Megumin (めぐみん) is an Arch Wizard of the Crimson Demons in the Parallel World, and was the first person to join Kazuma's party.[1] She is one of the main heroines of KonoSuba main series, as well as the protagonist of the Explosion spinoff series. Megumin is also Chomusuke's owner.
Appearance
Megumin is a young girl with shoulder-length dark brown hair (smooth black in light novel) and oddly languid crimson-colored eyes. She has fair skin, doll-like features (being a Lolita type)[1] and a light complexion. Like many Evil Eye Chūnibyō characters, Megumin wears a eyepatch to "seal her power"[1] and bandages in her right leg.
Megumin wears a classical witch attire such as a black cloak, a red robe, orange boots and a black wizard's hat, all with gold border and trimmings, alongside black choker, belt, a black stocking in the left leg and fingerless gloves. She carries a brown staff with a floating blue gem throughout her spinoff and until the 4th episode of the first season, where it turns red.
Personality
Megumin's most notorious trait is her obsession for Explosion Magic. After being saved by a mysterious stranger using that spell, Megumin instantly fell in love with the Explosion Magic's unparalleled destructive power,[2] as well as its heat, the shock wave sensation over the body, smoke and glow,[3] reason why she dedicated years of her life studying and saving points in order to master the spell, while ignoring its many demerits.
After learning the Explosion Magic, Megumin started to come up with excuses to use it every day, both in quests or during her daily walks, recklessly using the spell at the first opportunity, sometimes just to show herself or to relieve stress, causing many problems for her companions due to the chaos and destruction she leaves. While Megumin gets pumped about someone else joining her in the "Path of Explosion",[4] she doesn't accept any type of explosion besides Explosion Magic, like Kazuma's tinymites.[5]
Like almost all Crimson Demons, Megumin has a chūnibyō personality, often making speeches using old Japanese dialect and striking cringe-worthy poses. However, her act can drop easily. She is also an attention seeker with delusions of grandeur (calling herself "the foremost arch wizard and wielder of Explosion Magic" and boasting about her genius and talent), and has a taste for strange names, "cool" stuff and destructive hobbies. Although Megumin also enjoys cute stuff, she doesn't admit it in order to keep her "cool" poise.
While Megumin is, according to Kazuma, weirdly smart[6] and has the most common sense of her party members,[7] she is quite childish and immature too. Megumin is short-tempered, often reacting aggressively to any provocation, even wishing to use Explosion Magic on those who provoke her. She wasn't honest about her feeling as well, being harsh with the ones she cares about, like Kazuma and Yunyun, although Megumin learned how to express her feelings later in the series.
Moreover, Megumin is also very competitive, even having a notebook to count her wins against Yunyun.[8] It is very common that Megumin tries to assert dominance over her friends, whatever in competitions, play and even in her love life, using her relationship with Kazuma to make them envious. Megumin is also a cheater who does whatever it takes to win, no matter how brute, reason why she was considered a "ruffian" in her school.[9]
Although Megumin is already old enough to get married in the Parallel World, she is still treated like a kid due to her preadolescent appearance, much to her chagrin, as well as being called "loli" or "jailbait". Megumin often tries to act like a mature woman, insisting on drinking alcohol, despite the effects on her growth, and sending mixed signals to Kazuma, believing that is the adult way of flirting.
Megumin is very self-conscious about her preadolescent body. She often has the excuse that her body will develop later, although her bad nutrition and genetics say otherwise.[10] Megumin is also very jealous of her friends' more developed bodies, even slapping their breasts in a fit of rage.[2] She is obsessed about having a stunning body too, getting interested in becoming a great spellcaster because she believes that if she becomes a great wizard, she would have "a huge rack".[10]
Due to her family being very poor, Megumin learned to get by herself early. She used to hunt or steal her own food, and was willing to eat food remains, such as crusts of bread, and even cute monsters or insects.[11] Megumin is also willing to use any underhanded method to survive, as stealing Yunyun's lunches at their duels in order to feed[2] and seize the moment to blackmail Kazuma so she could join his party.[1]
At the start of the series, Megumin was a lone wolf, neither wanting to make any friends at school[12] nor caring for anyone except her sister, for whom she has a sister complex, and using friendship only as an excuse to share her problems[13] and suffering.[8] Yet, through the series, Megumin learned to open up to others and to care about people, becoming a kinder person, and even being a bit indulgent with her loved ones.
