So, wow. We’re 2/3 done with the show, which means it’s about time some questions start getting answered. And that’s exactly what happened this episode, with a couple of the most major reveals yet in the show. These were part of tightly paced and well directed package, making for one of the most tense and enjoyable episodes of the show yet, despite it having almost no action.

Where to begin? I guess the biggest revelation is that not only are witches former magical girls, in fact, magical girls are precursors to witches. This is an important distinction, as it means that magical girls don’t just fall and become witches, but rather, they have been being formed by Kyubey in order to become witches.

And of Kyubey, “or should I say, Incubator,” he’s been upgraded from simple sociopath to full on psychopath. Who knows if his end goal is good or evil, but he’s made it abundantly clear that, in order to reach his goal, he is willing to fool ordinary girls into becoming magical girls, and then witches. So regardless of his intent, he’s, as people have been shouting all along, “evil.”

So the two biggest conjectures, that witches are fallen magical girls, and that Kyubey is evil, came true this week. But, as any good reveal does, more questions have been raised. What is the meaning of “Incubator?” Is it a reference to Kyubey “incubating” magical girls in order to produce witches? Or does it tie into the grief seeds he was eating – after all, they’re called “seeds.” What did Kyubey mean when he said Homura came “from another time?” We’ve seen her mastery of time and space, but is she someone who traverses the multiverse? Is this the type of thing Madoka would be able to do with her massive potential if she ever became a magical girl?

All these conjectures and mysteries are fun to think about, but I’m the kind of person who prefers just to let the story unfold to me. It’s much more fun to see the creators tell the story at their own pace instead of trying to preempt them. The reason Magical Girl Madoka Magica has worked so well is that the execution of its story and reveal of the setting have been so good. The pacing and art are what have really stood out to me so far, and episode 8 hit all the high notes in both.

Pacing is, I think, the single most important thing to get right in telling a story, and though the show has had its issues, it has been, by and large, downright masterful. Has it really been 8 episodes? We’re done with the majority of the show, and Madoka is still not a magical girl. Kamina was introduced, had his triumph, and died in the span of 8 episodes. Yet this is not a criticism that the show has been too slow; on the contrary, every episode has been eventful. The show has been so engrossing on a moment to moment basis, it is only when we actively step back and look at the big picture that we realize that we’re already almost done.

Episode 8 made use of its time about as well as I’ve seen this show do. If Sayaka’s turning into a witch came as no surprise, what did surprise was just how quickly we saw it happen. Leaving off from her psychotic butchering of the witch from the end of episode 7, continuing with her fight with Madoka in the rain, her jealous stalking of Hitomi and Kyosuke, her encounter with Homura, her first murder on the train and her tearful transformation in front of Kyoko at the end, the show did not waste any time in showing us her descent. Interspersed in between were scenes that were just as important, teaching us more about the world, about Walpurgis Night, about Homura, and about Kyubey.

And the scenery porn certainly didn’t hurt, either. I commented on the background architecture in the first episode, and though it has been present throughout the show, episode 8 showed it off better than any other episode so far. Homura’s rather lonely but super high tech home was quite the sight, as was the sunset-lit waterfall where we got to see Hitomi confess to Kyosuke. That fountain in the scene of Kyubey’s reveal threatened to steal the spotlight. Given the sadness of the events going down, it was hard not to feel a sense of melancholy from these beautiful shots of parts of the city.

And the super clean minimalist aesthetic was, of course, contrasted by the messy, busy, and downright dirty art style of the witches. The show has done a good job of establishing this contrast, to the point that it was immediately obvious that Sayaka was becoming a witch when the black spiral art passed over her while she confronted those 2 men on the train. The same could be said about the style of the background when Sayaka’s soul gem began turning into a grief seed at the train station. The show has trained us with its art style shifts, giving us the power of immediate recognition of plot elements merely by how something is shown before we even identify the contents.

The story thus far has been absolutely gripping, and it was somewhat cathartic to finally get some confirmations regarding some of the major mysteries of the characters and mythos. At the same time, this show continues to impress not with its plot but with its sublime pacing in its reveals, along with use of art that is both beautiful and meaningful. With the final third of this show left, I’m eagerly looking forward to more reveals that are sure to come at a steady stream, and how the final act will be set up… and resolved.

Pretty much saw this coming a mile away, ever since the mention of Soul Gems and how they get tainted when the mahou shoujo use magic. Then we saw Miki go crazy and it was apparent that she would become a witch. :( What I didn’t see coming was Homura actually showing some emotions. And [...]

Even thought we’re barely past the halfway point, I can already see Puella Magi Madoka Magica (PM3) easily winning best anime of the season and almost assuredly winning best anime of 2011 – though, Brain’s Base recently brought out their big guns by announcing the third season of Natsume’s Book of Friends – mainly because I have faith Shaft/Shinbou won’t pooch the ending in light of past series like Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Bakemonogatari and even Hidamari Sketch S.3. That hasn’t stopped me wondering how PM3 will end nor has it stopped many in the anime blogosphere either.

