OHH MYY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I usually don't say anything until the end, but watching livestream now. Wow, just this first part. Will post more after I finish watching the episode.
Just finished:
Spoiler
Glorious episode. Homura was so HNGGGG in the first few loops. I really liked how they did it, wish there were more episodes to go into depth on the loops, but then again it may have been dragged out and distracting from the main plot. I'd love if they made a spinoff with them though. I think I read on some Japanese site that the spinoff coming out after the series ends was supposedly confirmed to be with Mami and Homura, and this episode may show that it's one of their time loops or something. In other words, a prequel that has more Magical Girl vs Witch stuff with them all working as a team and such. Don't have source on it though, and too lazy to check.
I liked the small details here and there, like Madoka taking Homura to the nurse and Homura thinking that her name was strange, like Madoka said in the first episode. Their roles were completely switched, with Madoka being the more confident and badass one and Homura being the weak and frail one.
Mami losing it was really awesome. But they kill witches, right? And Magical Girls are witches! So..so!
AND WHY DO WE STILL NOT HAVE ANY SIGN OF THAT FREAKING BLACK CAT?!
And Kyubey confirmed for master troll and lying bastard. Madoka didn't have omnipotent powers. In fact, he didn't even think she'd be strong enough to defeat Walt Disneyland Night all by herself. Now she's the most powarful wich ebar! But not his problem, lol.
So many nice screencaps I could get from this episode. I'll take some more when I download the episode and get some shots. Particularly one with MoeMura holding a shotgun, one with Homura "walking through time" with her hair blowing, one of snapped Mami, and maybe a few more.
Also, I see SHAFT really dug deep into their funds for this particular episode. The animation was really high quality.
Madoka 10 Holy fucking jebus! Homura is GOD. Episode was beyond awesomeness.
Spoiler
So finally we know that Homura's weapon is really "just" her time travelling abilities and that other than that she uses normal weapons hidden in her magical shield.
Seriously, this episode was just so great.
Being Homura is suffering. You can totally see Urobuchi Gen reusing elements of Sumaga in this series. Very intense ending. How is this plot going to unravel now
Encapsulates everything about the series that has made it wonderful. Also as far as Madoka having immense power, it could be due to the fact that she had been held back by Homura for an extended amount of time that led to her wish being particularly meaningful. Another idea is in the last episode with Kyouko, when she was able to summon immense energy and perform a kamikaze attack on Oktavia. Such a move could have been used by Madoka which would explain how she defeated Walpurgis in one hit, yet consequently died in the process.
I enjoyed Kyuubey's rather nonchalant remark that ran along the line of, "Hey all life on the Earth is going to end and I met my quota! Today's awesome, don't you think Homura?" Also in the pic that Spidey posted, Kyuubey is surprised about Homura being from another time line. He is the only contractor, therefore how was he not aware that he never formed a deal with Homura unless she has altered the rules behind her power with further development. You would think that Kyuubey would be more interested in harvesting energy via Homura's abilities rather than looking for a one hit deal from Madoka. However, perhaps he is just an independent salary worker and really couldn't care about the sustainability of the energy he collect. Oh the speculah.
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Madoka Magica - 10 - Holy. Fucking. Balls. This cements this as being the best anime to come out in a while.
Spoiler
The whole repeating of time is such a mind pineapple that in the end, its either everyone dies, or time is repeated again. Why hasnt she tried to get Madoka to just wish Kyubey out of existence? It could be possible that that is exactly what she will end up doing when she makes her wish. I am almost certain she will make it, because if she doesnt, I want to say that there wont be another time repeat.
Encapsulates everything about the series that has made it wonderful. Also as far as Madoka having immense power, it could be due to the fact that she had been held back by Homura for an extended amount of time that led to her wish being particularly meaningful. Another idea is in the last episode with Kyouko, when she was able to summon immense energy and perform a kamikaze attack on Oktavia. Such a move could have been used by Madoka which would explain how she defeated Walpurgis in one hit, yet consequently died in the process.
