Ayane Kijima (木島 綾音 きじま あやね) is a veteran magical girl, and the leader of the "Shining Star" team, the witches elite magic girl team working directly under The Chief Sorceress’ orders. She is a senior to Sasami, and her friends, as a student, and as a magical girl. And she is considered one of the most powerful magical girls in the series.
She has an androgynous appearance, and her magical girl outfit is a black dress with a non pointy hat, that closely resembles a stereotypical witch outfit, as opposed to the more colorful outfits of the other magical girls.
Ayane was the favorite to become “The Maiden Of The Dawn” before losing the title to Misao. She took great interest in Misao Shinohara, giving her advice, and inspiring her to become the best she can be, and in return, Misao looks up to her as a mentor. Ayane, abandoned her vendetta against humanity after The Chief Sorceress final defeat.
Personality
Ayane is a stoic and mature young woman. Even after she lost the title of “The Maiden of the Dawn,” she was still looked up to by the other girls as a leader, a role model, and a mentor. She is a natural-born leader, hardworking, and dedicated to reaching her full potential.
Although Ayane’s main goal was to get to Sasami, as that was The Chief Sorceress’s main objective, Ayane was far closer and more interested in Misao Shinohara as a person. Ironically, despite her shyness, and unpopularity in the human world, Misao seems to find more natural companionship among other magical girls and within the magic realm itself than Sasami.
Once Misao defected to the witches’ side, Ayane encouraged her to push her limits, as Ayane wanted Misao to become her rival. Misao far surpassed her expectations, breaking her streak and claiming the title of “The Maiden of the Dawn” for herself.
She is kind but stern, as evidenced by the fact that she advised Misao to be strong and dignified as “The Maiden of the Dawn” and to be more confident in herself, and proud of her title, and the fact that she had beaten her.
Ayane is not resentful or prone to envy, as she was still eager to help, and advice, Misao despite losing to her. And in their final fight against Sasami’s magic club, she was proud of how much Misao had grown as a person[1], especially her newfound confidence and willingness to embrace her power.
Background
We don’t know her exact age, but we know she, and the rest of the “Shining Star” Magical girl team are senior high school [2]students that go to the same school. [1] So she is between the ages of 15, and 18, given it wasn’t clarified if she is in a lower or upper secondary School.
In the finale, she, and the other “Shining Star” magical girls members were seen walking nearby Sasami’s friends while wearing a sailor student uniform[1], therefore, it’s safe to assume, she is also from the same city as the main girls.
Little is known about her life before joining the witches side, but unlike Sasami and her friends, she became disillusioned with humanity. She willingly joined the witches sides. She became fiercely loyal to the Chief Sorceress, and she became determined to earn the title of “The Maiden of the Dawn”.
Powers and Abilities
Like all magical girls, she was born with the natural ability to use magic without the need to transform or use magic trinkets.
Ayane is a magical girl prodigy, and a master duelist. Even among the “shining Star” magical girl team, a team comprised of the most powerful magical girls, she was considered by far the best. In fact she had a winning streak of 69 consecutive victories in magic duels[3]. And her teammates felt they were not even close to her skill level. She was also far beyond anyone in Sasami’s group in skill level.[4] And she was able to easily deflect one of Sasami’s spells[5].
She was widely considered the most powerful magical girl before Misao Shinohara defeated her[3]. Her magic speciality is unknown but she displayed the power of transmutation given she was able to turn mundane objects into weapons such as a whip, and binding magic ropes she was able to control with her mind[3]. She also displayed mastery of darkness based magic[1]. Ayane also displayed some knowledge using enchanted objects such as the magic invitation she gave to Misao Shinohara that was able to summon her, and teleport herself and her friends.[5] Ayane also displayed the power to bewitch objects as she was able to turn a playground into a flying ship.[5]
All in all, she can be considered one of the most powerful magical girls, only second to Misao Shinohara. But still below some of the witches, like Itoki, or entities like Keura. Although Sasami’s unique light magic powers might surpass all of them in pure raw potential, unlike Ayane, she avoided using them offensively.
Voice credits
- JAPANESE - Saeko Chiba (千葉 紗子)
- ENGLISH - Trina Nishimura
Gallery
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Sasami: Magical Girls Club episode 26 “Amitav’s song.”
- ↑ https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/砂沙美☆魔法少女クラブ
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Sasami: Magical girl Club episode 20: "The Maiden of the Dawn"
- ↑ Sasami: Magical Girls Club episode 21: “Reunion”.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Sasami Magical Girls Club: Episode 19 “The invitation of the witches.”