Sasami Iwakura

Sasami Iwakura (岩倉砂沙美 Iwakura Sasami?) is a magical girl, and the lead character of the spin-off series Sasami: Magical Girls Club.

She is a bubbly girl that was born with magical powers which she uses only in secret because she is forbidden by her parents to use them. However, circumstances push her to reveal her magical side, and befriend other magical girls. Thanks to Washu's guidance she ends up joining her school's secret magical girl club under the guise of it being a "cooking club" , along fellow magical girls Misao, Makoto, Anri, and Tsukasa. Eventually she ends up unraveling a secret conspiracy in the magical world with her at the middle of it all.

Like its tradition with Tenchi Magical girl spin-offs, she is the foil and the exact opposite of her best friend Misao, named Misao Shinohara in this version. Despite being a magical girl, in this universe Sasami doesn’t use the Pretty Sammy identity.

For Sasami Masaki Jurai, the original Tenchi Muyo! character, see Sasami. Also compare with Sasami Kawai, aka Pretty Sammy, Sasami’s other magical girl variant.

Background

All magical girls are descendants of witches who remained in the human world, inheriting magic from their magical ancestors. However, Sasami is a partial exception because her father, Ginji, is a storyteller. Despite hailing from the magical dimension, he was born without magical powers.^[1]

Ginji told Sasami that a distant ancestor of hers was a witch, explaining her magical abilities^[1]. However, the truthfulness of this statement is questionable. Ginji concealed he had gained magic powers due to his proximity from the Great Cauldron during his time guarding it. He suspected the cauldron could also affect other people, regardless of distance, when opened. His fears were seemingly proven correct given children were spontaneously awakening magic powers throughout the world.^[2] Ginji suspected this was due to the Great Cauldron being opened.^[2] Therefore, it is possible that Sasami might had inherited her magic directly from Ginji, or that she had gained her magic from the cauldron.^[1] Ginji also mentioned he has always felt some of the presence of the cauldron inside Sasami, further implying the source of her magic came in part from the cauldron, and that it wasn’t purely genetically like other magical girls.^[3]

Thanks to her father, Sasami became acquainted with the magical world earlier than the other girls in the club. In contrast, Misao, who had been bullied for her powers, had no understanding of why she possessed them. She was shocked by revelations about magic that were common knowledge to Sasami.

Despite Ginji's openness, he also hid several things from Sasami. Her parents were particularly strict, outright prohibiting her from using her magical powers. Nevertheless, Sasami continued to use them in secret for fun and to assist with household chores. ^[4]While strict, Ginji had a good reason—to protect Sasami. He was one of the few humans aware of the witches' dark secrets beyond their benevolent facade thus he tried not to involve her with them.

Aside from her secret magic powers, Sasami led a perfectly ordinary life. Her extroverted and cheerful personality made her one of the most popular girls at school. Before joining the club her closest friends were two girls her age named Kozue and Chiaki whom she usually walked back home with. Sasami, eventually, befriended Misao Shinohara, a new transfer student who had magic of her own, and struggled to make friends and was avoided by everyone.^[4]

Meanwhile, Washu, on a secret mission to find and recruit magical girls for a magical girl club disguised as the cooking club, tricked Sasami into revealing her powers to save Misao from a fake danger. Sasami soon discovered that Washu, and the school janitor, Daimon, were envoys from the Magic world sent to mentor them in the use of magic^[4]. Consequently, Sasami became Misao's first friend, and the two became the first members of their school's secret magical girl club. Shortly after, they were joined by fellow magical girls Makoto, Tsukasa, and Anri, thus kickstarting the events of the series.

Personality

Sasami is a very energetic, optimistic, and extroverted girl. In essence, she is the foil and exact opposite of her best friend, the introverted Misao Shinohara. While Misao has trouble making friends in the human world, Sasami excels at it. In fact, Amitav is the only person living in the magical world that she is close to.

Similar to Anri, Sasami is a very popular girl at her school. However, while Anri has admirers seeking her favor, Sasami has many friends instead. Most kids usually want to hang out and engage in school activities with her. As Misao pointed out, Sasami is always loved, noticed, and needed by everyone, a fact that made Misao secretly jealous of her.^[5]

Though Sasami takes center stage as the protagonist, Washu arguably is the leader, while Tsukasa grounds the group as the voice reason. Sasami, despite a lack of formal leadership, acts as the group's heart, binding them together.

Befitting her young age, Sasami is very immature and naive when it comes to romantic love, even compared to the other girls in the club. For instance, she was completely unaware that she was in the middle of a love triangle, with Monta having a crush on her, and Misao also being attracted to Monta and jealous of her^[6]. Sasami was also oblivious to the fact that her crush, Amitav, was too mentally unstable to reciprocate her feelings.

