I am starting this topic for Puella Magi Madoka Magika. The development of the story was so quick yet full of food for thoughts that I think it is better discussed in a separate topic from the standard "what anime you are watching" thread.

Someone bugged me of what is going on in PPMM Ep.3 but I do not want to spoil the story in a simple line. It would definitely spoil the enjoyment. I noticed that the English sub for Ep.3 came much faster than usual and is already available (the one I checked was done so rushed that commercials were not cut). I strongly suggest people to go look for the full episode. For those who still don't want to spend that 30min or so of time, concatenate the following fragments of URL and checked the biggest plot twist in the episode

http://img197.imageshack.us/ img197/ 5684/ 1124ch.jpg
http://img194.imageshack.us/ img194/ 442/ 1124.gif
http://img192.imageshack.us/ img192/1228/1125k.jpg

Let's start the discussion of PMMM....

omake


どうする？　WHAT WILL YOU DO ?
If you were Madoka, what wish would you ask Kyuube for? Somehow I think I know the answer for Madoka after seeing Episode 3....

I can't comprehend how this show can go from completely adorable to something right out of your nightmares.. It doesn't sit well with me.. Nonetheless, I just finished episodes 1 and 2 and it is defiantly something to keep watching. Although after looking at those links I'm starting to wonder if I want to...

Episode 2 had an excellent commercial for "Morning Rescue." It looked like an orange flavored energy drink for the morning. Catchy song too. "MMORRRNING RESCUEEE!!"

IrkenEvangelion wrote:I can't comprehend how this show can go from completely adorable to something right out of your nightmares.. It doesn't sit well with me.. Nonetheless, I just finished episodes 1 and 2 and it is defiantly something to keep watching. Although after looking at those links I'm starting to wonder if I want to...

The plot moves much faster than I thought, and in a direction that I did not see (ok, I did think about that, but put it as a remote possibility because I do not think this will happen so soon).

Some Japanese bloggers said this is the EVA for Mahou Shoujo. I am not sure whether this anime will rise that high, but I am quite sure this is going to be THE Mahou Shoujo anime that really reconstruct the genre...

IrkenEvangelion wrote:Episode 2 had an excellent commercial for "Morning Rescue." It looked like an orange flavored energy drink for the morning. Catchy song too. "MMORRRNING RESCUEEE!!"

Oh? There is also "Morning Rescure" commercial in Ep.2 fansub? The one I saw that has the commercial is Ep.3 Yes, it is a morning genki drink (energy drink).

Checked a few Japanese blogs (not all Japan had seen Ep.3 yet because the syndication time is different for the local channels). All expressed utmost shock щ（ﾟДﾟщ ） of the development at Ep.3, just one quarter of the show.

Wow.. just found somebody already built a wiki for PMMM
http://wiki.puella-magi.net/Main_Page

And we finally have a proper ED sequence in Episode 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTtg52AtyP8
Very fitting music. Some already digging the animation in the ED to try to find where the story goes...

Now this or Gosick ED will compete as the best ED of this season.

Kyuubey is a sinister bastard.

MasonFighter wrote:Kyuubey is a sinister bastard.

It was pretty creepy to see at the end of Ep.3 the camera focused on its face and it said nothing (and expressionless) after all that had happened.

Just check the Madoka thread in 4chan (did not know they have a "live watching" thread for tweets in real-time of watching the show, very interesting). The most common eI xpression saw there is FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.

symbv wrote:It was pretty creepy to see at the end of Ep.3 the camera focused on its face and it said nothing (and expressionless) after all that had happened.

Ugh. And the part where Mami's in the car accident and then Kyuubey just appears with that smile of his.

The first thing I thought of when I saw that was that it had caused the crash.

One thing that is certain is that Kyuube does not really care much about the welfare being of the Mahou Shoujo. It can form contract with multiple girls so the incentive is to get as many as possible. Mami had no choice (and it seemed to know that), and it kept pushing Sayaka and Madoka to form contract with it (and fuck what wish they would like). Fortunately even they were in big shock, Sayaka and Madoka did not budge.

By the way the name of the second witch is Charlotte.



The runes read "Charlotte". The German says "Ich liebe Käse. Ich will nur Käse. Es gibt nirgends den Käse." meaning "I love cheese. I want only cheese. There's never any cheese anywhere."

