Mitakihara High School Newspaper Club

Mitakihara High School’s Newspaper Club was founded by Koharu Shirahara at the start of her sophomore year, after an incident during her first year in which the school demanded she take down a blog containing her often critical reporting of the goings on on campus. The club’s true purpose, however, is to serve as a meeting place for the Puella Magi of Mitakihara High as they try to solve the various mysteries affecting the school and the city as a whole.

Hanako Sasaki

Age	16 (as of Part VI)
Occupation	3rd year high school student (as of Part VI)
Likes	plushies and cute accessories, video games, spending time with her parents, baked goods
Dislikes	being overstimulated, herself

Hanako, often called “Lily” by her parents, is a quiet, introverted sophomore at Mitakihara High and a member of the newspaper club. She usually speaks in a very soft, subtle tone, stuttering when she is overthinking or upset, either trying to find the right thing to say, or letting her thoughts keep her distracted. Though becoming a Puella Magi gives Hanako a significant boost to her confidence, she wishes for nothing more than to be left in peace. This desire, along with her loyalty to her friends and a growing dependence on Grief to cleanse her Soul Gem, occasionally cloud Hanako’s moral compass. She can be quick to deem others her enemy, and unafraid to lash out against those who would harm her friends. Nevertheless, Hanako continues to value careful consideration above all, often taking up a moderate position in contrast to Koharu’s staunch rationalism and Shinju’s flights of passion.

As a Puella Magi, Hanako fights with a rapier and has the power to control wind. Because of the complex nature of her wish, however, Hanako’s overall strength is highly dependent on how clouded with Grief her Soul Gem is. When her Soul Gem is entirely clean, Hanako can think so clearly she all but scares herself, yet the winds she wields are little more than a breeze. When her Soul Gem is significantly tainted, however, Hanako can hold herself against more experienced Puella Magi with ease, making her a force to be reckoned with. As she grows into mastering her powers and developing a keen sense of self-awareness, Hanako becomes able to channel the power of the Witch slumbering within her while retaining her sanity, a power she comes to refer to as “Venefica in Puella”. Even keen to grow as both a person and a warrior who keeps those she cares about safe, she is currently training to embrace a more proactive role in the fight against the dangers threatening Mitakihara, adopting the alias of “the Aria” as a part of Yui Arashi’s new generation of Conductors.

Koharu Shirahara

Age	17 (as of Part VI)
Occupation	3rd year high school student (as of Part VI)
Likes	puzzles, riddles, sweets, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, staring out of windows
Dislikes	sports, tea, school, wasted time, lies, authority, being underestimated

A student at Mitakihara High and the founder and president of its newspaper club, Koharu is an aspiring investigative journalist and an expert at chasing down (or creating) rumors about the mysterious disappearances and deaths haunting the city. Clever, inquisitive and intellectually gifted, Koharu’s curious nature and immense sense of justice often get her into trouble with school authorities. She tends to overthink things and is quick to make associations, especially when she claims to have a major stake in the situation at hand — which is almost always. Extremely blunt and headstrong to a fault, Koharu is quick to speak her mind and rather poor at displaying the correct emotional response to a given situation. 

Diagnosed with a developmental disorder at a young age, Koharu’s utilitarian approach to social interaction makes her a regular at the guidance counselor’s office and a pariah amongst her peers. Though she doesn’t mind keeping to herself, something within her craves the approval and appreciation of her schoolmates. Always desperate to prove her talents for journalism — especially to her mother, whom she idolizes — and help those fallen victim to injustice and lies, Koharu’s ambitions and passion for finding out the truth make her a valuable asset for anyone interesting enough to earn her trust.

Shinju Hayama

Age	17 (as of Part VI)
Occupation	3rd year high school student (as of Part VI)
Likes	furry animals, especially her pet chinchilla Kinu; studying gun makes and models, gymnastics, music
Dislikes	people who question or deisrespect the things she is passionate about, being bored

Shinju is a lively, outgoing transfer student and a member of the newspaper club, who moved to Mitakihara when her sister and guardian Kohaku, a sergeant in the JSDF, was transferred to a military base established in the city shortly after a mysterious incident four years ago. Hot-headed and loyal to a fault, she initially looks for meaning in her life through thrill-seeking and acts of petty delinquency — in spite of her unwavering respect for the military, which, as tensions between authorities and the people of the city grow more grim, often puts her at odds with the more skeptical Koharu. Like her clubmates, she is dedicated to doing right by people, even actively becoming a Puella Magi out of a sense of obligation to “do her part”. Unlike many of her peers, however, Shinju will not hesitate to do what she believes must be done in order to save innocent lives.

As a Puella Magi, Shinju has the ability to control and even become water, which she can use with great efficiency in both open combat and to take a more tactical approach. As a reliable ally to the girls who share her fate, Shinju comes to be known as the most considerate and level-headed member of the newspaper club, often arguing for common sense when her friends tend to overthink things. Her strongest relationship, however, she forges with Niko Segawa, whose all-consuming guilt towards Shinju eventually turns into love, which Shinju reciprocates. Shinju’s maturity and unwavering belief in the values she lives by eventually make her one of the first Puella Magi in Mitakihara to achieve Magia, which in her case manifests in the form of a gargantuan maritime creature she dubs “Sango” aiding her in battle.

