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| “ | Mm, yeah I guess I do. But what even is a star beam, you know? Now a lead pipe to the shins? That's reliable baby. | „ |
| ~ Aika on the brutality of her methods |
Aika is the main protagonist of the upcoming web series Pretty Please I Don't Want To Be A Magical Girl. A seemingly normal high schooler, Aika is secretly a Star Guardian, a protector of innocents against the forces of darkness and a job she intensely loathes. As such, while she spends as much time enjoying normal life as possible, she displays a great indifference towards her duties, often fulfilling them in efficient but rather violent manners.
She is voiced by Anairis Quiñones, who also voices Mirko in My Hero Academia, Hinatsuru in Demon Slayer, Feixiao in Honkai: Star Rail and the Good Witch Azura in The Owl House.
Appearance[]
Aika is a 15 year old girl of African and Japanese heritage, with tan skin and black hair, dyed blonde from the roots upwards. Her hair is styled into two star-shaped buns, with the rest of her hair being at neck length. She wears small white piercings on her ears. For clothing, she wears a tricolored T-shirt of navy, yellow and blue, black shorts, blue baggy socks, and navy sneakers with red heart ornaments at the toes.
In her Star Guardian outfit, she wears a frilly yellow dress with white accents and a blue shoulder and arm region. Her chest is decorated with a blue brooch and a white cravat, while small blue wings sprout from her back. White wing-like tassels dangle from her dress, she gains gold bangles on her arms, as well as white fingerless gloves. Aika's shoes are transformed into high platform boots, her hair ties become blue ribbons, while her piercings become rings. Additionally, her hair grows longer and is styled into six long dreadlocks. Aika wears the Star Shard on her forehead, and wields a star-shaped wand with wings on the top.
When she was 13, Aika looked very similar to her current appearance, albeit more childish-looking. Her roots were completely dyed at the time, making her locks in her Star Guardian outfit blonde instead of black. She also wore a shorter yellow-cyan t-shirt and a dark blue romper, while her Star Shard was secured on a wristband she wore.
Personality[]
Normally, Aika is a friendly and outgoing person, exhibiting a passion for the mundane and normal. She exhibits an eagerness to make friends and learn, as evidenced by her bubbly personality in class and eagerness to talk to Zira. Aika possesses a love for helping people and is shown to be relentlessly positive, always emphasising the positives of the situations around her. She's also apparently a thrill-lover, enjoying all sorts of sports and adrenaline-inducing activities, though she has a particular dislike for roller coasters. Aika seemingly lacks social tact, seeing as she’s excited to meet Zira, a “real-life high school loser”, something that Zira doesn’t hold very highly about herself.
However, these traits aren't really exhibited when Aika's forced to perform her duties as a Star Guardian, a job she vehemently despises. Years of work have evidently jaded her to this job as she lacks much of the gentleness and eagerness she usually displays in this form, opting instead for brutal, if efficient, manners of completing her task, such as breaking Eclipse's legs with a lead pipe. Aika herself doesn't seem particularly bothered by her violent means, seeing them as necessary evils to finish the job. Despite this, Aika remains the same helpful and kind person at core, which is why, despite her hatred of this job, she always answers the call of duty if it means protecting innocents.
Biography[]
Background[]
Aika's background is largely unknown, but from supplemental materials it's known that she was saved by Hoshi at a young age, causing her to become good friends with the mysterious being. Eventually, at the age of 13, Aika would volunteer to become a Star Guardian: a protector of the innocent who would be able to gain a magical transformation via a Star Shard. At first, Aika would largely enjoy this job, defending innocents against the forces of evil alongside her teammates. However, she would slowly become jaded to this job, getting overwhelmed by the pressures of fighting off threats so regularly and would wish to return to her normal life.
Eventually, Aika would decide to take an unauthorised "break" from being a Star Guardian: she would trap Hoshi in an enchanted box shortly before moving to high school, keeping her free of any nagging reminders of her duties.
Pretty Please I Don't Want To Be A Magical Girl[]
Pilot[]
The episode begins with Aika monologuing to herself about the excitement of becoming a high school student until she's snapped back to reality by another girl, who informs her she's blocking the doorway. Eager to socialise, Aika asks for her help to get to class and the two head off together, with the girl revealing herself to be a classmate of Aika's. In class, Aika finishes her pop quiz with alarming speed and, noticing nobody else is done, decides to pretend she's working in order to fit in. That is, until she spots Hoshi floating outside, upon which she excuses herself from class and hands in the quiz early.
Aika hides in the bathroom, only to find Hoshi there waiting for her. The star scolds her for keeping them trapped in a box, to which Aika retorts that she shouldn't even have Star Guardian duties anyways, seeing as she's barely 15. She insists on taking a break from work, telling Hoshi that the others could fill in for her and that they leave. Hoshi agrees to leave Aika alone for now, but returns her Star Shard to her in case she finds herself in trouble.