Kyuube is going to give me nightmares.

I can't wait for next week.

I wonder if he's behind the witches, too. What seems to be the most obvious nightmare fuel is that's what happens to Puella Magi when your soul gem runs out.

Played the OP several times a day. Might as well post the link and the lyrics here...

CONNECT is the OP song and is sung by ClariS, famous for "irony" the OP for Oreimo. Supposed to be a duo of 2 girls still in junior high but they never show their faces...


コネクト(Connect)
歌：ClariS
作詞：渡辺翔
作曲：渡辺翔

交わした約束忘れないよ　眼をとじ　確かめる
押し寄せた闇　振り払って進むよ

いつになったら　無くした未来を
私ここでまた見ることできるの?

あふれだした不安の影を　
何度でも裂いてこの世界歩んでく

とめどなく刻まれた　時は今始まり告げ
変わらない思いをのせ　閉ざされた扉開けよう

目覚めた心は走り出した　未来をえがくため
難しい道で立ち止まっても　空は
きれいな青さで　いつも待っててくれる　
だから怖くない もう何があってもくじけない

Romaji

Vocals: ClariS
Lyrics: Watanabe Sho
Composition: Watanabe Sho

kawashita yakusoku wasurenai yo
me wo toji tashikameru
oshiyoseta yami
furiharatte susumu yo

itsu ni nattara nakushita mirai wo
watashi koko de mata miru koto dekiru no
afuredashita fuan no kage wo
nando demo saite kono sekai ayundekou

tomedonaku kizamareta
toki wa ima hajimari tsuge
kawaranai omoi wo nose
tozasareta tobira akeyou

mezameta kokoro wa hashiridashita mirai wo egaku tame
muzukashii michi de tachidomattemo sora wa
kirei na aosa de itsumo mattetekureru dakara kowakunai
mou nani ga atte mo kujikenai


Translation

I won’t forget the promise we made; I’ll close my eyes and ascertain it
Shaking off the darkness that closed in on me, I advance on
When will I be able to see here
The future, which I lost, again?
I’ll tear apart the overflowing shadow of distress
No matter how many times, and walk on in this world
The time that ticked away ceaselessly now announces the beginning
I’ll pick up my unchanging feelings and open the closed door
To draw the future where my awakened heart starts running
Even if I come to a standstill on a difficult road
The sky is always waiting for me in a beautiful blue, so I’m not scared
No matter what happens, I won’t get disheartened


The ED never has a full sequence shown until Episode 3. And it is a pretty dark melody and arrangement. It is also used in some of the battle scenes as background music too.

MAGIA is the ENDING song and is sung by Kalafina. Kalafina is a group composed of 3 girls and formed originally to sing the songs from the anime Kara no Kyōkai. They also sang the OP for Sora no Woto.

Magia
歌：Kalafina
作詞：梶浦由記
作曲：梶浦由記
編曲：梶浦由記

いつか君が　瞳に灯す
愛の光が　時を越えて
滅び急ぐ　世界の夢を
確かに一つ　壊すだろう
躊躇いを飲み干して
君が望むものは何？
こんな欲深い憧れの行方に
儚い明日はあるの？
子供の頃に夢に見てた
古の魔法のように
闇さえ砕く力で微笑む
君に会いたい
怯えるこの手の中には
手折られた花の勇気
想いだけが頼る全て
光を呼び覚ます願い

Romaji

Vocals: Kalafina
Lyrics: Kajiura Yuki
Composition: Kajiura Yuki
Arrangement: Kajiura Yuki

Itsuka kimi ga   hitomi ni tomosu
Ai no hikari ga   toki o koete
Horobiisogu   sekai no yume o
Tashika ni hitotsu   kowasu darou
Tamerai o nomihoshite
Kimi ga nozomu mono wa nani?
Konna yokubukai akogare no yukue ni
Hakanai ashita wa aru no?
Kodomo no koro ni yume ni miteta
Inishie no mahou no you ni
Yami sae kudaku chikara de hohoemu
Kimi ni aitai
Obieru kono te no naka ni wa
Taorareta hana no yuuki
Omoi dake ga tayoru subete
Hikari o yobisamasu negai

Translation

Someday the light of love
that you lit in your eyes will transcend time
And you’ll certainly destroy one of the dreams
of a world racing towards ruin, right?
Drinking up your hesitation
What is it that you desire?
In the course of a yearning as greedy as this
Does a fleeting tomorrow exist?
Like the ancient magic
that I saw in my dreams during my childhood
You smile with the power to shatter even the darkness
I want to see you
In my frightened hands
I have the courage of a plucked flower
Everything that only my feelings depend on
is a wish to awaken the light

By the way, the end of the ED. Does it look like a mask? Scary.....

