Yuffie Kisaragi

Character
Name:	Yuffie Kisaragi (ユフィ・キサラギ, Yufi Kisaragi)
Occupation:	Materia Hunter, Ninja
Relationships:	Cloud Strife (friend); Aerith Gainsborough (friend); Tifa Lockhart (friend); Barret Wallace (friend); Vincent Valentine (friend); Red XIII (friend); Cid Highwind (friend); Cait Sith (friend); Sephiroth (enemy); Godo Kisaragi (father); Zack Fair (acquaintance) ; Leon (friend), Sora (friend), Donald (friend), Goofy (friend)
Fandom:	Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Other:
	Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
	Contents 1 Canon 1.1 Final Fantasy VII (1997); 1.2 Kingdom Hearts; ; 2 Fandom 2.1 Reception and Popularity; 2.2 Fanon and Tropes; 2.3 Shipping 2.3.1 Notable Ships; ; ; 3 Fan Works 3.1 Fan Fiction; 3.2 Fan Art; 3.3 Cosplay; 3.4 Meta; ; 4 Links 4.1 Archives and Communities; 4.2 Fan Sites and Tributes; 4.3 Resources; ; 5 References;

Yuffie Kisaragi is a playable character in the Square video game Final Fantasy VII, and a minor character in the Disney/Square Enix Kingdom Hearts video game series.

Canon

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Short-tempered and vibrant, Yuffie is constantly keeping the team on their toes. What started out as an ambush mission led to Yuffie following Cloud and friends mercilessly. Her intents were, and always have been, to steal their materia. With it, she would have the power to take her town back from the Shinra, who reduced her beloved Wutai to a tourist trap.

Shared hatred with the Shinra eventually keeps Yuffie faithful to Cloud, despite her attempt to make off with their materia when the party first visited Wutai.

However, like Cait Sith, her loyalty pulls through in the end, and she proves invaluable in saving the planet.

Kingdom Hearts

A female ninja who escaped to Traverse Town when her home world was taken by the Heartless. She stays strong and cheerful in any situation. She works with Leon and Aerith to unravel the secret of the "key".
Kingdom Hearts (2002)

A ninja girl who hails from Radiant Garden. Her home was beset by darkness when she was still very little, and she had to flee with Cid to Traverse Town. But someone as cheerful as Yuffie would never let this show. After meeting Sora in Traverse Town, she fought bravely alongside him against the darkness, and now she is back in Radiant Garden, hard at work rebuilding.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (2010)

Fandom

Reception and Popularity

As an optional party member in the original 1997 game, Yuffie may join the party as early as AVALANCHE's journey from Kalm to Junon, though some players may experience the entire game without her in the party.

Yuffie has garnered generally positive reception from the Japanese fanbase, while the reception from English-language fans has been more mixed.

Some fans hated her in the original game due to her theft of the party's materia during the Wutai sidequest. Her characterization in Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus helped to appease those fans, but those who liked her beforehand were disappointed that she'd lost her edge.^[1]

In terms of personality, she has often been compared—favorably or disdainfully—to Selphie Tilmitt of Final Fantasy VIII and Rikku of Final Fantasy X.

While subjected to more criticism, she is also featured more prominently and more frequently in fan works than half of her fellow party members, namely Barret Wallace, Red XIII, Cid Highwind, and Cait Sith; compared to any one of them, her name yields more search results on FanFiction.Net (FFN), DeviantArt, Archive of Our Own (AO3), and Pixiv as of December 2020—even when excluding Kingdom Hearts (KH) fan works.

In a 2010 Famitsu poll, fans voted Yuffie as their 48th favorite video game character of all time.^[2] In a 2013 Square Enix poll, Yuffie tied with Beatrix as fans' fourteenth favorite heroine in the Final Fantasy franchise.^[3]^[4] In a 2020 NHK poll, Yuffie was 33rd in votes for fans' favorite character in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, out of 200 major and minor characters.^[5]^[6]

Fanon and Tropes

Yuffie's father, Godo, is the leader of Wutai, although neither Wutai's government nor its right of succession has been detailed in canon. Some fans headcanon Yuffie as Wutai's crown princess, first in line for her father's throne. This lends itself to various fan works concerned with arranged marriage for the purpose of Wutai's political alliances and/or continuing the Kisaragi bloodline. Yuffie and her lover may have to thwart the arranged marriage, Yuffie may end up falling in love with her betrothed, or Yuffie may broker her own marriage between herself and her lover.

