Cereza, or Bayonetta of the Bayonetta franchise, is known best for two things: using four guns with four limbs, and that her hair does magic. In the Bayonetta franchise, Cereza is an Umbra Witch that wakes up from a deep slumber to a world assaulted by monsters. And aside from her witchcraft and unique weapons, Bayonetta even has her hair to count on when fighting monsters!
That’s right - there’s more to Bayonetta’s hair than just her crowning glory. And in the context of the game itself, Bayonetta’s hair becomes a unique instrument through which she can channel some of her deadliest magical abilities. What else can her hair do, though?
8 Hair Just Like Leather
At first glance, one might not even notice that Bayonetta’s clothes are from her hair because of how sleek and stylish she looks. Regardless of the game, Bayonetta wears extremely form-fitting clothes that accentuate her figure, alongside accessories that showcase her lineage. These are all on top of her rather equally colorful and deadly weaponry, which seemingly do well to accentuate her penchant for fast-paced combat.
As such, when gamers finally realize that Bayonetta is actually transforming her hair into her outfit, one property of her special hair is noticed: it shares properties with leather. In particular, the form-fitting, shiny, and slick black properties of Bayonetta’s hair clothes resemble leather, which makes it safe to assume that her magical hair may have these properties when activated as well.
7 Magical Implement
Unlike other spellcasters in fiction, Bayonetta is part of the Umbra Witches, practitioners of the dark arts that make contracts with demons in order to manifest their power. Most Umbra Witches have connections with Contracted Demons, and they also use evocation magic to summon other lesser demons as well.
However, whereas other spellcasters have wands and staves, Umbra Witches like Bayonetta use her hair to summon these demons. Parts of her hair can form body parts of their sponsors to help facilitate techniques and other abilities, making Bayonetta formidable in combat through her hair alone.
6 Hair Becomes A Literal Portal
At her most desperate, Bayonetta can summon the full extent of her Contracted Demon, the Madama Butterfly, into the mortal world by using the full extent of her hair. This transforms her hair into a portal in itself, paving the way for an extremely powerful demon to enter Earth. However, if their magical abilities are to be analyzed, it seems her hair can be used the other way around as well.
It’s said that the likes of Bayonetta can use their magic to go to the Purgatorio Dimension, a mirror universe of sorts, to travel the real world without detection. Since Bayonetta uses her hair as a magical implement, it’s assumed she travels while using her hair as portals.
5 Hair Grows When Powering Up
Aside from Bayonetta’s hair being a conduit of her power, it seems her hair is also a reflection of her state of power. In the games, her hair acts as symbolism in between her powerful states, with more hair being let down and freed depending on how much power Bayonetta uses in combat. As such, Bayonetta’s power to whip up continuous combos in her power-up modes is reflected by her hair as well.
This is seen in the Serious Mode in the first game and the Umbran Climax Mode of the second game, both of which serve as Bayonetta’s super forms in these respective titles. In both forms, Bayonetta lets a large portion of her hair down, allowing it to be more free-flowing and appear much longer than her typical hair.
4 More Hair Leaves The Body With More Power
When players first learn that Bayonetta can summon demons with her hair through Wicked Weaves, the usual imagination is simply a demonic limb spawning from the depths of her long weaves. However, the game actually takes this concept quite literally as Bayonetta’s hair grows and manifests as a limb or two of a demon Bayonetta controls.
As a demon manifests through Wicked Weaves, however, more of Bayonetta’s hair floats away from her. Since her hair is also her clothes, using Wicked Weaves will leave Bayonetta partially exposed, which is in itself a form of fanservice.
3 Hair Isn’t Entirely Magic
Fans of Devil May Cry would appreciate the presence of Antonio Redgrave in her story, as this cements the connection between the two Hideki Kamiya games. After all, Dante of Devil May Cry did use Tony Redgrave as an alias. In Bayonetta, Redgrave, the father of Luka Redgrave, has a particular obsession regarding the Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages.
When Bayonetta gathers his notes across the games, Antionio Redgrave’s notes indicate that it’s not necessarily the case that the hair of an Umbra Witch is their only source of magic. Rather, they can apparently use any item or part of their body as a magical conduit. It just so happens that their hair is almost always the best choice.
2 Not One To Dismiss Other Clothes
While Bayonetta can perfectly fashion any type of clothing through her hair, it seems she’s not beyond wearing other types of clothing as well. Notable among these is her nun outfit, something she wore during her stint as a nun in a funeral.
Unfortunately, her fight with the angels there did ruin the nun outfit altogether, forcing Bayonetta to remove it and reveal her usual skin-tight outfit. It seems that while Bayonetta can wear other clothes, she always has her battle outfit below them just in case she needs to fight.
1 It’s Form-Fitting Or Nothing
While Bayonetta is seen wearing other clothes above her usual outfit, it’s an interesting point to see that she doesn’t wear clothing that fails to accentuate her figure. A part of this could be attributed to all clothes seemingly contorting to fit her curves, but given Bayonetta’s stylish attitude, it’s safe to assume her wardrobe of form-fitting outfits is out of her own volition.
Among these outfits include a Chinese dress (the Umbran Gekka), a policewoman outfit, a schoolgirl outfit, a Witch Apprentice uniform, and a formal dress complete with a stylish hat.
Bayonetta 3 will be released in 2022 for the Nintendo Switch.