Makie Sasaki

is a fictional character from the manga series, Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, created by Ken Akamatsu. The 16th student in Japanese alphabetical order of class 2/3-A, she is the energetic (and rather childish) rhythmic gymnast and one of the more prominent of the Sports Girls in the class. Although interested in cute things such as teacher Negi Springfield, her encounters with him lead her to become connected to various magical and supernatural phenomenon without truly knowing anything going on. Her connections with Negi also drive her into occasional confrontations with fellow Negiholic Ayaka Yukihiro.

Character design
With Negima, Ken Akamatsu was able to create new characters and modify many characters and ideas he had originally created for previous works. Many characters were specifically created for this work, others (such as Asuna, Nodoka, Setsuna, Chisame and even Chizuru) are adaptations of previous ideas. However, sometimes a character is created for the project, but doesn't quite work out and has to be modified. Such is the case of Kozue Migara, the character Makie is derived from. Designed as "the lead heroine's (Asuna's) best friend", Kozue's purpose was to be a spunky, self-assured, confident female who would both be Asuna's friend as well as assist her along the way while having her own means of dealing with Negi. Her notable trait was being a girl who played lacrosse for Mahora.

Unfortunately, with the development of the series, Kozue's purpose slowly became obsolete and was removed. Konoka Konoe became Asuna's main best friend and roommate, a more relaxed personality that worked better in contrast. Likewise, her lacrosse abilities and some of her spunky personality were transferred to fellow classmate Sakurako Shiina. Yet from the mold of what remained of the original Kozue, the character known as Makie began to form. She was given an airheaded personality and a cuter appearance while her main athletic skill evolved into rhythmic gymnastics. By the time Makie was used for the series, she was significantly different from her original conception. The new character made a tremendous impact on readers. So much so that she easily won the first two popularity polls for the Negima! series before the depiction of other characters within the background of the manga and anime series took the spotlight.

Personality
Makie's greatest strength in ability is her athletics, particularly her abilities as a rhythmic gymnast. As a gymnast, her spirit is both the source of her strength and a significant weakness, as described by her coach, Ninomiya. Her training has given her superior reflexes and reaction time. But as amazing as her physical abilities are, Makie's mental abilities are lacking. Her test scores are the second lowest in the entire class and she is known as the "Baka Pink" of the infamous "Baka Rangers" (or Dummy Force in the FUNimation dub). Unlike many of the other Baka Rangers, which have other causes for their academic failings, Makie's weakness is solely due to her own airheadedness.

Since Makie is part of the rhythmic gymnastics team, she is also seen as member of the "Sports Girls", where she is friends and roommates with similarly athletically gifted students such as Yuna, Ako, and Akira. Early on, Makie is mostly seen alongside these girls and is a close friend to both Yuna and Ako. However, she also finds herself consistently paired off with Ayaka, who believes her as a rival for her own affections for teacher Negi. Unlike Ayaka's sisterly affection (with some underlying amorous intentions), Makie only thinks Negi's very cute, yet at the same time can recognize his maturity. Since she is several years older than him, she too believes this is more about being a big sister to her teacher instead of a romantic rival, yet she does get caught up in games and affairs to "win his heart," due to a fear that a girl who does get him might object to her wanting be friends with him. By chapter 288 however, Akira informs Negi that Makie's feelings have in fact become romantic.

Abilities

 * Gymnastic Abilities: While she is depicted a skilled rhythmic gymnast, she is particularly deft with the use of the ribbon, as she is seen most of the time holding this implement, whether in practice or in cases that do not need it. She even uses this ribbon as an extending arm, picking small things that are out of her reach. Several promotional materials and other scenes also show her expertise with the ball. It is unknown how she does with either of the three other implements in the sport: the clubs, rope and the hoop. Nonetheless, she won fourth place in a recent gymnastics competition before heading off with Ayaka's group to England.
 * Magical Ability: With Makie being able to perform the beginner's Fire Spell (chapter 212) and shrink and enlarge breast sizes (although It was in Yuna's dream/nightmare), there is a possibility that she has a talent for magic.
 * Pactio: Armatura Quinquiplex: (literally, "Five-Fold Equipped Girl"): Made with Negi in Chapter 289. Makie's Artifact is a set of five items.
 * Liberum Lemniscus is the name of ribbon. It has the ability to stretch to extraordinary lengths.
 * Bombus Globus is the name of the ball. When she throws it at a target, it creates a huge explosion.
 * Frango Stipes is the name of the set of juggling clubs. It seems to have the ability to multiply and float in the air. It can also increase in size and be used as a club.
 * Cleaving Ring
 * Capturing Rope

