Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Madoka Magica Magica Quartet / Aniplex-Madoka Partners-MBS

Original title: Maho shojo Madoka Magika Characters: Madoka Kaname, Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki, Mami Tomoe, Kyoko Sakura, Kyubey, Hitomi Shizuki, Kyosuke Kamijo, Junko Kaname, Tomohisa Kaname, Tatsuya Kaname, Kazuko Saotome Production: Shaft Author: Magica Quartet (Akiyuki Shinbo, Gen Urobuchi, Ume Aoki and studio Shaft) Regia: Akiyuki Shinbo

Country: Japan Year: 6 January 2011 Broadcast in Italy: September 2, 2011 Gender: Comedy / Maghette / Horror Episodes: 12 Duration: 25 minutes Recommended age: Teenagers aged 13 to 19

The full title of this Japanese series is "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" and the first two words are the Latin translation of magical girl.
It is a cartoon, one of those that in the land of the Rising Sun are defined "anime"which boast numerous fans all over the world, including Italy. The series was produced in 2011 and aired in Japan in the same year, proposing one episode a week for a total of twelve episodes. It then arrived in Italy in the autumn. of the same year to be broadcast on the internet in streaming by the Popcorn Tv network with subtitles, later Rai 4 proceeded to dubbing and aired it in the spring of 2012.
It is a "majokko" genre "anime", that is a story that sees the protagonists of teenages with magical powers who move in a comedy scenario with romantic implications, even if to tell the truth the comedy tones are very muted and they are limited to a few moments, while what prevails is rather the inner torment of the protagonist and the other main characters. Warning! Due to some violent scenes, the anime is not suitable for children and teenagers to watch.

Madoka Magica Magica Quartet / Aniplex-Madoka Partners-MBS

THE PLOT
A long corridor that seems interminable and a little girl who runs desperately looking for the exit and, when she finally finds it, a landscape of destruction appears in front of her on which the figures of some girls with mysterious magical powers stand out while a voice addresses her a strange question: "Do you want to be a sorceress?"
... luckily it was just a bad dream.
Fourteen-year-old Madoka wakes up and prepares to go to school like every morning, but when she arrives in class, a surprise awaits her. There is a new partner, Homura, beautiful and very good in all subjects, but she has a familiar face: Madoka has already seen that face in her dream. Is this just a coincidence? The protagonist is a bit perplexed, but when logic is about to take over, something happens that will start the magical story.
After the lessons Madoka and her friend Sayaka go to the mall and here the girl hears a strange little voice asking her for help, following that voice she arrives on a floor under renovation where she finds a strange wounded creature, a kind of talking animal resembling kitten, and whoever hurt her is none other than Homura, the new companion who proves to have magical powers that she wants to use against Madoka. Sayaka's providential intervention allows the strange being to be rescued, but the two girls find themselves in a kind of maze of horrors. An apparition nullifies the illusion: it is Mami, another student of the school attended by the two friends, but clearly she too has magical powers, as she manages to heal the wounds of Kyubey, the talking creature and then confronts in a verbal duel Homura who decides to leave.
And here is the proposal that is made to Madoka and Sayaka: to become sorceresses and fight the witches and in return "that little animal" will fulfill one of their wishes.
From this moment the adventures of the animated series begin.

Sayaka - Madoka Magica Magica Quartet / Aniplex-Madoka Partners-MBS

Ayukawa and Sayaka are drawn to the idea that they can grant their wish, but first they need to know more about what it means to become wizards and understand why they have to fight witches.
Mami thinks about explaining to them that witches are evil creatures, invisible to humans and capable of inducing them to suicides, murders, acts of violence and when they manage to enter hospitals they cause the death of the weakest. Fighting these evil beings, however, is very dangerous, every time you can risk your life and because the two friends can realize what awaits them if they agree to stipulate the contract with Kyubey, he takes them with him during the hunt for a witch.
The mission turns out to be long and dangerous, but both would like to fight for the victory of good, but what seems very difficult to decide is the desire they want to see fulfilled.
A first dramatic event occurs with Mami's death during one of her fights with a witch. Ayukawa and Sayaka remain disoriented and saddened by this fact and Homura, the strange classmate who is actually a sorceress too, after trying to dissuade Madoka from transforming herself into a sorceress, realizes that now the games are done and that two are destined to sign the contract with Kyubey.
The first who decides to become a sorceress is Sayaka in exchange for an altruistic desire, in fact she wants the boy she is secretly in love with, the violinist Kyosuke Kamijo, to regain the use of her hand and be able to start playing again.
Meanwhile, a new sorceress arrives in the city to fill the role that had been Mami, it is Kyoko, very fierce against witches, but equally fierce against the other witches, so much so that her intention is to get rid of them by killing them and in fact beginning collides with the "newbie" Sayaka. Madoka, on the other hand, still seems very uncertain about her future: she is tempted to become a sorceress too in order to help her friend, while she tries to support her in all her missions, but a sudden twist causes Sayaka to decide to turn into a witch.

Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, Mami, Kyoko Magica Quartet / Aniplex-Madoka Partners-MBS

The girls when they decide to sign the contract with Kyubey are practically deprived of their soul which is enclosed in a kind of amulet called Soul Gem which they always carry with them and which signals the presence of witches. The moment a sorceress defeats a witch or intervenes to save someone victim of his curses, Soul Gem absorbs all the negative feelings that the evil being has propagated and the amulet continues to accumulate hatred, selfishness, revenge, violence that, if not eliminated, they end up transforming the soul of the sorceress into that of a witch.
Sayaka discovers that one of her friends, the balanced and wise Hitomi, is in love with Kyosuke Kamijo, the boy for whom she expressed the desire for healing and at this point she realizes that she could not do anything to be able to have the love of the young man. , for this reason he decides not to purify his Soul Gem and let himself be destroyed. But what appeared to be an aggressive and selfish sorceress, Kyoko, intervenes to prevent the terrible transformation from happening, but this will result in the death of both.

Each episode brings with it twists, it turns out who the shy Homura really is and also what Kyubey really is.
Homura actually comes from the future or if you prefer it comes from another timeline.
She had come to town and, when she entered the new school, she became Madoka's closest friend, when Madoka turned into a sorceress and died in a fight, Homura had decided to return over and over again in the past to try to change the course of events and save the friend.
Hamura is an atypical sorceress who is not linked to Kyubey, on the contrary she tries to oppose him in every way and repeatedly tries to kill him because she knows his true nature, a nature that he then reveals to the other sorceresses as well.

Kyubey - Madoka Magica Magica Quartet / Aniplex-Madoka Partners-MBS

Who is Kyubey?
It is a being belonging to an alien species, that of the Incubators. These mysterious inhabitants of a distant galaxy are constantly looking for forms of energy and have discovered that the souls of humans, especially girls in their adolescent period, release enormous energy thanks to the storm of feelings they experience. Here is the reason why he transforms them into witches by imprisoning their vital essences in Soul Gems, but the moment in which there is a real explosion of energy is when they turn into witches, since sooner or later all are destined to become evil beings.
The revelation is shocking to Ayukawa and at that point the idea that she can save the sorceresses arises in her. How? By choosing herself to become a sorceress and expressing the wish that there are no more witches. This decision, however, involves her sacrifice, but in this way she will have saved her friend Homura and will be able to join Sayaka.

In the last episodes of the series, the sorceresses have jumped from one timeline to another.
Homura returns to a past where both Mami and Kyoko are still alive and joins them to defend the city from witches.
In another past, Mami goes crazy and is killed by Madoka, while in the epilogue she is seen fighting alongside Kyoko (who is not dead).
In the timeline of the epilogue it appears that Ayukawa never existed.

THE MAGICIANS
Despite having magical powers, sorcerers fight bloody duels with conventional weapons when they face a witch.
Homura is equipped with a magical shield that she will later abandon to equip herself with a bow, Sayaka uses the sword, Mami flintlocks and Kyoko a spear.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS
The protagonist is the fourteen-year-old Madoka who lives in a bizarre family in which the father is a sort of "housekeeper" and the mother a career manager who sometimes comes home from work drunk not to be outdone by the men who surround her in which she wants to prove she is as good as them if not more. The other wizards of the series, on the other hand, have no relatives or at least no one mentions them, not even Sayaka who for the first few episodes is not yet a magician, but a simple middle school girl.
Among the secondary characters, the teacher of the girls certainly deserves a mention, the only figure who with his behavior can unleash some laughter of laughter to the spectators. She is a woman who is over thirty always looking for the right man, too bad she can't find him and so often in her lessons there are many references to this or that dude who ultimately disappointed her.
Also worth mentioning is Hitomi, Madoka and Sayaka's friend, who is not involved in Kyubey's proposal to become a sorceress, feels "cut off" from the relationship that now binds the other two and at first thinks that they are linked from a homosexual relationship. It will unintentionally be the cause of Sayaka's choice to "let herself be transformed into a witch" when she reveals her love for Kyosuke Kamijo.

"Puella Magi Madoka Magica" was written by Magica Quartet, a pseudonym that hides the names of Akiyuki Shinbo, Gen Urobuchi, Ume Aoki and Studio Shaft and from this series a manga (comic), but also a novel, a video game was taken. for PSP and two spin-off publications, not to mention merchandising.

CURIOSITY'
At the moment when Rai decided to dub the series, the actresses who had to give the voice to the protagonists of "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" were chosen with a survey conducted among the members of the AnimeClick.it site which gathers all fans of this kind of cartoons.

Director Akiyuki Shinbo for this anime was honored at the Japan Media Arts festival and Tokyo International Anime Fair.

All Madoka Magica characters and images are copyright Magica Quartet - Akiyuki Shinbo, Gen Urobuchi, Ume Aoki and Studio Shaft and are used here for cognitive and informative purposes.