Yeah it looks like a mask. And the poor girl is trapped in it's eye.

Puella Magi Madoka Magika ep 3

WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN

This was the single most shocking episode I've seen since...jesus, I don't know. It even reminded me of NGE's ep 19 for cryin' out loud

Jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus

I was about to praise Fractale and Hourou Musuko to high heavens again but then I went and watched this. Now my mind is pretty empty.

Damn.


Everyone watch this show. Now. It's painfully obvious Shinbo and SHAFT aim at nothing less than Evangelion of Mahou Shoujo genre.

DAT MOTHERFUCKING KALAFINA ED

Just remind me of EoE


It came up for less than half second in the sequence after Sayaka and QB entered the witch zone. I missed it the first time but some in the net picked this up....

This show will give you nightmares if you watch it before bed.. It is defiantly like Eva too.

Well that's depressing. That Wiki has a lot of interesting information, especially the deciphering runes page. This is one of the best shows of the season. It's a little dark for my taste, but at the same time that's why I'll keep watching. You expect it to go one way and they go the other. I also liked Mami's guns, pretty freaking awesome.

This is a good theory about how the witches came about. It makes logical sense. Interesting..


Also another fine commercial for "Morning Rescue" as well as the DVD/BD at the end.

Man, this show! Third episode was about as awesome as last week's, without a doubt. I just hope Shinbo can keep up the tension and the imagination poured into the work.

Although I'm somewhat surprised by the reaction to Mami's chomping scene. Am I correct in assuming that few people expected that to happen? Given her status as a mysterious mentor figure, I figured an early death was a foregone conclusion. I just wish it had been more graphic than what they showed... giving us surreal trippy visions of hellish labyrinths only to pull its punches at the moment it mattered most was weird.

I actually expect Miss Dark & Shadowy to take on that mantle in a more reserved and distant position within the next episode or two. I also have the distinct impression that the cat-mascot-ferret-familiar thing is evil and merely manipulating the magical girls for some greater scheme. The conflict against these 'witches' is far too vague and hasn't been explained enough, for one thing, and the idea that a magic power which supposedly helps others actually clouds soul-gem crystals to the point of corrupting them simply doesn't have any positive connotations. There's a huge caveat around here someplace that still has yet to be revealed.

Merridian wrote:Although I'm somewhat surprised by the reaction to Mami's chomping scene. Am I correct in assuming that few people expected that to happen? Given her status as a mysterious mentor figure, I figured an early death was a foregone conclusion.

Many people said they could see Mami's death in that episode a mile away, but I really doubt that. I also put her as a likely victim, but I would not put her as the first victim, and not *this* early. As a mentor figure, perhaps one "purpose" is an early death, but such figure could serve other purposes in a story too, so it is no guarantee that she should leave us at this stage.

I still remember up to ep.2 the buzz was that Mami was suspicious and may not be truthful, but I did not hear anyone say that she is going to depart in EP.3 Also when we looked at ep.3 again, of course we could say that what Mami did before the battle were all pointing to her departure, but by then our view may have already been clouded by what we already knew.

Merridian wrote:I just wish it had been more graphic than what they showed... giving us surreal trippy visions of hellish labyrinths only to pull its punches at the moment it mattered most was weird.

