Wraith

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Wraith types by Gekidan Inu Curry from Wraith Arc volume 1

Wraiths (魔獣, Majū, lit. magical beasts) are manifestations of grief in the new world recreated by Madoka Kaname. They replace the witches that magical girls must fight. They resemble tall, statue-like men wearing robes with no visible limbs (though concept art shows them as having hands that shoot thin lasers to attack). Their faces are partially covered by digital polygon-like shapes that appear to glitch out randomly on or around their being.

Appearances

Wraiths first appear at the post-credits scene of episode 12 of the original anime after Madoka's wish erases all the witches and Homura Akemi is seen fighting several of them afterwards. It is shown that in the new world, magical girls now fight wraiths instead, which are merely a different form of curses born from humanity.

They appear to travel in large groups and do not reside in barriers, mostly appearing at night, unable to be seen by normal people. It is implied by Kyubey that they give off miasma in the air, which supposedly points to how many are in a single area. When defeated, wraiths drop (possibly several) small, cubic fragments of their grief similar to witches' grief seeds that can be harvested by magical girls to clean their soul gems and combat entropy (though Kyubey points out that this comes at the expense of energy efficiency).

Wraiths are mentioned but not seen nor focused on in Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion.

Wraiths feature prominently in the manga spin-off Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc, where they serve as the main antagonistic forces and sources of conflict in the plot, outside of the characters' interactions with one another. Wraith Arc also gives more information on the nature, behavior, and types of wraiths. Wraiths are shown to be able to affect soul gems (as performed on Sayaka Miki), steal away magic powers (as performed on Homura Akemi), take objects (stealing Homura's ribbons from Madoka), and even take on the forms (including memories and intelligence) of magical girls and possibly other human beings.

Types of Wraiths

There are five known types of wraiths, each progressively more powerful:

Normal Wraiths: The most basic type, which grow in hordes and travel like weeds. They attack magical girls by shooting laser beams from their hands. These wraiths are the most common and are often found in large groups.

Acolyte Wraiths (Shugen): Slightly stronger than normal wraiths. These wraiths generate intense heat and use burning swords or flaming spears to attack their opponents.

Enlightenment Wraiths (Satori): A more powerful form of wraith. Enlightenment wraiths have block-shaped organs used for crushing things and can manipulate their environment. They cause metal to erode, disable machines, and even dry out the skin of anyone nearby when they appear.

Deliverance Wraiths (Moksha): The strongest known wraiths. Deliverance wraiths exude extreme cold and spread frigid air wherever they go, with an aura so cold that it can freeze Mami’s ribbons before they make contact.

Mutated Wraiths: These special wraiths take on forms similar to magical girls or people close to their targets. They possess powers stolen from Homura, such as her memory manipulation magic and time manipulation magic.

Abilities

Wraiths possess various powers and abilities, making them formidable enemies for magical girls:

Teleportation: Wraiths can teleport from one place to another, allowing them to ambush opponents or escape when threatened.

Invisibility: Much like Kyubey and witches, wraiths are invisible to regular humans, only magical girls can see them. Their ability also masks the presence of magical girls while fighting, which helps keep the existence of magical girls a secret.

Emotion Siphonage: Wraiths are attracted to unstable emotions and feed on the emotional energy of humans and magical girls. If they consume someone’s heart, that person becomes an emotional shell of themselves. The emotional energy is then converted into a "safe form" as grief cubes and when the wraith carrying them is defeated, they're left behind. However, the cubes are less effective than grief seeds in purifying soul gems and contain the emotional energy collected from people in a purified form.

Emotion Detection: Wraiths are particularly drawn to the strong emotions of magical girls, especially those with unstable emotions. If a magical girl’s emotions are highly unstable, the wraiths can encase her in a cube while taking a praying position, draining her emotions and making it difficult to escape.

Aura of Cold: Some wraiths, particularly the stronger types, exude a cold aura that can freeze objects in their surroundings.

Beams and Projectiles: Wraiths primarily attack magical girls either by shooting energy beams from the glitching around them, or through shooting swords from their palms.

Mutations

Certain wraiths have mutated due to absorbing Homura's emotions, gaining unique powers and characteristics:

Mutant Wraiths: These wraiths are created when they absorbed part of Homura’s memory and time manipulation powers, without being able to convert them into grief cubes. They can take on the form of people close to their targets which are based on their memories to trick their victims. When attacking, they revert to a more wraith-like appearance. Examples include Wraith forms of Mami's parents, Sayaka, Kyoko, Mami herself and Wraith Madoka, who have all appeared to different characters in the series. Due to this disguising ability originating from Homura's memory manipulation magic, only the people who knew those impersonated could be fooled by their disguises, as others see them as wraiths. They also had the power to momentarily stop time to attack, which initially appears as super-speed to others.

Wraith Madoka: A special mutant wraith that took the form of Madoka and claimed to be an ally of Homura. This wraith was more sentient than others and could communicate telepathically. As it spent more time with Homura, it absorbed more and more of her emotions, even gaining the power of momentarily stopping time herself.

The Spindle Witch: A giant wraith mutated by the curse inside Homura’s shield. The Spindle Witch is both a wraith and not, being an incomplete witch and serving as a manifestation of calamity. It can instantly kill anything it touches and exerts an immense cold that balances the heat stolen from other beings.

Homura Models: The Spindle Witch's familiars which resemble both Homura and Deliverance Wraiths. They are mass-produced and attack with energy beams.

Observations

Because Madoka's wish only erased witches, grief was not removed from the new world as Madoka didn't change human nature. As a result, the wraiths are distortions of Madoka's cause and effect of her wish, and give magical girls other means of obtaining grief seeds to clean their soul gems and combat entropy.
Wraith types are named after Buddhist levels of enlightenment.
- Shugen is a Buddhist term referring to a form of asceticism that involves becoming one with nature/kami/the Tao (the practice tends to be syncretic)
- Satori refers to spiritual awakening and is often translated as "enlightenment", but it's different from Buddhahood. It's more about understanding one's own nature, which is just a step towards complete enlightenment.
- Moksha means emancipation from earthly desires. It's like nirvana, but not quite, since a person undergoing moksha hasn't died yet.
The wraiths seem to resemble "moirae" from Greek mythology, beings that personified the inescapable destiny of humanity.

Trivia

Early fansubs of the anime called wraiths "demons". The name of "wraith" comes from the official translation of the anime.
- The official translations of the manga versions refer to them as "magical beasts". It should be noted, however, that the official manga translations are already inconsistent with the official anime translations.
While defeating a wraith that has stolen someone's emotions won't instantly return them, victims may gradually regain their emotions over time regardless. At least, this was implied by Mami to be the case with magical girls, telling Homura to grow stronger to compensate for her lost magic.

Gallery

Official Art

Art from the Puella Magi Production Note
From here
From here

Screenshots

A large group of wraiths approaching Homura in Episode 12
A Satori Wraith from the Concept Movie trailer

Manga

An explanation of mutant wraiths from the Wraith Arc
A giant wraith, note its appearance is different from a normal wraith
Mutant wraith taking Sayaka's form
Mutant wraith taking Kyoko's form
Mutant wraith taking Mami's form
Mutant wraith taking Madoka's form as seen by others. Note the third eye and magic symbol on her chest not present in other mutant wraiths
Giant Wraith transformed, also called the Spindle Witch
Mutant Wraiths taking on the role of the transformed Wraith's familiars. They take the appearance of Homura