Kyubey

Kyubey (キュゥべえ, Kyūbē)
Physical info
Type	Incubator
Gender	Genderless ○
Eye color	Red
Magic info
Powers and Abilities	Collecting, transforming and manifesting energy; Wish granting
Background info
Character designer Primary artist	Ume Aoki
Voiced by	Japanese: Emiri Katō English: Cassandra Lee Italian: Loretta di Pisa Spanish: Inmaculada Villalonga (Anime) / Marta Barbará (Rebellion) Cantonese: Wong Wai Zu French: Pascale Chemin Russian: Anna Mosolova Mexican Spanish: Susana Moreno Brazilian Portuguese: Bianca Lua

"I want you to make contracts with me and become Magical Girls!" - Kyubey, Madoka Magica Episode 1.

Kyubey (キュゥべえ, Kyūbē) is a "messenger of magic" (魔法の使者, mahō no shisha) who grants the wishes of young girls, but in exchange contracts their services as Magical Girls. Girls who form a contract with him are tasked to defeat Witches – bizarre entities that feed upon the hopes and dreams of normal people. Kyubey features prominently as a character within the entire Puella Magi Series.

Kyubey is an "Incubator", a member of an alien race dedicated to counteracting the effects of (and possibly negating) entropy: the principle that energy output is always less than energy input, a fact that is presently causing the universe to slowly die out. In order to achieve this, Kyubey collects raw energy from a source that seems to be excepted from entropy: the emotions of girls in their second growth stage (14-18). To harvest this energy, Kyubey forms contracts with teenage girls, trading one wish for their servitude as a Magical Girls. The energy produced during this process is then harvested by Kyubey through unknown means. Kyubey does not reveal, however, that Magical Girls turn into Witches after falling into despair, which are then fought by other Magical Girls, creating an endless cycle. Because of this, Kyubey is often seen as the true antagonist of the series, despite the fact that his justification is that he is saving countless other sectors of the universe in doing so.

According to Gen Urobuchi, Kyubey may have distinct bodies but has a shared, collective consciousness.

Appearance

Kyubey is a small cat-like creature about two feet long (including tail). His entire body is covered in often clean, white fur. He has what appear to be four ears; two that resemble an average cat, pointed and up, while the other two appear as long tassel-like appendages that split into three sections at their tip. The tassels fade from white to pink and have three red dots horizontally before the splits. They also bear a pair of floating golden rings.

Kyubey's face is his most well known feature – two beady pink and eyes with dark maroon irises and a tiny, omega-shaped "cat mouth". Due to Kyubey's method of telepathic communication, his face remains almost completely unmoving except for blinking and consuming food.

On his back is an egg-shaped red oval that can open up, like a trapdoor, to act as a receptacle for Grief Seed fragments.

Kyubey has not been evidenced to bleed, however, when injured, he has red matter underneath his fur. When he is shot by Homura several times, Kyubey's body does not seem to contain organs, only solid red. Whether this is artistic censorship or an actual attribute of Kyubey's anatomy is yet unknown.

In the anime, Kyubey's body often makes noises like a plush toy when squeezed or pressed against, suggesting that he is soft and cuddly, at least physically.

In Oriko Magica, Kyubey takes on even more of a "plush toy" appearance than before, his sharp tipped tassel ears are soft and curved, lacking the pink gradient and red spots. His magical hoops have moved further up his ears and his front legs appear to have shortened.

Personality and Traits

"The deal was you'd be granted one wish, no matter how impossible, and you'd become a Magical Girl and assume the responsibilities of the job. That's a fair trade, considering all the powers you got."

"Yeah, but you didnt say anything about us turning into Witches!"

"Well, you didn't ask."

- Kyubey and Madoka, Magia Record Episode 14.

As an Incubator, he cannot exhibit emotions of any kind. As a result, Kyubey often appears cold, calculating and scheming, traits that make him appear villainous in the series. Kyubey, however, only seeks to achieve a goal – to preserve the universe from entropy. To meet this goal, he takes all means logically efficient and reasonable, namely creating Magical Girls. Initially, Kyubey appears enthusiastic to help the Magical Girls in their quest, offering advice where applicable, however, as more of his true motive is revealed, either by him or others, Kyubey becomes progressively more passive and observatory in manner (although this could be because he has no advice left to offer).

