After last week’s intense reveals and Sayaka’s quick spiral into despair, we were treated to an episode that was decidedly more relaxed in its pacing. The reveals came calmly this time instead of as big hits, with Kyubey finally explaining his motivations to Madoka and Kyoko rediscovering herself in the face of Sayaka’s transformation. As usual, the pacing was spot on, and the development of Kyoko’s character was handled wonderfully, but the way the climax played out left a bad taste in my mouth, ending an otherwise good episode on such a sour note that this may be the worst episode in the show so far.

It’s not that Kyoko’s sacrifice was too predictable. It was predictable, but that in itself is not a problem, as the show wasn’t playing it as a twist. Nor was her decision to do it unbelievable. The show did a fine job of turning villain into heroine through bits of character development in the past 3 episodes. Her wistful comment this episode about why she became a magical girl to begin with – and how Sayaka reminded her of that – had impact. It was just as clear to her as it was to us, the audience, that she was Sayaka’s foil, and seeing that girl’s downfall made her regret the loss of her innocence. Her desire to find redemption by saving Sayaka felt genuine.

Rather, the trouble was that what should have been a crowning moment of glory turned not to be, due to the poorly directed action of the climax. The necessary sense of danger and urgency just wasn’t there. I was ready to believe that Kyoko would give her life in this battle, but it should have been done under a truly dire situation, when no other option presented itself. Though the battle did a good enough job of showing Sayaka as dominating over Kyoko, there was no immediate sense of danger at her moment of sacrifice. It could have been a dramatic, powerful moment, capping off Kyoko’s journey for redemption with a truly selfless and needed sacrifice. Instead, we got a bit of yuri subtext which (though pretty damn cool) framed her death as one out of romantic love for Sayaka rather than of out of a desire to redeem herself for her crimes by aiding Sayaka. As I mentioned above, the latter was very well developed over the past few episodes. The former was jarring and, more importantly, unnecessary for justifying her sacrifice. There was a perfectly good reason to have Kyoko sacrifice her life! Why not use it!?

First of all, HAWT. Second of all, was that really necessary?

As for Kyubey’s reveal of his origin, I don’t like it, but I’ll allow it. I’m wary of stories using science fiction mumbo jumbo – especially “fancy” things like quantum mechanics, chaos theory, or, in this case, thermodynamics – to explain its fantasy. It’s just magic; by watching this show, we’ve already accepted a certain level of suspense of disbelief, and trying to rationalize it further just takes away from the mystique. And, as was the case here, when the science is wrong, it flat out sounds stupid.

To be fair, the science wasn’t completely wrong. Kyubey was conflating entropy (loss of usable energy) with the actual loss of energy (which is impossible), but perhaps he was simplifying things to explain to a middle schooler. Even so, the time scale he’s talking about – the point at which the universe will be so dominated by entropy that energy might as well not exist – is just too damn long to care about. Even if Kyubey’s race is as old as the universe, the time it would take for this to happen is several orders of magnitude longer than that. It’s a bit ridiculous to accept that his race thinks in that long a time scale.

Looking very predator there, Kyubey.

Of course, Kyubey’s race is supposed to be unfathomable to us. Their inability to have emotion, I thought was good enough to explain his manipulative and disattached personality up to now. I don’t think the show was trying to use it as an excuse to forgive him for his actions, because it doesn’t. He’s still a psychopath. It merely served as an explanation of his reasoning, which will help us understand his moves in the future.

For example, his manipulation of Kyoko to kill her and Sayaka at the same time. His giving Kyoko false hope was a really clever move to set up the situation to force Madoka to become a magical girl. The kind of cold and calculated move fitting for such a villain. Given that he’s the villain, of course, it’s also probably a good idea to take what he says with a grain of salt. He might not state outright lies, but there are ways to lie without doing that.

"Are you human!?" "No. And neither are you." Fucking badass.

So with 3 out of our 5 heroines disposed of, all of the pieces are in place. Walpurgis night looms ahead, which will be a challenge too much for Homura to handle alone, and the only possible source of help being Madoka. This should remind you of Madoka’s dream in the very first episode, in which Homura was shown fighting alone against… something, with Kyubey telling Madoka she could help her by becoming a magical girl. Was that dream indeed a glimpse into her future? I didn’t like that conjecture from the beginning, and I still don’t, but it seems quite likely to come true. But excepting the little misstep at the climax of this episode, this show has proven that it can execute on its story very well, regardless of its contents. After all, 2 very early conjectures came true in the previous episode in a truly awesome way. And when the show finally got around to character development the last few episodes, it has done it incredibly well. We’re entering the final act now. Madoka is still not a magical girl. I wait anxiously to see what comes.

Going out with a smile, that's so typical, Kyoko. You and your sugary voice will be missed ;_;

I rarely, if ever, read manga.  However, there is one type of genre that forces me to break this unofficial rule of mine, and that is shoujo-ai/yuri. So for this 12 days of Christmas thing, I thought that I would talk about one of my favorites from this genre, Girl Friends, especially considering that it only ended a couple of months ago (There are spoilers, but I tried to avoid talking about anything too specific).

Now I know some of you must of read that introduction, and then your eyes, as if by some unseen force, were drawn to the word yuri with only one thing in mind. Unfortunately, this post isn’t going to do anything to relieve you of your fix, but suffice it to say that some of the chapters in this series probably would. Instead, Girl Friends truly shines by depicting the relationship of Mari and Akko, from its inception to its angst filled middle to its ultimately satisfying end. The one thing that I love about this manga, when compared to many of its counterparts in this genre, is that neither of these characters has much experience with love when the story starts, nor do they have any idea about what their ultimate preference in gender will be.

Thus, the story is able to combine two coming of age/revelation stories into one. Of course, the standard manga romance issues still arise, and the transitioning of their friendship into one of a romantic nature is chock full of misunderstandings, moping, blushing, and near  misses. However, considering that most teenagers have trouble expressing their feelings, and the fact that this duo needed to overcome a pretty big social norm, I don’t really have a problem with what many may perceive as trolling by the mangaka.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have some drawbacks, especially for the male readers among you. While I wouldn’t say that the series relies on an appreciation for women’s fashion and beauty, many of the character’s conversations seemingly end up focusing on, and educating the reader about, the finer points of women’s fashion and the torture that is dieting. Additionally, the manga probably has far too many characters for its own good. It often seemed that the story drifted away from its main purpose to focus on some of these characters, and while they did provide context for what Mari and Akko were going through, it occasionally crossed the line into annoying.

Then there was one of the things that made this series unique, but also endlessly frustrating. The story utilizes train of thought storytelling(or as Keima would say, an inner voice) as a way for us to understand what Mari and Akko are thinking, but the only problem is that we never get to hear both of their thoughts at the same time. While this concept is endearing, in that it lets the reader identify with the character’s feelings, I almost always found my self, especially in the later chapters, only wanting to know what the other was thinking, which was frustrating to say the least.

So if you haven’t put Girl Friends on your list of things to do over the holiday, I’d recommend it. As for the cell phone batteries part, suffice it to say that one was part of a very good and well-rounded, yet understated ending that I won’t forget anytime soon.