A magical girl's outfit, due to its close connection to her True Form, would to some extent reflect the transformer's preferences when it took shape. For most magical girls, their transformed magical attire embodied an image they loved or admired deep down, so naturally, they were satisfied with it.
Based on this fact, the formation of magical outfits allowed for more room to maneuver. If a magical girl had a fairly complete idea of her own magical outfit—whether it was a design she had carefully prepared herself or a finished outfit she had seen beforehand—so long as her mental image of that design was strong enough, it could manifest in her transformed appearance.
So strictly speaking, it was not impossible for a magical girl's transformed appearance to closely resemble some fictional character.
In such a situation, all she had to say was, "I'm a fan of a certain anime. I loved a particular fictional character so much that I imitated her outfit after becoming a magical girl."
Larkspur knew both of the following facts: "Magical Girl Gentian was actually a fictional character from a children's anime," and "Emerald's own bad taste was entirely responsible for designing that image and codename."
Still, she truly had not expected to run into fans of that anime just while waiting for the team list in the examination hall.
Even though she had brought out the excuse she had prepared long ago, enough to keep anyone from suspecting a "fake identity," she still could not escape being pestered. Those two magical girls seemed to have decided that she was a fellow fan, so they dragged her into chatting about the anime for ages. In the end, they even took a photo with Larkspur as though they had known her forever, only leaving in satisfaction afterward.