Currently Airing Anime

 Moar Madoka Spoiler Speculation

I'd like to think Mami is still alive. Charlotte may have nommed her head off but like Kyubei said, the soul is in the gem to allow for a replacement body after death. (or magical repairs)

 Spoiler

Her soul gem was that cute little ornament on her head... Besides, she has better things to do now.

 Spoiler

I think Homura has her soul gem, when she 1st fights charlotte, she appears to have teleported away during the 1st bite attempt; but before she reappears we hear an unusual gurgle, THEN she reappears. Homura might have gotten it right then.

I also believe Homura is set on saving both the magical girls AND the witches. After all we never actually see her use grief seeds in all of this time, and she refuses the time she was offered. and like you guys noticed she does have information on some of the witches... she might just be collecting them to save them and doesn't wish to corrupt them more. She's basically like Sayaka but wise enough to conserve herself as we all know. Would explain why she uses physical weapons though she has access to magical offense which we see when she's chasing kyubei in the 1st ep.

Though obviously her priority is the surviving magical girls, so she will offer the same seeds to them to keep them from corruption. and like mentioned, she didn't have a problem with killing sayaka for the cause either because all she has to do is just take her soul gem and keep it safe.

 Spoiler

Yeah, I like your line of thinking, but Homura doesn't seem to care too much for magical girls or witches as much as she just cares about Madoka. Could be possible, but the way she talked about Sayaka to Madoka this episode was as if she already knew Sayaka was beyond saving at this point.

Question...

 Spoiler

So... why did Kyuubey tell Homura and co. that Mami was about to be corrupted? If his goal is really to get witches, what does he have to gain from telling them that?

You mean Sayaka?

 Spoiler

It's possible he was trying to destract them so he can have his way with Madoka. After all, if Homura was wasting her time looking for Sayaka like Kyouko was, then Madoka would have gone through with the contract. At least, that's what it seems happened to me. Kyubey was really close to finally contracting. Kyubey knew that Sayaka would turn into a witch regardless of what they do, so it probably didn't bother him much. Remember, his real prize is Madoka, not Sayaka. It was Madoka he called out to in the first episode, not Sayaka. Sayaka just kinda got mixed into the whole mess and Kyubey found use for her and the strong relationship she shared with Madoka. That's why he was trying to use Sayaka to persuade Madoka into making the contract.

"You can help her if you contracted with me."
"You could stop the fighting if you contracted with me."
"You could become such a strong Magical Girl that you could do things even I can't do! Like fixing Sayaka's body! Of course, you have to let me ear molest your delicious flast chest first so that I may suck your soul out if that delicate and frail body of yours, lol~"

 Spoiler

This show is some pretty insane Yuri-bait. Have you guys seen /u/ lately? There's at least 4 threads that are image-capped. I am support. Not sure what my favorite ship is off the top of my head though.

Yeah, haha.

Question...

 Spoiler

So... why did Kyuubey tell Homura and co. that Mami was about to be corrupted? If his goal is really to get witches, what does he have to gain from telling them that?

Only thing i can think of...

 Spoiler

1. If they get there before she becomes a witch, they can save her and she can continue to kill witches and yield more delicious grief seeds for him to absorb.
2. If they get there too late, they will prolly end up destroying her (save for homura's intervention), which yields one more delicious grief seed for him to absorb.

Win win to kyubei sounds like.

Edit: nvm, ninja'd by a better theory up there xD

 Just a thought on Madoka...

Inb4 Mami, Homura, Sayaka, Sakura, and Hitomi are all personalities born out of Madoka's wish.

Madoka

 Spoiler

I would guess that Homura was a magical girl in the alternate timeline who looked up to Madoka like a senpai. In the timeline where Madoka is a magical girl, she would definitely be the most powerful and her caring and selfless personality would probably cause the other magical girls to look up to her as well. Maybe Madoka saved Homura's life or something in that alternate reality, which is why Homura shows such a strong emotional attachment to her.

Madoka

 Spoiler

I would guess that Homura was a magical girl in the alternate timeline who looked up to Madoka like a senpai. In the timeline where Madoka is a magical girl, she would definitely be the most powerful and her caring and selfless personality would probably cause the other magical girls to look up to her as well. Maybe Madoka saved Homura's life or something in that alternate reality, which is why Homura shows such a strong emotional attachment to her.

 Spoiler

wouldn't make sense with how she doesn't want her to become a mahou shoujo

 Spoiler

wouldn't make sense with how she doesn't want her to become a mahou shoujo

 Spoiler

Well, once they find out about Kyubei's plans involving Madoka, Homura would want to go back and make sure that Madoka doesn't become a magical girl so that whatever terrible thing that happens in the future can be prevented.

 Madoka

You know, I took Latin for two years. Yet somehow...