I’m seeing certain assumptions being made by some people about the ending that I think are premature at this point and could lead to disappointment when the ending doesn’t go the way it appears to be going. It certainly could go that way but I still see room for PM3 to end happily (or moderately happily).

(Note: I tried to get this done before episode 8 but it looks like I came up a bit short. Since I took so much time writing this I didn’t want to not post it in light of whatever happens in episode 8 but there’s probably more than one idea that no longer is possible. Either way, I’m pretty sure I want Kyubey Barbeque.)

In school, and even now, my talents lay more in the science/math direction so I never really studied the concepts behind creative writing creation and formal critic techniques but the Internet means I can learn just enough to be dangerous. One such item I’ve learned is something known as Chekhov’s Gun which is a concept in writing that basically says that if you mention a gun in the beginning of a story, it must go off before the end of the story. This maxim makes sense to me, especially if you flip it around and think of a story where a character uses a gun at the end of a story when no mention of that gun’s existence occurred before that point – that’s where your deus ex machina endings come from and everyone hates those endings. The ending of the Avatar animated series is a very egregious example of this.

The gun – or more accurately, a BFG – that’s introduced in PM3 during episode 1 was the concept of someone gaining a wish in return for becoming a Puella Magi (magic girl). This BFG will get fired before the end of the series. We know it, Kyubey knows it, Madoka knows it and Homura knows it as well. And that’s okay because Sayaka’s wish shows that Kyubey, for all his creepiness, will legitimately grant a person’s wish without twisting it around. If Madoka picks the correct thing to wish for, as I think she will eventually figure out, than we can get the happy ending that seems nearly impossible at this point. As far as we know, she already has more knowledge of what she’s getting into then any of the other Puella Magi we’ve met so far and not needing anything for herself will allow her a greater degree of freedom in making that wish. (What Homura knew before making her wish and what her wish is unknown at this point.)

I’d love to see what Kyubey would do if Madoka wished for him to kill himself and turn himself into a tasty, slow-roasted barbecue meal. I bet Madoka would learn loads of interesting information about what’s really going on. Like if there’s other Kyubey’s to complete the contract when this Kyubey is dead and what Kyubey actually does with those full grief seeds (i.e. why he needs to live).

Going back to Homura, initially I thought she was just a jaded Puella Magi that made a wish that she regretted later and merely wanted to stop Madoka from making the same mistake. That idea no longer fits and the more I think about, the more I think Homura is the key to everything. What if Homura knew another Puella Magi that was killed before becoming one herself and so she wished that when she was about to get killed as a Puella Magi that a message would get sent back in time for Kyubey to find the person that could/would save her and for her past self to know who this person is and for Kyubey to forget about her since everyone finds this guy creepy.

That’s probably not it but I keep going back to the dream Madoka has in the first episode. It felt like a prophetic dream, even down to the color of ribbons, but it was also instrumental in getting Madoka to accept Homura; Sayaka never had that dream and continues to be suspicious of Homura. Also, watching Homura fight leads me to think that Kyubey wouldn’t stand a chance against her. She could have made road kill Kyubey delight before Madoka/Sayaka had the chance to intervene if she wanted to but didn’t. Then there’s the strategy of Homura’s to keep Madoka from becoming a Puella Magi, it’s really a lousy one because by befriending Madoka it gives Madoka twice the reasons to decide she needs to become a Puella Magi. It’s more like Homura is managing the point when Madoka makes the contract with Kyubey.

The introduction of grief seeds and how they worked is probably the most unsettling idea that PM3 introduced (I’ll get to why shortly). It also reminded me of another anime – Umi Monogatari (Sea Story).  In this anime an island is threatened to be swallowed into darkness by an evil entity known as Sedna that was reawakened when a magic seal was broken by accident. Towards the end of the show it was revealed that the islander’s tradition of “infusing” a pebble with one’s pain, suffering and despair and then tossing it into the ocean at a seaside shrine caused that spot of the ocean to eventually physically manifest the amalgamation of all those sorrows and troubles into the being Sedna. Once our heroes figure this out they realize that if the islanders accept their small pieces of darkness back then Sedna would dissipate and the crisis would be averted.

I’m reminded of Umi Monogatari because of the similarities between it and how grief seeds work which also leads to why I find grief seeds so unsettling; namely, that being a Puella Magi is implied to be evil.

When Kyubey takes the full grief seed from Sayaka he mentions that adding anymore darkness to it might make a witch appear yet when a witch is defeated there’s a certain level of clearness left to it’s grief seed for the use of the Puella Magi. It’s like, as the witch uses it’s powers to spread despair, it’s own soul is being cleansed. I wonder then, if a witches’ grief was split up into small enough pieces and parceled out to many people, would this end the problem of familiars and witches causing people to kill themselves and other such large-scale acts of despair. This by itself doesn’t make Puella Magi evil but when we add in that using one’s powers as a Puella Magi to defeat familiars and witches causes one’s Soul Gem to darken, we’re getting somewhere. This shouldn’t cause a Soul Gem to darken if what the Puella Magi is doing is good. Unless one wants to argue that the ends justify the means.

