Kyoko Sakura

Kyoko's civilian clothing

Kyoko's magical girl costume

**Kyoko Sakura** is a veteran magical girl who appears to Sayaka and Madoka in episode 5, but not before making a brief appearance at the end of episode 4. She is introduced as an abrasive, fiery, and self-centered girl who fights only for self but later adopts a more sympathetic outlook. Kyoko, in an effort to restore Sayaka to normal after she became a witch, takes Madoka to Oktavia's lair. After taking many hits defending herself and watching Madoka's attempts to reach her prove futile, Kyoko "sacrifices" herself to stop Oktavia and save Madoka. This also allowed Homura, who had just arrived, to rescue Madoka and leave the witch's lair with her. Madoka later revived Kyoko in the alternate timeline, and now she works alongside her as a member of the Puella Magi Holy Quintet.

## Personality

Kyoko first appeared as a magical girl who came from another town to take over Mami's turf after hearing of her death. According to the Drama CD "Farewell Story", Kyoko is from the neighboring city of Kazamino. She was initially introduced as a callous, arrogant magical girl who simply has supernatural powers and had abandoned the premise of justice and benevolence. In short, she didn't hesitate in any sense in using her magic powers for her own selfish benefit and did not mind sacrificing humans to familiars if it meant obtaining a Grief Seed.

Kyoko was the elder daughter of a preacher. Her father started to deviate from regular doctrine and was excommunicated for it - Kyoko used her wish to get her father more followers; however, upon finding this out, her father went insane and killed the entire family except Kyoko, (in Madoka Portable, Kyoko is gone when her father kills her family) then committed suicide by hanging himself from the church ceiling. After her family's death, Kyoko was introduced to the principles of "Dog eat dog world", "you get what you pay for" and "Kill or be killed/Eat or be eaten" and started to live by them. She uses her magic and other abilities mainly for herself due to the belief that helping somebody else will only result in something bad.

Kyoko seems abrasive and selfish but has a somewhat soft side as well. She values food a lot and chastises those who waste it. After her father lost supporters, Kyoko and her family (parents, Kyoko herself, Momo, her little sister) nearly starved. She may have experienced trauma from her family's death giving her an eating disorder of sorts, or erasing the memory of hunger. She is rather tomboyish, with barely any femininity at all if any. This is where she differs from Sayaka's boyishness: whereas Sayaka has a bit of a girlish streak due to the fact that she is interested in romance, Kyoko only demonstrates a nice side, and likes stories with happy endings.

She seems to be very faithful in God as during her final moments in the original timeline getting killed by Oktavia (she does live in the world reconstructed by Madoka, but does not remember her), she prays to God to show her a "happy dream." . It's uncertain what exactly this means, but presumably she is pleading to be shown something happy like her family all being alive and happy, in the form of a dream, or to allow her to die peacefully and ascend to Heaven.

### Powers

Kyoko has the ability to confuse her opponents with illusions as well as split herself into multiple images to confuse opponents in battle. Her special attack is called "Rosso Fantasma" (Red Phantom) but for personal reasons she no longer has her illusory powers during the time of the anime events. Kyoko has also displayed the ability to produce warding spells as well as demonstrated transfigurative magic, such as when she transformed her soul gem into binoculars.

In *Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story*, Kyubey explains that Kyoko's magic is called "enchantment". When Kyoko rejected her power after losing her family, she also rejected her own wish. Kyubey explains that Kyoko's magic is now useless, because her subconscious mind has rejected her own wish and along with it her magical ability. As long has Kyoko's mind rejects or regrets her own wish, she won't be able to use her magic as she did before.