Ashley Taylor
| Ashley Taylor | |
|---|---|
| |
| Japanese Name | アシュリー・テイラー |
| Voiced by | Japanese: Sally Amaki
English: Sally Amaki |
| ID No: | 3052 |
| Release Date (NA): | March 27, 2020 |
| Release Date (JP): | February 22, 2021 |
Ashley Taylor is one of the original characters of the 2017 mobile game Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record. She was originally exclusive to the NA version of the game until its shutdown shortly after her release, until she was re-released to the Japanese version in February of 2021.
General Info
| Physical Features | |
|---|---|
| Age | 17-18 (estimated) |
| Eye colour | Hot Pink |
| Hair colour | Blonde with pink and cyan highlights |
| Magic | |
| Soul Gem | Red gem (choker) |
| Weapon | Kumanosuke (teddy bear plushie surrounded by smaller floating bear heads) |
| Witch Form | Zipzap |
| Powers and Abilities | Reversal/Switch (the power to reverse what is received) |
| Wish | “I wish for my dad's permission to study abroad.” |
| Other | |
| Japanese pronoun | Watashi (私) |
| Known relatives | Unnamed father (deceased), unnamed mother |
| Origins | Unknown city in California, United States of America |
| School | Kosho Academy |
Game Info
North America Server
The stats and information below were Ashley's original stats in the NA server.
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Japan Server
The stats and information below are Ashley's new stats in the JP server.
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Summary
A Magical Girl from California who went to Japan in search of Japanese kawaii culture. She is obsessed with all things kawaii, from Harajuku fashion, to anime and manga. She even uploads videos about it for people back home. Kumanosuke, the teddy bear she got from her father, is her most precious treasure.
Doppel Description
The Doppel of faith. Its form is kawaii. The master of this emotion loves kawaii culture and takes extreme pleasure in promoting it. Her face turns to pure delight when she gazes at this image of herself. This Doppel understands fully its master's desire to spread her interests, so it strives to implant a fondness for manga, anime, yumekawa, and gurokawa in others. If it encounters someone less kawaii than its master, it releases rainbow beams from its six eyes, enveloping them in a plethora of ribbons and lace, altering their hobbies and tastes. Its victims are said to then bow down to it in reverence.
Side Story
| Warning, this section contains spoilers. |
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The story begins with Ashley roaming around Kamihama City in order to gather enough material to put in a vlog. However, her tour is interrupted by the presence of a witch nearby. As Ashley closes in on the location, she encounters Riko Chiaki trying to reassure her worried dog, Mameji. After briefly admiring the cuteness of the situation, Ashley then offers her help to Riko, revealing her identity as a magical girl. She also decides to tackle the witch by herself and leave the Grief Seed to Riko, as her own Soul Gem doesn't need to be cleansed at the moment. After defeating the witch, she properly introduces herself to a grateful Riko, and tells her about her upcoming plans for her tour of Kamihama City. After mentioning Sakae Ward, Riko remembers an accessory shop, and invites Ashley to join her there. Within the shop, Ashley remains in awe before the cuteness of all the accessories. She then locates a specific hairclip which she shows to Riko, but the latter is disturbed by the design, which is covered in bandages. Ashley then explains to Riko about the concept of Gurokawa the hairclip is based on (combining cute and creepy elements together), but then apologizes for getting carried away in her explanation. She tries to switch topics by pointing at a cute skirt, but then laments that she may not have enough room to store everything she buys, as she lives in a studio flat that's about a thousand square feet in area. Riko gets confused about the measuring unit, and as Ashley is about to do the conversion, she encounters Emiri Kisaki and Rika Ayano. She fawns over both of them, believing them to be gyaru. Realizing that Ashley is a foreigner, Emiri and Rika attempt to communicate in English, only for Ashley to reply to them in fluent Japanese, which surprises them. Emiri decides to nickname her "Ash", which the latter immediately takes a liking to. Ashley explains to both girls that she's in Kamihama on the hunt for kawaii culture. Emiri asks her if she's been to a maid cafe before, with Ashley replying that she's been in one the day before. Rika then remembers a 'sacred spot for manga fans' in Hokuyo Ward, which she tells Ashley and Riko about. Before going