Sayoko Shinozaki

Sayoko Shinozaki (篠崎 咲世子, Shinozaki Sayoko), 24 years old (25 at R2), is a kindhearted Japanese woman who serves as a maid to the vi Britannia/Lamperouge siblings in their residence. She was very loyal and respectful to Lelouch vi Britannia and supports him at every decision he made. She was one of the few people that knew about Zero Requiem and possibly played a role in it.

Appearance
Sayoko has fair skin and short brown hair that has bangs swept to the left side and light brown eyes.

She is usually seen in a maid uniform and her attire is a frilly dark gown with a white long apron, white veil, dark thigh high socks and dark patent Mary Jane shoes.

Personality
Sayoko is the kind of person who is loyal, but she is oblivious to her actions at times, once getting Lelouch vi Britannia dates to basically every girl at Ashford.

Character Outline
Sayoko was originally Milly Ashford's personal maid but was reassigned to Lelouch vi Britannia and Nunnally vi Britannia when they were placed under the Ashfords' care. She taught Nunnally how to make origami and assists in taking care of her whenever Lelouch is not around. The DVD releases for the series occasionally promote a segment called "Sayoko's Diary", which depicts her view of the daily life at the Ashford Academy, humorously skewed by her limited knowledge of the bigger picture behind the events that take place.

She is the 37th Successor of the Shinozaki School (篠崎流, Shinozaki Ryuu) of martial arts, and is referred to on her official profile as a Supermaid (スーパーメイド, Suupaameido). In the Code Geass Recap, it is shown that she is able to fight in the same level as Suzaku, being able to fight against him on an even level while escaping.

While she is Japanese, as noted by Jeremiah Gottwald, Sayoko shows strong loyalty to Lelouch as she went to him, instead of the Black Knights which shows that she defected from them, during the time when Emperor Lelouch declared war on the entire world. Lelouch seems to trust her greatly as Sayoko was the first person, within the Black Knights, to whom Lelouch willingly revealed his identity and the second Japanese, after Taizō Kirihara, to whom Lelouch chose to remove his mask for. She is also the only other Japanese, aside from Suzaku, who helped Lelouch during the battle against Schneizel el Britannia.

First Season
Sayoko makes her first appearance in episode 3, teaching Nunnally vi Britannia how to fold an origami. In order for Lelouch vi Britannia to ease Kallen Kōzuki's suspicions of his identity, he creates a cunning deception by using Geass on Sayoko to make her play a recorded message to Kallen on the phone.

Near the end of the first season, Sayoko is recruited into the The Order of the Black Knights by Diethard Ried as a spy. In one of her diary segments, her recruitment process is seen to consist of an odd combination of quizzes, swordplay, and baseball, all of which she is able to pass with apparent ease in spite of her appearance. C.C. is the one who ultimately lets her in.

Second season
In the second season, Sayoko returns from the Chinese Federation, having escaped there with Diethard Ried and Rakshata Chawla after the failed rebellion one year previous. She oversees the delivery of the glacier ships used to transport the one million Zero-dressed Japanese citizens in the eighth episode, where Lelouch vi Britannia reveals his identity as Zero to her. With the aid of a mask installed with a digital voice changer, she subsequently serves as a body double for Lelouch at Ashford Academy while he is away. Having spent years serving the Lamperouge siblings, she is able to play the part convincingly, but Rolo Lamperouge complains that she is too nice, a trait Shirley Fenette also picks up on. Though she is able to play the part somewhat convincingly, her aforementioned slanted viewpoint of his daily life leads her to believe that he is a womanizer, and she portrays him as such, to his dismay. Furthermore, she also openly displays her athletic prowess during one of Milly Ashford's festivals, another contrast with the physically unfit Lelouch. During the second battle of Tokyo, she leads a mission with Rolo to secure Nunnally vi Britannia, only to be apparently caught in the blast radius of the F.L.E.I.J.A. bomb.

However, both she and Nunnally manage to escape and wind up with Schneizel el Britannia. Sayoko escapes and returns to Lelouch to warn him about Schneizel's plan to use Nunnally against Lelouch. Jeremiah Gottwald comments on her seemingly odd choice of loyalties (following a Britannian despite being Japanese), and remarks that she, like himself, seems to follow the path of chivalry. When the Avalon is boarded by the Black Knights, Lelouch orders her to release the UFN hostages under the guise of betraying him. She is later imprisoned alongside Rakshata, Nina Einstein and Cécile Croomy, but Sayoko is later set free.

Lelouch vi Britannia
Sayoko is absolutely loyal to Lelouch that she never betrayed him and same as Jeremiah Gottwald she was with Lelouch until the end, she has also showed Great respect and obedience for Lelouch in Re;surrection.

Jeremiah Gottwald
Both Sayoko and Jeremiah Gottwald developed a good relationship with each other, due to their strong loyalties with Lelouch. In Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection, Sayoko is last seen in Jeremiah's orange farm.

Nunnally in Wonderland
In Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland, Sayoko plays the role of the Dodo Bird. When Nunnally vi Britannia washes up on a beach not long after entering Wonderland, the Dodo Bird appears and takes care of her, during which she gives Nunnally a bath, gives her a fruit drink, and irons her clothes.

Oz the Reflection
Sayoko ended up arrested by the Glinda Knights while Nunnally vi Britannia was taken to bed. After the Glinda Knights arrived at Damocles, Sayoko was seen spying at the conference between Schneizel el Britannia and the Knights of the Round and was seen attacked by Schneizel's soldiers.

Super Robot Wars Z2
While dressed as Lelouch vi Britannia, she is attacked by Heero and is defeated.

Etymology

 * The name Sayoko means "blossom" (咲) (sa), "world" (世) (yo) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Sayoko's surname Shinozaki means "dwarf bamboo" (篠) (shino) and "cape, peninsula" (崎) (saki/zaki).

Trivia

 * Sayoko is one of only three characters whom Lelouch willingly chooses to reveal his secret identity as Zero throughout the series, with Taizō Kirihara and Cornelia li Britannia being the other two.
 * Sayoko's ninja outfit, first revealed in the second OP of season two (episode 13), earned her the nickname 閃忍("Sennin") / 超昂閃忍 ("Chōkō Sennin") among otakus. The nickname stems from the oversized "scarfs" that resembled the ninja outfit of Takamori Haruka from the eroge Beat Blades Haruka. Beat Blades Haruka was released Feb 29th, 2008, whereas episode 13 originally aired on July 6, 2008.
 * Throughout the series, if one looks closely, they'll begin to notice that Sayoko never takes off her maid's hat. Even when hospitalized or in a suit, or even in her "ninja" outfit, she never removes it. Though all of this is true, she never actually removes it herself, but in beginning of episode 23 of season 2, when Sayoko appears she says a few words then falls over, while falling the hat falls off as well, but nevertheless, the hat is always on.