Rei Kakizaki

Rei Kakizaki is one of the characters in the animation Zettai Shougeki: Platonic Heart.

Appearance
Rei is a tall and fit woman with black eyes and black hair that is tied up. She wears a uniform provided to her from her airline company which includes a suit with a dress shirt underneath, a red scarf, heels, pantyhose or stockings, and a short skirt. She also wears lipstick, earings, and a wristwatch which seems to just be a bracelet in the anime.

Personality
Rei is shown to be a very serious and yet caring person. With her parents dead, she was left to fend for herself and her sickly younger brother. As a result she works hard to make enough money to pay for the hospital expenses and attempts to learn English to hopefully increase her pay as a flight attendant. She also seems to have some pride as a flight attendant as she is seen talking in a role-playing manner with flight attendant themes throughout her fights against Miko and Aya. Due to her harsh life, she also has an obsession for money as she's the only character in the series who actually talks about the money won every round. While she gets into a verbal back and forth with Miko during their fight, she still does seem to care enough to give Miko valuable advice about how she should rely on herself for something as simple as making friends instead of relying on the power of the Platonic Heart. Despite being young, she seems to be wise enough to scold the younger girls in the series and also seems to have a keen sense of how strong her opponents are as she was even honest enough to compliment Aya on her skills. Rei also seems to have a temper as she was annoyed multiple times my Miko's responses whether it was Miko complaining about her airline phrases or clapping back regarding Rei's use of her company's bag after she tried to ask Miko if she should be using blades. She also seemed to be extremely angered after Aya was getting the better of her in a verbal exchange and reached a boiling point after Aya called her an old lady. She was also enraged again when she was trying to seek revenge when Aya seemed to talk as if the fight was over after saving Haruki. Her temper seems to lead to her demise as in both fights, Rei seemed to get sloppy after getting angry which is the opposite to Aya who seems to get stronger the angrier she is.

Background
Rei's parents died when she was still young leaving her to work since high school to take care of her younger brother who had an incurable disease. At some point she learns of the Platonic Heart and decides to join it to obtain more money to help her brother. Her end goal was likely to use the Platonic Heart to cure her brother. Although it's unknown how many fights Rei was in, based off her skills, wit, and tactical use of gadgets, it can be assumed that she had won many rounds by the time the series started. This is further hinted at when Rei says that she can see how Miko "made it this far" into the tournament which implies she had already fought many rounds.

Plot
The series starts off with Rei and Miko fighting with Rei seemingly dominating Miko. However, Miko manages to turn the fight around and land a blow on Rei's chest and then blocking Rei's elbow relatively easily. Rei is then seen catching her breath and compliments Miko. Likely realizing that Miko might actually be dangerous, she takes out her company bag, modified with long rage and 3 blades, and aims it at Miko only to miss. The two are then seen again when Aya and Natsume walk into the same street. They're stopped when Miko is sent crashing into a car by Rei. Once again, Rei seems to have the upperhand; although it's her uniform that his taken the most damage. The two continue to go at it and Miko gets the better of Rei and manages to open up her uniform even more and reveals her breasts. Frustrated, she attacks Miko again with her bag only to miss and then dodges Miko's shuriken attack by acrobatically jumping back. The two continue to argue back and forth for a while and Rei attacks again. Although she misses, she manages to hit the car Miko was standing on and knocks her onto Natsume. Now that Aya and Natsume are involved, Miko and Natsume's plan are likely complete which was to intentionally fight Rei until Natsume led Aya into the fight. Ignoring the two younger and smaller girls, Rei then begins talking down to Miko in a flight attendant themed banter and decides it's time to end the fight. Unfortunately, Aya grabs ahold of her bag and doesn't let go. Despite Rei and Miko getting into a consensual fight, Aya seems extremely angry only towards Rei for some reason. This is perhaps because Natsume was accidently involved in Rei's attack and that Miko is the younger girl thus more easy to relate to for Aya. This perhaps foreshadows the fact that Aya gets exposed as a morally flawed person late in the series. The two then again into a verbal argument and Rei asks what Aya is doing. When Aya simply throws the that back at Rei trying to point out her hypocrisy, Rei explains that Aya should probably go to another street if she doesn't like what's going on. Once again, Aya simply throws these words back at Rei which angers her and she insults Aya while calling her a hypocrite. Expectedly, Aya for the last time throws these words back at Rei and calls her an old lady. Seemingly bested verbally, not being able to outmuscle the younger girl to get her bag back, and getting called an old lady, Rei decides it's time to fight Aya. No long wishing to fight Rei herself, Miko sloppily charges in to get elbowed away by Rei to ensure a 1 on 1 battle between Rei and Aya. Giving up on the tug of war battle, Rei confidently takes off her scarf and reveals hidden needles inside. She throws them at Aya but her confidence quickly turns into surprise when an unimpressed Aya easily deflects all the needles with a single kick. She then charges with a punch at a now unarmed Rei and the fight attendant tries to get into a defensive stance and block the strike. However, much to her surprise, Aya jumps into the air and lands behind Rei with the two combatants now back to back. Rei is the first to start turning around to engage but Aya simply throws a no look elbow which immediately turns her back around. With her back now dangerously exposed to Aya, Aya grabs ahold of her from behind and effortlessly throws the larger woman backwards onto the concrete face first, knocking her out instantly. Unimpressed despite Rei's skills, Aya then calls out to Natsume to check if she's ok.

