Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Tropes U-Z

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. 

U

 * Undead Children:
 * Unflinching Walk: Due to a combination of her weapon of choice and her ability, Homura is a master of this and demonstrates exactly how it's done in episode 10.
 * Unreliable Narrator:  may be one.

V

 * Vagueness Is Coming: The lyrics of "Magia".
 * The event known as Walpurgisnacht.
 * Vicious Cycle:
 * Villainous Breakdown: A very minor one from the resident stoic, but still,
 * Doubles/works better as an Oh Crap,
 * Visual Pun: Minor, possibly unintentional example: in the first episode, Sayaka uses a fire extinguisher on Homura.
 * Visual Pun: Minor, possibly unintentional example: in the first episode, Sayaka uses a fire extinguisher on Homura.

W

 * Walking the Earth:
 * We Have Reserves:

"Kyubey: That was very bad, Madoka. Madoka: What? Kyubey: Even on this world, something like, that is crazy."
 * Weird Moon: The moon phases consist of either dramatic crescent or completely full moons.
 * Wham! Episode: Episode 3. You will NOT be ready.
 * To recap—the first few episodes were ominous, but mostly standard Magical Girl show fare, leading to lots of fan theories. They had no ending credits montage nor ending theme, relying on the credits showing as the story continued. After the events of Episode 3, we have a fairly good idea where the deconstruction elements lay, and the show now officially has an closing-credits sequence. It's creepy as hell.
 * Another one happens in Episode 6.  Ouch.
 * Another one happens in Episode 8.
 * Why don't we just go ahead and call this a Wham Series while we're at it?
 * In episode 9
 * In episode 10  On that note,
 * Episode 11 sees
 * And in Episode 12, we see
 * Wham! Line:

"Kyubey:"
 * Episode 8 spoilers:

"Homura: I will not allow your plan to succeed, Kyubey... no,."
 * From Episode 8 as well:

"Kyubey You'd all still be living in caves, I think."
 * Episode 11

"Madoka:"
 * And in episode 11:

"Kyubey You've done great, Homura."
 * Also from episode 11:

"Madoka Kyubey"
 * Episode 12:

"Madoka Hang in there."
 * And finally from Episode 12

"Kyoko: You son of a... Give me a break!"
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: In Episode 7, after having her advice rejected by Sayaka, Kyoko is shown furiously taking bites out of an apple.
 * What Have I Become?: Kyoko's reaction . Her previous arrogant nature is completely dropped, and she's openly horrified.


 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: There is no way that Homura could be, Madoka couldn't possibly be  , and Kyubey representing  ? Patently absurd.
 * What Is One Man's Life in Comparison?:
 * A Million Is a Statistic: It gets worse..
 * Where On Earth Is Mitakihara?: The city has a German shopping mall, the school building is an Austrian prison(!), and the tallest man-made structure is the Burj Khalifa; there is even an oil refinery. Yeah.
 * White Void Room: Homura's room; she puts holograms of her memories over the walls.
 * Also in the manga
 * Whole-Episode Flashback:.
 * Whole-Plot Reference: While it isn't obvious at first, the plot is essentially
 * To an extent,
 * The Wiki Rule: Includes an enormous amount of speculation, a translation of the weird runes, as well as translations of All There in the Manual and Word of God. Can be found here.
 * Wind Turbine Power
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
 * With Great Power Comes Great Perks: This is Kyoko's attitude after becoming a Magical Girl.  Yet another reference to Faust...
 * Also, insofar as Kyubey is concerned, the "become a magical girl" process involves a lot of this.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Deconstructed. Is getting your wish granted (which can be as small as [ wishing for a cake) worth having to fight Eldritch Abominations for the rest of your life?
 * Worf Effect: Two examples in Episode 3:
 * The second example is Homura, showing up seconds later (Mami had used magic to subdue her) and beating the witch effortlessly.]] Justified in a later episode when it's revealed that
 * Worf Barrage: Mami's Tiro Finale easily finishes . When Episode 3 comes along, it did little outside of making.
 * Episode 11 shows Homura hammering Walpurgisnacht using rocket launchers, artillery, a couple towers being collapsed on top of her, a lit tanker truck to the face, getting hit by a guided missile, and landing in a pit with a few thousand bombs. Walpurgis just gets right back up as if nothing ever happened.
 * The World Tree: An enormous tree appears post- in the Niconico stream of episode 10.
 * Wounded Gazelle Gambit: pulls this off in the first episode while being chased by.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: A lot of this goes around but particularly Kyoko in episode 9.
 * Sayaka seems to think that being a seigi no mikata (warrior of justice) in a Gen Urobuchi work is a valid life choice.
 * In most other Magical Girl series, trying to reason with the remaining human part of would probably have worked.
 * Wounded Gazelle Gambit: pulls this off in the first episode while being chased by.
 * Wrong Genre Savvy: A lot of this goes around but particularly Kyoko in episode 9.
 * Sayaka seems to think that being a seigi no mikata (warrior of justice) in a Gen Urobuchi work is a valid life choice.
 * In most other Magical Girl series, trying to reason with the remaining human part of would probably have worked.

X

 * X Meets Y: has been described in some circles as Sailor Moon set in The World of Darkness.

Y

 * Yakuza: Homura raids a Yakuza group's locker for small arms after the other magical girls became uncomfortable with things randomly blowing up around them.
 * You Are Not Alone:
 * You Didn't Ask: Kyubey's response to Sayaka regarding why he didn't bother mentioning that becoming a magical girl involves.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The colors span the rainbow.
 * Your Size May Vary: In the broadcast versions, soul gems vary in size from egg to pear. They're more consistent in the Blu-Ray versions.
 * Kyubey mentions that the size of a soul gem can depend on the magical girl's potential power.
 * Kyoko's spear seems to randomly change length between shots. In a zoomed out shot, the spear is twice her height. When the shot changes immediately afterward, the spear is a more manageable length for her to spin around. There's nothing to really suggest that she can change the number of segments in the spear.
 * Kyubey mentions that the size of a soul gem can depend on the magical girl's potential power.
 * Kyoko's spear seems to randomly change length between shots. In a zoomed out shot, the spear is twice her height. When the shot changes immediately afterward, the spear is a more manageable length for her to spin around. There's nothing to really suggest that she can change the number of segments in the spear.

Z

 * Zettai Ryouiki: Madoka in her school girl outfit and Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko in their magical girl outfits.