Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Tropes A-E

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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. Avoiding these pages is highly suggested for those who have not seen the show.

WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware.

A

  • Abstract Apotheosis: Madoka's wish turns her into the abstract concept of hope, here also a kind of force of nature. This fulfills her wish to erase all witches (past, present, and future, including her own) from existence, preventing magical girls from becoming Witches.
  • Accidental Pun:
    • Mami Tomoe's name "Mami" means Mommy in Spanish and other languages like German. Considering her mentor role it fits her.
    • On a slightly pervier note, her name's resemblance to the word "mammaries" has not gone unnoticed by the fanbase.
  • Acid Trip Dimension: Almost literally Invoked by the Witch's Realms, and implied by Homura's room. It does not help that most of it is symbolic.
  • Actor Allusion: Due to the all-star voice actors ensemble, we were expecting this.
    • Eri Kitamura voices Sayaka Miki, the blue-themed member of what amounts to Madoka's magical girl team. In Fresh Pretty Cure, she voiced Miki Aono, the blue-themed member of that show's team. Add also that she played Saya Otonashi from Blood+ a sword wielder.
    • Junko Iwao plays Kazuko Saotome, Madoka's school teacher, who happens to be a scorned lover who can't keep boyfriends. Junko Iwao also plays every incarnation of Akane in the My-HiME metaverse, and most of that character's drama revolves around how she's constantly separated from her sole love interest, Kazuya, no matter what universe she's in. "Kazuko" is literally the feminine form of "Kazu," which is the nickname Akane always calls her boyfriend.
  • Adult Fear. Let's see, Mami is missing, Sayaka is found dead, and Madoka is troubled but refuses to share what had actually happened. Not to mention that with all the Witches, there must've been a whole lot of suicides, missing persons and who knows what else - which makes Madoka's behaviour all the more alarming in her mother's eyes.
    • When Madoka does Abstract Apotheosis, everybody except for her little brother and Homura forget her. That means her own mother doesn't remember her.
  • Alien Geometries: The barriers around the Witches, and the Witches themselves, are this. A great example is the first witch we actually see in episode 2; it simultaneously is and isn't two-dimensional.
  • All There in the Manual: The official website and supplemental materials are quite interesting to read for the fan.
    • Technically the names of the witches appear in the episodes themselves (written in Cypher Language), but other things like the names of their familiars and their personality traits (such as they are) can only be found on the official website. In addition, this information includes witches that have not appeared themselves or only appeared in a Flash Back. Fortunately, they are translated on this page (spoilers, of course). Special note that the creators have left open the rest of The Un-Reveal to Wild Mass Guessing.
    • The black cat in the OP is explained in the drama CD 1 from DVD volume 1, but never in the show proper. In the first timeline, Madoka became a magical girl to save a cat that was hit by a car. She kept this a secret because she didn't want to be scolded for doing it for such a small reason.
    • The third drama CD reveals Kyoko and Mami have a shared past, something that is only hinted at in the anime proper. However, this has somewhat taken form when Oriko Magica came around.
    • The concept art booklet in the sixth Blu-Ray volume reveals a character's name. Madoka's goddess form is called "Ultimate Madoka". The name is never spoken or written in the show. However, since fans have been using Fan Nickname ( Godoka/Madokami/etc.) for it, it isn't such a problem.
    • The You Are Not Alone guidebook includes or alludes to other Magical Girls' wishes.
  • All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game": Let's keep this as clear as possible: the majority[1] of these spoilers have circulated the internet five times over, and it would be impossible to not know about most of them. Even though the anime didt not have a proper English release until March 2012, a newcomer to the series will have to wonder about the size of this page and the rather large amount of spoiler tags. In other words, this page is Tempting Fate for anyone who reads it. You, on the other hand, have been warned.
  • Alternate Character Reading: Invoked. The kanji used for "Mahou Shoujo" can be rewritten to reveal multiple key plot points. Similarly, "Puella Magi" has multiple meanings, which are also key plot points. All of these are explained in the anime proper and their respective tropes.
  • And the Adventure Continues...: The series ends with witches being replaced with demons, so that Magical Girls still have something to fight. The very last scene shows Homura continuing to fight.
    • Averted in the manga adaptation, wherein after this, the final page has Ultimate Madoka taking Homura with her to the new plane of existence to be with her for all eternity.
  • Alternate Timeline: It is a Running Gag on the Puella Magi internet pages that you will see how many times is it now formatted like this in some kind of way. Detailed explanation:
    • Homura is capable of jumping back to a certain point and creating as many of these as she wishes. We know of at least five she's been in (the last being the "current" timeline), and parts of her end monologue in episode 10 as well as some of the dialogue in 11 and 12 implies this may have been going on far longer. For now, we don't know how many times this is done, and the above is done as a placeholder unless Word of God delivers an answer.
    • Madoka's wish in the final timeline changes all timelines ever.
  • Altum Videtur: "Puella Magi" almost, but not quite, translates to "Magical Girl". "Puella magi" literally means "Girl of the Sorcerer". This becomes a plot point when it's revealed that witches are fallen magical girls. "Magi", depending on the context, can be used in two ways: "Magician" or "Deceiver", the latter of which is the closest derivation. The series' title can be thus be translated as Girl of the Deceiver, Magician Madoka.
    • All of the OST's track titles (save two) are in Latin and uses the correct translation for Magical Girl: "puella magica".
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: Kyubey reveals at the end of Episode 8 that the witch is the later stage of a magical girl's existence. She can only delay the inevitable transformation due to The Corruption of her soul by shoving it into limited-use Grief Seeds (which are incidentally fully-corrupted souls). The same episode also showed a magical girl's transformation into a witch.
  • Animalistic Abomination: Kyubey, who typically appears in the form of a harmless-looking cutesy feline, is revealed to be an "Incubator", a Hive Mind race who eat their dead and take their predecessor's place and identity; Kyubey is frequently seen eating what looks to be his own corpse, and is capable of surviving ludicrous amounts of injury. Despite seemingly lacking emotion and claiming that Incubators have little understanding of mortality or the value of life in their "utilitarian" approach, Kyubey is more than happy to play Jackass Genie and leave out vital aspects of the contracts Madoka and company agree to until it's too late.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Ultimate Madoka in episode 12 is the anthropomorphic personification of hope.
  • Anyone Can Die: Two episodes away from the series finale, three of the main characters have fallen. Only two remain ... in this timeline. In the four shown timelines, Homura was the only main character alive following the battle against Walpurgisnacht.
  • Apocalypse How: Any good show should have an apocalypse. Let's review the scale for this one:
    • Walpurgisnacht will cause a Class 0 that leaves, at a minimum, Mitakihara in ruins.
    • Madoka's transformation into a witch in previous timelines is guaranteed to cause a Class 6.
    • Madoka's last wish and her subsequent transformation into a goddess causes a chain of destruction leading up to a Class X-4, although it's all part of a plan to fix things and rewrite reality.
    • Kyubey and his race are actively trying to stall and/or prevent a very prolonged Class X-4 throughout the series.
  • Apocalypse Wow: Episode 12, but Ultimate Madoka saves the day ... by causing another one.
  • Arc Words: Walpurgisnacht is used as some sort of omnious threat. It turns out to be the appearance of a super-powerful witch.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Second episode, discussing wishes:

