The Tragedies, Survival, and Redemption of Sakura Kyoko (Part 1)

An innocent girl who made a wish to save her family; only to have them destroyed by that very wish.

As the sole survivor of the inhumane  actions performed by her self-destructive father, Sakura Kyoko transformed from an innocent child to a powerful Mahou Shoujo who learned the secrets of staying alive in this dark and cruel world.

For Kyoko, love, courage, and honor become nothing but the meaningless imaginations of a disillusioned child. What matters in life are not the illusions of a naive fairy tale, but the survival of the fittest.


Kyoko Sakura can be considered a tragic hero even before her initial appearance in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. This is for the three major reasons of being a tragic hero:

As a young and loving girl, she saw her father as well as her entire family suffering and struggling to survive on the streets. She wished with all of her heart that she could do something so that their suffering would end, a wish that can be considered very noble by society.

Kyubey showed Kyoko  a way to make a noble wish and dream come true. Could we blame Kyoko for making such a naive and foolish but innocent wish that was full of nobility and love for her family?

However, it is obvious that foolishness lay right behind her wish, or rather right next to it. She told her father about the wish and he fell into despair, which resulted in the destruction of the entire family.

The nobility behind her wish was thus removed, and her fortune was reversed entirely.

One would expect that such a young and innocent Mahou Shoujo would fall into despair as and become a witch at that very moment. However, due to unverified reasons, this did not happen. The clearest answer could possibly be found in her harsh survival experience so early in her childhood, as well as her experience in seeing her wish to help others destroying them instead; both of which  perhaps caused her to see the cruelties of the world, which resulted in some sort of character transformation.

And so, the present character that we see as Sakura Kyoko was thus created.

And because her new character was created based on survival, (as well as her wish), the concept of survival could be found in every one of her actions from that point on. This characteristic I speak of is the ability to accept the situation that is laid before her for what it is and to execute the most efficient action to achieve survival without regret.


Kyoko has the ability to accept any situation laid before her and to come to terms with the actions that she makes in order to achieve survival without regret. 

In this sense, Kyoko can actually be considered to be one of the most powerful Mahou Shoujo in this series.

(Not to mention one hell of a human being.)

If regret leads to despair, which leads to turning into a witch, then Kyoko's most powerful aspect can be considered to be her ability (and perhaps talent) of survival, because regret is a term unknown to her.

Kyoko, therefore, has the special ability of survival. 


Basically, there are three main reasons for Kyoko's strength (survival).

1) Her childhood made her sensitive to life, and gave her the experience of clinging to life by a thread during  her family's times of poverty and neglect.

2) Her wish was based on the her family's survival.

Kyoko's family was brought down to poverty because no one accepted her father's teachings at his church. If people accepted her father's teachings, the family would gain enough wealth to stop struggling to survive on the streets.

3) She learned during her tragic childhood from her experiences as a street child, the daughter of a self-destructive man, and as a Mahou Shoujo that the key of survival comes from the acceptance of one's actions, whether or not they were foolish and brought ruin to others.

She came to realize that as long as an individual never regrets his or her actions, he or she will never fall into despair and will thus always focus on surviving, which she came to believe to be the most valuable thing for a human to hold on to.


Kyoko's ability to come to complete terms with all her actions is almost impossible for human beings, who are beings that have a great desire to live in the past and to regret their actions.

But is Kyoko's strength something to admire?

While it is rare for people like Kyoko to exist in this world, it is not impossible. In most cases, people like Kyoko are actually egoist people who are sometimes even sadistic. After all, if the goal of such people is to survive, then they would do anything they can in order to ensure their own survival. And referring to the sadistic kinds of people, they even find pride and pleasure in seeing that they can survive while others cannot.

And if the main goal is survival, and the ends justify the means, then committing unspeakable acts isn't something to be avoided.

"You know what the food chain is, right? I'm sure you learned about it in school. Witches prey on weak humans and we prey on the witches. That's the way the world works, isn't it? - Kyoko Sakura, Episode 5. 

Such is the philosophy explained by Kyoko Sakura herself as she enters the scene in episode 5 and explains to Sayaka her reason for not killing familiars, regardless of the fact that despite being a weaker form of evil, familiars can actually hurt and kill humans just like witches.

According to this philosophy, once a girl becomes a Mahou Shoujo, she is no longer human, but a seperate being labeled as "Mahou Shoujo". Therefore, human virtues are not to be held by a Mahou Shoujo.

Therefore, if this certain food chain exists, Mahou Shoujo should not even think about saving humans, because doing such a thing prevents a Mahou Shoujo from "eating" according to her proper place on the food chain. In fact, such a thing is foolish and illogical because it does not even follow the logic behind the food chain in the first place.

