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Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Difference between revisions
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Madoka Kaname is an [[Ordinary High School Student|Ordinary Middle School Student]] with a working mother, a stay-at-home dad and a close circle of friends. Other than a strange dream about a black-haired girl fighting off a huge monster in a ruined city, her life is a peaceful one. Then, one day, that black-haired girl, Homura Akemi, [[New Transfer Student|transfers to their class]].
Things begin to change when, after school, Madoka hears someone's voice calling out to her. This voice belongs to [[Talking Animal|Kyubey]], a small cat- or [[Weasel Mascot|ferret-like creature]]. She and her best friend, Sayaka Miki, then find themselves in a bizarre dream world where they witness an upperclassman, Mami Tomoe, transform into a [[Magical Girl]] and save them from otherworldly monsters. Kyubey then asks Madoka and Sayaka to become magical girls, too. The process is very simple - [[Literal Genie|Kyubey will grant them a wish]] (''any'' wish, no matter how small) and in exchange, they will sign a contract with him, which will allow them to become magical girls...
Too bad things [[Deal with the Devil|simply are not]] [[Cosmic Horror Story|as they seem to be.]]
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Dojinsoft group Tasogare Frontier, aka Tasofro, [http://www.tasofro.net/mdk/ has released a Madoka fangame] entitled ''Grief Syndrome''.
Compare ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', ''[[Bokurano]]'', ''[[Narutaru]]'', ''[[Alien Nine]]'', ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', and ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' for similar top-down, no-holds-barred dark and edgy abstract works. See ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' for the original [[Magical Girl]] ([[Genre Busting|and then some]]) [[Deconstruction]]. Definitely contrast ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'', which serves as the show's most obvious antecedent.
Compare and contrast ''[[Claymore]]'', ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', ''[[Lyrical Nanoha]]'' and ''[[Black Rock Shooter]]'' which feature similar cases of [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|specialized women]] fighting for survival.
For some of the inspiration of the series, see ''[[Faust]]''.
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* [[Acid Trip Dimension]]: ''[[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|Almost literally]]'' [[Invoked]] by the [[Pocket Dimension|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 Plus]]'' 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 [[Mai-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, {{spoiler|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.
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* [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]]: Arguably {{spoiler|Kyoko's [[Heroic Sacrifice]], because she had no intention of being transformed into a witch.}}
** In Episode 10, {{spoiler|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, [[Wham! Line|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 {{spoiler|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.
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* [[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 {{spoiler|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 Then John Was a Zombie|And possibly becoming a witch themselves]].}}
** {{spoiler|[[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 [[Dragon Age|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 {{spoiler|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 Shot|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]] [[Covers Always Lie|cover]], but [[Gorn]] all over the place. All we need now is an [[R-Rated Opening]]...[[Les Yay|oh wait]], that already happened in the original anime and ''[[Oriko Magica]]''.
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* [[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 {{spoiler|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 {{spoiler|the deaths of Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko, on top of learning how the system works}}.
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* {{spoiler|[[Deal with the Devil]]:}} Kyubey will give them anything they want, but in exchange, they will have to fight witches {{spoiler|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]]: {{spoiler|When Madoka was on her way toward goddess-hood, she met [[Heroic Sacrifice|Kyoko]] and [[Cruel and Unusual Death|Mami]] in... somewhere suspiciously similar to Mami's apartment. Chat and [[Brick Joke|cakes]] were had. For some reason, Sayaka was nowhere to be seen.}}
* [[Deconstruction]]: The director has outright said he is aiming for this while still maintaining some traditional [[Magical Girl]] elements. this is a [[Deconstruction]] of certain aspects of [[Magical Girl|magical girls]]. Now, a lot of these elements are merely [[Playing with a Trope|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 [[Monster of the Week|monsters of the week]]" aspect is played straight, but with the potentially horrific and traumatizing consequences of it allowed to [[Reality Ensues|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.
* {{spoiler|[[Decon Recon Switch]]: Specifically, this series deconstructs [[The Power of Love|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.
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** If you watch closely, you can see the OP change slightly from [http://wiki.puella-magi.net/images/1/1d/Op1.png episode] to [http://wiki.puella-magi.net/images/f/f9/Op2.png episode].
