Sophie Oswald (ソフィー オズワルド) is the deceased younger sister of Kaleido Stage performer Leon Oswald and a character within the Kaleido Star anime.
New Wings[]
Sophie is not mentioned until Leon Oswald begins to see Sora Naegino as his true partner and the one who can perform The Angel's Maneuver.
Sophie was Leon's younger sister and both trained together under Alain Reuben to become great performers. Eventually, it was seen that Sophie was the better of the two siblings, so she was put through even more training than him so they could perform the Angel Maneuver. But when Sophie was training for the maneuver, said training often left her too exhausted and weak to perform. Leon took his sister and said that he would train Sophie and they would pull off the Angel's Maneuver.
For the rest of the time before Leon came to Kaleido Stage, Leon and Sophie lived and trained together up to the day when they went to compete in the Circus Festival. They met Layla Hamilton and Yuri Killian, the two top performers at Kaleido Stage and Sophie developed a crush on Yuri. While training, Yuri was afraid of Leon being around him despite knowing they couldn't beat the Golden Phoenix maneuver they had planned. So Yuri calls Sophie telling him to meet him before their performance to keep Leon out of the way and disqualify them.
Yuri's gambit takes a turn for the worse when poor Sophie finds out the call was a trick and rushes back to Leon. While crossing the street to reach for Leon in time, the unfortunate Sophie is hit by a car and is severely injured in the hospital with Leon by her side. Leon begged Yuri on the phone to tell Sophie that he did not mean to hurt her or lie; however, Yuri didn't come and he went on to win the festival with Layla. Therefore, for Leon, Yuri still holds the blame of hurting Sophie.
Leon kept a promise to Sophie that he would find and train someone to perform the Angel's Maneuver; however, he becomes obsessed with the idea and grows very embittered, discarding partner after partner.
Sophie's spirit standing by Sora
When Sora returns to Kaleido Stage after a short time off, Leon begins to see Sora as a living duplicate of his sister (their dreams for a conflict free stage is similar). Leon tries to force Sora to be his partner but she panics and runs away, causing Leon to hallucinate about the day Sophie was hit.
During a performance of Romeo and Juliet, when Leon was May's partner and Sora was working in effects, Leon actually pulls Sora on stage and begins to perform with her while making May want to settle her rivalry with Sora at the same time. During Sora's amazing performance, she slips and Leon catches her (she feared that Leon would injure her shoulder like he did to May during a performance of Dracula). During that moment, Sora manages to perform the Angel's Maneuver and lands by Leon's side. As Leon and Sora stand together on the trapeze, he holds her with a smile on his face (something Leon never seemed to do until now) and sees Sophie where Sora stands. But when Sora goes off, he follows her and falls off the trapeze before hitting the floor.
A vision of Sophie as Sora performs The Angel's Maneuver
When Sora and Leon are chosen to be the main leads in Swan Lake, Leon begins to train Sora for the maneuver and she succeeds. When opening day comes, Sora performs the maneuver with great skill and Leon watches feeling happy. He remembers how he believed performances were an ordeal and he would get through them quickly. But watching Sora performs makes every moment precious.
Leon then remembers something Sophie said to him and begins to understand why Sophie wanted to become a true star by performing the Angel's Maneuver. No performance is ever the same twice, so she chose to live in the present and enjoy every last second of the performance. After that moment, Leon's promise to Sophie has been fulfilled.
Trivia[]
- The name Sophie means "wisdom" in French.
- Sophie's surname Oswald means "god" (os) and "power, ruler" (wald).
Sophie's gallery[]
Sophie Oswald image gallery