Sayaka: Hmmm... fabulous riches, eternal youth, Chinese delicacies...
Madoka: I don't know about that last one...

  • Artistic License Physics: (Fun fact: priority one for someone with an interest in extending the life of the universe would be shutting off all the stars, which throw away vast amounts of energy just to light up dust and dead rock.)
  • Art Shift/Medium Blending: A witch and her barrier will employ one or the other.
    • The third episode stops borrowing from the Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei opening and starts borrowing from cute 1980s-style cartoons.
    • Episode 4 has a strange, flat, Louis Vuitton-esque design to the witches dimension. In the witches' TV screens, one can see the same art style used for the Maria Holic ED.
    • Episode 5 features a realm that resembles an elementary school kid's drawings. Kyoko's explanation of her past is shown in a similar way.
    • Episode 7's realm is Deliberately Monochrome, looking like a shadow-play.
  • Art Style Dissonance: It uses characters done in the cute style of Hidamari Sketch to tell a story that can be accurately likened to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Madoka does this in the last episode, disconnecting herself from time to ensure witches never exist. In the process, she becomes something akin to a magical girl goddess. It is implied that all magical girls post-Madoka are also like this, with Ultimate Madoka guiding them to her own plane of existence after they die.
    • In the manga, Ultimate Madoka takes Homura to be with her forever some unspecified time afterwards.
  • Ascetic Aesthetic: For starters, the school building is about 90% glass. The utter sterility of the city itself makes a nice contrast against both the characters and the bizarre world of the Witches.
  • Asshole Victim: In Episode 8, Sayaka encounters two rude misogynists on a train. The context seems to imply that she killed them.
  • Astral Checkerboard Decor:
    • Many of the witches have this motif somewhere inside their closed off worlds. The first few minutes of the opening episode is nothing but this.
    • The end of the manga takes place in a dungeon with a checkered floor. Acts as nice Book Ends.
  • Awful Truth: Coincides with Wham Episodes.
    • Episode 6, Kyubey reveals some disturbing tidbits about soul gems. Soul gems literally are souls, as the process of becoming a magical girl causes the soul to be literally ripped out and placed in a gem. The human bodies are empty shells animated by the soul gem; the two must remain in close proximity. In other words, "magical girl" is just a fancy way of saying "lich".
    • Episode 8 reveals witches' origins. Magical girls whose soul gems are sufficiently corrupted become witches themselves.
    • Episode 9 reveals why Kyubey is turning girls into magical girls. They are a power source for saving the universe.
    • Episode 11 reveals the reason why Madoka has so much power. Time loops centered on her added to the power of each timelines' Madoka.
  • Ax Crazy: A character becomes more and more Ax Crazy to show her descent into madness and despair. Sayaka begins showing signs of this at the end of Episode 7.