Kyubey uses certain speech patterns that indicate he may see himself as superior to the Magical Girls; the lack of honorifics, the use of the pronouns "Boku" (僕) and "Kimi" (君) and the misuse or overall lack of polite verbs suggests that he is either rude or very casual towards the girls. However, due to his emotionless nature, and the fact that he is an alien, Kyubey may simply not understand the need to be polite, as opposed to being direct.

Throughout the series, Kyubey is often accused of trickery and deceit by turning girls into Magical Girls, and subsequently witches, treating humans as energy livestock under the guise of being a miracle granter. Although this can easily be understood, Kyubey states that he never intended to "trick" Magical Girls, but simply leaves out traumatizing subtext in order to make the process more appealing to a potential Magical Girls.

Powers and Abilities

Kyubey has a wide variety of magical abilities which he uses in his mission to counteract entropy. They are listed below

• Telepathic Communication: Kyubey communicates with potential and contracted Magical Girls through telepathy, as opposed to verbally. He is able to use himself as a medium through which non-contracted girls can communicate to each other or contracted Magical Girls.
• Vision Sharing: Kyubey can share visions of sights and sounds with potential and contracted Magical Girls.
• Elective Invisibility: Kyubey is invisible to everyone except for Magical Girls and girls with sufficient magical potential. Normal humans do not notice his presence at all, just as he does not seem able to communicate with them.
• Teleportation: Kyubey has been evidenced to cross long distances in impossibly short time spans, the method for which is yet unknown, but can be assumed to be teleportation. In episode 10, he also fades into reality above Homura, which may be the visible manifestation of him teleporting.
• Wish Granting: Kyubey can grant wishes to those with magical potential, no matter how wild and unrealistic they may be. However, this process is limited by the karmic potential of a contractee, and insufficient karmic power may result in negative or unintended side-effects, such as lack of power control or a wish that cannot be properly or completely executed. Kyubey himself has no control over how a wish is interpreted, and seems to be unable to refuse or revoke a wish once a proper one has been made. However, there have been shown to be some exceptions to what he can grant, unlimited by a girl's karmic potential, such as if a wish is for something that he does not understand (for example, wishing to visit a fictional location he isn't familiar with).
• Soul Gem Creation: Kyubey is capable of creating a small egg-shaped gemstone called a Soul Gem for each Magical Girl. He does this by pulling the contractee's soul out of their body and forming it into their soul gem. As such, this results in temporary pain on the contractee while the contract is made. This makes the newly formed Magical Girl capable of transforming and using magic, as well as increased agility, strength and pain threshold, at the expense of the soul being separate from the body and thus controlling it externally, akin to a puppet.
• Soul Gem Stimulation: Kyubey can create impulses of certain feelings, such as pain, on a Soul Gem simply by touching it.
• Energy Conversion/Collection: Kyubey is able to collect emotional energy from Witch transformations, and Doppel emergences. As explained in Magia Record, Kyubey does not need to be in proximity to a Witch formation or the summoning of a Doppel to obtain its energy, as he collects it even while he cannot enter Kamihama City. This implies that the collection of this emotional energy is an inherent part of either process that he merely facilitates, or that this energy is naturally released into the universe when it is created. In Wraith timelines, he collects it by Magical Girls dropping grief cubes into a hatch-like "mouth" on his red oval on his back. How he is able to transport this energy also remains a mystery.
• Grief Seed Consumption: Said to be one of Kyubey's "many duties", he can open a hole in the teardrop-like marking on his back to consume grief seeds. This permanently destroys the Grief Seed, preventing the Witch within it from regenerating when it accumulates enough taint from a soul gem it purifies. It is unclear if he only does this to prevent Witches from reappearing, and thus keeping their population manageable, or if it is part of his process of collecting emotional energy, given he already collects it when Soul Gems become grief seeds.
• Replication: Kyubeys, or Incubators, are an artificially-created hive-mind/collective that span the universe, looking for people to turn into Magical Girls so as to collect emotional energy and combat entropy. Multiple individuals of his kind, referred to as "terminals", exist simultaneously, and can act, think, and talk independently of each other, but they all retain the same knowledge and memories. Typically, only one Kyubey terminal is primarily active in a given territory at any time, though several are either kept in reserve nearby or are somehow instantly deployed to replace one another if they are killed by some means. So as to save energy, they will consume the remains of their fallen selves when possible.
• Isolation Field: Kyubey's able to create an isolation field similar to a barrier, but only chooses to do so in extreme circumstances, usually to uphold, or sometimes restore the Magical Girl system. The isolation field can work as a method to trap others, such as when he reclaimed the Doppel System, and to isolate them from outside presences. This was also done with Homura's soul gem, which resulted in it not turning into a grief seed, breaking, or being taken by the Law of Cycles, instead creating a labyrinth within the gem. He was even able to make adjustments to let the victims which Homura invited to be absorbed in the world inside her soul gem, while not letting them leave.
• Cell Alteration: Kyubey can alter the bodies, including the brains, of beings who have incubator cells within them and make it possible for them to do things they otherwise couldn't.^{[Citation needed]}

