Kyubey rarely lies, he just want his energy and the witch system rarely works out because Magical Girls becomes Witches and familiars also becomes Witches which will lead to the planet's destruction either way because it'll be overun by witches
@@baikaachyuplays5097 honestly that's right. People just don't ask questions. Those three girls from magia record could have saved everyone though...........
The ending picture is SO symbolic... Is canon that Kyoko can't swim, but you see her there, drowning and smiling. She knows she can't save Sayaka, yet she chooses to stay with her- 😭
Part of the reason Oktavia Von Seckendorff (Sayaka’s Witch) is speculated to be a mermaid is because the Little Mermaid fairy tale was a girl doomed to fall in love with someone who she saved but would never love her back, leaving the Mermaid to turn into sea foam because she made a trade she couldn’t fulfill
@@baikaachyuplays5097 well, yes. But Why does Sayaka’s witch look like a mermaid? No design choice is ever arbitrary, everything is carefully considered. So why a mermaid? Why not something more knight-like? Yes Oktavia wears armor, but why isn’t she just a knight? Why doesn’t she have an appearance like a conductor, or a doctor? I ask because I love character design and development, I’m studying as a visual development designer, and this show and it’s design choices are some of my favorite!
@@fashioni.star. it's definitely a reference to the Little Mermaid, theres plenty of mermaid imagery in these few episodes and in Rebellion when Hitomi has her nightmare. Sayaka has a heavy water theme too, a tear did hit her grief seed right before she witched out and Witch designs are drawn from not only their wish and magical girl design, but also their environment where they witched out. Tears (therefore water, salt water, which many mermaids are salt water creatures) was in the environment at the time. What people forget is how Hans' Mermaid story ends. yes its tragic she doesnt get the man she loves but her act of selflessnes in not killing the Prince and the other woman granted her ascension into heaven where she lives on as a spirit (a sylphmor angel I think?) and spends 300 years doing good deeds to be rewarded with humanity again Because of the Mermaid's good deeds and her soul being good deep down despite a moment of homicidal tendencies, she was free from her despair and ascends to essentially *god hood*. Sayaka also doss thks. Both the Mermaid and Sayaka do have a good ending, and move on from their lost love and grief. Sl yeah everything about Octavia from design all the way up to Sayaka's eventual ascension to the LOC aligns with the original Little Mermaid story.
Kyoko became a Mahou Shoujo to save her dad, but in turn he called her a Witch. She desperately doesn't want to become one, which is why she allows herself to believe that it might be possible to reverse the inevitable outcome. When she realized that it is in fact impossible, she chose dying with Sayaka instead.
EXACTLY. Doesn’t understand deception, but his literal job is to prey on young adolescent girls by deceiving them when they’re most emotional to get their energy >:/
I think what Kyubey means is that if someone makes a decision based on incomplete information, even if that information was intentionally provided incomplete, then it's on them for not asking the right questions. I guess their species has no concept of deception as a bad thing to do, it's just a skill issue. Of course, this only works because Kyubey never tells an actual lie, he only avoids telling the whole truth
@@GunNlazorthat's not true though. Kyubey has said things that were proven to be actual lies before, not just omitting information. If you pay attention to it, it is never stated by a reliable source that Kyubey is incapable of lying. He's the one who says that. He wants you to think he cannot lie.
@@GunNlazor there are other examples I don't remember right now, but he tells Madoka he can't manipulate humans even though he quite literally can and does.
Oktavia Von Seckendorff The mermaid witch. Her nature is to fall in love. Looking for the feeling that moved her so long ago, she moves with the entire concert hall. Her fortune only turns under the weight of memories and no longer moves toward the future. Nothing will reach her any longer. She will come to know nothing more. She simply allows no one to disturb her minions' playing.