B

  • Bait and Switch Credits: The opening is something that would fit perfectly on any typical Magical Girl show, with Shout Outs to Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, and Pretty Cure. The ending ... has distorted music, is nearly completely devoid of color, has creepy lyrics,[2] and ends with Madoka floating in the fetal position in the eye socket of a giant skull. Prior to Episode 3, the anime avoids showing the ending, instead running the credits along the conclusion of the episode and using the song for fight scenes.
    • Subverted later, when it becomes clear just whose perspective the opening song is from.
    • The Blu-rays for the first two episodes have an ending theme which plays this trope straight as well.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy:
    • For the briefest moment when Kyoko and Homura transform.
    • Madoka in the opening, also in a transformation sequence.
    • Also shows up in episode 12, during the encounter between Homura and Madoka after the latter's ascension to law-of-naturehood.
  • Batman Gambit: Kyubey's modus operandi is the Batman Gambit. It involves manipulating and withholding as much information as possible from magical girls, so that they can eventually fall and become witches themselves.
    • A specific example: Kyubey misleads Kyoko into believing there may be a way to make Sayaka human again, which leads to Kyoko's death and leaves Homura as the only magical girl left; since Homura can't possibly defeat Walpurgisnacht alone, Kyubey hopes this will force Madoka into making a contract.
  • Batter Up: On her first witch hunt alongside Mami, Sayaka brings along a baseball bat to compensate for a lack of magical girl powers.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Played With. It's is sometimes Played Straight, sometimes surprisingly Subverted : the problem isn't in the literal granting of the wish, it's the fact that the wishers aren't asking for what they really want. The repeated warnings against making selfless wishes are there because there is no such thing as a selfless wish. Each wish was made in the hope that it would result in something the magical girl would ultimately benefit from, but since that result isn't what they asked for, that isn't what they got. This plays into Kyubey's plans rather nicely, since it means forcing the girls to realize that their pure dreams and wishes were never really pure at all, and can only further divide them from the happiness they wanted after it's too late to change their minds.

Kyubey: Before you took up the burden of this fight, you had a wish you wanted to see fulfilled. And I did make that wish come true, didn't I?

