Remember Madoka Transgressing the Magical Girl Simon Gough, B.Comm (Media) School of Media and Communication RMIT University

Remember Madoka 1

Remember Madoka: Transgressing the Magical Girl

Simon Gough, B.Comm (Media)

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Communication (Media) (Honours)

Supervised by Prof. Stephanie Hemelryk Donald

School of Media and Communication RMIT University

Australia

October 2011

Remember Madoka 2

Table of Contents

Statement of Authorship

p. 3

Abstract

p. 4

Acknowledgements

p. 5

Notes p. 6 Chapters

1. Introduction p. 7 2. Animation, genre, and girls p. 13 2.1 Japanese animation 2.2 Genre and conventions 2.3 Shōjo and the magical girl

p. 13 p. 14 p. 20

3. Magical conventions p. 25 3.1 Early magical girls 3.2 Contemporary magical girls

p. 25 p. 27

4. Two views of transgression p. 37 4.1 The fight against Charlotte 4.2 The girls’ nature revealed

p. 37 p. 46

Conclusion

p. 59

Index of figures

p. 63

References

p. 69

Filmography

p. 74

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Statement of Authorship

This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other

degree or diploma in any tertiary institution, and that, to the best of my knowledge

and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person,

except where due reference is made in the text of this thesis.

Signed,

________________________________

Remember Madoka 4

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the Japanese anime series Puella Magi

Madoka Magica both confirms and transgresses the conventions of the magical girl

genre.

Genres shift as audiences, creators and critics develop, mature and reform. Texts that

transgress established conventions within their respective genres in turn shift

perceptions of the possibilities of the genre, and thus influence the development of

future works.

Through analysis of several contemporary magical girl series, conventions that are

commonly found within the genre are established, and then used as points of reference

for a deeper analysis of the series Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

This series utilises many of the conventions within the genre, but also takes them

further and transforms them. It is thus a profoundly important contribution to anime in

Japan.

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Acknowledgements

To my supervisor, Professor Stephanie Hemelryk Donald, for her constant

encouragement and unfailingly helpful advice.

To our honours program director, Adrian Miles, for his unique brand of tough love

that has allowed our cohort to survive this year (relatively) unscathed.

To my parents, Annette and Noel, for their love and support throughout my academic

endeavours.

To my peers in the honours program, for their hard work and camaraderie that pulled

us all across the finishing line.

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Notes

The Romanisation of Japanese in this thesis follows the Hepburn system, with

macrons used to indicate long vowels.

Japanese names have been ordered in the Western format, with surnames second.

All films, series, and episode titles, unless otherwise noted, are identified by their

commonly accepted English language titles within the text, with the original Japanese

titles noted in the filmography.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

The anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica appears, at first sight, to exemplify the

conventions associated with contemporary narratives of the Japanese magical girl

genre. This thesis explores the possibility that this series not only utilises these

conventions but also transgresses them in ways that might be significant for the

critical reception of future works in this genre.

Debuting in January 2011 and running until April of the same year (including a

delayed completion due to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami), Puella Magi Madoka

Magica presents the story of Madoka Kaname, an ordinary adolescent schoolgirl

residing in the city of Mitakihara. In the first episode, Madoka and her friend Sayaka

Miki are introduced to a small creature named Kyubey, who makes them an offer: if

they agree to become magical girls, he will grant each of them a wish. Homura Akemi,

who is already a magical girl, urges Madoka not to agree to Kyubey's contract, but

Kyubey insists that by taking his offer, Madoka will become the most powerful

magical girl of all time. Conflicting influences on her decision include her

introduction to two other magical girls, Mami Tomoe and Kyoko Sakura, who offer

different perspectives on being magical girls. Madoka is also troubled by the grim

realities of the lives of magical girls, including risks of isolation and death, and she is

especially disturbed by discovering that the monsters which the magical girls fight

were themselves once magical girls. With all her friends becoming - and suffering as -

magical girls, Madoka has to decide whether becoming a magical girl is worth the

Remember Madoka 8

trouble it causes, especially after she learns the awful truths behind their powers. In

the final episode of the series, Madoka agrees to Kyubey’s contract, using her wish to

end the cycle of suffering for all magical girls, past and present. However, this does

not end the fighting for the magical girls; rather, it removes the threat of them turning

into monsters, with their ultimate destination being a new afterlife, over which

Madoka reigns as a goddess.

The title of this thesis, “Remember Madoka”, is inspired by one of the final sequences

in the series. After the credits have rolled on the twelfth and final episode, we see the

character Homura striding across a barren wasteland, with the following words (in

English) superimposed across the screen:

— Don’t forget.

Always, somewhere,

someone is fighting for you.

— As long as you remember her,

you are not alone.

By themselves, these words are standard magical girl fare: despite the evil forces that

exist in the world, you are protected by a heroic maternal figure. But these words also

stand in stark contrast with the relentlessly dark narrative of Puella Magi Madoka

Magica. Throughout the series, we witness the girls being beaten, crushed,

decapitated and otherwise destroyed, both emotionally and physically. It is only in the

final episode that hope emerges as a possibility for these girls and, even then, they

still must fight on behalf of everyone else. In my mind, this postscript epitomises the

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key achievement of Puella Magi Madoka Magica: despite utilising and transgressing

the key recognisable characteristics of the magical girl genre as it moves toward a

ruthlessly grim conclusion, it still manages to conclude on a hopeful note, typical of

the genre and fulfilling the audience’s expectations for a happy, even hopeful,

conclusion.

Origins and motivations

My motivations for writing this thesis arise, in part, from my personal history of

involvement with Japanese popular culture in general and with anime in particular.

My engagement with anime in any serious sense began in 2001, when I watched the

series Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 as it was broadcast weekly on SBS. Although I

had previously watched Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon, they had always appeared to me

to be cartoons, albeit visually distinctive and idiosyncratically Japanese. Bubblegum

Crisis Tokyo 2040 introduced me to a world of new terms, new concepts and ideas

that drew me more deeply into the cultural milieux of anime and manga. I became one

of those boys who watched Sailor Moon without any sense of irony; I debated with

friends regarding the differences between the original Japanese Cardcaptor Sakura

and the American version that was edited and rebranded as Cardcaptors; I began to

identify with fans who sneered at those who insult a work by watching versions

dubbed into US English, rather than listening to the Japanese original. Although I am

now somewhat loath to admit it, I was very much what Antonia Levi (2006) refers to

as a “Japanophile” (p. 57), complete with an active resentment towards the

Americanisation of anime and manga. While I never delved deeply into fan

communities, such as those overviewed by Susan Napier (2001) or Dunlap and Wolf

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(2010), my interaction with these groups nevertheless influenced my then and current

interest in anime.

My enthusiasm for anime peaked in 2007 when I became a member of the organising

committee for the Melbourne Anime Festival, then one of the largest anime

conventions in Australia. However, I resigned from the committee in 2008, in part

because I found myself no longer enjoying anime, or identifying with the local fan

community that supported it. I continued to read popular and academic literature on

Japanese culture writ large, but beyond this level of amateur research interest I

became somewhat detached from anime as a genre. This connection is important to

establish because, as noted by Henry Jenkins (2006), it is good research practice to

establish any potential bias a researcher may have if they are both a fan and utilising

fan community resources as part of an investigation. Despite this thesis not being a

direct investigation of fan communities, some fan resources are used as part of the

analysis and argument. These are taken directly from their sources, in order to

eliminate any potential bias that could be found.

Three years later, I was introduced through my internet friends to Puella Magi

Madoka Magica. Despite only five episodes having been released at the time I heard

of it, the internet anime communities were talking up the series as the next big thing,

with blog posts describing the series as “a magical girl cartoon that’s dark, gritty and

unpredictable” (Martin 2011). The intensity of these discussions intrigued me enough

to begin watching the series myself, albeit with some hesitation. The fact that I have

progressed to writing a thesis about the series is testimony to how powerfully this

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series has engaged me, and has revitalised my interest in anime as both a fan and an

aspiring academic researcher.

Structure of the thesis

In Chapter 2, I review relevant literature, outlining current scholarship pertaining to

anime studies and genre, with a particular focus on the intersections between these

areas of research. I also present working definitions of the key concepts that I deploy

in this thesis. I focus on the terminology that circulates within studies of media

narrative and genre theory.

In Chapter 3, I describe the history of the magical girl genre, from its beginnings in

the 1960s to its more recent representation in three of the most popular series that

appeared in the 1990s. I outline these three series and analyse the conventions and

themes that they share, so as to establish the qualities that unify these works as

examples of the magical girl genre.

In Chapter 4, I examine two key sequences from Puella Magi Madoka Magica as

springboards for my investigation of the series. Using conventions outlined in the

previous chapters as a framework, I examine how the series both deploys narrative

and thematic devices similar to those observable on other series within the genre, and

simultaneously transgresses the conventions that support these devices. I argue that

this resides in and aspires to darker representations of what constitutes the magical

girl.

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In my conclusion, I review the arguments advanced in my investigation, finding that

when compared with contemporary magical girl narratives, Puella Magi Madoka

Magica makes significant transgressions upon the conventions established as

belonging to the genre. Thus, the series generates similar potential to that found in

previous anime that have changed the overall development of the medium.

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Chapter 2: Animation, genre, and girls

The literature relevant to Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the question of genre

transformation encompasses three areas. First, I provide an overview of the early

history of anime, and how anime is argued to form a distinctive medium separate

from that of Western animation. I then explore conceptions of genre, including how it

has been defined, and question how a work can both fulfil and transgress the

expectations of a genre. Finally, I discuss the idea of shōjo, including what it means in

Japanese popular culture, and how it relates directly to the narrative construction of

the magical girl.

2.1 Japanese animation

Japanese animation, or anime (the term appears to be derived from the French dessin

animé, meaning “animated design” [Harper, 2011]), emerged in the early 20th century,

with early pioneers such as Junichi Kōchi and Seitaro Kitayama generating work

using technologies and techniques derived from Western animation (Baricordi et. al.,

2000). Although Japanese artists used animation in a variety of ways throughout the

early to mid-20th century, anime began its journey towards cultural icon status in the

1960s with the work of Osamu Tezuka, creator of the Astro Boy series. While not the

first serialised anime, Astro Boy was both wildly popular both in Japan and overseas

(being the first anime series to be broadcast internationally), leading to a developing

interest in the potential of anime as a medium by Japanese production companies

(Clements and McCarthy, 2006). In the decades that followed, anime developed as a

Remember Madoka 14

major cultural product, gradually developing into the multi-billion industry that it now

comprises (“Research Firm…”, 2010).

