Asuna Kagurazaka

Asuna Kagurazaka (神楽坂 明日菜, Kagurazaka Asuna), real name Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia is a fictional character from the manga series Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, created by Ken Akamatsu. The 8th student in Japanese alphabetical order of class 2/3-A, she is the first female character connected to her teacher Negi Springfield and the co-lead character in the series. Although initially appearing as a bullheaded, arrogant and slightly daffy girl, her encounters with Negi slowly awakens dormant abilities within her as well as a mysterious past that suggests she is something much greater and much worse than a mere middle-school student.

Character design
Based on her appearance and her personality, Asuna's character is mostly identical to Naru Narusegawa from Ken Akamatsu's previous series Love Hina. Asuna and Naru are similar: both are violent, short-tempered girls with limited patience towards the main male lead yet show a care and trust that grows as the story progresses. Also they tend to like older men (or at Naru's case, one man). Despite similarities to Naru, Asuna does have some slight differences: she is among the more academically challenged of the class and doesn't hide her strengths with a double life. The double life characteristic of Naru transfers over to fellow studentChisame Hasegawa. Many of the early designs are similar to the current Asuna, except with thicker ponytails and minus her trademark "bells" on her head. She has heterochromia(her left eye is blue and her right eye is green).

Aside from Negi, Asuna is the driving force and essentially, the "heroine" of the entire Negima series. Like Negi, many of the character interactions center around Asuna, spanning from her long-standing rivalry with Ayaka to the harsh treatment put through by enemy/teacher Evangeline. Much of the story deals with Asuna's emerging powers and discovering her mysterious origins.



 Character outline

Personality
Asuna is often in conflict with other people, especially Ayaka. Asuna has a crush on her former homeroom teacher,Takahata, whom Negi replaces. Asuna is an orphan who was enrolled into the school for free by the school dean, yet she still tries to pay towards her schooling with her wages earned delivering newspapers. Much to her chagrin, she is “Baka Red” of the Baka Rangers (or Dummy Force in the FUNimation Dub) and has the lowest test score average in the class, especially in English. Akamatsu, in reply to a fan question, stated that Asuna's problems with her grades are because of the memory erase she underwent when she was younger.

Negi’s and Asuna’s relationship starts on very shaky ground but quickly improves as they get to know one another. Asuna tends to act like an older sister towards Negi and is very protective of him. Many times, she intervenes to save him from enemies, her crazy and overly-affectionate classmates and even from himself when she notices he’s pushing himself too hard. She is almost indisputably has the strongest bond with Negi amongst his students and is the closest individual to being an actual “partner” to him. Her closeness to Negi causes many of the other people around her to believe that there might be romantic feelings forming between them, but Asuna arrogantly responds that he’s “just a kid.” But Shori has stated that Asuna has very strong feelings for Negi, that could be love. Asuna also blushed when asked by Anya if she loved Negi.

In the Live-Action series, she shows a little jealousy when Negi forms a pactio with Konoka and Nodoka.In the final volume of the alternate-universe Negima?! Neo, Asuna showed strong signs of truly loving Negi as he fought against Fate to tell her just how much she meant to him before their wedding. After hearing these words, Asuna started to blush and stutter, freaking out that this sounded like Negi was proposing to her. But realizing the true feelings behind his words, Asuna accepted Negi's request to be with him forever, sealing it with their final kiss of the manga. She also mutters the words "Thank you Negi" as they kiss. Afterwards, during the following day's lesson at Mahora, Negi finds a armor pactio card that shows him and Asuna, calling them "Eternal Partners".

She has demonstrated a fetish for older men based on her crush on Takahata and her reaction to meeting Konoka’s father (although this may be related to her dormant memories of them from the past). She also expressed interest in going back in time to the Prohibition-era United States after learning about Cassiopeia. This is because she believes that many well-dressed older men (such as Al Capone and other gangsters) existed then.