    • Played Straight for Mami's wish. She connected to life, being able to continue her own life, but it was alone, without family or friends...
    • Subverted for Sayaka's wish: She wished for the boy she loved to get better; he did, and no bad consequences came from it, but what Sayaka didn't wish for was for him to fall in love with her, which was what she really wanted. Kyoko pointed out that what she should have wished for was for him to never recover and become completely dependent on her.
    • Played Straight for Kyoko's wish: She wished for people to understand her father's preaching. It backfired when he discovered the truth, driving him insane and leading him to kill his entire family apart from her; she likely only survived because she was unknowingly a "zombie".
    • Played Straight for Homura's wish. She wanted to protect Madoka instead of being protected, but what she wished for was to be able to go back in time and do it over, knowing then what she does now. And boy, did she ever.
    • And finally Averted for Original-Timeline Madoka. The wish didn't backfire on her, just because her wish was simple, straightforward, and relatively petty. In the Drama CD, she wished for a cat to be saved after being hit by a car, and there's no indication that anything related to that wish ever went wrong.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Cleopatra, Queen Himiko, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank were magical girls. A Middle Eastern girl speculated to be Sharbat Gula was one as well.
  • Being Good Sucks:
    • Sayaka's attempt at being a moral crusader backfires and the strain of fighting as a magical girl while not getting what she wanted causes her sanity to start leaking down the drain.
    • The ending also qualifies, as Madoka's tradeoff for saving magical girls from their inevitable fate was being erased from physical existence.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Kyoko doesn't like it when people waste food.
    • Don't mess with Madoka in any way or form if you want to stay on Homura's good side.
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: Arguably Kyoko's Heroic Sacrifice, because she had no intention of being transformed into a witch.
    • In Episode 10, after The Reveal in a previous timeline, Mami suffers a mental breakdown and tries to kill the other main characters and herself, following this logic. After the battle against Walpurgisnacht in the same timeline, Madoka asks Homura to Mercy Kill her before she turns into a witch.
  • Beyond the Impossible: As noted above, WhamLines lines are frequent and rules can be rewritten.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Is done frequently, usually by Homura. It's eventually subverted when Kyoko tries to step in for Sayaka, who refuses Kyoko's help, gets back up and defeats the witch she was fighting.
  • Big Eater: Kyoko rarely appears without some kind of snack food in hand.
    • Madoka herself comes off as this in the 100 Questions.
  • Bigger Is Better: Not enuff dakka? Try bigga shoota! Averted. The bigger gun doesn't hit the enemy's weak spot (its head), and it rushes out of its shell to engage her in melee.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The German graffiti in Episode 2 are quotes from Faust.
    • Homura's wall is decorated with a full transcription of "Das Hexen-Einmaleins" (Counting with witches basically), which reads like a nursery rhyme, but again origins from Goethe's Faust.
    • The Anthonies in Episode 1 chant a series of phrases in German.
    • "Tiro Finale" is Italian for "last shot". It was originally supposed to be "Filo Finale".
    • Madoka's homework in Episode 6 is apparently to translate the English nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle." To see her word processor giving a closely translated suggestion to the words "Hey diddle diddle" in Japanese is quite an amazing feat.
    • Graffiti on the wall shown right before Kyoko and Madoka enter Sayaka's Labyrinth says "Love Me Do".
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • Walpurgisnacht has been defeated, there are no witches and there never will be, Incubators are able to gather curse energy harmlessly, and both Kyoko and Mami return from death. Madoka is a goddess, and one day, she and Homura will be together again. But now, magical girls vanish when they would have become witches before, the magical girls fight demons (rather than witches), Sayaka is still dead, and Madoka has disappeared from normal existence, forgotten by all except Homura and Madoka's pre-verbal little brother.
    • An unspecified period after Homura's battle with the demons in the Manga, she is shown in Madoka's heaven, restored to her innocent Adorkable self, to be with Madoka forever.
  • Black and White Magic: Magical girls are powered by wishes and in Ultimate Madoka's universe, hope, while witches are powered by curses. Guess how witches are created.
  • Black Box: Magic is impossible to figure out even to Kyubey and the race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens he comes from, but it seems to work and its better to think that a black box that involves the suicidal grief and monstrous transformations of adolescent girls is just fine.
  • Black Comedy: The official franchise has a lot of fun making fun of Mami losing her head. For instance, when about to air episode 3, an official broadcast tweet said something along the lines of "This episode features Mami - keep your heads on!". Aniplex of USA got in on the fun as well when they uploaded Mami's voice actress' interview.
  • Black Speech: Shown when the art shifts and the witches come out.
  • Bland-Name Product: Kyoko offers Homura some Rocky.[3] The Dog Drug Reinforcement dancing game she's playing in the same scene is another one.
  • Blatant Lies: Kyubey does not, since he considers himself above lying, but Gen Urobuchi does. A lot.
  • Blessed Are the Cheesemakers: Well, according to Charlotte the dessert witch. She can create any dessert in the world, but she can't create her favorite food, cheese. No wonder Mami got eaten by her; she wears all yellow.