I love kyoko sooo much, her character means a lot to me so i love dissecting her. shes been living for herself and no one else for so long that when she met sayaka and found someone who REFUSED to live for herself, it eventually changed the way kyoko viewed the world and people. sayaka and kyoko have a sort of yin yang dynamic that i think is really cool, and with kyoko refusing to let sayaka die alone, she was acting for someone other than herself. thus the end of her character arc, which was inspired by sayaka. side fact, kyoko canonically cant swim, so in the credit picture shes staying with sayaka while smiling, knowing she'll drown. which is just very sad :(
In my breakdown of this episode, I made a point to mention to non-magical girl fans that the viewer is absolutely expected to believe talking and the power of friendship may turn Sayaka back. In spite of all the coding and in spite of how everything from episode 3 to 9 goes, in spite of Sayaka telling you in episode 4 that she doesn't get a happy ending, I still thought it was going to work. Too much of the genre is about miracles and magic just like this. Glad to see you felt the same. I think it's super well written and directed this episode for that inversion. Specifically everything that they tried to tell to Sayaka... None of it is anything that she wants or needs to hear in that moment.
Kyubee's method is similar to the way bad adults deceive children whose judgment is not yet sound. If the girls were in high school instead of middle school, the story would be a little different. Kyubee uses their innocence, sense of justice, and recklessness to turn them into child soldiers.The situation is desperate because the witches and Kyubee are invisible to others, so the girls cannot consult with adults. The girls have no choice but to continue to stand on the battlefield in isolation.Kyoko's words to Sayaka, "It's lonely to be alone, isn't it?" shows that she, like Mami, was also lonely.
I always thought of him as a slimeball lawyer. He technically doesn't "lie" but he certainly knows how to mislead through omission or incomplete truths.
It’s especially true when you take a look at the roster of ages of the girls, most that are in middle school but can be as young as elementary-like Nagisa, who was nine when she made a contract iirc? They specifically come when the girls are most vulnerable (Sayaka when Kyosuke was having a breakdown-any other time Sayaka would have rejected him, Kyoko when she was the most upset and frustrated, Mami when she was QUITE LITERALLY ON DEATH’S DOOR, and Nagisa when her mom was dying). Kyubey always chooses to appear when they’re the most vulnerable because he knows it’s a point where their rationality weakens and he can give them an easy answer to their problems.
The best part about Kyubey is that he can say that without the slightest idea of why it was awful to say. And on the subject of Kyubey "lying" to Kyoko, I bet he'd say he never actually lied, he just never said Kyoko could do it herself
Kyoko: So we could save her? Revert her from witch back to magical girl? Kyubey: I've never heard of that happening, but who can say? Magic be crazy weird you know? Homura: So was there any chance of that working? Kyubey: lol, fuck no. 😂
Once you know where witches come from, you realize that the form and Labyrinth of every witch in the anime tells a story just like Sayaka's do. One of those stories was told in Magia Record (the Madoka spinoff gacha game) in the event "Nagisa's Wish". Don't look it up until you've seen Rebellion, though--spoilers. It's been subtly hinted since the very first scene of the anime that we're watching a Faust story, but now we learn that this Faust story's Devil is a Sufficiently Advanced Alien, and he buys human souls because they're a physics-defying renewable fuel. Villains harvesting human emotions as an energy source is a recurring trope in magical girl media (e.g. various Sailor Moon villains, or the FUKO Gauge in Fresh Precure, which finished airing a year before Madoka aired) and in children's media in general (e.g. Monsters Inc). In Madoka, though, the villain harvesting human emotions is the "mascot" who gives the magical girls their powers, and the ostensible antagonists of the show, the witches, are nothing more than a hazardous waste product of that process from his perspective.
Actually, the witches aren't just waste products as they are a vital part of the process. They help to reinforce the incentive to become a magical girl, continuing the cycle of energy generation(plus I think he gets energy from used up grief seeds)
Kyoko's arc is so beautifully done, even though she's in less than half of the episodes. It's a really smart approach to character development - less changing her personality than peeling back the layers to show you what she's really like, and how important Sayaka is to her, despite their initial antagonism. Because she's a reflection of Kyoko's own journey, which offers her a chance for redemption, or at least finally making peace with herself. I never fail to cry watching her sacrifice at the end, because it makes you pine for what could have been if they'd met under different circumstances.