History

In Madoka Magica

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In Wraith Arc

"There are times when humans become attached to dreams. Until now, civilization has been build in order to repeat those desires. But, longing too much for ungranted wishes hinders the consciousness and leads humans towards ruin." - Kyubey, Wraith Arc: Chapter 7

Kyubey in Wraith Arc

Chapter 1

Kyubey watches Kyoko and Sayaka quarrel, he talks with Mami about the giant wraith that looms over the city. He worries about their lack of teamwork.

Chapter 2

Kyubey tells Sayaka of a wraith that is currently hunting down Hitomi. Later he appears again after Kyoko and Sayaka's second fight to warn them that Mami is in danger as it seems the giant wraith has taken advantage of their absence in order to target Mami.

Chapter 3

Kyubey tells Homura to pace herself better in her relentless battle against the wraiths. They discuss the law of cycles and Kyubey's doubts on the veracity of Homura's tale of the previous universe.

Chapter 4

Kyubey continues their discussion on the nature of Homura's new magical ability of memory manipulation, stating her time-manipulation magic would be very useful and voicing a curiosity at seeing this time of ability. Later, he is seen riding on Homura's shoulders as they search the city for the whereabouts of the giant wraith.

Chapter 6

Kyubey examines the mutant wraith posing as Madoka, noting Homura's magic and a large amount of curses emanating from within the wraith. Later, Homura talks with Kyubey and asks him what she wished for in this world in order to become a Magical Girl, but Kyubey doesn't know the answer.

Chapter 7

Kyubey is seen in flashback granting Homura's original wish to go back in time in order to protect Madoka. At Homura's apartment, Kyubey comes to see what has become of Homura now that she has let all her emotions be consumed by a wraith in order to avoid meeting the Law of Cycles.

Chapter 9

Kyubey appears in the final pages as Homura discusses the previous universe with him, despite him not believing what she is telling him. As Homura drops to the streets below to battle the wraiths, Kyubey takes out the piece of Homura's time shield he salvaged in the previous timeline, allowing him to keep his memories of all the events of Wraith Arc and giving him the proof he needed of the existence of Madoka.

In -Rebellion-

Kyubey spends the majority of the movie playing as the cute mascot he appears to be, complete with only responding with the word "Kyu" whenever anyone interacts with him.

By the end of the film, as Homura is transforming into a witch, Kyubey drops his charade and reveals this world to be a witch's barrier that was created inside of Homura's soul gem as a way to lure the Law of Cycles in. This way the Incubators will be able to observe her and ultimately control her, bringing back the old witch system rather than relying on grief cubes to harvest their emotional energy. He is unable to convince Madoka to exhibit her ultimate powers and Homulilly is defeated. After Homura resets the universe, Kyubey and the other Incubators are forced to shoulder the burden of the world's curses.

In Kazumi Magica

"We Incubators don't have individual consciousnesses. We belong to a single consciousness." - Kyubey, Kazumi Magica Chapter 21

Kyubey proposing a contract to Airi

Chapter 2

Kyubey appears as a silhouette along with Madoka as Kaoru explains magic to Kazumi.

Chapter 4

Kyubey is seen at the very beginning of the chapter, sitting next to Juubey as they watch the Pleiades Saints. He cryptically asks if things will go better "this time".