  • Blessed with Suck: In exchange for putting their life on the line, a magical girl will have any wish of theirs granted. Of course, there are a few things in the fine print Kyubey "forgets" to mention. Like having to experience despair equal to the happiness gained from that wish, and spending the rest of their life as a lich fighting witches that may or may not be evil. And possibly becoming a witch themselves.
    • Cursed with Awesome: This is the final fate of magical girls in Madoka's reconstructed universe. A wish is granted to the girls at the cost of fighting the demons until the girls exhaust their soul gems and die. It's kind of like the whole Grey Wardens schtick. However, as long as they keep fighting the demons, their soul gems keep replenishing -- so it's very much a willpower thing.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Mami, Homura, and Kyoko are the only main magical girls still existing in the rewritten universe.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: Where the anime avoids depicting gore, the manga revels in it. Gory Discretion Shots are frequently averted. Blood is added to scenes that didn't originally have it, and characters are drawn with Nightmare Face expressions that give Higurashi no Naku Koro ni a run for its money.
    • Strangely, the mangas reads like a bastard child of Elfen Lied: extremely cute characters with a Fan Service cover, but Gorn all over the place. All we need now is an R-Rated Opening...oh wait, that already happened in the original anime and Oriko Magica.
    • Here's a comparison of Sayaka's fight with Elsa Maria in the TV and BD version. (spoiler warning) The BD version adds more blood to the scene.
    • The BD release keeps better consistency with Kyoko's injuries during her fight with Oktavia.
  • Blue and Orange Morality: Kyubey, who is apparently a supposed Starfish Alien gathering energy to stave off entropy. It just so happens that having teenage girls turning into Eldritch Abominations is a very efficient way to do so, and he doesn't understand how anyone who knows the whole story could object to the plan.
    • His consistent reply to the girls' protests is "I don't understand what you mean," which has become a Memetic Mutation associated with him in Japan.
    • In the epilogue he's still this, but his race's best chances to work on things in the new paradigm is to work very closely and openly with the magical girls. He even warns them up front that they will fade away when they run out of magic.
  • Bright Is Not Good: A Talking Animal, colored Puella Magi Madoka Magica white and pink? How dangerous could it be?
  • Body Horror: Episode 4 features a witch that kills its victims by stretching them until they tear apart. The effect is exaggerated by the art style used for it.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Homura's final fate is uncertain in the anime; it could be one of two things: either she's gained new superpowers, or she's going to Heaven as soon as the series is over. Or it could be both. Averted in the manga, when Madoka does indeed take her to Heaven, where they'll be together forever, along with Sayaka.
    • Sequel Hook: It is possible that Homura in the anime had split into two separate people. The anime depicts two versions of her: one with Madoka's bow defeating large Mooks, and another with an insane amount of symbolism showcasing her Badass purple wings. Word of God, so far, has not given a confirmation on the ending. See the WMG page for speculation.
  • Book Ends: The very beginning and the very end of the series are set to the sound of a projector running, and then the sound of it abruptly shutting off.
  • Boss Subtitles: Every witch has one written in Cypher Language.
  • Bread and Circuses: The modus operandi of the series. See the trope page for the explanation. Almost taken literally with Sayaka's witch realm, which is represented like a operatic cinema/three-ring circus.
  • Break the Cutie: To be expected:
    • Madoka, who over the course of the series is forced to suffer through the deaths of Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko, on top of learning how the system works.
    • Kyosuke is revealed to have been on the fence for some time, since his injuries meant he would never be able to play the violin again. At least, until Sayaka uses her wish to heal him.
    • Sayaka becomes a magical girl for Kyosuke's sake, only to find out the truth about soul gems and discover that Hitomi also has feelings for Kyosuke. She falls into despair, and eventually becomes a witch.
    • Homura was originally a very shy girl from an alternate timeline, who befriends Madoka and Mami after they save her from a witch. After the two magical girls die fighting Walpurgisnacht, Homura wishes to go back in time and protect Madoka, hoping to save her. Instead, Homura is forced to watch all of her friends die or become witches in each of the four iterations we have seen her experience. The series offers what appears to be a fifth iteration, however in Episode 11 Kyubey remarks that Homura has gone through this cycle countless times and it is still not looking any better.
  • Breather Episode: Episode 5 is much lighter in tone compared to the previous two episodes, which dealt with Mami's death (Episode 3) and the effect it has on the characters (Episode 4).
  • Broad Strokes:
    • The author of the Madoka Magica manga has stated that the anime and manga are based on the same scenario, but has implied that the manga could be very different down the road. This is completely false; the manga is based on the exact same script as the anime, and is simply a Bloodier and Gorier Compressed Adaptation. The closest it gets to diverging from the anime is the addition of a short, highly ambiguous, epilogue.
    • Kazumi Magica appeared to be this in the first three chapters, but the fourth chapter ultimately explained most of the inconsistencies. On the other hand, the soul gems and grief seeds look different until the third chapter, where they suddenly look like the ones in the anime. This was fixed in the collected edition.
  • Broken Aesop: For the most blatant one out there: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The series' ending was obtained because Homura's Aesop Amnesia actually caused it.

