 |
This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
|
| “ | Longg, Bring the Storm! | „ |
| ~ Kagami during her transformation into Ryuko. |
Kagami Tsurugi is a major character of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. In season 3, she receives the Dragon Miraculous from Ladybug, which, when inhabited by the kwami Longg, can transform her into Ryuko, a dragon-themed superhero.
She is voiced by Clara Soares in French, Faye Mata in English (who also voiced Aqua in Konosuba), and Nanako Mori in Japanese.
Appearance[]
Kagami is a Japanese girl, that recently moved to Paris with her mother and attended the D'Argencourt fencing academy. She has dark blue hair that has light blue reflections and yellow-brown eyes.
As a civilian, she wears a white long-sleeved blazer that has black outlines around the collar, running down across her waist all the way to the bottom to the hem, cuffs and two black accents on the top of the fastened outer pockets. The blazer has two gold pockets around the waist and each side of the cuffs. On the top right of her chest is an attached logo that is shaped as a rouleaux triangle. The logo includes her family's crest, with the gold sign of Japanese kanji for female fastened on top of the green, white and red fabric with a gold outline surrounding the logo. Underneath, she wears a black collared blouse with many gold buttons. Attached to the collar is a red tie with blue parallel lines that intersects with each other.
Kagami wears a red skirt with an asymmetrical texture that has blue and white intersecting vertical and horizontal lines. She wears tight black leggings and a pair of red sneakers with white toecaps, laces, a black logo on the heel counter and black soles. On the ring finger of her right hand, she wears a black ring that has her family's crest and it has two long outward spikes stretching from the mark.
As her superhero identity, Ryuko, she wears a red suit with an image of a black rose with a yellow outlining involving her from her left leg to her chest with the flower holding the images that represent the three elements she controls: lightning, air, and water. She also has a black collar/turtleneck (where she has her choker), black forearm-length gloves and black legs starting at a point in the middle of her lower legs, both with yellow outlining. On the back of her head, she has four red dragon-like horns with yellow tips with black outlining, and, on her back, she has a holder for her sword. On her face, she wears a red mask around her eyes with a yellow and black outline at the base of the sides. Her eyes also get golden with yellow scleras.
Personality[]
Kagami is a fierce and thoughtful girl who is dedicated to accomplishing any commitment she makes. Taught by her mother to be a relentless perfectionist by placing high expectations on her, she dedicates herself to anything she has an interest in until she masters it without a flaw. This also causes her to be quite confident, while also being somewhat reluctant and quite stubborn, willing to go out and take risks, regardless of what is at stake for her. Her perfectionism also causes her to possess a very strong competitive spirit, causing her to be quite emotive and rage-prone in spite of her composed exterior, whenever she loses. However, she learns from her mistakes, knowing there are times she isn't the winner.
Despite her wits, Kagami has a small habit of jumping to conclusions and/or being quick to judge a person's character with an initial contact, something possible learned from her mother, as seen as Kagami was quick to assume Marinette was uncompatible with her in terms or friendship due to her more unusual nature or when she saw a picture of Adrien and Lila together and quickly assuming Lila was the girl he told her about in "Frozer". However, after learning more about friendship with Marinette, Kagami came to try to look through appearances in order to know about a person's true nature.
Kagami is an aggressive fencer, being unforgivable whenever her opponents show her any opening. While she doesn't like to lose, she is able to downplay her upset feelings and respect her rivals, like Adrien. That competitve nature also causes her to search for bigger challenges, resulting on her to taunt her opponents whenever they show weakeness against her, in this way trying to spice them up and motivating them to do better, so that she can also do better as well. Her agressiveness only increases whenever her emotional state becomes more intense, as evidenced in "Lies", after her akumatization into the titular villain, as she was still upset with Adrien for lying to her and discharged her anger on him during their practice duel.
She comes across as blunt and willing to speak her mind, telling Philippe that she didn't want to take skating lessons multiple times and even speaking for Adrien when asked. However, despite this, Kagami is a very hospitable person who ironically forms friendships with people after they both approach each other and solve their conflicts, suggesting an understanding side. This is more evident when she advises Marinette Dupain-Cheng to stop hesitating.
In "Ikari Gozen", Kagami is shown to be a bit lonely as she always wanted friends, and she admitted to Ladybug that she doesn't have any. Yet, she was willing to reach out to Marinette, someone she was uncertain about at the time, in an attempt to be friends with her. However, much like when Adrien started studying at school and making new friends, Kagami, because of her mother, initially didn't know much about how to bond with others. This is shown when she tries to befriend Marinette, only resulting in awkward moments, and using an app about how to make friends. These attempts include traditional Japanese friendship tropes such as blood typing, horoscopes, personality compatibility, and a forced smile when attempting to discuss any of them.
