Tae Sekihara

Sekihara Tae is the young manager of the beef hot pot (gyūnabe, or sukiyaki) restaurant, the Akabeko. In the anime and the manga, she tried to push forward the relationship between Kenshin and Kaoru since it wasn't moving along fast enough for her taste. Tae is an attractive young woman with short brown hair tied in a bun at the nape of her neck and covered with a handkerchief, though her bangs curl out over the sides of her brow and are accompanied by two thin strands of hair at the sides of her face. In the manga, Tae is nearly always depicted with her eyes closed, as are all the other members of her family; in the anime, her eyes are large and brown. As she is often seen at the Akabeko, Tae is most frequently observed dressed in her hostess uniform. As befits a successful hostess and manager, Tae possesses a markedly positive and upbeat personality, more often donning a smile than not. She is very accommodating and eager to do whatever is in her power to aid her friends and customers. A smart and capable businesswoman, Tae is able to read people and situations rather astutely, which sometimes causes her to assert herself in a way that others have deemed "scary", both when it comes to her business and her relationships.