Abilities
 Pactio :  Bellatrix Sauciata  (literally, “Wounded Warrior”):  Ensis Exorcizans  is the name of Asuna’s artifact. She can summon either a  harisen  or a sword, both of which are large, powerful weapons. Despite the large size, she can wield the weapons with no difficulty. The harisen exorcises demons with a single swipe, and the sword is strong enough to cleave through rock. However, the harisen has little to no effect against opponents that possess no magic, such as robots and non-magical beings. On the pactio card, Asuna is shown with a giant sword. The  Ensis Exorcizans  first appeared when Asuna tried to save Negi from the “sharks” in Chapter 61, later during the tournament and on her date with Takahata. At first, summoning the  Ensis Exorcizans was dependent on her emotional state, but that seem to change when she learned to use  kankahō. {C} {C} {C} as Shiori can't copy it with her pactio.
 * Kankahō (also, xiánguàfǎ): While traveling with the Crimson Wing, Asuna learned the abilities of Kankahō from Gateau Vandenberg. Forgotten alongside her lost memories of her time with Nagi’s group, it slowly came back to her after witnessing Takamichi-sensei perform it in a battle against Negi, then awakened within her memories from an encounter with Albireo Imma. Combining the forces of magical energies and ki, she is able to fight with some magical skill both even with her own immunity from magic and even alongside her Pactio abilities. She is currently one of the few people in the world who can do this. It is sometimes called the perfect technique, although it uses up more power than ki or magic alone it has a lot of uses depending on the way the technique is used.
 * Magic-canceling: A natural ability held within Asuna even from the moment she met Negi, Asuna was born with the abilities to cancel out spells that are cast upon her, preventing her from being affected by magic, although this doesn’t seem to be the case with illusions (as shown in chapter 144). This ability blocks all spells from simple love potions to the most powerful and near-omnipotent abilities used by the mage such as the Lifemaker (Mage of Beginning). Her usage in the previous mage war is connected to this ability locked within her. Though mostly it blocks magic from the outside, it seems to be a little weaker from blocking magic from the inside such as from when she ate some magical candies. Although the full effects of the candies never manifested themselves, some limited amount of the effects were felt. Also, on a lighter side, she was able to hit Evangeline in her “average school girl” state more than once with Evangeline shouting “How dare you ignore my magical barrier like that!” Chachamaru has commented that Asuna is the only person who's ever been able to engage in a physical fight with Eva. The ability is also exclusive to her
 * Magic-canceling: A natural ability held within Asuna even from the moment she met Negi, Asuna was born with the abilities to cancel out spells that are cast upon her, preventing her from being affected by magic, although this doesn’t seem to be the case with illusions (as shown in chapter 144). This ability blocks all spells from simple love potions to the most powerful and near-omnipotent abilities used by the mage such as the Lifemaker (Mage of Beginning). Her usage in the previous mage war is connected to this ability locked within her. Though mostly it blocks magic from the outside, it seems to be a little weaker from blocking magic from the inside such as from when she ate some magical candies. Although the full effects of the candies never manifested themselves, some limited amount of the effects were felt. Also, on a lighter side, she was able to hit Evangeline in her “average school girl” state more than once with Evangeline shouting “How dare you ignore my magical barrier like that!” Chachamaru has commented that Asuna is the only person who's ever been able to engage in a physical fight with Eva. The ability is also exclusive to her
 * Enhanced Strength: Even without her Pactio powers, Asuna has shown herself to be deceptively strong, as shown from her ability to throwing things at Evangeline. When she is in her Pactio form, Asuna's already impressive strength is greatly enhanced. Her overall abilities are great enough that she was able to fend off Chachamaru’s attack. Her strength is also great enough to Knock out the door by a single leg or slash just about anything.
 * Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: According to Setsuna, her kicks are mainly strong enough to fight someone.
 * Master Sword Skills Specialist: In terms of fighting style while in her Pactio form, Asuna relies mainly on swordplay, and thus would be considered a sword skills specialist. Aside from her initial training with Setsuna, she is basically on a “learn as you go” training regimen thus her skill has developed by fighting rather than formal instruction, becoming even more capable with every fight. Her overall skill has been shown capable of competing on equal grounds against Chachamaru Karakuri and Evangeline A.K. McDowell. While usually performing right-handed, Asuna appears to be ambidextrous as she has shown proficient skill wielding her sword in her left.
 * Mukyo Ji Taikyoku Zan-First

Plot overview
As the first to find out about Negi’s secret, Asuna saw him using magic to save Nodoka from falling down some steps. Initially, Asuna merely was one of the only ones who knew the secret and assisted Negi with adjustment to this new environment. During his battle with Evangeline, she became Negi’s first probationary contract.

