Momo Kisaragi

Momo Kisaragi (如月 桃 Kisaragi Momo) / Momo (モモ) is the fifth member of the Mekakushi Dan, the little sister of Shintaro Kisaragi and a recently new idol who is a first-year in high-schooler in 10th grade.

Appearance
Momo has orange hair that is black behind and underneath her head. Its fringe is longer on the left side of her face, and on the top right side of her head she ties a long lock of hair into a side ponytail. The intensity of how yellow or orange her hair changes between media. She had this hair style even ever since she was a child. She has brown eyes in her introduction in Kisaragi Attention, but in Children Record and other media like Mekakucity Actors her eyes are distinctly black.

She has several outfits when dressing casually. One consists of a a pink short-sleeved hoodie with "阿吽" (aun) written over the chest and a blue shirt underneath with "大江戸" (Ooedo) written on it along with light brown shorts with red sneakers. In the manga, her hoodie reads "鎖国" (Sakoku). She also ties her side ponytail up with a blue scrunchie.

Alternatively, in Otsukimi Recital and the end of Summertime Record, she wears a 3/4-sleeved pink dress that has white, checkered paneling on its front torso, which also functions as a hoodie with a pink hood. It also has a pink bow on its back at her waist. She also wears short black leggings, yellow sandals, and a red scrunchie in her hair.

In the Novel Route, after August 15th she wears a long hoodie with its sleeves bunched up to her elbows over a button-up blouse that has a dark trim on its collar and placket.

Momo's most well-known idol outfit consists of an orange dress that has a yellow strip down its middle that is bordered by white, frilly lace and extra lace on the lower front section of the left side of its skirt. Two black straps also hang off the bottom of her skirt, one at its front yellow panel and the other beneath the frills on its left. She has a large black belt around her waist that has a large chain behind it that ties into a "ribbon". Another short chain hangs from a black collar that she wears underneath her dress's white collar, which also has three red buttons below it. She has detached black sleeves that have orange coverings and white frills around her upper arms. She wears a yellow thigh high on her right leg and a longer orange one on her left leg, black hoop anklets, and black closed-toe shoes that have a strap across the insteps. Her hair also has a matching braid that starts below her left ear, wraps up her head like a hairband, and becomes loose around her side-ponytail, which is also tied with a red ribbon, or sometimes blue to match with her alternate palette seen in Kisaragi Attention.

When in middle school, two years before the present-day storyline begin, she is seen wearing her middle school uniform, which consists of a black sailor fuku. In high school, her summer uniform consists of a white short-sleeved dress shirt and a pink and black plaid skirt.

In the short film Kagerou Daze -in a day's-, she wears a brown collar underneath a white t-shirt and a thin yellow ribbon tied around her brown, high-waisted skirt, which also has two small yellow buttons on its top center. The skirt also has two thick suspenders that go over her shoulders and down her back. She wears high, ribbed brown socks and dark yellow high-top sneakers. Her hair is mostly down except for two small, high pigtails.

Personality
Having grown up with an inferiority complex about her genius brother, Momo always felt stuck in his shadow and was unable to have confidence in herself, wishing for people to pay more attention to her. As a child, she wanted to be better than him with at least one thing, which she chose to be swimming. However, she drowned with her dad in a beach trip and afterwards gained the Snake of Drawing Eyes, which was compatible with her wishes. She blamed herself primarily for her father's death and was unaware of the powers she gained.

The new attention she gained from her powers was immediately noticeable, and while it often scared her and stressed her out, Momo first took pride in how her art consistently got first place in contests. However, after hearing another classmate's envy about her, she became depressed about how "abnormal" she was. Even after becoming a popular idol, she did not feel like she is actually different from other people besides the attention she got. After meeting the Mekakushi Dan, she becomes more cheerful and learns to treasure her friends.

She sometimes has trouble rejecting people who make her uncomfortable, such as an idol scout when she was a kid and to her fans and Kano in Manga Route 2. In all instances, someone else stepped in front of her instead. Despite her discomfort, she has shown bravery when she wants to help or save her loved ones. For example, she ultimately decided to become an idol to financially help her mother, who has been raising her two children on her own since her husband's death and recently collapsed from poor health. In the terrorist incident, she manages to calm herself and make a complex and successful plan despite knowing that her brother Shintaro is in danger. In the Music Route, Novel Route, and likely Manga Route 1, she dies by shielding Marry with her own body during the Snake of Clearing Eyes' attack on the Mekakushi Dan. In Manga Route 2, she spends much of her time and energy trying to help Hibiya and Hiyori, and in both that Route and Otsukimi Recital she collapses after exhausting herself as a result. On that note, she, much like her brother, tends to faint when extremely stressed out and/or physically exhausted.