The developmental history of Japanese animation is different from Western animation,

in terms of both the technologies used in its production and the cultural specificity of

its content. According to Hu (2010), Japanese animation up until the 1990s was

widely perceived as being cheap, due to its consistent use of limited animation, where

there might be as few as two animated frames per film second. Thomas Lamarre

(2009) argues that this contrasts sharply with the full animation associated with

Disney films, where the goal is to provide the characters full continuous movement,

faithfully emulating live-action motion. From the 1990s, however, anime was given a

new name in Western circles, “japanimation”, which signalled a shift from

perceptions of Japanese animation as cheap and primitive towards “something more

imperative and expansionistic” (Hu, 2010, p. 2). Anime, in Hu’s assessment, has

become a medium-genre, having acquired unique and recognisable characteristics,

such as character design, production work practices, and types of “audienceship”, that

separate it from other forms of animation. (2010, p. 3)

2.2 Genre and conventions

Although genre is a well-known and frequently used term, the processes by which

genres are created and defined are more loosely conceived. Bordwell and Thompson

(2010) contend that the concept of genres is problematic because they emerge from

shared – and often tacit – understandings among creators, critics and audiences as to

the commonalities between various texts. Geraghty and Jancovich (2008) add to the

complexity of this issue by arguing that time, place and historical reference also

Remember Madoka 15

contribute to understandings of how genres are defined and how the concept is

applied to specific texts. Paul Wells (2002) provides several broad interpretations of

genre, which includes recognising them as a “discrete ‘category’ or ‘type’ of film

which is defined by its visual, technical, thematic or subject-oriented consistencies” (p.

43) and “a framework which simultaneously invites complicity with traditional

models, but encourages re-definition through pastiche, exaggeration, intertextual play,

re-configured signifiers and so on” (p. 44).

Many of the perspectives on what constitutes a given genre are predicated on live-

action film. Although there are often links between animated and live-action film

texts, Wells argues that “animated films pose particular questions of these generic

definitions by virtue of their intrinsic difference as a form and as a mode of

production” (2002, p. 44). That is, although animated texts may be associated with

established live-action film genres, they ultimately form their own generic terms and

conditions. In Wells’ view, “animation transcends these [live-action] paradigms and

insists upon models of its own” (2002, p. 45). Furthermore, as Gilles Poitras (2001)

argues, “Japanese and American animation genres don’t exactly parallel one another;

nor are the expressions of genre in Japan quite like those found elsewhere in the

world” (p. 34). This is supported by Dani Cavallaro (2006), who argues that the

distinct qualities of anime “can only be adequately grasped in the context of a

specifically Japanese approach to storytelling, representation and staging” (p. 13)

In terms of relevance to this thesis, Wells’ Genre and Animation (2002) provides

some useful ways of approaching genre, but many of his arguments are couched

within technical and Western animation discourses. For example, the seven categories

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of animation genres he identifies are primarily predicated on the use of the medium

and construction of animation itself, such as relying on how a work utilises “the

premises of its own construction” (Wells, 2002, p. 67). Similarly, Lamarre’s The

Anime Machine (2009) offers significant insights into anime as a medium, but he

focuses on how the technical construction of anime texts is important to

understanding them. While covering a wide range of topics, Lamarre’s discussion of

animation is heavily based on separating the construction of live-action from

animated texts, and how “animation brings with it a different set of possibilities and

conventions vis-à-vis movement and perception” (2009, p. 8)

For the purposes of this thesis, I adopt Stuart Kaminsky’s (1985) definition of genre,

in which a given genre is “a body, group, or category of similar works, this similarity

being defined as a sharing of a sufficient number of motifs that we can identify works

that properly fall within a particular kind of film” (p. 9). Additionally, Jonathan

Rayner (2003) argues that genre labelling “prompts patterns of expectation and

interpretation within the viewer” (p. 5). In this light, genre categories, such as comedy

and crime, are descriptive rather than evaluative terms that allow prospective

audiences to anticipate what will be contained in a text. According to Bordwell and

Thompson (2010), the source of these common identities between different texts

comes from the notion of shared genre conventions.

Drazen (2003) defines a convention as “an acceptable device that is intrinsically part

of the narrative or character design and which, although old, can still be used in fresh

ways” (p. 18). Drazen’s idea of a convention’s potential freshness enables its

differentiation from the concept of a cliché. For Drazen, a cliché is a device used by

Remember Madoka 17

artists who do not approach a concept creatively, and therefore do not contribute

“fresh uses for the conventions that inform a work at its best” (p. 18). From this

perspective, a cliché results from a convention being overused, or replayed without

any new interpretation within the fiction.

The term “convention” is not limited to structures such as plot devices and character

design, but can refer to a wide variety of textual elements. Drazen (2003) and

Bordwell and Thompson (2010) demonstrate that visual and auditory cues also

constitute conventions that are used by artists to further define their works within

specific areas. These include culturally specific cues, such as Neon Genesis

Evangelion's usage of incessant cicada chirps in background sequences to establish a

sense of otherness. They also include stylised vanishing backgrounds during critical

moments of character focus in several of the magical girl series that I discuss later in

this thesis. Such conventions are significant in the overall presentation, understanding

and reception of a text, because they draw attention to specific elements that the

audience is intended to focus on and interpret within the larger narrative frame.

Although some anime texts can be seen to be formulaic in plot, character and content,

this does not necessarily mean that they lack expressive depth. MacWilliams (2008)

argues that anime relies on easily digestible constructs to develop audience

identification with characters in the fiction. The use of recycled plots and conventions

becomes a powerful communication tool, as repeated exposure to these elements

allows the audience to not only learn their codes quickly, but also facilitates powerful

emotions in response. Rather than collapsing these elements to the realm of cliché,

their "familiarity does not breed contempt, but rather facilitates intelligibility"

Remember Madoka 18

(MacWilliams, 2008, p. 10). Bordwell and Thompson (2010) agree, noting that as

with film in general, conventions provide pathways of accessibility to audiences,

which “allow the genre movie to communicate information quickly and

economically” (p. 330). The use of recycled convention does not mean that creators

are stuck with the same plots and characters but, rather, that the conventions provide a

framework through which new material can be explored.

The fan community that has grown around Puella Magi Madoka Magica describes the

series as a “genre deconstruction”, a term which carries a somewhat different meaning

in this context from the ways it is deployed in academic literatures. Deconstruction in

academic disciplines (such as literary studies and philosophy) usually refers to the

poststructuralist theorising of scholars such as Derrida and Heidegger, whereas fan

communities use the term to refer to approaches wherein the fictional elements of a

text are questioned and examined. This form of criticism can be performed at a

number of levels within a text, including examining the genre as a whole:

The genre is basically boiled down to a set of tropes, conventions and a

typical premise. All of these features are then played straight; without

shying away from any unpleasant consequences and/or causes of these

features. Basically, the heart of the genre is laid bare, warts and all. It

is not solely done to denote how unpleasant a genre or trope is, but to

break away from the clichés and stock themes said genre or trope has

acquired. (“Genre Deconstruction”, 2011)

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Texts that fulfil this notion of “deconstruction” are therefore inherently reflexive, as

they use the conventions of a genre to comment on the genre itself. Furthermore, the

fan communities often predict that these “deconstructive” works will be highly

influential on future works, claiming that such texts “will change a genre forever”

(“Genre Deconstruction”, 2011). The use of “deconstruction” in this way is not

limited to fan circles. For example, Susan Napier (2007) argues that the series Neon

Genesis Evangelion manages to “deconstruct the mecha1 science fiction genre, calling

into question the more simplistic motivations typical of earlier works such as Yamato”

(p. 110). To substantiate the significance and relevance of these fan-driven definitions,

I will briefly explore the critical scholarship that surrounds Neon Genesis Evangelion,

lauded by some commentators as “the single greatest anime series ever made”

(Redmond, 2007, p. 184).

Released in 1995, Neon Genesis Evangelion presents the story of Shinji Ikari and

several other teenagers as the pilots of giant robots, who through teamwork must

battle monsters in each of the twenty-six episodes of the series. Although it is readily

recognisable as a conventional heroes-versus-monsters narrative typical of 1980s and

1990s Japanese children’s programming, MacWilliams (2008) argues that this old

formula is used as the starting point to “explore all sorts of disturbingly new

questions” (p. 10). This is supported by Redmond (2004), who argues that the series

takes the traditional elements of the mecha narrative and transgresses them by

“disrupting both its patriarchal gender codes and crude technological determinism” (p.

129). That is, Neon Genesis Evangelion uses the conventions of a mecha narrative not

1 The mecha genre is based around the use of giant robots, generally piloted by the main characters in order to battle their enemies. While mecha works rely upon the use of robots as a central device, they are not restricted in terms of theme or audienceship, with mecha works running the gamut from light-hearted comedy to hard action. For further details, see Clements and McCarthy (2006).

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only to establish its generic positioning but also to question and disrupt the genre’s

narrative assumptions.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how Puella Magi Madoka Magica approaches

the magical girl genre in a similarly transgressive way, thus confirming critical

opinion that it can be seen as “the Evangelion of magical girl anime” (Oppliger,

2011b). Although I do not intend to draw a direct comparison between these two

texts, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a useful reference point for elaborating the ways in

which Puella Magi Madoka Magica transgresses the magical girl genre.