While it's unknown how long it took for Rei to wake up and recover, it's known that she stalked Aya and her friends as she knew about her crush on Haruki. She then prepared various gadgets and strategies to beat Aya using information she obtained from an unknown source which was likely working with the Platonic Heart managers. When Aya is notified that she had joined the tournament, Rei finds her at the park at night and explains the tournament to Aya. She hands Aya the money she was asked to give her and explains that after she defeats and gets revenge on her, she'll be taking the money back. The lights then turn off according to Rei's will due to some unknown gadget and she throws a punch followed by a swift roundhouse kick which Aya barely evades. Wondering how Rei is able to move around so well in the dark, Rei then grabs Aya from behind in a choke and locks her arms together. Overpowered by Rei's strength, Aya takes a coin out and throws it up to reflect the moonlight onto Rei's high quality night vision goggles she had been using. The sensitivity of her goggles ends up distracting her and Aya is able to land a clean elbow straight to Rei's chest. Grunting in pain and stepping back, Rei loses her choke hold and instead is seen backing away holding her chest. Complimenting Aya on her skill, Rei explains that she has her own reasons for being able to win the fight. She then snaps her fingers and turns the lights back on revealing Haruki tied up with bombs on him. Explaining to Aya she can either let her win or see Haruki get blown up, Aya seemingly gives up. Mocking Aya's foolishness, Rei pulls out her final gadget which is a modified suitcase to fly like an airplane and she hops to fly straight into Aya. Using the power of her flying suitcase, she lands a devastating knee to Aya followed by an elbow to the back of the head. Rei ends up landing over a dozen strikes to Aya, including elbows, leg kicks, uppercuts, knees, and body kicks. With Aya now angered due to getting dominated by Rei's methods despite there being no rules to a fight, she jumps in the air just as Rei charges up her final kick to knock Aya out. Rei just misses her final devastating blow and turns around to see that Aya acrobatically landed several meters behind Rei and removes all the bombs in the air with a flexible kick. Due to Rei's surprise and an unfortunate delay between her pressing the button and the actual detonation, the bombs actually explode at the peak of their height after Aya kicked them into the air. Had Rei not panicked and realized there would be delay, she could have potentially waited for the bombs to fall back down to finally defeat Aya. Unfortunately for Rei, Aya is now left unharmed and further angered into berserk mode now knowing that Rei would seriously kill her and Haruki. She tells Rei that she'll never forgive her; seemingly implying that she now has the upper hand which at first scares a now once again unarmed Rei, but then Rei is angered herself and charges in with a punch to finally deliver the finishing blow. Unfortunately, the size difference allows a smaller Aya duck down and into Rei to avoid the punch leaving a larger sprinting Rei in high heels off balance. Being this close, Rei's longer limbs no longer provide her with the advantage and Aya throws an uppercut. Although Rei is skilled enough to react and see the attack coming. Her forwards momentum from her reckless attack doesn't allow her to dodge and her longer arms are in no position to block with her left hand she used to punch still being extended. She has no choice to brace herself for the hit and Aya lands it directly into Rei's chin sending her flying several feet into the air. Despite the fact that a punch being strong enough to launch a fairly large woman into the air should be able to instantly knock anyone out, Rei remains conscious. However, Aya pursues the defenseless and shocked flight attendant into the air and lands a knee into her abdomen opening up her uniform for the first time in the battle. Rei's flying suitcase is seen rolling away perhaps as a symbol to show that Rei is now out of gadgets and must fight Aya directly. Aya then lands another uppercut to Rei's chest, opening her uniform even further. Completely stunned at the fact that she had lost control of the fight, Rei manages to land on her feet despite wearing high heels only to for Aya to strike her 3 more times with no reactions from Rei. After that, Rei finally recovers and is somewhat aware again as she is angered and gets into a fighting stance. Unfortunately, just as she recovers, she sees Aya throwing another body kick to Rei's left side. Once again, just as Rei recovers, Aya lands a knee to her chest. As quick and tough as Rei is, she just wasn't able to recover in time for Aya's unforgiving punishment. Rei manages to recover one last time only to take a punch to the stomach and a knee to her face sending her back many feet. Seeing that her opponents stance has finally been broken, Aya charges in for a punch much like the one that Rei used earlier. Rei once again, sees the attack coming but completely discombobulated, off balance, and with her confidence destroyed, she only reacts in fear and is unable to defend. The punch lands squarely on Rei's face which once again sends her body flying and screaming. Although she manages to stay conscious on the ground for a short time, she only says that she couldn't believe she had been defeated and then passes out from her injuries.