Recently, she went to tour the Mahora Festival with Takahata (as close as a date with him as she could possibly get) which predictably ends in heartbreak for Asuna, as her former teacher gently turns down her admission of love. She spends four days inside of Evangeline’s Resort (which is four hours in the real world) moping about it, but is cheered up by her friends and is informed about Negi’s latest Probationary Contracts with Yue and Haruna. Upon leaving the resort, she, Negi and a few other girls are trapped in the future where Chao had already revealed the existence of magic to the world and Negi was arrested by the school board. After reuniting with Negi, they successfully traveled back to the third day of the School Festival. With their new knowledge of Chao’s plans, they implemented a plan by Negi to stage a “mock-battle” against Chao’s robot army. Asuna and Setsuna became part of the “Hero Unit” (which also included Negi and a number of people who knew about magic), aiding all other participants in the “Mars vs. Mages” event, and helped Negi fight his way to Chao’s airship. After the festival, Negi asked Asuna to come with him back to Wales along with the others to help him find his father.Asuna met the The Thousand Master as a child when he saved her life during a battle, and she traveled with the members of his group both before and after his disappearance. Asuna retains no memories from this period in her life but has begun to re-experience them in dreams since Negi arrived. Later on, Albireo opened up her past memories and unleashed the sleeping powers within her. When her powers were awakened in her fight with Setsuna, she turned her fan into the stone cleaver sword during the fight. The chances of her victory seemed high due to Setsuna underestimating her, but because of the tournament rules prohibiting bladed weapons and Setsuna’s use of a Shinmeryuu throwing technique, she was disqualified and lost the match.

Asuna is feeling quite vexed after Ayaka tells the other girls to stop trying for Asuna’s White Wing Badge (reminding them of how easily she could defeat all of them) then turning around and inviting them on a personal trip to Wales aboard her private plane. It is at this point that Negi’s childhood friend Anya appears.Asuna and several other of the girls had decided to form an investigation club in order to help Negi find his missing father during his trip to Wales. However, when it came time to elect a club president, the club adviser, Evangeline, vetoed the idea of giving Asuna the position. In order to prove her worthiness, Evangeline set up the same apprenticeship test as she had given to Negi, only this time, Asuna needed to score one clean hit on Negi himself. It was at that event that Asuna learned that Negi is ahead of her in terms of combat skills and she was soundly defeated. Kotarou notes, however, that her abilities are still rather impressive, as she had lasted fifteen minutes against Negi, though the child teacher couldn’t bring himself to finish her off quickly, despite Eva’s insistence. Thereafter, Asuna underwent somewhat cruel training sessions under Eva, which they recently finished. She is then later attacked again by Ayaka as a part of the Badge stealing game but easily defeats her after only receiving one blow from Ayaka.

She entered the portal to the Magical World along with the rest of her classmates through a Stonehenge-like portal, arriving in a lobby area similar to an airport terminal, where everyone’s weapons (both mundane and magical) were placed into a sealed box due to the security policy at the “airport.” When Fate and his companions attack the class, Asuna breaks the sealed box by simply punching it. (Presumably, the seal was broken by her Magic-Canceling.) However, despite hers and many of the other members of the White Wing’s efforts, Fate succeeds in destroying the magical gateway and scattering all the members of the White Wing and the Sports Girls all over the magical world. Asuna eventually met up in the wilderness with Setsuna, and the two began searching for Konoka, although the two did manage to send word to Negi that they are alright and to meet up with them at a place called Ostia. After searching for a while, the two of them reunited with Konoka and Kaede, and most recently, she has reunited with Negi in Osita, much to her relief.

She, along with Negi and the others, are warned about Nodoka being attacked by the “Black Hounds.” They rush to her aid in time to save her. Asuna manages to block and repel a trap spell which was intended for Kaede and Setsuna.