I enjoyed Kyuubey's rather nonchalant remark that ran along the line of, "Hey all life on the Earth is going to end and I met my quota! Today's awesome, don't you think Homura?" Also in the pic that Spidey posted, Kyuubey is surprised about Homura being from another time line. He is the only contractor, therefore how was he not aware that he never formed a deal with Homura unless she has altered the rules behind her power with further development. You would think that Kyuubey would be more interested in harvesting energy via Homura's abilities rather than looking for a one hit deal from Madoka. However, perhaps he is just an independent salary worker and really couldn't care about the sustainability of the energy he collect. Oh the speculah.
Sayaka. Her familiars are different.
Also may be possible that
Spoiler
Madoka actually gets more and more powerful with each recursion. First time, she died after the battle. Second time she was hurt, but just became a witch after. Third time she and Homura fight together and both get mortally wounded. Fourth time Madoka is able to take on Waluigi all by herself, and with just one blow as well. It's possible that she's more and more powerful, but of course we don't have enough information to really see if she's getting stronger or not. We never actually see the fights, nor do we see what becomes of Madoka after the fourth loop, aside from obviously becoming a witch. We know she took it out in one shot, but we don't know how. She probably used one of those FINAL BUSTER moves like Kyouko and drained her soul gem.
As for the thoughts on Kyubey, I'd say it's possible that there's just a bunch of contractors. Kyubey knew he didn't make a contract with her, but perhaps someone else did. He did find her suspicious in some way though. In our current loop, we saw that he even formulated a plan against her from the very start. If you notice, when she kills the first Kyubey in the hallway, a second one noisily appears behind her, and just waits for her to acknowledge he's there before running so that Madoka can see Homura as someone bullying an innocent creature and distrust her.
Kyubey never tells us his thoughts really. It would seem he knew something was up with Homura, but didn't think it'd be too important to look into. At the end of the fourth loop when he's all like "lol not my problem to deal with, everything's cool on my end" he doesn't really put the pieces together until Homura Time Roulette's the hell out of there.
He probably didn't try getting energy from her in this time line because he was planning all along to use Madoka anyway. He probably knew Homura would never be able to handle it on her own, so just let things progress as normal.
Just... amazing. Kinda spoiled beforehand (got a quick glimpse of a pic of Mami) and guessed that they'd jump back in time, but I expected it to be Madoka and Homura and not about the past loops... but yeah, it was great, and I can't wait till next week...
Madoka actually gets more and more powerful with each recursion. First time, she died after the battle. Second time she was hurt, but just became a witch after. Third time she and Homura fight together and both get mortally wounded. Fourth time Madoka is able to take on Waluigi all by herself, and with just one blow as well. It's possible that she's more and more powerful, but of course we don't have enough information to really see if she's getting stronger or not. We never actually see the fights, nor do we see what becomes of Madoka after the fourth loop, aside from obviously becoming a witch. We know she took it out in one shot, but we don't know how. She probably used one of those FINAL BUSTER moves like Kyouko and drained her soul gem.
As for the thoughts on Kyubey, I'd say it's possible that there's just a bunch of contractors. Kyubey knew he didn't make a contract with her, but perhaps someone else did. He did find her suspicious in some way though. In our current loop, we saw that he even formulated a plan against her from the very start. If you notice, when she kills the first Kyubey in the hallway, a second one noisily appears behind her, and just waits for her to acknowledge he's there before running so that Madoka can see Homura as someone bullying an innocent creature and distrust her.
Kyubey never tells us his thoughts really. It would seem he knew something was up with Homura, but didn't think it'd be too important to look into. At the end of the fourth loop when he's all like "lol not my problem to deal with, everything's cool on my end" he doesn't really put the pieces together until Homura Time Roulette's the hell out of there.
He probably didn't try getting energy from her in this time line because he was planning all along to use Madoka anyway. He probably knew Homura would never be able to handle it on her own, so just let things progress as normal.
Spoiler
As far as I can tell, it's not explicitly stated that there have only been four iterations. With this, I definitely would not be surprised if they ended it with a bad end this season and either had another season to continue things, or wrap it up in an OVA. Animation as awesome by the way.
