[Rewatch] Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Episode 9 Discussion

**Mahou Shoujo Co★Host, subbed**

[Welcome back, everyone!](#michaelwink)

[Being a Sayaka *and* Kyouko fan is suffering.](#everythingisfine)

I’m involved in the /r/anime Sings and I’m home that was linked up top, but I’ve also done a [Sky Sings and I’m home](https://files.catbox.moe/yapnzk.mp3) over the TV size in the past, so there’s that too.

—

– …okay what the fuck, why did my version *not* have that gut-wrenching Sayaka scream in the labyrinth? The fancut really didn’t include that??? [](#dontgetit)

– [:(](https://i.imgur.com/3LdygYk.png) [](#sadholo)

– [Oh boy…](https://i.imgur.com/jGvq8br.png) [](#nottodisushittoagen)

– [Well this explains a lot.](https://i.imgur.com/QqEnOEC.png) [](#konosubawot)

– [I honestly think the *chairs* suddenly being populated by a bunch of stuffed animals is even more unsettling than when they’re empty.](https://i.imgur.com/O2nrpxV.png) [](#spooked)

– [Bokurano]>!<

– [Headtilt Visual of the Day?](https://i.imgur.com/dTP03rC.png) Headtilt Visual of the Day.

– [Kyubey](https://i.imgur.com/KGHwITt.png) you [lying piece of shit.](https://i.imgur.com/XiXR481.png) [](#moeshitarcher)

– [Episode title, get!](https://i.imgur.com/jpB9qTh.png) [](#binoculars)

– Can I just say I love *literally everything* about ~~Sayaka~~ Oktavia von Seckendorff’s labyrinth? It’s a musical auditorium where her theme, [Symposium magarum](https://files.catbox.moe/v9ck01.mp3), is *literally* being performed live. Oktavia herself appears as a conductor (wielding Sayaka’s weapon of choice instead of a baton). The five-lined musical staff appears behind her attacks, just like they did when Sayaka used her magic. Her attacks [use train wheels and train tracks](https://i.imgur.com/oXrZVsz.png)–remember where Sayaka was when she turned into Oktavia? That’s right a *train station*. It’s just *perfect* and I love it and hate it at the same time.

– At least the fancut *did* keep [this iconic part of the episode in](https://i.imgur.com/kwFxXUu.png); the recap movies removed that.

– [Oof…](https://i.imgur.com/Awf2GUH.png)

– [RIP.](https://i.imgur.com/GOXlyIH.png) [](#toradorasalute)

– [and I’m home…](#poltears) – Today’s special ED was sung by Eri Kitamura and Ai Nonaka, the seiyuu for Sayaka and Kyouko (respectively) and it’s just… it never ceases to *hit* after watching this episode.

—

#***Sky’s Wallpaper Corner***

Today’s wallpaper trivia of the day: It’s not a *perfect* 1:1 recreation of the base frame I used like my other wallpapers are. I added more blue to the right corners and more red to the bottom-left, so that it would look “balanced”. I also initially tried to use the exact same shades that were in the reference shot, but it’s actually incredibly hard to make red and blue look good together without outlines separating them, so it took some tweaking to get *that* part right.

Another piece of trivia regarding the below wallpapers: The Oktavia one is still arguably the most *difficult* wallpaper I’ve made for this series, if not one of the most difficult ones I’ve *ever* made. Usually my “difficult” wallpapers are just ones that involved a lot of different characters in it, or I had to make do with an iffy-quality base image because it was the only option I had, but Oktavia’s design being made up of so many different textures = a fuckton of work to make sure it was understandable in this artstyle. That was nothing short of a doozy, but I’m definitely still proud of being able to pull it off.

