Sakura Himedaka

Name: Sakura Himedaka

Gender: Female

Age: 18 at first appearance; 19 in episode 1 of the anime

Birthday: April 10

Zodiac sign: Aries

Position: Acting bodyguard officer

Voice actors: Yoshino Aoyama; Kana Hanazawa in the Dengeki Bunko promotional version

Sakura Himedaka serves as one of the central protagonists alongside Hinagiku Kayō in Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring.

She is a swordswoman who swore lifelong loyalty to the Spring deity, Hinagiku.

Her story begins moving when Hinagiku finally returns after years of abduction.

Having searched desperately for her kidnapped mistress for so long, Sakura draws her blade with vengeance in mind.

She wants retribution against the bandits who stole away the person she loved most.

She also bears fury toward the bystanders who gave in to despair and abandoned the search.

At the time of Dance of Spring, she is 17 in the story chronology described in the source text.

She still carries deep regret over failing to protect Hinagiku from the raiders ten years earlier.

Even after Spring and Winter gave up active large-scale efforts to find Hinagiku, Sakura continued searching alone.

In the past, she spoke politely and called Itechō Kangetsu “Lord Itechō,” but in the present she drops the honorific and speaks much more harshly.

According to the author Akatsuki, Sakura was originally planned as a boy.

That idea was changed after considering the story from Hinagiku’s point of view, and she was reimagined as a girl.

A line associated with her is: “Do not leave me alone. Please, come back.”

Sakura is described as a beautiful young woman with flower-like lips, eyelids, and features.

She is the kind of girl whose beauty stands out immediately.

Her black hair is tied up fully with a checkered hair ornament.

The hair is compared to cherry blossoms blooming at night, dyed in a spiral gradient from jet black to ash pink.

She has catlike eyes and long eyelashes likened to peacock feathers.

The sword hanging at her waist is as striking as her dignified beauty.

She is also described elsewhere as the very image of a maiden so lovely that even flowers would feel shy beside her.

Ayame Hazakura praises her skin as especially smooth and beautiful.

After the tragedy of her childhood, stress caused white strands to appear in her hair.

That visible change became one more mark of the trauma she endured.

Sakura uses “I” as her first-person pronoun.

She is generally calm, composed, and serious.

She speaks respectfully to Hinagiku and to the other seasonal figures.

Toward those she hates, especially Winter’s attendants at her angriest moments and the bandits, her tone becomes cutting, formal, and rough at the same time.

She is stubborn in the best and fiercest sense.

Her straight, unbending core gives her a presence and intensity that make it impossible to dismiss her as merely a young girl.

She does not scare easily, even when facing older people.

At first glance she can seem as if nothing matters to her except her mistress, but that is not the whole truth.

In reality, she values bonds with others and maintains those connections properly.

After later conflicts are resolved, she keeps in contact and cooperates with both Summer and Autumn.

Despite her cool exterior, she has a soft spot for cute things, especially small animals.

Around them, her expression becomes much more animated than usual.

She is also terrible with ghost stories.

For all her bravery, she is deeply lonely at heart and admits that she is really just “a crybaby and a selfish girl.”

She learns extremely quickly.

She is described as the kind of person who, if taught one thing, asks ten questions and turns it into twenty results.

Because of that sharp absorption and adaptability, her combat ability is very high.

She can stand comparison even with Winter’s bodyguard ranks.

As a bodyguard who failed to protect her liege, Sakura is haunted by guilt.

Like Winter’s retainers, she has at times been driven toward thoughts of death.

Her love for Hinagiku runs very deep.

If it is for Hinagiku’s sake, she does not hesitate to act with self-sacrificing devotion.

She tries to become strong in order to protect her.

And because Hinagiku is so gentle toward the world, Sakura tries to be all the more ruthless in her place.

Sakura was born in the Spring Village as a daughter of the Himedaka family line, a clan known for producing many bodyguard officers for the seasonal representatives.

Before becoming a bodyguard, she was a second-year elementary school student at a school established by the village.

By that point, she had already lost her family in all but name.

Her parents longed to escape the closed-off village, fell into outside gambling, and piled up debt with dangerous lenders rather than normal financial institutions.

In the end, they abandoned their daughter and fled the village.

Because of them, Sakura was treated as the shame of her clan.

Her relatives did not take her in.

Instead, she was placed in an institution called the House of Compassion.

