Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Beginning Story

Summary

Translations courtesy of symbv from evageeks forum

Scheduled for release on December 10, 2011, this 290 page book contains complete disclosure of all scenarios of Puella Magi Madoka Magica by Gen Urobuchi, including the Draft 0 that started the whole story.

The book contains scenarios of early 13 episode concepts to later versions of the draft scenarios, accompanying storyboards, episode and character descriptions that originally appeared in July 2011 NewType, and an interview with Gen Urobuchi and Akiyuki Shinbo.

Translated Chapters

Episode 1: As If We Met in a Dream...
Episode 2: That Sounds Wonderful
Episode 3: I'm Not Afraid of Anything Anymore
Episode 4: Both Miracles and Magic Exist
Episode 5: There's No Way I'd Regret This
Episode 6: This Just Isn't Right
Episode 7: Can You Face Your True Feelings?
Episode 8: I'm Such a Fool
Episode 9: I'll Never Allow That
Episode 10: I Won't Depend on Anyone Anymore
Episode 11: The Only Signpost Remaining
Episode 12: My Best Friend
Draft 0 & Analysis
Storyboard
Existence of Magical Girls (Reprint of material published in Newtype July, 2011)
Gen and Shinbo Interviews - Thoughts on the Scenario

Urobuchi Twitters

About The Beginning Story The following are translated Gen Urobuchi's tweets regarding the book:
Butch_Gen Original tweet	Umm... somehow the word "draft" 稿 had lots of misunderstandings, so let me explain it. "Draft ~" means "the screenplay that was submitted in the ~-th screenplay meeting". Which means Draft 0 is the rough draft that was never submitted in meeting. For this, first it went through certain self assessment and had weak points corrected or scenes cut in order to fit the length requirement, then it became the first draft and would be submitted. うーん、なんか０稿という言葉が多大な誤解を招いてる節があるんで説明しとこう。「～稿」というのは「～回目の脚本会議に提出した脚本」という意味。つまり０稿とは会議未提出の草稿のこと。こいつをまず自己採点で駄目なとこ修正したり、尺に合わせてシーン削ったりして初稿にして提出したわけ。
Butch_Gen Original tweet	So, as I talked here and there, for MadoMagi the first draft was already quite smooth and it went through only small changes to become the final draft. In short, the contents did not change much compared to what you saw in the broadcast. At most there may be a few scenes dropped because of the length issue. But since they were not really significant scenes, they were cut. で、あっちこっちで喋ってる通り、まどマギは初稿がつるつる通っちゃって微調整だけで決定稿になっちゃったんで、ぶっちゃけ皆さんが本放送で見た内容と大して変わらない。せいぜい尺の都合で欠落したシーンが数場面あるぐらいだが、それだって大して重要性ないシーンだから削られたんであって。
Butch_Gen Original tweet	On the other hand, for action scenes there were no description at all and for the settei on that part it was all built into by Inu-curry-san. So the material where you could double-check all these and perhaps give a wry smile or find it amusingly ridiculous -- that is what you can call MadoMagi Draft 0. むしろ、アクションシーンがいかに何にも記述されてなかったか、どの辺の設定が犬カレーさんによって盛り込まれたのか、そういう検証をして苦笑いするぶんには面白可笑しいかもしれない資料──それがまどマギ０稿と言えよう。
Butch_Gen Original tweet	And then, right, things like what all those people who got possessed by the "box witch" tried to mix in the bucket -- they were all described in stark details. That is Draft 0. 後は、そうね、ハコの魔女に取り憑かれた皆さんがバケツの中で何を混ぜようとしてたのか、赤裸々に記述されていたりする。それが０稿。べつにまどかマギカの前日段の書き下ろし、なんていう御大層なもんじゃないので、妙な期待はなさらないでいただきたい。

Note: "box witch" is H.N. Elly/Kirsten

Book Review Translation

Translation of excerpts from a book review.

Japanese	English
『全13話のシナリオページがメインですが、キャラの台詞とともに、演出部分も描かれていますのである意味、ノベルとしても楽しめる内容となってますね。本を読みながら、アニメを見ると・・・破壊力が違いますわ』	Although the main part is the [original] scenario pages of 13 episodes, there are also descriptions of the animation part as well as the characters' dialogues, so the contents can be enjoyed just like reading a novel. If I read this book while watching the anime...the impact will be of a different league.
『今まで物凄い勢いで駆け抜けていった「魔法少女まどか☆マギカ」という作品をより深く感じられる1冊となっています。アニメで自分が思ったこととは違う真意も見えたりしますのでファンの方にはオススメしたい1冊ですね』	This is a book that can get you to feel even more deeply about this work "Puella Magi Madoka Magica," which has come charging with such an enormous momentum. Since it shows the real intentions that may be different from what I thought from watching the anime, this is a book I recommend to fans of the anime.
『シナリオ決定稿から初出の０稿、インタビューなんかも含めて、これはシナリオ版のプロダクションノートと言ってもいいと思います。プロダクションノートを買った人、買ってない人もまどか☆マギカファンなら絶対に買うべき。読んだら納得しますよ！』	From the final draft of the scenario to the very first draft 0, and even the interviews as well, I think this can be called the Production Notes for the scenarios. Regardless of whether you have bought the Production Note, as long as you are a PMMM fan you should absolutely buy it. You will know why once you read it!

Gallery

General

Advertisement
Book with promotional poster (available only in Japan)
Madoka is also on the cover, but can only be seen up-close
Inside cover, Madoka is now clearly seen like in Dec 2011 NewType's cover
Table of Contents
First page in the book
Last page in the book
Another illustration, early in the book

Character Pages

Note: This book contains identical character profile and interview pages that were initially seen in July 2011 NewType, and was translated previously. In addition, this gallery contains new pages or pages with new text.