there, however, Ashley asks Riko that she call her Ash as well. When arriving at the abovementioned place, Ashley and Riko quickly recognize it as a key location in Phantom Thief Magical Kirin, which they begin fangirling about. This draws the attention of Karin Misono, who recognizes the two as 'Kirinites'. Ashley suggests that the three of them hang out together and talk about Magical Kirin together, then recognizes Karin's ring as being that of a magical girl. After a proper introduction, they proceed to explore the many places featured in Magical Kirin and enjoy their time together talking about trivia regarding the manga alongside other things. Riko and Ashley part ways with Karin afterwards, then, while pondering what to do next, Ashley's stomach rumbles in hunger. Riko invites her to her bento shop to have something to eat, which Ashley gladly agrees to. Arriving at the bento shop, Riko introduces Ashley to her parents, who offer them croquettes. Ashley asks for the price, but Riko's mother says that the croquette is a token of gratitude for taking such good care of Riko. As she watches Riko and her parents sharing a moment, she feels some homesickness. She asks Riko if she can tell a little more about her family in private. It's revealed that her mother is a famous actress, and Ashley's passion for kawaii culture comes from her, as she travels to Japan a lot for her movies. She had a chance encounter with Ashley's father while the latter directed a film she was acting in. Ashley's mother would always bring back a lot of goodies from Japan, which Ashley became fascinated about. She explains how thanks to her supportive parents, she was able to visit a lot of different cities in the US and overseas, and meet a lot of different people. This chain of events inspired her to study abroad in Japan, however she then explains that her father opposed her plan for an unknown reason. Ashley explains what puzzled her was less the opposition and more the lack of an explanation thereof, as they would aways justify their reason for opposing Ashley's choices in the past. She then reveals that she eventually managed to go abroad for her studies, but merely because Kyubey showed up. She wished for her father's approval to him, subsequently becoming a magical girl. However, this makes her feel guilty towards her dad, believing herself to be a terrible daughter. She expresses her desire for her father to understand her choices, and that it pains her that he didn't understand this specific one. She then realizes the mood has soured, and quickly apologizes to Riko for doing so. Riko then suggests that Ashley should film a video of her time in Kamihama to show to her father, remembering their first conversation where Ashley mentioned doing this as a hobby. Riko believes that by showing Ashley's father what she loves, he'll end up understanding her choices and how happy it makes her. Ashley praises Riko over the idea, and thanks her for the assistance, deciding to film this video. After recording it, Ashley meets up with Riko again to show her the results of her work before posting it online. Riko is impressed by the result, and is convinced that Ashley's video will make her father have a change of heart. Ashley finally decides to upload it, and nervously waits for an answer. She mentions that it might take some time due to the timezone difference between California and Japan. Her stomach rumbles again, and she says that she was so stressed she forgot to eat today, and decides that she'll buy another croquette from Riko's shop. Before she can go, however, she suddenly receives a call from her father which surprises her, as he's supposed to be at work right now. Answering the phone, Ashley asks her father if he's lost some weight, but her father tells her not to worry about it. He tells Ashley that he watched the video, and could really feel the love and passion poured into it and how much studying abroad meant to his daughter. He reminds Ashley to always do what she loves most, and finally voices his wholehearted support to Ashley, which makes her tear up from joy. As they are speaking in English, Riko can only understand what is going on through Ashley's facial expressions, but she concludes that it went very well. The scene skips to several weeks later, where Ashley receives an unexpected package in her studio flat. The package reveals a gurokawa-style teddy bear inside, and attached is a card written by her father. It tells that he thought that she would love this teddy bear, and wished her luck in her "kawaii" endeavors. Before she can fawn over it, however, she receives an unexpected video call from home. When she answers, Ashley's mother appears, bearing bad news. She tearfully reveals to