From this experience, she came to hate all adults.

Above all, she deeply resented the parents who had brought her into the world and then discarded her.

Life in the institution was far from comfortable.

Her classmates also kept their distance from her.

One day, while sneaking into the garden of the residence where the Spring representative lived to steal peaches, she met Hinagiku Kayō.

The two shared their fears and anxieties, found mutual understanding, and formed a special bond.

After that, Sakura began visiting Hinagiku after school and on holidays.

Their connection quickly became precious to both of them.

However, Sakura’s ties to the Himedaka family line were discovered, and she was forbidden from entering the residence.

Hinagiku, normally a “good child,” shut herself in her room and refused training because she wanted to see Sakura so badly.

The adults eventually relented.

They allowed Sakura to visit the residence again, though under supervision.

Afterward, Hinagiku’s ability to manifest Spring improved dramatically.

Sakura, as a daughter of the Himedaka line, was also appointed as a bodyguard unusually early.

At age nine, Sakura accompanied Hinagiku when Hinagiku performed the manifestation of Spring in the Winter Village for the first time as a seasonal representative.

As attendants traveling together, Sakura and Itechō Kangetsu grew close.

Sakura asked him to teach her swordsmanship, and the two formed a master-disciple relationship.

She had been denied sword training in the Spring Village because she was female.

At that time, she showed respect toward Winter’s pair and addressed them with honorifics.

During the month of the seasonal rite, Rōsei Kantsubaki and the others doted on her like a younger sister, and she spent that period in happiness.

Then everything collapsed.

A radical bandit group from the anti-Winter extermination faction attacked without warning.

Winter’s pair and Sakura fought while trying to protect Hinagiku and retreat into the sacred forest.

Itechō Kangetsu was shot in the abdomen, and Sakura was also shot while shielding Rōsei.

To protect everyone else, Hinagiku manifested Spring for the first time.

She was then abducted by the bandits.

Demands later arrived from the kidnappers, but the Yamato government rejected them.

The negotiating terms were revised, but contact was lost.

Because no next Spring representative was born, Hinagiku was confirmed to still be alive.

Even so, that confirmation did not bring rescue.

The stress left Sakura’s hair streaked with white.

Three months later, the Spring Village announced it was ending the search.

She was stripped of her role, driven out of the Spring Village, and left with a triangular sling wrapped around her arm.

It was Itechō Kangetsu who found her and sheltered her in the Winter Village.

But five years later, Winter also ended its large-scale investigation and reduced the effort to something small enough to be effectively abandonment.

This became the breaking point for Sakura.

Because of that decision, she came to hate Winter’s pair intensely.

She left the village behind.

Three years later, she was summoned back to the Spring Village.

The village chief informed her that Hinagiku had returned, and Sakura was reunited with her after eight years.

She did her best to help her mistress recover, but things did not go well.

On a day of bitter cold, Sakura was expelled from the village once again.

Hinagiku then chased after her.

During that journey, Hinagiku manifested Spring.

Sakura supported her through two years of illness and recovery.

In the end, Hinagiku returned to duty as the representative of Spring.

In Dance of Spring, Sakura travels with her mistress Hinagiku toward Ryugu in order to carry out the Rite of the Four Seasons.

While advancing through a mountain path as Hinagiku’s protector, she meets a girl named Nazuna.

After several twists and turns, Sakura witnesses Nazuna’s manifestation of Spring and encourages her forward.

This shows that beneath her severity, she can give strength to others with remarkable directness.

After Hinagiku safely completes her first manifestation, Sakura visits the Summer palace with her.

There she grows closer to the Hazakura sisters, Ayame Hazakura and Ruri Hazakura.

Their conversations make her reflect on the past.

She also gives advice to Ayame, the attendant who had been facing a strike from Ruri.

Soon after, both the Spring and Summer groups receive news that Nadeshiko Iwaizuki, the Autumn representative, has been abducted by bandits.

Through contact with Rōsei Kantsubaki over the phone, Sakura proposes a united front among the representatives of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

Overcoming grudges that had lasted ten years, she helps form a rescue plan for Nadeshiko.

Together with Hinagiku, she steps into the headquarters of the Four Seasons Agency.

Hinagiku Kayō

Hinagiku is Sakura’s mistress and the person to whom she has sworn absolute loyalty.

Sakura never forgave herself for failing to protect her when she was taken by the bandits.

