Character Analysis Archive

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Previous: Rui's Eyes of Death

Related reading: Kanagi and the Pursuit of Justice

Alternate Title: The Girl Who Sucked my Mikage savings

Alternate Title: WEW

As is the case with most alts, this will be a comparatively short section, as I have already covered Kanagi in the link above. To avoid redundancy, I will only go over parts of her character that are explored further with her Vampire alt.

To Mourn the Dead

Kanagi's intro sequence, besides being really freaking badass, is extremely telling about her appearance as a vampire. Something that's pretty cool about alts in Magia Record is that it doesn't seem like F4Samurai rolls a die to see who dresses up as Santa or becomes the seductive vampiress of my dreams a vampire, rather, they match a character's background/personality traits. In the case of Kanagi, this alt plays around her role as a leader who has, to great misfortune, experienced many deaths of those following under her, either by the hands of a witch or conflict from other territories.

The first thing we see is Kanagi trapped within a box-shaped confinement, which is based on two primary references. The first is the interpretation of walls as they close in on individuals, something that, in dreams, is explained as one's stress and despair experienced when mourning the deaths of loved ones. To be specific, they represent an individual's ability to cope with such pressures. Walls, in general, are often associated with barriers (physical or emotional) or obstacles, with the act of breaking them down symbolizing overcoming issues. Inversely, walls that close in on an individual can be taken as a failure to or unawareness of coping mechanisms, where they may feel trapped or boxed in.

The next goes all the way back to Bram Stoker's Dracula, one of the few writings that detailed vampires as sleeping withing coffins. The origins are inspired by urban legends involving some mishaps where the living, who have fallen unconscious, were mistook as being dead and buried. During those times, medical technologies weren't too advanced, so there were cases where people ended up being buried alive, as discovered by scratch marks inside coffins and distorted/damaged bodies. Given that this was the time not far from the Salem Witch Trials, it stands to reason that not everyone was very reasonable, so when it was discovered that some of the buried had been alive, there was the belief that said individuals had risen again--much like that of monsters. Kanagi is very clearly alive and struggling as if she were mistaken for dead or...struggling to rise from her coffin.

Because vampires have become so popular, there have been many interpretations of them which...makes things difficult when trying to pinpoint their abilities/characteristics. One common ability is extreme regeneration, which Kanagi demonstrates after being crushed into a pool of cherry kool-aid before regenerating back to a physical, solid form. During reconstruction, we can see her body being built by bat-like entities, something that matches a vampire's ability to manipulate and morph their bodies into different beings (most famously bats).

Further in, it is shown that Kanagi is actually part of a type of music box that is referred to as "Sankyo Seiki", music boxes that would emerge in Japan after World War II. Being a war with major losses, these music boxes could be described as somber in sound, but also appearances. The fancier ones would include a model/figure that spun on the device, which usually took the shape of ballerinas, animals, and small people. They became a form of expression, and given the events of the previous war, were sometimes used as a way to honor the fallen.

The Vampiric Monster of the East

As mentioned earlier, vampires have been depicted wildly different among various cultures and popular culture. Original vampires such as Nosferatu were more monstrous in appearance, a farcry from the much more romanticized variants from series such as the [in]famous Twilight. Vampire Kanagi fits somewhere toward the middle, where we started to see attractive vampires with more reasoning behind certain traits. One such are the eyes of a vampire. The concept of a vampire's eyes changing colors goes back to the 1991 series The Vampire Diaries, where vampires' eyes would become blood-red when hungering for blood. This trend would continue in Night World, The Buffy Series, Frostbitten, and, of course, Twilight. With that in mind, Kanagi is a bit of a strange case, where her exposed left eye is bright red, but her right, as covered by her monocle, looks completely different, although that could be explained by tinted glass.

Recalling her Doppel animation, Kanagi's right eye takes the form of a black cat, something we know as a reference to the character, Sooty Cat. In both versions, her right eye catches fire, and just as her ability would imply, it appears that Kanagi's eyes (particularly her right) stores a ton of magical energy. Stepping back to vampires, their eyes aren't just tells of their hunger and bloodlust, some have the ability to charm, enchant, or hypnotize those within their vision.

Above Kanagi's left breast is what seems like a very brave heart tattoo, but in actuality, is what we would simply refer to as a vampire's mark. In certain depictions, vampires have a habit of marking their targets by scent, bite mark, or a specific brand, particularly those who collect servants. Given Kanagi was being twisted by a vampire-witch, we could assume it had a lack of creativity, deciding to brand Kanagi with something that looks like it came from a bag of wash-off tattoos, but hey, who am I to judge? In any case, these marks both identified targets and drew them back to their newfound master.

The Day of the Dead

Something cool to note is that Karin, who is effectively our first Halloween character, is based off the popular, Celtic-based celebration that started the trend of Trick-or-Treating. Kanagi, instead, is based off the Mexican celebration, Dia de los Muertos, or "Day of the Dead". While the Halloween that is most celebrated in countries like America are mostly recognized for giving candy and based on warding off bad spirits, the Day of the Dead focuses on remembering and honoring the dearly departed.

