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{{Infobox_character
{{Infobox_character
|name=Kagari Hinata
|name=Kagari Hinata
|image=[[File:Kagarigan.jpg|300px]]
|image=[[File:1446367856813 Kagari Hinata.png|300px]]
|jname=日向 華々莉
|jname=日向 華々莉
|age=Unknown; older than Matsuri
|weapon=Sword; chakrams
}}
}}
('''Note:''' As all chapters post-volume 1 are currently only available in Japanese, most of the post-volume 1 info below comes from rough translation and interpretation of events. Thus, some of the information may be incorrect, so please do not treat anything as 100% accurate.)
{{nihongo|'''Kagari Hinata'''|日向 華々莉|Hinata Kagari}} is one of the main characters in ''[[Puella Magi Suzune Magica]]''. She is the main antagonist and mastermind of the events of the story.
{{nihongo|'''Kagari Hinata'''|日向 華々莉|Hinata Kagari}} is one of the main characters in ''[[Puella Magi Suzune Magica]]''. She is the main antagonist and mastermind of the events of the story.


==General info==
==General info==
===Physical features===
* '''Age:''' 13 (elder twin of Matsuri)
* '''Eye colour:''' Red
* '''Eye colour:''' Red
* '''Hair colour:''' Dark purple
* '''Hair colour:''' Dark purple
===Other===
* '''Soul gem:''' Tyrian purple or red gem in the center of a butterfly on her chest. The top of her soul gem, in its egg form, shows a butterfly.
* '''Weapon:''' Sword; chakrams
* '''Wish:''' ''"I want Suzune to experience the same suffering that Tsubaki did."''
* '''Japanese pronoun:''' {{nihongo|''Watashi''|私|}}
* '''Japanese pronoun:''' {{nihongo|''Watashi''|私|}}
* '''Soul gem:''' Tyrian purple gem in the center of a butterfly on her chest.
* '''Known relatives:''' [[Matsuri Hinata]], her younger twin sister; [[Tsubaki Mikoto]], her deceased nanny/surrogate mother; her father and her deceased mother.
* '''Wish:''' Currently unknown.
* '''Known relatives:''' [[Matsuri Hinata]], her younger sister; [[Tsubaki Mikoto]], her deceased surrogate mother; her father and her deceased mother.


==Personality==
==Personality==
Line 25: Line 26:


==Story==
==Story==
{{cleanup}}
===Backstory===
===Backstory===
Not much is known of Kagari's home-life. She had a sister, Matsuri Hinata, an unnamed father, and a caretaker named Tsubaki Mikoto. Not much is given on how Kagari relates to her family before the events of Suzune. In a flashback, her father relates that Kagari was an anxious child.
Kagari is the twin sister of Matsuri. Tsubaki often visited Kagari's home, taking care of her and Matsuri, and often told them stories. Tsubaki disappeared one day (due to becoming a witch), leaving the twins saddened, and Kagari also enraged. When approached by Kyubey after the disappearance of Tsubaki, Matsuri almost immediately wished to be able to see. The three began to search the town for Tsubaki, but failed to find her; however, they did find Suzune, after following the sound of the bell on the pendant that she was wearing - a pendant that originally belonged to Tsubaki. Kagari was confused by Suzune wearing Tsubaki's pendant, and apparently went home sometime after this discovery; Matsuri, however, followed Suzune to where she was hiding in despair near a house, and asked to become friends with her.


At some point after this, Kagari, now a magical girl, confronted Matsuri and erased her memories of Suzune as a part of her revenge gambit. Despite this, Suzune would later transfer into the same school and class that Matsuri attended.
As Matsuri makes no mentions nor allusions to Kagari during the story before volume 3, it can be inferred Kagari also erased herself from Matsuri's memory; the same can be said for memories of Tsubaki. It can also be inferred that Matsuri's father had his memories erased as well.


