In which Sayaka has a heart to heart talk with Kyouko, Kyoko eats an apple, and Sayaka does something she probably shouldn’t have.

What on earth did Sayaka do to herself at the end of the episode? It was great how they made everything black and white in the witches world so you couldn’t see, even though there was something wrong with her that seemed quite obvious to Madoka. Kyuubey’s hints at the beginning of the episode do not seem to bode well for the state of Sayaka’s soul.

Kyouko turned out to be quite a sympathetic character as well in spite of her eagerness to fight. When she was first introduced she seemed like more of an empty character, brought in to play the role of an antagonist and bust out some crazy dance moves, but now she has quite a bit of depth. The creators did the same thing with Sayaka as well and it turned out excellent. In the first episode I thought she was just some minor side character – so many shows have the friend from class who are there only to either give the main character some tie to the real world or for comic relief. And yet now it seems like Madoka has been thrust into the role of a side-character.

And what a twist, with Madoka and Sayaka’s mutual friend turning out to like the violin boy as well! It did seem to come out of nowhere though – I wasn’t even aware that the two of them knew each other.

This leaves us at quite the cliffhanger for next week though- will Sayaka confess or not, and what was Kyuubey’s suggestion that she listened to? Regardless, things are going steadily in the right direction – downhill.

Damn, I really didn’t see that one coming. So it turns out that the souls of magical girls are transferred from their bodies into their gems, and the bodies are just shells which shut down when the soul gets a hundred meters away. Apparently Homura knew this as well but didn’t tell them – one would think this would be a good way to convince them not to become magical girls, no? Even Kyoko wasn’t aware of this, and it seems like she’ll be a bit less combative for the time being. We also learn that Kyuubey eats the grief seeds after they absorb the darkness from the gems (souls) of the magical girls.

Kyuubey also seems to have some ideas as to who Homura is. My current crackpot theory: Homura is actually Madoka, who made a wish to stop people from becoming magical girls (including herself and her friends, and maybe Mani too) and was able to go back in time to fulfill her wish. Hopefully the truth will be even less predictable.

It seems like Mani isn’t actually dead too since her gem wasn’t broken. I wonder if Homura has her gem, or does Kyuubey? And we still don’t know what the other purpose of the grief seeds is for magical girls. We know that Kyuubey eats them, but why do Mani and Homura want to find them? Sayaka didn’t seem to benefit from Kyuubey eating the grief seed. I guess they want more power, but still, it seems there is something more to it…

Madoka’s mom gave quite the pertinent advice this episode. Although Madoka’s best idea at doing something bad was pretty laughably non-bad. But the effects were certainly quite good…

In this episode Madoka worries about how Sayaka has become a magical girl. Sayaka, meanwhile, celebrates the recovery of her friend’s hand, and begins a hunt together with Madoka for witches. Yes, they are both idiots. Sayaka is attacked by another one of Kyubey’s magical girls, and Madoka almost becomes a magical girl to help her out but Homura arrives in the nick of time.

Overall, this episode was pretty enjoyable, but I did have to suspend my sense of disbelief a few times. First of all, why are Sayaka and Madoka so stupid? Madoka is no good in a fight so why would they decide she should come? And second, Homura’s goal is to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl, so why does she tell her so bluntly that Sayaka is going to die? This doesn’t exactly encourage her not to become a magical girl… Also, when they were crossing the bridge, the way three cars in parallel passed by them at the same time on each side of the road was just ridiculous. Although I’m not sure why this bothered me so much.

The fight this week was simply spectacular. Magical girls need to fight each other more often and just forget about the witches. And Kyubey was a bastard as usual.  Perhaps the most interesting thing that was revealed this week is that Kyubey doesn’t know about Homura. The strange part is that he doesn’t say he didn’t make a contract with her, but that he doesn’t know whether or not he made a contract with her. My theory is that it has something to do with Homura’s wish. Maybe it is something to do with saving magical girls. Also, the question of why the girls need grief seeds still remains to be answered.

After Mani’s death, in this episode the terror and fear just keep piling on as this show gets better and better! This is by far the best series Shaft has produced at least since the first season of Zetsubou Sensei. I was concerned that with this episode Madoka would try to emulate Mani and fulfill her duties after her death, or make a wish to revive her, and I’m really glad that the show hasn’t taken that route (at least not yet). There’s often a tendency to let a death float around for a while to let it sink in, but I think this tends to lessen the impact. Which if you want your characters to retain their sanity is probably a good thing, but who would want that?

The way this episode just kept building the tension up and up was just spectacular. It started off gradually with Sayaka’s visit to the hospital and discussion of her friend’s broken hand and lost ability to play the violin. Then Madoka completely breaks down at the breakfast table, and is put off by Sayaka on the way to school who is awkwardly faking a happy conversation. They cry together on the roof, and the creepiness goes up a notch with Kyubey’s comments all with his disturbing smile. Then Madoka has an emotional discussion with Homura as they walk. All of this time there’s an overriding sense of foreboding building up that something terrible is going to happen.

After the break all hell breaks loose as Sayaka’s friend mutilates himself. Kyubey of course appears at exactly the right moment. Seriously, he creeps me out. Then Madoka and Sayaka’s mutual friend joins in a group suicide with prompting from a witch, and Madoka follows him. This is where the atmosphere the creators developed really pays off, as Madoka attempts to prevent their suicide, is attacked by the suicide squad, and enters the witch’s world. She’s rescued, of course, but Sayaka’s timely arrival in a way makes the situation even more dark and dreadful. The way that this episode built up the sense of horror and fear throughout was nothing short of spectacular.

Baseless Speculation

It really strikes me as odd that the girls have been running into witches so much now, even though they have never seen them before. I have my doubts that this is a coincidence. I wonder if Kyubey has some control over them and is sending them to convince Madoka to become a magical girl. Also, my impression is that Homura was not a magical girl chosen by Kyubey. They’ve never spoken, and Kyubey even called in another girl in spite of the fact that Homura is there. I wonder how Homura became a magical girl? And we still don’t even know why they want the grief seeds.

Well, this episode turned out so great that I had to just go and blog it. Since I’m going to be doing three shows on Thursday, this might end up being a bit much and some will probably be pushed back to Friday.

But man! My senses for epic destruction and despair are really tingling now! Maybe it’s a character flaw but I really love the type of story where things being with a semblance of peace and normalcy and the characters steadily descend into despair as the world falls apart around them. But in the end they gain more then they lose in terms of their dignity and development as a human being. Simoun is my favorite show of all time, and for those who haven’t seen it (go watch it now!) this is basically the plot – a country begins as the strongest in the world and is completely conquered and subjugated. This isn’t only a theme in anime either – I have a soft spot for the Mayor of Casterbridge, the Name of the Rose and Foucalt’s Pendulum, and my latest fad, a Song of Ice and Fire.

So in this episode things take a decidedly darker tone, as Mani is apparently killed (?) and we learn the darker side of being a magical girl. We also learn that Mani has issues and seems to have ulterior motives for recruiting new magical girls. I doubt that Mani is dead since we haven’t seen a corpse, but who knows. She definitely seemed to lose her magical girl powers as she changed back into her school uniform.

The most disturbing part of this episode however, at least to me, was Kyupei’s reaction (the weasel thing). He didn’t seem to be concerned about Mani at all. He is definitely plotting something. The cutesy art combined with the dark themes is what really makes this show great though. As Higurashi has so aptly demonstrated, it’s just that much more terrifying when the person holding an axe over your head is a cute, smiling girl.