"Puella is an old word that refers to girls who haven't grown up."
>wait, doesn't "puella" mean girl in Latin?
>wait, "puella magi"...
>I R DUM

Yumekui Merry ep.1 to 8 - Well, I don't know why I didn't watch this show until now, but I have to say I wish that I had waited until the season was over so that I could have watched it from start to finish. This show is very relevant to my interests, far more so than the others up to this point, and I hate waiting on episodes when I get into an anime!!

 Madoka speculation stuffs

The selfcest in the OP...what if that's Madoka from an alternate timeline giving herself power? Kyubey said she could become omnipotent and do things that even he can't, so why if she comes back into the past and makes herself a magic girl, without falling for Kyubey's scheme? Just a thought, not something I'm seriously considering too much. Of course, this is implying Kyubey is actually telling the truth and not just trying to troll Madoka into making an irreversible transformation.

Hourou Musuko 6: Pretty good episode. All the different interactions between characters is what really makes this show shine. Odd time to bring it up, but I think it's kind of stupid how Chi's friend Momoko is pretty much the only character in the group of kids with no distinct personality. In a show that's all about character personalities and their interactions with each other, Momoko seems like an afterthought, at least so far.

Fractale 6: This episode was a huge step up from the previous and revealed more of the setting of the story. The show seems to always be great when people are getting gunned down.
My opinion of the show so far:

 Spoiler

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Fractale. On the one hand, I can see the potential for a great sci-fi, adventure story centered around a boy who is being exposed to a whole new world and must question conventional wisdom and his own ideology as a result. No one side is clearly in the right or wrong, but rather there is a lot of gray area and viewers are led to question their own beliefs. On the other hand, I can see one of those stupid shows where all the jokes are centered around the main male character being a pervert, the main male character constantly finds himself in perverted situations, and a huge chunk of the show is just filler.
This episode definitely helped support my former opinion of the show more than the latter. I just hope that the second half of the show will go deeper into some of the underlying concepts of Fractale that they've only touched upon so far and have less pervert moments.

 Spoiler

wouldn't make sense with how she doesn't want her to become a mahou shoujo

 Spoiler

Homura: "Why do you always have to sacrifice yourself?!"

Big clue here, me thinks.

PSAssassin could be right. In which case, it is possible that Madoka may have sacrificed her own life to save Homura in her own timeline. Homura, being so attached to Madoka, contracts with Kyubey (or whatever other contract-offering bastard) so she could go back in time to prevent Madoka from becoming a Puella Magi. If Madoka doesn't become a Puella Magi, she wouldn't have to sacrifice herself to save Homura later on...

Oh boy. Prepare to see a time loop because if Homura succeeds because she'll be erasing her own existence. Whee.

GoSick - 8 - I could go about only watching this series alone if I had to. Victorique is my faves I do believe. Himinia was one crazy peach also. Plot twist after they got after the village for sure.

Most of this is copypasta from when I was IMing, so you'll have to pardon me on some of the grammar, since I broke sentences up sometimes into different messages, as well as writing without perfect grammar. I did rearrange, and change the order of a few things because I was pretty much doing free thinking the entire time, and jotted down whatever came to mind.

[spoiler=Madoka Episode 8 Thoughts and Thoughts on Sayaka's Characterization]
I really enjoyed this episode.

The episode leaves us on a strong cliffhanger with 3 things going on: Homura's conversation with Kyuubey, Madoka possibly looking for Sayaka, and Sayaka transforming into a witch [Ein Narr?] while Kyouko is there. Madoka's pressure on her to become a magical girl is approaching its height. Sayaka somewhat guilting her into wanting to become one, and her guilty thoughts as well as her more altruistic tendencies led her to be more susceptible to Kyuubey's persuasion and pressure into becoming one.

The direction they took Sayaka's character was genuinely interesting as well. I really found it compelling how they portrayed her as a tragic hero as well as displaying some characteristics of an anti-hero, and I found her character to have had a very realistic response to all that was going around her. I was just thinking about some of the factors, development, and characterization that ultimately led her to become a witch, mostly from this episode.

She became a witch because in the end, what it really boils down to, is that Sayaka gave up, or as she herself phrased it, she fell into despair. I don't know exactly if it was "sin" that necessarily brought Sayaka closer and closer to becoming a witch. Rather, to be more specific: hatred, nihilism, anxiety, and despair ultimately turned her into a witch.

Sayaka lost her meaning to fight for survival because she gave up on Kamijo, her motivation. Sayaka saw her condition of having her body becoming merely a shell with the side effects of immortality and eternal youth as something that made her inhuman, and separated from normal people. Whereas other people would mature, Sayaka would remain unchanged; and in addition, Sayaka wouldn't be able to live the course of a natural life. Sayaka felt that these traits would ultimately make her lonely and isolated, not just as a "freak", but that she would never be able to end her life satisfied and would merely spend an eternity alone. It's because of this that she gave up prematurely, and let herself play the role of a victim of her circumstances instead of taking an active role.