In the eyes of noble justice however, which is represented  by Miki Sayaka, such inaction towards the relationship between witches/familiars and humans is unspeakable and evil.

Noble justice is not the only thing Kyoko is unaware of because of her focus on survival. Because of Kyoko's philosophy, she ignores things such as love, courage, and honor towards others, not only because she considers herself not to be human anymore, but because such virtues are typically obstacles that stand in the way of survival for any type of living being.

"There's an easier way to make a guy you fell in love with yours, use that magic you worked so hard for. Rush in there right now and break his hands and legs so he'll never be able to use them again. Make him totally helpless without you. Then he'll be yours... body and soul." - Kyoko, Episode 6.

Because Kyoko defines survival as key, all things that would stand in the way of her survival are neglected by her. "True love" is just one example, as shown in the quote above.

For a moment, most likely just to antagonize Sayaka, Kyoko put herself in Sayaka's shoes and spit out what she would do if she were in Sayaka's place.

If, for some reason, she felt that she needed to have a person she "loved" by her side, then she would ensure it, no matter what the cost, in the same way that she would ensure her own survival, which is to make the ends justify the means by using whatever method possible that is most efficient.

Going over to Kamijou Kyousuke just after he healed and breaking his arms and legs would definitely be the most highly successful method in making him fall into utter despair and helplessness. If that happened, Sayaka could visit him all she wants, and have him all to herself.

Obviously, this is based on Kyoko's beliefs, which are based purely on survival at the time. It is not based on love, courage, honor, and justice. Such things are easy to consider as inefficient in the eyes of survival, because they are things that are full of risks.

In a way, Kyoko is a very logical type of person; the type of person who looks for the fastest and most efficient way to accomplish a goal.

Kyoko hated Sayaka.

Why do I say this? This is because Kyoko saw her old self in Sayaka, who was currently making the same mistakes as Kyoko did when she was a child. The mistake I speak of is using the magical powers of a Mahou Shoujo to make a wish/miracle for someone else.

Kyoko learned of this fact when she saw Sayaka's virtues for the first time during their first encounter in the dark alley during Episode 5. If Sayaka were a Mahou Shoujo without these virtues, Kyoko most likely would have killed her silently behind her back, since she wanted the town for herself.

However, when Kyoko saw that Sayaka was chasing only a mere Familiar, she grew curious and decided to question her instead. And what Kyoko learned about Sayaka after hearing her words made Kyoko hate her.

Kyoko saw herself within Sayaka and hated her, because she hated herself. We see this because Kyoko attempted to kill Sayaka twice in the story, once in Episode 5 during their first encounter and again in Episode 6 on the bridge, when Homura was taking too long to get rid of Sayaka peacefully and quietly.

Why exactly did Kyoko hate Sayaka, and what did she see within her?

Sayaka has a flaw that Kyoko could see from the first time she met her. Sayaka made a wish for another person without first understanding that person, (and not even herself in Sayaka's case).

Kyoko, before attempting to kill her, tried to reveal Sayaka's flaw to herself, (although in the form of antagonizing her), but due to Sayaka's stubbornness and hotheadedness, she refused to heed Kyoko's words, which did indeed have truth behind them despite the sadistic appearance. Sayaka ignored Kyoko's warnings since Kyoko represented the most vile evil of all things in the world within Sayaka's eyes, (even more vile than Witches).

Kyoko, seeing that Sayaka was a fool who represented her own past self and refused to listen to her own words of advice, thus tried to kill Sayaka twice. However, we see something unusual happen in Episode 7.

This unusual thing is Kyoko's action to talk to Sayaka peacefully. In Episode 7, we see Kyoko take Sayaka  to her old man's church and tell Sayaka of her childhood.

Thus, she told Sayaka of her past mistakes and follies, which were the same mistakes Sayaka was currently making. In the eyes of Kyoko and the audience, this is generally regarded as an act of compassion from Kyoko to Sayaka.

But why this act of compassion?

Why did Kyoko try to help Sayaka?

It is impossible to understand this change of heart for sure unless Kyoko somehow tells us herself.

As we know, something happens to Kyoko's that somehow makes her seem different, which is especially seen in Episodes 7, 8, and 9. Instead of hugging to the belief that survival is the key to life, she makes a rash decision to save Sayaka, which is completely unlike her.

"This might make people think that I am a fool, but... I absolutely do not want to give up, until we know for sure that she can't be saved." - Kyoko Sakura, Episode 9.

Why the change of heart? What is the meaning behind this? What is the meaning behind Kyoko has a character?

I will look more into this in the next part of this post. Stay tuned!