**Year Originally Made**|**Original Wallpaper**|**Remastered Version**
:–|:–|:–
2018|[and I’m home](https://i.imgur.com/DJrxiax.png)|N/A
2019|[and I’m home (Remake)](https://i.imgur.com/WDHzsWv.png)|[Link](https://i.imgur.com/sG13SWR.png)
2020|[Oktavia von Seckendorff](https://i.imgur.com/ophQaw9.png)|[Link](https://i.imgur.com/ShwoPPq.png)
2020|[Kyouko Sakura](https://i.imgur.com/mRoCaQh.png)|[Link](https://i.imgur.com/zEbGjQN.png)
2020|[Kyouko Sakura (Lineart Alt)](https://i.imgur.com/NRPz4Hg.png)|[Link](https://i.imgur.com/Lkvgq62.png)
2021|[Kyouko Sakura](https://i.imgur.com/t7OY1r5.png)|[Link](https://i.imgur.com/TRImxHT.png)
2022|[Homura Akemi](https://i.imgur.com/yrNuSUe.png)|[Mobile Version](https://i.imgur.com/EzYqyNO.png)

—–

*“With two hearts rusting together, in a world without sound; what do you see?”*

### Rewatcher

## Madoka Magica – Impactful and Artful: [Episode 9](https://imgur.com/pE805I2)

_Kyouko and Sayaka_

Fuck this episode is tragic. It hurts so much seeing Sayaka completely lost and Kyouko doing everything in her power to try save her despite them being enemies but a few episodes prior.

Sayaka’s witch has an incredible design. It’s this combination of a suit of armor, mermaid tail, and the red bow from Sayaka’s school uniform. The whole labyrinth design has imagery of a railway representing where Sayaka transformed, and an orchestra performing in an auditorium tying back to the origin of Sayaka’s wish and love for Kyousuke. And of course it’s just so visually striking. I think only the team at Shaft could have so successfully pulled this off.

Something I’d forgotten which I found deeply intriguing on rewatch were the origins and motives of Kyubey. I genuinely had no recollection of why it did this. In my mind it was intentionally vague “magic stuff”. Instead Kyubey is from an alien race. The problem they identified is that of entropy: As time elapses energy is changes into forms which are no longer (easily) usable and so eventually, without an energy source to sustain life, everything in the universe will die. The solution they discovered is using emotion as a new supply of energy and there is no better source than magical girls.

This instead transforms our villain from simply being evil to presenting a philosophical debate: Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or more colloquially, the trolley problem. This is far more of an interesting character motivation to think about. It feels deeply unfair for the young girls of earth to be targeted for this, and especially to the extent that they must become witches and die for that power to be extracted. However, the argument in favour of saving the whole universe is strong.

Thinking about this reminded me of the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. It’s really short (like the audio book is 20 minutes short). If you have some time and haven’t heard about it then give it a read.

Something I found notable in Kyubey’s speech to Madoka were the claims about consent. Madoka criticizes Kyubey for deceiving them but it retorts that “The act of deception is incomprehensible to us” because they don’t have the same emotions as humans. Later in the episode Kyubey explicitly tells Kyouko that it may be possible to turn Sayaka to a human using magic but it has never been done before. Of course, Kyouko couldn’t do this and when Homura asks Kyubey if it was possible it responds “Of course not. She should have known it was impossible”. Kyubey never told Kyouko this because it means now Madoka will feel more pressure to form a contract.

From all of this, it’s hard to trust Kyubey’s claims. It’s clear their race _can_ understand human emotions and uses that understanding to manipulate the girls into becoming witches. It’s not the same as Kyubey not telling the girls about soul gems because they didn’t ask. Instead Kyubey gave false hope to Kyouko thus costing her life. So then the question becomes: Is Kyubey even doing all this for the sake of the universe? What other motives and intentions has it not told us.

I have skipped forward a bit. The meat of the episode revolved around Kyouko and Madoka’s impossible quest to save Sayaka. Madoka is still stuck in her rut of feeling useless. She joins to try and prove she can help her friends. It’s not as easy to parse Kyouko’s reasons. I feel she’s grown a sincere fondness for Sayaka over these past few episodes. I think she even feels some guilt for what happened seeing that she came to town with the intentions to take Sayaka’s spot by any means necessary.