===Kagari during ''Suzune Magica''===
===Kagari during ''Suzune Magica''===
Kagari is not seen until the end of chapter 9 and her face is not fully revealed until the end of chapter 10 after she kills Arisa before Arisa is able to kill Suzune. Kagari laughs and snaps her fingers, showing Suzune her own past in a vision. After the truth of Kagari's memory-manipulation magic is revealed, Suzune yells at her to stop until she's in tears. Suzune then attacks at Kagari and a fight ensues. During the fight, Kagari messes with Suzune's mind, causing her to see Tsubaki being slashed rather than herself. Just as Kagari is about to kill Suzune, Matsuri appears and deflects the attack. The girls attack at Kagari but are unable to land any blows thanks to Kagari's manipulative magic. Kyubey appears and guides Matsuri into using her ability to track Kagari's true position and directs Suzune where to attack. Angered, Kagari turns her attacks on Matsuri but is blasted away by her energy beam. Together they are able to defeat Kagari, but not before Kagari manipulates her own memories and causes herself to become a witch instantly.


Kagari's witch form attacks, Suzune attempts to block the familiars but there are too many and some make it past her. They consume the crying Matsuri and Suzune is devasted. She attacks the familiars once more using Tsubaki's fire magic and slashes the witch in half. The witch regenerates and Suzune realizes her true form is the book the witch stands on. She leaps to attack the book but is consumed by the witch as well. Inside, Suzune meets the witch's true form and destroys it with what remains of her power.


==Powers and Abilities==
===Kagari during ''[[Magia Record]]''===
Kagari's magic appears to be illusionary-themed. She also has mind-manipulation powers, but no outright mind control.
See [[Kagari Hinata in Magia Record]]


With her illusion magic, she can change her appearance (as she used this to torment Suzune with an image of Tsubaki), turn invisible, and she can confuse others by using her magic to appear as someone else (as she confused Matsuri by covering Suzune with an illusion of herself).
==Abilities==
Kagari's power is to alter peoples' memories and consciousnesses, as well as her own.


She is also capable of altering people's memories: she used this ability to turn Suzune into a magical girl killer and erase Matsuri's memories of becoming friends with Suzune; however, the person's real memories seem to eventually come back over time, as with Matsuri just before Kagari returns, after Kyubey shows her a vision of Suzune's past, involving Tsubaki.
With this magic, she can create illusions. She uses this to change her appearance (as she used this to torment Suzune with an image of Tsubaki), turn invisible, and confuse others by using her magic to appear as someone else (as she confused Matsuri by covering Suzune with an illusion of herself).


Kagari can also show other people visions; she used this power to show Suzune her backstory, her wish and the reason why she became a magical girl, and the start of her revenge gambit.
She used her memory-altering ability to turn Suzune into a magical girl killer and erase Matsuri's memories of becoming friends with Suzune (though Matsuri's memories start to come back when Kyubey shows her a vision of Suzune's past involving Tsubaki). Kagari can also show other people visions; she uses this power to show Suzune her backstory, her wish and the reason why she became a magical girl, and the start of her revenge gambit.


Kagari also appears to have some kind of super-speed power (given she was able to stab Arisa — who was using her own super-speed magic — in the back, and arrive quick enough to kill her before she killed Suzune). She also appears to be able to speed up the corruption of her soul gem somehow; she uses this ability to turn herself into a witch as a last-ditch attempt to kill Suzune and Matsuri.
Kagari also uses her mind-manipulation magic to greatly speed up her movements (being able to stab a high-speed Arisa, for example) and even turn herself into a witch by altering her own memories to speed up the despair process.


She can also knock someone unconscious temporarily, an ability she once used on Matsuri.
She can also knock someone unconscious temporarily, an ability she once used on Matsuri.
Line 49: Line 58:
* Present Kagari is never seen outside of her magical girl form.
* Present Kagari is never seen outside of her magical girl form.
** She is never seen attending school, nor is she ever seen in a school uniform.
** She is never seen attending school, nor is she ever seen in a school uniform.
* Kagari's powers could be described as "plot convenient" powers. She is the one who kicked off the whole story; she was somehow able to instantly appear in the middle of Suzune's and Arisa's fight and kill the powered-up Arisa; she conjured flashback sequences explaining her backstory with her magic; and she was able to turn herself into a witch when the battle between her, Suzune and Matsuri reached a stalemate.
** The memory-altering magic she used on Matsuri also conveniently faded away the moment Kagari arrived.
** In a way, this makes sense if you think about it: ''Suzune Magica'' is essentially the revenge plot Kagari crafted, and as the "writer" of the plot, she'd always have some way to drive it forward.
* The book familiars of Kagari's witch (one of which ate Matsuri) have covers that resemble the design of Tsubaki's magical girl outfit.
* The book familiars of Kagari's witch (one of which ate Matsuri) have covers that resemble the design of Tsubaki's magical girl outfit.
* The outfit of the outer body of Kagari's witch resembles younger Kagari's outfit. The body also seems to be coming out of a book resembling the picture book about a witch that Tsubaki was seen reading to the twins; the body also has long, trailing strands of hair, like the picture book witch's hair.
* The outfit of the outer body of Kagari's witch resembles younger Kagari's outfit. The body also seems to be coming out of a book resembling the picture book about a witch that Tsubaki was seen reading to the twins; the body also has long, trailing strands of hair, like the picture book witch's hair.
** The outer body also resembling a harlequin might refer to Kagari's trickster-like or insincere nature.
** The outer body also resembling a harlequin might refer to Kagari's trickster-like or insincere nature.
 