Speaking of Kyubey, it would be very easy to dismiss him as an evil being at this point but I think it’s a little more complicated than that. If/When we finally meet sentient aliens the chances that we both look at the world the same way is extremely slim. This will make communication and understanding each other quite difficult and the probability of accidentally creating an interstellar incident is frightfully high. Kyubey is an alien in the truest sense of the word and so it’s difficult to use human standards to judge him without some consideration. I’m willing to let some things slide with Kyubey; however, I fault Kyubey for his apparent lack of effort to understand humans and his choice of prying upon young girls who generally lack the cynicism of adults, the ability to understand consequences like adults and having an emotional delicacy that makes it easy for someone to manipulate them. I can just imagine Madoka’s mom bringing a 200 page legal document to Kyubey outlining her terms and conditions upon becoming a Puella Magi.

I also fault him for not mentioning at least something about the importance of a Soul Gem to the Puella Magi. He wouldn’t necessarily have to say they are now essentially the Soul Gem but just that it’s very important nothing happens to their Soul Gem. Mami might not have put her Soul Gem in such a conspicuous location if she had known.

I wonder if Kyubey has a Soul Gem and if he does, where is it?

Before Madoka makes her wish she needs to find out Kyubey’s motivation for finding Puella Magi to hunt witches. I’d be willing to bet that his reasons aren’t that high on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maybe he’s a pedophile that likes to grope young girls or maybe it’s because Kyubey eats the full grief seeds that the Puella Magi have topped off with their own darkness. In either case, Kyubey would prefer a continuation of the current situation with no interest in finding a final solution about the witches and familiars. He might even be instrumental in insuring the next generation of familiars and witches are set in motion after feeding on a grief seed.

Or maybe it’s the wish granting that creates witches and familiars. Kyouko mentions that an equivalent amount of despair is created when a person wishes for hope but looking at what happened with her, it seems like the hope was repaid with a steep percentage of despair as interest. This would explain why there only appears to be a single Kyubey; as evidenced by Kyouko assuming Homura makes her contract with Kyubey and Kyubey seems unconcerned about finding Puella Magi for the rest of the world. If this idea is correct and Madoka remembers Kyubey’s statement that one’s wish influences the power of the Puella Magi – maybe Madoka has to flip the wish around. If she’d wish for a great amount despair to shoulder herself then she could become the ultimate Puella Magi and an even greater amount of hope is created from her despair.

In closing, if we step back and consider the show I’m curious what people think are the chances of Puella Magi Madoka Magica will outsell Bakemonogatari on a per volume basis and K-On! on an overall sales amount in Japan and will PM3 (or Bakemonogatari) ever get licensed for North America.

Filed under: anime, anime news, anime rants/views

Well, I’ve managed to couple my lateness with getting a post up with my interest in the ideas and questions posed by other bloggers.  Maybe this’ll be a trend for the rest of the series.  For episode 7, I’m going to take a look at the prophecy the old guy gave to Kujo.  Flareknight wonders what it means for the couple.  I think he’s right, it very clearly points to their separation somewhere in World War II.  I also want to believe he’s right about the strength of Kujo’s character.  I don’t think he’d go back home to join the war effort despite his heritage.  So what else could possibly separate the seemingly inseparable pair?  Well, let’s expand world events in the war years.

You need to know a little about geography and world history in order to assemble the Chaos.  Sabure (or Sauville) is portrayed as a fictional country.  This can make it easy to forget it still has to sit on a map somewhere.  After all, they bill this series as occurring on planet Earth with the geography and time line seemingly intact.  If you recall, the anime places the territory “between” France and Italy.  That’s all well and good, but pay close attention to the map when they show you it at the beginning of the series.  Now look at a real map.  Do you see the problem yet?  They didn’t add land to Europe, they just redistributed it to make allowance for a new country.  The fictional land of Sabure is really the western border of Italy.  If you know anything at all about World War II, feel free to use the expletive of your choice now.

Yes, that’s right, Italy sides with Germany to form the Axis powers.  Specifically, they join as France starts to retreat into itself in the face of German advances.  Italy’s very first move is to try seizing some territory from their neighbors.  They aren’t very successful, as the resisting forces stop them at the Alpine Line.  For our purposes, it doesn’t really matter.  For Italy to reach the Line, they would have to roll over Sabure, where Kujo and Victorique live.  We already have a problem, and it only gets worse.

They do have the option of fleeing, but none of the options is particularly good.  If our heroes flee to France, they immediately end up in enemy territory.  Shortly after Italy’s stalled offensive, France surrenders to Germany.  They could alternatively head north to Switzerland, but the Swiss had very strict refugee policies during the war years.  They even turned some people away.  It’s possible the couple would have better odds in enemy territory.  Kujo’s background could also play against him.  The Pacific War theatre opens in 1941, and Kujo is a military man from Japan.  He’s not the most welcome person in Neutral or Allied territory, and there’d be a lot of pressure to contribute to the war effort in Axis territory.