** Similarly, each ending progressively becomes darker.
** The final image of episode 10's outro is changed from just Sayaka, Madoka, and Mami. This time [http://images.puella-magi.net/thumb/9/93/Ep10-ending-group.jpg/800px-Ep10-ending-group.jpg Kyoko and Homura] are in the picture, too.
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]:
** {{spoiler|[[Soul Jar|Souls are literally inside the Soul Gem.]] This is even more literal if one considers that [http://bit.ly/ft7koZ the Japanese word for "crystal" is also used to mean manifestations in general;] a "soul gem" would be a "materialized soul".}}
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** 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.
* [[Gainax Ending]]: Episode 12 is really weird.
** Doesn't hurt that a lot of it has shots that are [[Diebuster|visually]] [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|reminiscent]] [[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann|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 [[Faust|Faustian]] motifs and [[Gratuitous German]] are abundant?
* [[Ghost in the Machine]]: {{spoiler|A magical girl's body is essentially a ''magical meat-puppet'' controlled and powered by her soul, now in the form of a jewel.}}
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* [[The Greatest Story Never Told]]: {{spoiler|In the end, Homura remains as the only living witness to everything that has happened, and the new version of Kyubey says he'll have to take her word for it since no proof of it remains.}}
* [[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 [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Trivia|trivia]].
* [[Guns Akimbo]]/[[Gun Kata]]:[http://sadpanda.us/images/423480-M5O6NMA.gif And how.]
** {{spoiler|Not that it helps...}}
* [[Gut Punch]]: {{spoiler|Mami's death}} in [[Wham! Episode|episode 3]] is something of a shock to the system. Every episode after that is arguably more of a [[Gut Punch]].
* [[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).
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** {{spoiler|If what Kyubey told Madoka in episode 9 is true, becoming a magical girl can be viewed as such, with delayed consequences though.}}
** {{spoiler|In another timeline, after both of them suffered mortal wounds from failing to defeat Walpurgisnacht, Madoka brightens Homura's soul gem with her only remaining grief seed, giving the latter the chance to go back again and try to save everyone but at the same time dooming her own self to become a witch. Cue the request for and subsequent [[Mercy Kill]].}}
** {{spoiler|Madoka pulls this ''again'' in the end, by using her wish as a [[Reset Button]] that prevents witches from being born (and gives the already witchified magical girls peaceful send-offs) ... but while doing so, pretty much [[Ret-Gone|erases herself out of existence]] ... or possibly ''[[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence|above]]'' existence. Bonus, the finale aired on Good Friday. Significant? With her last words to Kyubey ordering him to fulfill her wish, it's made clear that she doesn't care what she becomes as long as the world is saved.}}
* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]: {{spoiler|Witches are magical girls who let their soul gems become too corrupted}}. {{spoiler|Sayaka}} is a more specific example.
* {{spoiler|[[Hive Mind]]: Kyubey, according to an interview with Urobuchi.}}
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* [[Lighter and Softer]]: The second drama CD (appropriately named "Sunny Day Life") is probably the closest we will get to a canon depiction of the show as a conventionally cute [[Magical Girl]] series.
* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: Every girl is shown with two outfits each: her school uniform (Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, Mami)/one casual outfit (Kyoko) and her magical girl costume. A slight subversion in the last episode when {{spoiler|Ultimate Madoka is seen with a more complex uniform.}}
* [[Literal Genie]]: Seemingly averted in the few instances Kyubey is seen granting wishes.
** {{spoiler|Probably a case of [[Zig-Zagging Trope]]. Kyubey gives exactly what is asked for without ''twisting'' the intentions of the wish in any way, but the unfolding plot reveals that what is asked for is ''not'' always what is wanted or intended.}}
* [[The Little Detecto]]: Soul gems, in addition to everything else they do, also function as handy witch detectors.
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* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: Madoka and Sayaka in the second episode by Hitomi, since Sayaka did spend some time flirting with Madoka in Episode 1.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: People were trying desperately to figure out where exactly the Deconstruction lay in this series. Episodes 1 and 2 were fairly tame, although ominous. Then came [[Wham! Episode|Episode 3]], complete with new ending.