In the end, they saved Nodoka. Afterwards, they returned to the city. When Asuna found out that Negi is using Dark Magic, she refuses to let Negi continue using it, but in the end, she gave in and promised that she will help Negi even in the depths of hell.

During Negi’s negotiations with Fate, Asuna became enraged and hit both Negi and Fate with her harisen, blaming Negi if millions died if he did what Fate said. When Negi declines Fate, Asuna engages with two of Fate’s Ministra Magi. During the fight, she gets defeated, and one of Fate’s Ministra Magi, Shiori, kisses Asuna which results in the creation of a replication of her. She and Anya were captured by Fate’s accomplices, with Asuna forcefully having her memories brought back by Fate. Meanwhile, Fate had Shiori pose as Asuna as she spied on Negi’s group, with the cover being blown (and Negi and a few of his students discovering her true identity) recently after Negi made a Pactio with her.

While Negi and the others discovered that Asuna was being held at the Gravekeepers’ Palace, Asuna had fallen into a depression, having flashbacks of her past life. Asuna recalled various moments from her life: being encased in some sort of gem and being used as a weapon to end many lives, remembering a being called the “Mage of Beginning” and later being saved by Nagi and traveling with the Ala Rubra. Her memories eventually fast forward to the day that Gatou died, and Asuna’s mind shifts back into reality while she screams Gatou’s name, asking him who she was. After Anya arrives, Asuna snaps out of her depression and goes back to her usual self. Later, Fate arrives, and Asuna prepares to attack him using Kankaho. Fate stops her and proceeds to talk about his plan: to use Asuna’s power of Magic Cancellation to simply “delete,” overwrite and seal the Magical World. Asuna disagrees, and Fate finally tells her the final secret of the Magical World: that every living being in the Magical World is all but an illusion.

Asuna soon became unconscious after Fate escorted her to the altar. Kaede and Kotarou's group managed to succeed retrieving Asuna and the Great Grand Master Key only to be stopped by Fate. While Negi was facing Fate, the remaining members of the Ala Alba tried their best retrieving Asuna but Shirabe succeeded on placing Asuna back on the altar. As time is running out, all students of class 3-A gathered at the palace in order to wake Asuna up. Asuna finally woke up and rescued Negi from the Mage of the Beginning and everyone's glad to have her back. The two of them combined their strength and defeated the Mage of the Beginning and his hood pulled back revealing his face. It turns out to be Nagi Springfield, which surprised Asuna, Negi, Evangeline, Jack Rakan, and Fate. After his death, Asuna approached Negi, but he snapped out of it and tell her there more important things to take care off which is returning the world to the way it was. She surprised Negi by figured out the current situation and told him that she is 'a genuine legendary princess from a country of magic' with a smile of her face. Using the Great Grand Master Key, she returned the world back to normal and revived all living beings.

She returns in chapter 340, drinking tea with Ayaka. And meeting up with Negi, Fate and Kotarou in their adult forms to meet with the Prime Minister of Japan, with the help of Ayaka's artifact, which can meet someone without prior engagements.

Later, she is seen returning to her apartment. Konoka hugs her and Setsuna is treating her like a princess (which she is) and scolds her for that. Then, he is seen walking with Negi, and they bumped into Evangeline and Setsuna, asking if they we're playing something. Eva then asks the two of them to come with her for their "Final" Lesson, which involves Negi and Asuna teaming up against a Magia Erebia powered Evangeline, and almost defeating her were it not for a unfortunately  timed sneeze from Negi. During this fight, it is revealed that in a short amount of time Asuna is going to be sealed as a "corner-stone" for Negis' plan for saving the magic world, during this time her outer personality will cease to exist, she will wake up in 100 years' time as Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia, with no memories of anything that happened while she was "Kagurazaka Asuna".

Five months later, a week before the graduation ceremony, Asuna is presented with her graduation certificate by Negi and Takahata. Ayaka then takes her to a special place where they dig out a time capsule (a cookie box) that contains items from their early childhood. Ayaka then finally reveals her true feelings to Asuna, who responds by considering her a true friend.