* Kagari is never referred to in the Japanese text by an honorific, only ever by her first or full name. This does not include Matsuri calling her "onee-chan", which means "big sister" and doesn't use Kagari's name.
==Speculation==
* Kagari has a habit of elongating her words at the end of her sentences, and speaking with hearts (♥), especially when talking to Suzune.
{{Theory/Header|status=unknown}}
* Kagari's butterfly motif might refer to the phenomenon known as the "butterfly effect", referring to how a small change in time leads to large consequences; Kagari in fact invokes the butterfly effect by altering Suzune's memories slightly and erasing Matsuri's of Suzune, changing their paths in life significantly and with disastrous consequences.
* It's possible that Kagari might be a sadist, or have a sadistic nature: Kagari playfully torments and sadistically teases Suzune, takes cruel delight in torturing her and attempting to kill her, laughing ''very'' madly when Suzune is supposedly about to turn into a witch, and in the flashbacks where she's planning out her revenge gambit, appears ecstatic at the thought of Suzune's despair (while wide-eyed and blushing, even).
** Kagari seems to have even fallen in love with the idea of getting her cruel revenge on Suzune.
** Kagari doesn't display such behaviour towards Matsuri, however, only heartless anger and rage, among attempts to kill her, and it's Matsuri defeating Kagari that makes Kagari pull out becoming a witch as a last resort. Nor does Kagari target Arisa; instead, Kagari merely kills her without blinking an eye. This indicates that Suzune is the sole target of Kagari's sadism.
** Notably, Kagari is also wide-eyed and blushing and smiling while revealing that she tampered with Suzune's head. She also calls Suzune with the "-chan" suffix, which is a diminutive suffix that gives a cutesy or affectionate air.
{{Theory/Footer}}


===Butterfly symbolism===
===Butterfly symbolism===
Line 71: Line 70:
* In Japanese lore, butterflies are the personifications of souls; note that Kagari's soul gem is in the center of a butterfly's body, and over her chest as well.
* In Japanese lore, butterflies are the personifications of souls; note that Kagari's soul gem is in the center of a butterfly's body, and over her chest as well.
** The ancient Greek word for butterfly means "soul" or "mind".
** The ancient Greek word for butterfly means "soul" or "mind".
<!--*** Butterflies also represent the souls of witches.
* Two butterflies flying together represents love.
** In some lore, butterflies appear at the passing of a loved one. Two butterflies flying together represents love.-->
* People in Devonshire would traditionally rush to kill the first butterfly they see in a year, or else face a year of bad luck.
** People in Devonshire would traditionally rush to kill the first butterfly they see in a year, or else face a year of bad luck.
* In the Philippines, a lingering black butterfly or moth in the house is taken to mean that someone in the family has died or will soon die.
** In the Philippines, a lingering black butterfly or moth in the house is taken to mean that someone in the family has died or will soon die.
* Kagari's butterfly motif might refer to the phenomenon known as the "butterfly effect", referring to how a small change in time leads to large consequences; Kagari in fact invokes the butterfly effect by altering Suzune's memories slightly and erasing Matsuri's of Suzune, changing their paths in life significantly and with disastrous consequences.
 
