“Wanna beat up some monsters together? That usually makes me feel better.” ― Heartful Punch
Kokoro Aichi, magical girl title Heartful Punch (nicknamed HP), is a popular magical girl who found most of her success as a solo fighter, before forming a non-thematic duo with Undine Wells.
She attends Future's Promise and stays in the school-provided dormitories.
Biography[]
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Kokoro's mother, Mitsuki, was a magical girl called Moonlight Spear. Mitsuki became pregnant with and gave birth to Kokoro when she was 17 and still had her magical powers. Soon after Kokoro was born, her mother's powers flowed into her, leaving Mitsuki a normal young woman. HP’s powers got stronger when she became a magical girl because of her mother‘s power, and her eyes are colored blue because of this as well. HP's circumstances are largely unique among magical girls. Mitsuki and her parents (Kokoro's maternal grandparents) died in a monster attack when Kokoro was still an infant, and her father and his family took over her care.
Because of her mother’s power, HP knew that she would inevitably become a magical girl. She was determined to fight from a young age, because she wanted to help people and understand her mother better. HP greatly admires her mother.
HP lives alone in the Future’s Promise dorms. This is because when her powers first awoke, her father was terrified, and tried to convince her not to fight. However, HP was dead set on fighting, and they argued for a long time. When HP informed her counselor of her home situation, they offered to move her to the Future’s Promise dorms, and she accepted.
Heartful Punch is among the most popular magical girls, which is especially impressive considering she fights solo. For example, the magazine on the first page of the series has an article on her, she's been on various talk shows, has official merchandise, a manager, and numerous fans.
Fittingly, HP wears her heart on her sleeve. She's usually outgoing and friendly, but when she's upset it shows. HP also has a thing for nicknames, giving them to other magical girls (Snoozy and Curls) and even monsters.
She has a calico cat with green eyes named Kicks, who is the first mammalian pet seen in the comic. Although the boarding house she lives in does not allow pets, HP either does not know or does not care.
After the deaths of three of the members of Team Alchemical, she was one of the only people to offer emotional support to the grieving Undine, with the two eventually becoming close friends. She's also confessed to Undine that the reason she fights solo is that she is afraid to handle any teammates coming to harm because of her. She forms an unofficial, non-thematic duo with Undine, which becomes official at the end of Chapter 15. She and Undine also start dating at this point.
HP’s mother’s young pregnancy as a magical girl, and the CDD’s refusal to make information about magical girl pregnancies public, forced her daughter to think deeply about the culture surrounding magical girls and their work. HP believes that the reason the CDD does not make this information more widespread is that revealing this information would force the public to realize that magical girls aren’t the perfect, beautiful warriors they’re idolized as, and that the realization that magical girls are as flawed and human as anyone else means that they don’t exist to fight and die for the city.
Cube has confirmed that HP is not straight, and she is most likely either bi or lesbian, as she is shown to have a crush on Undine. HP has also dated Outrageous Lime in the past.
Appearance[]
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Kokoro is a tall, strong girl of Japanese origin with long, straight hair and bangs. Before she had the Dream, she had wavy black hair and blue eyes. After becoming a Magical Girl, her hair turned pink, although her eyes did not change color as she inherited the blue eyes her mother had had as a Magical Girl. Her pupils are heart-shaped and her symbol is a pink heart with an explosion in it, which is located on the back of her right hand.
HP's symbol.
When transformed, Heartful Punch's clothing transforms into a dress with a baggy, light pink top with a chest plate; a poofy skirt, a long scarf around her neck. Her top has detached, light pink puffy sleeves with purple cuffs. Although rarely seen, underneath her scarf is a narrow halter or choker collar matching the rest of her shirt. Her chestplate is pink, heart-shaped and purple rimmed, with matching shoulder pads. HP's skirt has a top layer with a pink, heart-shaped cutout between a lighter pink peplum. The bottom layer of her skirt is dark purple with a pink stripe at the bottom, is trimmed with light pink lace, and she wears dark purple shorts underneath. HP also wears dark purple, knee-length boots with light pink soles and pink, heart-shaped kneepads. Her boots also have long, light pink spats with dark purple buttons.
