Kyubey

Gender: Genderless, often referred to as male (official translated sources)

Age: Unknown

Appearance: Kyubey is a small, cat-like creature. It has white fur and four ears, one pair representing the average cat and the other similar to those of a rabbit. It has red eyes and golden rings around its long ears. At the bottom of the ears, it appears that it is separated into three, along with a pink-white fade and three red ovals. These ears seem to be what turns the girls into Magical Girls, as seen when it makes Sayaka Miki's Soul Gem. It has a large tail and pointy ears, the inside of them being pinkish peach color. On its back is a hot pink egg-shaped oval that can flip open to remove Grief Seed fragments.

In the anime, Kyubey has not been evidenced to bleed, however, when injured, it has red matter underneath its fur. When it is shot by Homura several times, Kyubey's body does not seem to contain organs, only solid red. Whether this is artistic censorship or an actual attribute of Kyubey's anatomy is yet unknown.

In the anime, Kyubey's body often makes noises like a plush toy when squeezed or pressed against, suggesting that it is soft and cuddly, at least physically.

Personality: Kyubey is an Incubator/Messenger of Magic. Because of this, it (like their race) cannot exhibit emotions of any kind. As a result, Kyubey often appears to be cold, arrogant, calculating and scheming; traits that make them appear villainous in the series. Initially, Kyubey appears to be extremely calm, innocent and enthusiastic to help the Puella Magi (Magical Girls) in their quest, offering advice where applicable. However, as more of its true motive is revealed, either by itself or others, Kyubey becomes progressively more passive and observatory in manner (although this could be because he has no advice left to offer).

Despite appearing as an individual, Kyubey and the rest of the Incubators do not seem to have a distinct sense of self. On the occasions where a Kyubey is killed, another will step out and continue to converse as if nothing had occurred.

The Incubators are an emotionless race, but seek to exploit the thermodynamics-violating emotions of the human race to produce energy and prevent the Heat Death of the Universe, the ultimate end of the universe itself. The fact that the system they use to harvest this power-- Magical girls and Witches-- would be considered horrendously evil by humans is inconsequential to the Incubators. They choose this method because it is the most expedient to their goals. No action they take is ultimately malicious, as they do not themselves experience or understand the emotions required to act in such a way. Everything about Kyubey, however, is implied to make it as appealing as possible to the Magical Girls (by leaving out potentially traumatizing details about it), as well as emulating behaviors and 'emotions' for the same purpose.

This lack of understanding ultimately results in Kyubey being unable to predict or understand the actions of the Magical Girls or the results of those actions, despite them being obvious to the girls themselves.

Hobby/Occupation: Granting wishes to young girls, turning them into magical girls. Countering entropy and preventing the heat death of the universe by collecting energy from the emotions of magical girls when they turn into witches (primary goal).

Biography: Kyubey is a creature who makes contracts with young girls to turn them into "magical girls" so that they can fight witches. In this process, the girl makes a wish and Kyubey grants it, but in return, the girl's soul is put in a small gem, which is also the source of their magic. If destroyed, the magic will disappear and the girl will die. If it is corrupted with darkness from grief, the gem will turn into a grief seed and the girl will turn into a witch. This is the ultimate fate of all Magical girls.

Much like the rest of its race, Kyubey does not possess any human emotion. As seen in a later episode, Kyubey refers to magical girls' bodies as empty shells while explaining why Sayaka "died" when separated from her soul gem. This may also be why Homura Akemi got angry when Madoka Kaname threw it. Kyoko Sakura claims that it tricked and turned them into zombies, though it wasn't its intention. It believed that it was doing a good thing, seeing as it was convenient that they were invincible.

Despite its emotionless attitude, it apparently likes hot baths and human food, as seen in episode 2. It is also able to bleed, though it can reproduce its body and eat the old one. This body reproduction ability can be used whenever Kyubey's body is too damaged to be used or simply at an inconvenient state. (For example, is shown covered in bullet holes from being shot at.) It has an unlimited amount of these extra "bodies" that could be used, but it says that it would be more convenient to not use them so much.

Additional Information: ● Kyubey, also known as the Messenger of Magic, is a cat-like creature featured in Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica anime and manga series as well as several subsequent works.

● Kyubey's name comes from the word Incubator (インキュベーター?).Episode 08 Incubator comes from the Latin word "incubare" which means "to lie".

Prior to the series' premiere, Urobuchi pointed out that Kyu (キュゥ?) came from the English word "cute" which was proven to be a lie. Kyu however, matches Juubey's Juu, which mean "nine" and "ten" respectively.

● Kyubey's appearance and name share an affinity with Kyuubi, which are mythical Japanese foxes with nine tails. In folklore, Kyuubi is known to possess men and have them do the Kyuubi's bidding, a trait identical to Kyubey's desire to collect energy from Magical Girls.

● Kyubey throughout the world and eras is known with various other names such as White God, Lord Cubius, White Angel.

● Kyubey is fond of human food and hot baths.