==Etymology==
* The first and third kanji for Kagari's name mean "flower"/"blossom"/"fabulous" (華) and "jasmine" (莉) respectively.
**In the Japanese language of flowers, jasmine represents kindness and gracefulness.<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanakotoba</ref>
*The second (々) is a character indicating that the previous kanji and sound (sometimes voiced) should be repeated. This would make Kagari's name "華華莉".
** Kagari is one of only two characters with a "々" in her name, the other being [[Sasa Yuuki]].
* Kagari being named after a flower matches Matsuri and Tsubaki, who are also named after flowers.
* "Kagari" could also mean a cross-stitch (縢) or a basket made of bamboo (篝); more obscurely, it could be read as "deer hunter" (鹿狩) or "god hunter" (神狩).


==Trivia==
==Trivia==
* The first and third kanji for Kagari's name mean "flower"/"blossom"/"fabulous" (華) and "jasmine" (莉) respectively. The second (々) is a character indicating that the previous kanji and sound (sometimes voiced) should be repeated. This would make Kagari's name "華華莉".
** "Kagari" could also mean a cross-stitch (縢) or a basket made of bamboo (篝); more obscurely, it could be read as "deer hunter" (鹿狩) or "god hunter" (神狩).
** Kagari is one of only two characters with a "々" in her name, the other being [[Sasa Yuuki]].
** Kagari being named after a flower matches Matsuri and Tsubaki, who are also named after flowers.
* According to tweets from GAN:
* According to tweets from GAN:
** Kagari was designed in the middle of the story.<ref>https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563951034020536320</ref>
** Kagari was designed in the middle of the story.<ref>https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563951034020536320</ref>
** Her name was taken from the "Kagaribibana", or "cyclamen".<ref>https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563952063189487617</ref>
** Her name was taken from the "kagaribibana", or "cyclamen".<ref>https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563952063189487617</ref>
*** In the Japanese language of flowers, the kagaribibana can represent different things depending on the colour. Red kagaribibana represent jealousy (note that Kagari's eyes and soul gem are red-coloured, and her theme colour is purple, which is made from red) and pink kagaribibana represent shyness (note that Kagari's soul gem is also a shade of pink, and her theme colour, purple, is a colour similar to pink).<ref>http://hanakotoba.mimoza.jp/name-k/kagaribibana.html</ref>
** She is the only main character with only a katakana name in-story because GAN could not find an opportunity to put her kanji name in.<ref>https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563664234563657728</ref>
** She is the only main character with only a katakana name in-story because GAN could not find an opportunity to put her kanji name in.<ref>https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563664234563657728</ref>
* Kagari is the only major ''Suzune'' character without a character profile.
* Kagari is the only major ''Suzune'' character without a character profile.
* Kagari is never referred to in the Japanese text by an honorific, only ever by her first or full name. This does not include Matsuri calling her "onee-chan", which means "big sister" and doesn't use Kagari's name.


==Gallery==
==Gallery==
===Official art===
===Official art===
<gallery>
<gallery>
File:Volume3kagaribonus.png|Volume 3 cover and bonus Kagari image.
File:Kagarigan.jpg|From [http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=48608783 「twitterまとめ」] by [http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1294530 GAN.]
File:Kagarigan.jpg|From [http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=48608783 「twitterまとめ」] by [http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=1294530 GAN.]
File:Volume3kagaribonus.png|Volume 3 cover and bonus Kagari image.
File:CEzHcvfUIAAZ4eF.jpg|Art of Kagari in a school uniform from [https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/598072148750508032 GAN's twitter].
File:Ganmatsukaga.jpg|Art of the Hinata twins from [https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/660715413429358593 GAN's twitter.]
File:1446367856813 Kagari Hinata.png|Solo Kagari from [https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/660715413429358593 this official art.]
File:Swimsuitsuzukaga.jpg|Art of Suzune and Kagari in swimsuits from [https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/703862559401611264 GAN's twitter.]
File:Suzune Summer Kagari.png|Art of Kagari in a summer outfit [https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/755710576668516352 GAN's twitter.]
File:EWSabPYU4AIB1gy.jpg|[https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/1253296397723430912 Art from GAN's twitter.]
File:Vol3matsukaga.jpg
File:EspMIATVoAE2Q5g.jpg|[https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/1353978426986618880 Art from GAN's twitter.]
File:Sasa, Himena, Minou, Yuuri.jpg|A drawn by [https://twitter.com/masugitune/status/1370888092094140416 Masugitune] featuring Kagari with [[Sasa Yuuki]], [[Minou]], and [[Yuuri]].
</gallery>
</gallery>


