Sanae Hikari

Sanae Hikari (Japanese: ひかりさなえ Hikari Sanae) is the central protagonist of the Animatron Studios series StarLight. A 16-year-old high school student, she becomes the magical girl White Star after coming into possession of the White Star Emblem, and finds herself tasked with battling a host of monsters as well as the villainous Black Star.

Backstory
Very little is known of Sanae's backstory, other than that her parents are archaeologists and spend hardly any time with her, meaning she has had to learn to look after herself. She is thought to have lived in Mitsuzawa all her life, and has known her best friend Amaya Kurozawa since middle school.

Series 1
Sanae comes into possession of the White Star Emblem after her first day back at school; her parents had excavated it from the ruins of old Mitsuzawa and thought it would make a nice present for her. Upon holding the Emblem, Sanae releases Kousen from within it, inheriting her magical abilities as well as the mantle of White Star. After an expository speech from Kousen, Sanae is soon called into action for the first time as a monster, attracted by the Emblem's power, begins to attack the city; she is almost defeated but manages to claim victory and triumphantly introduces herself to the world.

Appearance
Sanae stands 155cm tall (5'1"), and is of average build. She has long purple hair and blue eyes. Her casual attire has not been seen yet, but when attending Mitsuzawa High School, she wears the standard uniform of white shirt, blue blazer and skirt, and black ribbon.

When transformed into White Star, Sanae's hair curls into drills and is topped with a ribbon. Her attire in this form consists of a white dress with violet lace details, white elbow-length gloves with a diamond-shaped hole in the back, white thigh-high socks, and white high-heeled shoes.

Personality
Like many other characters in the series, Sanae is aware of her fictional status and frequently invokes or parodies various anime tropes; in "Dawn" she deliberately oversleeps so that she can rush to school with toast in her mouth, a well-known anime cliché. She also repeatedly breaks the fourth wall, referring to the audience directly and making meta-jokes such as anticipating scene changes.

One of Sanae's catchphrases throughout the series is that "the protagonist never dies/always wins", parodying the shonen anime cliché wherein the protagonist invariably wins every battle he faces. However, this sometimes manifests itself as overconfidence, and Sanae can easily become frustrated if a previously-reliable tactic fails to work (as in "Making a Splash!"). She is also frequently irritated by the inconvenient timing of many of the monsters' attacks; in "The Toaster Incident" she has to be dragged out of bed by Kousen after a monster attacks at 2am.

Appearances in other media
Sanae, as White Star, is set to appear as a playable character in the crossover fighting game When Worlds Collide.