Kirika Kure

This section may contain major spoilers!

Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with all the latest media released.

"Never! I refuse to go back to the way I was!" - Kirika Kure, Chapter 4.

Kirika Kure
File:KirikaColorProfile.png
Japanese Name	呉 キリカ
Age	15
Weapon	Claws

Kirika Kure (呉 キリカ, Kure Kirika) is a character from Puella Magi Oriko Magica. She is a magical girl who has a close relationship with Oriko. She tends to be the secondary protagonist of Oriko Magica installments, though she was the main protagonist of the extra episode Noisy Citrine.

General info

• Eye colour: Yellow, gold, or orange
• Hair colour: Brown
• Soul gem: Yellow, gold, or orange oval on top of gem; diamond on bottom of gem and magical girl costume
• Japanese pronoun: Watashi (私)

Personality

"Listen up, savior! Do you know what true love is? [...] Love is...an infinity of limitations!" - Kirika Kure, Chapter 3.

Kirika is somewhat rash. Her top priority is her friend, Oriko, and she seems to do anything Oriko asks of her, including killing other magical girls. Kirika appears to be mentally unstable, such as her insistence in having everyone know the difference between a "crush" and "love", as she is willing to devote herself entirely to her love.

She can be moody, and has mood swings from time to time, switching from declarations of love to showing disdain towards everyone but Oriko in the span of moments. She tends to be overly serious when it comes to talking about Oriko and/or love, but often shows childish behavior, such as commenting about how hungry she is during battle or admiring Mami's skills and weapons during their battle. Kirika hates people who call her a 'child', with Oriko being the only exception.

The extra chapter Noisy Citrine reveals more details of her past. Originally a cheerful girl, she became antisocial, timid and quiet after being betrayed by her best friend Erika. Some time later, she met Oriko, so Kirika wanted to be more worthy of the girl's attention by being a different kind of person. This led Kyubey to grant her a more outgoing personality. Her current personality is the result of her wish, which was to "become a different [Kirika]".

Story

Kirika's magical girl form, from Sadness Prayer.

Kirika in Oriko Magica

"This witch must've been an awful old bag to interfere with our tea!" - Kirika Kure, Chapter 3.

She is a school friend of Oriko. Though they went to different schools, Oriko was one of the only people to ever be nice to Kirika, and this, in addition to Oriko's charisma, leads her to be very attached to her.

Kirika's first appearance is at the end of Oriko Magica chapter 2, where she is seen talking to Oriko on her cell phone. Oriko asks her to do something, and Kirika says that she would never turn down one of her requests. She asks that her friend give her a little time to do it, though, as she is covered in blood and wants to clean up.

While in Oriko's father's rose garden, the two prepare to have tea. Kirika names all the different kinds of roses she sees in an attempt to impress Oriko, but is told that it was Oriko's father, Hisaomi Mikuni, who liked roses. Kirika says there's no point knowing anything that doesn't pertain to her friend, causing Oriko to comment that such thinking would make Kirika an ignorant child.

A witch attacks them, and as Kirika fights it, Oriko prepares the tea. Kirika comments about the witch daring to try to come between herself and Oriko. Kirika ends up smashing their table and ruining it, so the two just sit together after the battle, Kirika resting in Oriko's lap.

Later, she loses something important: a stuffed toy she wears on her hip that was a gift from Oriko. Mami finds and returns the toy to Kirika, who claims that Mami is her "savior." As thanks, Kirika treats Mami to a crepe. When Mami asks about the present, and makes the mistake of asking if Kirika likes the person who gave it to her. Kirika's attitude changes swiftly. She says that Mami throws such words around too easily, and that real love is "an infinity of limitations" While saying this, Kirika is suddenly surrounded and attacked by a witch. Mami resolves to save Kirika, but Kirika is fine. She says that she devoted herself to "her," meaning Oriko, and is willing to even kill her savior for that cause. When she transforms and attacks her, Mami realizes that this is the black magical girl responsible for the recent murders of the other magical girls in the city. Kirika confirms this. Mami defends herself as best she can, but Kirika is too fast to shoot or restrain with her ribbons. Eventually, Kirika wears her down until Mami is wounded on her leg. Mami manages to escape into the witch's barrier, away from Kirika, and sets a trap for her based on the deduction that Kirika's speed is actually an illusion. Kirika is actually slowing her enemies down with a spell, letting her seem faster and more agile than she really is. Mami shoots at her, but Kirika slows it down and dodges it. She didn't account for it to go off after it had past it, however, and the blow wounds her back (where her Soul Gem sits) quite deeply. Mami demands an explanation for the murders, but Kirika refuses to give one. Mami prepares to shoot Kirika through the head, but is stopped when Oriko appears and causes a huge explosion. In the confusion, Oriko saved Kirika and took her back home to be healed.