● Pointed out by Kyubey in the second drama CD and Gen Urobuchi in the Blu-ray audio commentary, Kyubey is genderless. However, official translated sources address Kyubey as male.

● According to NewType April 2011 issue, Shinbo wanted to make Kyubey look cute, but the staff ended up making Kyubey look scary.

Relationships: ● Madoka Kaname Madoka and Kyubey used to share a bond because Kyubey always saw a great potential in Madoka and wanted to make her a Magical Girl. As the story was unfolding, she hated him more and more even when she made the contract to become Ultimate Madoka.

● Sayaka Miki Sayaka is very protective of Kyubey in the beginning and likes him a lot. However, after finding the truth about Soul Gems, Sayaka starts being aggressive towards him and has even come to a point to stab him.

● Mami Tomoe Mami is very good friends with Kyubey, at least in most timelines as long as she doesn't know the dark secrets of being a Magical Girl. She takes good care of Kyubey and is very protective of him towards Homura.

● Homura Akemi Homura dislikes Kyubey to no end. No matter the timeline, she will always attempt to kill him and prevent Kyubey to form contacts with Madoka and to a lesser degree with Sayaka. Kyubey usually comes to Homura whenever there is something new he has discovered or wants to talk to someone aside of Madoka.

● Iroha Tamaki Like many other Magical Girls, Iroha, prior to finding out the secrets of a Magical Girl's life, used to be good acquaintances with Kyubey, contacting each other on a daily basis. Though after Iroha found out the dark secrets of a Magical Girl and seeing Kuroe transforming into a Witch, she despises Kyubey endlessly, to the point that she even shot him.

● Touka Satomi It is described by many characters that Touka and Kyubey are really alike in terms of ideology. Though Touka does despise Incubator like everyone else because she knows the secrets of a Magical Girl's life.

Powers and Abilities: Kyubey has a wide variety of magical abilities which he uses in his mission to counteract entropy.

● Telepathic communication Kyubey communicates with Puella Magi and potential Puella Magi through telepathic communication, as opposed to verbal. Exposure to this apparently enables Puella Magi and potential Puella Magi to also communicate telepathically amongst each other when Kyubey is nearby.

● Invisibility Kyubey is invisible to everyone, except for Puella Magi and candidates. Normal humans do not seem to notice his presence at all, just as he never communicates with them.

● Teleportation Kyubey has been evidenced to cross long distances in impossibly short time spans, the method for which is yet unknown, but can be assumed to be teleportation. In episode 10, he also fades into reality above Homura, which may be the visible manifestation of him teleporting.

● Wish granting Kyubey can grant the wishes of young girls, in the same manner a Genie would. Unlike most genies, Kyubey does his best to grant the wishes accurately, without twisting the wording, and wishes that end up backfiring do so for factors entirely beyond the Incubator's control. Kyubey only allocates one wish per contract. It appears that Kyubey can only grant the wishes of others, since he has never been seen using his reality-warping power to his own ends. Wishes are fueled via the magical potential of the new Puella Magi. Because of this, while Kyubey can grant almost any regular wish, particularly high-impact wishes cannot be granted for most girls.

● Energy conversion/collection Kyubey is able to collect energy from witch transformation and battles through unseen means. In Timeline 6, he collects it when magical girls drop grief seeds into a hatch-like "mouth" that opens in the red oval on his back. How he is able to transport this energy also remains a mystery.

● Soul Gem Creation Kyubey is capable of rending young girls' souls from their bodies and placing them within small egg-shaped gemstones called soul gems. This makes the newly formed Puella Magi capable of transformation into their "magical girl form", granting increased agility, strength, endurance, pain threshold, conjuring of magical weaponry and other magical abilities. Although this process is invaluable to allow the girls to fight without being overwhelmed by pain, Kyubey tries to avoid mentioning fact that it involves separation of soul from body, as it tends to be traumatic to the Puella Magi. It is unknown whether Kyubey can create a Soul Gem at will, or whether a contract must first be formed.

● Replication After being killed, another identical Kyubey will appear nearby and consume the remains of his predecessor if possible. This duplicate appears to retain most, if not all the knowledge of the last one. This may suggest a "hive mind" or cloning process. It has been stated that Kyubey "instantaneously generates a replacement body out of the surrounding mana". The ability may reference the saying "cats have nine lives", as Kyubey resembles a cat.

● Soul Gem Stimulation As seen in episode 7, Kyubey can create impulses of certain feelings on a soul gem simply by touching it. In Sayaka's case, he emulates a pike (probably mimicking Kyoko's) impaling Sayaka's stomach.

● Soul Gem Purification Jubey, another Incubator, has been shown in the spinoff comics to be able to purify Soul Gems. Kyubey likely has the same ability.

● Advanced magical technology The Incubators are stated to be a highly advanced alien race. They are obviously capable of space travel. The Inhibition Field seen in Rebellion movie is an example of their technology. Since they are not overly hostile to humanity and do not need to defend themselves if attacked, preferring to regenerate in a new body, it is unknown whether the Incubators dispose of any weaponry or offensive magic.