Through having friends and being outside of her mother's strict rules, Kagami started to become more playful and fun-loving and enjoys being disobedient at times as seen in "Heart Hunter". Just like Adrien, Kagami started to value the new friends she would make, not wanting to hurt or lose them. However, no matter how much it pained her, she wasn't willing to abdicate her own happiness for them. This is seen in her resolution on the same episode in pursuing Adrien romantically, despite knowing that would hurt Marinette, as she knew that, no matter who ends up with him, someone would be heartbroken over it and, thus, isn't willing to let him go, even for the sake of friendship, showing a realistic side. She would still like to be able to date Adrien and stay friends with Marinette at the same time, though.
In "Lies", Kagami showed that, in terms of friendship, she still had a lot to learn about it as one needs to accept their friend's flaws and what they like about them. Despite not knowing about Adrien's alter ego, she called him silly when he posed at her attempt at drawing him, calling his civilian self an image of perfection mostly implying like every other fan girl she's looking at him through the image Gabriel created of him.
When it comes to those she cares about being in danger especially against akumatized villains or threatened, Kagami is similar to Alya and Cat Noir; being very brave and protective.
In "Perfection", Kagami shows how much she treasures her friendship with others, especially Marinette, her very first real friend. As she was saddened that Marinette kept avoiding her to the point where she hastily believed Lila in thinking if she didn't want to be her friend, she came to believe that, if she couldn't have Marinette as a friend, she would not be able to have any at all, what caused her to feel depressed and alone, leading to her akumatization. But after seeing how much her friends did care about her, she was able to break free from it. After her de-akumatization, a talk between the girls allowed Kagami to realize that having more friends doesn't mean the friendship is divided between them, but rather multiplies. It also allowed both of them to realize that even though they are from different social classes, they have the same problem: striving for perfection out of fear of not being good enough for someone else.
As shown in "Protection", because of the pressure placed on her by her mother to be perfect, Kagami has a hard time understanding and controlling her own emotions. Finding herself in a conflictive position as she loves both Adrien (romantically) and Marinette (as her best friend), but the two of them love each other, Kagami feels a lot of emotional pain, as she, despite wanting try to conquer Adrien's love, doesn't want to hurt Marinette and lose her friendship. Being unable to deal with her feelings, she represses them, leading her to become very vulnerable to the manipulation of others, like Lila, who was able to turn her against Marinette. After finally opening up to Adrien and Marinette about her feelings and allow herself to feel the sorrow she had been repressing, Kagami was finally able to find an emotional stability and be able to accept Adrien would possibly never love her the same way she loved him.
In "Emotion", it's revealed that Kagami, similar to Adrien, desires to have freedom to choose whatever she wants to do and break from her mother's influence. However, much like Adrien, she is unable to do so due to the expectations her mother placed on her during her entire life. But when Félix, as Argos, used Red Moon to make her mother disappear, she shows that, despite wanting freedom, she wants it in her own way and time as well as wanting to share it with those she loves.
In "Pretension", inspired by Marinette's decision to talk with Gabriel Agreste to solve any possible misunderstanding between them, Kagami finally stands up to her mother and tells her to stop controlling her behavior and that embracing her own emotions is not a weakness. After she is taken by Argos, Kagami shows how much she had evolved in terms of social interations, as she reprimended Félix for stalking and kidnapping her just so he could get to know her better. She also shows she had overcome her more judgemental side, as she came to learn more about Félix and understand the reasons that led to his actions.
The more she came to know Félix better, she came to fall in love with him and reciprocate his feelings. Now free from the internal conflict between winning Adrien's affections and keep her friendship with Marinette, Kagami came to realize the real meaning of Marinette's talk with Alya in "Perfection" and realize that her best friend was Ladybug. Through Félix, Kagami came to learn about Gabriel being the supervillain Monarch and her own mother was helping him. Realizing that she and Félix would never be able to be together as long her mother and Gabriel would keep on force her and Adrien to become a couple at the eyes of the public, the couple decided to trust on Ladybug (Marinette), revealing to her all the truth and hoping she would be able to put an end to Monarch so they could be together.
After Gabriel made his wish and Bug Noire came to free her and Adrien, Kagami showed skepticism over the superhero's decision to not tell Adrien about his father being Monarch, thinking that her love for Adrien was blinding her. This shows that Kagami was willing to accept the full extention of the consequences of the truth, even if that meant for her mother to face justice due to being Monarch's accomplice. However, due to both trusting and respecting Bug Noire, she decided to accept her decision to keep the lie about Gabriel being the hero that defeated Monarch for Adrien's sake. Also, inspired by Adrien's ability to change and challenge his own father and to also prevent Tomoe from using the truth about Gabriel being Monarch, Kagami decided to talk with her mother and try to help her change as well.