On the day that Asuna was to be put to sleep, she spends it by greeting her friends on what she believed to be the last time and being with Negi by the riverside, finally giving Negi a kiss on her own accord. At the end of the day, Asuna greets farewell to all those she knew and departs with Jack, Kurt and Theodora, promising Negi that she'll be waiting to see him in the future.

After a long period of sleeping, Asuna awakens, appearing on the top of the once Mahora Academy. Her first thoughts were the whereabouts of Jack, Theodora, Kurt and Negi, regardless of the '  with no memories of anything that happened while she was "Asuna Kagurazaka"', she seems to have her normal personality and memories intact . Spotting a flying figure, she sees a huge city filled with Magical beings and humans alike, shocked at the towering building that leads to space, musing that Negi must have completed the project. She later finds out that she is in the year 2135 and wonders further where Negi was.

She first walks up to Evangeline's cottage, but finds it abandoned. Walking further into the city, it beings to rain as Asuna is hit with loneliness.

At a nearby telephone booth, Asuna researched up on Negi and his whereabouts, only to find it unknown. She then searches up for her friends, finding none of them with the exception of Ayaka.

She travels to the Yukihiro house only to find the owner at a public meeting. Being denied of entrance, Asuna later meets with a young girl with a similar likeness to Ayaka, mistaking the girl to be Ayaka herself. The girl asks if Asuna was looking for Negi and takes her to his grave.

Asuna is shocked to find her previous partner to be dead and tries to deny his death. The great-great-great-granddaughter of Ayaka then tells Asuna that her grandmother had been waiting for Asuna until she died at the age of 115, shocking Asuna. After the young girl leaves, Asuna remembers the Time Capsule and rushes to dig it out. Amusing herself with the nostalgia of her class, she later finds pictures of her friends as adults. Happy that her friends had led happy lives, she finds a video recording of Negi as an adult in the year 2023. Finding that Negi wanted to be with her, she responds with why he had to die.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;line-height:16px;font-size:small;">Stumbling upon another video recording, Asuna finds herself looking at an aged Ayaka in the year 2090. Ayaka tells Asuna that most of their friends had passed away at this time and says she really wanted to see her smile and laugh, hoping that they can be together again in the world that Negi and Asuna had created. Asuna then realizes that Ayaka's year of death was actually in 2104, the year she was supposed to wake up. After the recording ends, Asuna apologizes to Ayaka for waking up late, then she apologies to all her friends, questioning her purpose  <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;line-height:16px;font-size:small;">after all her friends are gone before breaking down and crying  <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;line-height:16px;font-size:small;">as she said <span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;line-height:16px;font-size:small;">, "I... should had disappeared if it was going to end like this....". As she cries, a voice comes in, making Asuna turn around to find herself looking at Evangeline as well as a nostalgic classmate, Chao Lingshen, as Chao said Asuna slept for 130 years.

<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;line-height:16px;font-size:small;">In the next chapter (353), Asuna is brought back from the future with Chao and future Evangeline (there are now 2 Evas), they all go back to the past and then reunited tearfully with her friends. She is able to partake in her graduation from middle school and was last seen with Negi outside on the school grounds, celebrating their graduation.

Epilogue

She, like the rest of the class, assists Negi in saving Nagi and defeating the Mage of the Beginning. As the last descendant of the oldest royal family in the Magic World, she worked as a symbol of harmony between the two worlds. She also spent her efforts in the restoration of the kingdom. Despite the busy daily life, she still maintains contact with her classmates. The class rep is eternally her quarreling friend.

Mahō Sensei Negima! (1st Anime)
Her magic cancelling ability was the result of a contract with a demon king (the Devil in the English dub). Asuna agreed to the contract in order to lose or at least suppress a natural magical ability she possessed since early childhood: the power to summon demons. This ability caused destruction and carnage wherever she went, causing Asuna a great heartache. Her demon-given ability was the indirect cause of Nagi’s disappearance, as she inadvertently nullified his magic barrier during a fight with a demon. The price of the contract was that Asuna was to die at 12:00 midnight on her 14th birthday. That date would be 23 October 2003 (based on a banner, leaving some to believe her birthdate may be in the year 1989<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0">[1]  In the manga, her date of birth is April 21, 1988.).

