Talk:Kyubey

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Redirection

Requesting name change to Kyubey. reason : [1] Mic2070 10:38, 24 January 2011 (CST)

Anyone object this? Otherwise I'm going to move it. --0x99 19:53, 24 January 2011 (CST)

Go for it --MomoiroKakarichou 15:02, 26 January 2011 (CST)

I'll just leave this here ◕‿‿◕

◕ ω ◕

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

Shouldn't we add somewhere that he uses telepathy?

I only today realized that the page was renamed from Kyuubey to Kyubey recently. Just finished updating the spelling everywhere. --KFYatek 16:44, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Multiple Kyubeys/Respawning Kyubey

I remember there was quite a lot of speculah as to whether there is only one Kyubey, or multiple 'Kyubey' clones. Since it's mentionned in the 'Obervsations' section, I wondered if that theory has been mentionned in one of the articles? If so, it should be a good idea to add a link here. --Homerun-chan 21:23, 24 February 2011 (UCT)

Maybe I overlooked it, but I couldn't found any article stating about respawning QB. --0x99 22:06, 24 February 2011 (UCT)

I'm not sure about the respawning, but I think mutiple instances of QBe has been discussed at some point (hence the 'Kyubey Army' image macro). It may not be on the wiki though. I'll look for it in depths tomorrow if nobody's done it before, I have stuff to do now (like sleeping, for example) --Homerun-chan 22:11, 24 February 2011 (UCT)

What's this about him being a cat? I don't think he looks like a cat. I think he looks like a little demonspawn.

--

"Familiar"

I'm not really sure where the term "familiar" comes from in his description? --Fallacies 02:30, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Incidentally, Kyubey is the romanization of the name of a restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. --Fallacies 03:09, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Where's that "familiar" you're talking about in this article? --0x99 03:13, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

The diff before I edited it, at the top. I replaced it with Mahou no Shisha, per the description on his official chara profile. --Fallacies 03:16, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Also, in plot synopsis on main page, the "there exist familiars" part obviously refers to Kyubey and possibly others of his kind. --KFYatek 03:18, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Edited. Though, again, I'm not sure where "familiars" came from. It seems like it's always been there, but nobody ever noticed. In any case, it's not really accurate. --Fallacies 03:20, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Energy

the article states that he needs energy for the earth. But as i understood he is an alien who needs energy for his planet and stores the energy that get´s released while using magic or transform into witches.

Anonymous: In actuality, he needs energy for the entire universe. Even though the show's understanding of thermodynamics is flawed (the amount of usable energy in the universe will decrease over time, but not the total amount of energy), we can't treat Earth or any other planet as a closed system; thus, when Kyuubey says "sekai" (I think that's the word he used?), he's almost definitely referring to the universe as a whole.

--picture- the mangaka of kuroshitsuji actually made a fanart crossover of kyubey and sebastian http://d-6th.com/blog/images/110217_qseba.jpg quite ironic since sebastian also has a faustian pact with ciel and will rip his (ciel´s) soul of as payment to fullfill his wish

Contract

Fight with witches it's a part of the contract? Or contract mean only become to puella magi? A 06:30, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Kyubey is incredibly vague about the contract, so it's unclear if puellae magi must fight witches outside of ensuring their own survival (as they need Grief Seeds to counteract the corruption caused by the use of magic and/or the build-up of negative emotions). I suppose a girl could contract, get her wish, and never fight witches, but she would likely end up a witch herself very soon. Momoism 18:21, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Gender

• On the Blu-ray commentary it was pointed by Gen Urobuchi that Kyubey has no gender.
  • Does that mean that the references to Kyuubee on this wiki should be neutralised, ze/zie/sie instead of he/she? Might even help more people become aware of gender neutrality among humans! - [2] 08:16, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The problem with that is they aren't in common dictionaries and aren't standard English. KM 09:09, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Not to mention it would be a nightmare, since we will have to hunt down every page that mentions Kyubey as "he". Personally I would let it be as it is since the girls think of Kyubey as a "he" even if "it" thinks of itself as being genderless...--Mutopis 10:06, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Kyubey refers himself using "Boku" so i think he consider himself as male Kimidori 10:29, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Only in "human terms" to make it easy for the girls when they are addressing to him. I dont think Kyubey thinks of iself personally as a "he"... --Mutopis 10:41, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Isn't "boku" kind of gender-neutral? I mean, I was taught that it can be used by anyone and tends to be the default in gender-neutral song lyrics. It's pretty commonly used this way in anime and manga. --CrownClown 02:05, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

In recent times, they grudgingly allow it (like the use of a universal "he"), but this is unlikely to be proper Japanese. For example, Kyon, in the Haruhi light novels makes a big point of how Sasaki refers to herself with the pronoun "boku", which gives her a tomboyish feel. Iruel 03:00, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

It's proper Japanese for young people in casual situations in the real world, and is becoming more prevalent among girls around the age of Madoka and company. Anime and manga may emphasize the former status of "boku" as a male-only pronoun as a quick-and-easy way of characterization: "She uses 'boku,' so we can tell that she's a 'tomboy' without wasting a lot of time on extra dialogue!" Personal pronouns and other indicators of gentle/harsh speech are often used this way in Japanese fiction, but shouldn't be understood as indicative of how people on the street actually talk. (In normal Japanese speech, it's actually common to almost never use personal pronouns at all! "I," "you," and so on can often be inferred from context alone.) A girl who uses "boku" in the real world wouldn't necessarily be considered masculine -- it all depends on her personality and the context in which she uses it.

