Kyoko Sakura is a magical girl from Kazamino City, instantly recognizable by her long red hair tied in a high ponytail with a black ribbon and her striking red eyes. Her civilian look pairs a black crop top under a dark teal hoodie with denim shorts featuring fur trim and knee-high boots. Transformed, she wears a maroon dress with white accents, a black corset, thigh-high black socks, and red boots. A near-constant habit of eating stems from childhood starvation, fueling an intense hatred of food waste. Her past holds deep trauma as the daughter of a Protestant pastor excommunicated for heresy, plunging the family into poverty. To help, Kyoko contracted with Kyubey, wishing people would listen to her father's sermons. The wish worked initially, but backfired when her father learned its supernatural origin, driving him to murder Kyoko's mother and younger sister Momo before taking his own life. This catastrophe led Kyoko to embrace a self-centered philosophy, convinced helping others only brings pain. She abandoned her ideals of justice and severed her apprenticeship with Mami Tomoe. Their rift widened when Kyoko argued for ignoring familiars to conserve energy, opposing Mami's altruism. Kyoko's personality mixes abrasiveness, stubbornness, and a self-preservationist front with underlying kindness and fierce loyalty. Early portrayals show her as callous, willing to sacrifice humans to familiars for efficient grief seed gathering. She clashes fiercely with Sayaka Miki over ideology, advocating magical girls must prioritize survival. Yet, parallels in their wishes—both sacrifices for others—foster unexpected empathy. Protective instincts surface in spin-offs like *Oriko Magica*, where she rescues orphaned Yuma Chitose, shielding her from Kyubey and becoming her mentor. Her magic centers on a versatile spear capable of extending, segmenting into chains for binding or striking, and summoning lattice-like barriers for defense or containment. Her original wish granted potent illusion magic (*Rosso Fantasma*), enabling self-duplication, but this power faded after her family's tragedy due to her subconscious rejection of the wish's nature. Fragments resurface in *The Different Story* when reaffirming her bond with Mami. In combat, Kyoko favors aggressive close-range tactics, including a risky sacrificial technique involving a massive spear explosion. Kyoko's story unfolds across multiple timelines. In the anime, she moves to Mitakihara City after Mami's death, initially clashing with Sayaka before a gradual reconciliation. Witnessing Sayaka's despair transform her into the witch Oktavia, Kyoko renounces her selfish creed. She sacrifices herself by overloading her soul gem to destroy Oktavia, ensuring Sayaka "would not die alone." A previous timeline shows her killed by a mentally fractured Mami. Following the series, Madoka's universe rewrite resurrects Kyoko, who mourns Sayaka without recalling their past. *Rebellion* depicts her attending Mitakihara Middle School in Homura's fabricated world, showing a friendlier, less guarded side while cooperating with Sayaka against Nightmares. Their shared regret over unresolved friendship surfaces during Homulilly's defeat. Interim stories like *Wraith Arc* show her hunting wraiths alongside Mami and Homura, intervening to save Sayaka from emotional consumption. *The Different Story* details her apprenticeship with Mami, their ideological split, and her eventual self-sacrifice to secure a grief seed for Mami, partially regaining her illusion magic to prevent Mami's despair. Video games (*Magia Record*) feature brief alliances, like joining the Wings of Magius before rejecting their methods. Her witch form, Ophelia, appears in game media as a horse-riding entity wielding spear-like attacks. Additional traits include an aversion to crowds, proficiency in arcade dance games, and an inability to swim. Her name's kanji translates to "apricot tree" (杏子) for Kyoko and "help warehouse" (佐倉) or "cherry blossom" (桜) for Sakura.