Her accessories include a pink and dark purple hair clip of her symbol on the right side of her head, a dark purple belt, thigh-high dark purple stockings, large pink gauntlets with pink wrist guards and heart-shaped pads on the backs of her hands, she wears light pink gloves underneath that have dark purple fingers. She sports a dark purple scarf, which loops thickly around her neck and flows out behind her, fading to very light pink. The end of HP's scarf is constantly in motion and forms a holographic heart that "spits out" smaller hearts behind it.
At some point in the past, HP adjusted her bangs from a rounder fringe to resemble angular lines of action.
When HP transforms at the beginning of Chapter 15, her shoulder pads have disappeared. This marks a subtle outfit change.
Relationships[]
Father - Kokoro's father works diligently to support their family, but the clash about her choice to become a magical girl. The prospect of HP fighting terrifies her father after the loss of her mother, Moonlight Spear to a monster. They frequently argued about the topic, and Kokoro eventually decided to move into a dorm to attend Future's Promise against his wishes.
Moonlight Spear (mother, deceased) - Mitsuki gave birth to Kokoro when she was 17, and still a magical girl. During her birth, Mitsuki' s powers depleted, and were given to Kokoro. While Kokoro doesn't remember her, she was very depressed about the absence of her mother. Kokoro greatly respects her, and was a large part of her deciding to become a magical girl. Kokoro is still in contact with at least one of her mother's teammates, Starlight Spear.
Undine (friend/girlfriend/partner) - The two initially met during an encounter while on duty, though Kokoro didn't know the tragic story of what happened to Team Alchemical at the time. The two would hang out during lunch and on duty, and Kokoro even offered to be part of an unofficial team with Undine. Kokoro encourages Undine to be stronger and not be so hard on herself, while slowly opening herself up in turn. HP's straightforward thinking and honest nature has endeared her to Undine, and they have become very close. In Chapter 11, when asked if she liked Undine, Kokoro got very flustered and defensive, dodging the question in embarrassment. At the end of Chapter 15, Kokoro asks Undine to team up officially, which Undine accepts. They also start dating at this point.
Miss Nasri (agent) - Kokoro's magical girl agent is a stern taskmaster, but she is ultimately deeply concerned with her safety and well-being in addition to her commercial success. She urges Kokoro to team up with Undine for their mutual safeties. HP's antics - such as suddenly changing her bangs - cause her agent no end of headaches.
Outrageous Lime (ex-girlfriend) - Kokoro mentions having dated Outrageous Lime "for a bit" in Chapter 17, before either of them were as popular as they are in the present. Kokoro admits that at the time, she was still too afraid to fight with anyone else. She also confesses that she found Lime to be "too hardcore" (while recalling one occasion where Lime used permanent marker to graffiti on school property). Presently while she is capable of fighting alongside Lime, Kokoro seems to be less comfortable conversing with her.
Trivia[]
- Kokoro, HP's real name, is Japanese for "heart". Her surname contains ai, the Japanese word for "love". [1]
- While the alt-text calls her fists "Lefty" and "Righty,“ Cube has stated that canonically HP calls her fists "Hopes" and "Dreams.”[citation needed]
- She cuts her bangs herself and admits that they look quite foolish before she styles them. She cut them to elicit a more actiony-feel with her look.[citation needed]
- Cube has said that Heartful Punch would be in Gryffindor.[citation needed]
- While she does not like vegetables, she is partial to beets.[citation needed]
- According to Kokoro, her costume used to have black in it during her angsty period when she was 13.[citation needed]
- Kokoro reveals to Undine that she takes anti-depressants and attends therapy.[citation needed]
- In Chapter 11, Kokoro is revealed to have developed a crush on Undine.