It actually makes a ton of sense that Homura and Kyoko work together, because they're really similar in a few aspects. One of them is that they both are putting on a front during most of their scenes, though for different reasons. Homura does this because she's trying to find the exact role that will push the others to act like she wants (I think she threatened to kill Sayaka hoping that would get her to back down and accept the Grief Seed). In Kyoko's case, it has more to do with maintaining a reputation in the magical girl circles, as well as wanting to be independent after her history with Mami (see The Different Story). There's also her trauma, of course. But yeah, the show makes you believe she really is a horrible person at first, only to then slowly reveal it's all just an act. It's really well done.
"If you ever feel like dying for the sake of universe, let me know (operators are standing by!)". It's a funny line, almost cute in its clueless lack of empathy. But, like most lines in this show, it's one worth returning to on a rewatch.
10:30: - 10:33: "Oh, wow, it's like Sayaka's entire story..." Yes, the witches domains are made up of elements from their personalities and their past history, almost always including things the desire for which or lack of turned them into the witch in the first place. That's what makes them so weird and like each one is it's own little world (notice they are even differently drawn and animated sometimes) : but also very sad as they tell the witches story.
Interesting to note that the second movie Eternal, extends Kyoko's death scene a bit and there's also a scene in the movie where Homura mourns Kyoko's death and Kyubey confronts her which isn't in the anime
If you want, you can just call Walpurgisnacht, “Walpurgis’ Night,” or “The Night of Walpurgis.” That’s what the characters call it, after all: “Walpurgis no yoru.”
Also, Oktavia von Seckendorff is named after an obscure German poet who translated Goethe's works (including Faust) into French. That has to be one of the most esoteric name drops in anime history.
The writers could've bought Sayaka back through the power of friendship but the fact that they didn't and took another life so Sayaka won't die alone like she thought she would, took me by surprise😭😭😭
there’s so much symbolism in this episode!! at 7:51 we see mermaid and unicorn (wind chimes?? dream catchers?) which represent sayaka and kyoko (sakura = horse meat). kyoko’s witch, ophelia (who only makes an appearance in some of the spin-off videos games) is sort of a headless horseman but with a candle stick head instead. her metaphorical jumping into the water to save sayaka (oktavia, the mermaid witch) would of course lead to her death. this is on top of kyoko canonically being unable to swim. her name being ophelia could be a reference to the hamlet character, ophelia, who essentially drowns herself in grief. sayaka being the mermaid witch is the more obvious reference to the little mermaid’s unrequited love. the mermaid and unicorn may also symbolize the legend of the wild and fierce unicorn who can only being tamed by a “fair maiden.”
Also, unicorn horns supposedly have water purifying abilities, but Ophelia, who appears when Kyoko despairs from her inability to save Sayaka, rides a regular horse. Contrasting with that unicorn wind chime, it really conveys her loss of hope. Interestingly, some depictions of the unicorn water purification involves using it's horn to draw a cross, which ties into the religious themes Kyoko has. I've also seen some people mention that when she decides to take out Oktavia, her soul gem changes into a cross-like shape, rather than it's usual one, along with Kyoko making a prayer-like hand gesture at 12:17.
Kyubey didn't lie. He told the truth, and answered Kyouko's questions accurately. Kyouko wasn't asking the right questions, though. She asked leading questions hoping to steer the conversation to a clear "yes", but never one that would have given Kyubey no choice but to give a clear "no".