As Ryuko, she is very capable but a bit of a lone fighter as she tries to defeat Ikari Gozen on her own, both due to her innate perfectionism and desire to prove herself. However, she learns she can't handle everything on her own. Ryuko is understanding and respectful towards Ladybug, giving up the Dragon Miraculous indefinitely because of the fact that her identity was revealed to Hawk Moth which could lead to her loved ones being in danger, showing her protective and caring side. However, she is also a little revealing as she tells her mother in her akumatized form (and by extension to Hawk Moth) her identity. During her subsquent tenue as a superhero, Ryuko has showed to be quite competent, mastering her power quickly and effectively, being also able to make quick decisions to protect her teammates.
As Riposte, she was furiously obsessed with getting a rematch with Adrien and winning it, even if he was in no condition to fight due to his injured ankle, and she considered people that she viewed as not being good enough fighters unworthy, such as Ladybug. Riposte was also arrogant and didn't have a problem with outright attacking her opponents when they had no chance of defending themselves. Because of her obsession, Kagami had, without possibly knowing it, forgotten one of a competitor's true trademarks is good and true sportsmanship. However, despite this, she followed Hawk Moth's commands without question, even if they conflicted with her own goals.
As Oni-Chan, she was obsessed with tracking down Lila and getting her to renounce Adrien in order to have Adrien be hers.
As Lies, after Adrien continuously lied to her to go somewhere else, especially when she had lied to spend time with him, she decided to rid the world of lies, even if that meant paralyzing everyone else, including the ones she cared about, like her mother. It may have seemed that she had a black and white view about lies and the truth believing lies to be bad and the truth to be good but most know that it's not that simple.
As Ryukomori, she wanted nothing more than to reach complete perfection. In order to achieve this, she roamed around Paris to find the most serene place she could find where she would be able to reach perfection without being disturbed. Because she didn't want anyone to prevent her from finding perfection, she ignored everyone around her, especially because she was unable to see or hear anyone else. However, she was willing to attack anyone that tried to stop her.
As Riposte Prime, she, motivated by Lila's manipulation, became determined to "save" Adrien from Marinette's influence, believing the latter was deceiving him and everyone so that she could get him as a boyfriend, deciding to trap her inside of Shell-ter forever. Her obsession on her objective prevented her from hearing anyone that tried to dissuade her and she was also not above attacking anyone that tried to protect her target
Powers and abilities[]
As a civilian[]
Kagami is a very skilled fencer, thanks to intense training by her mother. She is so skilled that she even has stated that she's been considered the best everywhere she's went.
As Ryuko[]
Like all Miraculous wielders, Ryuko has enchanted abilities like speed and strength, and most notably agility, being able to jump much higher than either Ladybug or Cat Noir. Her weapon is her sword. She is a skilled swordfighter. Her special ability allows her to transform herself into three different elements: water, air, and lightning. Unlike with most Miraculouses' special abilities, which cause an under-aged wielder to start reverting back to civilian form after only one use, Ryuko can use all three elements before the countdown starts for her to revert to civilian form. However, should she be able to overcome the limiter failsafe on the Dragon Miraculous like Cat Noir and Ladybug did with their Miraculous through sheer willpower, she would be able to use special abilities repeatedly without the need to revert back to recuperate.
Biography[]
Season 1[]
None
Season 2[]
In "Riposte", Kagami is akumatized by Hawk Moth into the fencing supervillain Riposte after losing a fencing match against Adrien Agreste, who wants to kill Adrien in revenge. After she has been deakumatized, Adrien goes to give her her sai back and they apologize to each other. Kagami also seems to think that Adrien has a crush on Marinette, asking him if he likes her, although Adrien thinks she's talking about friendship. Her mother then comes to pick her up, and she tells Adrien her name before going with her.
Season 3[]
In "Animaestro", she is revealed to be enemies with Chloé Bourgeois, the wealthy daughter of the mayor of Paris.
In "Oni-Chan", Kagami is akumatized again into the phantom shinobi Oni-Chan after Lila Rossi sends her a photo of herself kissing Adrien.
In "Ikari Gozen", Ladybug gives the Dragon Miraculous to Kagami to help defeat her mother, who has been transformed by Hawk Moth into the supervillain Ikari Gozen by being fused with her self-driving car. Kagami meet Longg, the Dragon Kwami, who tried to explain to her about Ladybug's plan before she activates her transformation to Ryuko.