History
For Megumin's history, see her History tab.
Abilities
Like Aqua and Darkness, Megumin suffers from being too specialized. While being a master of arguably the strongest spell in the Detonation Series, Explosion Magic, it has too many dismerits. Moreover, she refuses to learn other spells and wastes all her skill points on increasing her raw destructive power, effectively making her a one-time-use glass cannon.
- Magical Talent: Because she is a member of the Crimson Demons, Megumin has high stats in terms of Intelligence, being the highest on her party, and Magical Power, being naturally gifted in terms of magical ability and has been stated to have high mana reserves as a result. Were it not for her desire to focus solely on Explosion Magic, Megumin could even surpass Yunyun as an Arch Wizard, being a prodigy, who managed to even reformulate the Explosion chanting spell in order to make it more potent. Although she doesn't use other magic spells, Megumin is still very talented in other witchcrafts, like potions creation, although she can't control her MP emission.
- Explosion Magic: A special brand magic of the Detonation Series that allows the user to summon a single beam of light, that detonates at the target, creating a devastating blast of pure magical power. It is the most powerful magic spell, learned by immortal beings like undead and gods, with enough spare skill points to learn it. However the magic has several demerits: it consumes too much MP, being a single shot spell (in Megumin's case, she always collapses since the spell also consumes her HP); the magic is also so powerful it also affects the surrounding landscape, being dangerous to use it in dungeons, that can collapse over the user; finally, its noise also attracts all the monsters in the surrounding area.
- Skills: Besides magic, Megumin devotes all of her skill points into skills in order to improve the power of her explosions, instead of use them to increase her MP:
- Explosion Magic Increase: Increases the power of Detonation, Blasting and Explosion magics.
- High-Speed Incantation: Decreases the time of incantation. Thanks to this skill, Megumin doesn't need to recite an incantation, although it decreases her Explosion magic firepower. However, in the end of the series, she already mastered the spell to use its full power without incantation.
Equipment
- Magic Rod: A staff with a huge curved head, at the centre of which a piece of Manatite levitates, used for boosting the power of spells cast like a magic wand does. Originally fitted with regular blue Manatite when fashioned by Funifura's father before the rod was gifted to Megumin,[14] it was later upgraded with a piece of red high-quality Manatite.[4]
- Light of Reflection Scroll: A scroll that allows the user to employ the Light of Reflection spell. Megumin used it in the fight against Host.[15]
- Sword of Shack the Ripper: A sword belonging to Shack the Ripper, which Megumin wielded for a while. It requires high MP to cut through nonliving objects, but it is ineffective againts living beings.[16]
- Highest-Quality Manatites: In the final fight against the Devil King, Kazuma gave to Megumin a bag full of pure Manatites, allowing her to use Explosion Magic multiple times at will.
- Demon Ring: A cursed ring that grants the user "Demon Eyes", but with the price of slowly turn them into a demon. Megumin got it from Wiz's Shop, almost becoming a full demon (with a pair of horns) until Aqua lifted the curse.[17]
- Crimson Eye Lightning: An electric eye beam. It could reflect Yunyun's Lightning, but it's too painful to the user.
- Crimson Eye Bind: An eye beam that paralyzes the target.
Trivia
- Megumin's birthday is on 4th December.
- "Megumin" is a Japanese nickname commonly given to girls named "Megumi", which means "Blessing".
- Her name is presumably a pun on the KonoSuba title, as the "Shukufuku" translates to "Blessing", or "to bless".
- Megumin shares some traits with the evil eye chūnibyō character Rikka Takanashi, like their eyepatch, bandages, short dark hair and body type.