"It's like her whole story!" One of the things that always gets me in this series is the idea that the labirynths reflect a witch's story and wish. Sayaka wished for Kyōsuke to heal and play again; a wish about music, about a hidden love whose object didn't see it. So her labirynth is all about music, and violins, and theaters where musicians like Kyōsuke do concerts, and signs in the entrance (which, if you transcribe and translate them, say: "look at me!"). If you see witches as a metaphor for depresion, it's quite apt; a depressed person can be fascinated by the things that triggered his/her depression, keep repeating those things over and over in his/her mind... what made their normal lives end... And also think of all the other labirynths we've seen, and how they reflect the path of suffering of every dead magical girl. Remember Ep. 3, when Mami and Madoka went through Charlotte's labirynth of candy and cakes and pill and medicine? The canonical version is that the magical girl in question was very young (perhaps 10) and had a mother in hospital, with some kind of incurable disease that made it impossible for her to eat sugar. Apparently this witch's wish was to have some cake with her mum without this harming her, which she got. Later on, as she aged, she realized she could have wished for her mother to get better, but didn't... which apparently caused her fall. And after that, look at all labirynths we've seen, or will see in other episodes. It's common among fans to want to guess what the life of the magical girl was like who created that labirynth after their soul gems went dark and broke. The religious witch with growing trees that Sayaka killed in Ep. 7? That funny-looking familiar with crayons and drawings that Kyōko didn't let Sayaka kill in Ep. 5? The garden-like witch that Mami killed in Ep. 2? All magical girls with tragical life histories... Can you guess what their lives were like from the clues given by their labirynths?
Kyubey has been lying to them from the first time he entered the story. What's the first thing he does? That gets Madoka and Sayaka involved in all this in the first place? He convinces Madoka he needs her help, because Homura is hunting him. But we have known for several episodes now that loosing his body is at-most an inconvenience to him. He was never in any danger. Nothing Homura could have done could have hurt him.
The design of the witches is so interesting to me. Oktavia has the violin motifs, which matches Sayaka's wish, but we also see her use wheels and train tracks, because Sayaka's turned into a witch inside a train station. It makes me wonder about the witches we've seen previously. What were they like as magical girls? What did they wish for? What caused them to become a witch?
So, about the chairs. If you look at the hinges, the arcs, and the floors, the chairs and desks are actually designed such that you can flip them up and rotate them down into the floor hatches. That way you can turn desks into empty floor space for larger activities. They can be stored inside the floor!
So like you talked about before, they call Madoka a 'deconstruction' because of stuff like this episode - in stuff like this, The Power Of Friendship is supposed to win out, right? 'In the face of everything wrong, they pick the one right path through the trouble' and win the day. That's Kyouko's whole plan - use Madoka to Power of Friendship Sayaka back. The deconstruction here is simply that that doesn't play out. It's a manipulation by QB to put Kyouko in a bad spot and ultimately kill her off, even. Symbolism: - Sayaka's Witch has the mermaid tail - like someone else in the comments mentioned, she's the little mermaid, fated to fall in love with someone who doesn't love her back and turn to foam and disappear. - The obvious - her minions are a string orchestra. In her, for lack of a better term, boss room, they play for her as a hollow kind of replacement for the playing she wanted from Kyousuke. You can see a minion representing him on the flipside, silent and looking away from her. - Arguably she's peaceful, content at least for a while to listen to her orchestra. When Madoka starts interrupting the music, she goes for her - she attacks Madoka instead of Kyouko, who was just defending the source of noise. - The train tracks in her first appearance symbolize either a distortion of where they were when she turned, or possibly the conversation she heard on the train that broke her. Maybe both. Similarly, they could also symbolize how she felt like she was being railroaded to her fate - there were no paths she deemed acceptable, cooperating with Kyouko or Homura were unacceptable, etc. - The witches have names that aren't actually communicated to us viewers, but Sayaka's Witch is named Oktavia von Seckondorff. The Oktavia is part of her music theming, but the von Seckendorff is the last name of a poet who 1) liked music and composed for his poems, 2) was involved with a story where a man is driven to suicide by unrequited love, 3) wrote a book called THE WHEEL OF FATE. - Similarly, the wheel is a symbol of martyrdom - a Saint Catherine is known for having being martyred on a bladed wheel.
On realizing that all the Witches we've seen used to be Magical Girls, the very first thing I did was go back and rewatch the labrynth scenes. We know a fair bit about the girls those first witches used to be due to outside sources but you can see a lot about them just from looking at their witch selves and what they surround themselves with.
I love how each Witch's labyrinth has elements of their past life! For Oktavia (Sayaka's witch form), she has an orchestra and a mermaid tail taking inspiration from the Little Mermaid tale and train tracks since the train was where she heard the two guys talk.
