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Is there a reason that Kyoko is not pictured in some of the series' more
prominent artwork? As part of the story's main set of magical girls, and a
character important to the plot, I would expect her to be featured with the
rest of the quintet. I consider this piece

![Crunchyroll image](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hoFRC.jpg)

to be the anime's "official" artwork, so (barring whether or not that is a
valid assumption on my part) why is a character as important as Kyoko not
featured in it?

The image above _was_ used [for Netflix](http://puu.sh/7O4W8.jpg)1 in the past
and is currently used in [Crunchyroll's listing as
well](http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/7facd20f5216202349ad2fc3119e2e5b1329936788_full.jpg).
The current (Dec 13 2014) image used by Netflix is apparently a different one
but nonetheless [still does not feature
Kyoko](http://cdn8.nflximg.net/webp/3758/4083758.webp).

Another instance of this "phenomenon" can be seen in the first volume of the
manga:

![madoka magica manga 1 coverart](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hj36Z.jpg)

though an easy explanation for this one could be that

> Kyoko doesn't appear until the very end of the first volume, and/so her
> character is not significant to the first part whatsoever.

So my question is this:

## Why doesn't Kyoko appear in the anime's more iconic or official artwork, or
are my assumption(s) about the artwork incorrect?

* * *

**EDIT** : More cases

  * [Netflix listing](http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70302572?trkid=439131), Dec 13 2014
  * [Older Netflix listing screenshot](http://puu.sh/7O4W8.jpg) ... [(source)](http://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/21oa7h/madoka_magica_is_now_on_netflix_instant_xpost/cgezk1e)

* * *

1This is the image I remember being used when I saw it on Netflix a while
back, but I'm not sure if it's been updated/changed since, because I don't use
the service anymore.


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2014-12-13T18:24:22.713
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question
madoka-magica
Why is Kyoko not present in Madoka Magica's official artwork?


There are many other official artwork for the series. That is the cover of the
DVD box set and like you said, the other image where Kyoko is not included is
the cover for the first volume of the manga.

![DVD box set artwork](https://i.stack.imgur.com/0nQKB.jpg)

This is probably also the reason why Netflix used that artwork as its listing.

I think iconic is subjective in this case. Someone more familiar with the
movies will think differently, as you'll see later, but there are a lot of
other official artwork where only two magical girls are featured at a time:

[![Other official
artwork](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bRqvXm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bRqvX.jpg)

I do think that the reason why she's not included in that artwork is because
she's not involved in the first three episodes (there's 12 episodes and the
set contains 3 discs, assuming the first disc only contains the first three
episodes). At least Sayaka is introduced in the first episode, which is
presumably the first episode the viewer will watch after purchasing the discs
set. Bear in mind that the cover for the discs set differs from region to
region.

Finally, the artwork for the disc for the first movie, as well as the movie
posters, includes all of the magical girls:

[![First movie disc
artwork](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2lTgjm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/2lTgj.jpg)

In the first movie all of the five characters are introduced and played
significant roles. So this theory is not that far-fetched.


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