Ashley that her father has passed away. Ashley believes it to be a twisted joke at first, as she'd talked to him on the phone a few weeks prior and nothing sounded out of the ordinary. Her mother tells her that Ashley's father was very ill, which makes her realize that it was the reason he'd lost so much weight in the first place. She laments about how she should've never studied abroad, but then her mother retorts by saying the illness was found out shortly after Ashley left for Kamihama. Ashley realizes in horror that she unwittingly hurt her dad by making her wish, as she ended up not being able to be by his side when he needed it most. Before Ashley's mother can talk about the upcoming funeral, Ashley cuts the conversation short. As Ashley begins regretting her wish and decisions all alone, the teddy bear she was gifted unexpectedly falls over. Ashley believes it to be a sign from her father, and she remembers his words of 'doing what she loves most in the place she loves so much'. She rekindles her resolve and decides that she'll live her own life to the fullest to make him proud and respect the last words he ever told her. |
Costume Stories
Ashley seeks refuge from the cold in the consultation office, where she is happily greeted by Emiri and Rika. Rika recognizes the hoodie Ashley is wearing being what she ended up winning from a contest hosted by the brand behind Kumanosuke. The front of the hoodie was a modified version Kumanosuke’s original design, but Ashley never showed the original design to Riko, much to her disappointment. However, she did it for good reason, as Emiri and Rika were repulsed by Ashley’s recreation of the original design, which depicted a bloody Kumanosuke feasting on a rabbit that he hunted down, via mimicry.
As Ashley lore dumps about Kumanosuke and the grim fictional world he lives in, the other two girls agree that it would be too early to introduce Riko to something like this, though Ashley says that she will try to be more mindful next time.
Appearances
Event Appearances
- Kamihama Kawaii Collection
- Where is Ashley Taylor's Japanese Horror!?
- Seven-Coloured Summer Pattern ~Daily Lives Written in a Notebook~
Magical Girl Story Appearances
Anime Appearances
Powers and Abilities
Although unconfirmed, due to the nature of her wish, her control of Kumanosuke in in-game battle, and its mirroring of her movement in her transformation animation, it can be speculated that Ashley's wish-given magic is the ability to manipulate the movements (at least) of objects and/or people.
In Chapter 12 of Arc 2 is revealed, by Himena Aika, that Ashley's power is "Reversal". Himena takes Ashely's power (along side other magical girls power) with her Synthesis unique ability to fight back the witch copies made by the mirror witch Winchester. According to Himena, Ashley's magic can be described as "the power to reverse what is received.", meaning that this power allows Ashley to change the power or magical effects onto something or someone else, including herself. In this case Himena used Ashley's power to "reverse" the empowerment magic she used on those witches unto herself to defeat them.
Etymology
- Her first name means "ash tree forest/meadow".
- Her theorized original name, Chelsea, is thought to mean "chalk wharf". It may be a humorous reference to the fact that she is one of the franchise's few white (as in Western) characters.
- Her surname is an occupational name for a tailor, someone who professionally works with clothing. This references Ashley's interest in fashion, especially kawaii and gurokawa styles.
- Her original surname, Moran, may be a reference to one of several notable American actresses with the same surname.
Trivia
- As she was an NA-server exclusive, she is the first and only character to have exclusively English voicelines.
- All of her voicelines were later re-recorded in Japanese for her re-release on the Japanese server.
- Although she is a four-star, she did not have a Doppel on release. It was timelocked until the 29th of June 2020.
- She was the first magical girl to have four of the same disks (in this case Blast) and was the only magical girl until the release of Akuma Homura-chan to not have all three kinds of disks, having no Charge disk.
- In her personal story, Candy and her Familiars are encountered in Durbar's labyrinth.
- In cutscenes, though, they are properly depicted as being in Candy's Labyrinth.
- Her personal story implies that the Labyrinths (and presumably Witches and Familiars) in Japan, or at least Kamihama specifically, may in some way look different from those she encountered in America: "So this is a Japanese Labyrinth... or should I say, a Kamihama Labyrinth... Kinda grotesque, kinda kawaii... I love it!"