Just before her death, it is possible that Asuna was about to tell Negi that she liked him, as she had been turned down by Takahata, but the clock struck midnight before she could get the words out.

After Asuna’s death, Negi desperately searches for a way to bring her back. Eventually, he uses Chao’s time machine watch to go back in time. However, due to using too much magic, he is instead transported back to 1994, also unintentionally dragging the entire class with him. During his stay in the past, he meets his father Nagi and learns about Asuna’s contract with the demon king.

After Nagi’s disappearance, the demon king absorbed young Asuna and planned to use her as a barrier. After some convincing by Negi and his students, young Asuna assists them in destroying the demon king. However, even with the demon king’s demise, the contract could not be terminated.

After returning to the present day, to the time where the class was celebrating Asuna’s birthday, Chao, Satomi and Evangeline invented a special device that, working right under the World Tree, combined with all the special powers of Negi’s students, successfully terminated the contract for good.

Negima!?
While Asuna once again the first to gain Pactio in this series, the powers and artifacts she gains are slightly different. The main Manga Pactio ability is split into two in this version: Asuna’s armor form allows her to possess the massive sword she wields when using the full power of her ability, while her Cosplay form gives her the harisen form of the Pactio while dressed in a kimono. When transformed into Suka form, Asuna takes the form of a small wild boar piglet. Towards the end of the series, she is turned evil by the power of the Star Crystal infecting Evangeline, but this only lasts until her vampiric host is defeated in battle.Although Asuna keeps her well intentioned, Negi-assisting nature, this version has made her slightly daffier in her ways. She is a slacker and not quite as smart as she appears, making her a true member of the “Baka Rangers.” One of her most bizarre traits is her obsession with chupacabra in this version, at first believing it as the assaulter on Mahora campus (instead of Evangeline). After Evangeline’s defeat, Asuna opens a chupacabra club in pursuit of capturing the mythical creature (of whom most of the members are volunteers whom Asuna drags to the meetings, with the exception of Haruna). As the story progresses, the Chupacabra club evolves into a full magic education class with Negi as the mentor, but her obsession with the creature never goes away (to the point of forcing the rest of 3-A to buying her printed Chupa-T-shirts after they all become Negi’s partners and therefore join “the club”). Ultimately, Asuna does receive a chupacabra as a present from Anya, but she is forced to return it to the wild before too long (not before making it sign all of the T-shirts she made through the run of the series).

It should be noted that in this series, both of Asuna’s eyes are blue, instead of her having heterochromia<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1">[2], and her hair takes a life on its own depending on her state of mind, even spells out words and numbers. She is also the last one to know Sayo after the latter made a Pactio with Negi. (She was asleep when the rest of the class became aware of their ghost classmate through Kazumi’s digital camera.)

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;">Her interest in Takamichi, albeit a known fact, is almost unseen in many episodes in this series following the first three, but in the eighteenth episode, Konoka and Setsuna manage to urge Takamichi into talking to her. The two do this to avert her attention from asking Nekane too many questions about the Black Rose Baron (and eventually letting Nekane spill the beans about her secret identity) despite an unwritten agreement between Negi, Takamichi and his students to keep Nekane’s secret identity to themselves.

Trivia

 * Birthday: April 21, 1988 (This is false since she has been around for over 100 years)
 * Blood type: B
 * Likes: Tasteful Older Men
 * Hates: Studying, Brats.
 * Clubs: Art Clubs
 * Popularity: 2nd >> 2nd >>4th >> 3rd >> 1st >> 2nd >> 2nd >> 4th
 * It is implied that her actual age is around 25 but her biological age is 15. She has been sealed a few times during her life which explains why she is still a teenager biologically. (Might explain her taste in older men)
 * It is implied that her body is naturally glabrous, indicating she has almost no body hair, particularly pubic hair.

ReferencesEdit

 * 1) ↑ Officially, her year of birth, according to this version, is in the year 1988 as in the manga.
 * 2) ↑ In the 2007 Negima!? calendar, Asuna is depicted with a blue left eye and a cyan right eye, close to how she is supposed to be depicted. However, every other illustration of Asuna by Studio Shaft shows her with two blue eyes.