Maria Tachibana

Maria Tachibana(タチバナ・マリア, Tachibana Maria) is the vice-captain of the Teikoku Kagekidan's Hanagumi.

Appearance
Maria has a distinctive platinum blonde bob cut hairstyle which obscures her left eye. Her eyes are bright green.

In Sakura Taisen, Maria wears a dark purple two-piece trench coat that covers much of her body. She wears red gloves and brown and red boots. Underneath the top of the coat is a white dress shirt. In some episodes of Sakura Taisen 2, Maria wears a chalk-striped double-breasted suit with matching trousers. She wears a white turtleneck long sleeves underneath and a pair of black and white boots.

Personality
Maria is very cold and distant at her introduction due to her traumatic past, but begins to open up after accepting Ogami as her captain. Calm and collected, she is skilled in the ability to judge things objectively. She is good at cooking and loves to read books.

Maria's height, commanding presence and deep voice often lead to her playing male characters onstage, which gathered the attention of her many fans.

Maria seems to look Sakura as a younger sister, as they have a deeply friendship, which reflects their extreme success in "Ai Yueni" presentations.

Background
Born to a Russian diplomat and a Japanese mother, Maria was orphaned during the Russian Revolution in which she eventually joined the revolutionary forces at the age of 14. Traumatized by the loss of her squad captain, she shut out her emotions, becoming a merciless sniper and earning the nickname "Kazuar" (Russian: Казуар, tr. kazuar, meaning "cassowary"). She later moved to America in 1920, finding work as a professional killer in a mafia before being recruited by the TeiGeki's vice-commander, Ayame Fujieda.

Sakura Taisen
In the 3rd episode, "I Am Not Fit To Be Captain?!", her past is revealed to the others. She was given the codename "Cassowary" due to her prowess on the battlefield, racing through the battlefield like a black flame. Her captain died due to her hesitance from gunfire, and the events still haunt her in her sleep. After being captured by Setsuna, Ogami goes alone to rescue her. The other members of the Assault force arrive in time to help out in defeating Setsuna. He then returns her pendant to her, which she dropped when she was captured.

In her ending, she and Ogami go to her captain's grave and places her pendant on it. After paying their respects, the clouds part and they embrace each other.

Sakura Wars (TV Series)
Her story there wasn't much changed from the official timeline, but Maria was more aggressive and hostile towards Sakura at first, but as well that was Sakura the ignition of her personality changing, after episode 9. As much like the original timeline then, Maria and Sakura holds a very elder-younger sisterly relationship that reflects on their excellent chemistry during stage acts.

Hanagumi Taisen Columns
Maria is a playable character in Hanagumi Taisen Columns and its sequel.

Completing Shonen Red vs. Benitokage mode with Maria unlocks the hard difficulty.

Etymology
Maria is a female (but occasionally male) given name in many diverse cultures, including African, Arab, Armenian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, English, Finnish, German, Greek, Italian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Pakistani, Serbian, Swedish, and Spanish. It became popular with the spread of Christianity as a Latinized form of the Hebrew name of Jesus' mother Mary (Miriam in Hebrew). The meaning of the name is uncertain, but it may originally be an Egyptian name, probably derived from "mry" (beloved) or "mr" (love) ("eminent lady" or "beloved lady"), although it was used in Europe even before the establishment of Christianity as a female form of the Roman name Marius.

In the Russian language, Masha (Маша) is a diminutive of Maria. The meaning is not known for certain, but there are several theories including "sea of bitterness", "rebelliousness", and "wished for child". However it was most likely originally an Egyptian name, perhaps derived in part from my "beloved" or "love". It has been used as a nickname or as a pet name for women named Maria or Marie.

Tachibana (立花) : Tachi (立) means stand(ing), bana (花) means flower. Tachibana (橘) means tangerine and citrus tachibana, Maria's floral namesake, refers to a species of wild green inedible citrus fruits native to Japan.

Trivia

 * Maria is the second tallest character in the series, the first being Kanna.
 * It is revealed that in Sakura's story mode in Hanagumi Taisen Columns 2, Maria has a fear of cockroaches.
 * Maria is known to speak at least three languages: Russian, English, and Japanese. Of these, she speaks at least Russian and Japanese fluently.
 * Maria is voiced by Urara Takano, who also has a strong fluent english(As it can be saw during Ouka Kenran ova)
 * One of Maria's image songs, "Akai Katyusha", appears to draw heavy influence from Russian folk songs.