One of her best qualities is that she is a very kind and compassionate girl. She doesn’t like to see others hurt or suffering, and she will go out of her way to help, even if she is "not supposed to." For instance, she decided to befriend Misao Shinohara and use her magic to save her, even after her father had prohibited her from using magic, and her friends had warned her about how “weird” Misao was. Instead of letting Itoki seal Keura, as all the heroes attempted to save the world, she decided to use her magic to heal him instead.^[7]

Power and Abilities

She is reasonably athletic for a girl her age but not as tomboyish as her Pretty Sammy counterpart, who excels at sports. Although portrayed for laughs and not treated as something serious, she experiences a form of performance anxiety^[8]: while she can run like any other girl, in situations where she knows she has to perform, such as in a marathon, she runs slower than walking speed. Similar to her Meta series counterpart, Sasami maintains her talent for cooking, serving as the best chef in the "cooking club," and often assisting her family with chores at home using her magic.

Just like all other magical girls, she was born with the innate ability to use magic without needing to transform or rely on making trinkets. As such, she has access to the same types of general everyone else spells, such as flight with a broom. However, as the protagonist, Sasami's magic specialty is the most unique among all the magic users in the show—light magic. Despite her considerable power, she is at a disadvantage because she avoids using offensive magic that harms or hurts others^[9]. She maintains this stance throughout the series, often choosing to help or flee instead of engaging directly in combat.

Light Magic

Initially, it was thought that she possessed a form of telekinesis, mainly using her powers to levitate and move objects in the air. Eventually, it was revealed that her magic is an extremely rare and powerful type called "light magic," and she is the sole known wielder of this power. This magic proves essential to the Chief Sorceress's plans and becomes the key to the heroes' victory.

Light magic naturally counters darkness-based magic and boasts strong healing properties. It also has the ability to "animate" objects, explaining her telekinetic abilities.

With light magic, Sasami can perform feats no one else can, such as stopping an out-of-control Keura, revitalising the executives, or even easily dispelling Misao's dark magic spells despite the fact Misao was considered the most powerful magical girl at the time.

Finally, Sasami possesses the unique ability to share her light magic powers with her friends. As Anri explained, they just need to "think about Sasami" to use light magic just like her^[7].

Difference and similarities with other versions of Sasami.

Compared with her meta series counterpart.

Except for the absence of freckles and the triangular mark on her forehead, she resembles her meta-series counterpart

They are also very similar personality wise, but the main differences are that Sasami Masaki Jurai is more playful, and mischievous whereas Iwakura only breaks the rules, or goes against authority figures, if she feels there's a good reason. Also, while the meta series version of Sasami is often portrayed as being wise beyond her years, even often being the most mature of the main characters, Iwakura on the other hand is still very childish, and she is not as mature as her fellow magical girl, Tsukasa.

Compared with Pretty Sammy.

Sasami Kawai and Sasami Iwakura are two distinct magical girl archetypes.

Sasami Kawai, from both versions of Pretty Sammy, is the superhero type in the vein of Sailor Moon. She has a secret identity as Pretty Sammy and actively fights monsters and villains to save the day. Conversely, Sasami Iwakura is the "cute witch" archetype closer to characters from “Harry Potter” or “My Little Witch Academia”. She prefers to use healing magic and dislikes harming others.

Their personalities are also somewhat dissimilar. Though both are energetic and extroverted, Kawai is more comedic, tomboyish and assertive, while Iwakura dwells more in romance and is more laid-back and easy-going, as evidenced by the fact that her friends like to tease her.

Their use of magic also varies greatly. Sasami Kawai is blunt and aggressive with her spells, often using her Pretty Coquettish bomber magic spell or even physical violence. Sasami Iwakura, on the other hand, dislikes magic that harms others and instead prefers to use healing spells against corrupted enemies.

Finally, their attitudes towards magic are diametrically opposed. Sasami Kawai only uses magic out of a sense of duty, but she would have preferred having a normal life until she learned to appreciate the good she was doing for others. Iwakura, on the other hand, enjoys having magic and playing with it, but she hid it at first because her dad was overprotective.

Trivia

This version of Sasami is one of the few who hasn't fallen in love with Tenchi, given that he hasn't shown up so far. Instead, she is smitten by Amitav, who doesn't reciprocate her feelings.
Sasami possesses a red magical girl outfit that mirrors her variant's Pretty Sammy attire. While it may appear to be standard magical girl clothing, she specifically uses it solely for training and special events in the magical world. It doesn't serve as part of a magical girl superhero identity for her, nor is it a prerequisite for using her powers. Instead, it exists to assist her in controlling her powers rather than enabling their use.
In this universe, Ryo-Ohki is Washu's magical mascot, but the cabbit prefers to stay at Sasami's home.
Sasami and Misao are the only members of the magical girl club studying in the same classroom; consequently, they spend the most time together. Even Anri and Tsukasa are separated by one grade.
Sasami and Tsukasa are the only magical girls whose parents are known to be aware of their powers. Washu doesn't mind explaining the situation to their parents if necessary, but she leaves the job of keeping them informed up to the girls. For example, Anri kept her powers a secret from her family in her debut episode. Therefore, it's uncertain whether the other girls' parents are aware of their powers or if they assume the girls are simply participating in "Cooking club" activities like everyone else.
In this continuity, Sasami's family dynamic is based on Magical Project S. Like in that show, Sasami is an only child with a father named Ginji and a mother named Honoka.
Sasami's blood type is O, and her official height is 144cm.^[10]