Chapter 5

He appears briefly when Yuuri becomes a Witch, similar to the end of Episode 8. He then further appears in the extended flashback of Yuuri's and Airi's backstory. First he contracts with Yuuri, and then after Yuuri becomes a witch and is killed by the Pleiades he explains exactly what happened to Airi, culminating in her contracting with him. When she contracts, he tells her that "Your wish has surpassed entropy." Kyubey also tells Airi about the Pleaides Saints when she asks who killed Yuuri. During the entire chapter, Kyubey either appears as a shadow or in the shadows. It's quite clear that he is manipulating Airi, and that he is ultimately responsible for almost all of the subsequent events in the series beyond simply contracting Magical Girls to become witches.

Chapter 14

Kyubey's face is seen as Satomi realizes the truth of where witches come from after watching Michiru become one. He is also seen watching from above (like Niko and Juubey, who can be seen a few panels before) while Satomi reveals the truth of the clones to Kazumi and forces them to fight one another.

Chapter 20

Kyubey appears in person when Umika and Kaoru call for him, having recovered their memories of Incubators, which were suppressed by a spell cast by Umika.

Chapter 21

Kyubey reveals that Incubators don't have individual consciousnesses. They are like a network terminal connected to one single consciousness.

Strangely, Kyubey "wanted" to talk to Juubey, it wanted to talk to another of his kind, even if it was man-made.

It's implied that in all of the flashbacks from previous chapters, any appearances by Juubey were actually of Kyubey. This suggests that Kyubey was manipulating Airi and Kanna in order to make them go after the Pleiades Saints.

In Oriko Magica

"What a shame, huh?"
--"Incubator...!!"
"Well, I found her. I found Madoka Kaname." - Kyubey, Oriko and Homura. Oriko Magica Chapter 6.

Kyubey as he appears in Oriko Magica.

Chapter 1

Kyubey contracts with Oriko, who tells him of Yuma, another Puella Magi candidate he should try contracting. He later tries to convince Yuma to contract with him, but is stopped by Kyoko. Kyoko then learns from him about the recent murders of Puella Magi. When he appears again, speaking with Oriko, he claims that human emotions are unfathomable to him. Oriko replies that he should learn to appreciate them, as they give him what he desires.

Chapter 2

Kyubey successfully contracts with Yuma after Kyoko is attacked by a witch.

Chapter 3

Kyubey tells Mami about the recent murders of Magical Girls. He says that the most recent victim told him the murderer was a "black Magical Girl," and not a Witch.

Chapter 5

Kyubey discusses the identity of the black Magical Girl with Mami, and told her he never mentioned Kirika because he had no proof it was her. He discovers Oriko's plot to kill Madoka before she can contract and eventually become a Witch, and tries to stop her.

Chapter 6

Kyubey sends Kyoko and Yuma to help Mami defeat the Witch that has put a barrier around Mitakihara Junior High, as well as stop Oriko, who has gone out of control. Despite both Homura and Oriko's attempts to hide Madoka from him, he finds her inside the barrier.

Chapter 7

Oriko uses the last of her life to shoot a piece of Kirika's witch body through him and Madoka, who was hidden behind him, through a wall. She kills the girl before she can contract, foiling both Homura and Kyubey's plans.

Kyubey also appears in Noisy Citrine, the prequel manga that focuses on Kirika Kure.

Additionally, Kyubey exhibits a power he hasn't shown before Oriko Magica: levitation. He is rarely seen standing on anything in the manga, usually preferring to float in mid-air.

In Suzune Magica

"...But apart from the use we've found for them, emotions are nothing but illogical, needless impulses that you ought to expunge from yourselves. " - Kyubey, Suzune Magica Ch. 8

