Upon her introduction to the series Kagami’s main weapon of choice is a foil, a sort of light weight blunted fencing rapier. This is however possibly also intended as a pun, because her purpose in the narrative is also a foil.
A word repeated changes it’s meaning.
Kagami means “mirror” in Japanese and as is often the case in fiction, that name gives us some insight to what the writers intended when imagining her. In this case, she’s a mirror/foil to both our main protagonists. But since Marinette and Adrien are already a Yin Yang couple, built on complimenting and contrasting each other all the way down to having their color schemes be each other’s negatives. So how does she manage to mirror them both?
Well, where is the mirror between you and your reflection? Right in the middle. She shows each of them themselves, but with a little bit reversed.
A foil exists to provide contrast; When Marinette’s too afraid to make a move Kagami’s bold and rushes straight ahead, when Adrien struggles to disobey his father her strong and stubborn will stands firm, when Marinette’s trying to self sabotage her best friends day contest Kagami’s making an earnest effort with Adrien’s quirky friend who he suggested she might like, when Adrien and Luka are too stunned to help up Marinette she makes her move, when Ladybug has a plan for a stealthy escape Ryuuko boldly attempts to fight Ikari Gozen, when Marinette’s clumsy and disoriented Kagami’s athletic and skilled, and when Adrien is unable to effectively comment why he can’t always be present for her Kagami is able to express why that lack of honesty won’t work for her.
A silvery foil is what gives a mirror it’s reflective surface, the things reflected on the other side will still match.
The Cat and Ladybug miraculouses always find each other through fate? Well Adrien and Kagami were literally made for each other.
She high society like Adrien.
She struggles to communicate and express herself like Marinette.
Adrien’s an anime nerd? Kagami reads manga and bases relationship advice off of them.
Marinette hates liars? Kagami’s reason for breaking up with Adrien also led to her becoming an Akuma that embodies her hatred for dishonesty.
She revels in tiny bits of rebellion with Adrien.
She tries to capture the world around her through art and even sketches and paints in her spare time like Marinette, she even paints with Marinette.
She tries to wingman for Adrien with Marinette like how Marinette tried to help her back together with him
She’s burdened by familial expectations like Adrien
She had a helmet removal scene that was literally copied for Marinette, both even happen at the front of the school
Ryuuko’s fighting style matches Chat’s, her main color scheme matches Ladybug’s, and her civilian attire has a white overcoat with a black under shirt like Adrien’s that give a perfect white/black futatsutomoe (☯️) with Marinette’s black jacket over a white shirt.
She’s obviously visually inspired by Marinette’s overall design with her hair and even her freckles are more prominent on the opposite side of her face than where Marinette’s are(Kagami has more overall but her’s are mainly on the left side of her face while Marinette’s are on the right)
When Adrien’s only parent is his father she’s left with only her mother
When Marinette has several friends to fall back on Kagami feels alone and when Adrien feels isolated Kagami’s there alongside his other friends
When we start to get clues about who is a senti-being we get scenes of both Kagami and Adrien
Both Marinette and Kagami have arcs about setting their own feelings aside to support the other
Both Adrien and Kagami have their image co-opted by their parents for a soulless ai assistant copy of themselves.
She even counterbalances their heroics by having some of the most akuma forms and by being one of the fastest to reveal her own identity
A foil has many uses in a narrative, and by letting her be a counterpart to two protagonists at once it has allowed her to become one of the most dynamic and fleshed out characters in the show, even if a lot of that was in service of fleshing out other characters. Heck she even mirrors herself in ways, just look at how Ryuuko’s symbol flows counter to the Tsurugi family crest, she’s a break from tradition and what was intended for her.
I know I’m probably still forgetting things but I just wanted to have a little rant about how I love these themes.
Kagami is a mirror, she is a foil, a word repeated.
