Niko Kanna

Niko Kanna
Japanese Name	神那ニコ (Kanna Niko)

"The only thing that needs a name is your gravestone." - Niko Kanna, Chapter 7.

Niko Kanna (神那ニコ, Kanna Niko) is a character in Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: The Innocent Malice. She is a magical girl and a member of the Pleiades Saints.

General Info

Physical Features
Age	Unknown
Eye colour	Green
Hair colour	Blonde
Magic
Soul Gem	Green-blueish hexagon on her nape
Weapon	Crowbar magic wand
Witch Form	Weiße Königin
Powers and Abilities	Rebuilding and reforming
Wish	To create another version of herself, with a happy life and no memory of a traumatic incident in her past (exact wording unknown)
Other
Japanese pronoun	Watashi (私)
Known relatives	Unnamed parents, unnamed younger twin brothers
Origins	Asunaro City
School	Not attending
Affiliation	Pleiades Saints

Personality

Niko is a mostly quiet girl, being constantly seen with the same uninterested look on her face (which barely changes even when pierced with an arrow). However, she possesses high intelligence; arguably the highest in the bunch. She is a tech expert, and uses several pieces of high tech equipment, such as smartphones, to assist the girls with information. She is also able to quickly analyze situations, and notice subtle details that the others do not.

She can be sarcastic at times, but with no malice.

While she appears taciturn, she also harbors a great deal of guilt beneath the surface, as she was responsible for the accidental death of her friends when she was very young.

History

This section may contain major spoilers for the Kazumi Magica manga!

Please refrain from reading if you haven't read the latest chapter yet.

Niko accidentally shot two of her friends to death when she was two years old. She spent years haunted by guilty over this incident, and a witch’s kiss was the final push that caused her to attempt suicide by jumping off a building, along with six other members of what would later become the Pleiades Saints. She was rescued by Michiru but still fell into the witch’s barrier, where she was attacked by it. Michiru offered her a magical gun, in an attempt to prove to Niko that she truly did want to live. Niko reluctantly accepted it. Her bullets proved to be useless, but Michiru, satisfied, killed the witch with her own magic.

The six girls become quick friends with Kazumi, and soon make a contract of their own. Niko’s wish is to create a copy of herself that doesn’t remember the shooting accident, which she whispers into Kyubey’s ear to hide it from the other girls. After this, she abandons of her birth name of Kanna in favor of Niko (literally, “second child”), leaving the old one to her clone. The seven girls form the Pleiades Saint, a group of magical girls who hunt together.

However, one day Michiru undergoes a transformation into a witch, throwing the team into disarray. Umika kills Kyubey in anger, and Niko put the corpse into one of her jars. The reason latter becomes clear: she’s planning to make her own version of Kyubey, one that will be able to purify their gems and free them from the incubator’s system. She seemingly succeeds, creating Juubey. Now that they had an alternative to Kyubey, the Pleiades Saint cast a joint spell that renderered him completely invisible to everyone in the city and replaced all their memories of Kyubey with Jubey. However, Juubey can’t quite stop every girl from reaching lethal levels of corruption; when the Pleiades Saints see one about to become a witch, they quickly extract her soul gem and place her in suspended animation in The Freezer

They also began making clones of Michiru, trying to revive her. Niko hoped that when they did, they could all take a trip to the USA and she would be able to tell them about her past, but this never came to pass. Kanna saw Niko fighting a witch, prompting Kyubey to explain the whole situation to her. Kanna swore revenge over being forced to live a fake life, and made a contract to gain the power to ruin the Pleiades Saint’s lives. She created artificial witches and made Yuuri and Souju attack the Pleiades in order to force them to use up their magic. This results in Niko becoming a witch, with Kanna impersonating her after her death.

Powers and Abilities

Niko summoning a CD.

Niko's individual abilities in battle were not fully known prior to Chapter 7. She was seen summoning CD-like disks, which are likely throwable weapons with cutting properties, but did not have the chance to use them.

Her tech expertise also comes in handy for the Pleiades both inside and outside the battle. She developed a smartphone app that can read a witch's residual power wavelength, and can use it to calibrate the girls' Soul Gems, to track that particular witch more accurately. She also uses (and apparently, carries extra) GPS/com units, used to coordinate the girl's actions when away from each other.

In Chapter 7, it was revealed that her wish was "rebuilding and reforming". This gives her the ability to deconstruct any material and then reconstruct it as any object that she wants, including clones of herself. She can even turn her fingers into missiles and shoot her enemies. This presumably also gives her enhanced healing abilities - she is seen recovering from her wounds very quickly.

She can shoot a wave of magic with a spell called Rendere O Romperlo (Make or Break).

Her weapon is a magic wand that is shaped like a crowbar. On one occasion, she used it to power up a stopped roller coaster car.

Niko also sometimes carries a cylindrical container on her back. Objects placed in the container will shrink, and can easily be carried around. She mostly uses it to contain hazardous items such as Evil Nuts and the bodies and Soul Gems of magical girls who the Pleiades are taking to the Freezer.

Etymology

One of the meanings of her first name could be the Japanese onomatopoeia for "smile". As of Chapter 18, it is revealed that it means ニ (Two) 子 (Child), translating into something along the lines of "Two Childs" or "Second Child"
The characters in her last name mean "神" (spirit, deity, soul, or mysterious force) and "那" (which?, where?, how?, etc.) respectively.

Trivia

When transformed, she dons a classical paratrooper suit, complete with aviator goggles and leather helmet, several utility pockets, a harness and a parachute backpack.
According to Chapter 10, she spent some time in California as a child.
"Niko" is the official translation of her name. Previously "Nico" was used.
Her name was originally Kanna Hijiri (聖　カンナ, Hijiri Kanna). She gave this name to her duplicate [link] upon making her wish.

Gallery

Official Art

Niko and Kazumi from a Manga Time Kirara Magica cover
Toroana volume 5 extra

Manga

Kazumi Magica volume 3 cover
Kazumi Magica volume 4 cover
Colour page featuring Niko and the Pleides Saints
Cover page of Chapter 9, with Niko in color. Note that Niko's eyes are yellow, while on the previous page they were blue
Color illustration from Kazumi Magica's fourth volume.
Niko handing Kazumi a GPS/communicator unit.
These manga pages show Niko's ability.
Niko in her casual dress.
A rare moment of Niko smiling.
Niko Kanna and Kanna Hijiri.
Niko's family with Kanna Hijiri.
Kazumi and Niko's magic are perfect opposites