Chachamaru Karakuri

, is a fictional character from the manga series Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, created by Ken Akamatsu. The 10th student in Japanese alphabetical order of class 2/3-A, she is actually a robot invented by class mechanical geniuses Satomi Hakase (and possibly Chao Lingshen, though Hakase says she did the whole thing), as the partner for immortal vampiress Evangeline A.K. McDowell. Because of her connections, she is consistently found on the opposite ends of conflicts with teacher Negi Springfield, whether it is fighting alongside Eva or being programmed to assist Chao during her attempt to reveal magic to the world. But in actuality, Chachamaru is a machine who is trying to discover herself and her humanity, particularly with her own crush on her teacher.

Chachamaru is played by Mari Saigusa in the live-action television series.

Appearance
Chachamaru is a robot with a mechanical and magical power source created by Satomi Hakase and Chao Lingshen for Evangeline A.K. McDowell. She is essentially a technological golem. Despite her robotic parts showing very clearly, not many in her class actually seem to notice. She has described herself as an android, and at least once clarified this as "gynoid" (a female android).

As well as being Evangeline's partner (though not a Ministra Magi), she performs maid duties at the cottage they share on the Mahora campus. While Chachamaru displays few outward emotions, she spends most of her free time helping people and rescuing stray animals, including regularly taking care of stray cats, and is very popular with young children, who seem to know that she is a robot. She is also in the Go and Tea Ceremony clubs, but only because Evangeline is in those clubs as well.

Perhaps because of the magic used in her creation, Chachamaru begins to show human-like functions and emotions she was not programmed for, such as her internal gears increasing in speed during moments where a human's heart would beat faster, and even leaking lens-cleaning fluid from her eyes when she's upset. The most likely trigger for this seems to be that she started developing feelings for Negi Springfield after he stopped an attack on her when she was unable to defend herself, turning his own Sagitta Magica spell back on himself rather than hurt her. Chachamaru eventually rocket-punched Satomi, her own creator, out of embarrassment when she was about to tell everyone about her crush on Negi, and nearly resulted in a complete breakdown of her cognitive abilities.

Chachamaru's body is powered by an internal spring combined with magic. In order to function normally, she requires a mage (or at least someone who can control magic) to "wind her up" with a spring key once a day while channeling a little magical power into her.

The process involves using a large key which is inserted into a slot in the back of her head. This seems to give her the sensation of making a Probationary Contract with the person winding her. The force of the winding and the amount of magic given to her can dramatically alter the intensity of the sensation to levels bordering on sexual to orgasmic pleasure.

Models and Upgrades
Chachamaru can not grow or physically change on her own accord due to her robot body. However, due to the consistent research of her co-creator Satomi Hakase, Chachamaru's physical form and abilities can be altered thanks to upgrades and model changes.


 * Teenage Body v. 1: The primary physical body used by Chachamaru, giving her the appearance of a tall middle-school student. This form is noted for the appearance of more mechanical joints and pronounced "machine ears" (of which Chisame immediately identified her as a robot instead of an ordinary student in the class). The ears were upgraded to a more streamlined look a while before the Mahora Festival.


 * Young Body v. 1: As her teen body was being upgraded for the trip to Wales (as Eva's representative in the White Wing), Chachamaru is forced to reside within the body of a younger-appearing form. The new form features shorter hair (that resembles exactly as Ku Fei's hairstyle without the buns), and has realistic 'human skin' coating which hides her joints, and the machine ears are usually held in a more horizontal position, though they can still straighten to point upwards when needed. Satomi originally intended for this body to be the permanent upgrade from the Teenage Body, but Chachamaru's preference for her original look began Satomi's overhaul of the Teenage Body into v. 2. Eva is currently using it as a replacement for Chachamaru.


 * 10-Year-Old Body v. 1: A second body offered by Satomi during Chachamaru's waiting period, this one is more designed similar to a ten-year old girl. It is the even younger version of Younger Body v. 1, only with longer hair just past the shoulders. It also has the same ear position. Chachamaru has recently been forced to take on the appearance of this body to disguise herself in the Magical World. This was accomplished thanks to Eva's powerful illusion magic though and not her actual younger body. How this affects her abilities is yet to seen, though her badge detecting sensor is unaffected.


