Tsubaki Mikoto

Tsubaki Mikoto
Japanese Name	美琴椿 (Mikoto Tsubaki)
Voiced by	Japanese: Yoko Hikasa

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Tsubaki Mikoto (美琴椿, Mikoto Tsubaki) is a supporting character in Puella Magi Suzune Magica. She only appears in flashbacks, but has a major impact regarding the events of the story.

General Info

Physical Features
Age	20 (estimated)
Eye colour	Purple/violet (original manga) Red (Magia Record)
Hair colour	Black
Magic
Soul Gem	Circular red gem on the back of her left hand
Weapon	Katana
Witch Form	Carmen
Powers and Abilities	Fire Manipulation
Wish	“I want the power to defeat [witches].”
Other
Japanese pronoun	Watashi (私)
Known relatives	Unnamed parents (deceased), Miyuki (aunt; deceased), Yoriko Yanagi (distant relative; deceased), Suzune Amano (adoptive daughter), Matsuri Hinata (younger surrogate daughter), Kagari Hinata (older surrogate daughter)
Origins	Hohzuki City
School	Not attending

Personality

A kind and caring woman who adored and took good care of the girls she was responsible for. She was a maternal figure to Suzune Amano, Matsuri Hinata, and Kagari Hinata.

Tsubaki took care of Suzune after the her parents' death at the hands of a witch, and treated her like her own daughter. She is also seen encouraging Matsuri to be a kind person and listen to her father and Kagari. She often told the Hinata twins stories.

Story

Tsubaki only appears in the backstory of Suzune Magica, as she is dead before the story begins. Nothing is currently known about her past aside from Kyubey mentioning she was left alone in the world due to witches and that this caused her to use her powers for the first and last time to hurt another person.

Tsubaki was originally the caretaker for Matsuri and Kagari. She would often read to them the same bedtime story of a kind-hearted witch who was cast out of her village. After some time, she had to resign due to her having to care for Suzune who she first met after Suzune's parents were killed by a witch in front of her. She asks Matsuri to be a good girl and look out for Kagari and then leaves without saying goodbye.

After some time, she became a witch because she put Suzune's welfare before her own, always battling her hardest to keep Suzune safe and giving grief seeds to her first. Once she couldn't handle the state of her own corruption anymore, she transformed into a witch and was defeated by Suzune who absorbed her fire-elemental magic.

Tsubaki in Magia Record

See Tsubaki Mikoto in Magia Record

Powers and Abilities

Tsubaki had fire-elemental powers. As Suzune absorbed her powers after her death, it can be assumed that Tsubaki had all the same spells that Suzune uses. Tsubaki is at least seen using one of Suzune's spells, "Flame Dance" (舞炎, Maien).

Observations

Tsubaki's hairstyle is the same as the infamous "doomed anime mom" hairstyle, named because mothers with such a side-tie ponytail tended to die sometime in the story, usually early on or in the backstory.
Tsubaki's appearance may have been reused from one of GAN's original characters, Sanae.
Tsubaki's magical girl outfit has a rather "traditional" Japanese motif: the outfit itself resembles a kimono, and she wields a katana, a type of Japanese sword.
Tsubaki having fire powers could reference how, back in the old days, people used to burn supposed witches at the stakes.

Etymology

Tsubaki's first name is spelled with the kanji for "camellia".
- Tsubaki is named after a flower, along with Matsuri and Kagari.
- In the Japanese language of flowers, camellia represent different things depending on the colour. They can represent love, perishing with grace, longing, and waiting.
- Camellia can also represent femininity, unpretentious grace, and unassuming elegance.^[1]
Tsubaki's last name, Mikoto, is spelt with the kanji for "beautiful harp". "Mikoto" could also mean noble, precious, or revered.

Trivia

According to tweets by GAN:
- At first, GAN planned for Tsubaki to be someone roughly around Suzune's age who grew up in the same town as her. After some thought GAN wanted someone to act as guardian figure for the story, reworking Tsubaki to her current state. ^[2]
- A rather ambiguous tweet saying that "[Tsubaki's] appearance is just a hobby".^[3] This tweet might be referring to the art GAN did of Tsubaki in a maid outfit, but whether it is or isn't is unknown.
- Tsubaki's age is not clearly decided, but can be assumed to be around 20 or so.^[4]
Carmen is novel by Prosper Mérimée, which was later adapted into an opera of the same name by Georges Bizet. The story focuses on the titular Carmen, a woman who uses her beauty to charm and deceive men into doing what she wants. In the end, when a man who became enamored with her that she no longer loved insisted she marry him, she refused despite knowing he would kill her, stating that even in death, she would always be free from the influence or claims of others. The name has since become synonymous with beguiling women and femme fatales.
- Carmen worked in a cigar factory, which may also be a connection to Tsubaki's fire magic.
- It may also be a reference to carmen, a Latin term for a verse of poetry or, more specifically, a spell or prayer. This form of the word comes from the Latin root canere, meaning "to sing"; thus, carmen means "a thing sung".