Madoka Magica Episode 9: I'd Never Allow That to Happen

"This might make people think that I am a fool, but I... I absolutely do not want to give up, until we know for sure that she can't be saved." ~ Kyoko Sakura

I'll Never Allow That そんなの、あたしが許さない
First airing	3 March 2011
Script	Gen Urobuchi
Storyboard	Noriko Shichishima
Episode director	Masahiro Mukai
Animation Director	Miyuki Katayama

Summary

Sayaka becomes a witch and Kyoko enters her maze, holding Sayaka's now soulless body. Homura saves Kyoko and while they are walking off, they meet Madoka, worried upon seeing Sayaka's body. Homura explains everything to Kyoko and Madoka.

When Madoka is crying alone in her room, Kyubey enters and explains everything in detail to her. He reveals that he is a member of an extraterrestial, emotionless society, worried about the total energy in the universe lowering due to entropy. Puella Magi and witches are a way to counter this, creating energy from wavering emotions of young girls. As Kyubey and his peers are emotionless, they are unable to produce such energy themselves. Because of this, they also don't understand the concept of human morals. Madoka is saddened and angry because of all those revelations she has just heard.

Kyoko is maintaining natural heat of Sayaka's body using her magic. She asks Kyubey whether it is possible to recover Sayaka's Soul Gem. He dodges the question, saying that nobody ever tried it before and due to the very existence of Puella Magi is contradictory, such achievement wouldn't surprise him.

The following day, Hitomi attempts to speak to Madoka but Madoka avoids her. Kyoko makes Madoka skip school, with a quest to rescue Sayaka instead. She explains her plan to ignite human emotions in the witch whom Sayaka became, by having her best human friend talk to her. Madoka agrees, and they go to witch-Sayaka's maze. Madoka tries talking with Kyoko protecting her, but with no effect. Kyoko commits suicide, also killing the witch, while Homura (who went out from school and entered the maze to protect Madoka) takes fainted Madoka out.

The episode ends with Homura and Kyubey talking in Homura's house, with Kyubey revealing that rescuing Sayaka was in fact impossible, but he didn't stop Kyoko from doing so to make Madoka become a Puella Magi, given that Homura alone will not be able to win against Walpurgis. Homura says that she won't allow it.

Trivia

• In the Audio Commentary for Episode 11, Chiwa Saito (Homura) confesses that when she saw Kyoko's sacrifice scene with Aoi Yuuki (Madoka) and Emiri Kato (Kyubey), they all cried. They found the scene moving.
• Near the end of the episode, Kyoko asks Madoka if she "wants to be come a magical girl on some stupid whim". Noting the consequences and inherent dangers of the magical girl lifestyle, Kyoko states that she would punch Madoka's face in before she had a chance to do that. However, in an ironic twist, Madoka indeed became a magical girl on the same whim in the original timeline by saving a black cat from being hit by a car, according to Drama CD 1.

Runes

See Runes of episode 9

Observations

A comparison between Madoka's bedroom and Bokurano.

• Per the image at the right, the chairs seen in Madoka's bedroom may be a homage to Bokurano, a manga and anime series that deconstructed a children's mecha anime called Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh. In Bokurano, children are called by a strange man and an evil-looking mascot character to pilot a giant robot in to fight with another robot, piloted by another group of people, in an alternative universe. The fight ends with the pilot's death, and the losers have their universe destroyed. They are also told by the mascot only after the first battle that the robot's is fueled by the life of the person who pilots -- in other words, they inevitably die after piloting once. The chairs in Bokurano are reflections of the personalities of the selected pilots, drawn from their memories and manifested in the robot's cockpit. After a pilot dies, their vacant seat remains. The similarities to Madoka Madoka are striking:
  • Magical girls and pilots both agree to a binding contract with a mascot character
  • Mascot character only reveals the truth little by little, to the contractees
  • Those selected have different reactions to learning those truths, some accepting better than others
  • Both note that younger contractees are better candidates for their role
  • Contractees are told they are fighting evil at first, and only realize later that they are fighting their own, e.g. other people who also contracted, usually unknowingly.
  • Magical girls each have a unique appearance based on their personalities
  • Like the Bokurano robots, the "shell" for magical girls is very powerful and difficult to destroy, but have one vulnerable point which will destroy them even if the body's undamaged, e.g. the soul housed in the soul gem or the pilot operating the robot. If the soul gem or pilot is separated from their respective shell, it will lay dormant.
  • In both works, after they die in combat, it's possible their body can "disappear," so they are forever seen as missing persons by the rest of the world.
  • In Bokurano, when a pilot runs away, there is a 48hr limit to kill or return back to the robot. In the Portable game, there is also a two day limit to return a soul gem back to the body.
  • Revealed in episode 10, Madoka Magica also has alternative worlds, some of which are presumably destroyed after a loss, e.g. Kriemhild Gretchen end.
  • The Blu-ray version of Episode 5 added chairs in the hospital scene with Sayaka and Kyousuke.
  • The movie version has chairs

• Sayaka's witch name is Oktavia von Seckendorff. In real life, Karl Siegmund von Seckendorff was a german poet who wrote a novel called Das Rad des Schicksals = The Wheel of Fate (which explains the wheels, there was also mention of fate in her barrier). He also put 'The King in Thule' (a poem by Goethe, part of Faust1) to music.