Rei is later seen with her mind broken presumably by who she thought was the weaker girl, Miko. Trained to be a sex slave, Rei doesn't seem to be aware of her surroundings in the same way as before and isn't even aware that her brother had died by now likely due to the fact that she wasn't there to take care of him. Miko degrades her and has Rei suck her finger and is then fed animal food which Rei licks off the floor still dressed in her once perfect uniform that Aya fought her in. It is revealed that the Platonic Heart is fake and that Rei fought for nothing and the whole tournament was just a setup to trap Aya. When the building is set on fire and Aya escapes, it's likely that Rei was unable to get out and was killed in the flames as Aya seemed to have no remorse for her victim and selfishly escaped for herself.

Abilities
Martial Arts: Despite it being clear that she had no previous experience due to her movements, sloppy decisions, lack of flexibility, and the fact that she spent her adult life working, she seems to be a very adept fighter through the little experience she earns throughout the tournament as well as her size and natural talent alone. One of the dead giveaways is the fact that she's never able to kick as high as someone's head despite her superior height on top of wearing high heels. She's seen using sidekicks, roundhouse kicks, elbows, knees, punches and chops to take down her opponents. While she didn't seem to know what to do when facing an opponent of equal skill and athleticism, she seemed to adapt very well in her second fight with Aya. While Rei initially seemed to have no idea how to grapple and was easily picked up despite being twice Aya's size, she managed to outgrapple Aya in their second fight with perfect form on her choke. Despite being a flight attendant rather than a dedicated fighter like Aya who had trained her whole life, Rei's talent and skills in martial arts allowed her to fight on par with Aya and even overwhelm her.

Supernatural Strength: She was able to crush the concrete walls with her modified bag. Rei also displayed strength in her battles with Aya when she had a tug of war battle with Aya and was able to hold her own. Rei was also strong enough to able to keep Aya in a choke hold as well as shattering her clothes on impact with her devastating strikes.

Speed and Agility: Rei demonstrated to be quick and nimble as she was able to dodge some of Miko's attacks and even said that Miko was too slow early on in the fight. Her reaction speed and overall quickness also allowed her to go toe to toe with Aya.