2.3 Shōjo and the magical girl

The magical girl genre, or mahō shōjo, has been described as being a sub-genre of the

older shōjo genre of storytelling. The term shōjo has multiple meanings: it refers not

only to an age range of pre-adult girls, but also indicates a specific demographic to

which a text is aimed, together with shōnen (boys’), seinen (men’s), and josei

(women’s) stories. Shōjo story-telling developed from the shōjo shōsetsu, or girls’

novels, of the 1920s, which provided a “discrete discourse premised on the closed,

private world of girls that not only embraced close female friendships but avoided

heterosexual romance” (Shamoon, 2007, p. 4). Over time, however, shōjo comics

began to develop and reflect changes in Japanese society and cultural expectation,

creating a situation wherein shōjo narratives became “a mirror of Japanese girls’ and

women’s desires and expectations” (Toku, 2007, p. 30)

The image of the shōjo in Japanese popular culture has changed considerably in

recent decades. Orbaugh (2003) argues that throughout 1990s pop culture narratives,

Remember Madoka 21

shōjo threw off negative connotations associated with the term, creating a new breed

of shōjo who are “powerful and active as they lead the fight against the forces of evil”

(p. 217). This is supported by Yoshida (2002), who argues that in this period, the

female hero was not explicitly conveyed as being passive or feminine, but rather

displayed a “combination of femininity and masculinity” (p. 12). This idea of a

female hero, relatively free from a socially prescribed identity and role, is a key to

understanding the appeal and development of the magical girl in its current form.

Of course, this model of the heroic female is not unique to Japanese popular culture.

Contemporary Western series, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, have presented

similar figures as their main characters and driving forces. As Sharon Ross (2004)

argues, although Buffy presents heroes who fulfil generic standards of attractiveness,

“the show focuses narratively on her strength as a hero in general rather than as a

beautiful hero specifically” (p. 82). This view is supported by Frances Early (2001),

who argues that Buffy explores and develops the position of the female-as-warrior in

an attempt to “chart new meanings for womanliness and manliness” (p. 11). However,

Saito Tamaki (2007) argues that there is a distinction between the “Amazonian

women” of Western fiction and the “armoured cuties” of Japan, an image that is

virtually unique to Japan and reinforced by Western media possessing “almost no

works that featured girl warriors in the kindergarten to elementary school range” (p.

226) Buffy the Vampire Slayer may not present “Amazonian women” per se, but this

distinction between the depiction of Western and Japanese female heroes is important

to understanding the specificity of the magical girl to Japanese popular culture.

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Magical girl narratives have been critically recognised as existing as a specific and

well-established part of the broader shōjo genre, becoming a genre (or sub-genre) in

their own right. For example, Poitras (2001) characterises magical girl texts as “the

subgenre of girls’ shows that feature a girl chara who has supernatural powers or

possesses powerful magic objects” (p. 45). In a more detailed summary, Yunqi Liu

(2010) describes the genre as follows:

Mahō shōjo stories deal with the concept of the magical girl, and entity

who, whether by birthright or by happenstance, is endowed with

magical superhero powers. Usually the star of the story is an average

girl, who is suddenly thrust into the role of responsibility. This average

girl, whether by herself or with a specialised task force (sentai) of

fellow magical girls, are [sic] endowed with heightened strength,

stamina, magical powers and an ability to transform to use their

magical powers to change into a superheroine and to fight some evil

force that is disrupting things. (p. 5)

Thus, magical girl narratives are not simply part of the broader shōjo field but, rather,

constitute a distinctive genre with shared conventions that I discuss at greater length

in Chapter 3.

Most literature on the magical girl genre to date has focused on feminist analyses and

interpretations. Scholars including Yoshida (2002) and Newsom (2004) argue that

magical girls act as empowering and representative female figures in Japanese

popular culture. Thus, the girls within the stories are represented as capable in areas

Remember Madoka 23

traditionally occupied by both masculine and feminine gender roles, depicting females

who are “able to fight in a capacity associated with male heroes, without necessarily

‘becoming’ male” (Newsom, 2004, p. 59). Likewise, Liu (2010) argues that magical

girl narratives are important texts because they present a feminist perspective of

empowerment, depicting a world wherein “only through transformation, into a mixed-

gender role, to escape the codified role of ‘the woman’, can a female completely

realise her true potential” (p. 1).

Along with such feminist interpretations of magical girl series, Dani Cavallaro (2010)

argues that contemporary anime has a trend towards using magic as a means of

exploring broader ideas and issues with real-world relevance. In Magic as Metaphor

in Anime: a critical study (2010), she analyses a variety of series, noting that although

Sailor Moon uses magic to emphasise the importance of traditional Japanese values,

Cardcaptor Sakura uses magic to portray “the tension between playfully innocent

fantasy domains and real-world imperatives” (p.1).

While it can be difficult to give a single definition of genre, it is a comparatively

easier task to categorise genre works as those that share a number of recognisable

conventions that provide prospective audiences with expectations for the overall

nature of a text. Rather than being a limiting factor, however, these conventions allow

for creativity, with certain works specifically utilising established conventions in

order to challenge and transgress their boundaries. With this in mind, we can identify

the existence of the magical girl genre as a specific genre within Japanese popular

culture that, therefore, must contain a number of conventions that can be categorised

as belonging to it. In the next chapter, I provide a more detailed overview of the

Remember Madoka 24

magical girl genre, and describe three well-known magical girl series in order to

explore the conventions that unify them within the genre.

Remember Madoka 25

Chapter 3: Magical conventions

To say that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a response to, and exploration of, the

magical girl genre implies that there is a set of codified conventions, motifs and

themes that are generally accepted within the collective audience consciousness as

belonging to the magical girl genre. Prominent works such as Sailor Moon,

Cardcaptor Sakura2, and Magic Knight Rayearth have heavily influenced the current

understanding of what defines a magical girl genre work. However, these series are all

from the past twenty years, and magical girls have been appearing in Japanese popular

culture since the 1960s, with Sally the Witch and Secret Akko-chan are regarded as

progenitors of the genre as we now know it. In this chapter, I review the early history

of the magical girl genre, and investigate these three series to establish which

conventions can be interpreted as being shared between them, and therefore what

conventions we can argue are part of the magical girl genre.

3.1 Early magical girls

Based on the success, especially with young girls, of the imported American

television series Bewitched in the Japanese market in the early 1960s, Toei Animation

produced the first magical girl anime in 1966, Sally the Witch, based on a manga by

the same name (Toei Animation, n.d.). Telling the story of a young witch called Sally

who travelled to Earth from a magical kingdom, the series a sufficiently popular

2 Due to the number of thematic, plot and character differences between the original Cardcaptor Sakura and the American adaption Cardcaptors, I am using the Japanese title here to indicate which version of the show I am referring to throughout this thesis. For more information regarding these changes, see Considine (2002).

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television series to have over one hundred episodes produced between 1966 and 1968.

In 1969, Toei Animation adapted and produced Secret Akko-chan, based on a manga

series from 1962. Running for over ninety episodes between 1969 and 1970, Secret

Akko-chan tells the story of a girl named Atsuko who, after showing respect to a

broken mirror, is granted a magical mirror by a spirit, which grants her the ability to

transform into anything she wishes.

The historical significance of the three more recent series I discuss here, lies in their

depictions of female heroes as leading characters who, up until the debut of Sally the

Witch, had been absent from serialised anime. Sally and Akko opened a new pathway

for the representation of young girls – and females in general – in anime by becoming

heroes/heroines on the basis of mental and personal strength, as distinct from prowess

in physical battles (Yoshida, 2002).

A comparison of Sally the Witch and Secret Akko-chan with modern day magical girl

anime reveals some significant differences between the conventions used in the genre.

Sally, compared to more contemporary magical girls, was born into her magical

abilities, and is fully aware of her power before the events of the series, as opposed to

being granted them as a plot point within the series itself. Also, Sally and Akko did

not have any overarching evil to battle as chief protagonists, but used their powers to

have adventures, help others, and fix problems faced by ordinary people. These might

seem to be relatively trivial differences, but they provide a sharp contrast to the

exploits of the magical girl that is the primary reference point for present

understandings the genre.

Remember Madoka 27

3.2 Contemporary magical girls

To determine the conventions that magical girl series share that identify them as

belonging to the genre, I examine three series that are generally accepted as prominent

examples of it, namely, Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Cardcaptor Sakura.

Although these series are at least a decade old, they remain as key examples of the

magical girl’s presence in current popular culture, and are therefore appropriate series

from which to derive shared themes and motifs.

Sailor Moon, first released in 1992 and based on a manga by the same name, presents

the story of the Sailor Scouts, a band of magic-wielding girls who are reincarnations

of royalty and courtiers from the ancient Moon Kingdom. Led by Usagi Tsukino, the

titular Sailor Moon, the girls unite and battle evil with their abilities, guided by a pair

of talking cats who assist and motivate them in various ways.

Magic Knight Rayearth, published first as a manga in 1993 and adapted to anime in

1994, tells the story of three girls who are transported to a magical kingdom named

Cephiro. With the assistance of the inhabitants of the magical realm, including their

animal companion Mokona, the girls use their newfound magical abilities to save the

world from destruction.

Cardcaptor Sakura, published as a manga in 1996 and adapted to anime in 1998, tells

the tale of Sakura, a young schoolgirl who inadvertently releases previously sealed

magic into the world. After this, she is given the task of capturing the magic once

again, joined by an animal guardian named Keroberos, who grants her magical

powers in order to do so.

Remember Madoka 28

In summary, although the plots of these key magical girl series differ on a number of

levels, they share a number of conventions, motifs and themes that are associated with

the genre.

Fighting Transformations

The distinction between an ordinary girl and a magical girl is a key theme in the

narrative development of works within the genre, together with the cultivation of their

powers, understanding their roles in the fiction of the world, and the ways in which

they fight. All of the girls in the three series begin their stories as regular, ordinary

girls, with typical issues that come with the role: worries about homework, boy

troubles, and concerns about body image are among the issues most commonly

explored. The reasons for the girl becoming magical vary among these series – for

example, Usagi is the reincarnation of the ancient Moon Princess, while Sakura

accidentally opens a previously sealed magical book. While their origins differ, they

are unified in their root form; a girl who had previously not known she was magical

being awakened, or otherwise introduced to power beyond her normal comprehension.

Henshin, or transformation, is a universal feature of these series, as the girls use their

power to change from their ordinary identity into that of their magical persona.

