Clarissa Snowflake

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Clarissa "Claris" Snowflake クラリッサ・スノーフレイク
Clarissa Snowflake
Series	Shin Sakura Taisen
Profile
Age	16
Birthdate	February 1st, 1924
Birthplace	Luxembourg
Characteristics
Gender	Female
Hair	Blonde
Eyes	Green
Appearances
First Appearance (Game)	Shin Sakura Taisen
First Appearance (Manga)	Sakura Wars the Comic
First Appearance (Anime)	Sakura Wars the Animation
Media Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Saori Hayami

Clarissa "Claris" Snowflake (クラリッサ・スノーフレイク Kurarissa Sunōfureiku) is one of the primary female characters in Shin Sakura Taisen. She is a member of the Teikoku Kagekidan's Hanagumi.

Appearance

Claris has thigh-length yellow hair that is kept straight in some portions with some others hair braided at the bottom and green eyes.

She usually wears a green and white outfit where her green and white battle uniform matches her typical outfit and she is often seen accompanied by a book of some kind.

Personality

Claris is a kind and gentle girl whom the creators of Project Sakura Wars have described her as having a "gentlewomanly" personality: the female counterpart to a gentleman's polite and sophisticated nature. Her ladylike composure is paralleled by her studiousness, patience, and kindness.

Claris is a bookworm who is often seen engrossed in a novel and she is totally absorbed into whatever book she has whenever she is reading. This complete mental focus, however, impairs her ability to notice the world around her. It has been demonstrated that while engrossed in literature she is utterly unaware of her surroundings and other people even when they are shouting her name into her ear or waving at her face.

It is said that Claris is quite a force to be reckoned with when scorned. She can turn spiteful and has even been shown threatening the source of her ire using her Juumadou black magic. Rumor has it that during such times she uses quite foul language!

Background

Claris is a sixteen-year-old Luxembourgian noblewoman who is a lady that likes reading very much. When reading, she is completely focused on whatever book she is studying at the moment, completely oblivious to the world around her and she is a successor to the Juumadou style of black magic, which is a form of sorcery that utilizes books and this magic has been passed down in her family for countless years.

Claris is from the small European nation of Luxembourg where she altruistically leaves her noble family in Luxembourg to move to Japan to work for the Imperial Floral Division due to how important it is to her to use her spiritual and magical powers to help people and for the greater good.

Playstyle

With the hack-and-slash game mechanics introduced to the 2019 game, Claris performs as the magic-user of the Flower Division.

Mugen-Class Spiricle Striker

• HP: 6
• Attack: 9
• Defense: 6

Using Claris' quick attacks, she can fire magical projectiles at her opponents with the second attack increasing her shots and firing faster in a narrow range. Her third successive quick strike would increase her projectiles in an increased number and in a wider range.

Claris' basic strong attack allows her to cast tornadoes in three columns, spawning at mid-range from where she stands before moving forward in the direction she is facing and sweeping away the enemies that got caught in its fray. By using a strong attack after any stage of a quick strike combo, she can fire a magic laser at her targets (the successive quick strikes does not affect the laser's damage output)

In mid-air, she can fire projectiles twice in rapid succession, and summon columns of lightning with her strong attack when facing forward. With the lightning columns, they increase in number and have a randomized pattern as they move forward to the furthest range Claris can cast at her enemies.

Claris as a magic-user would favor more in fighting a long distance from a crowd of enemies due to her low defense compared with her fellow members. She can make short work of small enemies with her magic projectiles and use her tornadoes to sweep away enemies attempting to approach her if given enough time and distance to cast it.

To ensure that she remains untouchable from enemies on the ground while bringing devastation to the number of enemies, her best play is to cast her lightning columns while remaining in mid-air. Being in the air should also give the player the time to survey the area as well during the casting and figure out their next move. Note that while most enemies on the ground would be unable to reach her, she will still be vulnerable to attacks that can reach her high up such as from flying enemies or a swipe from a Hellfiend.

Claris' special attack Arbitre d'Enfer allows her to target multiple enemies and fire devastating magic projectiles simultaneously at them. Be wary that her target mode does not automatically activate the special ability so player needs to press O (or X in Western version) to confirm its activation.

Etymology

• The name Clarissa originates from the Germanic name "Clarice" and this in turn is derived from the Latin word, "clarus", which means "bright, clear, or famous." Although not known to be a popular name in Luxembourg, the name is in frequent use in English, Italian, and Portuguese-speaking locales.
  • Clarissa is also literally significant, being featured as the name of several important and famous fictional characters as well as being the first name of a popular American poetess, Clarissa Estés. She also shares her first name with Clarissa Barton, the American humanitarian who founded the American Red Cross.
    • Clarissa and Claris can both be considered dainty and diminutive Latinate forms of the name Clarice or Claire. However there is additional historical and religious significance to the name that probably plays a role in the naming of Claris.
  • All of these name variants were popularized thanks in large part to Saint Clare of Assisi who left her wealthy family to found the order of nuns known as the Poor Clares. Furthermore, this order is also called "Clarisse". Given the known Christian, Buddhist, Shintoist, religious, or otherwise spiritual tones and references in the Sakura Wars series, from angels to demons to saints to nuns to even Adam and Eve, this is probably the most likely explanation for the given name Claris.
• Claris' surname Snowflake (although by no means a common name in Luxembourg nor its official languages of German, French, nor Luxembourgish) has the meaning of a gentle and delicate crystal of water, fragile and temporal.
  • Snowflakes symbolize the winter, the season which bridges the autumn and the spring and these seasons could be represented by other characters in the Sakura Wars series.