The fight is futile. No matter how much Madoka calls out, Sayaka can’t hear her. Kyouko’s defenses are not impenetrable. She doesn’t want attack properly or risk killing Sayaka. And so when things are truly lost, and Homura has rescued Madoka, Kyouko makes an ultimate sacrifice killing herself and the witch in the process.

“and I’m home” is today’s ED.

[](#trynottocry) [](#comfortfood)

It’s a beautiful song sung by Sayaka and Kyouko talking about the loneliness and pain they both felt. After a character arc together like this, it is really clear to me why there’s so much fan art shipping these 2.

Something I only noticed this rewatch was that the ED is actually written and produced by wowaka who you may know from [Unknown Mother Goose](https://youtu.be/P_CSdxSGfaA) and [Rolling Girl](https://youtu.be/vnw8zURAxkU) (Also the (slightly spoilery) [Madoka version](https://youtu.be/AjjcxP_Wktw)).

### Some Amazing Shots, Scenes and Stitches

* [Too Far Gone](https://imgur.com/0HweBm5)
* [Kyouko Transform](https://files.catbox.moe/3k1zus.mp4)
* [Madoka’s Indecision](https://imgur.com/FVIcrvW)
* [City Lights](https://imgur.com/5RKVMiD)
* [Harmony of Red and Blue](https://files.catbox.moe/cxsiii.mp4), this is an amazing cut. Such a wide range of emotion too as it transitions from abstract Sayaka and Kyouko together into blood being spilled.

See you all tomorrow

###I Can’t Make the Fourth Watch for the Fourth Movie Joke Since ~~Walrus~~ Walpurgis no Kaiten Isn’t Out Yet (Rewatcher, Subbed):

[PMMM] >!**First Scene (00:00 – 01:57:** An interesting scene. We jump right back into what was happening at the end of last episode before we cut to Kyubey making things clear to the viewer. The thing is, that’s not strictly speaking necessary – this kind of in media res return to the events of the last installment works well for restoring dramatic tension, hence cliffhangers often working this way, but last episode didn’t really ramp up the dramatic tension (or at least the suspenseful kind, which is the relevant kind) that much and what was there was effectively drained by Kyubey expressing the reveal (thus rendering moot the otherwise obvious source of dramatic tension: “so what the hell just happened, anyways?”). There’s not much point in reminding the audience of the end of last episode either – big reveals tend to be memorable in and of themselves. So there has to be a different point. And I think the key here is Kyouko’s presence. With Sayaka’s arc done she is no longer the protagonist so our former tritagonist then deuteragonist is going to take center stage; the driving question for the rest of this arc is “what is Kyouko going to do about this?” and this scene both serves to introduce this (via Homura’s question to her) and to quickly ramp up the dramatic tension for it via this technique).!<

[PMMM] >!**Second Scene (03:26 – 06:08):** A scene almost strictly focused on characterization/character development (specifically showing how these three girls react under stressed). For Madoka this is a mirror of episode 4, showing her breaking down under the completely understandable stress. For Homura this is showing her coat of jade, her stoic complexion holding up even in the face of horror. Kyouko is arguably the crux here though, as we see her own jaded demeanor break down (explicitly contrasted to the other veteran in Homura who is able to retain hers) – thus setting up events later in the episode.!<

[PMMM] >!**Third Scene (06:09 – 10:36):** Another one of the big huge exposition scenes (you’ll note how often Sis Puella Magica plays for those and we’re not done with that trend), with a very light side of showing how hard Madoka is taking all this. It’s also another case of a hallmark of this script: set up an antagonist, then make them more sympathetic by showing us exactly why they are like the way they are (or in this case what they *claim* is the reason they are the way they are), specifically by giving us Kyubey’s rationale for the system.!<