However, the transforming and battling girl has been a relatively recent addition to the

storylines of the magical girl genre. Although Secret Akko-chan and other early

magical girl series featured transforming magical girls, they did not transform in order

to battle a specific threat, but instead to follow their own whims and adventures. By

contrast, transforming heroic males, such as Ultraman, have been a staple of Japanese

children’s adventures since before the 1960s (Gill, 1998). The idea of a magical girl

Remember Madoka 29

transforming from her ordinary identity into that of a magical girl in order to do battle,

previously featured in boys’ series such as Cutey Honey3, was positioned as being an

aspect of the contemporary magical girl genre in Sailor Moon, where stylistic, lengthy

and revealing transformation sequences featured heavily (Orbaugh, 2003).

The capability of these girls to transform is rooted in the cultural perception of the

young female in Japanese society. Napier (2005) argues that the term shōjo possesses

an exceedingly elastic definition, and that it is “ambiguous at what point on the

continuum that the shōjo ends and the more adult female begins” (p. 149). This then

becomes a point of interest for Japanese narratives, as the shōjo becomes a site of

inherent malleability, with their beginnings and endings merging fluidly. Usagi from

Sailor Moon, despite being the saviour of the world, is still a developing girl who has

no concept of responsibility in her ordinary life. As Prindle (1998) argues:

What fascinates the Japanese is that the shōjo nestle in a shallow lacuna

between adulthood and childhood, power and powerlessness, awareness and

innocence as well as masculinity and femininity. (p. 35)

One of the primary differences between early works such as Sally the Witch and the

contemporary take on the magical girl is the presence of the girl as a warrior in battle.

Whether by taking on the forces of evil directly as a group of soldiers (the original

Japanese name of Sailor Moon was Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn, literally ‘pretty soldier

Sailor Moon’), or capturing their opponents with magical powers, the magical girl has

3 In an example of shifting genre definitions, while Cutey Honey was originally marketed as a science-fiction series by Toei Animation (Clements and McCarthy 2006), it has now become officially categorised by the company as a magical girl series (Toei Animation, 2004).

Remember Madoka 30

become synonymous with an identity as a warrior, continuing to tie together overlying

notions of masculinity with feminine identity.

That the magical girl is also a fighting girl is a distinct difference from the earlier

magical girl works. This change in convention can be seen as part of broader

developments that began in the late 1980s, when aspects of girls’ comics were

combined with those of boys’ comics. Sailor Moon exemplifies these developments,

as it features “the female protagonist, slim-cute body style, interest in romance, and

transformativity characteristic of shōjo comics with the plot-driven combat stories of

shōnen narratives” (Orbaugh, 2003, p. 215).

Although girls as warriors are an important motif in contemporary magical girl

narratives, one of the primary aspects of their heroic status is their possession of a

yasashii spirit. People possessing such a spirit are “warm, without a hint of evil and

malice, pure in their hearts, and blessed with those unique Japanese antennae, always

sensitive to each other’s feelings which never need to be spoken” (Buruma, 1984, p.

211). This does not exclude the girls from being warriors, but rather heightens their

position as female heroes. Although they are ordinary schoolgirls in their human state,

magical girl narratives place the girls outside that form of restriction, “making the

girls samurai themselves when they are transformed into their magical state” (Liu,

2010, p. 11). The combination of yasashii and the loyalty, bravery, politeness,

simplicity and truthfulness of the samurai creates a role wherein “these schoolgirls

can be just as heroic as their sword-wielding male ancestors” (Drazen, 2003, p.119).

Remember Madoka 31

However, the girls’ yasashii spirit does not exclude them from possessing character

flaws and habits which, from a traditionalist sense, would not belong to a heroic

figure. Flaws such as selfishness and lack of focus allow the girls to become a more

human kind of superhero, “one whose foibles are played up rather than down and,

though criticized, are never curbed” (Allison, 2000, p. 273). This separation extends

into their interactions with the real world in their human guise, where they often

engage with everyday novelties and excitement (Allison, 2000). Sakura and Usagi are

frequently depicted as going shopping, attending festivals, and going on pseudo-dates

with their respective romantic interests. Although these events often lead into

encounters with their opponents, fighting is not their intent but, rather, an unfortunate

side-effect of them acting as human girls, with human wants and desires.

Despite their roles as warriors in actual battle, the contemporary magical girl rarely

has to contemplate death as a possible outcome of these conflicts. Their battles are

certainly action-packed and tense, but defeat is usually only a temporary setback,

requiring the magical girl to both recuperate and approach the opponent with a

newfound strategy that they have acquired over the course of the episode, or they

must use their ultimate power in order to destroy the villain of the week. Even when

death does become a real prospect, as with the concluding episodes of the first season

of Sailor Moon, it is met with dignity, heroism, and a lengthy final sequence in which

they encourage the other girls to fight on without them. Even in that circumstance,

however, “their deaths were partial at best since their school-girl alter-egos continued

to live” (Levi, 2001, p. 35). This is exemplified by some translations of the first

season, which change the content to indicate that the girls who died in the original

Japanese series had merely been captured by the forces of evil, and were therefore

Remember Madoka 32

able to return safely to the screen without damaging the image of the invincible

magical girl.

Godhood

The development of magical girl narratives is not limited to their growth as warriors

and burgeoning adolescent. Rather, the ultimate destination of the magical girl is

frequently depicted as a trend towards the status of godhood. This is expressed

literally, in the case of Hikaru being offered the opportunity to become the “Pillar of

Light” that holds the magical world of Rayearth together, or figuratively, as Sakura

becomes the foremost bearer of magical ability in the known world. Some feminist

scholars interpret this ascendency as implying the development of maternal qualities –

previously limited by the phallic symbols in the form of their totems, the girls

outgrow and overcome these to become powerful and all-encompassing in their own

right (Liu 2010). Although flawed and often hesitant at the beginning, they become “a

strong, capable woman – an independent woman, wife, mother, superhero and queen

– all at once” (“Girl Talk…”, 1996, p.19)

Totems

Magical girls usually possess a totem – a seemingly benign object, such as a pendant

or brooch, through which their power is accessed. Although they can come in many

forms, these totems tend to share a set of qualities that are unified across works within

the genre. These totems transform along with the girls into their “true” form when the

presence of the magical girl is required. Without them, the girl is rendered powerless,

or at least much less powerful than she would be with the totem. For example, the

Sailor Scouts are incapable of using their abilities without their magical rods, for “if

they lose this item, they are unable to transform into Sailors” (Newsom, 2004, p. 78).

Remember Madoka 33

Likewise, Sakura is incapable of activating the magic of her captured cards without

using her bird-headed staff. The symbolic power of these totems, therefore, is that

they are inexorably tied to what makes the girl magical – if denied access to their

totem, the girl is also denied her second identity.

Animal companions

Going hand in hand with magical girls are their magical animal companions, who tend

to serve in a guiding capacity, as well as often being the deliverers of magical powers

to the girls. Unlike the girls, they have an understanding of the magical reasoning of

the world, as they are a part of the magic that has only recently been thrust upon the

girls (Cavallaro, 2010). These companions usually take the form of small, generally

cute animals, which often serves as a stark contrast to the power and knowledge that

they hold within the storylines; indeed their size is almost inversely proportional to

the powers they possess. Luna in Sailor Moon and Keroberos in Cardcaptor Sakura

are the primary mentors to the magical girls, informing them of their abilities, guiding

them to their goals, and knowing more about the plot and its outcomes than the girls

themselves. Mokona in Magic Knight Rayearth, by comparison, does not give the

girls their initial power, but acts as their guide throughout the storyline, and is

eventually revealed to be one of the creators of the magical universe they inhabit.

Inherently alien to an ordinary world, these animals are an important link between the

girls and their magical selves, assisting them in understanding their roles, their

abilities, and delivering them to their overall destiny.

Love

As with the broader shōjo genre, love is a vital concept and driving force within

magical girl narratives. Because these stories are predicated on a need to balance the

Remember Madoka 34

romance of the shōjo and the action of the shōnen, they generate a position wherein

the narratives “visualise ‘love’ as a form of empowerment over adversity, becoming

the ‘power of love’” (Liu, 2010, p. 8). Although real love is a prominent feature of the

narratives – all of the leading girls in the three series examined here have a romantic

interest – it is often revealed that their capacity to love is the prime source of their

ability to do battle. Although they are capable warriors, it is a magical girl’s

“unparalleled ability to love [that] is her true strength and the source of her power”

(Newsom, 2004, p. 66). This love does not only apply to the girls’ relationship with

her abilities, but also her relationship with her friends, romantic interests, and even the

enemies that she faces. Rather than killing her opponents outright, “most of her

greatest victories generally end with her ‘healing’ the villain so that they become

good” (Newsom, 2004, p. 66). Thus, for example, Sakura does not set out to defeat

and destroy her opponents in their wild magic forms; rather, she captures and pacifies

them, placing them under her own control instead of allowing them to run amok.

Likewise, the trio of girls in Magic Knight Rayearth chiefly face opponents who are

under the control of a greater evil; they defeat these foes by removing the influence of

their actual enemy, thereby healing these opponents of their negative influences and

effectively recruiting them to their side.

Other features

Although not a convention per se, contemporary magical girl narratives do not usually

feature any deep character introspection; rather, as Napier (1998) argues,

psychological depth is ignored in order to make way for speed of narrative and plot

resolution. Although this can be seen in many magical girl genre works, it is most

explicitly evident in Sailor Moon, where the characters have little time to reflect on

their powers and purpose, instead spending their time moving from battle to romantic

Remember Madoka 35

endeavour. These narratives, while aimed at children, can seem out of place to an

adult reader, as “the girls’ lack of appreciation of their marvellous power can be

frustrating” (Napier, 1998, p. 103).

One of the most important elements of character design in magical girl narratives, and

anime in general, comes in the form of the girls’ clothing and hair. Lamarre argues

that character design is a crucial aspect of anime, to the extent that critics and

overviews will “give as much weight to character design as to story or other aspects”

(2009, p. 204). This is supported by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, who notes that his

character designs are created so that “their personalities could be more or less

understood at a glance.” (“[EVA]…”, 2006). These ideas are reflected in the

construction of magical girls, as their clothing and hairstyle will often reflect the

character as a whole. Rei in Sailor Moon and Umi in Magic Knight Rayearth share

long, straight hair, indicating a character unafraid of speaking their mind. Similarly,

colour association plays a strong part in linking character types between shows –

characters with a red palette, such as Rei and Magic Knight Rayearth’s Hikaru, are

typically more battle-oriented than their peers. Thus, the girls’ clothes and hair

“behave in some cases as the characters’ ‘true skin’ that shows their interior character

on the outside” (Liu, 2010, p. 18).