This is fitting for Kanagi's character, as she is shown, in the recent Halloween event, as having been active in recalling an honoring the deaths of fellow magical girls. To be exact, the possessed Kanagi and her thrall engaged in creating individual candy skulls, or what is known in Dia de los Muertos as calavera. Calavera are hand-maid skull models made from sugar that are decorated with candy and edible decorations. For children who have died, small skulls are created and placed on a family altar on November 1st, while adults are honored with large skulls on November 2nd. It is said that, during these days, the dead loved ones come to visit and celebrate with their families and friends just as they would if they were still alive.

Each skull starts from a similar base, that is, a generic, typically white skull. From there, it is up to each family member to choose how to decorate the skull in a way they know would represent their fallen loved one. Kanagi is a very practical type of thinker, and although she is well-meaning, tends to miss sentiment. In her recent event, Kanagi was troubled with feelings that her way of honoring the dead was not proper, and when possessed, Vampire Kanagi would have her thrall make their own candy skulls based on how they would like to be remembered.

This is all well and good, but misses the point, as this methodology removes the personal feelings and memories Kanagi has of those she knew that have died. Looking back to calaveras in the Day of the Dead, the beauty of such a celebration is the uniqueness of each candy skull, as loved ones pour their hearts into creating something to remember the departed by. As implied in part of the event's title, The Living are Bewildered, the Dead are Silent, those who have died are not able to make suggestions as to how they should be honored, meaning that it's most respectful to go by how you knew them. For example, the Mel we saw during this event was represented as the Mel who has yet to meet and group up with Yachiyo. Even despite being a bit of a brat, this memory of Mel is one that is personal to Kanagi, hence why Momoko, who met Mel after her development, was so shocked to see her act that way.

Going back to the mystery of Kanagi's eye, this might be a hint that, despite having such a powerful ability, Kanagi is still only able to see one-half of things, something that's also implied in her regular version.

Catacombe (Alternative)

The Doppel of dismantlement. Its form is a hearth lion. The master of this emotion continually wanders in search of the answer to her mourning. In order to help its master find that answer, this Doppel takes the feelings towards death that are held by visitors lured in by Halloween merriment, and finely dismantles said feelings before serving them to its master. Breaking them down into small pieces makes them no easier to swallow, however, so its master is likely to get indigestion, and continue to distance herself from the answer. When the Doppel tires of dismantlement, it secretly uses the tip of its scythe to carve jack-o’-lanterns and so forth outside of its master’s view.

Not too much has been changed about this huge feline, and if you haven't already, I suggest reviewing the last section of my Kanagi analysis before moving on with this one. This version continues to play off the Lion that appears in Kenji Miyazawa's story, who took extreme measures to solve a single problem--"cutting off the head to cure a headache" to keep a sort of theme. Catacombe here acts as a rather helpful entity to Kanagi, using celebration as a means to help Kanagi discover what it means to honor the dead.

Having gathered various feelings, Catacombe, despite being well-meaning(?) attempts to break down (literally) each sample for study until it finds a "suitable answer". Despite this, however, there is a deep-rooted feeling that such explanations are incomplete, as hinted in the line that describes Kanagi as struggling to "digest" them. This symbolizes Kanagi's over-analytical nature, where she is extremely calculating and possesses the ability to read the minds of her targets--but to a fault. As we see with her response to Kamihama, Kanagi has the tendency to lead herself into extreme views and irrational acts, things that, ironically enough, creates a wedge that distances her from the truth.

Jack-o-Lanterns, similar to calavera, are forms of expression, while the act of creating them stems from an Irish folklore known as "Stingy Jack". It is said that a man named Jack had a feast with the Devil, who he convinced to change into a coin so that he may pay for the bill. Eventually, Jack offered to change the Devil back under the condition that his soul would not be taken by the Devil upon his death.

After some more trickery by Jack, he would finally die--but be unable to pass away, as heaven would not accept such a malevolent individual, while the Devil, understandably, was not at all chill with inviting Jack into his domain. Rather than have his death be properly honored, Jack was cursed to roam around with only a pumpkin (turnip in some tellings) that was carved and illuminated by candle.

In other tales such as The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow, there is a ghastly, headless entity that rides on horseback, carrying a jack-o-lantern wherever he goes. This being was formerly a man, unnamed, that was a Hessian trooper who would be decapitated by a cannonball during the 1776 battle of the White Plains. His comrades would attempt to bury this soldier, but only found his headless body on the battlefield, causing him to rise in search of his missing body part.

Both stories share a similar theme that involves individuals who are unable to be properly honored upon death--which fits into Kanagi's theme. While Catacombe sported masks for eyes in its original form, it trades those for jack-o-lanterns here, carrying the implication that it is continuously, but fruitlessly, searching for something--just like our pal Jack and Hessian trooper. Replacing the skulls in its cloak are jack-o-lanterns, representing the human emotions it has harvested, as well as a cluster of disorganized stars, something we would normally recognize from other sections as symbolizing guidance, but their haphazard placement can be noted here. Finally, Catacombe carries a candlestick and tin-can candle that it uses to help its search.

Much like that exposed back, some things really don't change.

Up next is Nanase Yukika's Fear Factor and following that, I will close this Halloween special with Sister Momoko.