I really can't see how Homura is going to be able to defeat Walpurgis Night without Madoka's help. But at the same time, if Madoka decides to become a Mahou Shoujo, then Homura has failed. Either way I see it, Homura is screwed. I don't see how Homura can stop Walpurgis Night by herself, unless she keeps doing this over and over and over until she figures out it's weakness, while at the same time, not getting damaged too badly in the process.
I did notice that she tried to kill Kyubey, but I'm wondering if she's tried to find out the source of his powers, etc. Wondering how this is going to end now, as far as I can see it, there is no good end.
Homura= Rambo/(insert other gun-toting, lone wolf, action hero)
I was really hoping they would do a flashback episode, and it was so much more than I expected. The role reversals between Madoka and Homura was really interesting to watch during the first school scene. Finally got to see Madoka as a magical girl and that did not disappoint either. I loved the changes (or lack thereof) in characterization depicted with each of the girls in each separate Groundhog Day-esque iteration and how their voices were different. Homura's development from overly self-conscious, low self-esteem little girl to cold, determined badass was particularly great. The magical-girls-go-crazy-and-kill-each-other scene also left me shocked. It seemed to me like Mami's binding move, and possibly any other move similar, is Homura's weakness, as she was caught in them again and did not seem to be able to use her time freeze and weapons to escape.
The Walpurgis Night scenes were done really well too, as each showed the deep relationship that always developed between Madoka and Homura (contrasting the current time iteration), and the inevitable outcome that Homura is determined to change. The whole "the end is only the beginning" type of theme is portrayed well, with the explanation of the first scene of the first episode and the opening being played at the end of this episode. The ending showing all the girls together on top of the tower was a nice touch too.
Madoka actually gets more and more powerful with each recursion. First time, she died after the battle. Second time she was hurt, but just became a witch after. Third time she and Homura fight together and both get mortally wounded. Fourth time Madoka is able to take on Waluigi all by herself, and with just one blow as well. It's possible that she's more and more powerful, but of course we don't have enough information to really see if she's getting stronger or not. We never actually see the fights, nor do we see what becomes of Madoka after the fourth loop, aside from obviously becoming a witch. We know she took it out in one shot, but we don't know how. She probably used one of those FINAL BUSTER moves like Kyouko and drained her soul gem.
As for the thoughts on Kyubey, I'd say it's possible that there's just a bunch of contractors. Kyubey knew he didn't make a contract with her, but perhaps someone else did. He did find her suspicious in some way though. In our current loop, we saw that he even formulated a plan against her from the very start. If you notice, when she kills the first Kyubey in the hallway, a second one noisily appears behind her, and just waits for her to acknowledge he's there before running so that Madoka can see Homura as someone bullying an innocent creature and distrust her.
Kyubey never tells us his thoughts really. It would seem he knew something was up with Homura, but didn't think it'd be too important to look into. At the end of the fourth loop when he's all like "lol not my problem to deal with, everything's cool on my end" he doesn't really put the pieces together until Homura Time Roulette's the hell out of there.
He probably didn't try getting energy from her in this time line because he was planning all along to use Madoka anyway. He probably knew Homura would never be able to handle it on her own, so just let things progress as normal.
Madoka
Spoiler
Awesome idea on Madoka getting stronger in each iteration. That was a good catch that I missed. One of the things I'm curious about now is whether Kyouko turned into a witch or not. I'm assuming she didn't because the explosion would have destroyed her soul gem before it could have turned into a grief seed.
The Kyuubey manipulation is also neat. Kyuubey is still hard to really peg down for me at the moment. I am under the impression that he's more apathetic then manipulative master-mind.
I think using Homura to get energy from girls and then going back to time would give him an endless quota assuming that Homura's time back ability does not affect the energy he obtains or that his universe is independent of Homura's ability.
Some things that are really interesting to think about is the fact that actual real life weapons (guns, explosives) can actually defeat witches which appear to be astral / unreal in nature. This breach is really interesting when considering the boundaries between real life and a witch's domain.
