Elsa Maria

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Elsa Maria (ELSAMARIA) is a witch who battles Sayaka at the end of Episode 7. She reappears in Madoka Magica Portable and Madoka Magica Mobage. Her familiars make an appearance in The Rebellion Story and Magia Record

Witch Card

Card Elsa Maria.png

影の魔女。その性質は独善。全ての生命のために祈り続ける魔女。祈りの姿勢を崩さぬまま、その影の中へとあらゆる命を平等に引きずり込む。この魔女を倒したくば、黒色の苦痛を知らなくてはならない。

Elsa Maria

RunesELSA MARIA
TypeShadow witch
NatureSelf-righteousness
EpisodesEpisode 7

The witch of shadow with a self-righteous nature. She continually prays for all of creation and drags all life equally into her shadow without breaking her posture. One hoping to defeat her must know the blackest anguish.

Minions

Card Sebastian.png

影の魔女の手下。その役割は妄信。 影の魔女によって平等に救われてしまった命達の集合体。 彼らは同胞を求めている。

Sebastian

RunesSEBASTIAN
TypeShadow witch's minions
DutyBlind belief
EpisodesEpisode 7, The Rebellion Story

The shadow witch's minions, whose duty is to blindly believe. They are an aggregate of the lives that were granted salvation equally by the shadow witch. They continually seek out companions.

History

Original Anime

Elsa Maria appears at the end of Episode 7 where she fights Sayaka. Madoka accompanies her and Kyoko arrives to help. Elsa Maria uses an attack where a thick tree grows out of her back to stop Sayaka growing close to her. She is swiftly defeated due to Sayaka's emotional state, she hacks at her mercilessly with blood spurting out of the witch. Her Grief Seed is shown after the fight. Sayaka rejects it and gives it to Kyoko.

The Rebellion Story

While Elsa Maria doesn't make a reappearance in The Rebellion Story, her familiars do. Nagisa rides on them during the fight against Homulilly.

Madogatari Song

The Witch's Hymn (魔女の賛美歌)

Original text Translation

光よ 祈りよ ビン底よ
主なる骨のこびり付き肉
殻の内には 美徳の炭塊

主なる力よ 罪 沈め給え
この怒りは 悲しみは
歓声の群れの食べ残し

舐め取り給え 誰も等しく

伸びる炭影 その全てまで

O light, o prayer, o bottle-base
Clinging bits of meat upon the Lordly bones
Inside the shell are the coal lumps of virtue

O Lordly power, submerge our sins
This anger-- this sorrow-- they are
The table scraps of the crowding cheers of joy

Lick them up equally, one and all

Those long coal shadows, to the very last drop


Observations

  • Her name is possibly a reference to the song Ave Maria which Kyousuke Kamijou is known to play
  • She could also be a reference to Jeanne d'Arc, another magical girl (as shown in episode 12.) Jeanne said she was hearing the voices of saints, angels and God, and prayed very often
  • Elsa Maria may be linked to Kakure Kirishitan (or "Hidden Christians") which were a group of practicing Christians that existed in hiding from the mid 1600's and on. Freedom of Religion was finally granted to Japanese citizens in 1871, which may have been the result of a wish. This would explain the heavily religious nature of the witch.
    • This can be an accurate theory because witches can not only live forever if never killed, which in this case would be difficult because of how she can only be defeated by a magical girl "with the blackest anguish," but they can also live on as familiars that break away and grow back into witches. Not all witches are necessarily new, they can survive for a very long time and duplicate if a part is broken off.
    • On the other hand, Elsa Maria could be a modern Japanese Christian, possibly a descendant of the Kakure Kirishitan and/or just very influenced by their history and martyrdom (like real life writer Shusaku Endo, who was Catholic). She might be from either Nagasaki (the city with the biggest historical connection with Japanese Catholicism, and one of the places where the Kakure Kirishitan came from), Akita (the prefecture where the Marian apparitions known as Our Lady of Akita took place) or the Madoka world's equivalent to Nagasaki and Akita.
  • The tree growing from Elsa Maria's back may be a reference to the Biblical tale of Adam & Eve. The familiars could be a reference to the animals in The Garden of Eden
  • There is possibility that Elsa Maria is praying for America to end World War II, given the Statue of Liberty-like image in her labyrinth. The dead tree look of her attacks may reference the effect of the fallout radiation from the nuclear bomb that was dropped on Japan. Her minions also are representative of the twelve zodiac, which may imply the transition after World War II from Eastern thought to the Western thought that happened after World War II