As Kirika searched for her target, she remembered her first meeting with Oriko, and how she was formerly a quiet loner who had no friends. Oriko helped Kirika collect her things that had spilled onto the ground. Kirika tracked Oriko down after that, but was too afraid and timid to call out to her, thinking that there's no way Oriko would remember her. She wished to "change [herself]", a wish that is granted by Kyubey and changes her personality quite drastically. When she tells Oriko the truth, her friend responds that what Kirika's done in unforgivable and she'll have to make it up to Oriko. Kirika agrees, even as they both realize how little time is left when Kirika's cracked soul gem is revealed.

Kirika and Oriko take over Mitakihara Middle School's broadcasting room some time later, sending out a short message to the students that tells Mami and Homura that this will be the final battle. A witch's barrier then mysteriously forms around the school.

Oriko and Kirika are confronted by Homura at the heart of the barrier world. Kirika transforms into a witch, revealing that the barrier is in fact hers. Even as a witch, she helps Oriko attack Homura, who has been joined by Mami, Yuma, and Kyoko. She is defeated by them and killed. Oriko's soul gem is close to exhaustion and before she dies, she uses a shard of Kirika's witch body, hitting Kyubey, and dies.

Afterwards, in the afterlife, Kirika meets Oriko in an illusion of the Mitakihara school corridor. Kirika notices that Oriko carries a big burden about that and offers to take half of her burden. Then Oriko joins Kirika, holding hands in what is implied to be the afterlife or another timeline since Kirika vaguely remembers Oriko or the previous events.

Kirika in Noisy Citrine

After making a contract with Kyubey and becoming a magical girl, Kirika goes to the train station to meet Oriko, feeling that she is more worthy of her. However, after Oriko appears on the station, Kirika finds herself unable to do it, realizing that despite contracting with Kyubey and changing her personality, she still doesn't have the courage to talk to Oriko. The next day, she tries to retry her meeting her Oriko but she runs into her ex-friend Erika on the way. Upon remembering how she was betrayed by her in the past, which caused their friendship to crack, Kirika pushes her and runs away.

Kirika and Erika meet later when Erika has been possessed by a witch. Kirika stops Erika from hanging herself, but Erika lashes out against Kirika, wanting to die, believing Kirika still hates her. It is revealed that Erika had shoplifted out of mixed feelings from her parents' divorce, and pushed the blame onto Kirika, before leaving Mitakihara without a word. This led Kirika to become distant from others.

Kirika, however, saves Erika anyway and says that she has become a different Kirika, before defeating the witch, thus forgiving Erika. This incident seems to give Kirika the courage to confess to Oriko.

The ending of Noisy Citrine implies that either Oriko or Erika may be Kirika's most precious friend, but leaves it ambiguous.

Kirika in Symmetry Diamond

Kirika's casual outfit in Symmetry Diamond.

Kirika's role in Symmetry Diamond is more minor compared to Oriko's or Yuma's. This version of Kirika seems far more stable than Oriko Magica's Kirika, however, likely since she is not hunting magical girls, but she is still as excitable and spontaneous as before.

In Symmetry Diamond, Kirika has teamed up with Oriko to defeat Walpurgisnacht. Because Oriko's magic is being quickly consumed by her uncontrollable visions and she does not have much fighting ability, Kirika hunts down grief seeds for her.

Kirika is knocked out by Sasa after being surprised by her "impossible" magic. She later reappears to save Oriko from being killed by Sasa and subsequently destroys Sasa's facade, before helping Oriko to bring down Sasa and her witches. She helps Oriko find Yuma a new family in the epilogue.

It is revealed in chapter 2 that Kirika constantly texts Oriko during break time at school. This leads Oriko to worry when Kirika doesn't send her text messages due to being knocked out.

Kirika is last seen in The Last Agate going up against Walpurgisnacht with Oriko.

Kirika in Sadness Prayer

Sadness Prayer explains how Oriko and Kirika's first meeting really went; Kirika ambushed Oriko after she fought a witch, and the two duelled. Oriko then outsmarted Kirika in an attack, but didn't end up killing her, much to Kirika's surprise. The two then teamed up to find a way to defeat Kriemhild Gretchen.

Later, Kirika kills Oriko's school friend Komaki over a grief seed, without really knowing who she really was. Afterwards, she goes into a panic, fearing Oriko's retribution, but Oriko forgives her.

Witch form

File:Kirika witch.png

Kirika as a witch

Kirika's witch form is a long, towering creature mostly composed of female torsos. She wears a hat with an eyeball perched on it, and is armed with two long scythes. Like she could as a magical girl, she has the ability to slow down her opponents.

Her minions are blob-shaped creatures with hats. Large maws open up on their bodies to devour victims.