The series would likely never get to this point in the time line so all we can do is speculate on what separates them.  However, there’s guiding point here.  Victorique and Kujo have no control over their situation.  They really can’t do anything in the face of the world around them going to hell in a hand basket.  With the open nature of this conclusion, I open the floor to you readers.  What do you think happens to split the couple?  Additionally, if you have a greater understanding of WWII than my admittedly amateur research, feel free to share it as well.

 

It has been a few episodes since my last post on this show, but aside from some Karaoke and late night shenanigans from Keito, nothing much happened in episodes 18 and 19. It doesn’t help that I’m not really a fan of either Kou or Madoka, as I find their characters rather shallow. Episode 20, on the other hand, threw a whole bunch of stuff at us that is worth mentioning, but my main focus is going to be on the how the modern trio of Sugata, Wako, and Takuto is eerily familiar to the one fully introduced in this episode.

The main thing from this episode was that we finally got to learn about the back stories for both Head and the Eye Patch Guy. Though it had already been heavily hinted at, Head is Takuto’s father, but the way it all went down was actually more interesting than I thought it would be. It is almost as if Takuto and Sugata are somehow reliving the events played out in the past between Ryousuke (Eye Patch Guy) and Tokio (Head) over Sora, but with some fairly substantial differences.

First, how can Sugata and Wako not remind you of Ryousuke and Sora. Both pairs are seemingly forced to be together, but yet it seems pretty clear that both Sugata and Ryousuke developed some feelings for the respective women in their lives. Then both Takuto and Tokio seem to come out of nowhere to kind of throw a wrench into things. That’s not to say that I expect Takuto to steal away and impregnate Wako, or for Sugata to rip out his eye anytime soon. Now while I don’t know who will end up with who in five episodes time, a conflict between Sugata and Takuto seems less likely now than it had been in current episodes, all evidence to the contrary.

I mean the show is clearly trying to build up some sort of tension between Takuto and Sugata. The kiss Sugata gave Wako while Takuto unknowingly watched just seemed like it could be the match to start the fire, especially after all the friendship stuff from Wako’s birthday. Further, it seems like Wako knows who she likes at this point, from the end of episode 19, and now might just fear the consequences of what might happen if she were to choose.

However, it would seem that given the limited number of episodes remaining, that all the plot threads are going to converge together in last one or two episodes. While what will happen with Keito’s seal, the forgotten members of the Glittering Crux, and the Departure are all important, it would seem to me that Head’s access to a new mark and the resolution to the Wako-Sugata-Takuto triangle will happen simultaneously. If that does turn out to be the case, I think Ryousuke will be extremely important to the story’s conclusion. I find it hard to believe that he is just supporting Head to see the conclusion of the Cybody project, as there must be some other reason he is there. I get the feeling that in the end, he will give Takuto or Sugata some piece of advice as a way to prevent the two from fighting, so that the two do not end up living with regret, as it seems he is. I mean the show is about living out your youth.

A few other interesting things from this episode is that the revelation of Takumi’s first phase certainly means that I’ll have to re watch this show sooner or later, because there were probably many instances in which he had a bird’s eye view of things, which may come into play later in the series. Also, while I had thought it possible at one point, I had all but given up on seeing more than two cybodies fighting in Zero Time at a time. But this episode debunked that line of thinking with Kou preventing Takumi from defeating Takuto. It’s hard to believe that all of the members of the Glittering Crux are so selfish that no one wants to help each other beat Takuto, because of the benefits that might come from being the group’s leader. It’s really the first big and fairly bad plot hole in the series.

One final thing is the episode stated that Sora had Takuto and gave him to Tokio’s father, but left soon after. I wonder where she went?

Very exposition heavy episode this week, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t see some epic shit go down. Kyoko’s back story went into Key territory in its forced drama, but the way it was told was visually entertaining, and it added depth to her character. And we were finally served with some genuine character development in Sayaka as she came to terms with the fact that she’s a “zombie.”

The stars this week? Kyoko, Sayaka, and… Hitomi? You know, the girl who’s hanging around Madoka and Sayaka? Her crush on Kyosuke came out of left field, but still wholly believable given the middle school setting. What was unbelievable was the maturity with which she handled it, telling Sayaka outright that she was willing to give Sayaka the 1st chance. Now, I’ve talked with someone on SCCSAV who thinks maybe this was a ruse by her to play matchmaker for Sayaka and Kyosuke, but I think that’s overthinking it. It’s just a straight up love triangle.

At least, it would be, if Sayaka believed she was capable of being loved. Nameless’s post comparing magical girls to child abuse victims painted the scene in which Sayaka cried in Madoka’s arms in an even darker light than it initially appeared. It’s a painful catch-22, isn’t it? Because she got her wish for Kyosuke granted, she no longer feels that she can have his love.

