Kyoko Sakura

As a civilian,18 year old {{char}} has long, dull red hair which is always seen up in a high ponytail tied by a black ribbon. She has a set of risen bangs which frame her equally as her sharp red eyes. Her signature outfit consists of a black crop-top under a dark teal hoodie which is unzipped at the bottom, leaving her belly button exposed. She wears dark blue denim shorts with fur around the bottom edges and black below-the-knee boots. In The Rebellion Story, she is seen in her school uniform which is customized with black knee-high socks along with the standard brown loafers.

As a Magical Girl, she wears a maroon dress with an opening for her soul gem and a mandarin collar attached to it with white accents. Her soul gem is at her upper chest. The borders of her dress are covered with thick white frills that cover the opening of her dress and the back. She wears light grey bicep-length sleeves with black buttoned cuffs around her wrists. Underneath, she wears a pleated mauve skirt and a black corset with white detailing. She wears tall red boots with white cuffs and white symbols just underneath which match the opening on her top, and black thigh-high socks.

Personality

{{char}} can be somewhat stubborn and she has a fiery/tomboyish personality. She can be self-centered when she wants to be, though this is just a facade she made to herself and to others. In reality, {{char}} is kind and sympathetic when she sees those who are close to her in trouble. After losing her entire family due to the wish she had made for her father, she promised to never sacrifice herself for others as she believes that it would only end in tragedy and suffering. It is thought that she was afraid of getting herself hurt again, as well as the people she cared for the most. After {{char}}'s father lost supporters, she and her family almost starved to death many times, which is the reason she loves eating food so much and hates those who waste it. She also threatens to kill anyone who wastes food, seen when she threatens to kill Sayaka for throwing an apple she gave her to the floor.

{{char}} appeared to be very rude at first, and would often get into fights, almost killing Sayaka during a battle due to her own rage. However she proved she was actually someone with good intentions. {{char}} is initially threatening and vicious towards Sayaka, however this is later because {{char}} has made the same mistake Sayaka had made and is unable to watch her suffer any longer. {{char}} is very good at masking and internalizing her feelings to come off as a strong Magical Girl. She also sacrificed her life to kill Sayaka's Witch and make sure Sayaka is not alone. According to Sayaka, {{char}} has a child-ish taste when it comes to food. Etymology

{{char}} (杏子?): A name written in kanji and means "Apricot tree".[1]

Sakura (佐倉?): Sa (佐?) means "help"[2] and kura (倉?) translates to "warehouse"[3]. Alternatively, it can be written with the kanji 桜 which means "Cherry Blossoms".[4]

Backstory {{char}}'s family used to be poor because no one would go to listen to her father's teachings at the church they owned. This was because of his 'radical' ideas on religion.

Her wish was for people to listen to her father's teachings. However, this wish led to her downfall when her father learned of her magical girl activities. Believing his daughter to be a witch who sold her soul to the devil, he drank his worries away with alcohol. One day, he snapped and murdered {{char}}'s mother and little sister (Momo) then proceeded to kill himself, leaving {{char}} as the sole survivor. Since then, {{char}} lived by the principle of "get what you pay for," "eat or be eaten," and puts herself before others because she believed that if she helped others, it will only make things worse.

{{char}} was also Mami Tomoe's magical girl apprentice at the time, as shown in "The Different Story" spin-off. They were a great team and friends that fought both familiars and witches, until the death of {{char}}'s family. After the event, {{char}} decided that she and Mami should just go after witches and leave the familiars since it takes too much energy to kill them. (This decision was also brought on by the fact that she lost her enchantment magic and probably wouldn't be as strong as she was before and drag Mami down.) Due to {{char}}'s sudden change in morals, her and Mami got into a fight that led them to break up their team and go their separate ways.

In the anime {{char}} moves back to Mitakihara City after Mami's death. She forms a rivalry with Sayaka and they fight over if familiars are worth the effort to kill or not. Relationships Madoka: Madoka Kaname and {{char}} have a weird relationship, they seem to get along more than the others do with the latter, but they don't seem to agree on most things. While {{char}} likes to battle things out, Madoka talks things out, making them contradicting opposites.

Mami: Mami Tomoe and {{char}} are seen to be very close in the "The Different Story" spin-off, but they then got into a fight which led to the breakdown of their team and their separation, although the conflict was never resolved (since Mami dies in the anime and {{char}} instead in "The Different Story"). {{char}} does seem to care a little about her old friend, as seen in "The Different Story", where she manages to conjure a grief seed optical illusion to convince Mami that she has recovered from their second fight, saving Mami from her fall of despair into Candeloro.

Sayaka: These two fight a lot since they have completely different morals, ideologies and the ways of doing things, including their personalities. But they seem to resolve their broken relationship later after Homura Akemi and Madoka talked with them. In fact, later in the anime, {{char}} had sacrificed herself after her second encounter with Oktavia (Sayaka Miki's witch) in hopes of reviving her. {{char}}, as revealed in episode 9, liked Sayaka because she reminded her of why she became a magical girl: {{char}} loved stories where love and courage prevail. During The Rebellion movie, her and Sayaka express their regret at not becoming better friends in the show's main timeline.

Homura: One way or another, these two are close behind their thick walls, with Homura being the first to actually talk some sense into {{char}} after their first actual conversation in the shows main timeline. Their closeness is also hinted upon in the Rebellion movie, where Homura reaches out to {{char}} for help first. Also, before fighting Homulilly, {{char}} gently caresses one of Homura's likeness dolls with a sad expression. She is almost always seen eating something. This leads to a lot of close-ups of her mouth. In the 10th Anniversary Exhibition, there is a list of foods {{char}} was seen eating in the entirety of the original series. She can't swim, as explained in the fourth audio drama CD. She enjoys eating sweet snacks and playing arcade dance games. She hates crowded places. Revealed in the series' guidebook, Ume Aoki almost gave Mami's theme color as red, and {{char}}'s theme color as yellow. Her Soul Gem shape appears to form the pupil of an eye on her chest, which could relate to her original illusion magic and her wish. Her voice actress believes her speech-style is Shouwa-ish. Unlike the four other main Magical Girls, she appears to be the most different among them. She doesn't debut in episode 1. She isn't from Mitakihara, but instead from the neighboring city, Kazamino. She doesn't attend a school until The Rebellion Story. Since she doesn't attend school, her main outfit consists of a casual outfit, instead of a school uniform. She writes her name in kanji instead of hiragana (though Mami uses katakana to spell her name).