Madoka Magica Episode 5: There's No Way I'll Ever Regret It

"After becoming a magical girl, there's no way to go back."
"A contract means you have to give up everything for a single wish." ~ Homura Akemi

There's No Way I'd Regret This 後悔なんて、あるわけない
First airing	3 February 2011
Script	Gen Urobuchi
Storyboard	Shin'ichi Omata
Episode director	Takahiro Majima
Animation Director	Mino Honda Mayuko Matsumoto Kazuhisa Kosuga

Summary

Sayaka fulfills her contract with Kyubey on the hospital's roof. Her soul gem is forged and she makes her debut as a magical girl. Sayaka visits the newly healed Kamijou at the hospital, where he remains until his legs recover and his miraculous healing is investigated. He apologizes for being so rude to Sayaka earlier. She cheerfully escorts him to the roof, where his parents and the hospital staff present him with his violin. Sayaka, listening as he plays it beautifully, reaches the pinnacle of happiness.

Madoka is deeply worried about Sayaka, and fears that the new magical girl may meet Mami's cruel fate. An optimistic Sayaka reassures Madoka that she's ready for anything. Nevertheless, Madoka arranges a date with Homura in the cafe to ask the veteran to protect Sayaka, or at least befriend and team up with her. Homura doesn't give Madoka the comfort she wanted, and instead declares that she won't make promises she can't keep. Explaining that magical girls have given up everything for their wishes and are beyond any hope of salvation, Homura tells Madoka to give up on Sayaka.

Still worried as ever, Madoka decides to accompany Sayaka on her patrols of the city. Sayaka tracks down a familiar, Anja, and engages it in combat. However, the rival magical girl Kyoko abruptly stops the fight, telling Sayaka that she shouldn't waste her power on a fight with a mere familiar. Kyoko reveals her technique of "farming witches": she lets familiars attack civilians, and waits until they've fed on enough humans to become full-fledged witches with grief seeds for her to harvest. Sayaka is outraged and refuses to tolerate such sinful behavior. Kyoko tries to beat Sayaka into submission, but that proves futile as the rookie heals herself and shrugs off wounds intended to put her out of commission for three months. Kyoko swallows the last bite of her taiyaki and initiates a duel to the death. That is, until Homura suddenly appears to protect Sayaka...

Observations

• When standing up to challenge Kyoko, Sayaka says "It's because people like you are around that Mami..." Due to the past history between herself and Mami, Kyoko found that accusation especially annoying.
• While healing, Sayaka is surrounded by musical notes, possibly referring to her wish with Kamijou.
• During the opening sequence, the "liquid" spilling from the top of the screen is now blue (instead of orange). This could be due to Sayaka gaining her powers, as she has a mainly blue color scheme.
• Kyubey doesn't say whether or not he contracted Homura, just that she's irregular. Does he not know or is he just withholding information?
• The song that Kamijou plays on the roof is the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria, arranged for violin.
• The magical girls now have distinctive marks on the nails of their middle fingers.
• The lighting and direction during the creation of Sayaka's soul gem give the impression of a romanticized death scene.
• When Homura refers to Mami's death by decapitation in the cafe scene, she symbolically removes the cover on top of her coffee.

Runes

See the Runes of episode 5 page for decryption of the messages written in runes.

Speculation

The theories below have been proven wrong.
They are only kept here for the sake of completeness.

• The dead cannot be brought back to life with a wish, as implied by Homura in her conversation with Madoka.
• Due to changes in the arrangements of pipes on the alley walls before and after Homura broke up the fight, it was speculated that Homura had the power to rearrange and rebuild an area, performing spatial reconstruction. See the Magical Powers page for a detailed explanation of this theory.

The theories below have not been proven yet.
Please keep in mind that they are fanmade theories, and not official material.

• At least some grief seeds seem to be able to recharge multiple soul gems (as seen in episode 2). There also seems to be some surplus of grief seeds relative to magical power used. However, there must be some other use for them other than recharging, or otherwise Kyoko wouldn't be so eager to get so many.
• Homura appears halfway between Sayaka and Kyoko after moving Sayaka a long distance. She dramatically falls to the ground, splashing a puddle to create a shower of shiny droplets as she nonchalantly flicks her hair. Since doing this required more effort than was necessary to save Sayaka, it's possible that Homura carefully choreographed her entrance in order to look as cool as possible in front of Madoka.
• After the conversation in the cafe, Madoka may have realized that she could protect Sayaka by accompanying her while she fought witches, since Homura would have reason to get involved if the situation were dire enough to force Madoka to make a contract.

Images

Screenshots

• 

  OP in episode 3 (top) and episode 5 (bottom)

• 

  The soul gem scene is done in a style that evokes a typical dramatic anime death scene.

• 

  Sayaka surrounded by notes

• 

  Kyousuke's family and the hospital staff present him with his violin to celebrate his recovery.

• Ep5 familiar.jpg

  The vehicle of the familiar transforms from a plane to a boat to a car.

• 

  Kyoko is presented as a sinister villain.

• 

  Homura makes a stylish entrance, sure to impress Madoka.

• 

  The spatial reconstruction theory.

Fanart

This section contains fanart images

Everything in the following fan gallery is created, or the comments accompanying them are created, for entertainment value and should not be confused with actual canon events of the Puella Magi franchise.

• Kyouko vs sayaka fight.jpg
• Sayaka's soul being ripped QB.jpg
• Kyoko vs sayaka fanart.png

See Also

• Live watching threads featuring reactions to the episode as it aired: [1] and [2]
• Translations of the witch runes appearing in this episode.
• Revisions made in the BD version of this episode.
• Anja, the familiar Sayaka attacked.

External links

• Madoka Magica Episode 5: There's No Way I'll Ever Regret It summary at official website (Japanese)

Episodes
Previous episode	Current episode	Next episode
Episode 4 Both Miracles and Magic Exist	Madoka Magica Episode 5: There's No Way I'll Ever Regret It There's No Way I'd Regret This	Episode 6 This is Definitely Odd