Kagari Hinata

Kagari Hinata
Japanese Name	日向華々莉
Age	Unknown; older than Matsuri
Weapon	Sword; chakrams

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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

Eye colour: Red
Hair colour: Dark purple
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.
Wish: "I want Suzune to experience the same suffering that Tsubaki did."
Japanese pronoun: Watashi (私)
Known relatives: Matsuri Hinata, her younger sister; Tsubaki Mikoto, her deceased 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

Kagari during Suzune Magica

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.

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.
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 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.

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:
- Kagari was designed in the middle of the story.^[1]
- Her name was taken from the "kagaribibana", or "cyclamen".^[2]
  - 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).^[3]
  - Kagari's name also contains the character for "jasmine", which in the Japanese language of flowers represents kindness and gracefulness.^[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

Volume 3 cover and bonus Kagari image.
From 「twitterまとめ」 by GAN.
Art of Kagari in a school uniform from GAN's twitter.
Art of the Hinata twins from GAN's twitter.
Solo Kagari from this official art.
Art of Suzune and Kagari in swimsuits from GAN's twitter.
Art of Kagari in a summer outfit GAN's twitter.

Manga pages

Kagari, while stabbing Arisa.
Kagari's sword. There isn't a very clear shot of it.
Kagari's chakrams.
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.
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 reveals herself to Matsuri in her second appearance.
Kagari murdering Arisa.
Kagari toying with Suzune.
Kagari blocking one of Matsuri's attacks.
Suzune holding Kagari at sword-point.
Suzune killing a fake Kagari...
...which changes into a fake Tsubaki to torment Suzune.
Young Kagari.
Young Kagari with her hair down.
Kagari bowing.
The back of Kagari's head. Note how the shape of her hair vaguely resembles a butterfly.
Kagari using her powers in a vision.