Plot overview
Makie finds herself being an active member of Negi's class from the beginning due to the circumstances she finds herself in. Immediately a member of the Baka Rangers, she participates in the infamous Library Island journey where she is forced to use her rhythmic gymnastic abilities to help the rest survive. However, her membership in the "Sports Girls" makes Makie just as active in other episodes. But Makie's most important initial usage is as a tool by Evangeline A.K. McDowell as part of her own plan to attack her own teacher. As the first "puppet" of the vampire's squad, she eventually infects the rest of the Sports Girls and are used as Eva's loyal servants until Negi subsequently defeats them. Makie doesn't completely remember her time as Eva's puppet, but does have some residual effects.

During the trip to Kyoto, Makie takes part in the "Kiss Negi" game organized by Kazumi, initially teaming up with Yuna before her capture forces her to ally with Ayaka. The two of them do split ways and end up "kissing" Negi, but merely end up with one of his paper clones giving them both "failed Pactio." She spent the rest of the trip mostly with the rest of the Sports Girls.

After Kyoto, Makie spends some quality time with Negi on her own as both reach a crossroads in their own training. As Makie is preparing for another of her gymnastic tournaments, Negi is training with Kū Fei in preparation to be trained by Eva. As the two of them assist each other in athletic training, she comes to understand his determination in getting stronger, enough to block even Asuna from assisting Negi during the culmination of his trials in fighting Chachamaru.

As the Mahora festival comes around, Makie does her own thing with the class and with some of her friends and rivals. Her primary positions included assisting in the class haunted house as well as showing off during a performance of the rhythmic gymnastics club. Her rivalries with Ayaka particularly comes into focus: both tries to seduce Negi into their section of the haunted house (Negi ends up with Akira) and are both forced to team up to take on the "hidden costume contest" (eventually won by Chisame). During the final day, she, Ayaka and Chisame all come together once again to assist in the final "Mages vs. Mars" battle but in an unexpected way: sucked inside the local network by the web idol's new Pactio, Ayaka and Makie use their own power to transform into "real magical girls" to be the muscle against Chachamaru's invasive creatures while Chisame secures it from Chao's influence.

Initially, Makie had no knowledge or influence of Negi and the new "White Wing"'s trip to Wales to search for his father. However, Ayaka announces that she would be going to the United Kingdom separately, and Makie is included in her party. She is the first person to find Negi's group near Tower Bridge. After enjoying the hospitality of Nekane's home and touring Negi's hometown, she secretly follows Negi and the White Wing toward the gateway to the Magic World, along with the other sports girls and Natsumi. After passing through the gate, she and the other Sports Club girls are detained by the Magic Country security force. They are caught in the crossfire in the fight between Fate's group and Negi's. Things go from bad to worse when Fate manages to finally destroy the magical gateway, causing a massive explosion of displacement magic. She along with everyone else are now scattered across the magical world. It has been recently revealed that she and Yuna have gotten jobs as delivery girls for a tavern and have witnessed "Nagi Springfield" (Negi in disguise), take part in a fighting tournament. Unlike Ako, Akira and Natsumi, Makie and Yuna are not slaves, and are in fact being well treated by the customers. Recently, they have arrived in Ostia, and have been reunited with Ako and Akira.

During her stay in the Magic World, it is revealed that she is starting to learn magic as she is able to perform the beginner's Fire Spell. She also shrinks Yuna's breasts and enlarges her own (though it was shown in a dream Yuna had). In chapter 260, the Kiss Kiss Carnival mini-arc, Makie is shown plotting with Ako and Yuna to make Pactios with Negi. She finally gets a Pactio in chapter 289.

During Ala Alba's battle with Cosmo Entelecheia, Makie along with other girls is forced into the battlefield by Dynamis, but manages to hold her own against Koyomi with Ako's doping. After the battle is over, she joins the group going to attack Fate, and successfully obtains the Great Grandmaster Key. Makie is later defeated and by Quintum, trying to slow him down to protect Natsumi, Nodoka and Asuna.

Epilogue She, like the rest of the class, assists Negi in saving Nagi and defeating the Mage of the Beginning. After graduation from university, she became the physical education teacher at Mahora Middle School. While gaining the frenetic support of her male students, she is still focused on Negi. She looks forward to going up on the days off in order to meet with her friends and Negi.