Line 115: Line 127:
File:Kagaribow.png|Kagari bowing.
File:Kagaribow.png|Kagari bowing.
File:Kagariback.png|The back of Kagari's head. Note how the shape of her hair vaguely resembles a butterfly.
File:Kagariback.png|The back of Kagari's head. Note how the shape of her hair vaguely resembles a butterfly.
File:Kagarivision.png|Kagari using her powers in a vision.
</gallery>
</gallery>


==External links==
==External links==
* {{pixiv_tag|日向カガリ}}. Note that Kagari's tag on pixiv uses her katakana first name (カガリ).
* {{pixiv_tag|日向カガリ}} (Katakana name tag)
* {{booru_tag|danbooru|hinata_kagari}}
* {{pixiv_tag|日向華々莉}} (Kanji name tag)


==References==
==References==
<references></references>
<references />


[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Articles needing work]]
[[Category:Magical girls]]

Revision as of 18:14, 27 December 2021

This section may contain major spoilers!

Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with all the latest media released.
Kagari Hinata
1446367856813 Kagari Hinata.png
Japanese Name 日向 華々莉

Kagari Hinata (日向 華々莉 Hinata Kagari) is one of the main characters in Puella Magi Suzune Magica. She is the main antagonist and mastermind of the events of the story.

General info

Physical features

  • Age: 13 (elder twin of Matsuri)
  • Eye colour: Red
  • Hair colour: Dark purple

Other

  • Soul gem: Tyrian purple or red gem in the center of a butterfly on her chest. The top of her soul gem, in its egg form, shows a butterfly.
  • Weapon: Sword; chakrams
  • Wish: "I want Suzune to experience the same suffering that Tsubaki did."
  • Japanese pronoun: Watashi (私)
  • Known relatives: Matsuri Hinata, her younger twin sister; Tsubaki Mikoto, her deceased nanny/surrogate mother; her father and her deceased mother.

Personality

Kagari is a girl with a playfully cruel nature, taking delight in teasing and tormenting her targets, to the point of sadism. She is also downright callous, showing no remorse when torturing or murdering people nor for any of the deaths she is indirectly responsible for, and shows no empathy for others. Kagari is a force to be reckoned with when she turns angry, often lashing out violently; she is also capable of holding extreme grudges, like the one she holds towards Suzune Amano for killing her caretaker, Tsubaki Mikoto, and will do anything she can to get revenge — even turning herself into a witch, if it means she can take out her targets.

In the past, Kagari is seen as more serious and easily irritated; this might come from having to take care of her sister, Matsuri Hinata, who was blind at the time. In the present, Kagari appears to have a soft spot for her, choosing to knock her unconscious and carry her to her bedroom rather than kill her like she did with Arisa; however, Kagari doesn't hesitate to try and kill Matsuri when she gets in the way of her goals.

Story

Backstory

Not much is known of Kagari's home-life. She had a sister, Matsuri Hinata, an unnamed father, and a caretaker named Tsubaki Mikoto. Not much is given on how Kagari relates to her family before the events of Suzune. In a flashback, her father relates that Kagari was an anxious child.

Kagari is the twin sister of Matsuri. Tsubaki often visited Kagari's home, taking care of her and Matsuri, and often told them stories. Tsubaki disappeared one day (due to becoming a witch), leaving the twins saddened, and Kagari also enraged. When approached by Kyubey after the disappearance of Tsubaki, Matsuri almost immediately wished to be able to see. The three began to search the town for Tsubaki, but failed to find her; however, they did find Suzune, after following the sound of the bell on the pendant that she was wearing - a pendant that originally belonged to Tsubaki. Kagari was confused by Suzune wearing Tsubaki's pendant, and apparently went home sometime after this discovery; Matsuri, however, followed Suzune to where she was hiding in despair near a house, and asked to become friends with her.

At some point after this, Kagari, now a magical girl, confronted Matsuri and erased her memories of Suzune as a part of her revenge gambit. Despite this, Suzune would later transfer into the same school and class that Matsuri attended.

