Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011; anime)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011; anime)
a.k.a Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika/Madoka Magica
Directors: Akiyuki Shinbo & Yukihiro Miyamoto
== Plot Synopsis ==
A creature named Kyubey (Emiri Katō/Cassandra Lee Morris) offers Madoka (Aoi Yūki/Christine Marie Cabanos) and Sayaka (Eri Kitamura/Sarah Anne Williams) a wish if they agree to become 'magical girls' and fight abstract beings called 'witches'. However, a magical girl named Homura (Chiwa Saitō/Cristina Vee) is, for uncertain reasons, determined to stop this agreement.
== Male Deaths ==
* None
== Female Deaths ==
* Christine Marie Cabanos [Madoka Kaname] (English Dub) (reversed)
* Carrie Keranen [Mami Tomoe] (English Dub) (reversed)
* Eri Kitamura [Sayaka Miki] (Japanese Voice)
* Lauren Landa [Kyoko Sakura] (English Dub) (reversed)
* Kaori Mizuhashi [Mami Tomoe] (Japanese Voice) (reversed)
* Ai Nonaka [Kyoko Sakura] (Japanese Voice) (reversed)
* Sarah Anne Williams [Sayaka Miki] (English Dub)
* Aoi Yūki [Madoka Kaname] (Japanese Voice) (reversed)
== Trivia ==
# Producers considered hiding the credit for series screenwriter Gen Urobuchi as red herring to audiences regarding the true nature of the show, however the plan was foiled due to a premature staff leak. Urobuchi is noted for writing dark stories.
# Gen Urobuchi compares Kyubey to be like H.P. Lovecraft's creatures, in that they are uninterested in humans feelings.
# Puella Magi was supposed to be Latin for "Magical Girl". However, if that was the intended translation, then "Puella Magi" is a mistranslation, and should have been either "Puella Maga" or "Puella Magica". As-is, "Puella Magi" translates to "Girl of the wise man".
# The text and writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's "Faust" a well known story in which a man sells his soul to the devil, can be seen scattered through the series usually in the "witch runes."
# Emiri Kato particularly enjoys the magical girl genre of anime and felt great distress when she learned of the nature of her character Kyubey and the series.
# According to Gen Urobuchi he didn't set out to write a particularly subversive story about magical girls, but simply wanted to write a deep and meaningful story.
# Each of the six main characters has a musical leitmotif that relates to their character arc: Madoka has Sagitta Luminis (Arrow of Light), Sayaka has Conturbatio (Disorder) and later Decretum (Decision) (same motif, different arrangements), Mami has Credens Justitiam (Believing in Justice), Homura has Puella in Somnio (The Girl in the Dream), Kyoko has Anima Mala (Evil Soul), and Kyubey has Sis Puella Magica (You should be a Magical Girl).
# The character Junko Kaname came about from Gen Urobuchi wanting to create a family that would not be confined to the idea that heroism is reserved to men's role, he wanted a concrete example where women can also be heroic and strong.
# The Latin-esque language heard in the music is actually a fictional language made up by Yuki Kajiura which many fans call "Kajiuran."
# The opening animation changes several times through the series.
# {Mo dare ni mo tayoranai (#1.10)}_ aired one day before the 2011 Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami disaster in Japan, eerily enough featuring a flooded ruined city.
# Writer Gen Urobuchi wrote in an afterword of his novel "Fate/Zero" (later adapted into Fate/Zero (2011)) he wanted to write a "heartwarming story" (the exact words he used to describe what he wanted to bring to viewers with Madoka before it aired), and Kyubey's mention of the inevitable increase in the entropy (and the heat death) of the universe, can be traced to the same afterword. The first half of the afterword itself is essentially a blueprint for Madoka, in terms of "What are the things that will allow Urobuchi to write a happy ending?" Moreover, the ending pretty much satisfied the prerequisite Urobuchi laid out in that same afterword - "a heavenly and chaste soul, who can sing carols of praise for humanity."
== Gallery ==
File:Mami Moments Before her Death.png|Kaori Mizuhashi/Carrie Keranen moments before her third death
File:Mami's Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Kaori Mizuhashi/Carrie Keranen (3rd death)
File:Sayaka's Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Eri Kitamura/Sarah Anne Williams last moments before her death
File:Kyoko's 1st Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Ai Nonaka/Lauren Landa moments before her second death
File:Mami's 1st Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Kaori Mizuhashi/Carrie Keranen (corpse, 1st death)
File:Madoka's 1st Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Aoi Yūki/Christine Marie Cabanos (corpse, 1st death)
File:Kyoko's Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Ai Nonaka/Lauren Landa (1st death)
File:Mami's 2nd Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Kaori Mizuhashi/Carrie Keranen (2nd death)
File:Madoka's Death (Madoka Magica).jpg|Aoi Yūki/Christine Marie Cabanos (center, 2nd death)
Category:2011 TV series debuts
Category:2011 TV series endings
Category:Japanese Tv Series
Category:Animation
Category:Anime TV Series
Category:Drama
Category:Fantasy
Category:Mystery
Category:Thriller
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Category:TV Miniseries
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Category:Seinen Anime