In this chapter, I have reviewed key works from across the history of the magical girl

genre. Through this analysis, a number of conventions are apparent as being intrinsic

aspects of the genre:

Remember Madoka 36

• The use of a totem to access their magical abilities

• The transformation between ordinary girl and magical girl

• The girls acting as ultimately triumphant warriors in battle

• The presence of a magical animal companion

• The maturation of power to epic scales

• The power of love in their relationships and in battle

It is through these lenses that I now analyse Puella Magi Madoka Magica to

determine whether this series transgresses or conforms to these conventions.

Remember Madoka 37

Chapter 4: Two views of transgression

To investigate how Puella Magi Madoka Magica differs in its implementation of the

established conventions of the magical girl genre, I have selected two key sequences

through which to analyse and explore the series. These two sequences have been

specifically chosen from what the fan community have dubbed “wham episodes” –

that is to say, an episode which manages to “radically alter the status quo, and in

doing so send a major shock through the viewership” (“Wham Episode”, 2011). Both

of these sequences contain major elements that diverge from the standard magical girl

fare, and therefore are key referents for this investigation. Although other sequences

from the series are referenced and discussed, the visual and narrative elements of the

two sequences analysed here provide the basis for such discussion.

4.1 The fight against Charlotte (from episode 3, ‘I’m Not Afraid Of Anything Anymore’4)

This is the second fight against a witch in the series, and is a sequence that provides a

snapshot of the otherness of the world within which the girls are fighting their

opponents. Here, the mise en scene is composed of a stylised collage of food and

cutlery, layered and presented in a way that runs completely contrary to the sterile

reality of the real world that the girl comes from. This stylisation of the world is

emphasised by the girls remaining in the same style as they are in the “real world”

they normally inhabit. For example, as the group crouches behind a doughnut, they

appear too clean and well-illustrated to be a part of the world they are battling within,

4 Original Japanese title ‘Mou nani mo kowakunai’

Remember Madoka 38

their character design being for typical shōjo characters, with an emphasis on clarity

in line work and curvilinear flow (Lamarre, 2009).

The introduction of the witch reinforces this notion. Its5 arrival is heralded by a still

layer of what appears to be melted white frosting slowly lowering from the top of the

frame while a table in the background sparkles. This then cuts to what seems to be a

box of sweets, featuring the same alien script that has been present in the witches’

worlds throughout the series so far. After writhing and contorting for a brief moment,

the box bursts, and then the frame splits like an eye opening, revealing a second witch,

Charlotte.

The camera moves to a far shot, showing the evidently tiny Charlotte as it drifts down

slowly towards a chair, then cuts back close to the witch as it lands. Charlotte’s

appearance, like that of the world, is completely other to that of the girls and their

world; Charlotte is illustrated with thick lines and no shading, somehow appearing to

be more 2D than the animation is already. The witch is tiny and expressionless, with

large, empty black eyes; its body, with a third of its total mass composing entirely of

the head, is in-line with the chibi (super deformed) style of characters in Japanese

anime and manga illustrations that are used primarily to show that they are cute, even

innocent (Drazen, 2003). This is reinforced by the background showing a spoon and

fork that bookend Charlotte, whose head is shaped like a bonbon in a wrapper. The

alien script at the bottom of the frame is reminiscent of icing and sprinkles on biscuits.

5 I am using the term ‘it’ to describe the witches, despite their feminine names, in order to reduce confusion in sequence description between the girls and the witches.

Remember Madoka 39

The disparate visual design between the girls and the witches they fight is an

immediate contrast between the world of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and that of

other magical girl series. The contemporary magical girl is matched against

otherworldly forces, generally coming in the form of monsters or evil human-like

beings. This distinction between the real and otherworldly aspects of the universe,

however, is often put into the background or not discussed at all, as the magical girl

genre series “erode the barrier between the magical and non-magical realms with

irreverent gusto by grounding magic in familiar terrain” (Cavallaro, 2010, p. 19). This

erosion of boundaries between the two worlds is readily apparent in the graphic

design of many magical girl series, as magical or otherworldly enemies are typically

illustrated in the same visual style as the girls. For example, although their opposing

alignments are apparent due to their differing costuming and colour choices, both

Sailor Moon and her nemesis, Queen Beryl, are similar in character design – while

superficially different, they possess the same basic structures and lines of illustration

(see Figures 1 and 2). The same can be said of Card Captor Sakura where, despite

Sakura’s opponents being wild magic forces, the same design style is used for both

girl and opponent, creating a sameness that places them all within the same graphic

universe.

Instead of following this tradition, the witches of Puella Magi Madoka Magica are

illustrated in a wide variety of styles, as are the realms that they inhabit. Although the

girls are drawn in a moe style that is commonplace in modern anime, their opponents

are distinctly different in their composition (see Figure 3). In this sequence, we see

Charlotte is a chibi figure that has no implied visual depth. The previous episode gave

us Gertrude, a collage of various parts that ended up forming a Cthulhu-esque creature

Remember Madoka 40

that writhed, contorted and shifted in a very different manner from the rest of the

series’ animation. By presenting opponents who are not only opposed in motivation

from the girls, but also opposed in visual construction, the series reinforces the notion

that the girls are fighting something that does not belong.

With this in mind, we can also note that the girls are the ones who are alienated, as

they are effectively invading the territory of other beings in order to achieve their

victories. Although the titular Magic Knights Rayearth were also summoned to a

fantasy realm in order to achieve their goals, the world of Cephiro was similar to the

normal world the girls had come from. In effect, despite being from another world,

they were not depicted as being completely alien beyond their character and narrative

input. The city that Madoka and her friends come from, however, is visually disparate

from the realms of the witches. Mitakihara is the epitome of sterile modernity, its

colour scheme almost entirely comprised of blues and greys, the buildings echoing a

range of sources, including the Weltstadthaus in Berlin, and the skyline of Dubai

(“Mitakihara Town”, 2011). Compared to this, the worlds the witches inhabit are

colourful and full of life, while simultaneously alienating the girls from them.

In the sequence, we contemplate Charlotte for a few moments before the background

darkens out, Charlotte is knocked to the side of the frame, and the letters of the alien

script go flying. The shot cuts to show Mami Tomoe, the only magical girl we have

seen in battle thus far, breaking one of the legs of the chair that Charlotte was using,

causing the tiny witch to drop down slowly. The next few shots demonstrate Mami

completely overwhelming the witch in a one-sided combat. Charlotte does not

respond to at all; Mami uses her gun like a baseball bat to send Charlotte flying, the

Remember Madoka 41

shot cutting to show Charlotte literally crossing from one side of the long shot frame

to the other, tumbling before crashing into a wall and being riddled by bullets. The

witch then lands on the ground, and Mami presses a gun to Charlotte’s head and fires,

the mid shot revealing again the size disparity between the two combatants. This

sequence is narrated by a single line from Mami, who asserts that, “One shot is all I

need,” to accentuate the perception of her superiority in this fight.

After shooting Charlotte point blank in the head, Mami’s magic picks up the tiny

witch and raises it above the ground; the sequence cuts to Sayaka, Madoka and

Kyubey for a moment, the former two of whom cheer Mami on, excited and smiling.

In a close-up of Mami, she returns a smile, her expression revealing a certain relief.

Her gun then begins to glow and transform into a larger weapon, its final incarnation

too large for the frame to capture entirely even as it pulls back and away from the

dwarfed Mami, who announces that this is her “Final Shot”. After firing the weapon,

it pierces right through the suspended Charlotte, then transforms into a ribbon that

wraps and compresses Charlotte’s body, the witch’s head engorging like a balloon

squeezed at the base. Then from the mouth of the tiny form comes another face,

which emerges to become the second form of Charlotte. This form is larger, and

though it maintains the same zero-shading style to visually distinguish it from the

girls of the real world, it is different in many ways – it possesses multi-coloured eyes

on a face that is painted like a clown’s, a wide grin, and is built like a serpent, its body

composed entirely of black with red polka dots.

The next few shots happen in quick succession, and cement the fact that Mami has

used her final attack and lost the battle. First, in a mid-distanced shot of Mami, the

Remember Madoka 42

new Charlotte moves from the far background until it is right in Mami’s face, the

suddenness of its movements demonstrating its overwhelming size compared to the

magical girl’s. It opens its mouth to reveal sharp, triangular teeth, the opening of its

mouth almost capable of fitting Mami entirely whole within. The shot moves to

within the new Charlotte’s mouth, the teeth providing a frame within the frame

showing Mami’s still, uncomprehending face as the frame moves closer and the teeth

open wider. After a quick pair of shots showing Madoka and Sayaka reacting with

shock, we are given an overhead shot of the sweets-collage terrain, centred on a tiny

dot that we assume to be Mami, with the enormous, serpentine figure of Charlotte

above her. Charlotte moves, and covers over the place where Mami previously stood.

With the awakening of Charlotte’s second, overpowering form, we see the first real

indication of this series transgressing the norms established in previous magical series.

Although Sailor Moon and other contemporary magical girls fought monsters every

week, these enemies were always more or less harmless to the girls in the overall

narrative – despite the supposed danger the girls were in any time they fought, their

victory was always inevitable, if not on the first opportunity then certainly the second.

The girls summoning their full strength into a “super attack”, resulting in the

opponent’s ultimate defeat, usually heralded their victories. Despite being smaller, or

less obviously powerful than their opponent, the girls would always find a way to win.

In effect, the girls were given a form of plot immunity, with danger to the safety of

the magical girls only existing in the form of their archenemy.

Mami’s battle represents a fundamental turnaround of this established convention.

The sequence plays out in such a way that her victory seems inevitable, to the point

Remember Madoka 43

where her attacks seem more like toying with her opponent than actually struggling to

victory. Much like her battle with Gertrude in the second episode, Mami is

represented as being in complete control and fully capable in combat. This position is

firmly established by her use of her “final shot” – summoning a weapon too large to

even fit on the screen – an attack that is primarily reserved in the magical girl genre

for the leader, and thereby the strongest, of the magical girl troupe (Liu, 2010, p. 6).