- Coincidentally, Megumin was also voiced by Rikka Takanashi's seiyū Maaya Uchida in the first and second CD Drama.
- Her nickname "psycho girl" or "the psycho one" is a pun on "saikō" (最高, "best"), the word Megumin uses to describe herself. The nickname was given by Beldia when they first met and it stuck.[18]
- Aside her chūnibyō tendencies, Megumin has the highest Intelligence stat of her party.[19]
- Megumin has a barcode birthmark in the vicinity of her butt.[8]
- Although Megumin is from a Mage class, she seems to have a high Strength stat, being stronger than her classmates[3] and Kazuma, particularly after she levelled-up.[20]
- While Yuiyui stated that all of the women of her family have thin bodies,[10] Megumin thinks that she just lacks nutrients since her family hardly eat solid food.[2]
- Megumin wishes to become the next Devil King,[21] trying to claim his title after his demise.[22]
- According to Megumin, her Explosion Magic has a 2% chance of backfire.[23]
- Megumin has her purse full of coupons and membership cards.[24]
- Megumin sends a portion of her savings back to her family, but avoids sending too much or else her father would waste it on making weird inventions. In total, her personal earnings for the entire year have been less than 10 million eris.[25]
- Since she is her party's nuker, Megumin is usually the one to deal the final blow, and for such reason she has he highest level in the party, at around the mid-40s.[26]
- The Axel police has classified her as the second most dangerous individual of the city.[27]
- Megumin is a certified wildflowers master.[28]
- An environment protection group is about to put a bounty on Megumin, but she isn't against it.[29]
- In the web novel, Megumin was four years older than in the light novel (but still with an underdeveloped body), had long hair and was allowed her to drink alcohol, while her backstory from Explosion spinoff and with Wolbach don't exist.
- Her Explosions was also stronger than Wiz's from the beginning, and she was able to walk after casting it when she levelled-up.
- Megumin ranked the 2nd place in KonoSuba Popularity Poll, although the first place (Aqua) cheated.[30]
- Megumin ranked the 1st place in Sneaker Bunko Refreshing Character poll, 2nd place in Sneaker Bunko Cutest Character poll and 4th place in Sneaker Bunko Funniest Character poll.[31]
Quotes
- “Wahahahahaha! My name is Megumin, the number one mage of Axel! Come, you shall all become my experience points today!"
- "EX-PLO~SION~!"
- "Darker than black, darker than darkness, combine with my intense crimson. Time to wake up, descend to these borders and appear as an intangible distortion. Dance, dance, dance! May a destructive force flood my torrent of power, a destructive force like no other! Send all creation to its source! Come out of your abyss! Humanity knows no other more powerful offensive technique! It is the ultimate magical attack! Explosion!"
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 1, Chapter 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Explosion Light Novel Volume 1, Chapter 1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Explosion Television Anime, Episode 2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 1, Chapter 2
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 9, Chapter 2
- ↑ KonoSuba Television Anime Season 2, Episode 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 4, Chapter 1
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 3, Chapter 2
- ↑ Explosion Light Novel Volume 1, Chapter 3
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Explosion Light Novel Volume 1, Prologue
- ↑ KonoSuba Television Anime Season 2, Episode 2
- ↑ Explosion Television Anime, Episode 1
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 2, Chapter 3
- ↑ Explosion Light Novel Volume 2, Chapter 2
- ↑ Explosion Light Novel Volume 3, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 2, Bonus Short Story from Toranoana
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Anthology "Detour" Volume 3, Story 1
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 2, Chapter 5
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 2, E-book Bonus Story
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 4, Chapter 5
- ↑ Explosion Light Novel Volume 1, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 17, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Audio Drama CD 1, Third Chapter
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 6, Chapter 4
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 12, Chapter 2
- ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 13, Chapter 2
- ↑ KonoSuba Animated Movie 1 Blu-ray Disc, Special Short Story Booklet
- ↑ Natsume Akatsuki's Twitter
- ↑ Natsume Akatsuki's Twitter
- ↑ Popularity Poll
- ↑ Sneaker Bunko Poll