One detail I always found really depressing is that, when Kyoko caught Sayaka's falling body, she came face to face with her witch (Oktavia Von Sekendorff) and the scream the witch releases sounds just like Sayaka's voice. That small detail made me rewatch some of the witch/familiar fights that we were able to see. And with the familiar that was like a drawing (The one that Sayaka was hunting with Madoka when they first met Kyoko) had a little child's voice. (The witch that the familiar split off from was named Albertine if you want to fact check.) And that witch is designed like a toddler...which makes me think that Kyubey came up to this girl who was, in theory, even younger than Nagisa and offered her a wish. She most likely witched out due to stress or family stuff (read about Albertine on the wiki, she's a SAD girl.) And when I checked the other witches, they all had voices (except for Roberta and Gertrud. They both didn't have mouthes. Though, if Roberta did, she probably would have sounded like an older woman due to her whole labyrinth and wiki lore being based around the fact that she was a magical girl out of her prime, someone nearing their fourties.) Walpurginacht's laughter even makes more sense to me now since her laugh sounds more dignified like an aristocrat (she's said to be like, super old too). Her lore was that she was an amalgam of witches that she bonded with. (Which was confirmed by storyboarders and officials from the show.) And it makes me think her wish was something to do with making friends. Even as a witch, she's still laughing and making friends by sucking other witches into her vortex and fusing with them, making them a part of her play for all time...
im so glad youre enjoying this anime so far!!! i know you had reservations because of how it "breaks down the genre" or whatever, which i think is a bad sell? Like, it "breaks down the genre" in that it just asks; but what if these girls weren't okay? What if that was asking a bit much of them? What if the pressure and reality of being a magical being that can transform on command was just- not really a cool thing to ask of a literal child? And it just makes the characters so much more deep and real and- gah i love this show.
We understand the fuming belive us, he did make a lot of people angry with how manuplative he sounds with these little girls. Also Walpurgis Night is something that used in fiction a lot, most of them referring to the German folklore, basically ; Walpurgisnacht, the night from April 30 to May 1, is the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring. When the travel to that mountain is too far, they may also chose another hill in the region they live. In this show spring probably represents rest and peace which both magical girls and witches they are inevitably going to be can't exprience
can’t wait for next week’s reaction! my favorite episode of the whole show by far wooooooo (also, i know you’ve been keeping an eye on the lyrics, but definitely pay attention this time!)
For the name Walpurgisnacht you can use the english version: "The night of Walpurgis" Or if you want to use the german version(Walpurgisnacht) you can pronounce the name in this way: Walpurgis-Nahkt
Im so ecxited to see your reactions to last couple of episodes, im follow u recently cause im a huge fan of madoka magica, and i love your content about majokko in general, i Hope can your channel growth up more than now in the future!!❤ Sorry for my bad english, im italian 🥲😬❤️
What I hate most about Kyubey is that he never actually lies... that's not in his species vocabulary. They don't feel anything so they could never lie...
I heard that the food Kyoko offers everyone has different price values that show how much she respects them or something. The pocky is cheap, the apples cost more than the pocky & I forgot what she handed Madoka. Interesting fact, Madoka's voice actress really likes Kyoko
It always gets to me how cruel the lives of these girls end up being -- despite class privilege, despite magical powers, things always go the worst way for them. Take Kyōko and Sayaka. They could have been the best of friends, Kyōko's final sacrifice -- not wanting to leave Sayaka alone, not wanting to be alone either -- makes it obvious; some even thing they could have been a romantic pair... But in the entire anime, Sayaka never even said a single nice word to Kyōko. Not even once. They fought and they fought and they fought, a 'fight to the death' as Sayaka put it to Madoka, but even in their best moment, all Sayaka could say to Kyōko was that she wouldn't hate her for fighting against her, but that she wouldn't lose to her either (in Kyōko's father's abandoned church). It breaks my heart to think that. Two wonderful girls... and the anime didn't give them even a single moment in which they could be nice to each other. Not a single one. No, sir... it's all conflicts and fights to the death and spiteful words and suggestions about breaking the arms and legs of the other girl's boyfriend, not a single... talk about frustrated love... 😥
I lowkey disagree with that cus the moment right before Sayaka turns into a witch could be seen as a sweeter moment. It's sad, but Sayaka still apologises for disturbing Kyoko and vents to her about all that happened, so I'd say that if it wasn't for the fact that Sayaka was already doomed, they were coming to a point of mutual respect at least.