Athleticism: Despite being in high heels, Rei demonstrated high levels of athleticism by being able to land on her feet constantly, fight at high speeds, and perform a backwards standing jump at extreme heights to avoid Miko's attacks. Enhanced Durability: She managed to take an extreme amount of punishment from both Miko and Aya and managed to fight and overwhelm Aya despite it being her third fight of the day. She also took many strikes that would likely kill any other person from Aya very well without getting knocked out which shows that she has a very solid chin.

Enhanced Stamina: Despite not being a trained athlete, Rei did manage to have 3 fights in a single day. She likely improved her stamina from working long shifts for her job. She was however seen breathing heavily while Miko was unfazed showing that she is still a human woman. Equipment: Rei's gadgets include her hand bag provided to her from her airline company which has been modified with blades and extended range, hidden needles which she can throw out of her scarf, night vision goggles, switches to turn off street lights on and off at will, bombs, and her suitcase which has been modified to fly like an airplane.

Intelligence: Rei is very cunning and calculating when it comes to her battles. Despite clearly being one of the few fighters to not actually have a background in fighting, she picked up skills fairly quickly and supported her physical abilities with various gadgets and tactics to outsmart her opponents. After getting struck in the chest by Miko and then getting her elbow blocked, she realized that Miko potentially had her outmatched in a striking contest. She proceeded to change strategies and gained the upper hand with her company bag. She was able to recognize early on that Aya was a skilled opponent despite their short first encounter and further complimented her as the fight went on. Rei also gathers information on her opponents through her own methods and an unknown source who was likely working for the Platonic Heart such Izumi or even Miko. She was able to stalk Aya and find that she had a crush on Haruki which she would use to her advantage in their second fight. Rei also seems to have a high level of adaptability as she changed strategies various times in her fights with Miko and Aya and even adopted some basic grappling skills to choke Aya out when Aya had previously finished her with a judo slamm in their first encounter. She used various tactics to overwhelm Aya such as turning the street lights off with an unknown gadget and then attacking from behind with her night vision goggles as well as using Haruki as a hostage to ensure Aya wouldn't fight back and pose a threat to her. Rei also seems to just be generally intelligent as she has an innate sense of how skilled her opponents are, has good instincts, seemingly being able to operate her gadgets without issues despite having no fighting background, and learned English for her job. Weaknesses: Rei is a less experienced martial artist as her striking didn't appear to be as flexible and smooth which led to her defense being rather vulnerable as both Miko and Aya displayed that Rei was fairly hittable. This was best displayed in Rei's final ill-fated striking exchange with Aya. Although it should be noted that Aya had entered berserk mode and had likely been far stronger than Rei had anticipated given the fact that Rei matched up well against Aya previously up and was even convincingly winning the fight. It's also possible that Rei could have fared better against an enraged Aya as despite getting hit 5 times after the initial devastating uppercut and getting her uniform destroyed, she still managed to nearly recover multiple times.

It could be argued that Aya merely caught Rei by surprise with the uppercut and that it was perhaps a lucky shot which was followed by a flurry of quick strikes that never allowed Rei to recover. However, given how convincingly Rei lost the final exchange, it's most likely the case that against berserk Aya, Rei was just completely outclassed and was no longer able to handle Aya.

She also didn't seem to know what to do when Aya got a hold of her and proceeded to get completely out grappled and thrown onto the concrete ground. Being less experienced, she also didn't seem to know how to react when facing someone equally as skilled and athletic. She was shocked when Aya effortlessly deflected her needles and proceeded to charge at her. When she tried to block, Aya quickly leaped high into the air and landed behind her. When Rei tried to turn around to face her opponent she was quickly elbowed in the back and immediately taken down via a judo slam, instantly knocking her out. Her gadgets also seem to have weaknesses as her bag was rendered useless once Aya got ahold of it leading to frustration as she eventually let go of the bag after realizing she couldn't outmuscle a younger and smaller girl in a tug of war match. Her scarf was also only good for one attack and became useless once Aya easily parried the ineffective attack. Her expensive night vision goggles in combination her ability to turn the street lights off was also countered by a single coin reflecting the light from the moon. Her high quality goggles were too sensitive and distracting and ended up getting her elbowed in the chest forcing her to let go of the hold and step away wincing in pain. The flying suitcase, like her scarf, was only effective for one attack and was seen rolling away after Aya hit her with a devastating uppercut in perhaps a symbolic way showing that Rei was compleltely out of gadgets and left to fend for herself. Her bombs also seemed to have a delay between her pressing the button and the actual explosion which not only led to Aya surviving but triggering her berserk mode even further as Aya now realized she was out to kill both Aya and Haruki.