Yosuke Nishioka

Age	16 (as of Part VI)
Occupation	2nd year high school student (as of Part VI)
Likes	photography, girls who don’t care about what other people think of them, Korean barbecue
Dislikes	philandering jocks, trouble, constantly having to clean his glasses

Yosuke is a bumbling and deeply self-conscious aspiring photographer who joins the newspaper club halfway through the school year, seemingly out of nowhere. With Koharu being quick to deem him an intruder, she refuses to give him the light of day — though as Yosuke gets inadvertently swept up in the club’s adventures, his resourcefulness and bravery slowly come to earn him the other members’ trust. This all turns out to be in vain, however, as Yosuke is secretly working together with the villainous Balancers, being led on by the belief that betraying his clubmates will bring back to girl he loves.

Eventually, it is another love that redeems Yosuke. Aware of his own folly and haunted by the guilt over the unintended consequences of his manipulations, he becomes hopelessly smitten with the girl he hurt most of all and desperate to prove he can be a better man. After undergoing many trials and tribulations in order to finally earn back Koharu’s trust, he eventually becomes both her romantic and investigative partner, and the both of them keep each other in check as often as they push each other o new heights.

While Yosuke’s main contributions to the newspaper club’s investigations consist of emotional support, he does possess an ace up his sleeve in the form of his camera, which was enchanted by the lingering will of his lost love, a Puella Magi named Junna Katou, and which allows him to see into the past of any person or object he has taken a picture of. His true strenbth, however, lies in being the group’s everyman, bringing a much-needed outsider’s perspective to their exploits, as well as a sense of honesty and kindness only a guy who’s been put through the ringer as hard a Yosuke has can provide.

Seia Yamano

Age	16 (as of Part VI)
Occupation	2nd year high school student (as of Part VI)
Likes	???
Dislikes	???

Seia is the easygoing and sardonic daughter of a high-ranking judge, who initially befriends Hanako through their shared membership of Aoi Hikarizaka’s sisterhood. After the sisterhood’s dissolution, she enrols at Mitakihara High School and joins the newspaper club as a reporter. Though she generally keeps to herself, she has a knack for saying the right thing at the right time and greatly enjoys saying things that throw her clubmates for a loop. On the other hand, she has a strong drive to prove herself and despises being seen as weak because of the visual impairment she was born with, which renders her functionally blind and dependent on a cane.

The more laid-back Seia might seem at school, the more intense of a double life she leads as a Puella Magi. Blessed with a heightened sense of awareness and the ability to compensate for her own lack of sight by plunging her direct environment into complete, impenetrable darkness, she pours many hours of her time every week into training as Yui Arashi’s gym, fueled by an intense desire to become stronger and master the unique sense sight her wish has given her. Through these efforts, she has become one of Arashi’s most stalwart and promising pupils, overcoming her insecurities to become a Puella Magi who remains composed even in the face of insurmountable odds.

Yasu Matsushita

Age	17
Occupation	3rd year high school student
Likes	Strong convictions, long runs in the park, worn-out sneakers
Dislikes	Intolerance, social media, ghost stories
Pastimes	Track and field, reading
Twitter	@MatsushitaYasu

Yasu Matsushita is a considerate, mature student of few words, who is initially introduced as Rui Tomatsu’s close friend, confidante and loyal enforcer. As a transgender girl, she has been faced with intolerance and injustice throughout her teenage years, which after Rui protects her from bullies, causes her to appreciate the girl’s resolve and dedication amongst those trying to bring her down. When Rui grows increasingly more unhinged, however, Yasu begins to realize that the friend she used to know is long gone, and when her resolve is revealed to be little more than a petty vendetta, Yasu comes to see the error of her ways and joins the Newspaper Club.

This decision ends up painting a large target on her back, however, when Rui is killed. Believing Yasu to be complicit in Rui’s many misdeeds, the bully’s former victims make Yasu their new target, which eventually causes Hanako and Shinju to clash with Chiemi Takahata, the Puella Magi who murdered Rui. Takahata’s defeat and subsequent arrest by the 6th Bureau does not quench the conflict, however, as the former members of Rui’s clique eventually turn to schoolyard bullying to vent their frustrations. While Yasu initially takes the harassment in stride, she ultimately decides to leave Mitakihara and move to Tokyo to start a new life.

As a highly skilled and experienced Puella Magi, Yasu wields dozens of daggers in conjunction with the power of telekinesis, yet is held back by a curious case of amnesia, that causes her to have forgotten what she wished for in the first place. Through her friendship with an older Puella Magi named Yui Arashi, Yasu eventually finds out that she wished to have her entire life rewritten to make it so she had been assigned female at birth. This revelation sparks a desire in her to discover herself anew, which adds to her decision to say Mitakihara farewell… for now.

Yosuke Nishioka

Yosuke Nishioka is a first-year transfer student at Mitakihara High joins the Newspaper Club soon after the end of summer, much to Koharu’s dismay. He has an interest in photography and, with his blunt and intrusive personality, seems particularly keen on pushing Koharu’s buttons. Is there more than meets the eye when it comes to this intruder?

Yuna Sakurauchi

Yuna Sakurauchi is Mitakihara High’s guidance counselor and a psychologist specialized in dealing with autistic children, who — much to Koharu’s dismay — serves as the Newspaper Club’s advisor. However, in reality, Yuna is an agent of the 6th Bureau, sent to infiltrate the school and monitor the Puella Magi there. For more information about Yuna Sakurauchi, check The 6th Bureau.