To Madoka and Sayaka, as well as the viewer, she is the epitome of what it means to

be a magical girl, as she fights the witches on behalf of others who cannot. Her

comment in the second episode, where she asserts that she won’t lose because it

would mean losing face in front of her juniors, continues this pattern of her position as

exemplar – she does not fear loss for her own safety, but rather because of what it

would mean for those she holds dear.

Her sudden defeat, therefore, brings about several realisations about how this series

approaches the traditional conventions of the genre. Rather than being a simple

opponent whose defeat is a plot-dictated inevitability, Charlotte (and thereby all other

witches) become actual opponents, each a legitimate threat to the safety of the

magical girl. Realism, a concept that is perhaps considered foregone in a genre titled

“magical girl”, enters the fray to a brutal extent. By making even a single mistake in

battle, as Mami has done, any assurances that she was going to win the battle were

rendered untrustworthy. The safety of the girls as they progress to the conclusion of

the story is, in this moment, no longer assured, as even a third episode opponent can

have enough power to not just temporarily defeat, but entirely destroy, the existence

of one of them.

Remember Madoka 44

The sequence then cuts to an extreme close up of a lock, and the reverberating sound

of a locking mechanism coming undone. When the shot changes, we see Homura,

who had previously been captured by Mami’s magic, falling down as the red ribbons

that had previously held her in place fall apart, and she drops to the ground; a close up

of ribbons disintegrating and turning into a blood-like fluid is accompanied by

Homura expressing disbelief that Mami’s magic has collapsed.

The sequence cuts again, back to the battle, and the viewer is confronted with the

image of Mami’s dangling body, her head and the top of her shoulders placed outside

the top frame of the shot; she has been decapitated by the frame, yet her body is

suspended without falling. Her body spasms and shakes, then in a burst of light, her

magical costume disappears, and she is in her school uniform again (see Figures 4a

and 4b). After this, her body starts to drop, but the shot cuts away before we can see

her head, moving to a long distance view that shows a silhouetted body that tumbles

quickly from the top of the frame and straight down, quickly followed by the

serpentine Charlotte, which opens its mouth and descends onto the place where

Mami’s body has landed.

The sound of bestial chewing dominates the soundscape while the camera shows us

the faces of Madoka and Sayaka, mouths agape and eyes wavering, shocked and

horrified by the scene that has played out in front of them.

This sequence also makes explicit that violence against the girls is not being avoided.

Although magical girls are violent figures, it is rare that violence is ever visited upon

them. Injuries to the girls are represented by flashes of light, slow motion, falling to

Remember Madoka 45

the ground while clutching their chest. Even in death, the girls are rarely shown

bleeding or being bodily destroyed. Rather, they disappear, fade away into nothing, or

are taken off-camera, never to be seen again - until they are resurrected within the

same episode, as seen at the end of the first season of Sailor Moon (Levi, 2001). This

is almost played through in this sequence, as the series sets up Mami to be consumed,

only to cut away elsewhere to her magic dissipating in another form. Homura’s words

and actions make it clear to the viewer that something terrible has happened to Mami,

and as with other series within the genre, it is not necessary to illustrate it directly.

It is when the sequence jumps back to demonstrate Mami’s lifeless, decapitated body

being shaken around, then dropped to the ground and consumed in a ravenous frenzy

that the assumed safety of the girls’ bodies is rejected by the series. In addition,

Mami’s death is removed from all heroism and romance, a stark departure from other

works in the genre. When Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn are killed at the end of Sailor

Moon’s final season6, they are given a few minutes to say their farewells to the titular

Sailor Moon, to express their love and sorrow and encourage Usagi to go on without

them. Levi (1996) argues that “heroism and self-sacrifice define an anime character as

a hero, but they will not save him or her” (p. 99), and this is reflected in the Sailor’s

demise. However, this tradition of noble sacrifice is transgressed in Puella Magi

Madoka Magica, where we see Mami being quickly and brutally dispatched only

moments after her victory seems almost a certainty. Rather than being treated as a

hero in death, Mami’s status as a magical girl disappears with her life, leaving her as

nothing more than a corpse to be consumed.

6 Episode 197, ‘Ruler of the Galaxy! Galaxia’s Threat’

Remember Madoka 46

4.2 The girls’ nature revealed (from episode 6, ‘This Just Isn’t Right’7)

This sequence is the second confrontation between Sayaka and Kyoko, both magical

girls, but who hold distinctly different views about the ways that they should use their

powers. Meeting on a bridge in the middle of the city, the sequence is set up by a fast-

moving shot across the landscape of the city during the night – a cold palette of blues

and greys with little light that continues to pervade the sequence even as the camera

cuts to an overhead shot of the two girls meeting at a bridge over a highway. The only

movement comes from the shadowy cars passing by below.

Kyoko affirms that they are about to do battle, then holds her arm and hand ahead of

her, palm down, to reveal her silver ring, out of which her soul gem materialises and

begins the transformation sequence into her magical girl costuming. The world cuts

away behind her, turning into a swirling void of red and black, in which Kyoko twirls

and poses as her body is silhouetted and then covered by her magical costume, the

camera cutting quickly to show each part as it appears. First her boots, then her dress

and jacket, then the eye-like jewel on her chest, dilates and solidifies. Finally, her

weapon appears and the frame freezes on her battle pose, the background now yellow

and red, reading like a fiery explosion rather than an empty void now.

The camera then cuts back to the real world as we view Sayaka from a longer distance,

standing still as Kyoko’s feet fall from the top of the frame and land again, daintily.

She then proffers her own soul gem, cupped in her upward-facing palm, which begins

to glow as Madoka and Kyubey enter from the shadowed background, interrupting the

7 Original Japanese title ‘Konna no Zettai Okashiiyo’

Remember Madoka 47

proceedings. Sayaka tells Madoka to leave, but Madoka, with knees together and

hands pressed to her chest, asserts that something is wrong, her voice fearful.

Kyoko makes a verbal attack on the pair, the shot showing her standing forthright, her

spear pushing forward towards the camera and gleaming, and is joined by Homura,

who appears without cue or introduction by Kyoko’s side. They argue for a moment

about what to do about Sayaka, and Homura determines that she will take on Sayaka,

who then proceeds to present her soul gem again. Madoka, however, decides to

interfere – an extreme close-up of her face, accompanied by a slow-motion sound

effect, demonstrates the speed at which she makes her decision – by taking Sayaka’s

soul gem in hand and throwing it down and off the bridge, a long-distance shot

showing her as a tiny dot of pink in a sea of shadows, the falling gem surrounded in

sparkles as it falls. Although it is caught by a passing truck and moves off into the

distance, Homura is visibly shocked; she gasps and disappears completely.

By contrast, although she gasps, Sayaka is angry, rather than scared; she moves to

threaten and question Madoka, only to collapse into Madoka’s arms, a close up of her

face showing her eyes have been changed in style to look empty and devoid,

accompanied by her mouth agape. With a squeak, Kyubey jumps onto the railing and

tells Madoka that what she did was bad, and that something must be wrong with her,

to “throw away your friend like that”. We see a close up of Madoka’s wavering eye as

she questions what he means, then Kyoko’s hand enters a side shot and grabs Sayaka

by the neck, lifting her effortlessly with a single hand; Kyoko’s face changes to one of

fear as well, exclaiming that Sayaka is dead while the shot focuses on Sayaka’s face

again, the emptiness of her eyes accompanied with extreme shadowing across the

Remember Madoka 48

frame. A stylised shot follows: the three girls are silhouetted against a background of

lens flares, while in the corner, Kyubey silently looms.

Meanwhile, Homura chases the truck, disappearing and reappearing every few

moments, slowly gaining on her target.

A panning shot crosses Sayaka’s body sprawled on the ground, her face again covered

in shadow. Madoka’s plaintive, distressed efforts to wake her friend are fruitless,

while Kyoko grits her teeth and thinks. Eventually, in similar fashion to Madoka,

Kyoko has a moment of realisation, accompanied by a zoom and slow motion sound

effect as she turns to face Kyubey, who has remained in the corner of every shot

frame he has been in so far. The white creature begins to explain by saying that

magical girls can only control “their bodies” from one hundred metres away at most,

while the shot changes to a close-up of him; the complete stillness of his face and

unblinking red eyes is accompanied by the metronome-like movement of his tail in

the background.

Kyoko angrily asks what Kyubey is talking about, and the creature continues to say

that accidents like this don’t normally happen. Then, interrupted by a terrified

Madoka begging Kyubey not to let her friend die, Kyubey sighs and tells Madoka that

what she holds isn’t Sayaka, rather, it is an empty container, and that Madoka had

thrown her friend before, not just a gem.

While Homura struggles to climb the truck and retrieve the gem - the fast-moving

shots and panning backgrounds revealing the speed at which the vehicle is travelling -

Remember Madoka 49

Kyubey continues in a voice-over to explain the situation; unable to ask girls to fight

the witches in fragile bodies that normal people possess, the girls’ bodies are now

only a piece of external “hardware”. Their actual soul is given a safer form that is

better at conducting magic – this, he explains, is all part of his job when he completes

the magical girl contract. He removes their souls and transforms them into soul gems.

The moment in which Kyubey reveals that the girls’ bodies are no more than soulless

husks through which their powers are activated serves as a key moment in the series’

exploration of the conventions of the magical girl genre. Although attaining power

through totems is a key feature of the genre, with objects such as the rods in Sailor

Moon providing a site of activation for the girls’ abilities, the totems are not regarded

as being anything more than a tool through which the abilities are channelled. As we

see in this sequence, however, the totems in Puella Magi Madoka Magica become the

carriers of the girls’ souls. The soul gems, far from being a mere tool through which

the magical girl uses her power, become inextricable parts of the girls’ identities –

without their totems, they are unable to function. The implication, therefore, is that

the magical girl and girl are irrevocably linked, to the extent that the girl cannot

survive without her totem. This transgresses the conventions previously established

within the genre, because it places the magical girl as being undeniably magical.

Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth position the girls’ tools as primarily being

accessories to the power that the girls contain within themselves; the power they

possess is within them, and the totem is merely required to summon it. This enables

the girls to exist without their totems, because they are not intrinsic parts of them. By

contrast, in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, we see the diametric opposite: the girl is

Remember Madoka 50

nothing without her totem, and therefore her purpose, to propel her towards her

destiny.

Kyoko, furious, grabs Kyubey by the ear and shouts at him, only for Kyubey to assert

that it is much more convenient this way – by separating their bodies from their spirits,

the girls become effectively invincible, as any damage they take can be healed with

magic, provided their soul gem does not break. His dialogue is contrasted with shots

of Homura looking relieved as she picks up Sayaka’s soul gem, a tearful Madoka, and

a still, heavily shadowed view of Sayaka’s body.

Rhetorically, Kyubey asks the girls if it isn’t more useful this way than it would be if

they had to fight in “human” bodies with their potential problems; when the response

from Madoka is a sobbed cry of how awful it is, Kyubey tilts his tail and relents by

saying that they are all the same, and that magical girls always act this way when they

are told what is going on. Although the camera shows Madoka clutching Sayaka’s

body and rocking back and forth, sobbing, Kyubey asserts that he doesn’t get it; why

would humans place so much value on where their soul is located?

Compared to other magical animal companions, Kyubey is presented as having

motivations beyond those of the magical girls he advises. With his revelation that the

girls have literally had their souls removed from their bodies, the girls are left with the

knowledge that their magical animal companion has not told them everything.

Although previous magical girl series have set up the idea of the animal companion

keeping some information secret, their motivations for doing so are in the best

interests of the girls; for example, Keroberos hides knowledge from Sakura so that she

Remember Madoka 51

will learn how to defeat opponents without his guidance, thereby strengthening her

individual power. By comparison, Kyubey chooses to hide information from the girls

that might cause them to reconsider his offer of a contract. Beyond the idea that their

souls have been stripped away from them, he later reveals that the witches they fight

are actually magical girls who, after using too much magic, have undergone the final

stage of their life cycle as magical girls. This is illustrated by a pun, wherein he asks

what better term for a witch (魔女; majo) that hasn’t fully developed than magical girl

(魔法少女; mahō shōjo).

Rather than presenting an advisor who has the best interests of the girls at heart, the

series presents an advisor who follows an agenda beyond that of the girls. Kyubey

provides the girls with all the information they ask for, but rarely what they actually

need to know. Although he never explicitly lies to the girls, he rarely tells them the

full truth of the matter unless it plays into his overall agenda. This position of Kyubey

as a manipulator is more explicitly present in how he offers power to the girls. Rather

than approaching them at a time where they can consider the offer under fair

conditions, he chooses the time when their emotions are most vulnerable; he

approaches Mami as she is dying in a car crash, and he continually makes offers to

Madoka as she is bearing witness to the horror and brutality that her friends are being

faced with.

In addition, just as the witches are presented as being inexorably alien to the girls, so

to an extent is Kyubey. Beyond the narrative power of his words and actions, his

manner of speaking can also be called into question. In speech, he never uses

honorifics like “-san” to refer to the girls, instead only calling them by their solitary

Remember Madoka 52

name. Likewise, he exclusively uses the most informal verb tenses, while also

referring to the girls with the pronoun kimi, which is generally only used to refer to

someone who is either of the same status or lower than the speaker. Kyubey’s speech

depicts him as not only sounding alien, but thinking of himself as being superior to

the girls, despite his apparent need for them to serve under the conditions of his

contracts.

As previously noted, although magical animal companions are typically depicted as

being small, cute and benign, they tend to have a “true form” that is outwardly hidden.

Luna is actually a human in cat form; Mokona is actually the creator of the universe;

Keroberos has a true form as a massive, winged lion, a far more fearsome form than

his usual one. Kyubey’s true form, by contrast, is that of his alien nature, and his

complete lack of empathy towards the girls, and what it means to be human. His

relationship with the girls is more like that of a human’s relationship with cattle, and

he finds it perplexing when Madoka expresses that the thought is repugnant. To him,

the girls serve a purpose that is greater than any single human life is worth, especially

considering the massive population of the planet. As long as he achieves his goals, the

suffering and sacrifices of the girls are unimportant. He is even willing to allow

multiple girls to die, just so he can set up Madoka’s eventual transformation into a

magical girl. Through these lenses, we see that Kyubey both fulfils and transgresses

the conventions established for these magical animal companions. Although, like

others, he guides, nurtures and prepares the girls, Puella Magi Madoka Magica gives

Kyubey motivations and characterisation that reflect his position within the text – an

alien, who will ultimately fail to be in line with the human expectations of the magical

girls.

Remember Madoka 53

As the sequence progresses, a shot of Sayaka’s dead face and open hand is intruded

upon by a hand holding a soul gem, which places it into Sayaka’s. A new shot reveals

it is Homura, who steps back, showing division between the placement of the

characters. With Madoka clutching Sayaka’s body taking up the centre of the frame,

Homura stands to the right, while Kyoko – still clutching Kyubey by the ear – takes

the left. Homura casually flips her hair, and the same shot of Sayaka’s face and hand

re-appear – her eyes transform from empty to alive, and she gasps for air, while

Kyoko and Madoka each get a close-up of their reactions. From a distance, Sayaka

rises from her position, looking around cautiously, the only sounds now coming from

the movement of traffic below them revealed by another shot from above, matching

the one from the very start of the sequence.

A close up of Sayaka’s face shows no fear or anger, but rather a sense of non-

understanding; while she asks what’s wrong, the camera goes to an extreme close-up

of her mouth, then cuts away to the credit sequence.

Although the separation of their souls from their bodies is among the issues that

magical girls face, this represents one of multiple facets through which we can see the

magical girl becoming disassociated from their previous identity as an ordinary girl,

and the psychological impact of such a fundamental change in identity. The characters

from the three primary magical girl texts have all gone from ordinary to magical

within their own series, but the girls often appear to accept this transformation as just

another part of their lives. By comparison, the girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica

develop strong feelings of detachment from, and even hatred of, their new magical

Remember Madoka 54

girl forms, once they are made aware of their true nature. The girls, while initially

recognising that they are more powerful than a human, eventually reach a state where

they recognise themselves as no longer being human.

This separation of human girl life from magical girl life is shown from the perspective

of the magical girls themselves in a sequence in episode 7, when Kyoko tells the story

of her life and journey to becoming a magical girl. However, rather than being

presented in the typical visual style of the series when set in the normal world, the

story is a puppet show animated in a collage-style reminiscent of the witches and the

worlds they inhabit. Kyoko’s hand, presented in the normal real-world style, intrudes

the frame at one point to illustrate that she is controlling the sequences. Once she has

mentioned her transformation into a magical girl, however, she is depicted within the

story in the normal animated style of the series, but remains the only character in the

story to be shown that way. In effect, this sequence demonstrates how Kyoko’s

normal life is as alien to her now as the worlds in which she fights the witches.

As previously noted, love is a primary motivating force in magical girl series that

often runs parallel to the plotlines concerned with fighting evil. In Puella Magi

Madoka Magica, the expression of love is also a primary concern for many of the

girls, ranging from the sisterly to the romantic. Sayaka’s longing for Kamijou, the

crippled violinist, leads her to use her wish to heal him of his disability, so he can play

again. Although seeming to be a selfless gesture, she is heartbroken to discover that

after miraculously recovering, he entirely forgets Sayaka, causing her to break down

emotionally, beginning her spiral into becoming another witch. She never revealed

her feelings for him because of her fears about how he might reacted to discovering

Remember Madoka 55

that she was a magical girl, thereby securing her fate. Kyoko’s reaction solidifies her

presentation as being the antithesis of the selfless magical girl; rather than reassuring

Sayaka that using her wish to heal Kamijou was the right decision, Kyoko says that

she should have used it to cripple him forever, so he would always have to rely on her.

Here, love is presented as being insufficient to secure a happy future for the girls.

Likewise, the sisterly love normally present in the magical girl genre is eliminated, as

the fighting of the witches becomes more of a competition than a unified effort;

Kyoko does not wish to work with anyone she perceives to be weaker than her,

Sayaka is a relentless idealist, and Mami, who had been so hopeful and accepting of

Madoka’s bond, is killed. Homura, by contrast, is almost eternally stoic, viewing

emotion as hindering the girls rather than aiding them. Instead of approaching love in

the conventional sense of the magical girl genre, wherein it is a unifying factor that

transcends everything else in the universe, Puella Magi Madoka Magica presents love

as yet another source of agony for the girls.

The yasashii spirit that I previously noted as an integral part of not just magical girl

stories, but shōjo in general, is transgressed through the character’s actions. Although

Sayaka and Mami can superficially be seen as possessing the selflessness that is

integral to the yasashii mode of existence, their actions within the series ultimately

demonstrate that such selflessness is beyond them. Magical girls, as we have seen,

typically develop character through their experiences in both their magical and non-

magical lives, growing stronger as they battle. Their adherence to the spirit of yasashii,

which may perhaps be weak at the beginning of a series, grows until they possess an

all-encompassing power worthy of defeating their ultimate foe. By contrast, the girls

Remember Madoka 56

of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, through their journey, become less like the typical

heroic girl, becoming selfish, angry, and sullen in their roles. Sayaka begins with all

the noble intentions of fighting for what she believes in, but slowly finds herself

becoming disenchanted with her new life. In episode 8, when she makes the claim that

the more people she saves, the more hurt and anger she feels, she is demonstrating a

reaction to her position as saviour for a species that she feels she no longer belongs to.

She is “a corpse walking around pretending to be alive”, with no other purpose than to

fight, and no life left with the people she originally became a magical girl in order to

save.

The exception to this transgression, however, is Madoka. Madoka, for eleven of the

twelve episodes within the series, is not a magical girl. Through the two sequences I

have presented in this thesis, her character has been present and bearing witness to the

lives of the magical girl, without being one herself. Yet she is the titular character, and

the lives and suffering of the magical girls are framed around her.

Madoka is not given the conventional starting powers associated with narratives in the

genre. Unlike Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura, who are bequeathed with their plot-

generating abilities within the first episode, Madoka is shown to undergo a journey as

she makes her eventual decision to become a magical girl. Like Shinji in Neon

Genesis Evangelion, she is a reluctant hero who actively questions who she is and

what it would mean to transform into the archetype that the other characters in the

series represent. Rather than being granted heroic powers from the beginning, she

gradually comes to an understanding of what these powers would mean, thereby

actively engaging the thematic conventions of the genre within the narrative itself.