* [[Monster of the Week]]: The witches. Subverted in that they're ''not'' harmless mooks, and that fighting them is actually an emotionally scarring experience. [[It Got Worse|It is even more scarring when]] {{spoiler|[[Fallen Hero|the witches themselves were once magical girls like the protagonists]]}}.
* [[More Dakka]]: In one scene, Mami briefly manages to achieve this trope using only an unlikely number of single-shot rifles. Also, in Episode 11 {{spoiler|when Homura attempts to take on Walpurgisnacht alone, there is a long one-sided battle consisting of Homura expending a small army's worth of weaponry against Walpurgisnacht, including rockets, mortars, and a ''naval barrage''. Unfortunately, it merely serves as [[The Worf Barrage]].}}
* [[More Hero Than Thou]]: Every magical girl or magical girl candidate is adamant about being the only one who will have to throw herself on the blade for the sake of somebody else. As they all get in each other's way doing this, it causes an amount of conflict that would be downright ridiculous if it weren't so depressing.
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* [[Mundane Wish]]
* {{spoiler|[[Murder-Suicide]]: Mami}} of all people attempts this {{spoiler|in episode 10. In one of the alternate timelines, she completely snaps}} when she finds out {{spoiler|magical girls eventually become witches. She succeeds in killing Kyoko, but is killed by Madoka before she could kill Homura}}.
* [[Musicalis Interruptus]]: In episode 8, Kyubey finally manage to convince Madoka to make her wish while the overly optimistic music is building up in the background. However, {{spoiler|Homura shows up to put a stop to not only the [[Big Damn Heroes|proceedings]], but the [[Musicalis Interruptus|music]], [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|Kyubey]] ([[Expendable Clone|for the moment at least]]) and [[Time Lord|time itself.]]}}
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Several examples:
** Sayaka after her [[Despair Event Horizon]] where events just keep giving her one [[Gut Punch]] after another. {{spoiler|She eventually starts to lose her humanity/sanity as a result.}}
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** {{spoiler|But then he goes off and tells [[Awful Truth]] after [[Awful Truth]], not knowing that they could be used against his advantage. Again, to his credit, he thinks this would lead them to the [[Despair Event Horizon]]...}}
** {{spoiler|...Until he revealed one [[Awful Truth]] too many and told Homura that her time traveling is what is making Madoka stronger, thus giving her despair when she considers time traveling again. Sure, the more witches, the merrier, but considering that Homura is the main source of Kyubey's quota income, this is a bad thing to do. Oh, and it just so happens that Madoka decides to use these [[Awful Truth|awful truths]] to her advantage and tells Kyubey to eliminate witches as her wish. Had Kyubey not did these things, he would have gotten away with it.}}
** {{spoiler|Had he not done these things either the Universe would have been eaten by Krimhild Gretchen, or, if we don't assume that Kyubey is [[Idiot Ball|suicidally stupid enough]] to even appear before Madoka if she had a wish other than the one she made in mind, everything would have remained unchanged. The idea that the ending was somehow not planned by Kyubey, who can easily read human minds (easily enough to flawlessly relay girls' thoughts to each other) is ... bizarre. Simply considering the fact, that the only time he actually goes beyond his usual bounds and mindscrews Madoka in Episode 8, he does that to make Madoka witness Sayaka's witch transformation, leads to conclusion that he (again) is not telling the whole truth about his goal. Never mind that a being far-sighted enough to seriously care about the end of the universe countless billions of years in the future would ''never'' risk an action that has even a remote possibility of causing the end of the Universe ''right now'', so it's pretty much a given that Kyubey's goal was not what he told Madoka, the only question is whether he lied to her, or whether he omitted what he truly had in mind for her.}}
* [[No Body Left Behind]]: {{spoiler|The final fate of all magical girls in the current timeline, including Sayaka, as Madoka takes them to Heaven, body and all, at the very moment they'd normally be slated to become witches.}}
* [[No Conservation of Energy]]:
** When Kyubey explains entropy, he says it involves the net loss of energy, [[Physics Goof|which is not possible in physics]]. What the term actually describes is the decay of energy into internal energy (associated to its temperature) and its subsequent scattering through space, until the system reaches equilibrium, at which point all energy conversion ceases until further external energy input.
* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: [[Double Subverted]], [[Discussed]], [[Exaggerated]], and [[Defied]].