Meanwhile, Kyubey offers her no consolation. In fact, the cold open showed him to be a sociopath, unable to sympathize with the girls’ horror at getting their souls sucked out. And literally torturing Sayaka to make his point. I feel that this might be Kyubey’s true nature; he’s not malicious, but he just can’t understand humans. His motivation is something that’s still up in the air, and his obsession with Madoka comes off far too strong, but hey, maybe he just wants a really powerful magical girl to take down witches. Still no reason to suspect him of ill intent.

Who does step in as a sort of a mentor to Sayaka is, surprisingly enough, Kyoko. Her explaining her back story was another thing that came out of left field given what we’ve seen of her so far, but it humanized her, letting us see her as more than just a villain but a victim as well. In fact, she’s the girl of whom Kyubey and Mami spoke when referring to a magical girl who wished for someone else only to have the wish backfire. And boy did it backfire! To the point that it had me rolling my eyes a bit, but hey, it wasn’t as overtly trying to manipulate our feelings as some of the shit we saw in Angel Beats! And the presentation really helped.

The paper cutouts during Kyoko’s flashback should remind you of the flashbacks from Bakemonogatari – Mayoi’s and Tsubasa’s back stories used this technique. But this show played with it by showing Kyoko actually holding the cutouts as she spoke, a visual metaphor for her verbal recounting of her past. It’s not a new trick, but it worked well in delivering the feeling of Kyoko telling her story to us. Also, the rundown church in which the scene took place was flat out gorgeous and fit in with the music by Yuki Kajiura better than any other setting in the show so far. The view of the dilapidated beauty served as a metaphor for the magical girls of this show and also reminded of the haunting settings from the Kara no Kyoukai movies.

Speaking of hauntingly beautiful, how about that final fight scene? Shaft is notorious for hiding cheap animation with its artistic style, and the silhouetted fighting did that quite well. We finally got to see Sayaka kick some ass, and the choreography and action direction overall were great! Beyond hiding the money-saving animation, the silhouetted fighting fit with the theme of the fight, which was Sayaka finally accepting her situation as a “zombie” and going mad. I had thought Kyoko was the one who had gone mad from the horrors of being a magical girl, but it looks like it was Sayaka! Then again, Kyoko is clearly Sayaka’s foil, and perhaps Sayaka has simply taken a step toward becoming another Kyoko.

It seems that each of the girls we’ve seen represents a different stage in the life of the magical girl. At one end of the spectrum, there’s Hitomi, who’s unaware of the existence of magical girls, and our heroine Madoka, who knows, but hasn’t become one yet. Then there’s Mami, who became a magical girl, didn’t know all the details fully and was still fairly idealistic, but got killed before she could progress any further. Sayaka, on the other hand, survived, and discovered the true horrors, and we got to see her go mad. Kyoko seemingly went through that phase as well, and now she’s a cynical, narcissistic, self-serving jerk. And at the end, we arrive at Homura, who has fully accepted her role, completely jaded by what she’s seen, but also fully committed to making sure that others don’t have to go through what she has. It’s a very sad progression, and so far, we’ve gotten to see Sayaka go from start to, well, where she is now.

Will Madoka be the one to break this seemingly inevitable downfall of magical girls? That’s the question in my mind, as we cross the halfway point in the show with our title character still not a magical girl. And showing no signs of wanting to become one, being present to both Mami’s death and Sayaka’s descent into madness. What will finally drive her into becoming one? What is the wish that she will deem so precious that she would be willing to go through what she knows is the hellish life of a magical girl? Part of me hopes that we will enter the final episode with her still not having turned, because the anticipation will have built to epic proportions by then. It’s still far too early to pass judgment on this show, but I haven’t had this much fun watching a TV anime episode to episode since The Tatami Galaxy last year. Which won our best TV Show (traditional) award for that year if you’ll recall.

Things continue to go to hell for our beloved magical girls, specifically for Miki. Now that she knows her body is fake, she can’t bring herself to get close to Kamijou. And Kamijou seems to be getting distant with her, he didn’t tell her about his hospital discharge nor his return to school. This makes [...]

To those of you who really want Madoka to become a mahou shoujo, I have to say shame on you. More to the point, you’re probably not the type of person I would want to hang out with. From the discussions that I’ve seen over the past few weeks, a lot of people seem to be focusing on the finer points of contract formation and minors. While this is certainly an interesting discussion, it is a red herring. Instead, a lot of things in this series have striking similarities to one of my favorite non anime shows, Law and Order: SVU. Unfortunately, Mariska Hargitay (or her partner, whatever that guy’s real name is) won’t be there to try and save the day.

With this foundation in mind, I suppose we could call Kyubey’s contract with Sayaka the proverbial scene of the crime. I mean he practically got to second base with her back in episode 5. But given the events of the past two episodes, it seems like he got much further than that as it relates to the soul gem revelation. The fact that was one of the best revelations in any show in some time aside, it did highlight the delayed reactions that some youths have sometimes in realizing what has happened to them. I mean how often in the media do we hear some politician or actress admit that he or she was abused 20 or 30 years after the fact. But because of the relatively short window of time this show seems to be taking place in, we have gotten a glimpse into some of the more immediate impacts.