Kyubey in Suzune Magica

• Kyubey first appears at the end of Chapter 2, telling the Hohzuki Magical Girls about Suzune assassinating Magical Girls.
• In Chapter 3, Kyubey is shown in a flashback forming a contract with Arisa.
• In Chapter 5, Kyubey is shown in a flashback forming a contract with Haruka.
• In Chapter 6, Kyubey appears at the end of the chapter to confirm Suzune's claims.
• In Chapter 7, Kyubey informs the girls that he is the one who proposed the Magical Girl system in the first place. He explains entropy and the reason he withheld information from the girls. After Suzune leaves, he shows the girls a vision of Suzune's past and her reason for assassinating Magical Girls as well as his role in forming a contract with Suzune.
• In Chapter 8, Kyubey's head is crushed by Arisa after explaining it was more efficient to let Suzune murder Magical Girls rather than stop her. At the end of the chapter, he has a short discussion with Suzune on how illogical and useless emotions are.
• In Chapter 9, Kyubey is seen at the end of the chapter urging Kagari to action.
• In Chapter 11, Kyubey is seen at the end of the chapter asking Kagari what her next action will be.
• In Chapter 12, Kyubey is shown in a flashback, forming a contract with Matsuri and offering the same to Kagari. He is walking around the city with the girls as they search for Tsubaki.
• In Chapter 13, Kyubey is shown in flashback eating what appears to be a previous body of his as he explains to Kagari the manner in which Magical Girls turn into witches. Afterwards, Kagari makes a contract with Kyubey in order to exact revenge on Suzune. Kyubey is willing to go along with her plan so long as the energy that is lost from the murdered Magical Girls is less than the energy he'll collect from Kagari, Matsuri and Suzune.
• In Chapter 15, Kyubey appears to assist Matsuri in combat against Kagari. He explains Kagari's abilities to her and helps her by reminding her of her ability to track people.
• In Chapter 16, Kyubey appears to inform Suzune that even should she use her last grief seed to save Matsuri, Matsuri may turn into a witch from the sheer grief of losing Kagari and Suzune. At the end of the chapter, Kyubey is seen talking to Matsuri and lamenting the amount of energy he would have gathered from her.

In Tart Magica

"I must admit, you aren't the first to have called me an angel. Are there that many outward similarities between what you call "angels" and myself?" - Kyubey, Tart Magica, Ch. 2.

Kyubey in Tart Magica

Kyubey appears in Tart Magica, calling himself "Cube" (キューブ Kyūbu) and often times (an) Angel by Tart.

• He first appears in Chapter 2 alongside Riz Hawkwood when she saved Tart and her sister Catherine from a witch.
  • Because the rings that float around his tassels resemble angel halos, Tart believes him to be an angel and refers to him as such. Kyubey notes that Tart isn't the first to have called him one and wonders if there are that many similarities between himself and angels. He also states that he doesn't mind being called an angel by Tart.
  • Kyubey and Riz reveal to Tart that they have been searching for her. Upon asking for her name, she introduces herself as Jeanette and Kyubey asks her to write it to see how it's spelled (where she spells her full name as "Jeanne Tart"). Kyubey likes the sound of Tart better than Jeanne (as it is a common name) and begins referring to her as Tart.
• Riz and Tart travel to meet the King, encountering Melissa in the process. Melissa can see Cube, but Tart says she doesn't want Melissa to contract.
• Tart and La Hire are gravely wounded by an attack from Flèche, causing Melissa to make a wish to save their lives.
• It is revealed that Cube made a contract with Isabeau to have everything that you (Cube) possesses, like his immortality and ability to grant wishes.

In Magia Record

Kyubey contacted over the radio

Kyubey initially appears as a small Kyubey that Iroha is tracking in Kamihama City.

A Pink Kyubey also appears in the event Kamihama Cheese Panic! and other events which include Nagisa.

Kyubey himself initially only appeared in events or side stories, often in the past, and is presented as being unable to enter Kamihama City due to the doppel barrier. Beginning in Arc 2, Touka Satomi was able to make contact with Kyubey via a sophisticated machine that allowed her to view and speak with Kyubey on a screen.

The Tokime Clan refer to Kyubey as Lord Kyūbē (久兵衛様, kyūbē-sama).

Due to Puella Historia covering many cultures and time periods, it's revealed that Kyubey was known by different names depending on the time and place.