I love the way they built up our attention as she was so happy and exhilarated in the early success of the fight -- instead of trippy visions we saw tense and dense battle actions (and I prefer the latter). And then they lingered on the aftermath long enough to show it as shocking as possible without crossing the line for graphic gore. The way it showed Mami's hanging body long enough so that it was clear that she did not lose her magic power immediately after she was chomped by the monster. It gave me the feeling that she did not die at once. And if you looked at the falling body closely, it looked headless. After the monster was destroyed and vaporized, some mess did not vaporize and fell onto one of the tall tables next to Akemi and she looked askance. It seems it was the remains of Mami's body tcoming out of the witch as it vaporized. The following provided a good way for rechecking the fight scene 　　
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fbaxBv9B2I

By the way, is it only me who see similarity with Mami's final battle with Asuka's final battle in EoE? In both cases, the girl got into a very high spirit shouting "I am not alone anymore!!" and initially had good success but finally met a very brutal fate. Anybody see the same?

Merridian wrote:I also have the distinct impression that the cat-mascot-ferret-familiar thing is evil and merely manipulating the magical girls for some greater scheme.

This is the most popular theory around the net right now. (QB is evil)
What is certain is the QB is keener on getting girls to sign up than guiding the girls to make a well-thought decision. It never talks about the downside (except a little bit during Madoka's dream in ep.1) but always try to push for the deal using "any wish you want" as the incentive, even going as far as saying that "other girls usually accept straight away" (of course it would be easy to make the decision in Mami's case)

Merridian wrote:The conflict against these 'witches' is far too vague and hasn't been explained enough, for one thing, and the idea that a magic power which supposedly helps others actually clouds soul-gem crystals to the point of corrupting them simply doesn't have any positive connotations. There's a huge caveat around here someplace that still has yet to be revealed.

I think that idea is based on the theory that the magic power actually came from the soul gem and during combat the soul gem would be corrupted (clouded) by some reason (exposure to witch? magic power in the gem being used?) and it would need the dark power of the Grief Seed to absorb the dark cloud and restore the power of soul gem. I am not saying I support this theory. Just to give it a spin to show that it may be plausible. And yes I do agree that there are quite a lot of things that are not explained yet. Besides the higher level question of how the mechanism and relationship between Mahou Shoujo, the mascot animal and the witches function, just the question of whether Mami is going to be gone forever (and if she should come back in what way and in what form) has already trigger huge amount of speculation everywhere.

Just found that the BD of PMMM is now ranked No.1 in sales under anime BD category in Amazon JP even though the release date is in March. It is also No.2 in overall BD sales (No.1 is Star Wars complete BD box).

By the way, noticed there are actually 5 girls in ED, and it does not seem to be any girl showed up yet. I wonder if there is a hidden character somewhere later in the series...


Now watching the Episode 3 live on TV (it was shown one day later in Tokyo than Osaka)... It is just at the point of the hatching Grief Seed being discovered...The BGM and garphic is so great... oh my oh my oh my... oh the battle just started -- I had to stop writing...

symbv wrote:By the way, noticed there are actually 5 girls in ED, and it does not seem to be any girl showed up yet. I wonder if there is a hidden character somewhere later in the series...

The best supported opinion is that it is the girl in the OP.

Wiki wrote:Nicknamed Condom-chan because of the suspicious-looking plastic sausage wrapping she's got flapping in her mouth.

Pronas on Talk: wrote:Actually, she is holding this in her mouth. It's called "棒棒冰" in...I suppose, Chinese? It is also called "chuubert" in Gintama(see episode 149). Someone on /a/ also said it's from a candy or whatever.

0x99 wrote:It's called Chuupet (チューペット) in Japanese. Chuu as in "suck" and PET.

symbv wrote:
By the way, is it only me who see similarity with Mami's final battle with Asuka's final battle in EoE? In both cases, the girl got into a very high spirit shouting "I am not alone anymore!!" and initially had good success but finally met a very brutal fate. Anybody see the same?

It's easy to find Eva similarities in anything if you look hard enough.

MasonFighter wrote:It's easy to find Eva similarities in anything if you look hard enough.

But I did not need to look hard. It just came straight in my mind the moment I finished watching it....

Merridian wrote:Although I'm somewhat surprised by the reaction to Mami's chomping scene. Am I correct in assuming that few people expected that to happen? Given her status as a mysterious mentor figure, I figured an early death was a foregone conclusion.

I knew something bad was going to happen to her when she made like she was crying and said she wasn't alone because Madoka was going to be with her. Either that or she was going to do something really bad to Madoka. That whole sequence was a bit unsettling.