As great and shocking as that final scene in episode 7 was, I thought that the much more heart breaking scene was the one in which Sayaka told Madoka she felt used, like a zombie, and could never be with Kyousuke with her current body. If this just didn’t scream abused victim to you I don’t know what would. The reaction of Kyouko’s father to Kyouko’s revelation also showed what kind of effect this type of event would have on someone’s family. While it does seem kind of strange that her family wouldn’t try and support her after she became a witch (or the equivalent), I thought that the fact that her father was some sort of priest covered this issue fairly well. Though I can’t speak to the culture of Japan, I do know that in the US, some families do stop communicating with their daughters after they get a little loose with their morals and eventually slip.

Clearly, that scene in the dilapidated church highlighted this difference. Sayaka was still afraid of what was going to happen if someone, namely Kyousuke, found out about what had happened. On the flip flop, it seems Kyouko had come to some sort of peace with the past events in her (also, the big bag of apples is sure symbolic of something). That made Sayaka’s rejection of help all the more stunning, in that she really needed this form of “counseling”. Instead, it seems that instead of either forgetting about what happened, as I’ll discuss with Mami, or accepting it like Kyouko, she is just going to go crazy.

That’s all well and good you might say (or not I guess), but where does that leave Mami. Well, she is dead, and given this construct I wouldn’t expect to see her again. While the circumstances of her “agreement” with Kyubey are certainly unique when compared to the other girls, I think we can assume that Mami knew what happened to her. While, on the whole, Mami was relatively upbeat about the whole Mahou Shoujo thing, there were several instances in which she did say there were some bad things about the job. I suppose I could make the case that fighting witches for eternity in some parallel dimension correlates to living with the event for the rest of your life, but that seems fishy at best (If I wanted to take it further, many people on LO:SVU who were abused early on in life, do the same to others  in their life/i.e. maybe coming a witch themselves cough Sayaka cough, but that’s just a thought).

Still, we probably could see Mami’s mindset right before her death, reflected in the setting. As some others have pointed out, and at first I did not particularly notice, the scenery shifted from pointy needles to sweet treats. If I were a devote follower in all things symbolic, I’d say that this more than anything shows how Mami was trying to stop thinking about what had happened to her. We would later find out that she never knew the truth about the soul gems, indicating that she was still in denial if we’re using the SVU framework. But as we all know, Mami is dead. This highlights that once you taste that forbidden fruit, you can’t go back again.

There are probably other things in the series that could fit into this framework if I racked my brain for days on end, but there are also some other things that were included that seem to  have no meaning at this moment. Chief among these questions is what role Madoka’s mom will have?  Clearly, she is an important character in the building up of Madoka’s character, but it also seems that something else is going on behind the scenes, or has already happened some time ago. Further, Madoka’s family life has been given a fair amount of screen time, so I’d imagine that a possible reaction to Madoka becoming a mahou shoujo would be crucial to the outcome of the story.  The recent reappearance of Hitomi and her stated intention to confess to Kyousuke muddles up the pictures even more. I’d imagine that if Hitomi and Kyousuke end up getting together, that will pretty much make Kyousuke even with Kyubey in Sayaka’s mind, as people who have used her. Also, I haven’t even mentioned Homura once in this post, as she is her own can of worms.

So no, I don’t want to see Madoka become a magical girl, or at least not become magical for the wrong reasons.

Another couple weeks, another worldview changing revelation. What else is new in Magical Girl Madoka Magica? Episode 5 wasn’t really inspiring, despite having some solid action, but combined with episode 6, it has been a solid pair of episodes in this show. The fantasy set up stage seems to be coming to a close here with conflict against our first major villain in Sakura Kyoko, and new questions join old ones as we see hints of what’s to come.

One question that has been present since the beginning and whose answer gets more and more intriguing as we learn more is, what’s the little fella’s motivation? At this point, with how Shaft has portrayed Kyubey’s actions, without his pleasant voice and reassuring words, he would clearly be a self serving, villainous figure. Hanging out with Kyoko before she gets into a (potentially) lethal fight with Sayaka? Pushing Madoka to make a wish during said fight? Then pushing Sayaka to perform some peer pressure on Madoka to achieve the same thing? One thing’s for sure: he really, very badly wants Madoka to become a magical girl.

That’s even without mentioning the creepy cold open to episode 5 in which he sucks out Sayaka’s soul through her breasts using his extended ears and puts it in her soul gem. Or his unnecessarily pulling Madoka into the fight between Sayaka and Kyoko at the end of episode 6. Then there’s his consumption of the grief seeds via that red mark, which he hand waves as just “being one of his functions.” He just purifies the evil dark power contained within? It’s hard to buy that he’s not getting some benefit out of this, given that magical girls have been shown to consume power from similar sources.

What is Kyubey after here? I stress time and again, there is no reason not to take Kyubey at his word. But with it being so obvious that Shaft is showing Kyubey as being overly pushy and depicting him with demonic imagery, I think it’s safe to say that Shaft wants us to think that there’s more behind Kyubey. Is he just after more grief seeds for himself, and he sees an incredibly powerful magical girl such as Madoka as a good means? Or is he after something more sinister?