** [[Dark Magical Girl|Kyoko]] [[Hannibal Lecture|tells]] [[The Cape (trope)|Sayaka]] that {{spoiler|every wish or other use of magic brings despair into the world exactly equal to the hope that it brings, so the best course of action is for magical girls to [[Comes Great Perks|live solely for themselves]].}}
** Sayaka [[Kirk Summation|responds]] that [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|she disagrees,]] [[Knight in Shining Armour|and will continue to fight in her own way,]] set to [[Crowning Music of Awesome|the series' main theme, "You Should Become A Magical Girl".]]
** A single episode later, {{spoiler|Sayaka realises Kyoko was right when her own wish blows up in her face, she decides the world isn't worth saving, and [[And Then John Was a Zombie|becomes a witch herself.]]}}
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* [[Regular Caller]]: In the form of Kyubey, who tries to get Sayaka and Madoka to make wishes at least once an episode, often in the [[Manipulative Bastard|most pushy, manipulative manner possible]]. {{spoiler|He succeeds with Sayaka after waiting until the exact moment that her friend hit the [[Despair Event Horizon]], to say nothing about what he did to get Mami to sign up.}}
** He finally succeeds in the latter {{spoiler|in Episode 12, but he was too clever by half. By explaining to Madoka the true story of the history of magical girls, he inspires her to perform a [[Cosmic Retcon]] ... and she's powerful enough to ''force'' him to grant the wish, much to his [[Oh Crap|surprise]] -- this is notably the only time in the entire series that Kyubey expresses ''any'' emotion on more than a superficial level.}}
* [[Relationship Values]]: Crosses over with [[The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life]]. A very good premise of the plot is the questioning of ''why'' Madoka wants to become a [[Magical Girl]], or why anyone would want to do so. Homura brings this topic up so much, it's almost her [[Catch Phrase]] whenever you see them together. {{spoiler|Kyoko}} and {{spoiler|Mami}} learned this the hard way, and suffered because of their misunderstanding.
* [[Resurrective Immortality]]: {{spoiler|Kyubey can come back every time he's killed and devours his old body. }}
* [[Retconjuration]]/RetGone: {{spoiler|Madoka's wish causes Witches to cease to exist, by Madoka causing magical girls to vanish before becoming witches. This also makes her [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]] with the cost of erasing every trace of her existence, except Homura's memories. It's insinuated that magical girls at the end of their lives also see her, and she can interact with them as a form of guardian angel. Her little brother also remembers her.}}
* [[The Right of a Superior Species]]: Kyubey plays with this trope. {{spoiler|He turned vunerable teenage girls into magical girls in order to fight witches, but doesn't tell them that he does so by turning them into [[Our Liches Are Different|Liches]]. Then the girls find out that if they don't keep their [[Transformation Trinket|soul gem]] pure, they become witches too, and it '''then''' it turns out he's doing all this to collect energy to fight the heat death of the universe. He justifies it by wanting to prevent said heat death, and by the fact that his kind has been assisting humanity since the stone age. All this while subtly implying that his race regards humanity the way humanity regards cattle. However, Kyubey doesn't have emotions, so he doesn't do this because he thinks he superior to humanity (or at least that's not the most important reason). He does it because they need to prevent the universe ending, and this is the most efficient way to do it.}}
* [[Rule of Symbolism]]: Everything references [[Faust]]. Everything. {{spoiler|In a subversion, Madoka wasn't the Faustian character. Sayaka was. Thanks to the Gretchen symbolism with Madoka and Homura's desire to protect her, Homura may represent Faust as well. Since different interpretations of Faust include both redemption and doom, one could argue both Homura and Sayaka are Faust.}}
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* [[Second Episode Morning]]: Madoka awakens to find out the first episode was not a dream.
* [[Seinen]]
* [[Senseless Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Kyoko's. Subverted, from Kyubey's point of view.}}
* [[Sequel Hook]]: The {{spoiler|[[Bittersweet Ending]]}} leaves room for a possible sequel. It helps that even [[Word of God]] admits that they would like to make a second season.
