Shitori Egumo
This section may contain major spoilers!
Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with all the latest media released.Shitori Egumo (SHITORI EGUMO), referred to as Embryo Eve in the story of the game and anime, is a witch appearing in Chapter 10 of the mobile game Magia Record.
Originally, its existence was only known through its familiars and was not made public until Chapter 10 when it was revealed to be the witch form of Ui Tamaki.
Witch Card
The Happy Witch. Her nature is suffering. This “Half-Witch” grows in a womb within a force field, feeding off the emotions of humans and the impurities released when Magical Girls become Witches. To stabilize its twisted power, it scatters gems throughout its body as it grows. When it matures the Witch that emerges from it will devour energy, and after it consumes the planet it will feast until it becomes a lump of universe itself. |
The Witch of Happiness. Her nature is suffering. This “Half-Witch” is wrapped in a force field that stabilizes its energy. After losing an essential piece, it shakes the ground violently in an attempt to fill the hole left behind. It won't stop until it retrieves a specific girl. If the force field that maintains its physical form is lost, it will dissipate into the air. Should that happen, no one knows what effects its impurities may have. |
Minions
Minions of the witch of ???. These swallow-like Familiars are everywhere in Kamihama. They seem to be collecting magic as offerings to their Witch. They target Magical Girls and steal not only their magic but also their memories, visions, and even emotions. They have also been known to target other Witches. Hunting in a group, they utilize their anchor-shaped legs to capture them. They are uninterested in normal humans without magic, because they don't make good offerings. |
Minions of the Happy Witch. Their role is to present offerings. These swallow-like minions strive to collect energy as offerings to their master. When a large group of them converge, it causes a tornado that builds their nest. It is in this nest that they perform the final preparations for their gift. They live for their master. If they lose their master they are supposed to disappear, but it seems they continue to serve somewhere in a different form. |
In Magia Record
Warning, this section contains spoilers. |
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Doppel DescriptionThe Doppel of suffering. Its form is a happy statue. The master of this emotion shares in all the pain of the ones she loves and takes it on as her own. The pain then takes the shape of jewels, which decorate the Doppel and add to its power. However, as the Doppel cannot move, it cannot avoid attacks, and though it carries a sword and shield, they are there for decorative purposes only. StoryA massive “half-witch” body surrounding Ui Tamaki, which the Magius are incubating below Hotel Fenthope for the majority of the game’s first arc. Ui’s powers are the source of the Doppel phenomenon, absorbing impurity from the Soul Gems of Puella Magi within the city. The Magius planned to use the energy from the transformation of Eve’s Grief Seed– and the destruction of Kamihama City– to expand her range of influence to the entire world, which would both shut out the Incubators and continually provide the rest of the universe with energy from Doppels. Ui, Touka and Nemu’s wish was to steal Kyuubey’s energy-collection abilities, in hopes of creating a system to prevent Puella Magi from becoming witches. Unfortunately, the initial rush of collected impurity threatened to turn Ui into a witch on the spot. As damage control, Nemu summoned an unseen Rumor to remove Ui’s identity as a human being, and stored it in the newly-disempowered “Little Kyubey” for safekeeping. Without any mind or emotions, Ui’s body was at no immediate risk of turning into a witch… but as a side effect, the other Magius’ memories of her were removed as well. With no memory of Ui, their time together, or their original motivations, the Magius’ plan went in a much more dangerous and self-serving direction than it otherwise would have. After the Little Kyubey reunites with Ui’s body and the Magius regain their memories, they help Iroha rescue her from inside Eve. Once Ui reawakens, her powers seem to be under control, and the crisis seems to be over for now. |
Trivia
- Originally the Oscars had no name in their description card, only "????". This changed after the release of Chapter 10 in which the witch they serve and their descriptions were given more clarity. They have, in fact, two separate description cards present in the game's list of witches, rumors and familiars.
- "Shitori Egumo," which means "I'm going alone," is taken from a poem by Kenji Miyazawa titled The Morning of Last Farewell("永訣の朝"). He also wrote Night on the Galactic Railroad, which Iroha, Mifuyu's and Yachiyo's doppels take their names from. For other references to his work, see Kenji Miyazawa and Magia Record.
- The Oscars are named after Oscar Wilde, author of the short story The Happy Prince. In the story, a swallow is asked by the statue of a prince who has never experience sorrow before to take the precious gems from himself and give them to his city's poor. The prince's lead heart breaks when the swallow dies, and the people of the city, unaware of the source of their new good fortune, replace and destroy the statue due to its now shabby appearance. The statue's broken heart and the swallow's body are all that are left behind, and are thrown into a trash heap. An angel then takes both their souls up to heaven, as they are the most precious things in the city, where they live forever in God's city of gold. The witch herself as well as her doppel version references this story as well.
- The swallow gives the jewels to three poor people in the city, corresponding to characters close to Ui:
- A mother caring for her child who is sick with the flu, corresponding to Iroha, who cares for the terminally ill Ui
- A playwright too cold and hungry to write, corresponding to Nemu Hiiragi
- A girl selling matches, which were dropped in the gutter and ruined, corresponding to Touka Satomi (whose Doppel takes the form of a "match seller").
- The Kimochi, each taking the form of a different precious gem and which are the crystallized emotions absorbed by Shitori/Eve and scattered across the city when she was defeated, are a reference to the precious gems in the prince's statue that the swallow distributes throughout the city.
- The statue of the prince, no longer beautiful, is melted down, and its metal is planned to be reused to make a statue of the city's mayor instead. Similarly, once Ui was separated from Shitori/Eve's body, Kamihama's Doppel Field was taken over by Lil' Kyubey and embodied by the Kimochi, the latter of which grant control of the Doppel Field to whoever wields all of them.
- An excerpt of this story is featured in Episode 8 and in the intro video for A Fledgling's First Flight.
- The swallow gives the jewels to three poor people in the city, corresponding to characters close to Ui:
- Shitori Egumo's design is based on the domestic silk moth, Bombyx mori. These are moths that have been selectively bred for commercial use by humans for millennia for their production of silk. The species is closely dependent on humans for reproduction, and unlike most members of the Genus Bombyx and many groups of moths, they have lost both their color pigments (note that the witch is white also) and their ability to fly. Also, all of the larvae except for the breeding individuals are killed in the process of harvesting the silk and cannot become adults.
- This might relate to the Shinchuu or "holy insect", a silkworm moth deity that endlessly devours evil spirits that hinder people's spiritual and physical wellbeing. It is said that only in the continent where the Shinchuu lives is it possible for humans to achieve enlightenment through study and meditation.
Gallery
Official Art
These posters were put up throughout Japan in order to promote a new event. The pictures are taken from this website.