Sawa's Mother

Youthful and fair-skinned, she presents as a kind, lovely woman with pale eyes and long lashes. Her wavy, light-toned hair falls to the upper back with bangs framing her face.

The gentle, smiling surface hides someone self-centered and verbally cruel. She insists that everything she does is for Sawa's benefit while tearing her down, mocking her clothing choices, casting her as forever in the wrong, and feigning surprise that anyone would befriend a girl supposedly so hated. She resents being blamed for her own behavior and treats Sawa as though the girl owes her simply for being her mother. Whenever Sawa made a friend, her mother would quietly poison the bond behind her back until the friend drifted away, then turn around and criticize Sawa for having none.

Following the divorce, she often leaves Sawa alone to chase dates and work. She is the hidden reason Sawa's grade-school friends desert her, having approached them and said hurtful, abusive things until they felt they had to leave. She surfaces throughout the sequel mainly in Sawa's nightmares, flashbacks, and scattered panels before her formal debut, and she has a habit of vanishing without notice, leaving Sawa unable to reach her and drawing complaints from landlords over unpaid rent. Sawa openly wishes her mother were not part of her life.