• Around the 1st century BCE, in Alexandria, he is known as the White Beast God by the Met Clan.
  • In Formal Egyptian (Demotic/Hieroglyphic), it would likely be written as 𓂧𓈖𓏏𓇾 𓆓𓏏𓈖 𓊹, with the transliteration "ḏd-wḥꜣt nṯr", literally "White Beast God."
  • However, Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BCE and it quickly became a major center of Hellenistic culture. Thus, people in Alexandria also spoke Greek in the 1st century BCE, and it was the dominant language of administration, culture, and daily life for much of the city’s population at that time. Following that logic, the Greek version of the "White Beast God," with the Alexandrian Vernacular would be "ὁ Λευκὸς Θηριόμορφος Θεός" and the transliteration "Ho Leukòs Thēriómorphos Theós."
• Around the 1st century CE, in the Roman Empire, he is known as Magister, or Master Cubius, though as the letter U didn't exist, it would have been written as CVBIVS.
• Around the 11th century CE, Olga and Gunhild mistake him for a Fylgja, a guardian spirit from Norse mythology in the form of a white beast.
  • The word literally means "follower" in Old Norse, and the plural noun for it is fylgjur. It can appear in the form of an animal that reflects a person’s character or destiny, like a wolf, fox, eagle, ox, or even human. They would appear in dreams and seeing your own fylgja while awake was usually considered a bad omen, often meaning death was near.
• Around the 13th century CE, a nunnery in Tibet refers to him as Lord Jātaka, a title for a past incarnation of the Buddha himself. Jātaka is Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories", and specifically denotes tales of the Buddha's past incarnations as a bodhisattva (a being striving for Buddhahood). In these stories, he embodies virtues related to the Buddha while reborn as humans, animals, or deities.
  • The phrase "Lord Jātaka" would not have existed in 13th-century Tibet since "Jātaka" refers to a genre of Buddhist literature, not a person or deity. However, if we interpret "Lord Jātaka" as an honorific title for the Buddha as the central figure of the Jātaka tales, in Classical Tibetan using period-appropriate script and grammar: The honorific རྗེ་ (rje), meaning "lord" or "master," was used for revered figures, and Jākata's Tibetan translation is སྐྱེས་རབས་ (skyes rabs), thus the title would likely be རྗེ་སྐྱེས་རབས་ (rje skyes rabs), meaning "Lord of the Jātakas." However, for a similar title for the Buddha within Jātaka literature, the authentic phrasing would be སྐྱེས་རབས་ཀྱི་སྟོན་པ་ (skyes rabs kyi ston pa), "Teacher of the Birth Stories."
  • As the story also features the Mongol Empire, in Mongolian, the birth stories were rendered as "Khe Rab" (ᠬᠡ ᠷᠠᠪ), directly from Tibetan skyes rabs due to the influence of Tibetan lamas in Mongol courts. The term "lord" (noyan, ᠨᠣᠶᠠᠨ; ejen, ᠡᠵᠡᠨ) was reserved for secular rulers (e.g., Genghis Khan as "Chinggis Ejen") or divine Buddhas (Burkhan, ᠪᠤᠷᠬᠠᠨ). Mongol Buddhist practice centered on the Buddha Śākyamuni, with devotion directed toward bodhisattvas and protector deities instead of literary genres like the Jātakas. If forced to construct a Mongol term for "Lord Jātaka," linguists might propose "Boyda Khe Rab" (ᠪᠣᠶᠳᠠ ᠬᠡ ᠷᠠᠪ; Holy Jātaka), where Boyda ("saintly") was used for figures like Genghis Khan. However, this would still imply "venerated Jātaka tales," not a personified lord. Alternatively, "Qutuγtu-yin Khe Rab" (ᠬᠤᠲᠤᠭᠲᠤ ᠶᠢᠨ ᠬᠡ ᠷᠠᠪ; Jātaka of the Holy One) could theoretically apply, as Qutuγtu ("holy one") denoted high lamas. The authentic title for the Buddha as protagonist of these tales was ᠬᠡ ᠷᠠᠪᠢᠨ ᠤ ᠪᠤᠷᠬᠠᠨ (Khe Rab-un Burqan), literally meaning "Buddha of the Jātakas," a phrase which appears in Yuan-era manuscripts.

In Null Magical Girl

Kyubey in Null Magical Girl

In Null Magical Girl, Kyubey acts as a messenger and guide for Kosane during her journey to find the truth about Magical Girls. He reveals to Kosane that she has no soul and also lacks a brain. Throughout the story, Kyubey lives inside Kosane's empty head and is shown to have the ability to alter her cells, giving her the ability to fly and making her unable to perceive emotion.