Very excited for you to watch the Madoka Magica Rebellion movie after this. Yeah there are two other movies, but all they do is recap the series with several episodes plots chopped up to fit one movie, and the last four episodes with bloated unessissary fluff for the 2nd film. So honestly it's best to just skip them in favor of going to rebellion
PMMM is my favourite anime ever. Even though I've rewatched it over 100 times, rewatching it with you is still so fun and entertaining! Thank you for sharing your reactions with us, your commentary is so good 💚
Technically he didn't lie. Instead of answering with yes or no, he said "not that I know of", giving her false hope that there might be a way to save sayaka that kyubey had never thought of.
I just got here but I already love your reacts 😭 your reactions are so genuine. About when Kyubey came to earth, it is speculated based on information from spinoff games that it was during the stone age, and that if they didn't do that, we would still be living in caves 7:10
Kyubey is almost a neccessary evil, in fairness what he's saying makes sense. A few lives are nothing in comparison to a potentionally infinite amount of civilisations and species.
This video randomly came up on my youtube feed and it was so fun watching you analyzise everything! It felt like i was watching with a friend laughing at your reactions haha. Im glad youre enjoying this classic gem!
It's fun seeing fresh eyes again take in all the SUFFERING of Madoka, especially how pin-point the absolute hate for Kyubey's utilitarian sociopathy is 100% earned. Many non-magical Girl fans go through a big shake up on the twists, getting a weird twisted view of the genre. Magical Girl Fans became absolutely devastated on twisting the Mascot, transformation items, who the monsters of the week reveals were, and just how DESPAIR the subversion lead to. And for Urobuchi fans like me, it was just another season of suffering by the UroButcher himself (at least his next show had a happy ending)
your reactions were literally my reactions when i first watched Madoka Magica. I think i ugly cried like every couple of episodes. I was curious though if you are going to react to the Rebellion movie after you watch Season 1(Movies 1 and 2 are just the first season retold)? Thank you for your videos i have been really enjoying seeing your reactions!
I predict you will like the next episode. To many it's their favorite episode in the entire 12 episode anime, and to some people their favorite single episode of anime of them all!
Kyubey technically didn't lie. While kyouko never had a chance of saving sayaka, madoka probably did. Iirc in tart magica (a manga spinoff about joan of arc) someone wishes for a magical girl to return from being a witch. While she's still fully a witch, she's become sane again and has control over her human body. Considering this is someone with a normal level of potential, madoka probably had the chance to fully turn someone back.
Hi I’m new in your Channel and I wanted to say that I enjoy to watch my favorite anime again with your reaction videos, thanks for give Madoka a chance! 😊
Kyubei, the greatest bastard of all anime for me ! And Now, you should have seen the story with Homura's eyes... Episode 12 : the rift nobody couldn't preview 😉
I don’t think Kyubey ever “lied”, technically speaking. They just think very differently from human beings and structured the conversations in a deliberate way. Of course it’s imaginable though that from the human perspective a lot of viewers would feel the urge to beat the shit out of them. BTW, Madoka Magica is largely inspired by the highest rated visual novel of all time, Muv-Luv Alternative, and even the name “incubator” is a reference to something called “BETA” there. Don’t think many people would have time to read through the whole visual novel since it’s like 80 hours, but just mentioning it here in case anybody is interested. Madoka Magica is literally like a little remake of Muv-Luv Alternative, albeit with its own distinct visual style, pacing and story focus of course.
The fact he actually never "lies", he is being dishonest but doesn't lie. He just uses lack of content or lack of speaking or changing subject to manipulate others for a "better result". Because he never directly says incorrect stuff.