This witch is known as Margot by fans due to some speculation based on the background of her barrier.

Powers, Weapons & Abilities

Kirika's weapons are long, curved claws worn on her wrists and hands. There are three blades on each hand usually, though she can manifest more and have 5 on each hand. With these, she is able to slice open her opponents with six separate cuts, as well as tear apart restraining magic like Mami's ribbon.

She also exhibits the ability to slow her enemies down, giving the illusion of her having exceptional acrobatic agility and speed. Kirika's ability can also be used on herself, as she shows when she slows down her own transformation into a witch. It's notable that when she first met Oriko she was gathering her fallen belongings while being told by bystanders to hurry up; it's possible her powers were derived from this event, as she wished to change her personality in order to befriend Oriko.

Noisy Citrine revealed that she has named two of her attacks. "Stepping Fang" is an attack in which Kirika releases her claws and throws them, in order to hit targets she cannot reach herself in time. "Vampire Fang" is a powered-up version of her normal attack, able to split a witch in half with one hit.

Observations

• Kirika is seen reading yuri manga in Noisy Citrine.
• Some fans have noted similarities between Kirika and Touhou Project character Renko Usami.

Speculation

• It is a common speculation that Kirika is the magical girl form of one of the witches seen in the anime. Patricia has been suggested as a possibility, based off Kirika's uniform on the cover of volume 2 (Note also that Patricia uses threads; Oriko's name means "weaver girl"). This particular idea has been debunked. Others, pointing to the sleeves of her magical girl outfit, suggest that she may be involved in the creation of Walpurgisnacht.
  • However, Kirika becomes a witch in the second volume, and her witch form does not resemble any of the witches seen in the anime. It's still possible that she is involved in the creation of Walpurgisnacht, which is a combination of witches.
    • On the other hand the name of Kirika's witch form is unknown, and there is a precedent for witches having dramatically different alternate forms (see Charlotte).
    • Debunked in Symmetry Diamond.
• Some fans suspect that Kirika's witch form is named Margot, from the signs that can be seen around her barrier.

Trivia

• Noisy Citrine, which focuses on Kirika, revealed that her soul gem is citrine-colored, thus the title.
• Her last name is written with kanji meaning "give" or "do something for".
• Her first name is written in katakana which has no particular meaning. When written in kanji, it can be read many different ways, ex. "fog fire".
• When images of Kirika first surfaced, many fans thought she was Sayaka.
• Kirika and Oriko are exactly 121 days and 3 hours apart in age. Kirika is the younger of the two.
• Kirika commented that she often skipped school, which could explain her absence in the anime.

Gallery

Official art

• 

  Kirika and Oriko in their school uniforms, showing that Kirika is a Mitakihara Middle School student.

Manga Pages and Panels

• KirikaProfileImage01.png
• 

  Kirika dressed in school uniform

• KirikaAsPuellaMagi01.png

  Kirika after her transformation into a magical girl.

• 

  Kirika's weapons

• 

  Kirika's weapons, expanded to have 5 claws.

• 

  Kirika using a spell that slows down her enemies.

• KirikaWish.png

  Kirika's wish.

• Noisy Citrine Preview01.jpeg

  Kirika as she appears in Noisy Citrine.

• 

  Kirika as a child with her friend, Erika.

• 

  Kirika fighting a witch.

• 

Madoka Magica Online

• 

  Kirika closeup as in Madoka Magica Online

• 

  Kirika's full appearance as in Madoka Magica Online

Fanart

This section contains fanart images

Everything in the following fan gallery is created, or the comments accompanying them are created, for entertainment value and should not be confused with actual canon events of the Puella Magi franchise.

• 

  Fanmade card of Kirika's witch form.

• Oriko Magica Minion Card 5.png

  Fanmade card of Kirika's minions.

• Kirika stalking now in color.jpg

  A fan-coloring of Kirika following Oriko.

• Black mage Kirika Kure art.jpg
• 
• Kirikafanartb&w.png
• Kirika and Oriko bad.png
• 
• Kure kirika fanart faithful dog.jpg
• Oriko Kiria tea party.jpg
• OrikoKirikaGundamparody01.jpeg
• KirikaAndWitchFanart.jpeg
• KirikaPowerUpFanart.jpeg
• OrikoKirikaSmilingInUniformsFanart.jpeg
• Kirika witch form RIP fanart.jpg
• KirikaOrikoTransformedFanart.jpeg
• KirikaOrikoTransformedHugging.png
• KiriKo-And Im home.png
• 28e1697303adc54f5c0d6d48ee4fad39.png
• Oriko kirika fanart roses garden.jpg

External links

• Kirika Kure at Pixiv image repository (Japanese)
• Kirika Kure at Danbooru image repository (NSFW)