 * Teenage Body v. 2: As Chachamaru returns to a teenage form, she has been given several upgrades to her physique. The special skin in the younger body has been added and her joints are no longer noticeable compared to before, making her virtually identical to the other girls when naked, excepting joints on her shoulders. The ears are usually held vertical like the original Teenage Body. For combat and defense, her arms can be reconfigured into weapons, such as a blade or gun. Furthermore, Satomi increased the size of Chachamaru's bust, allowing her to appear more adult or seductive. Satomi also added a longer lasting "magic battery" of sorts allowing Chachamaru to be wound up once every 24 hours instead of every 12 hours. However the "battery" is drained faster while when in combat situations due to her transforming arms and increased magical output.


 * Adult Body v. 1:

Plot
Although initially appearing silent and merely on the sidelines when Negi arrived at Mahora, she began to become a nuisance to Negi at the very moment Evangeline made her move against the son of the Thousand Master. While fighting against a vampire was one matter, fighting against both a vampire and her robotic servant made even more trouble for Negi as he began to doubt his ability and start his own search for a Ministra Magi to assist him. This would lead towards Negi making his first Pactio contract with Asuna Kagurazaka, who would take over fighting against Chachamaru while he took on the vampire. Yet even during this initial encounter, the boy teacher discovered the robot student was not as evil as she appeared, showing her helpful and kind nature even while being both Eva's servant and a threat to himself. After the battle, Chachamaru chose to stay by her master's side instead of going to Kyoto, only appearing as backup for Evangeline during her battle against Fate Averruncus.

Despite her assisting Negi in Kyoto, Graf Herrmann declined to go after her, lest he risk drawing the attention of Evangeline, whom he wanted to avoid. Even so, she, Evangeline, and Kaede Nagase, who avoided being kidnapped, did discover his presence, but held back, preferring to see if Negi and Kotarou Inugami could handle the situation themselves. She attended the Mahora Fighting Tournament, where she performed match commentary with Kaoru Gōtokuji (providing useful exposition for readers), and performed a Tea Ceremony for Negi afterwards. She supported Chao's plot to reveal magic to the world, perhaps because of her affiliation with Satomi. She often asks for forgiveness from Negi whenever there is a confrontation between their sides. Before Chao leaves for her own time, she tells Chachamaru that she is now 'a free unit', able to live her life as she wishes. This apparently means that she cannot be ordered to do something she doesn't want to by either Satomi or even Evangeline (or at least not without a good reason).

During the Mahora Festival, Chachamaru slowly became friends with reclusive classmate Chisame Hasegawa, whether she wanted to or not. Considering Chisame's own aggravation initially in that one of her "child teacher's" students is a robot, Chisame is approached by Chachamaru as she drags her into the thought of the existence of magic as well as clues her in on the plot of Chao Lingshen regarding the tournament and ultimately the entire Mahora Festival. Yet amidst these comments, Chachamaru also gets into a heart-to-heart with the hacker classmate regarding the feelings the two of them have towards magic and Negi as well as the possibility of becoming a partner with their teacher. While Chisame scoffs at these comments at first, she eventually is forced to fight against the robot with a Pactio hacking ability during the final day of the Festival, along with Ayaka Yukihiro and Makie Sasaki playing as magical girl characters. Chachamaru's role at this point was as the main maintenance of the computer networks, taking control of the Mahora network and preventing any interference for Chao's plans. Once the master was defeated, she unconditionally surrendered to Chisame, much to her classmate's dismay after fighting so hard to get the magical barrier back online.

Besides Evangeline and Chisame, Chachamaru's closest connection is with her co-creator Satomi Hakase. The scientist is always watching over her creation, making sure she is running at a sufficient level and monitoring her physical and mental actions. However, the development of the artificial intelligence of the machine, through her interactions and relations to Negi and the other classmates, makes the junior scientist obsess in discovering the latest developments and evolution of her creation. Though Satomi is constantly upgrading and improving on Chachamaru's systems, some of her modifications leave much to be desired (such as having an umbrella-like heat plate so she can wear her hair up without overheating).

Chachamaru is the latest in a series of androids. A number of other androids, previous models in the series, work for Evangeline as maids, and refer to Chachamaru as their little sister. When Chao Lingshen was excuting her plan to change the future, Chachamaru was one the villians help Chao complete her mission. That is thanks to Evangeline, Chao burrow Chachamaru. During the final battle of the Mahorafest war, a number of other female-styled androids, as well as an advance combat body designed for her fitted with a basic combat AI were sent out to slow down Negi and his group as they tried to reach Chao. Some time after the festival, Chachamaru has been transplanted into a smaller body, while her original is being overhauled. The new form features shorter hair (that resembles exactly as Ku-Fei's hairstyle without the buns), and has realistic 'human skin' coating which hides her joints, (Satomi also has a 10-year-old version available, in case Chachamaru wants to interact more closely with Negi). Presently, she's using a version of her normal body, but with the features of the upgrade versions. Chachamaru also seems to develop an attachment to Chisame as she often "arrests" her to join Negi's new "club" meeting. As the new Ala Alba group prepares to leave for Wales, she is returned to her original body after the overhaul is completed. At present, she will be accompanying the group in her master's stead, (since Eva cannot leave the school due to the curse), and will collect any information concerning Negi's father. After entering the Magic World, she witnesses the attack on Negi by Fate but could not do anything to save him. After the entire party is scattered to all corners of the Magic World by Fate and his team, she and Negi end up together in the midst of a jungle area of the world, where she takes care of her teacher, shows him a map of the whole Magic World with their current location and assists him in trying to find the others. She also asks Negi to 'wind her up' with a spring key to reload her energy. Recently, she has had to "downgrade" herself into a "younger" body in order to disguise herself.