- As she received Kumanosuke after she became a magical girl and moved to Japan, it is unknown what Ashley's original weapon was or how she initially fought.
- In her login story, she mentions that Kumanosuke has faint traces of her magic on him from always being with her in battle, but she makes no mention of using him as a weapon. This raises the question of whether she canonically does use him as a weapon, or if she fights another way.
- For some reason, Ashley is holding Kumanosuke in "Good Child, Good Child", which seems to show a younger Ashley with her father.
- Riko Chiaki telling Ashley that Kamihama's Witches and Familiars are strong indicates that she arrived in Kamihama only after the formation of the Magius and the Doppel field.
- Prior to her release, the official websites for the NA release of Magia Record had released a translation of a page of Magia Report. In the translated page, Iroha states she is hoping she rolls the Magical Girl "Chelsea". This left fans to speculate that the NA original character would be named Chelsea. The comic was retracted, and the name was changed to read Ultimate Madoka instead. The NA original character was then released with the name Ashley Taylor. The comic that was originally released can be read here.
- So far, she is the only Magical Girl without an ID of 10xx that has a Memoria drawn by Benio depicting her in a field of flowers.
- In the Japanese server, her sprite files used to be labeled "Ashley Moran" (アシュリー・モラン) before the update to Live2D V4. Now, they correctly read "Ashley Taylor".
- Her illustrator is "Benio".
- As she is studying abroad, she is most likely in high school, as such opportunities in the United States are only offered in high school, to students who have taken foreign language courses relevant to the area they wish to travel.
- Ashley lives alone in Japan. Her home, which consists of only one room, is approximately one-thousand square feet (60 tatami mats, or 93 square meters).
- Her home is soundproofed.
- Ashley's home in Japan includes a home theater set she brought from America.
- Her Doppel is likely named after the game "Zip", also known as "Zip Zap Boing" or "Zip Zap Zop", which is commonly used as a theatre preparation exercise. This is a reference to Ashley's family working in the film industry (actress, director, and internet content creator).
- One of her Memoria takes place in the maid cafe that Ikumi Makino works at, and features the same dish Ikumi holds in one of her own Memoria.
- In her Winter Costume story, she refers to herself as "Waloli Gurokawa-sensei".
- Wa Lolita (和ロリ) is a style of lolita fashion that is based around Japanese kimonos.
- Gurokawa (グロカワ) is short for Guro Kawaii, an aesthetic characterized by the juxtaposition of kawaii (cute) things and guro (gory, scary, creepy) things.
- Yumekawa (an aesthetic Ashley and her Doppel are also fond of) is short for "Yume Kawaii" (ゆめかわいい), an aesthetic that centers around fantasy themes and pastel colors.
Gallery
Game Gallery
Magia Record Four Star Art
Magia Record Five Star Art
In-Battle Sprite
Doppel Sprite
Valentine 2022
Magical Girl Seal 2021
Official Art
Ashley's accidental reveal as "Chelsea".
Magia Record anime Episode 18 End Card by Benio
The design on the bottom of Ashley's shoes
Her living room
Her bedroom
Memoria Cards
North America Server
To edit a memoria's details, click on the specific memoria
| Card | Effect | Cooldown | EN Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| The streets are filled with so much kawaii stuff, I don't know where to put my eyes! Everything is so cute, I can't help wanting it ALL. But ya see, my closet's already exploding with stuff, so I can't buy everything...Just the MOST kawaii things! | |||
| **Unique to Ashley Taylor** I just put him in front of the camera in a kawaii pose, talk in a funny voice, aaand... "Hiii, I'm Kumanosuke! Ashley's friend! Today I'll be taking over to show you all the cool kawaii stuff in Kamihama." Are you ready? Kumanosuke's Kawaii Kamihama show is about to begin! | |||
| Phew, nice one, guys! That wraps up another day of hunting Witches! All right, Kumanosuke... It's time for our sweet victory pose! Face the camera, and... 1... 2... Perfect! SO kawaii! | |||
| Card | Effect | Cooldown | EN Text |
Japan Server
To edit a memoria's details, click on the specific memoria
| Card | Effect | Cooldown | EN Text | JP Text |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| There are a lot of KAWAII things in the town.