I just noticed this btw. Sayaka tells Homura that she feels unsafe with her explosives possibly catching her. If you look at the cut scene soon after with Oktavia, you see that she summons wheels and squashes her own familiar. SAYAKA YOU peach. Also interesting to note is Sayaka telling off Homura instead of seeking a rotational system. If you look at them as a party, it could be Madoka-Mami-Homura with Sayaka on standby or Madoka-Mami-Sayaka with Homura on standby. But the fact that Sayaka just wants to kind of kick out Homura leads me to believe that Sayaka is just doomed to be a witch every damn time due to her overbearing self-righteousness. I really do believe that she turns into a witch because of that character flaw. Not because of her having weak powers compared to Mami or Homura. (Persona 4 spoiler)
Madoka actually gets more and more powerful with each recursion. First time, she died after the battle. Second time she was hurt, but just became a witch after. Third time she and Homura fight together and both get mortally wounded. Fourth time Madoka is able to take on Waluigi all by herself, and with just one blow as well. It's possible that she's more and more powerful, but of course we don't have enough information to really see if she's getting stronger or not. We never actually see the fights, nor do we see what becomes of Madoka after the fourth loop, aside from obviously becoming a witch. We know she took it out in one shot, but we don't know how. She probably used one of those FINAL BUSTER moves like Kyouko and drained her soul gem.
As for the thoughts on Kyubey, I'd say it's possible that there's just a bunch of contractors. Kyubey knew he didn't make a contract with her, but perhaps someone else did. He did find her suspicious in some way though. In our current loop, we saw that he even formulated a plan against her from the very start. If you notice, when she kills the first Kyubey in the hallway, a second one noisily appears behind her, and just waits for her to acknowledge he's there before running so that Madoka can see Homura as someone bullying an innocent creature and distrust her.
Kyubey never tells us his thoughts really. It would seem he knew something was up with Homura, but didn't think it'd be too important to look into. At the end of the fourth loop when he's all like "lol not my problem to deal with, everything's cool on my end" he doesn't really put the pieces together until Homura Time Roulette's the hell out of there.
He probably didn't try getting energy from her in this time line because he was planning all along to use Madoka anyway. He probably knew Homura would never be able to handle it on her own, so just let things progress as normal.
Madoka Magica
You know, that might actually be the case. It also seems like Madoka retains some vague memories from the previous recursion as well. Seeing as in the first episode she had a dream about Homura's solo run through with the Walpargeist Night (spelling?). She also seemed to have some sort of recollection about Homura when she stepped in and stopped Kyubey from making a contract with her back in episode 8.
I think that the fact that the wish made determined the nature of the girls' powers may have something to do with this also. Since Homura's wish was to go back "to protect Madoka," her power may in fact bring Madoka's memories and strength back in time as well; thus resulting in Madoka becoming stronger, as well as her semi recollection of the previous loops.
I'm thinking Madoka's broken one-hit-kill had more to do with her wish than the time loop. It's pretty likely that her wish during that particular recursion was to "obtain the power to kill witches" and to "save Homura". In other words, if Sayaka's special ability is "Auto-Regen" and Homura's special ability is "Time Control" (and a fourth-dimensional shield she can stuff lots of stuff into), then Madoka's special ability would be "Witch Killer" - "All attacks mortally wound Witches".
Well, now i see why Homura had no problem with killing Sayaka to save madoka. This episode really brings out why Homura believes only girls like Kyouhei should be Puella Magi, the more emotional members, Mami and Sayaka, BOTH snap at one timeline or another upon learning the truth. Cept for madoka herself, she really is the strongest in that sense.
Anyone else notice that Sayaka's servants look a heck of a lot like her romantic rival? Annnd she lets them get ran over by the wheels, sensing some resentment there.
Way to troll me by making me watch Mami die TWICE. Not to mention metaphorically losing her head again before being offed by Madoka herself.
Also, i know some people are comparing this to Groundhog Day or even Higurashi. but seriously, after this ep, This series = Legend of Zelda to me.
- Madoka is the title character, but the action and focus is really on Homura, there's your Zelda.
-This would easily make Homura Link.
- With a calamity constantly reoccuring followed by time travel, I feel Majora's mask.
Now conviently ignore everything that's wrong with my comparison.
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