Ashley Taylor
| Ashley Taylor | |
|---|---|
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| Japanese Name | (アシュリー・テイラー) Ashley Taylor |
| Voiced by | Japanese: Sally Amaki
English: Sally Amaki |
| ID No: | 3052 |
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
- Eye colour: Hot Pink
- Hair colour: Blonde with pink and cyan highlights
- Origins: California, United States of America
Other
- Soul Gem: Red gem (choker)
- Weapon: Kumanosuke (teddy bear plushie surrounded by smaller floating bear heads)
- Wish: "I wish for my dad's permission to study abroad."
- Witch form: Zipzap
- Known relatives: Unnamed father (deceased) and mother
- Japanese pronoun: watashi
- School: Kosho Academy
Game Info (NA)
The stats and information below were Ashley's original stats in the NA server.
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Game Info (JP)
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
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.
Event Appearances
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.
Trivia
- As she was an NA-server exclusive, she is the first character to have exclusively English voicelines.
- Although she is a four-star, she did not have a Doppel on release. It was timelocked until the 29th of June 2020.
- Currently the only magical girl to have four of the same disks (namely, Blast) and the only magical girl 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Her sprite files in the Japanese server are labeled "Ashley Moran" (アシュリー・モラン).
- 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.
Gallery
Magia Record Four Star Art
Magia Record Five Star Art
In-Battle Sprite
Doppel Sprite
Memoria Cards
| Card | Effect | Cooldown | Eng Text |
| Normal: Blast Damage UP [VI] (Self / 1 Turn) & Defense DOWN [VIII] (All / 1 Turn) Max Limit Break: Blast Damage UP [VII] (Self / 1T) & Defense DOWN [IX] (All / 1T) |
Passive | 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! | |
| Normal: HP Restore [IX] (Self) Max Limit Break: HP Restore [X] (Self) |
Normal: 8 turns Max Limit Break: 7 turns |
**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! | |
| Normal: Chance to Bind on Attack [II] (1T) & Attack UP [IV] Max Limit Break: Chance to Bind on Attack [III] (1T) & Attack UP [V] |
Passive | 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! |
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 (JP)
- 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)