** Specific ones from the last episode are: {{spoiler|Madoka says (as she [[Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence|Ascends To a Higher Plane Of Existence]]) that she is going to meet "everyone", and will meet Homura again one day. Madoka's little brother still seems to remember her. The ending is basically [[And the Adventure Continues...]], and then there's all of [[The Stinger]], including a scene which shows in silhouette what are presumably the human forms of the witches.}}
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* [[Stealth Pun]]:
** Fans have noticed that the 魔法少女 (''mahō shōjo'', "magical girl") kanji in the title are stylized enough to make 廃怯少女 (''haikyō shōjo'', "faltering girl") a valid interpretation.
** More important and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] later: {{spoiler|A young witch is a girl who uses magic, a "magical girl". What magical girls grow into was always inevitable.}}
** This gets even ''more'' interesting and treads into [[Meaningful Name]] territory when you consider "廃怯少女": {{spoiler|so a '''魔'''法少'''女''' eventually evolves into a 魔女, a witch, right? Going by that logic, a '''廃'''怯少'''女''' would mature into a 廃女, a ''haijo'', or roughly a "girl who abolishes"}}. Right, then: {{spoiler|consider the ending}}.
** {{spoiler|Sayaka's}} witch is named Oktavia von Seckendorff and fights by summoning giant wheels. The German poet Karl von Seckendorff wrote ''The Wheel of Fate''.
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* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: {{spoiler|Kyubey}} may be one.
* [[Vagueness Is Coming]]: The lyrics of "Magia".
** The event known as Walpurgisnacht.
* [[Vicious Cycle]]: {{spoiler|Played straight. Kyubey needs Magical Girls to fight Witches; he also needs Magical Girls [[The Corruption|to become]] Witches.}}
** {{spoiler|Homura goes back in time whenever Madoka dies.}}
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** {{spoiler|Also why he doesn't seem to mind Homura killing him, seeing how he's a [[Hive Mind]] and all.}}
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Kyubey:''' Your population is six billion nine hundred million right now, so why do you make such a big fuss over the loss of just one of you?}}}}
* [[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 [[Reality Ensues|deconstruction]] [[Not So Harmless|elements]] [[Anyone Can Die|lay]], and the show now officially has an closing-credits sequence. ''It's creepy as hell.''
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** {{spoiler|Heavens no, she's a ''lich'', which is [[Comically Missing the Point|much better than just a zombie.]]}}
* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|There is no way that]] Homura could be {{spoiler|[[Faust]]}}, Madoka couldn't possibly be {{spoiler|Gretchen}}, and Kyubey representing {{spoiler|Mephistopheles/Satan}}? [[Sarcasm Mode|Patently absurd.]]
* [[What Is One Man's Life in Comparison?]]: {{spoiler|Kyubey's rationalization of the events. Witch energy is used to prevent, or slow down, the universe's entropy. Those that meet the requirement to provide a good amount of energy in exchange for a wish should not really object to it as they would be helping all the other lifeforms in the universe. Kyubey even insinuates all of human history has revolved around magical girls and their wishes, and later falling.}}
** [[A Million Is a Statistic]]: It gets worse. {{spoiler|Kyubey's have energy quotas per ''planet''. As long as they fulfill their quotas, they don't care if a whole civilization, along with their planet, perishes}}.
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Where On Earth Is Mitakihara?]]: The city has a German shopping mall, the school building is an Austrian [[Environmental Symbolism|prison(!)]], and the tallest man-made structure is ''the'' Burj Khalifa; there is even an oil refinery. [[Studio Shaft|Yeah]].
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* [[X Meets Y]]: has been described in some circles as [[Sailor Moon]] set in ''[[The World of Darkness]]''.
* [[Yakuza]]: Homura raids a Yakuza group's locker for small arms after the other magical girls became uncomfortable with things randomly [[Stuff Blowing Up|blowing up]] around them.
* [[You Are Not Alone]]: {{spoiler|[[The Stinger]] after episode 12: "Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her, you are not alone."}}
* {{spoiler|[[You Can't Fight Fate]]: The no-holds-barred unfortunate truth and the [[Broken Aesop]] that's present. Homura intends to avert this trope. However, every time she tries to do so is ... well ... [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|it got worse every time.]] Still present even after the ending.}}
* [[You Didn't Ask]]: Kyubey's response to Sayaka regarding why he didn't bother mentioning that becoming a magical girl involves {{spoiler|separating magical girls' souls from their bodies}}.
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