Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Tropes F-J

Late Arrival Spoiler Warning: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is one of the most popular anime franchises in the anime fandom as of the Winter 2011 season. It also has a Wham! Line roughly every episode. In other words, there are a great deal of SPOILERS below—most marked, some unmarked, but all of which will ruin your enjoyment of the story. 

F

 * Failure Is the Only Option: Once you become a magical girl, that's it. There's no way back.
 * The Fair Folk: Some witches behave like this. Gertrud is focused on her(?) roses; while Charlotte is fixated on cheese and will be caught off-guard if one throws her(?) some. It's also a tantalizing irony for Charlotte: despite being able to make candies out of nothing, she can't create cheese.
 * Kazumi Magica refers to contract-making creatures like Kyubey as fairies.
 * Fairy Tale Motifs: Sayaka's storyline has parallels to the non-Disneyfied The Little Mermaid.
 * Fan Nickname:
 * "Moemura" for pre-Adrenaline Makeover Homura.
 * Fan Service: The nude transformation scene with two Madokas in the OP.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Arguably for any girl
 * Faustian Rebellion:
 * Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Type 1, and is consistent throughout the entire series, including Kazumi Magica and Oriko Magica. Can be considered a Mythology Gag (although a very Nightmarish one) for the series due to Every time a character performs this trope, something bad happens directly next to it.
 * Field of Blades:
 * Of course, this too would be subject to fan videos comparing
 * Mami is capable of creating a field of rifles, but it's not quite as impressive. That's more a testament to  than a dig against Mami, though.
 * The Film of the Series: The anime will be adapted into three movies, the first two being recaps of the show, and the third expanding the plot after the anime's ending.
 * Finger-Twitching Revival: Inverted by . Her entire body twitched except her fingers.
 * Five Moves of Doom: Anime example, and an Oh Crap moment. Crosses over with Arc Number.
 * Flash Step: One application of Homura's power looks very similar to this.
 * Fluffy the Terrible: The witches' names, barring a few examples.
 * Food Chain of Evil: Magical girls need Grief Seeds, which witches leave behind upon death, while familiars don't. Familiars need to eat (figuratively or literally) weak people to grow into full-blown witches. Kyoko wholeheartedly embraces the necessary philosophy of it.
 * For Doom the Bell Tolls: "Magia" by Kalafina plays during fight scenes and Madoka's dream at the beginning of the first episode. It's also the regular ending song.
 * Foreshadowing:
 * In the form of a Freeze-Frame Bonus when Mami and Madoka enter Charlotte's maze: "Caution" with.
 * Kyoko appears in the opening credits long before making her first appearance in an episode proper.
 * During a brief moment in Episode 7, when Kyoko and Sayaka are in the church,
 * In the ending,
 * The conversation between Madoka, Sayaka, and Hitomi about  in Episode 1.
 * Sayaka's own narration moments before the opening credits of Episode 4.
 * Also in episode 4, Homura and Madoka's conversation about.
 * Meta example: "Puella Magi" was initially thought to be a botched mistranslation of "magical girl".
 * According to the website,
 * Frozen Face: Kyubey's face in the anime is always frozen in an intense stare, and his mouth never moves since he talks telepathically. This makes him extremely creepy to look at face to face. However, this is averted in the manga, where Kyubey uses normal facial expressions.
 * In the first few episodes, however, Kyubey's expression does change. He has several expressions of pain when Madoka first meets him and has a different expression when one of the girls is feeding him.
 * According to the website,
 * Frozen Face: Kyubey's face in the anime is always frozen in an intense stare, and his mouth never moves since he talks telepathically. This makes him extremely creepy to look at face to face. However, this is averted in the manga, where Kyubey uses normal facial expressions.
 * In the first few episodes, however, Kyubey's expression does change. He has several expressions of pain when Madoka first meets him and has a different expression when one of the girls is feeding him.
 * In the first few episodes, however, Kyubey's expression does change. He has several expressions of pain when Madoka first meets him and has a different expression when one of the girls is feeding him.

