Cleo Saburafu is a character from the anime and manga series Broken Blade. She is a young pilot in the military of the Athens Federation, serving as a member of the elite Valchiures unit. At the age of twelve, Cleo is notably young for a soldier, yet she demonstrates a natural aptitude for piloting Golems, the giant mechanized weapons used in combat. She comes from a prestigious military family; the Saburafu name is highly regarded within Athens, and she is the family's only daughter.

Despite her technical skill, Cleo initially holds a distorted view of the war and her enemies. Due to her upbringing and the education system in Athens, she sincerely believes that the people of the Krishna Kingdom are barbarians. This perspective is challenged when she is captured and treated with unexpected kindness by her enemies. Her personality is a mix of contradictions. She can be clumsy and sometimes slow to grasp certain subjects, yet she is a remarkably quick learner who graduated from military school in two years instead of the usual six. She has a talent for long-duration operations and can pilot a Golem for hours without tiring, a skill that sets her apart from many other pilots, including her superior, Zess.

Cleo's role in the story begins as a dedicated soldier fighting for Athens. Her motivations are deeply personal and tied to her relationships. She had a best friend named Lee who was killed in battle; initial rumors led Cleo to believe that the protagonist, Rygart Arrow, was responsible for her death, which fuels an intense desire for revenge. Her skills become evident during a desperate battle to rescue her commander, Zess. While normally considered ineffective in combat, she suddenly displays extraordinary piloting ability, swiftly taking down multiple enemy Golems without fatally wounding their pilots before being captured herself.

Upon her capture, Cleo is treated not as a prisoner of war but as a guest, largely due to the compassion of Sigyn, the queen of Krishna. This experience forms the most significant relationship in her development. Despite initially attacking Sigyn in an attempt to escape and kill Rygart, Cleo eventually befriends her and learns that her former enemies are not the monsters she was raised to believe they were. Her time living alongside Sigyn changes her worldview, causing her to question the propaganda of her homeland.

Cleo's character development culminates in a complete shift in allegiance. After being returned to Athens in a prisoner exchange, she cannot view Krishna as a simple enemy anymore. When she discovers that Athens plans to execute Sigyn and learns of atrocities committed by her own nation, she chooses to betray the Saburafu family legacy. She successfully breaks Sigyn out of prison and defects from the Athens military. This act of defiance requires her to fight against her former comrades, revealing the depth of her loyalty to the friends she made in Krishna.

In terms of abilities, Cleo is recognized as having an incredible capacity for adapting to complex machinery. She can pilot the Eltemus, a notoriously difficult and finicky light-weight Golem that many pilots reject, and she reportedly needs less time to adjust to a new machine than even the prodigy Zess. While her physical combat skills are low and she avoids direct confrontation, her talent in a Golem is undeniable. She wields a long-range pressure gun and can use the Golem's high mobility to her advantage. Her true strength lies not in raw power but in precision, endurance, and an unusual skill at disabling enemies without causing unnecessary death.