She also seems to have an issue with her temper. In her first battle with Aya, she was angered that she was getting outwitted and was made even angrier when Aya called her an old lady. In their second battle, Rei was already out for revenge but then further angered when Aya seemed to have a lot of confidence in Rei's defeat after defeating her final gadget. Both times, she ended up fighting on emotion rather than thinking which ultimately led to her demise.

Rei also seems to have terrible luck. Having to work since high school, her parents dying, and her brother becoming ill all contributed to her tragic life. When she joined the tournament, she had the misfortune of facing Miko whose goal was to get her to fight Aya which ended up happening twice. Not only that, but Aya, the girl who Miko and Natsume wanted revenge on happened to have superhuman abilities herself on top of having trained in martial arts her whole life. To make things worse, Aya for whatever reason seemed to hate Rei particularly despite the fact that she and Miko were having a consensual battle. This of course would eventually lead to Rei and Aya squaring off despite a big mismatch as far as experience goes. When Rei anticipated a striking match which is her comfort zone as far as martial arts goes, Aya would avoid this strength and easily outgrapple her. This would then eventually lead to Rei's ill-fated attempt at revenge and final attempt at winning the tournament where she managed to come close to defeating Aya multiple times. She lost control of her dominant chokehold position due to her expensive gadgets getting outclassed by a single coin, and was only one strike away from finishing Aya only to see that Aya had tricked her about giving up. A combination of Rei's surprise and her bomb's delay would cause the bombs to detonate at the worst possible moment where it was as far from Aya as possible leading to the worst case scenario. Aya is unhurt and now knows Rei would have seriously killed her crush Haruki which pushed Aya's berserk mode even further. Not knowing about Aya's berserk form, Rei charged in thinking it'd be more of the same only to see Aya effortlessly dodged her punch and quickly realized Aya was now in range to strike her leading to an uppercut. Despite landing on her feet after some punishment and nearly recovering multiple times in the beatdown, Aya's relentless attack was just fast enough in berserk mode to never truly let Rei recover and set up a defense as she could only helplessly see the strikes coming and do nothing about it.

After her terrible luck in her fights, it's revealed that the whole tournament was simply a ploy and that Rei had been completely lied to showing that she had aimed for the Platonic Heart for nothing only to end up as a sex slave getting humiliated by Miko, who she once thought was beneath her. To top it all off neither Suzuko or Aya seemed to care about Rei once the building was set on fire and Rei likely tragically perished to the fires.

Trivia
Rei is 23 years old and born on December 15th 1985.

Her measurements are B89-W60-H89.

Her blood type is O.

Rei is a Sagittarius.

According to the complete works book, of all the women with a listed height, Rei is by far the tallest at 172cm.

Her scarf is often depicted as having white and red stripes as opposed to just red in different media such as some content in the complete works book and the game.

She wears pantyhose in just about every point she is seen in the franchise but wore thigh highs for her final battle with Aya until the end of her life.

She often speaks as if she's at work on a plane which shows some sort of passion for her work even if the main focus is money.

She plays the role of a starter villain in a way. Although quite strong and skilled, she's the first fighter introduced and becomes Aya's first opponent with a lot of trash talk back and forth. She's only the one of provides context for the tournament for Aya.

In the app and complete works book she is seen with a whip fighting Azuma and Getsurei only to be beaten easily with a curse that she can never win as a form of comic relief due to her starter villain role.

She doesn't seem to wear a bra as when both Miko and Aya destroyed her uniform, her breasts were completely exposed.