Lunch arrives and Aika sits herself next to the girl from earlier, thanking her for her help. The girl is flustered by her sudden presence, remarking that she's considered a loser by most of her peers. Aika is envious of her, seeing as she has no expectations and is free to do whatever she wants. The girl introduces herself as Zira and becomes even more flustered after Aika greets her as a friend. As they eat lunch, Aika exhibits disdain at the manga Zira is reading, seeing as it's a magical girl manga and a genre she's much too familiar with.
Suddenly, an explosion blows open the cafeteria wall and to Aika's disappointment, an old foe of hers emerges from the smoke: Eclipse. Aika tries to sneak away, telling Zira to follow her when she tries to confront the sinister teenager. Eclipse, not recognising Aika as a Star Guardian, belittles her, only to get ignored, which infuriates him. He threatens to blast Aika with his magic, so Zira shields Aika with her body, hoping to make him reconsider. Unfortunately, Eclipse goes through with his threat so Aika activates her Star Shard, blocking the attack with her magical wand.
Zira is exhilarated to realise her new friend is a magical girl, to which Eclipse, finlly recognising Aika adds that he's her (self-proclaimed) nemesis and love interest (which Aika quickly denies in disgust). With the cat out of the bag, Aika enters her magical girl form and, summoning Hoshi, transforms her wand into the perfect weapon to defeat Eclipse: a rusty lead pipe. Zira is confused by this until Aika walks up to Eclipse and strikes his knees, breaking his kneecaps as she continues to beat him up. When questioned on why she doesn't use more traditional means of fighting, Aika simply remarks that brute force tends to be more effective for her.
With that, Eclipse teleports away, which Aika remarks is new as he's never used magic before. Zira and Hoshi both congratulate Aika for her abilities, but when questioned on why she ran away despite her skills, Aika admits that she doesn't want to be a Star Guardian anymore. The recess bell rings so, undergoing an elaborate transformation sequence, Aika returns to her civilian attire before back to class with Zira. Zira wonders if Eclipse may return to seek revenge, but Aika shrugs him off as a non-issue.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Academic intelligence: As a result of her hobby of reading books, Aika has acquired quite a bit of knowledge, allowing her to excel academically. This is reflected by how she not only completes her first pop quiz of the year incredibly fast, but also gets a perfect score.
- Charisma: Aika is quite a charismatic person thanks to her bubbly and energetic personality, allowing her to befriend people like Zira quite easily.
- Bilingualism: Aika is proficient in both English and Japanese thanks to her half-Japanese heritage.
- Combat experience: Having fought the forces of darkness for two years, Aika possesses a rather decent knowledge on fighting, allowing her to face off against foes like Eclipse with little fear.
- Brute strength: Despite her thin physique, Aika is surprisingly strong, effortlessly breaking Eclipse's legs with a rusty lead pipe and twirling it with her fingers later on.
- Star Guardian powers: By using the Star Shard she was given, Aika can utilise various magical abilities that allow her to fight the forces of evil.
- Shapeshifting: Aika can use the Star Shard to don and doff her Star Guardian outfit via a magical transformation sequence. While said sequence only plays when she re-assumes her civilian persona, it's possible that Aika can cause the sequence to play when she dons the outfit if she wants.
- Darkness deflection: Using her wand, Aika can nullify darkness-related magic, as seen from how she stops Eclipse's void sphere and dissipates it.
- Weapon summoning: By calling on Hoshi's powers, Aika can make her wand assume the form of different weapons. Her weapon of choice is a rusty lead pipe, though she has been seen to summon equally unconventional weapons, such as a bazooka.
- Ergokinesis: When questioned by Zira on her methods, Aika offhandedly confirms that she can indeed utilise more traditional magical girl attacks such as energy beams and blasts, it's just that she chooses not to use them as she views them as inefficient.
Trivia[]
- Aika is a foodie, with a particular love for cheese as a production comic reveals she wants to try every kind of cheese available. This is reflected into her dialogue as, while most of the other characters tend to freely curse, Aika only uses cheese puns.
- Aika's stomach is unfortunately, a little too small for her appetite, causing her to fall into food comas quite often.
- Despite their strained relationship, Aika still sees Hoshi as a friend, often playfully making jabs at each other.
- Seeing as Aika had to keep her Star Guardian identity a secret, she didn't have a lot of time to make friends. Thus, she spent most of her free time reading books, leading to her high academic intelligence in the present.
- Aika is bilingual, with Japanese being her first language and English her second.
- Aika apparently lost the wristband she kept her Star Shard in, which is why she just keeps it in her pockets for now.
- Like most of the other characters in the story, Aika was originally drawn in a chibi-esque fashion, though after feedback from the pilot she now has more realistic proportions.
- At 157.48cm tall, Aika is the shortest member of the cast.