• In Episode 7 the Witch Elsa Maria was praying with her back turned (as if ignoring Sayaka) facing a monstrance. In Episode 9 Kyoko almost looks like she is praying while facing Oktavia von Seckendorff, as if the prayer is for Sayaka's soul. See the gallery below for a visual comparison.

• Some suggest that Kyubey's solution for entropy is just flawed and downright impossible. Defenders like to point out that Kyubey is from an advanced alien civilization, so maybe their understanding of the universe is far superior than that of humans. This picture summarizes the paradox in a simplified way. See also Thermodynamics.
  • This blog explains why Kyubey's solution regarding entropy is just downright irrational.

• The musical score seen in the beginning of the episode is the beginning of the background music playing during the scene in Oktavia's barrier.

• A hidden hairpin on Kyoko merges with her Soul Gem kept on her chest before she unleashes her suicide attack.

• This episode reverted back to no ending sequence like in episodes 1 and 2.
  • In the BD/DVD version, the extra song and I'm home plays as ending.

• According with production notes, the extent of Kyoko's injuries in Episode 9 indicates that her entire right torso is damaged and bleeding.

Speculation

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

• During the fight with Kyoko, Sayaka's lower body turns into one of a mermaid. Many speculate that Sayaka's tragedy is similar to that of the Little Mermaid's story because of the similarities. You can read a summary of the story here.
  • The mermaid tail may also be referencing the story of Melusine. Goethe wrote a version of Melusine titled Die Neue Melusine or The New Melusina.
    • Changes during the Blu-ray version added wind-chimes with the figures of a Mermaid and of a Unicorn. For more information about its symbolic significance see The Legend of Unicorns and Magical Horns.
• The wheels used in Oktavia's attacks may also symbolize the Wheel of Fortune from tarot, whose popular interpretations include "possibilities, opportunities, new developments, sudden changes", which fit Sayaka's life from when she encountered Kyubey to when she became a Witch.
  • Alternatively, Sayaka was at a train station when she transformed. Her attacks may be inspired by train wheels.
• Oktavia suddenly ceases her attack when Kyoko begins to pray. It seems to be possible that Kyoko and Madoka finally manage to call back Sayaka's (remnant of) self. However, Oktavia's card says "nothing will reach her any longer. she will come to know nothing more. she simply allows no one to disturb her minions' playing." Remember that Madoka had fainted and stopped calling her just before Oktavia got still. She is quite likely to do nothing as long as you keep quiet.
• Kyoko's use of Umaibou as a sign of friendship with Madoka in this episode can be seen as baton passing, as her main role ended in this episode. It's also possible that she chose Umaibou due to its extremely low price (9 yen) being something that she can afford, since Sayaka didn't accept stolen goods back in episode 7.
• It is suspected that Homura knows Kyoko's feelings with Sayaka (so that she won't throw her body and kill the witch first). However, she doesn't expect Kyoko even wanting to revive Sayaka after becoming a witch in this timeline. When asking Kyubey, she might also has a little hope to make Madoka survived even when she contracts. But the answer from Kyubey denies such possibility. (If Kyubey agreed the possibility for Kyoko to revive Sayaka, then Madoka might also be saved in the same way.)

Images

Screenshots

• 

  The image reads: ＬＯＶＥ　ＭＥ　ＤＯ！！ ＼(*´3｀*)／ "Love me Do" could be a reference to a Beatles song or a h-manga by Kensoh Ogawa (aka Fukudahda). "Do" may have been intended to be "too", going along with Sayaka's theme of longing.

• 

  Sayaka's witch form. The armor could be a reference to the von Seckendorff family's knightly heritage.

• 

  Kyoko's Soul Gem is dimmed prior to fighting with Oktavia presumably due to using her power to maintain Sayaka's body.

Fanart

• Mermaid sayaka touho.jpg

  Her body dissolves into foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul.

• WHO LET URUBUCHI READ BOKURANO.jpg

  The picture says it all

Miscellaneous

References and crossovers

• 

  Some information regarding images and symbols in Episode 9

• 

  The Blu-ray version depicts wind-chimes with the figure of a Mermaid and a Unicorn. For more information see here.

• 

  comparison between Sayaka's coat of arms and the Seckendorff family coats of arm

• 

  The image on the left is from Revolutionary Girl Utena, the image on the right is from Episode 9 with Sayaka and Kyoko

• 

  Sayaka's witch name is Oktavia von Seckendorff, a possible reference to the poet Karl von Seckendorff (see above).

Comparison and analyses

• 

  a silhouette of what looks like Kamijou with his back turned holding a violin

• 

  Parallel between Elsa Maria (episode 7) and Kyoko (episode 9)

Others

• 

  Transcript of the musical sheets seen in the episode; link to MIDI on file page

• Human emotion energy end entropy.png

  According to Kyubey, to solve the entropy problem human emotions must be used as a form of energy. In exchange for their sacrifices, girls are given one wish.

• Infinite power.png

  Kyubey's flawed solution to the entropy, explained with a no break. See further explanations above.

See also

• Madoka Magica and Science

External links

• Madoka Magica Episode 9: I'd Never Allow That to Happen summary at official website (Japanese)

Episodes
Previous episode	Current episode	Next episode
Episode 8 I'm Such a Fool	Madoka Magica Episode 9: I'd Never Allow That to Happen I'll Never Allow That	Episode 10 I Won't Depend on Anyone Anymore