Kirame Hanada

' 'Kirame Hanada' (花田 煌 Hanada Kirame'') is a second-year student at Shindouji Girls' High School in Fukuoka Prefecture and the vanguard of its mahjong team. However, she is the weakest member on the team. She previously attended Takatoobara Middle School in Nagano Prefecture and was once Yuuki Kataoka and Nodoka Haramura's upperclassman.

Appearance
Kirame has short dark hair with pig tails that curve inward around her face and dark blue eyes (green eyes in the manga).

She wears the standard Shindouji Girls' High uniform.

Personality
Kirame is the easily excitable type who has always been shown as cheerful, fearless and strong-willed, even when the odds were against her (such as playing against Teru Miyanaga and Senriyama's Ace). She has a habit of saying "wonderful", as shown during her fight with Teru Miyanaga. When the battle ends, despite losing the most points she has a large smile on her face, unlike her opponents. She is also extremely polite and respectful, even using the "-san" honorific with underclassmen, claiming that she later hopes to befriend someone in her age range closely enough to not add "-san" (which she does with Himeko Tsuruta).

She also takes her role as "Shindouji's sacrifical pawn" rather seriously, as she's happy that someone found a good use for her ability.

Middle school
Kirame was in her final year at Takatoobara Middle School when Nodoka Haramura transferred into the school. She was present when Nodoka and Yuuki Kataoka joined the mahjong club, but because the two joined late, the club could not participate in that year's prefecture tournament. She graduated at the end of the year and moved to Fukuoka Prefecture to attend Shindouji Girls' High School.

Final Eight Arc
Kirame is first shown with the rest of her teammates entering the playing hall before the final eight competition begins. She is the last to enter the match arena and tells everyone to meet the star player even though Teru Miyanaga had beaten her before.

When the match begins, despite Teru's continued winning hands, Kirame keeps attacking. Toki soon realizes that Kirame is letting Toki know her hand on purpose and decides to play into it, stoping Teru's win streak. Kirame tells Toki that she and Teru aren't the only people at the table. But afterward Teru continues to win and reaches intermission with a win off of Kirame. When Teru keeps winning in the second half, Toki notices that Kirame is calling a lot of chii's and pons because she is after Teru and is forcing her hand to help the others out. With this Toki ends up stopping Teru's win streak; although, Toki regrets not playing into Kirame's hand, Kirame accepts that it's better for Toki to win than for Teru to win. When Teru starts winning again, we see a flashback as to why Kirame was invited onto the team.

Himeko Tsuruta and Mairu Shirouzu converse that Kirame is nothing more than a sacrifice and because she never goes under zero points. Himeko says that she would be shaken up by hearing this because she was excited to be on the team. However Kirame in fact overheard their conversation and says that she will be the best sacrifice she can be. She then gets won off of by Teru again but it doesn't faze her. She is later shocked when Toki deals into a hand for the first time. When Teru keeps winning, Kirame says that if she keeps up that someone will go under and she may have a chance to get second place. But not being happy with that, decides that she will do all in her power to prevent anyone from going under zero. When Toki helps Kuro win off of Teru to end the match, she told her that she did well.

After the match she wishes everyone a good game and rushes to Toki's side when she collapses. Back in the waiting room Mairu tells her that she did good but Kirame tells her that she just did all she could. She is later seen wishing Mairu good luck before her match. When Himeko informs them that Mairu has binded herself for four han, Kirame notes that it will be difficult to get and praises their president. Later she asks Himeko if she can use the extra han if Mairu has some left after her binding but Himeko informs her that she can't. During the captains match, she is seen excited when Himeko gives Shindouji the early lead. She is later seen intentively watching Himeko's match. After the loss, she tries to comfort Mairu and Himeko by offering them tacos that Yuuki had given to her.

National Championship Arc
Kirame calls Nodoka and she puts it on speaker so Yuuki can join the conversation. She then congratulates the girls on Kiyosumis success and says that she lost way too many points for her team. Yuuki then tells her that she beat the crap out of Teru just for her and Kirame says that she has wonderful spirit. She also says that she wanted to participate in team tournaments in middle school but didn't have enough members. We then get a flashback of their middle school days and Kirame telling Nodoka she talks politely because it is a habit but someday hopes she can talk casual with someone her own age. The call is soon ended thanks to Himeko telling her that they have a meeting to get to.

In the hallway, Himeko asks if she was talking to family but Kirame tells her that it was just her juniors. After the meeting she asks Kaede Hiyomori if it is okay for her to still be the vanguard. She then nominates Akari Tomokiyo but is immediately met with resistance from the girl. Etsuko Sudayama also joins in by saying that she has achieved great things. Akari then tells her that she and Himeko will be responsible for leading the club next year and to show her how cool she can be.

After all the participants gather in the arena and greet each other, Kirame and the other vanguards sit at the table as the match begins. When Usuzan's Naruka Motouchi calls a daburii and Himematsu's Suzu Ueshige consequently deals into it, Kirame looks over and gauges Toki's feelings, thinking that Toki probably let that happen to increase the gap with Himematsu. Kirame is worried about Toki's subsequent riichi in the next hand, and despite Suzu's efforts, Toki wins a haneman tsumo, and continues to win in the next round. Kirame thinks that Toki can't win any further or else there will be serious damage to every other team.

When Suzu's fuse is lit, and she wins two consecutive haneman, Kirame has to switch targets. During Suzu's last dealership, Kirame realises that due to Toki's plays her abilities have probably gotten stronger, thus setting off Suzu's fuse. She then calls a chi in order to send a message to Toki, by discarding the red-5-man and using the plain one in her call, she tells Toki "my hand is cheap, let me win and I'll follow your lead." After Toki discards twice for Hanada to call a pon on, Hanada draws a dora tile, which also increases her wait, and gauging Toki's expression, she ends up drawing another dora tile in the next turn; while she feels bad for lying to Toki after the fact, she keeps the dora in her hand, and does indeed draw another, winning the hand and preventing Suzu from going on a renchan. Kirame apologises, and Toki says it's okay.

After the match she is congratulated by her team. Kirame then tries to downplay her success but Mairu tells her that she needs more confidence. She watches the vice captain match with her teammates admiring just how good Mairu is. When Mairu's power begins to affect Himeko too much, Kirame gets uncomfortable and says there is a nap room where Himeko can rest up. With the help of Akari they help Himeko to the nap room. When they arrive they notice Senriyama's Toki and Ryuuka. Ryuuka asks about Himeko and fearing they might find out about her power, Kirame takes her to another nap room. While continuing to take care of Himeko, she watches in awe as Mairu guarantees a yakuman in the captains match.

Behind the scenes
Kirame Hanada was first introduced as an unnamed Takatoobara student on 25 June 2011 in an extra chapter of the Saki manga in the Gangan Big (now called Big Gangan) magazine. She appeared again as a named character on 10 February 2012 in chapter 7 of the Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A manga.

Playing Style/Abilities
Kirame has the strange ability to never go under zero points. According to her teammates, she has never lost all her points before and this ability even works against a professional player. It is later stated that in Shindouji's practise match against pros, she never lost more than 20,000 points, and was the only player in the club to accomplish this.

Kirame is a very capable player when it comes to collaborating with others in order to take down a stronger foe. She is often misfortunate (or perhaps fortunate) enough to be the player South of her main target, allowing her to call pon to disrupt their draws, shown when she does this to Teru Miyanaga and Suzu Ueshige.

Etymology

 * The name Kirame means "bright, brilliant" (煌).
 * Kirame's surname Hanada means "flower, blossom" (花) (hana) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta/da).