I want to take everything that’s KAWAII, but... The closet is already full of KAWAII things! But let's take home the KAWAII stuff I got for now! | 町中にはKAWAIIがたくさんあふれてる
どれもこれもKAWAIIから、あれもこれも欲しいけど… クローゼットはすでにKAWAIIでいっぱいいっぱい！ でも、今日もちょっとだけKAWAIIを連れて帰っちゃおう！ |
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| Hey, Daddy... even though I'm far away, I'm always thinking of you.
Sometimes I'm a bad child, I'm not always a good child, but... But I'll never forget the promise I made to Daddy... to have a great time in life. Please let me always be your "good child". | ねぇ、ダディ…遠い場所にいたって、いつも想っている
私は時々悪い子で、いい子じゃないときもあるけれど… ダディとした約束…“人生を大いに楽しむ”ことを決して忘れないから ずっとダディの“いい子”でいさせてね |
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| I got my wish and got to study in Japan, the country of my dreams!
You only live once... so it's better to have fun! That's what I promised my Daddy. Now, let's look for KAWAII today! Come on, Kumanosuke! | 「念願叶って、憧れの日本に留学できまシタ！
人生は一度だけ…それなら楽しい方がいいに決まってマス それがダディとの約束でもありマスカラネー！ さあ、今日もKAWAIIを探しまショウ！ねっ、熊乃介！」 |
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| When you need a little more courage
You can take the last step by squeezing your favorite KAWAII! Everyone has something that's KAWAII...! "Of course, my KAWAII is Kumanosuke!" | あとちょっとの勇気が足りない時に
お気に入りのKAWAIIをぎゅっとすれば最後の一歩が踏み出せる そんなKAWAIIが誰にだってあるハズ…！ 「もちろん、私のKAWAIIは熊乃介デスヨー！」 |
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| **Unique to Ashley Taylor** If you set it in front of the camera in a KAWAII pose and change your voice... "Konichiha, I'm Kumanosuke! I'm Ashley-chan's friend. Today, I'll introduce all the KAWAII from Kamihama instead of her." Kumanosuke's very KAWAII introduction to Kamihama begins. Just set it in front and change the voice... | KAWAIIポーズでカメラの前にセットして、声色を変えれば…
「コンニチハ、ボク熊乃介！アシュちゃんのお友だちなんだ 今日は、彼女の代わりにボクが神浜のKAWAIIを紹介するヨ」 とってもKAWAII熊乃介の神浜紹介動画のはじまりはじまり～KAWAIIポーズでカメラの前にセットして、声色を変えれば… |
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| I want you to have fun feelings, happy feelings, feelings of pleasure....
Chocolates filled with lots of feelings All wrapped up nicely and delivered to that special you! How pleased will you be, in that moment you open the package? | 楽しい気持ち、嬉しい気持ち、喜んでほしい気持ち…
たくさんの気持ちをぎゅっと込めたチョコレート 素敵に包んで、大切なあなたにお届け！ 包みを開けた瞬間、どんな風に喜んでくれるかな？ |
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| "Riko, are you looking for something?"
"Uh, um... that's not it... ehehe..." A gift that drifted far out to sea and washed up on the shore, because it's special. Don't tell anyone until you find it! | 「理子、何か探しているんデスカ？」
「え、えっと…そういうわけじゃなくて…えへへ…」 遠く海を漂い流れ着いた贈り物、それは特別なものだから 探し当てるまでは、まだ内緒！ |
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| Card | Effect | Cooldown | EN Text | JP Text |
External links
- Official Magia Record Website - Japanese
- Official Magia Record Website - English
- Promotional video featuring Sally Amaki
Gameplay Videos
- Recording of Ashley's Transformation Video on Youtube (NA)
- Recording of Ashley's Magia Video on Youtube (NA)
- Recording of Ashley's Doppel Video on Youtube (NA)
- Recording of Ashley's Attack Animations and Connect Video on Youtube (NA)