Mahō Sensei Negima! (1st Anime)
Makie generally keeps her story connection, her airheadedness, and her involvement as a Baka Ranger in the first anime series. Her Pactio artifact in the final episode is a ribbon that she wields like a whip.

Negima!?
Because of her relative popularity compared to the three other Sports Girls, she is depicted to be separate from them and instead is associated with Ayaka, who is also her roommate in this incarnation. Her title of Sports Girl number 4 is transferred to classmate Misora Kasuga, a track-and-field runner mostly depicted in the manga as a nun-in-training. Her specific pairing with Ayaka is because, at the time of the airing of Negima!?, the manga was already chronicling the third day of the Mahora Festival, and Makie was with Ayaka most of the time, aiding Chisame against Chachamaru.

Like in all television adaptations of the manga, she is the first student seen implied to be victimized by Evangeline while jogging. But soon after her encounter, Takamichi is able to heal her bite wounds even before Evangeline is able to control her.

While Makie tries to keep her typical cute, optimistic approach, she is stuck as the butt of many jokes in this series, much to her chagrin.

Since she shares the room with the Negi-crazy class president, Makie at times wears garments with her teacher's likeness on it. She reasons that Ayaka won't recognize her as a classmate if she refuses to wear them. The blonde later consistently belittles her for her lack of drive, exclaiming that "she fails at being Makie Sasaki" and making her further depressed. Her depression is marked by turning herself white and holding her pose for an extended amount of time. In one instance, she is able to hold a yoga pose while being depressed for an entire day, while everyone else is busy stopping a giant Evangeline. She even contributes to a spell that binds an Anya possessed Evangeline while still in the shocked depressed state.

Her bad luck also carries over to the Baka Ranger shorts. Over the course of the various Omake, Makie (as "Baka Pink") fails to finish her speech, gets squashed by a giant robot, turned into a servant, gets buried alive and even gets turned into a monkey by Satomi. Even when Baka Pink tries to do something good, it turns out wrong: using her ribbon to try and stop a time bomb set up by the enemy of the Baka Rangers, she ends up delivering it accidentally to them, blowing all of them up and temporarily killing them. A "trailer" for a Yukihiro Group-produced movie called "Yuke Yuke Baka Pink" is meant as her saving grace, but the movie itself is found not suitable for any audience (again as a reference to Ayaka and Makie's relationship).

Another unusual aspect of Makie in this series is her weird admiration of the frog-like character Motsu, whom she calls "father." She first becomes fixated with Motsu when she sees him sleeping in a convenience store cooler. Since then, whenever the two cross paths, Makie addresses him this way, even to the point of the frog accepting her as his "daughter." In the final episode, when Kazumi asks her why she calls Motsu "father," Makie shows her companions a photograph of her father and his dog, which has a resemblance to Motsu. She explains that she was young, whenever she came home and called out for her father, the dog was always the first to respond. Not wanting to make it look like a silly dog, she hence called it "father," a "name" passed to Motsu.

In the course of the series, only two of Makie's three Pactio forms are activated. In the "Suka incident," she turns into a monkey. In the final episode's Pactio invocation, she transforms into a blue-clad magical girl armed with a wand and a hoop (itself another tool in rhythmic gymnastics). Whatever powers she has, however, is unknown because she is busy accompanying Kazumi and Sayo around campus.

It is also of note that prior to obtaining her Pactio with Negi, she is among the second group of students possessed by a Dark Seed fairy that faced Negi and his seven partners.

UQ Holder!
Makie make a cameo appearance in chapter 42 and chapter 129 in the flashback as a teenage and adult.

Trivia

 * Popularity: 1st >> 1st >> 7th >> 8th >> 11th >> 9th >> 12th >> 11th
 * Makie's seiyu Yui Horie also voices Naru Narusegawa in Akamatsu's previous work Love Hina.
 * She won the first and second popularity poll despite not having a starring role yet.
 * Makie wins the 8th place of Mahou Sensei Negima! Mahora Girls' Jr. High Class 3-A Students Popularity Poll 2017.
 * Kagehisa Sasaki who first appeared in chapter 354 was actually Makie's younger brother.
 * Her obsessive behavior over Negi can rival that of Ayaka.
 * Good friends with Yuuna, Ako and Akira.
 * Makie was never appear in the UQ Holder! manga (Or just a brief cameo appear in a flashbacks), she is actually appears in the key visual of UQ Holder! anime, which seem like it is hinted she will appear in the later chapters or episodes of UQ Holder! series.