Madoka Magica - Episodes 7-9 - Series Review A

(Note: This article contains major spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.)

Following the realization that the magical girls have separated their souls from their physical forms, time is spent trying to rationalize the events which have transpired. Sayaka and Kyoko have a little heart-to-heart in which they try to determine how they would like to use up the rest of their existence.

However, the two of them cannot seem to agree. Sayaka begins to close herself off more and more, even distancing herself from Homura and Madoka. As Sayaka's despair grows, her attitude toward humanity continues to wane, and her soul gem begins to turn into a grief seed. Eventually, she becomes a full-fledged witch.

Meanwhile, Kyubey continues to reveal more and more information about Madoka, how she is predestined with the ability to warp reality and things which even his near-limitless knowledgebase simply cannot explain. In fact, Kyubey himself ends up learning quite a bit in the process of observing the magical girls. Ultimately, we as viewers learn that all of this was done with a set purpose in mind, a grand purpose, an experiment by Kyubey himself.

Episode nine is, for all intents and purposes, the dystopic conclusion to Puella Magi Madoka Magica. In it, we learn that the sole purpose of becoming a magical girl is to become a witch, and then to be killed by another magical girl. The process repeats ad infinitum as a last ditch effort to stall entropy and prevent the heat death of the universe. Humans alone were cursed with this responsibility, and in exchange, allowed to progress as a species.

Madoka and Kyoko make every attempt to turn Sayaka back to normal, but it is all fruitless. As a last ditch effort to protect Madoka, Kyoko commits suicide, taking Sayaka down with her. The episode ends with Homura, the last remaining magical girl, telling Kyubey that she will give her life to ensure Madoka never has to become one.

Barring the fact that there are still three episodes, and multiple movies, we can already give a pretty solid analysis on the series from these nine episodes alone. Though since there is much more to come, we will hold off on scores.

Inspiration: If we focus purely on the foreground, we're pushing up against the epitome of cyberpunk fiction. Magical girls are normally of a fantasy element, but these girls use modern weapons in a world set twenty minutes into the future, where they meet with realist problems of a society which does not care for people without a purpose. Kyubey himself can be considered a rogue data program, pulling the strings to take control of all of the resources for the sake of preservation. It deals extensively with the idea of humans as tools, much akin to other popular cyberpunk titles (The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, etc.).

Aspiration: The internal struggle of ascertaining one's goals is a common theme which resonates throughout the first nine episodes. Strong parallels to it are Durarara!!, Gurren Lagann, and Excel Saga, to name a few. The overarching idea is, "you will reach one goal, but it will not be enough. You will continue to reach farther and farther, never being truly satisfied." It is something we must strongly take into consideration when talking about static actions, because humans are anything but static creatures.