While Paru tried to force her and Sayo to make pactios with Negi, she initially declined because she is a robot and was afraid that she didn't have a soul which is required for a pactio. She has since given in though, was able to complete the pactio with Negi after all. At the moment she is in combat with the Fire Fate “Quartum”. This has led to her major destruction. It is shown that she has been broken into two parts and has been jabbed by fire javeline magic. Later on, Haruna and Chachamaru return to the real world. Satomi sees Chachamaru and tells her that a new body and soul may be hard to create with just of her memories. Chachamaru was soon shown to be fixed and took part in the gathering of the entire class 3-A in order to awaken Asuna.

After school begins, Fate Averruncus entered 3-A's class, much to everyone's surprise and she prepared her artifact along with the other students thinking that he would attack them.

After class, she was seen to be pleasuring herself in her house until Evangeline returns. Evangeline congratulated her and leave her alone but Chachamaru stopped her from leaving and asked her for not mentioning this matter to Negi. Evangeline comments that there no one in class other than Chachamaru for helping Negi in his plan which a normal human would drop dead due to its killer schedule. Evangeline also mentioned that Fate wouldn't do anything, Asuna is an idiot and Negi could probably used a 'secretary' even though he worked inhumanly hard. Chachamaru was soon shown feeding the cats, while she was worried about Negi and she wished that she will help him. She soon daydreams about Negi and her as his 'secretary' working together not knowning that the real Negi, Chamo and Asakura are standing behind her. After coming to her senses, she immediately became embarassed after seeing Negi's face and being teased by Asakura. Chachamaru thinks about that this is her only chance to help Negi and worked up her courage asking Negi. He was about to refuse only to be stopped by Chamo and Asakura. After recalling Chao's words, she said that she wants to do this because this is the path her heart desires. Negi told her that his plan will take a long time and will be difficult but he gave her a chance to which she immediately accepts. She, like the rest of the class, assists Negi in saving Nagi and defeating the Mage of the Beginning. She worked for many years as Negi's secretary. It could almost appear that she has grown from being Evangeline's robotic servant into her own individual person. She became the portotype to the humanoid robots needed in the harsh environments of solar system development. She certainly did get wound up every day.

Natural Abilites
As a mechanical android designed to act as a combat partner for Evangeline, Chachamaru is equipped with several devices, ranging from Bind-Cancellers (to undo Binding Circles), laser emitters in her eyes, magic-powered thrusters on her legs and back, retractable rocket fists, in addition to upgrades and additional equipment provided by her creator Satomi Hakase.


 * Chachamaru's thrusters allow her to fly, however she can only do so for 15 minutes before needing to recharge.
 * Chachamaru is an expert hand-to-hand combatant on par with some of the best fighters in her class. Following an upgrade after the Mahora Martial Arts Tournament her abilities were further enhanced allowing her to perform more advanced techniques such as Instant Movement.
 * Due to her own A.I. and computer programming, Chachamaru has the ability to interact and connect with other computer networks with ease, allowing her to hack and control even the Mahora computer systems.
 * Her latest upgrade now allows her to transform her arms into large swords or guns, though this will tear the sleeves of her clothes apart and has a tendency of draining her magical "battery" rather quickly.

Pactio Abilities
While Evangeline A.K. McDowell's Ministel Magi, Chachamaru later formed a Pactio with Negi Springfield.

Pactio: Pupa Somnians (literally, "Dream Doll"): Her Pactio Artifact due to this partnership is the Type-2130 Chao Bao Zi Satellite Support System: Al-Iskandariya (aka "Flying Cat") which, in combination with a laser designator allows her to call down a large-scale orbital strike from the satellite's laser cannon.

Her Pactio uniform and weapons all possess a cat theme possibly due to her love of cats.