Trivia

  • The Guidebook indicates that Elsa Maria's labyrinth design is a church that's "a mix of a (Christian) church and Buddhism", and calls it or the witch "like Amakusa Shiro", an Edo period Christian and leader of an oppressed Japanese Roman Catholics uprising against the shogunate; his rebellion failed and he was executed at 17, with his head being publicly displayed on a pike as a warning to other Christians. It also says that the circles on the background should spin and rotate, and that within them there should be "images of God and angels in the style of [[wikipedia:Ukiyo-e|ukiyo-e] "
  • According to the storyboards:
    • Elsa Maria was originally the daughter of an aristocratic family, back in the day when people wore kimonos. Kimonos originated around the Heian period (794-1185) "when Japan's nobility embraced a distinctive style of clothing".
      • Whether she originated from the Heian or Edo period, this would make Elsa Maria among the oldest Magical Girls and/or Witches in the franchise (such as Pernelle, Roberta, and presumably Walpurgisnacht).
    • There's a name written in witch runes on the cross held up by the giant statue, but it doesn't explain exactly which one. Instead, it says it's "Princess ___ (German name)". The notes also show that "while it's not shown", beneath the statue there's a field covered in grass and the skulls of all the people Elsa Maria "saved" since she became a witch.
  • There are also design notes for the prototype version of this witch, with the phrase "I wish happiness to you, who I have not yet seen." (まだ見ないあなたが幸せであるように)written near the top. Not everything matches the witch shown in the anime: for example, the platform in Elsa Maria's barrier was supposed to be mirrored, with another cross underneath it. The real witch would be there, while on the upper side there would be a decoy. There would also be seated, human-like familiars that'd make the sign of the cross when the witch died. This would also cause a 'baaaaaaahn' sound like from a pipe organ to play and the sky would break apart and fall like glass.
  • She is named after Elsa Asenijeff, also known as Elsa Maria Packeny. After refusing many proposals, she was forced by her parents to marry a diplomat eleven years her senior; She felt at the mercy of her husband, a theme that influenced her literary works. She eventually divorced the diplomat and remarried an artist, though this marriage too suffered when her second husband took an 18-year-old girl named Gertrude Bock as a model and companion, whom he eventually married shortly before his death after he and Asenijeff also divorced. After this divorce, she lived in poverty as her second ex-husband refused to support her financially; she eventually became isolated from her friends and family and was admitted to a psychiatric clinic

Gallery

Official Art

Screenshots

The Rebellion Story

Manga

Madoka Magica Portable

Madoka Magica Mobage

Madoka Magica Plus

SLOT Puella Magi Madoka Magica

The Battle Pentagram

Magia Record

Merchandise

Other

Memoria Cards

To edit a memoria's details, click on the specific memoria

Card Effect Cooldown EN TextJP Text
Minions of the Shadow Witch
Normal
Status Ailment Resistance Down [III] (One / 1 Turn) 6 turns
Max Limit Break
Status Ailment Resistance Down [IV] (One / 1 Turn) 5 turns
Shadow Witch Minion. Role: Blind Follower.
A group of lives given grace by their Witch. They seek new brethren.
影の魔女の手下。その役割は妄信。
影の魔女によって平等に救われてしまった命達の集合体。彼らは同胞を求めている。
Card Effect Cooldown EN TextJP Text


External links