[PMMM] >!**Fourth Scene (10:36 – 11:42):** So, let’s start with the sneaky level first since it’s the first to show up: Kyouko is, as far as we can tell, eating through her entire food supply. This is telling on multiple levels. First, it’s all fast food. In other words, something purchaseable even for someone of Kyouko’s means. We know who she bought this for. Second, that she’s eating it all. Partially that’s Kyouko’s stress eating (demonstrated as such two episodes ago), but eating her entire food supply? On a girl who is intimately aware of food scarcity and has both shown and told us how much she cares about not wasting food? Curious… unless, of course, you’re making sure that you don’t waste food by eating it now while you’re still able to. Kyouko at some level is pretty sure she’s not coming back from what she’s doing alive. Outside of that, well, it’s Kyouko considering a plan and Kyubey manipulating her into going through with it via very careful wording (everything he says is technically true… technically) – as he will demonstrate at the end of the episode.!<

[PMMM] >!**Fifth Scene (11:42 – 15:15):** So the first and most important part here is that we are laying out The Plan. Ancient laws of narrative apply (foreshadowing, go!): plans work if and only if the audience is not informed of them and we have just been informed about this one so obvious implication is obvious. The rest of this is a little final characterization of Kyouko (showing us a glimpse of who she was before she built up her veteran’s mask – she regresses back to her younger self for a little while in the face of the inevitable) and also some Butch Gen cheeky needling of the audience (that’s how it works in stories where love and courage prevail… pity this isn’t one of them!), plus setting up Homura’s arrival at the end of what is to come. (Also, side thought: someone on this production staff is probably familiar with the occultism lore that the spirits of those who commit suicide are trapped in this world until they would have died naturally. Becoming a Witch, after all, is among other things metaphorical suicide. And as MagiReco makes clear a PMMM magical girl can remain (mostly) alive indefinitely given a sufficient supply of Grief Seeds.)!<

[PMMM] >!**Sixth Scene (15:16 – 17:13):** Mostly a tension-building scene with some exposition attached. The tension-building is twofold: it builds up the coming Oktavia fight and it also builds up the looming threat that’s been in the background for a few episodes: Walpurgisnacht (note how all of the exposition here is about her).!<

[PMMM] >!**Seventh Scene (17:13 – 18:21):** Separating this scene out from the Oktavia fight proper since it’s doing something else (despite also serving to build up yet more tension for said fight by continuing to have it loom over the characters’ and audience’s heads without actually happening yet). Mostly this is characterization/character development for Kyouko and Madoka, along with a question (*why* does Madoka feel that she needs to contract?) and some setup for episodes 11 and 12.!<

[PMMM] >!**Eighth Scene (18:21 – 22:58):** You know, from a narrative perspective I don’t have all that much to say about Kyouko vs. Oktavia. It’s exactly what it should be. It’s the grand finale that pays off all the dramatic tension accumulated during Sayaka’s arc in the form of a big battle scene, it’s the conclusion to Kyouko’s own character arc (shedding her coat of jade and remembering the youthful idealism – unfortunately for her she’s in a Gen Urobutchi work, but she does manage to avoid a fate worse than death and save someone she cares for from the same) and the coda to Sayaka’s (Sayaka did manage to save one person in a way, the false avatar of the system to boot – unfortunately at the price of damning herself, except that one person in turn is at least able to grant her mercy). No less and no more.!<

[PMMM] >!**Ninth Scene (22:59 – 23:54):** Except, of course, that this is not the end of the show. And so we have what is effectively a stinger even if it’s before the BD ED (in the TV release this episode aired without an ED), introducing the viewer to the last arc and setting up its stakes. And also to remind us that “technically the truth” or no fluffy fucker is our antagonist and is manipulative as hell.!<

Rewatcher, sub this time around

I forgot just how much pain this episode is, I remembered the details and the painful ending but it’s just 22+ minutes of being stabbed in the heart. What I love about Kyubey’s depiction here is just how savage of a takedown of pure utilitarian ethics that he ends up representing, because his argument is probably sound in the abstract but seeing the effects from his victims pov, it’s pretty much impossible imo to actually side with him. 

Him manipulating Kyoko here I feel is the worst thing he does in the entire series, and he does a lot of horrible things! Kyoko going “who would listen to you at this point”, as she unintentionally listens to him and his sweet poison just hurts! 

ED is great and also more pain ahhh the pain