Puella Magica, Ep. 07

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Ubu Roi

I don’t have the time to say much, so just…. Damn. I mean, damn. I just don’t know where it’s going.

It turned out backwards from what I’d have thought in the last episode… Sayaka is crushed, and no longer considers herself even human. She won’t even pursue the violin playing boy she loves. Kyoko, on the other hand, decides she’s cool with it. It does seem to shake her out of her formerly nihilistic, self-centered view, and she does – mostly – make peace with Sayaka. Homura is, as usual, cold, but I sense that’s just her outward mien; frankly I think it gives her the same heebie-jeebies as Madoka.

Sayaka on the other hand….goes clear ’round the bend. It’s not pretty.

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6 Responses to Puella Magica, Ep. 07

  1. Steven Den Beste says:
    February 18, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    So we know that the wish made affects the characteristics of the magic girl that comes out of it.

    And we can be sure that before the series is over, Madoka will become a magical girl. (I think no one would argue with that.)

    Here’s a guess: [spoiler]Sayaka is going to die, too. Madoka will become a magical girl, and her wish will be to bring Sayaka and Mami back to life. And because of that, it will turn out that Madoka herself cannot be killed. And that is why she will be the one who can win the ultimate fight, which was foreshadowed at the very beginning of the series.[/spoiler]

    • Ubu Roi says:
      February 18, 2011 at 4:26 pm

      I’m not sure if she’ll become a puella magi before the last episode — which would certainly be different.

      Maybe it’s just me, but I’m seeing a definite cross between O.Henry’s Gift of the Magi and The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs, in how this story is developing. That’s about the last thing I’d expect from anime, but it’s working.

  2. Steven Den Beste says:
    February 18, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    I’m an uncultured barbarian (or a engineer, but I repeat myself) and I’ve never heard of either of those stories.

    • Ubu Roi says:
      February 19, 2011 at 3:16 pm

      The Gift comparison is incomplete, as it’s one-sided. In the story (which I haven’t read since high school), a young-and-poor married couple is terribly in love with each other; each has one asset that they’re proud of. She has long, luxurious hair down to her hips that she cares for with broken cheap combs, he has an antique, expensive heirloom pocket watch that he keeps on a dirty piece of string. For their anniversary, the woman sells her hair to a wig-maker to buy him a chain worthy of the watch, while he sells the watch to buy her a fine set of expensive combs. In the end, it works out, as the lesson is they ‘re each willing to sacrifice their all for the other.

      In Madoka, I see this as parallel to Sayaka’s decision to use her wish to restore the musical ability of the boy she loves, but in the process she perceives that she’s lost her humanity and is no longer worthy of him. I suspect that if he knew, he wouldn’t care, but since she’s not going to tell him, the comparison will remain incomplete, and she may very well die because she’s not willing to believe in herself. A very Poe-esque twist on the story.

      Also, Kyoko’s back-story got covered, and although I didn’t discuss it, there was a LOT of Monkey Paw to it. She becomes much more sympathetic, in that her wish destroyed her family. Her father was a visionary priest who broke with the main church to found his own sect, but no one would listen to him. She used her wish to make him a huge success, but when he found out it was all due to magic, he snapped and killed the whole family, then suicided.

  3. Don says:
    February 19, 2011 at 10:41 am

    “The Monkey’s Paw” has been in the back of my mind throughout the series, but I don’t see any significant parallel with the O. Henry story beyond the “right gift/wrong gift” motif.

    I hesitate to make any predictions — nothing so far has happened in the way I expected — but I would guess that Madoka won’t become magical until near the end, when she fully understands what her decision entails, and she will pick her wish with the intention of thwarting Kyoubey and undoing his works. (And now that I’ve said so, this almost certainly won’t happen. Let’s see; perhaps Kyoubey will sic on witch on Madoka’s mother in the eighth episode….)

  4. Steven Den Beste says:
    February 19, 2011 at 11:49 am

    There was an episode of Samurai Jack about a magical pool at the top of a tower, and anyone who reached it could make a wish. Only it was protected by three terrific archers. Anyone here remember it?

    Don suggests a possible ending. That was how that ep of Samurai Jack ended.

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