As Matsuri makes no mentions nor allusions to Kagari during the story before volume 3, it can be inferred Kagari also erased herself from Matsuri's memory; the same can be said for memories of Tsubaki. It can also be inferred that Matsuri's father had his memories erased as well.

Kagari during Suzune Magica

Kagari is not seen until the end of chapter 9 and her face is not fully revealed until the end of chapter 10 after she kills Arisa before Arisa is able to kill Suzune. Kagari laughs and snaps her fingers, showing Suzune her own past in a vision. After the truth of Kagari's memory-manipulation magic is revealed, Suzune yells at her to stop until she's in tears. Suzune then attacks at Kagari and a fight ensues. During the fight, Kagari messes with Suzune's mind, causing her to see Tsubaki being slashed rather than herself. Just as Kagari is about to kill Suzune, Matsuri appears and deflects the attack. The girls attack at Kagari but are unable to land any blows thanks to Kagari's manipulative magic. Kyubey appears and guides Matsuri into using her ability to track Kagari's true position and directs Suzune where to attack. Angered, Kagari turns her attacks on Matsuri but is blasted away by her energy beam. Together they are able to defeat Kagari, but not before Kagari manipulates her own memories and causes herself to become a witch instantly.

Kagari's witch form attacks, Suzune attempts to block the familiars but there are too many and some make it past her. They consume the crying Matsuri and Suzune is devasted. She attacks the familiars once more using Tsubaki's fire magic and slashes the witch in half. The witch regenerates and Suzune realizes her true form is the book the witch stands on. She leaps to attack the book but is consumed by the witch as well. Inside, Suzune meets the witch's true form and destroys it with what remains of her power.

Kagari during Magia Record

See Kagari Hinata in Magia Record

Abilities

Kagari's power is to alter peoples' memories and consciousnesses, as well as her own.

With this magic, she can create illusions. She uses this to change her appearance (as she used this to torment Suzune with an image of Tsubaki), turn invisible, and confuse others by using her magic to appear as someone else (as she confused Matsuri by covering Suzune with an illusion of herself).

She used her memory-altering ability to turn Suzune into a magical girl killer and erase Matsuri's memories of becoming friends with Suzune (though Matsuri's memories start to come back when Kyubey shows her a vision of Suzune's past involving Tsubaki). Kagari can also show other people visions; she uses this power to show Suzune her backstory, her wish and the reason why she became a magical girl, and the start of her revenge gambit.

Kagari also uses her mind-manipulation magic to greatly speed up her movements (being able to stab a high-speed Arisa, for example) and even turn herself into a witch by altering her own memories to speed up the despair process.

She can also knock someone unconscious temporarily, an ability she once used on Matsuri.

Observations

  • Kagari has a definite butterfly motif: the back of her hairstyle vaguely resembles a butterfly, the surrounding decoration of her soul gem is a butterfly, her grief seed has butterflies on it, and the symbol that appears when Suzune briefly shows the magic she absorbed to Matsuri is a butterfly.
  • Present Kagari is never seen outside of her magical girl form.
    • She is never seen attending school, nor is she ever seen in a school uniform.
  • The book familiars of Kagari's witch (one of which ate Matsuri) have covers that resemble the design of Tsubaki's magical girl outfit.
  • The outfit of the outer body of Kagari's witch resembles younger Kagari's outfit. The body also seems to be coming out of a book resembling the picture book about a witch that Tsubaki was seen reading to the twins; the body also has long, trailing strands of hair, like the picture book witch's hair.
    • The outer body also resembling a harlequin might refer to Kagari's trickster-like or insincere nature.
  • Kagari is never referred to in the Japanese text by an honorific, only ever by her first or full name. This does not include Matsuri calling her "onee-chan", which means "big sister" and doesn't use Kagari's name.
  • Kagari has a habit of elongating her words at the end of her sentences, and speaking with hearts (♥), especially when talking to Suzune.

Butterfly symbolism

Butterflies have many symbolic meanings in different cultures and lore.

