For my "Philosophy Special" (I refuse to call this a midterm :P), I chose to go the pop culture route, and take this incredibly rare opportunity to wax on what is probably one of my favorite shows and something, by and large, most of you have never heard of. Now, I know what you're thinking! Not only am I covering a cartoon, a Japanese cartoon (and one that looks fairly frilly at that), but there is quite a bit to be discussed here, and I've found the entire series to be a though-provoking experience that really got me thinking about the things I'm going to cover in this blog series.So what exactly is Puella Magi Madoka Magica, anyway?
At the very basic form of explanation, it's a show about magical girls, with the title roughly translating from Latin into "Girl of the Sorcerer, Magical Madoka." But to give a bit more detail, the series is a tale of a young girl, whose life is forever changed when her and her best friend are offered the chance by a strange familiar named Kyubey to change their lives forever by granting them one wish of their choosing, in exchange for becoming magical girls and fighting evil beings named witches. However, things get complicated when a mysterious transfer student shows up in the picture and urges them not to make the contract. What should the young girls do?
To frame things a little bit (and only a little bit), this two minute-trailer should help acquaint you with at least the premise of this show. (NOTE, every video is going to be Japanese audio with English subtitles)
The (truly misleading) official trailer to Puella Magi Madoka Magica
If this doesn't sound pretty absurd (or mundane) to you yet, I'd be a bit worried! Matter of fact the series sounds a lot like other "Magical Girl" series that have made it over from Japan. A group of girls get together to fight supernatural criminals and protect those that they love. If you've grown up in the past two decades (and you were a young girl), you probably remember one of these two shows pretty well, which are just two examples of wildly popular "magical girl" series that made it in the west.
Pictured: Sailor Moon on the left and Cardcaptor Sakura on the right, two popular Japanese animations that focused on the idea of the "magical girl"
These two shows, because of simply how influential their success has been, have gone on to define the magical girl genre in Japan for the past two decades. But what makes Puella Magi Madoka Magica so different, and by extension noteworthy is that it attempts to deconstruct the tropes that define the genre, and does so by exposing the show and its character to a different set of circumstances. This deconstruction provides me with the intellectual fodder needed to talk about this show, as the girls in series quickly find out that they need to be careful about what they wish for.
What the characters involved in PMMM quickly find out is that one pays the price for becoming a magical girl, and the entire series focuses on the struggles of each of the girls dealing with their newfound powers while at the same time trying to come to terms with the nature of their inhumanity. That path that the magical girls are led down is one littered with anguish, suffering, and despair, and one by one, everything that the girls had built up in their world fell apart around them as their new reality began to make itself known.
Join me, as I will examine the topics of Evil, Morality, and Fate vs. Free Will in three separate entries as I will connect the themes observed in this show back to our own lives as well.
Dramatis Personae (Refer back here when you need help with characters!):
Pictured - Kyubey - A familiar from outer space that was sent to create magical beings out of the teenage girls on Earth, and also the antagonist of the series. No one knows where he came from or what he is, but I will be revealing his intentions very soon...(in the next blog post, no less).
Madoka Kaname - The main character and protagonist of the show, she is a normal, second-year middle school student whose life is changed forever when she finds Kyubey and witnesses the phenomena of magical girls for the first time. She spends the entire series on the fence, trying to discover a wish worthy enough of devoting her life to being a magical girl.
Homura Akemi - The secondary main character and the initial antagonist of the series. She is actively trying to kill Kyubey, and at the same time is trying to stop Madoka and her friends from making contracts with him and becoming magical girls. Little about her past is known at the beginning of the series, but I will be devoting the entirety of my second post to her struggle against fate. Stay tuned!
Mami Tomoe - A third-year middle school student that has long been protecting the City of Mitakihara from witches using her magical girl powers. Madoka and Sayaka eventually tag along with her to learn more about becoming a magical girl. Unfortunately for her, she quickly dies in the line of duty, and her legacy becomes a cautionary tale about the true dangers of being a magical girl.
Sayaka Miki - Madoka's best friend and fellow middle school student, Sayaka is thrown into the fray along with Madoka when they encounter Kyubey and the world magical girls. Headstrong and moral, she is an idealist, and this, unfortunately makes her decline even more sadder.
Kyoko Sakura - A mysterious magical girl that appears on the scene to try to capitalize on the death of Mami. While at first a antagonistic figure, she quickly becomes changes sides once the nature of the Puella Magi become known.
Before I begin to discuss this Faustian tale, I will warn the readers that future posts will not be spoiler-free, and if you want to discover the series for themselves before reading on, I highly suggest you do so. for those who don't have a few hours on their time, don't worry, I'll be explaining everything you need to know. But to get the full impact, you'll have to watch the series too. But for now, I'll leave you with the opening:
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