Saeko Busujima

Saeko Busujima is one of the main characters from the Highschool of the Dead anime and manga.

Saeko is a student at Fujimi High School, a member of the survivor group led by Takashi Komuro and the daughter of Master Busujima. Before the apocalypse, she was in her Third year and was also captain of the Kendo Club at Fujimi High School. In the group, Saeko is considered the most reliable of all fighters, and everyone can count on her combat skills to pull them through a tough spot if need be. Like Rei, Saeko is an athletic fighter and talented combat specialist whose forte is in melee attacks. She is one of the reasons why the protagonists have managed to survive as far as they have. At the beginning of the series, she uses a bokken wooden sword that she used to fight "Them" with, but she was later given a sword by Souichiro Takagi to fight "Them".

Appearance
Saeko has long, straight and shiny purple hair along with a triangular fringe at the front that barely touches the ridge of her nose, blue eyes and sizable breasts. She is quite tall for a Japanese girl and her relatively long limbs contribute leverage to her powerful sword swings. One of Saeko's physical features which are often shown in the manga is her lips, which have a shiny pink appearance. Over the course of the series, Saeko mostly wears her school uniform; however, she has changed her attire more than once in the series. At Shizuka Marikawa's friend's, Rika Minami, house Saeko wears nothing but an apron with a black thong and she also puts her hair up into a single ponytail. After leaving Rika's house, her clothing changes to female battle boots with heels, long lace purple stockings, purple gloves, her school uniform top, a skirt that shows the string of her thong and her entire right thigh, a purple lacy bra, and a special belt to hold her sword. Later at Saya Takagi's house, Saeko wears a kimono. After reaching the East Police Station, Saeko adds a gun holster with a loaded M9 Vertec strapped to her right leg.

Personality
Throughout the series, Saeko is shown to be a very kind, caring, strong and reliable person, which is pointed out by other characters. She is also calm and collected as she almost never freaks out or loses her cool in combat, which is an almost frightening degree. As the second oldest of the group after Shizuka Marikawa, Saeko acts as something of a big sister to the group, often considering the feelings of other members of the group and ensuring their well being.

Saeko, following her familial samurai lineage, strictly follows what can be interpreted as Bushido code; her character, behavioral patterns, and frequent sayings (e.g "it's a man's decision after all") provides evidence of her strict following of Bushido code. She is the opposite of Rei Miyamoto in many ways; while Rei gets very jealous whenever Takashi gets close to another girl, Saeko is more mature and doesn't have a problem with it, even telling Takashi that girls can be weak sometimes.

However, later on, Saeko reveals sadistic tendencies while fighting "them", often smiling whenever she's in combat. It can be assumed that Saeko's existential conflict manifests itself by cloaking her troubled. sadistic, malevolent, and violent nature with the facade of a well-mannered and cultured young woman. Her sadistic tendencies manifested four years before the story when she fought off a would-be molester. At first, it was self-defense, but soon she realized that she enjoyed causing pain and having control over somebody's life. Ever since then, Saeko has grown to see herself as someone unworthy of love and even becomes something of a "death seeker" until Takashi snaps her out of it. After this, Saeko learns to embrace her violent nature, having realized that it's essential for the group's survival.

Despite her sadistic tendencies, Saeko does still have morals, as shown when she couldn't bring herself to kill a pair of zombie children, something Takashi was able to do without any hesitation. Additionally, even after accepting who she is, she still shows a certain degree of self-hatred; when Rei states that she hopes she never gets used to killing "them", Saeko states that she's at least better off than her.

Abilities
A melee combat specialist Saeko is physically strong and extremely agile. She is a master swordswoman highly masterful in the art of Kendo she can perform forceful sword strikes of immense precision even with a wooden bokuto she can kill a living man with a single strike. She initially uses the Wooden Sword, but she upgrades to a Murata-tou when they arrive at the Takagi Estate. After the gang raid the Police Station, Saeko takes a M92 Vertec pistol on her thigh as a secondary weapon despite of the fact that she has yet to learn how to use it.

Trivia

 * Saeko is the captain of Fujimi Academy's Kendo Club.
 * Saeko is the first character to realize that knocking "Them" over is almost as effective as killing them.
 * According to Morita, Saeko ranks as the sexiest female student at Fujimi Academy.
 * In Morita's Report, he shares his fantasy with Takashi about Saeko wearing nothing but an apron and a thong, and ironically Saeko actually wears this attire later in front of Takashi.
 * Saeko has been known to drool when she sleeps.
 * Saeko's interests involve cultural Japanese things such as Koi fish and cherry blossom trees.
 * Saeko dislikes it when Rei addresses her with the honorific senpai, as the two should be in the same year.
 * Saeko ranked 3rd in the latest (Nov 9, 2011) Monthly Dragon Age character popularity poll.
 * Random Trivia: The kanji in "Busujima" mean "poison island". The kanji in Saeko are "skill child".
 * In the Lolipop Chainsaw video game, Saeko is an unlockable costume as well as Rei Miyamoto.
 * In the English dub, Saeko's name is pronounced "psycho", highlighting her sadistic side.
 * Saeko seems to be sexually aroused when killing something, or at the very least when killing "Them". As when she's killing a group of "them" at a shrine, she exclaims "I'm wet".
 * There is a possibility that Saeko and Rei may have a professional or familial relationship, as it was somewhat implied in Episode 11.
 * Before he died, Daisuke Satō stated to illistrator Shōji Satō that he wished for Saeko and Takashi to end up together but didn't know how to end the series.