Miraculous New York[]
Season 4[]
In "Lies", Kagami gets akumatized again. This time as Lies, due to thinking that Adrien has been lying to her for not spending enough time with her, it's because of his secret heroic actions as Cat Noir.
Kagami becomes Ryuko again to help Ladybug against Risk and Strikeback in the season finale, but is overpowered by the Sentimonster until Ladybug is able to find a way to defeat both Risk and Strikeback. However, after she returns the Dragon Miraculous and Longg to Ladybug, Longg and the Miraculous are stolen by Felix Fathom and handed over to Shadow Moth, allowing him access to all of the Miraculous except for Ladybug and Cat Noir, leaving Kagami unable to help Ladybug and Cat Noir anymore as Ryuko, nor seek help from the rest of the French Miraculous Superhero Team.
Season 5[]
In "Jubilation", Ryuko is among the superheroes attending Ladybug and Cat Noir's wedding in the dream caused by Gift/Jubilation when they are fighting Darker Owl in reality.
In "Determination", to try and help restore morale to Paris because of losing Ryuko and the other heroes, Grevin Museum curator Veronique has a wax figurine of Ryuko made, alongside those of the rest of the team, in hopes of helping to boost hope. When Mayor Bourgeois, under Chloe's influence again, refuses to let the figures be displayed, Veronique is Akumatized by Monarch into Manipula, bringing the wax figures of Ryuko and the others to life to try and make Manipula look like a hero by bringing the team back.
At one point, when Kagami falls into despair, Monarch akumatizes her again into Ryukomori. However, the ring he infected with the akuma led to him being brutally confronted by Tomoe, warning Gabriel to never put her daughter in danger again, or their partnership will be dissolved, as he owes Tomoe everything regarding their master plan. Cowed, Gabriel promises not to akumatize Kagami again.
As part of their ultimate plan, codenamed Operation Perfect Alliance, Tomoe and Gabriel send Kagami and Adrien to London to keep them safe and out of the way of their intentions. Kagami is given transport back to Paris by Argos so they can show Marinette the truth of Felix and Adrien's origins, and hint to her who Monarch really is. However, when she returns to London, a furious Tomoe and Gabriel put Kagami and Adrien in solitary confinement to ensure they stay in London so they can complete their plan.
There's nothing Kagami can do until sometime after Gabriel sacrificed himself to end Monarch's threat and that of Operation Perfect Alliance in the season finale, "The Final Day". After Marinette recovers the Miraculous Gabriel had acquired, and with the help of the Miraculous Grimoire she recovered from the Agreste Mansion after her final battle with Gabriel/Monarch, she is able to restore the Miraculous back to their original designs, and to ensure no one can get all of them again, she returns Longg and the Dragon Miraculous to Kagami permanently, allowing her to become Ryuko again and join the rest of the French Miraculous Superhero Team to defend Paris from the threat of the new Hawk Moth in Lila Rossi/Cerise Bianca.
Miraculous London[]
Taking place during the final moments of "Re-creation (The Final Day - Part 2)", Kagami is still in her solitary confinement in London when Marinette, as Bug Noire, arrives to bust her out. Kagami reveals that she knows Marinette's secret, and Marinette reveals what happened with Gabriel/Monarch when he made his wish to Gimmi. When Marinette explains the cover story that she and Nathalie are going to spin to the public about Gabriel sacrificing himself to take Monarch down with him, Kagami worries about her mother Tomoe, as she was a willing accomplice/partner to Gabriel's mad schemes, which Marinette also knew about after being told of Tomoe's partnership with Gabriel by Nathalie. Not wishing to have Kagami be an orphan herself if Tomoe is sent to prison for life for her crimes working with Gabriel, knowing full well Tomoe might spill the truth as retribution for Gabriel's death and destroy Ladybug's reputation after she lied to everyone, Marinette leaves it up to Kagami to speak to Tomoe to convince her to seek atonement for her sins. They then go to free Adrien, helped by the Gorilla, Placide I.T., but as he breaks down crying over the death of his father, as now he's lost both his parents in Gabriel and Emilie, Kagami comforts him before thanking Bug Noire and tells her she should head back home as she's got a lot to do, and Bug Noire returns to Paris with a heavy heart over having told a half-truth to Adrien after promising Nathalie, and the late Gabriel, to never speak the truth to anyone, even Adrien.