Some fans have speculated that young female fans commonly project themselves onto Yuffie as a relatable teenage girl.

Shipping

Vincent Valentine/Yuffie Kisaragi (Yuffentine) is Yuffie's most popular ship. Otherwise, Yuffie is sometimes shipped with Reno and Cloud Strife.

In the Kingdom Hearts fandom, she is often shipped with Leon.

Notable Ships

Vincent Valentine/Yuffie Kisaragi (Yuffentine, VxY)
Cloud Strife/Yuffie Kisaragi
Reno/Yuffie Kisaragi
Rufus Shinra/Yuffie Kisaragi
Leon/Yuffie (Squffie)

Fan Works

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fan Fiction

Fan Art

Yuffie Kisaragi - Final Fantasy 7 by svenfromoz (warning: flashing colors)

Cosplay

Links

Archives and Communities

FanFiction.Net (FFN)
- Final Fantasy VII stories and crossovers featuring Yuffie K.
- Kingdom Hearts stories and crossovers featuring Yuffie
Archive of Our Own (AO3): Yuffie Kisaragi tag
Pixiv: #Yuffie tag and #Yuffie Kisaragi tag

Fan Sites and Tributes

All Creation

Resources

References

^ TV Tropes. Rescued from the Scrappy Heap / Final Fantasy. (Accessed December 2020.)
^ Gifford, Kevin. "Snake Beats Mario, Is Coolest Video Game Character Ever" published to 1UP on 10 February 2010. (Archived 11 August 2014).
^ Hodgkins, Crystalyn. Square Enix Poll: Favorite Female Final Fantasy Character posted to Anime News Network on 17 January 2013. (Accessed September 2020.)
^ みなさん、こんにちは！ posted to Facebook on 16 January 2013. (Accessed September 2020.)
^ FF Ranking, ^{Archived version}, NHK, Q1 2020. (Accessed September 2020.)
^ TheMomAbides. I translated the NHK Final Fantasy poll character rankings., posted to r/FinalFantasy in Q1 2020. (Accessed September 2020.)

[1] TV Tropes. Rescued from the Scrappy Heap / Final Fantasy. (Accessed December 2020.)

[2] Gifford, Kevin. "Snake Beats Mario, Is Coolest Video Game Character Ever" published to 1UP on 10 February 2010. (Archived 11 August 2014).

[3] Hodgkins, Crystalyn. Square Enix Poll: Favorite Female Final Fantasy Character posted to Anime News Network on 17 January 2013. (Accessed September 2020.)

[4] みなさん、こんにちは！ posted to Facebook on 16 January 2013. (Accessed September 2020.)

[5] FF Ranking, ^{Archived version}, NHK, Q1 2020. (Accessed September 2020.)

[6] TheMomAbides. I translated the NHK Final Fantasy poll character rankings., posted to r/FinalFantasy in Q1 2020. (Accessed September 2020.)

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Character
Name:	Yuffie Kisaragi (ユフィ・キサラギ, Yufi Kisaragi)
Occupation:	Materia Hunter, Ninja
Relationships:	Cloud Strife (friend); Aerith Gainsborough (friend); Tifa Lockhart (friend); Barret Wallace (friend); Vincent Valentine (friend); Red XIII (friend); Cid Highwind (friend); Cait Sith (friend); Sephiroth (enemy); Godo Kisaragi (father); Zack Fair (acquaintance) Leon (friend), Sora (friend), Donald (friend), Goofy (friend)
Fandom:	Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Other:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
Contents 1 Canon 1.1 Final Fantasy VII (1997) 1.2 Kingdom Hearts 2 Fandom 2.1 Reception and Popularity 2.2 Fanon and Tropes 2.3 Shipping 2.3.1 Notable Ships 3 Fan Works 3.1 Fan Fiction 3.2 Fan Art 3.3 Cosplay 3.4 Meta 4 Links 4.1 Archives and Communities 4.2 Fan Sites and Tributes 4.3 Resources 5 References