So far as Kyuubey is concerned, "boku" may be useful just because of the social status it implies: the standard "watashi" is slightly formal (and would put Kyuubey on the same level as the girls), "watakushi" would be too humble, and "ore" would be too harsh. Any of the less-common pronouns would lend unwanted additional flavor to Kyuubey's speech, since -- as I wrote above -- they're more often used as characterization shortcuts in fictional works. "Boku" allows Kyuubey to keep relations with the girls casual and congenial, while slightly insinuating that he's on a higher social level than them (that is, he can afford to talk down to them).

Also, CrownClown: I think "boku" tends to be used more often in song lyrics simply because it's easier to fit in, mora-wise! :D 64.89.144.110 03:13, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Fan-Video

Features Kyubey getting ripped to shreads , pretty well made. Espeon 20:53, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

When was this stated?

• I read under the unproven theories section that Kyubey states early in the series that he cannot bring dead people back to life. I've just watched the entire series through recently, and not only did I not catch on to that, but that goes against certain events in the first audio drama and The Different Story, in which he revives a cat and Sayaka respectively. If I did in fact miss anything he might have said, would someone please point it out? McKnight
  • A friend of mine also once said that the same thing is mentioned during the final timeline, which is presumably the anime's finale, but I've re-watched that whole episode in particular just shortly afterwards, and there isn't anything said about wishes in general. McKnight

Tokime name

I really don't think it makes sense to spell it as "Lord Kyūbē". The kanji chosen have no meaning, they're just taken for their sound. It's about equivalent to deciding to spell "Sayaka" as "Sayaca" or "Niko" as "Nico"; my guess is that the intent is to give it an "archaic" feel, but I think "lord" already gets that across. I don't have any better ideas, though. ~ Celtic Minstrel (talk) 22:58, 30 October 2025 (UTC)

Until we get an official translation, it's best for us to pick a common and consistent one. Magia Union Translations doesn't have a monopoly on MagiReco translations, but they're by far the biggest group who does that. As of right now, someone who experienced MagiReco Arc 2 story in English is by far likeliest to experience it through their translations specifically. It makes no sense for us to use a random translation nobody else uses. EPF (talk) 05:29, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

Since the kanji is different, we might as well have a placeholder until Exedra catches up and probably proves us wrong by one letter or something. ~ Sweet Beanie (talk) 10:03, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

i'm not sure why there seems to be an issue with "lord kyūbē." no, it is not equivalent to just randomly deciding to spell "sayaka" as "sayaca" -- i did not work on green jasper diviners but "lord kyūbē" was chosen because it is spelled oddly in japanese as well. without the text to reference off of, yes, 久兵 does sound like キュゥべえ -- just like "kyūbē" would sound like "kyubey" if you were only going by ear. but with the text, we know that's not how they spell it; they spell it as 久兵. hence, to be loyal to this, "kyubey" is rendered instead as "kyūbē" -- it stays true to the fact that the tokime spell kyubey's name in a way that is different from how everyone else does it; it emphasizes their isolation from wider "magical girl" culture. "lord kyubey", in my opinion, does not do this. "lord" shows a cultural difference, but it simply shows respect; it does not feel "archaic." until exedra gives us an official term to use, i'm with epf on this one; i don't know why we shouldn't use mut's rather widely-accepted fan tls on the wiki in the absence of official sources. there is no need to reinvent the wheel and cause needless confusion. i apologize if this seems harsh, but i just really do not understand the fuss. Onitora (talk) 18:47, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

If the only goal is for them to "spell it differently", there are tons of other options that look less "wrong" in English text. English does not use macrons, ever. ~ Celtic Minstrel (talk) 18:55, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

Go ahead and share. But let me reiterate - what is the benefit of having a translation nobody else uses? EPF (talk) 20:13, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

i hate to revive an old topic, but romanized japanese text does use macrons -- the proper romanization for 妖怪 is not "yokai" or "youkai", it's yōkai. 久兵 is not an english word, so modern english words not typically using macrons does not matter. and to echo epf, there is no benefit to using a localization that nobody else in the fandom would recognize. Onitora (talk) 23:07, 21 November 2025 (UTC)

First, let me say that there's absolutely no problem with "reviving" an old topic.

Secondly, this is false:

the proper romanization for 妖怪 is not "yokai" or "youkai", it's yōkai

There is not "one single" proper romanization. Both "youkai" and "yōkai" are proper; "yokai" is not though, as it doesn't fully convey the original kana.

Thirdly, when using foreign words in English prose, it is very uncommon to write diacritics (with the exception of diaresis), unless the context is formal or educational. In other words, it's not normal to force a "proper" romanization in casual prose. Thus in that context it's acceptable to write either "yokai" or "youkai", even though "yokai" isn't really a proper romanization.

The context here is sort of borderline between one where you'd tend to omit diacritics and one where you want a proper romanization, though. I'd prefer to use something that makes sense in casual prose, but I can't say it's downright wrong to include the macrons.

But, there is also another issue. This isn't a place for a transcription. It's a place for a translation. And "Kyūbē" is absolutely not a translation. A translation attempts to convey the same meaning in the target language as it conveyed in the source language. From my understanding, in Japanese the odd spelling conveys a sense that it's "archaic"; but "Kyūbē" does absolutely nothing in English to convey a sense that it's "archaic". Thus, as a translation, it's a very poor choice.

I can see the argument for not using a localization that's unique to the wiki, though (and that's also why I chose not to share alternatives when EPF invited me to). For now, I'll just hope that the official Exedra localization does something more sensible – then we can switch all instances to use that instead and relegate this odd choice to mere historical footnote.

~ Celtic Minstrel (talk) 23:47, 21 November 2025 (UTC)