As the two travel on the Time and Space Railway, they are attacked by five Homo magica. Kosane blacks out and, when she awakens, finds herself and Kyubey in a plane full of Homo magica. Kyubey doesn't sense any Incubators, and assumes that they had all gone extinct due to attacks from the Homo magica.

He uses his future sight as the planet Terminus, where Kosane was hiding, is destroyed to find the best path for her to escape alive.

In the third volume, after the escape from Terminus, it is shown that Kyubey has fused with Kosane along with the Time Railroad, effectively making her a god. His last appearance is when Kosane starts making contracts with girls in order to gain emotional energy, when he says that it's finally his turn.

In Magia Exedra

Since Magia Exedra reuses the story of prior media including the original anime, Kyubey appears in Exedra.

A version of Kyubey appears in the April Fools event, Dance✰Magica where he served as a talent manager for the Dancing Magical Girls troupe which comprise of the Holy Quintet.

Gallery

See Gallery:Kyubey

Trivia

• For more information about energy, entropy and thermodynamics in general, see Thermodynamics.
  • In Null Magical Girl, Kosane, who has Incubator cells in her body, is a thermodynamics major.
• Kyubey apparently enjoys hot baths and human food, as evidenced in the second episode of the anime.
• Kyubey's appearance (and name) share an affinity to Kyuubi, Mythical Japanese foxes with nine tails. In folklore, Kyuubi-no-kitsune were known to possess men and have them do the Kyuubi's bidding, a trait identical to Kyubey's desire to collect energy from Magical Girls.
  • Kitsune are said to be in possession of jewels called "hōshi no tama" which share similar traits to Soul Gems; they are jewels needed for the user to transform and use their magic and if they are separated from it for too long, the user will die.
• In the Drama CD "Sunny Day Life" Kyubey tries to convince to an exasperated Madoka that "he" doesn't see himself as male (in human terms) so "he" doesn't understand why "he" isn't allowed to be in the bathroom with a naked Madoka.
  • On the Blu-ray commentary it was pointed by Gen Urobuchi that Kyubey has no gender.
• According to the Blu-Ray Episode 2 voice commentary:
  • Kyubey was not based on any animal, just the concept of a "small mahou shoujo animal"
  • When asked what animals were used as the basis for Kyubey's design, Ume Aoki was very cryptic because of spoilers.
• The word 'incubator' derives from the Latin word 'incubare', meaning 'to lie upon'. Another term derived from it is incubus, a male demon said to have sex with women while they sleep and causing their dreams to become perverted. This happening was believed to be the cause of the birth of witches.
• In an interview with NewType, Shinbo was thinking of giving lip-syncing to Kyubey in the new world but Yukihiro Miyamoto said no since fundamentally Kyubey remains the same creature as before, only interested in energy efficiency, so he remains unchanged. Also in the interview it's stated Kyubey doesn't move his mouth to speak because he is communicating by telepathy.
  • Prior to broadcasting, no one told the seiyuu (specially Emiri Kato) that Kyubey's mouth doesn't move, so she tried to properly lip-sync her lines. When they saw the first episode on the air, the seiyuu were shocked that they were tricked.
• Aoi Yuuki (Madoka's VA), Chiwa Saito (Homura's VA), and Kaori Mizuhashi (Mami's VA) tried for the role of Kyubey. Saito was told her Kyubey sounded too stupid, and in Yuuki's part hers sounded too naive and that she was too cute for it. They all found the role for Kyubey to be too difficult and the Kyubey character too smart for them.
• In the Audio Commentary for Episode 9, before reading the script or knowing the nature of the show, Emiri Kato (VA of Kyubey) was very happy that she was voicing a cute animal character.
• Gen Urobuchi comments in the Audio Commentary for Episode 12 that Kyubey's presence is world wide. This can be interpreted as multiple Kyubeys are being used to contract and reduce entropy; and are not limited to just using one single Incubator at a time. This would explain as to why Kyubey can consume dead predecessors. It may also suggest that instead of Kyubey being able to teleport, there are simply several, each one assigned to go with a Magical Girl or clusters thereof, at a time.
• During the Sakura-Con 2012 panel interview, Urobuchi explains that Kyubey is not evil, it is his lack of human feelings that makes him scary.
  • Urobuchi compares H.P. Lovecraft's creatures to be same as Kyubey, in that they are uninterested in humans feelings.