One of thing I found really interesting about her character was how the supernatural, or what happens with her as a Puella Magi fighting witches and their familiars inside of the barriers, and the real world interact with each other. When Sayaka jealously looks at Kamijo and Hitomi talking to each other on the bench, I really like how we start to see something resembling the inside of a witch's barrier, and then it cuts to Sayaka overextending herself against fighting familiars. I thought this was a very well played out scene, and a very brilliant move as a director on Shinbou's part. One thing this shows is how Sayaka's bottled up jealousy and anxiety is transformed into anger, and from anger to hatred in how Sayaka's character interacts with both worlds and deals with them.

On that note, hatred is played out in Sayaka's character in a few ways. Although Sayaka has very noble ideas and very pure intentions, I think Sayaka is very unforgiving and believes in following through her ideals very stubbornly and rigidly. Sayaka really hates the things she wants to fight against. Consequently, her crusade against injustice and apathetic morals build up her hatred towards these things more and more. Her nihilism was created out of her hopelessness that her ideals will ever prevail and that she just plain gave up due to feeling meaningless in life.

These, I think, are what ultimately made her in to a witch.
[/spoiler]
I have a few thoughts in regards to the themes that the series expresses, as well as my own theories, but I'll do that another time.

Toaru Majutsu no Index II 20: Fucking amazing episode. Accelerator is going to be piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissed even more so than he already is. Wonder what's up with Vento though. MISAKA IMOUTO ARMY INC. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Toaru Majutsu no Index II 20: pineappleing amazing episode. Accelerator is going to be piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissed even more so than he already is. Wonder what's up with Vento though. MISAKA IMOUTO ARMY INC. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Kinda makes you think Vento moved around too vigorously, causing some of her piercings to rip out some flesh in her mouth huh...

Anyways, it seems that Accelerator is well on his way to leveling up.

Aleister Crowley: All according to keikaku. *apple floats past*

Friend mew pointed this out on another forum, was wondering if anyone else had noticed the same thing This wasn't me at all butttt.

 Spoiler

This shows up in the very 1st episode, right before the dream starts, almost like a opening credit. Sup Sayaka's soul gem?



This area looks exactly like where Sayaka transformed as well.

Next episode could be what we saw in episode 1?

@smooth

 Spoiler

I agree that regret plays a pretty big role in her despair, but it's clear that she gave up on Kamijo and that Kamijo is probably the leading cause for her despair. Like I said, Hitomi presents her a choice and Sayaka definitely has the ability to choose to be with Kamijo. However, Sayaka has already thought out about what might happen if she were to be with Kamijo. What Sayaka believed would happen was how in a similar sense to how Kyouko's dad responded to Kyouko's secret, what Kamijo might feel that he wouldn't be able to love her and might see her as inhuman- ultimately leaving her alone and losing the thing that mattered to her the most. Sayaka feels like she's already in a losing situation, choose to be with Kamijo and what she fears may actually happen or choose not to be with him, and she will not be with him. But Sayaka didn't even try, she essentially let Hitomi confess. Who knows? There's always the possibility that she and Kamijo could have overcame her condition and he might have been to still love her. But to just not try at all, it means essentially gave up, but also, she gave up because she felt that rather than be hurt in the future or hurting Kamijo, she decided to abandon a possibly failed future of if they are to be together (interestingly, doing something that diverts from what Kyouko did. By cutting herself off, no one else had to be hurt, but the consequence is that she hurts herself in the process). She gave up on Kamijo because she felt it was impossible for her to be with him, and consequently, her giving up leads to her losing all motivation to survive- or despair; and continues self-destructive behavior until she eventually became a witch.

I don't think it was that she "gave up" but rather that she saw herself no longer suited to be with Kamijo. It didn't matter if Hitomi's offerred a chance for her to claim Kamijo or not because she did not have the humanity to do so. At which point, she felt no different than Frankenstein or the Hunchback of Notre Dame, a freak shunned by society as she had even said so herself when she called herself a 'zombie'.

As for the stalking scene, we already had a sense that she'd given up; but what brought her there is that subconsciously, she still holds on to some hope and expects Kamijo to be her knight in shining armor to save her from her spiral into depression and loneliness.

On the contrary, that scene was shown to convey that she had not given up. Because she felt she cannot be with Kamijo, she can only watch him from the shadow and regrets what her decision cost her what she could have had. While she was in her despair, she still continued to love him. If she had given up, she would not have stood up to those womanizers on the train. The fact that what they did to their girls agitated her because their actions would only bring the pain she feels to their girls and she made it clear that she would prevent that. So it's not that she gave up but more that she is at a total dead end.