C

  • Call Back/Brick Joke: We have a separate page for this.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Mami calls out the name of her final attack when she's fighting witches.
  • Canis Latinicus: Though the song titles are real Latin, the lyrics to songs such as "Sis puella magica!" and "Credens justitam" are not (composer Yuki Kaijura apparently does this often enough that fans call the "language" Kaijuran). Latin with Italian pronunciation and word construction, with Japanese grammar, would be as good a guess as any.
  • Can't Catch Up: In every timeline shown, Sayaka is the weakest Magical Girl shown. Even in the best-possible-timeline ending, she still dies, despite being partnered with Kyoko and Mami.
  • Cash Cow Franchise: One episode was all it took for this series' (and the company's) popularity to go through the roof. Now Studio Shaft is rolling in money. Maybe. (NSFW?)
  • Cast From Lifespan/The Corruption: Using magic of any kind, as well as experiencing negative emotions (especially despair and Angst) dims your soul gem. When it's completely dark, the 魔法少女 (Mahou Shoujo) - magical girls - turn into 魔女 (Majo) - witches.
    • In the new universe, this is even more true -- when the soul gem runs out of power, Ultimate Madoka takes the despair -- and the soul gem -- away to the afterlife.
  • Censor Steam: Madoka and Homura in Madoka's dimension "beyond reality". Adds 100% pure liquid Les Yay.
  • Cessation of Existence: Kyubey implies this is what happens to human souls after their receptacle is destroyed. However the wish-magic of the setting, Madoka's "omnipotent" potential being enough to "change the laws of nature", Kyubey's own ability to be reborn, the witches cloning themselves via familiars, and Homura coming from an alternate timeline render this less than certain.
  • Cheeky Mouth: Madoka displays a very wide one during the first episode, when she's talking about her dream.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The long haired Madoka from the OP. Also, before the last two episodes aired, the website was redesigned to have a picture of Madoka with a pair of wings. Madoka gets both in the final episode.
    • Homura's original art featured her as the one with a bow. Then there was the later illustration of her and Madoka holding the bow together in what looked like a disguised spoiler for the last battle. They left guns outside the Fourth Wall. Although in the epilogue, Homura is shown using a modified version of Madoka's bow instead of her time-stopping powers. Which makes sense, as in the new reality there was no Madoka to sacrifice herself and gain time powers for.
  • Chromatic Arrangement/Trio: Done brilliantly throughout the series. Genius Bonus if you can figure out how this applies to the series itself. May also explain the reason why Gen Urobuchi is such a Lying Creator.
    • For the main Trio, we have Madoka, Sayaka, and Hitomi. This represents the Red-Blue-Green, or what we see personally.
    • For the second Trio, we have Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami. This represents the Red-Blue-Yellow, or what the artist sees.
  • Class Is in Room X-01: Mami is briefly shown to be in class 3-A (at least, in the manga).
  • Combat Pragmatist: Homura. The justification, however is explained on the character page.
  • Combat Tentacles: Gertrud has this attack, as does Elsa Maria.
  • Conspicuous CG:
    • The train tracks at the beginning of Episode 9 are quite obviously a flat CG surface.
    • Walpurgisnacht also uses copious amounts of it, though this was likely intentional.
  • Cosmic Balance: Everything revolves around this.
  • Cosmic Close Call: Homura tries to create these to save close friends, only for something far worse to take its place, and ends up going mad in the process.
  • Cosmic Horror Story
  • Cosmic Forces Trio: There's several:
    • Hitomi, Sayaka, Madoka (Basing solely on the beginning character arc).
    • Homura, Madoka, Sayaka (Due to {{spoiler|Sayaka's Start of Darkness arc.)
    • Homura, Madoka, Kyubey (Basing on Episode 10).
  • Cosmic Retcon: Madoka's wish results in all witches having never existed.
  • Cool Big Sis: Mami. Though it's also deconstructed in Episode 10, where Mami attempts to kill her younger comrades as an alternative to letting them "grow up" into witches. While she's still acting perfectly in line with her protective, motherly archetype, she's clearly out of her mind and few people would argue this action exemplifies "cool" qualities.
  • Cool Guns: Homura mainly uses guns and explosives to deal with witches. Her primary weapon in Episode 10 is a Desert Eagle.
  • Costume Porn: The magical girls have beautiful battle outfits.
  • Covers Always Lie: Played with. Official artwork for the series constantly shows Madoka in full Magical Girl attire. She doesn't make the contract until the final episode. However, she became a magical girl in the previous four timelines Homura has experienced. Aside from that, the bow and arrow Homura is shown with in one piece of official artwork is actually the weaponry one of the alternate-timeline Madoka uses. We do see her use it at the very end, though.
  • Crapsack World: Just wrap your mind around it: the laws concerning magical girls in this world were specifically created, in-universe, to cause as much grief and suffering as possible to all involved. The Powers That Be are not so much incompetent [debatable] or outright evil as they are purely sadistic, because that's the most efficient way of getting what they want.
  • Crap Saccharine World: Everyone in the world of Madoka gets a raw deal. Muggles, despite living in a nice city with advanced technology and apparently quite nice welfare system, are either killed by witches or branded with their "kiss", filling them with despair and brainwashing them into committing suicide. Witches can creates world fit to their preferences inside the barrier, spread despair and grief in process after having lost all of their own hopes as Magical Girls, and exist mostly to be destroyed by magical girls. Magical girls have their wishes fulfilled, got magic power and fancy costumes, turned into liches, and must live a life of constant battle, where the tiniest mistake can be fatal, until they die or become witches themselves. All of this is because Kyubey's race, the Incubators, apparently want to counter entropy by using the souls of teenage girls as an energy source.
    • This is visible even in the artwork. Check out most of the environments: Everything in the foreground is bright, clean, sterile and lifeless. Everything in the background is dark, and largely consists of black skeletons of buildings under construction.
  • Creator Breakdown: Gen Urobuchi's self-confessed "tragedy syndrome" from his afterword to Fate/Zero (see the Quotes page) is in full play here.
    • ...but eventually subverted! Everyone gets a happy ending in the last episode, with the exception of Madoka and Sayaka, who get Bittersweet Endings.
  • Credits Running Sequence
  • Cry Cute:
    • All of the main characters.
    • Just about every past and future magical girl as they hit their Despair Event Horizon.
  • Cryptic Background Reference: Mami states that witches cause all sorts of bad things to happen with their mere presence, but we're only shown two attempted suicides. Walpurgisnacht's true nature and name are also never divulged, even in the manual.
  • Cryptic Conversation: Somewhat justified. The last time Homura tried to explain everything, none of the girls in timeline 3 believed her until Sayaka became the witch Oktavia. Immediately after Oktavia's defeat, Mami suffered a breakdown and murdered Kyoko, forcing Madoka to kill her.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: In one timeline (specifically, the one that the very opening sequence from the first episode is from), Madoka becomes a magical girl and defeats Walpurgisnacht on her own very easily. She becomes a witch almost immediately, however, with enough power to destroy the world within a few days.
  • Curtains Match the Window
  • Cute Is Evil: Kyubey. His full name is Incubator, as in the incubator of the witches that magical girls fight and eventually become themselves, if their soul gems are completely corrupted.
  • Cyberpunk: While it uses magic rather than technology, and the city is much cleaner than in usual works, the show's hints at transhumanism and, to a lesser extent, Kyubey's mottos and personality could feel right at home in a Cyberpunk series.
  • Cypher Language: The runes. They are not just a substitution cypher, they are also in German. See the Trivia page for the translations. The Wiki Rule, however, is filled to the brim with the translations.

