Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a 12-episode Japanese anime created by Magica Quartet, collective credit for producer Aniplex, animation studio Shaft, director Akiyuki Shinbo, writer Gen Urobuchi, character designer Ume Aoki, and composer Yuki Kajiura. It premiered on MBS in January 2011 and was broadcast in Japan through April. Shaft animated the series, while Hirofumi Suzuki adapted Aoki’s character designs for animation. The program begins there in Mitakihara, where middle-school students Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki encounter Kyubey, a catlike being who offers girls a contract: they may have one wish granted, but must become magical girls and fight witches. Homura Akemi, a transfer student with knowledge of Madoka’s future, repeatedly warns Madoka against accepting Kyubey’s offer. The other magical girls are veteran Mami Tomoe and the hostile Kyoko Sakura. As story advances, Sayaka’s wish, Mami’s death, Kyoko’s past, and Homura’s time-looping efforts reveal the costs hidden by Kyubey’s bargain. A magical girl’s Soul Gem contains her soul; despair can darken it into a Grief Seed, and when a Soul Gem becomes corrupted, its owner transforms into the witch she was sent to hunt. Kyubey explains that Incubators harvest energy from this cycle to counter cosmic entropy throughout the universe. Madoka’s eventual wish remakes the governing rules of magical girls across time, preventing witches from being born while preserving the burden of their struggle in a new form. The final television episode presents a revised reality in which Homura remembers Madoka, who is no longer an ordinary human presence within it. The series juxtaposes Ume Aoki’s character designs with elaborate witch sequences. Gekidan Inu Curry designed the witches and their collage-like labyrinths, which often appear in worlds entered through Grief Seeds. Kajiura’s score includes “Connect,” the opening theme performed by ClariS, and “Magia,” the ending theme performed by Kalafina. Following the television run, the narrative was re-edited into two compilation films, Beginnings and Eternal, released in 2012. A third film, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion, opened in Japan in 2013 and continued the story after the series’ ending. The television anime received the Grand Prize in the Animation Division of the 2011 Japan Media Arts Festival. It also won Television Award at the 16th Animation Kobe awards. In 2012, it received the Animation of the Year award at the Tokyo Anime Award. It became a landmark in Urobuchi’s career, establishing a franchise of manga, games, and anime.