Remember Madoka 57

Although repeatedly granted opportunities to take the magical power and contract

offered by Kyubey, Madoka remains a girl, as opposed to a magical girl, giving the

audience a perspective into the lives of the magical girls without becoming one

herself. Her ultimate decision to become a magical girl, however, runs in line with

Levi’s (1998) viewpoint of heroism in anime:

Heroes [within anime and manga] must be sincere and they must be

selfless, at least at the moment of heroism. It is not necessary for a

manga or anime hero to be a saint, to fight for the right side, or even to

be successful. Anyone who sincerely gives his or her best efforts to

almost any task can be a hero. (p. 72)

In this sense, we can see that while Madoka is only a magical girl for a single episode,

she is still a heroine within the series, as the series presents her journey towards

making the selfless decision which provides the climax to the narrative. Madoka is not

restricted by the same contract that binds the remainder of the cast to their duty, and

bears witness to the effects on their lives that their nature creates. Her decision to

become a magical girl, therefore, is not made out of plot-driven necessity, but evolves

through the overall narrative, creating a situation where Madoka decides that, despite

what she has seen, it is still better to become a magical girl than not to be. By making

the central character one who is primarily not a magical girl, Puella Magi Madoka

Magica transgresses several conventions of the genre, while simultaneously enabling

observation of the magical girls themselves within the text.

Remember Madoka 58

The final transformation of Madoka into a magical girl is, at the same time, a

transformation to godhood. As we have seen in earlier convention analysis, the rise in

power to deity status, if not literally then conceptually, can be seen across multiple

magical girl works. Along with such ascendency occurring with the resolution of the

series plotline, it is often tied to the end of the girls needing to fight anymore – their

purpose has ultimately been fulfilled, and they do not have any more opponents to

fight against. Madoka’s wish is altruistic, and achieved entirely through her own

sacrifice towards a greater good.

Despite Madoka’s wish, however, the resolution of the series is far from solving

everything. Although her wish is granted, it does not resolve the problems that have

been established as pervading the universe; conflict is still rampant, evil is still ever-

present, and the magical girls are still doomed to fight until their deaths, even if the

aftermath of their deaths has been radically altered. In contrast to the happy endings

seen in other magical girl series, we see that Puella Magi Madoka Magica has again

transgressed the expectations of the genre. Rather than providing the viewer with a

purely happy or sad ending to the series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica concludes with

an ambiguous compromise, a combination of the two that creates “the ‘happy’ ending

that the viewers want while still not disregarding the inevitability of tragedy that the

series is founded upon” (Oppliger, 2011b). The ending, while fulfilling the requisite

expectations of a magical girl series conclusion, has not solved everyone’s problems,

and creates new ones in their place; ultimately, no single hero can save everyone,

even if she does possess the purest form of yasashii spirit.

Remember Madoka 59

Conclusion

The magical girl genre has developed over a period of fifty years into a distinctive

genre of anime; it takes young females and transforms them into superheroes, capable

of changing their own and others’ destinies and even saving the world, while

simultaneously retaining the same needs, desires and flaws as any “ordinary” girl.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica adds a further layer of complexity to the genre’s

development by not only thrusting a “real” girl into a position of reality-defying

power and responsibility, but also provides a narrative structure through which we see

through the soft overtones of the genre to expose the vulnerable heart within.

Throughout the history of anime, there are works that have emerged as setting-stones,

standing out from others for their significance to the medium and their respective

genres. These works include, for example, Akira, Cowboy Bebop and The Melancholy

of Suzumiya Haruhi, which, if not revolutionary, are nonetheless iconic in the

development of anime to the extent that they are the “landmarks by which otaku8

measure generations” (Oppliger, 2011b). Beyond these texts, however, there are those

such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon and Sally the Witch, which can be

seen as having changed anime on a deeper level by forcing or encouraging “anime

producers, directors, and writers to change the rulebook” (Drazen, 2003, p. 302).

The power and influence of Puella Magi Madoka Magica is comparable with these

transgressive series: the art style, character development and overall narrative do not

8 Otaku, typically translated into English as “geek”, has been adopted by anime fans much in the same way as Star Trek fans adopted “Trekkie”.

Remember Madoka 60

only take their cues from the well-established conventions of the magical girl genre,

but also use them to explore ideas and issues that have previously been suppressed or

ignored. Puella Magi Madoka Magica transgresses the familiar conventions of the

magical girl genre by daring to use the invincible “armoured cuties” in a way that

“[extends] the tropes beyond whimsical and entertaining fantasy into the realm of

harsh, rational pragmatism” (Oppliger, 2011b).

In this thesis I have explored the extent to which Puella Magi Madoka Magica

transgresses the conventions and established ideals of the magical girl genre. Using

Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the ways it went beyond the conventions of the mecha

genre, as a comparison (MacWilliams, 2008), I argue that Puella Magi Madoka

Magica similarly enacts such transgressions through both its narrative and visual

techniques. By interpreting the series through the genre lenses established in Chapter

3, we can see that Puella Magi Madoka Magica explicitly deploys the conventions of

contemporary magical girl narratives such as Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura,

but that it also transgresses these familiar expectations by projecting the narrative into

previously unexplored realms.

When the young girls are fighting otherworldly monsters, Puella Magi Madoka

Magica does not only represent them as being scared – but ultimately capable – young

people, but also depicts the kinds of physical, emotional and social damage that such

girls would face if the narrative safeties were removed from the story. Their totems,

far from merely channelling their power, contain their souls, forever separating them

from the girls that they once were and turning them into magical girls, distant

protectors for a people whom they no longer truly belong to. The (usually adorable)

Remember Madoka 61

animal companion, is still a guide and mentor, but is also seen to have motivations

and values that are alien and abhorrent to humans. The series also takes the broader

overlying themes of the magical girl genre – such as love, and ascension to deity

status – and questions the materialisation of those values in the world that the magical

girls inhabit. Love, as seen by the girls of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, is often a

selfish, costly emotion that adds another level of suffering to their lives. Even

Madoka’s ultimate expression of love at the conclusion of the series is only achieved

through a great sacrifice: she is removed from the world and its memories, with only a

few capable of remembering her.

With these considerations in mind, the question then becomes how history will

remember Madoka; will it be regarded as a germinal work that changes the genre

forever, or as a landmark that will be remembered for what it achieved, but not for its

future impact? In addition, how will the series be received by the Western market,

now that it has been licensed for distribution and translation outside of Japan

(“Aniplex USA…”, 2011), especially considering that it has been eleven years since a

magical girl genre series has been a major success in foreign markets (Oppliger,

2011a)?

This thesis does not (and cannot) answer those questions, but it has established that

Puella Magi Madoka Magica both utilises and transgresses the conventions of the

magical girl genre in ways that break new ground. If Neon Genesis Evangelion

effected a change in the rulebook for anime producers through its transgression of the

mecha genre (Drazen, 2003), then Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s comparable

transgression of generic conventions would seem to indicate that it has similar

Remember Madoka 62

potential for a far-reaching impact on the magical girl genre, and perhaps anime as a

whole.

Remember Madoka 63

Index of figures

Figure 1. Queen Beryl from Sailor Moon.

Figure 2. Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon.

Figure 3. Mami fighting Charlotte in the witch’s world.

Figure 4a. The suspended magical girl Mami.

Figure 4b. The suspended girl Mami.

Remember Madoka 64

Figure 1. Queen Beryl from Sailor Moon in episode 9, "Usagi's Misfortune! Watch Out for the Rushing Clocks"

Image © Naoko Takeuchi, PNP, Toei Animation

Remember Madoka 65

Figure 2. Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon in episode 12,

"I Want a Boyfriend, Too! A Trap on a Luxury Cruise Ship"

Image © Naoko Takeuchi, PNP, Toei Animation

Remember Madoka 66

Figure 3. Mami fighting Charlotte in the witch’s world in episode 3,

“I’m Not Afraid Of Anything Anymore”

Image © Magica Quartet/Aniplex, Madoka Partners, MBS

Remember Madoka 67

Figure 4a. The suspended magical girl Mami in episode 3,

“I’m Not Afraid Of Anything Anymore”

Image © Magica Quartet/Aniplex, Madoka Partners, MBS

Remember Madoka 68

Figure 4b. The suspended girl Mami in episode 3,

“I’m Not Afraid Of Anything Anymore”

Image © Magica Quartet/Aniplex, Madoka Partners, MBS

Remember Madoka 69

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Filmography

Akira (movie; dir. Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)

Astro Boy [original title: Tetsuwan Atomu] (TV series; dir. Osamu Tezuka, 1963-1966)

Bewitched (TV series; exec. prod. Harry Ackerman, 1964-1972)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series; exec. prods. Joss Whedon et al., 1997-2003)

Cardcaptor Sakura [original title: Kādokyaputā Sakura] (TV series; dir. Morio Asaka, 1998-2000)

Cowboy Bebop [original title: Kaubōi Bibappu] (TV series; dir. Shinichirō Watanabe, 1998-1999)

Cutey Honey [original title: Kyūtī Hanī] (TV Series; dir. Tomoharu Katsumata, 1973-1974)

Magic Knight Rayearth [original title: Mahō Kishi Reiāsu] (TV series; dir. Toshihiro Hirano, 1994-1995)

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya [original title: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu] (TV series; dir. Tatsuya Ishihara, 2009)

Neon Genesis Evangelion [original title: Shin Seiki Evangerion] (TV series; dir. Hideaki Anno, 1995-1996)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica [original title: Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika] (TV series; dir. Akiyuki Shinbo, 2011)

Sailor Moon [original title: Bishōjo Senshi Sērā Mūn] (TV series; dirs. Junichi Sato et al., 1992-1997)

Sally the Witch [original title: Mahōtsukai Sarī] (TV series; dirs. Hiroshi Ikeda and Toshio Katsuta, 1966-1968)

Secret Akko-chan [original title: Himitsu no Akko-chan] (TV series; dir. Hiroshi Ikeda, 1969-1970)