  • Butterflies are generally associated with transformation.
  • Butterflies can also represent death and rebirth.
  • In Japanese lore, butterflies are the personifications of souls; note that Kagari's soul gem is in the center of a butterfly's body, and over her chest as well.
    • The ancient Greek word for butterfly means "soul" or "mind".
  • Two butterflies flying together represents love.
  • People in Devonshire would traditionally rush to kill the first butterfly they see in a year, or else face a year of bad luck.
  • In the Philippines, a lingering black butterfly or moth in the house is taken to mean that someone in the family has died or will soon die.
  • Kagari's butterfly motif might refer to the phenomenon known as the "butterfly effect", referring to how a small change in time leads to large consequences; Kagari in fact invokes the butterfly effect by altering Suzune's memories slightly and erasing Matsuri's of Suzune, changing their paths in life significantly and with disastrous consequences.

Etymology

  • The first and third kanji for Kagari's name mean "flower"/"blossom"/"fabulous" (華) and "jasmine" (莉) respectively.
    • In the Japanese language of flowers, jasmine represents kindness and gracefulness.[1]
  • The second (々) is a character indicating that the previous kanji and sound (sometimes voiced) should be repeated. This would make Kagari's name "華華莉".
    • Kagari is one of only two characters with a "々" in her name, the other being Sasa Yuuki.
  • Kagari being named after a flower matches Matsuri and Tsubaki, who are also named after flowers.
  • "Kagari" could also mean a cross-stitch (縢) or a basket made of bamboo (篝); more obscurely, it could be read as "deer hunter" (鹿狩) or "god hunter" (神狩).

Trivia

  • According to tweets from GAN:
    • Kagari was designed in the middle of the story.[2]
    • Her name was taken from the "kagaribibana", or "cyclamen".[3]
      • In the Japanese language of flowers, the kagaribibana can represent different things depending on the colour. Red kagaribibana represent jealousy (note that Kagari's eyes and soul gem are red-coloured, and her theme colour is purple, which is made from red) and pink kagaribibana represent shyness (note that Kagari's soul gem is also a shade of pink, and her theme colour, purple, is a colour similar to pink).[4]
    • She is the only main character with only a katakana name in-story because GAN could not find an opportunity to put her kanji name in.[5]
  • Kagari is the only major Suzune character without a character profile.

Gallery

Official art

Manga pages

  • Kagari, while stabbing Arisa.

    Kagari, while stabbing Arisa.

  • Kagari's sword. There isn't a very clear shot of it.

    Kagari's sword. There isn't a very clear shot of it.

  • Kagari's chakrams.

    Kagari's chakrams.

  • Kagari's witch. Note how it resembles a harlequin coming from a book.

    Kagari's witch. Note how it resembles a harlequin coming from a book.

  • The inside of the body of Kagari's witch. The outer body seems to be a puppet of sorts, with this silhouette of Kagari being the core or true body.

    The inside of the body of Kagari's witch. The outer body seems to be a puppet of sorts, with this silhouette of Kagari being the core or true body.

  • Kagari's grief seed. Note the butterflies.

    Kagari's grief seed. Note the butterflies.

  • Kagari's first appearance. Note how her face above the nose and her twintails are not seen.

    Kagari's first appearance. Note how her face above the nose and her twintails are not seen.

  • Kagari reveals herself to Matsuri in her second appearance.

    Kagari reveals herself to Matsuri in her second appearance.

  • Kagari murdering Arisa.

    Kagari murdering Arisa.

  • Kagari toying with Suzune.

    Kagari toying with Suzune.

  • Kagari blocking one of Matsuri's attacks.

    Kagari blocking one of Matsuri's attacks.

  • Suzune holding Kagari at sword-point.

    Suzune holding Kagari at sword-point.

  • Suzune killing a fake Kagari...

    Suzune killing a fake Kagari...

  • ...which changes into a fake Tsubaki to torment Suzune.

    ...which changes into a fake Tsubaki to torment Suzune.

  • Young Kagari.

    Young Kagari.

  • Young Kagari with her hair down.

    Young Kagari with her hair down.

  • Kagari bowing.

    Kagari bowing.

  • The back of Kagari's head. Note how the shape of her hair vaguely resembles a butterfly.

    The back of Kagari's head. Note how the shape of her hair vaguely resembles a butterfly.

  • Kagari using her powers in a vision.

    Kagari using her powers in a vision.

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanakotoba
  2. ↑ https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563951034020536320
  3. ↑ https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563952063189487617
  4. ↑ http://hanakotoba.mimoza.jp/name-k/kagaribibana.html
  5. ↑ https://twitter.com/oshirase_gan/status/563664234563657728
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