Adrien and Kagami later return to Paris aboard the Startrain with the Gorilla, but while Nathalie and Tomoe are waiting for them, no words are exchanged between Kagami and Tomoe before Tomoe escorts Kagami away, presumably to speak to her in private regarding what Tomoe heard from Ladybug about Gabriel's death that she told the public and press. However, thanks to what Marinette told her, Kagami does have some leverage over her mother to keep her from exposing the truth to the public and destroying Ladybug's reputation in revenge, and can use it to convince her mother to seek atonement for her own crimes, which appears to have happened at the end of "Re-creation" when Tomoe took over Gabriel's brand under the surmise of "continuing his legacy", referring to his clothing line, and had the Alliance Rings destroyed and melted down into a statue to honor Gabriel, thus erasing any evidence of Tomoe's collaboration with Gabriel.
Season 6[]
Since the events with Gabriel's death and the end of his threat as Monarch, Kagami has been able to overcome the limiter failsafe on the Dragon Miraculous, and with Marinette's permission, is using it for other heroic acts when Paris is not being threatened by an Akumatized supervillain.
In "The Illustrhater", Ryuko is seen heading to a fire to put it out using her Miraculous, but just as she is about to do so, Ladybug, due to Marinette's paranoia about entrusting Paris' wellbeing to the rest of Team Miraculous when the city is not under threat from an Akumatized supervillain, interrupts her to do it herself, much to Ryuko's confusion and chagrin at having Ladybug try to handle it herself when Ryuko had it covered.
In "Daddycop", Kagami, along with Mylene, Rose, Juleka, Alya, and Zoe, are preparing for their weekly girls movie night at Marinette's, but Marinette had planned to celebrate her 100th kiss with Adrien that same night. When they notice Sabrina and how she had been alone since Chloé was exiled from Paris, they decide to invite her, through Zoe, to the movie night. Unfortunately, Marinette assumed they were okay with her inviting Adrien so she could still have her dinner date with him, and when Sabrina is heartbroken after Marinette told her the truth, when they learn of it, fearing for Sabrina's well-being, they rush to help and comfort her, but are confronted by her father, Lt. Roger Raincomprix, Akumatized into Daddycop by Chrysalis. Kagami is among the first victims of Daddycop to be brainwashed into becoming a zombie who loves Sabrina and attempt to chase her down to comfort her, but later, thanks to a group effort by Ladybug, Cat Noir, Pegasus, and Miss Hound, Kagami and the other victims are returned to normal, stunned and confused by what happened. Later, back at Marinette's, Sabrina apologizes for her sins when she was helping Chloé and hopes for a fresh start with the other female members of Team Miraculous. Kagami and the other girls reassure her Chloé is nothing but a bad memory for all of them now and Sabrina has a chance to truly be herself now and not be in the shadow of someone like Chloé anymore, giving Sabrina a group hug to show they are there to help her now. Later, Sabrina appears at school sporting a new appearance now that she can just be herself, and Kagami and the other members of Team Miraculous offer positive reactions to it.
Trivia[]
- "Ryuko" is the name of the protagonist from Kill la Kill, and Kagami and Ryūko Matoi even have similar color schemes, prominently featuring dark blue and red.
- Kagami is one of the few Miraculous characters to have their birthdays revealed, in her case, it is November 20, according to an official post in Marinette's Instagram account. Also, she is one of the few Miraculous to have their Chinese Zodiac sign and zodiac sign revealed, in her case, it is Dragon (in the English dub) and Scorpio (in the French dub), respectively.
- So this means that she was born on November 20, 2000, as the date is on the sign of Scorpio and on the Chinese Zodiac sign of Dragon. Also, she is stated to be 15 in "Ikari Gozen", which takes place on July 30, 2016.
- She is the seventh person to become to a Miraculous holder who was also an akumatized villain, following Nino Lahiffe in "The Bubbler", Alya Césaire in "Lady Wifi", Lê Chiến Kim in "Dark Cupid", Max Kanté in "Gamer", Chloé Bourgeois in "Antibug", Luka Couffaine in "Silencer", but excluding Gabriel Agreste/Hawk Moth, who akumatized himself in "The Collector" into the titular villain.
- While the name "Ryuko" can have many meanings in Japanese, it is most likely that the particular translation used here is “Child of the Dragon” (龍 "ryu" meaning dragon, and 子 "ko" meaning child).
- She is the second superhero whose civilian identity is known by Hawk Moth, with the first being Chloé as Queen Bee:
- Unlike Chloé, her identity is not known by the public.
- Using the Dragon Miraculous makes Kagami one of twelve Miraculous Users who's Kwamis represent the Chinese Zodiac. In her case, the Dragon.
External Links[]
[]
 Heroes
| ||
|
Miraculous Holders Allies Order of the Guardians Former Miraculous Holders New York Shanghai Re-Verse Kwamis Renlings Sentibeings Others Teams and Organizations | ||