Jin has stated that her personality is pretty much the same as her brother's. For example, they both can make complex plans in stressful situations and can get easily, visibly annoyed. Furthermore, they both really enjoy drinking soda. Unlike Shintaro, though, Momo did not do well in school and is often scolded by her teacher for her scores, such as a 2/100 grade on a biology paper despite studying with supplementary lessons for two whole weeks beforehand.

Momo can be described as quirky; for example, for the aforementioned test her studying method was to eat her notes, and her answers were based on her own logic and imagination rather than anything from her lessons. She also has a noticeably peculiar sense of aesthetics, fashion, and tastes in food; for example, she likes eating dried shredder squid and drinking red bean soup flavored soda. When seeing something that fits her niche of interests, she becomes infatuated with it and will go lengths to get it, if possible.

Eye Ability

 * Drawing Eyes (目を奪う Me o Ubau): Momo's eye ability can draw peoples' attention to herself regardless of their preferences in tastes or interests. She is also able to tell where a person's attention is drawn to. She cannot control her power as well as Kido because her power only has an "on and off" switch. The maximum range and power of her ability is quite large, as she is seen attracting the attention of an entire city despite being locked indoors within a facility. Later on, she demonstrates better control of her ability, able to remotely direct people's attention away from herself. She uses her eye power to catch people's attention during her performances.

Songs
Main:


 * Kisaragi Attention
 * Children Record
 * Otsukimi Recital
 * Summertime Record
 * Tomodachi no Uta

Cameo:


 * Konoha no Sekai Jijou
 * Losstime Memory
 * Outer Science
 * Shounen Brave

Trivia

 * Momo was designed by Wannyanpoo.
 * Momo has chains in her idol attire due to Sidu not wanting to draw more frills.
 * Momo's stated grade and age of 16 have some contradictions.
 * In the Novel Route and -in a daze- Chapter 4 ("Kisaragi Attention"), it's stated twice she's in the 10th grade in the present day and main storyline:
 * "Ah, hello! Umm, this is 10th grader, Kisaragi…… I was late for my supplementary lessons, so I was wondering if you could please let me in……" - Momo (at her school)
 * "It’s written here in the schedule for supplementary lessons, isn’t it? Since it’s Obon, 10th graders only go to first period today." - Kenjirou Tateyama (to Momo)
 * This is despite the fact that a first-year high school student in Japan with her birthdate would be only 15 years old while entering the school year, making her given age and birthday (February 14th) conflict with the script.
 * In Japan, the Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March. Momo's birthday, February 14th, occurs before the school year begins, meaning she'd be on the "younger" end of her class at the start of the school year. Because of the Kagerou Daze event occurring in August, she would not have her next birthday ["16"] until the next February 14th.
 * In the sixth novel, "-over the dimension-", she appears in what would be her correct grade regardless, appearing as a middle school school student two years before the main storyline begins. She also is seen as a middle school school student in the manga during Shintaro Kisaragi's flashbacks and when he references watching over her during her elementary and middle school school days.
 * The Mekakucity Records 2013 booklet profile for Momo confirmed she initially drowned during her "later grades" of elementary school, "five years ago". These time frames are later re-confirmed by Chapter 39 of the manga.
 * As stated by "Losstime Memory", Shintaro in comparison has what would be his correct chronological age, "18". As his birthday is April 30, he ages from 17 to 18 not long after the Japanese school year begins.
 * Momo's favorite game is "Segare-ijiri" (Arrow Boy).
 * Momo dreams of being a pilot with a pig doll as her co-pilot.
 * The Mekakushi Dan members, with the exception of Marry Kozakura, Ene and Shintaro Kisaragi, call Momo "Kisaragi".
 * Although it is not a part of Kagerou Project, Momo makes a small cameo in the MV for Jin's song "Your Eyes (キミノメヲ)".
 * In Manga Route 2, Momo does not become an official member of the Mekakushi Dan. Ene and Hibiya Amamiya similarly do not join the Mekakushi Dan that Route.

Etymology

 * The name Momo means "peach" (桃).
 * Momo's surname Kisaragi means "February" (如月).

Quotes

 * "Um… Add vanilla beans as a topping for this special katsukare (curry with pork cutlet) … Ah, shirotama anmitsu (desert with sticky rice cake)! Please add this too!" - (From the Children Record Booklet)
 * "A,aunt?! I'm not THAT old!!" - (Kagerou Daze II)