D

  • Darker and Edgier: Expect no less from the author of Saya no Uta. The finale makes things a bit Lighter and Softer, though.
  • Darkest Hour: In Episode 11, Walpurgisnacht has endured an army's worth of firepower from the lone Homura, who has finally given up hope of the Groundhog Day Loop ever saving Madoka, who steps up to make her wish...
  • Dark Reprise: Somewhat. "Magia", the ending song of the series, made its appearance in the first scene of the first episode. There, the song is slowed down quite a lot, giving it a much darker atmosphere than it already had.
    • Which turned out to be a production error as all of the music in the first episode was slowed down and it was back to its normal speed and pitch in later airings.
  • The Day the Music Lied: Episode 3's battle scene starts with standard battle fare when the fight with Charlotte starts, but it immediately switches to grim dark once Caterpillar!Charlotte appears.
    • The music in the scene near the end of episode 8. See Musicalis Interruptus below.
    • The opening theme song is sung by Homura in the post-Episode 12 world. The lyrics and symbolism make perfect sense once you realize this.
  • Deal with the Devil: Kyubey will give them anything they want, but in exchange, they will have to fight witches to the death as what is essentially a lich. Also, when they accumulate enough corruption, the girls will turn into witches themselves.
  • Dead Person Conversation: When Madoka was on her way toward goddess-hood, she met Kyoko and Mami in... somewhere suspiciously similar to Mami's apartment. Chat and cakes were had. For some reason, Sayaka was nowhere to be seen.
  • Deconstruction: The director outright said he was aiming for this while still maintaining some traditional Magical Girl elements. This is a Deconstruction of certain aspects of magical girls. Now, a lot of these elements are merely subverted or toyed with in various ways, rather than deconstructed outright; see the Darker and Edgier entry above. However, the "sending young girls out to fight monsters of the week" aspect is played straight, but with the potentially horrific and traumatizing consequences of it allowed to realistically play out. Also, even though many of the Darker and Edgier elements aren't necessarily deconstructive in themselves, it does draw attention to the fact that the sort of creature who sends young kids out to fight would turn out to be rather morally skewed.
  • Decon Recon Switch: Specifically, this series deconstructs the power of heart often used in Magical Girl anime. The show does this by drawing attention to the fact that the power of what the girls wish for (the desires of their heart) are never as pure and noble as many shows often assume they would be (these are young girls after all). Tragedy ensues because of their often selfish and unclear desires. The ending, however, reconstructs the power of heart completely in that a wish made for all the right reasons can essentially become the most powerful force to ever exist.
  • Death by Origin Story: Mami's and Kyoko's parents.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: The Latin title reads as this, but it's subverted in that there's an alternate, more accurate translation (based off of Altum Videtur): Girl of the Sorcerer: Magician Madoka. Furthermore, "Puella" literally means "a young girl" but it's derived from "Puerulus", which means "a young slave". "Magi", depending on the context, can be used in two ways: "Magician" or "Deceiver", the latter of which is the closest derivation. The series' title can thus also be translated to "Slave to the Deceiver, Magician Madoka"
  • Deranged Animation: For example, the Anthonies' South Park-ish appearance (read: reminiscent of that series' cutout style), as well as how it doesn't match the art style of the other characters, is already bad enough for them to deserve to be the page image for the Nightmare Fuel subpage, but their laggy animation really drives the point home.
  • Design Student's Orgasm: The witches' mazes. The first witch, Gertrud, is a gardener, so the maze is covered in roses and thorns, with floating scissors and butterfly- and puffball-themed familiars. The second, Charlotte, has a maze made of cake and sweets with syringes and bottled body parts everywhere. Charlotte herself looks like a children's cartoon from the 80s.
    • A certain aspect of Charlotte takes heavy inspiration, too, from Takeshi Murakami's Superflat artwork.
    • As noted below, if you're into architecture, this is the series for you.
  • Despair Event Horizon: For magical girls, this is more than a metaphor: it's an actual, literal point of no return that has tangible consequences. Sayaka starts heading towards it when Kamijo hits it, gets really close when Hitomi confesses that she wants to ask Kamijo out (going Ax Crazy in the process), and passes it in Episode 8, turning into a witch. In episode 12, however, she's "purified" by Madoka's wish, which gives her a more peaceful death.
    • In Episode 10, Mami from one of the previous timelines snaps and tries to kill the other magical girls when she finds out about the Awful Truth, murdering Kyoko and nearly killing Homura before being killed by Madoka. Eventually, Homura becomes so desensitized due to her past failures that she essentially becomes a Knight Templar for Madoka's survival.
  • Did Not Do the Research:
    • When Kamijo starts to play violin again, what you actually hear is a viola.
    • The description of "entropy" in episode 9 is a bit off. Entropy is described as the net loss of energy from a system, but the first law of thermodynamics state that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Despite this, the show's explanation still works. In reality, entropy is the increase in chaos in an enclosed system over time. Put simply, this means heat from hot places will continuously move to cold places. This means that some useful energy will no longer be useful. For example, think of the heat energy generated by a heater, and how it will "spread" across the room until you can no longer feel the warmth, or how the heat from your blankets escapes when you get out of bed. This means that the amount of usable energy in the universe is still decreasing as time progresses, and there is still a need to find an alternative energy source.
    • Homura's explosive and flash grenades seem to have been mixed up. Odd when you consider how much care they put into detailing her other weapons.
    • Supplementary material states that "Walpurgisnacht combines with other witches in the same way two powerful tornadoes are able to combine and become larger. It's essentially a "conglomeration"-type witch." Thing is, real tornadoes don't do that.
  • Died Happily Ever After: Sayaka in episode 12, and possibly Homura, following the series conclusion. Mami and Kyoko are slated to go out this way, too, but possibly only after Homura herself is reunited with Madoka in Heaven.
    • And then there's Rebellion, where all of that is undone and everybody's alive again - in the worst way possible.
  • Diegetic Theme Cameo: Madoka listens to "Connect", the opening theme, at the record store in the mall in episode 1. Episode 6 also features Kyoko dancing to a techno version of the song on a DDR stand-in.
  • Distant Finale: The last pages of the manga occur some unspecified time after the last scene in the anime.
  • The Ditz: Madoka, and In the first few timelines, Homura.
  • Divided We Fall: One of the major subversions of this series: the Magical Girls are not working together. In fact, there is a reason for them to not work together: they're competing for the same resource (the witches' grief seeds). At the same time, the girls are clearly inclined to help one another, and yet are also unwilling to accept the others' help. The results are sadly unfortunate.
  • Doing In the Wizard: Sort of. Kyubey is from a species of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, and his goal is staving off the heat death of the universe by breaking the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Magic is still magic, though.
  • Downer Beginning: The curtain rises with Kaname Madoka dreaming of a mysterious black-haired magical girl battling giant falling pieces of buildings in a grey, war-torn world.
  • Dramatic Irony: Sayaka blames Homura for Mami's death, on the grounds that she didn't enter the fight until Mami was killed in order to take the witch for herself. However, both the audience and Madoka know that Mami had cast a binding spell on Homura, meaning that she couldn't have stepped in until it was too late.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Madoka's dream at the beginning of Episode 1. Inverted, as Episode 10 reveals the dream(?) depicts a scene from another timeline, which from the only available trans-timeline perspective happened previously.
  • Driven to Suicide: People affected by the witches, who radiate despair. In Episode 4, they form a suicide pact.
    • The backstory of Kyoko Sakura winds up with her father murdering the rest of her family once the truth is revealed to them.
    • Mami, in Episode 10, as a result of discovering the Awful Truth about becoming a witch. She was also going to take down everyone else, but Madoka stops her after Kyoko's fall.
  • Due to the Dead: Sayaka gets a real Tear Jerker of a funeral at the start of episode 11, and after Madoka takes her to Heaven in the current timeline, it's implied she gets a token funeral shortly afterward.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Magical girls get this after their Soul Gem is taken away from them, due to them being effectively dead.
  • DVD Bonus Content: The DVD / Blue Ray releases have soundtracks and audio dramas - at least two of the dramas can be considered canon, and reveal important backstory information.
  • Dying Alone: Kyoko performs a Heroic Sacrifice to kill Oktavia so that Sayaka doesn't have to die alone.
  • Dying as Yourself: Arguably, what Ultimate Madoka does for every magical girl that has ever, or will ever, exist. By taking them off to heaven with her, she prevents them from turning into witches and allows them to fade away instead.

