Academy as they confront the Hanzō Elites and formally introduce themselves while proposing a Shinobi Battle Royale to them. They all left after giving them a one week warning before they come back for it, except for Murakumo, who has personal business with Ikaruga. 2-01: Shinobi Resolve The Shinobi Battle Royale begins as Yozakura’s opponent was Katsuragi. As she introduces herself to Katsuragi, Katsuragi realizes how mousey she was, but Yozakura already knows that people tells her that in general, but not before she pounds them. Katsuragi was glad to hear that as she was ready to kick her ass. However, Yozakura begins to feel disgusted at the idea of fighting with your legs as she personally feel that women should fight with their fists while looking good. Despite that, Katsuragi wants to show her what an ass kicking really means.

• Yozakura's name means "Cherry Trees in the Evening". • Her fighting gauntlets look similar to The Big O hands. • Yozakura's character theme, Floral Freedom, is an arrangement of Piano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight Sonata) (Beethoven). A play on the "Evening" part of her name. • In the Gessen Ninja Room after completing Gessen's story in Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus, speaking to Yozakura will trigger a conversation that reveals where her gauntlets came from. She explains that they were given to her by Kurokage shortly after joining Gessen, who had retrieved them from a couple who made iron weapons. She also states that the couple also made a pair of greaves (iron boots) and she wonders where they are now. • This implies that Yozakura's gauntlets and Katsuragi's boots were made by the same people, thus explaining their similar color scheme and overall design. • Senran Kagura: Estival Versus confirms this in Yozakura and Katsuragi's Dual Shinobi Hearts mission, where they learn their weapons are part of the same set. • Senran Kagura: Burst Re:Newal further confirms this with a Top Secret File that tells us that the boots were used by Katsuragi's father and the gauntlets by her mother, and that her mother gave them to Yozakura as an apology for showing up to kill Kurokage. Though this contradicts Shinovi Versus saying she got them from Kurokage after joining Gessen. • Yozakura shares the same birthdate with Seimei.