A simple twist would be far too obvious, and a red herring would be far too easy. I want to think that our opinion of Kyubey will change at least a couple times before all is said and done.

Certainly, Kyubey’s off-hand comment about magical girls “always being surprised” at the discovery that they’ve been separated from their bodies makes him seem at least callous and insensitive. Like the type to use magical girls and throw them away, cycle after cycle. It was a bit of a surprise to me that Kyoko was taken aback, since she’s made out to be the hardened, cynical veteran, same as Homura, who already knew about the gems holding the magical girls’ souls. I wanted to think that Kyoko was someone so horrified by discovering the world of magical girls that she went psychotic. I guess she’s just a plain old power hungry bad guy. Oh well, at least she makes for quite the villain. Her threat to disable Kyosuke’s limbs permanently was wicked, exactly the kind of speech we want coming from a villain. Plus, she has fire in her eyes (yes, she – and the show – reminds me a lot of Shakugan no Shana. I’ll keep using that joke).

Besides Kyubey, Kyoko really was the star of the past couple episodes. I loved the DDR scene with her and Homura, starting with the shout out to the show’s OP and ending with her getting a perfect score before offering Homura a Pocky in the style of a cigarette (with how this show is playing out like a crime thriller, it was very appropriate). And there was one of Shaft’s favorite tools, the bullet time head tilt, in the middle, when she asked what Homura’s story was without missing a beat. Kyoko was being made to look really cool here, and it worked.

Her fight scene against Sayaka at the end of episode 5 was excellent as well. The use of recycled clips was distracting, especially since there was enough unique content in there to make a good fight scene! But, well, there was enough content in there to make a good fight scene. Kyoko’s oversized spear/multi-sectioned staff is badass, full stop. Such things are what I love about animated martial arts violence: the ability to have crazy, physically impossible, beautiful weapons. Unfortunately, Sayaka was a pushover, and her fighting hasn’t been much fun to look at. She needs to get in close with her sword instead of throwing them.

What about the big reveal at the end of episode 6? So magical girls can theoretically move from body to body. That solves the whole aging problem. But that raises some major questions. How old is Kyubey anyway? How old is Homura, for that matter? How many bodies has she been through? Are magical girls like Roa, jumping from body to body as need arises? Maybe her first body was Joan of Arc? Mary Magdalene? Cassandra? Eve? More importantly, how will this new information come into play later in the show? In a fantasy work such as this, the writer doesn’t throw in such an element without the intent of using it. I would welcome some body switching hijinks. I could use something light hearted in this show (hey, Shakugan no Shana did that too!).

While on the topic of Homura, we finally got to see her teleportation powers clearly and in action, and that was pretty cool. Don’t get me started on why she did the whole “teleport a few meters at a time while running” bit instead of landing right on the truck (or why she painstakingly climbed the truck after catching up instead of, again, landing on top of it). For all the cool action in this show, some scenes test my suspense of disbelief with their stupidity. Sayaka pushing against Kyoko’s spear in episode 5 was also one of those.

Then there’s our eponymous (non) magical girl, Madoka. Hard to believe that we’ve almost reached the halfway point, and she’s still not a magical girl. Whodathunkit? The way she keeps getting hyped by Kyubey and Homura as a game breaker, I wonder if we won’t see her as a magical girl until the very end, under duress like Mami, in order to save something or someone. Or what if she never turns? Maybe the lesson is that by simply being herself, she was magical all along and just needed to click her heels 3 times! Yeah, that would suck.

Given everything Madoka has seen up to this point, who would blame her for not wanting to set foot into the monstrous world of magical girls? Yet she continues to do so despite lacking powers, because she cares about the safety of her friends. So like you’d expect a magical girl show to be, this is about the power of FRIENDSHIP and LOVE. Her nighttime conversation with her mother makes it clear that that’s what this show is going to go for. And to its credit, by putting these girls in tough situations and giving them life-altering and life threatening challenges, the show manages to make this boring message compelling.

It’s never the idea, it’s always the execution. So far, Magical Girl Madoka Magica has taken a very tired old premise and has executed wonderfully, especially with its consistently impressive art and pacing that provides slow burn punctuated by significant, memorable events. Again, because I don’t know much about magical girl shows, I’m staying away from the word “deconstruction.” But all that and the enormous amount of speculation aside, this is simply a fun, intriguing fantasy action show that tells its story very well. I can’t wait to see how the story will run its course and am eagerly looking forward to what else Shaft has in stock for when the Walpurgis Night that Homura mentioned comes.

Zannen.

Oh god…seriously, Kyuubey’s contract sure is screwing with its contracted magical girls. Not only are they susceptible to death, but they literally get their souls ripped from their bodies and forced into another container [soul gem]. This confirms it…Kyuubey is Satan! Which leads me to ask…just where are their original bodies? Kyuubey rips out the [...]

After his episode 03′s major troll, I was thinking we were done with this guy and a new arc would start. And it started off pretty nice, it was dark themed a bit creepy and a bit sad (for the aliens who have to eat their love interest). I took a great liking to this [...]