Her feelings for Hinagiku are not framed as romance, yet they are described as a love very close to it.

She believes that even if the form of her love differs, its intensity does not lose to that of Rōsei Kantsubaki.

Sakura serves Hinagiku with total devotion.

She is willing to give of herself completely for her sake.

Rōsei Kantsubaki

Rōsei is the man loved by Hinagiku.

As two people who both survived and carry scars from the tragedy ten years earlier, Sakura and Rōsei join hands to strike back at the bandits.

Formally, he is someone she ought to show proper deference to.

In practice, Sakura has little interest in doing that, and the two often clash over Hinagiku.

She is not pleased when Hinagiku yearns for Rōsei and stays by his side.

She can be openly jealous.

Even so, Hinagiku’s happiness comes first for Sakura.

She does not reject the bond between the two of them.

Itechō Kangetsu

Itechō is the teacher who taught Sakura martial arts and the man she once loved.

She admired him as more than just a master, but after the events connected to Winter’s abandonment of the search, that admiration turned to hatred.

Even so, her romantic feelings never fully disappeared.

For a long time, love and resentment coexisted inside her at once.

They still work well together and can naturally coordinate in battle or conversation.

That easy compatibility reveals how deep their bond once was.

Because she carried both affection and hatred for so many years, Sakura has difficulty accepting his kindness honestly.

However, they have now reconciled and are beginning to build a new relationship.

Nadeshiko Iwaizuki and Rindo Azami

Sakura allies with the Autumn pair when Nadeshiko is abducted.

She fights alongside Rindo Azami and keeps in touch with them even after the incident is resolved.

When Rindo fell into despair after losing Nadeshiko, Sakura urged him on with something like passionate tough-love coaching.

She seems to admire the spirit he showed as a retainer.

Ayame Hazakura and Ruri Hazakura

Sakura deepens her friendship with the Summer pair during the visit to the Summer palace.

They later join forces to rescue Autumn.

Even after the conflict ends, Sakura remains on friendly terms with them.

Like with Autumn, she keeps up communication.

Zansetsu Kayō and Tsubame Asei

Zansetsu Kayō, Hinagiku’s half-brother, and his attendant Tsubame Asei are among the few people Sakura openly treats with trust and respect.

She addresses him as Lord Zansetsu.

She sees him as a comrade who watches over Hinagiku and as a benefactor who helps support Hinagiku’s daily life.

She is sincerely grateful for the ways he acted to protect her mistress within the Spring Village.

Because Sakura herself suffered from terrible parents and a harsh upbringing, she can often understand Zansetsu’s feelings.

Tsubame, who also came from the House of Compassion, is especially attached to Sakura for that reason.

The Chief of the Spring Village

Sakura views the village chief as a hateful figure who chose to abandon Hinagiku.

The feeling is mutual, and the chief also dislikes her.

Sakura distrusts the Spring Village as a whole.

She believes there is something about it that twists people into becoming worse.

Sakura is a highly capable swordswoman whose growth came from both natural aptitude and relentless need.

Her ability to absorb knowledge quickly made her especially dangerous once she received proper training.

Itechō Kangetsu’s instruction was central to her development.

Since she had been denied sword lessons in Spring simply for being a girl, that chance changed her life.

Her presence in battle is marked by willpower, speed of learning, and sheer conviction.

Even experienced fighters cannot easily overlook her.

In her younger days, Sakura was more openly respectful.

She used polite speech and referred to Itechō Kangetsu as “Lord Itechō.”

In the present, that softness has eroded.

She now calls him simply Itechō, and her language has become much harsher.

That shift in speech reflects the damage done by betrayal, grief, abandonment, and years of unresolved pain.

Her voice itself tells the story of the person she used to be and the person she became.

According to This Light Novel Is Amazing! 2022, Sakura was originally conceived as a boy.

The author later decided to make the character a girl after thinking through the story from Hinagiku’s position.

Yoshino Aoyama’s first impression of Sakura was that she felt like “a samurai’s child.”

Words like “honor” and “duty” immediately came to mind for her.

Kana Hanazawa described Sakura as “a wonderful girl.”

She praised both Sakura’s gentle heart toward those precious to her and the strength that lets her keep moving forward despite emotional pain.

Yoshino Aoyama also originally auditioned for the role of Hinagiku.

After not being cast, she later auditioned for Sakura and won the role.