The satellite is a very curious construct, as it can exist in either worlds, and attack with a huge magic beam, capable of obliberating the biggest shadow construct ever summoned, and tunable down to the setting 'stripping clothes'.

Character Design
Since his initial manga series A.I. Love You, Ken Akamatsu has been experimenting with the concepts and ideas of what makes a human through the usage of artificial and mechanical characters.

In A.I. Love You, the lead character developed several artificial intelligence programs that grew and evolved into their own persons after breaking through into the real world. Akamatsu's next series, Love Hina, brought in the concept of robotics, particularly through the character Kaolla Su and her multiple robot versions of Tama-chan.

Chachamaru originated as the logical combination of both subjects, a robotic humanoid with artificial intelligence who gains real feelings and begins questioning wether she is a "real person" or not.


 * Early concept sketches also showed the possibility of a nuclear power source, but it is unconfirmed if that was used or dropped for her final design.

Mahō Sensei Negima! (1st Anime)
Chachamaru seems a bit more robotic and for the first few episodes only says "Yes, Master" when speaking to Evangeline. While with many of the functions and abilities held in the manga, she was also equipped with an aquatic mode, which allows her to swim on the surface of water like a speedboat. Furthermore, she can launch mini-missiles and other kinds of ordinance. In Episode 9 of the original anime, a Battle Model android with the same style head as Chachamaru and a tank-like body is shown being worked on by the Robotics club. It is shown to have missile launcher. The tank-like body is very similar to that of the RX-75-4 Guntank from the Mobile Suit Gundam series.

Negima!?
Initially, Chachamaru remains by Evangeline's side during her master's reign of terror on campus, protecting and fighting for her. But once again like the manga, she is forced into combat with Asuna after the redhead becomes Negi's first Pactio, leading eventually to Eva's defeat. However, Chachamaru isn't completely invincible: after her first encounter with Negi in battle, she nearly malfunctions forcing Satomi to spend time on various repairs to make sure she was ready for her next assault on campus. While not much of an important action, Satomi notes that the care for her robotic partner shows that Evangeline isn't as heartless as she claims.

Chachamaru spends most of the series by the side of Evangeline, assisting her both in battle and in the preparation of tea or noodles alongside Takahata. Although she is loyal to Eva, she isn't afraid to interact with others or show her feelings or fight for either her teacher or for her master. After Evangeline is possessed by the master of the Star Crystal and subsequently possess Asuna, the robot is forced to fight the redhead once again, with the tide of her alliance forced to change for this battle. Though Chachamaru is knocked down at one point, repairs by Satomi makes her more battle ready for combat in her rematch with the redhead. After victory, Chachamaru becomes the final pactio of the series, stealing a kiss from Negi without warning

Although she does gain Pactio with Negi, the only release of her abilities was in the final episode, where she was placed in a pink mechanical coverall Cosplay outfit and watches over the doll-like transformation of her vampiric master. However, viewers do see Chachamaru in her Suka form in a strange omake after the "Suka incident", where she suddenly turns into a giraffe.

As an added note, she makes every effort to hide her joints that are visible when she is naked. She wears thigh-high socks to hide her leg joints and gloves to hide the joints in her hands. Her summer uniform also includes a long-sleeved (rather than the usual short-sleeved) blouse to hide her arm and shoulder joints. This is like wearing her normal spring/winter uniform, but without the blazer and with the green necktie typically worn in the summer months.

UQ Holder!
As described by Nagumo towards Karin while explaining Touta's Magic Magia Erebea, seems that Chachamaru was, at least for a short time, a founding member of UQ Holder or has at least confederated with them for a while.

Chachamaru's Pactio, Al-Iskandariya, reappears in chapter 37 of UQ Holder.

Chachamaru makes her actual appearance in chapter 95 as the caretaker for Ayaka.

Trivia

 * Chachamaru was first constructed on January 3rd, 2001, although she was not activated until April 1st on the same year.
 * Popularity: 11th >> 19th >> 18th >> 10th >> 9th >> 17th >> 11th >> 23rd
 * She can "cry", but the "tears" are actually the lens-cleaning liquid
 * Unlike Eva's puppet-partner, Chachazero, Chachamaru is very polite even to her enemies
 * Since she's very attentive to the elderly and children, she's very popular in the neighborhood
 * While identified easily due to her trademark mechanical ears, outsiders initially assume her to be an avid cosplayer and do not suspect her to be an actual robot.
 * Chachamaru's last name, Karakuri, is the Japanese word for "machine" or "mechanism". The cha in her name also uses the Kanji for "tea".