For the novel, please go to Yuko Sakaki (Novel). For the manga, please go to Yuko Sakaki (Manga).
Yuko Sakaki (榊 祐子, Sakaki Yūko) is a minor character in Battle Royale.
Backstory[]
Not much about Yuko's background was known, other than she was a very timid girl with a high paranoia level. If Yuko was anything like her novel and manga counterparts, then she distrusted men after being abused by her father.
Friends and Enemies[]
Yuko was friends with Yukie Utsumi, Yuka Nakagawa, Haruka Tanizawa, Chisato Matsui, Satomi Noda, and Fumiyo Fujiyoshi. It is unknown if she had any enemies.
Before the Program[]
Before Kitano resigned, Class B decided to take a day off and skip school, Yuko included; she attended the basketball game against Class A, and celebrated when Class B won. Yuko decided to go on the class trip; while on the bus, she most likely played patty-cake with her friends. Yuko fell asleep after breathing in a sleeping gas pumped into the bus; she was then transported to an island and fitted with an explosive collar.
Yuko, along with the rest of the class, woke up in a classroom in the island’s school. Unnerved by the presence of Shogo Kawada and Kazuo Kiriyama, Yuko rushed over to the window to watch a helicopter land in front of the school. Yuko was shocked to see that Kitano had returned. When Kitano asked the class if they knew the BR Act law, Yuko kept quiet, obviously knowing the law, but afraid to say it aloud. Yuko was horrified upon seeing Masao Hayashida's corpse. When Fumiyo Fujiyoshi was killed, Yuko panicked and ran for the door trying to escape before running towards the back of the classroom when the soldiers began firing. When Yoshitoki Kuninobu's collar got activated, Yuko ran around the room trying to evade him.
When Yuko's name was called, she grabbed her school bag and ran towards the front of the room; she caught her supply bag and ran out of the school.
During the Program[]
Yuko ran through the island in a complete panic when she witnessed the fight between Shuya Nanahara and Tatsumichi Oki. From her viewpoint, it seems that Shuya killed Tatsumichi, and she fled from the scene in terror.
She was later found by Yukie Utsumi's group who brought her in and she told them about what she saw.
Later on, the girls brought in Shuya and helped him recover, but Yuko still thought he was a killer and believed he was a danger to the group. When Yukie brought them the news that he would recover, Yuko decided to put some of her poison into Shuya's food. Her plan backfired, however, when Yuka Nakagawa tasted Shuya's meal and died. The girls all panicked and Satomi Noda lost it and killed all her friends, leaving Yuko the only survivor who tried to tell herself that it isn't her fault. She then heard Shuya upstairs trying to get out and figure out what happened.
Yuko dead after leaping off the top of the lighthouse.
Yuko opened the door to Shuya's room and tearfully apologized to him for her actions (acknowledging that he is as much a victim in the game as she and her friends were), confessing to starting an incident and ran up the stairs. Once at the balcony, she jumped off the lighthouse while Shuya checked on the other girls. Shuya then climbed to the top of the lighthouse to find Yuko's body being splashed by the waves below, leaving him distraught.
Etymology[]
- The name Yuko means "help" (祐) (yu) and "child" (子) (ko).
- Yuko's surname Sakaki means "sacred Shinto tree" (榊).
Notes[]
- Yuko was the last person in her clique to die and the only one whose death cause was suicide.
- Yuko is one of the few people to commit suicide; the others are Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Sakura Ogawa, Yoji Kuramoto, and Yoshimi Yahagi.