E

  • Earn Your Happy Ending: The series' Bittersweet Ending would not have been possible without Madoka and Homura's sacrifices.
  • Easter Egg: There's a ton of content in the series that is easy to miss at first, such as Freeze-Frame Bonuses, hidden phrases in a Cypher Language, and more information about witches on the official website.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The true form of witches. Kyubey can also be considered a representative of one too. He hails from a race that utilizes the emotions and souls of magical girls as an energy source that violates the second law of thermodynamics. Considering that Kyubey essentially kick-starts the process of creating Eldritch abominations known as witches, he is arguably the Eldritch abomination behind the Eldritch abominations.
  • Eldritch Location: The barrier that surrounds each witch.
    • Homura's Apartment: Word of God is that "the white walls, floating texts, and clockworks are all a holographic projection superimposed on a more mundane setting. At the same time, there is the suggestion that Homura's residence was intentionally drawn to resemble a witch's barrier."
  • Emotion Eater: Kyubey's true purpose. They're able to turn emotions into surplus energy that violates the second law of thermodynamics, in order to save the universe.
  • Emotions vs. Stoicism: Most of the girls (Sayaka especially) are often hindered by their emotions, and are always being rescued by the more stoic Homura, who advises that they not let their feelings get the better of them. The one girl who did not heed her advice, Mami, was quickly met with a gruesome death.
    • And later, Sayaka let her emotions turn her into a witch.
    • This is a running argument throughout the series. Kyubey's arguments make a lot of sense, but only from a coldly logical, utilitarian standpoint; the girls' counter-arguments always run along the lines of "But it's so horrible."
  • Empathic Environment: The barrier seems to work this way. When Madoka says that she will become a magical girl and fight alongside Mami (who, at this point, is bitter from all the fighting but hides it well), medicine capsules fall from above and then warm, fuzzy-looking wispballs float from below.
    • Episode 8 has Madoka and Sayaka at a bus stop in the rain. The rain gets more intense to match Sayaka getting more riled up.
  • The End Is Nigh: Apparently, this is what Walpurgisnacht will entail, or at least that's what Homura seems to imply.
  • Enhanced on DVD: The DVD / Blue Ray releases have fixed up a large number of Off-Model shots, added additional details to the backgrounds, and fixed one lingering question -- The witch in the episode 1 prologue was re-drawn to look like the witch in episode 11 and 12.
  • Environmental Symbolism: Due to the classrooms looking like cages, there has been speculation by fans that the school (lots of glass, generally futuristic) was based on Justice Center Leoben, an Austrian prison with a similar design.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Vaguely, this is how having a wish granted is related to being a Magical Girl.
    • The hope spread by magical girls is equally counteracted by the despair in their everyday lives, eventually turning them into the very witches they fight against. This is on purpose. However, the system Kyubey presents arguably does not balance out, since he apparently claims the "good" energy himself to "prevent the Entropic Heat Death of the Universe".
    • Interestingly, it's possible that the implication that Equivalent Exchange is being strictly enforced (or is inherent to the process) may well just be a masterful piece of misdirection on Kyubey's part. The real reason they meet despair proportional to the hope they bring is because it lets him double-dip--he profits from ANY sufficiently strong emotional swings.
  • Essence Drop: A defeated Witch usually leaves behind a Grief Seed, which a magical girl can then pick up and use to refill her lost Mana and thus restore the brightness of her Soul Gem -- or rather, that's what they're led to believe. What they actually do is transfer The Corruption that they had accumulated from their magic use from the Soul Gem into the Grief Seed, thus delaying their eventual fate of transforming into Witches themselves.
  • Evolving Credits:
    • If you watch closely, you can see the OP change slightly from episode [dead link] to episode [dead link].
    • Similarly, each ending progressively becomes darker.
    • The final image of episode 10's outro is changed from just Sayaka, Madoka, and Mami. This time Kyoko and Homura are in the picture, too.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
  • Expy: Mami has the same hair style as Kanaria, both with flower accessories.
  • Eyes of Gold: Madoka on episode 12
Back to Puella Magi Madoka Magica
  1. ↑ which would be anywhere between 50%-80%
  2. ↑ The song is Magia by the band Kalafina
  3. ↑ which is also an actual product... in Malaysia
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Puella_Magi_Madoka_Magica/Tropes_A-E?oldid=2017723"