G

 * Gainax Ending: Episode 12 is really weird.
 * Doesn't hurt that a lot of it has shots that are visually reminiscent of Gainax endings.
 * German Expressionism: Borrows a lot from it, especially the witches' barrier. Even during real world sequence, the atmosphere feels dark and surreal. Have we mentioned that Faustian motifs and Gratuitous German are abundant?
 * Ghost in the Machine:
 * The Glasses Come Off: Just before, Homura takes off her glasses and uses her powers to restore her eyesight.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Subverted, as afterward we see it   It pans away again, to the , but the sounds continue—this just makes it worse.
 * Completely averted in the manga.
 * Gotta Catch Them All: The grief seeds, the source for the strangeness in the town.
 * Gratuitous French: The themed cafe that will appear in Matsudo, Chiba is called Cafe du Madoka Magica (Cafe of the Madoka Magica). "Du" (de + le) is masculine; it should be Cafe de la Madoka Magica.
 * Gratuitous German: The language of choice for the bizarre creatures at the end of the first episode. They speak in a highly disturbing, screechy and somewhat childlike voice, which is arguably even scarier if you can understand bits of what they're saying. Let's just say those flying scissors aren't just for show...
 * In Episode 2, there is some German scribbled on the wall. It is a quote from Faust. Specifically about a destroyed world being rebuilt...
 * Translating the runes scattered around also yields up a few more Faust quotes.
 * Grey and Grey Morality: Just about everyone in this series seems to have a little good and bad in them. Even Kyubey has an understandable reason for what he does, and . Madoka is an exception, being the only 100% good character.
 * Arguably a Deconstruction
 * And even more so when it's revealed
 * Green Lantern Ring: Generally, a magical girl's abilities and signature attack will remain the same, but they seem to be able to use it for minor things on the fly; this generally adheres to New Powers as the Plot Demands meets Mundane Utility. For example, Mami mostly sticks to summoning enchanted muskets, but can enchant a bat to harm familiars and can create a barrier using a length of chain as a boundary and conduit. Homura once used her powers to fix her eyesight, despite that her main gimmick is totally unrelated.
 * The Greatest Story Never Told:
 * Guest Strip: PMMM continues the recent trend of inviting talented semi-pro and Pixiv artists to draw eye catches and end-of-episode preview art, something that has been traditionally done at the last few pages of Doujinshi for decades. The full list of ending cards can be found in trivia.
 * Guns Akimbo/Gun Kata:And how.
 * Gut Punch:  in episode 3 is something of a shock to the system. Every episode after that is arguably more of a Gut Punch.
 * Gut Punch:  in episode 3 is something of a shock to the system. Every episode after that is arguably more of a Gut Punch.
 * Gut Punch:  in episode 3 is something of a shock to the system. Every episode after that is arguably more of a Gut Punch.

H

 * Hair Decorations: All of the magical girls have some form of this.
 * Hammerspace: One of Homura's abilities. It's shown that she's got an entire armory hidden literally up her sleeve. Mami also has the ability to summon muskets from under her hat and skirt and Sayaka once summons swords from her cape. It's not entirely apparent where Kyoko stores her spear because it sometimes vanishes between shots with no evidence of her dispersing it (episode 8).
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Played with but probably subverted. Sayaka is the only one to use a sword as her weapon. Although her outlook and motivations fit the classic hero mold, she is far and away the weakest of the magical girls and.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * He Who Fights Monsters: . is a more specific example.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: . is a more specific example.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: . is a more specific example.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: . is a more specific example.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: . is a more specific example.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: . is a more specific example.


 * Hope Spot: And an in universe example in
 * It could be argued that the entire  is one giant Hope Spot.   It takes the events of Episode 12 to pull everything out of the tailspin.
 * Humans Are Flawed: One of the main themes.
 * Humorless Aliens:
 * Hurting Hero: Every Magical Girl, but especially Homura.
 * Broken Hero: Mami.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Especially Homura.
 * Hurting Hero: Every Magical Girl, but especially Homura.
 * Broken Hero: Mami.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Especially Homura.

I

 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode title is a line of dialogue from the said episode.
 * If We Get Through This: "...we're all going out for cake!"
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
 * Immortality: Magical girls have Types III and VII. has Type IV. Of all things, despite being Wrong Genre Savvy, Type V is Lampshaded
 * That last spoiler is played with in the manga.
 * At the end of the anime, gets Type I.
 * I'm a Humanitarian:
 * Fundamentally Female Cast: Considering the storyline...
 * In Spite of a Nail:
 * Likewise,
 * It Always Rains At Funerals:When 's body is recovered and she is given a proper funeral in, it immediately starts raining.
 * It Got Worse: This is the premise of the series.
 * It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Takes it and runs with it.
 * I Was Told There Would Be Cake/The Cake Is a Lie:.
 * I Will Definitely Protect You

J

 * Jedi Truth/You Didn't Ask:
 * Jerk Justifications: Homura is mostly Type 3 ("That's the way I am, I can't fix it") while Kyoko is type 1 ("Kindness is weakness").
 * Jerkass Has a Point: Both Homura and Kyoko tried to snap Sayaka out of her Sanity Slippage—Homura violently so—in Episode 8..
 * Jerkass Has a Point: Both Homura and Kyoko tried to snap Sayaka out of her Sanity Slippage—Homura violently so—in Episode 8..