Well, I’m feeling well enough to get up to date on my anime and actually make a post, so here we are at week five of Gosick.  Last week, we had the addition of a mysterious transfer student, and this week, we find out her motivations.  It turns out she’s a fake, after a treasure stolen by a thief about eight years ago.  The treasure in question is Penny Black.  Supposedly, it’s a very rare stamp, and naturally the misprints go for even larger sums of money.  It’s the opportunity of a lifetime!  Or is it?  I’ve got a bit of research for you, so hold on to your hats and let’s get on with it.

Unlike the Queen Berry in the first arc, Penny Black actually exists.  In fact, it was the first stamp ever used for public postal services.  Back in the old days, the person receiving a letter would pay the postage.  Obviously, this didn’t sit well with some people, and so Sir Rowland Hill proposed a reform.  He suggested the person sending the letter should pay for it.  In 1840, he rolled implemented the stamp system, starting with the Penny Black.  The stamp featured the visage of Queen Victoria on a black background, and as the name implied, it cost one penny to purchase.  When you sent the letter, they would imprint a red void pattern on it to ensure people couldn’t reuse the stamps.  Lo and behold, modern postage is born!

However, this design had a fatal flaw.  If you’ve ever tried to put red on black yourself, then you would know stacking colors that way doesn’t work.  It’s really hard to see the added color.  Not only was it unnoticeable, but it also made tampering with sent stamps easier.  As a result, they stopped producing the stamp one year later in 1841.  They succeeded it with the Penny Red, which inverted the scheme by using red on the stamp and black for the void pattern.

Now you might think, “Wow, this stamp was only in production for such a short period of time, and it’s really old!  It must be worth a lot of money!”  Yes, you and everyone else might think that, if the British Antiques Roadshow is any indication.  That’s where you’d be wrong.  You see, they printed off a lot of stamps within that time period.  I mean a LOT.  Estimates peg the total production run at about 68 million stamps.  They further estimate 1.5 million still exist.  This is a problem.  For a stamp to be worth anything, it also has to be rare.  The latest rate I could find is about 3500 USD for a single, unused stamp, as was shown in Gosick.  I don’t know about you, but if I had another $3500, I’d be pretty happy.

However, this is the year 2011.  Gosick takes place in 1924.  Between now and then, inflation has increased the value of the USD by 1175%.  Every $1 then is worth $12.75 today.  We can reverse this calculation to guesstimate the value in the anime.  If everything remained perfectly stable, the stamp would be worth $275.  You could probably assume the price would be even lower, because collectibles like this also appreciate over time.  Now let’s put it into perspective.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has some data on earnings during the 1920s.  I decided to figure it off the typesetter wages, to be generous.  In a year’s time, a typesetter could earn $2725.  A little more math tells you this stamp was worth a slightly over a month’s wages.  Not quite the windfall you might have in mind.

The one thing I wish I could find is the value of a misprinted Penny Black.  Absent information doesn’t mean misprints never existed.  It could potentially increase the value significantly.  However, consider a rare stamp that definitely went for quite a sum of money.  The Treskilling Yellow is a Swedish stamp from 1855, and it has a very valuable misprint.  Instead of coming out green as intended, it came out yellow.  The last recorded price comes from 1996, when it sold for around 2.3 million USD.  I don’t think I need to convert for you on this one.  Several other stamps exist with higher returns than Penny Black.  So why use it?  I don’t know.  Maybe it rolls off the tongue better.  Or, maybe it’s just the latest in a long line of fallacies that the first stamp is of necessity the best stamp.

For some other reading on period appropriateness, check out 2DT’s post on Victorique’s pipe.
For some actual review of this week’s episode, I’d suggest Emory Anime Club’s coverage.

You can tell that either 1) Japanese schools are different from American schools and/or 2) this show is unrealistic in that, if an American 6th grade teacher ever allowed their class to do a “gender-bender play”, conservative parents would be rioting in the streets and the teacher would probably be fired before the school day was over.  Anyway, that was a nice idea by Saorin, probably in part to allow Yoshino and Shuichi to cross-dress without being embarrassed with their classmates.

In any case, this episode started dealing with Yoshino and Shuichi’s anxiety about going through puberty, with Yoshino anxious about her boobs getting bigger and not wanting to wear a bra, and Shuichi anxious about when his voice will start to change.

Saorin having to work with Shuichi on the play, though, seems to be making Saorin more anxious since the obvious person to play Romeo in their play is Yoshino, but that just reminds Saorin of the fact that Shuichi is interested in Yoshino instead of her.  I did have to laugh at the scene where Maho’s boyfriend comes in only to see Maho stripping Shuichi.  Probably the only reason Maho didn’t let Shuichi have it (again) was because she was sick.

So Sae Miki gets her wish fulfilled, or part of it if she wants that guy’s legs to heal also, and we are treated to a nice scene where she bring him to the hospital rooftop to get him to play a piece on his violin in front of friends/family. A happy moment…or it should [...]