Cake Song
A nursery rhyme game played in Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion.
Lyrics
Original Japanese lyrics
Singer | Original | Romaji | English translation |
---|---|---|---|
Madoka, Sayaka, Kyoko |
ケーキ、ケーキ、まぁるいケーキ |
Kēki, kēki, maarui kēki |
Cake, cake, a round cake |
Bebe |
ケーキはさやか? |
Kēki wa Sayaka? |
Is the cake Sayaka? |
Sayaka |
ちーがーう |
Chi - ga - u |
No, you're wrong. |
Kyoko |
ちーがーう |
Chi - ga - u |
No, you're wrong. |
Mami |
ちーがーう |
Chi - ga - u |
No, you're wrong. |
Homura |
ちがっ…います |
Chiga… imasu |
No, that's... wrong. |
Madoka |
ちーがーう |
Chi - ga - u |
No, you're wrong. |
Madoka, Sayaka, Kyoko |
今夜のお夢は苦い夢 |
Kon'ya no o yume wa nigai yume |
But the dream tonight is a bitter one indeed. |
English dub lyrics
Singer | Lyrics |
---|---|
Madoka, Sayaka, Kyoko |
Big cake, round cake, right in front of me |
Bebe |
Gibberish(?) |
Sayaka |
No, it's not me. |
Kyoko |
No, not me. |
Mami |
No, it's not me. |
Homura |
No, not me. |
Madoka |
No, it's not me. |
Madoka, Sayaka, Kyoko |
So why is the dream so bitter all late? |
Observations
- Why Sayaka used raspberry in particular when blueberry would fit her better is unknown. Perhaps as a lead-in to the "red" trait?
- Mami's line is a reference to Homura's time loops ("goes round in circles"); it could also be a reference to Homura's or Madoka Magica's repetitive nature.
- Madoka's line foreshadows the ending twists of Homura undermining Ultimate Madoka and ripping her in half ("when the melon splits") and rewriting the world so everyone is alive and happy ("a sweet dream is created").
- Bebe apparently likes melons.
- Sayaka uses the pronoun "watashi" when she instead uses "atashi" as her go-to pronoun. Kyoko, however, still uses "atashi", making her the only one to not use "watashi" in the song (minus Bebe, who does not use a self-referring pronoun).
- Homura referring to herself with "pumpkin" could be a hint to her being a witch, since traditionally people link pumpkins to Halloween and traditional witches. Pumpkins have also been a symbol for "the world", which fits, given they're in Homura's barrier — a world of her creation.
- Homura and Mami do not participate much in the song; Madoka, Kyoko and Sayaka combined sing most of the lyrics, whereas the other two do not. Homura could be explained by her not knowing what's going on or not knowing what to do, but Mami's reason is unknown — perhaps she's trying to keep Bebe down due to incidents in the starting sequence where Bebe gets close to a terrified Homura, or during Mami's turn where Bebe turns to Mami, hungry and mouth-gaping at the mention of cheese.
- No one's mouths are shown to actually move during the opening and closing lines.
Rule interpretations
The song is sung in a Sprechgesang sort of style - the words are spoken rhythmically rather than sung melodically, accompanied by background music.
Cumulative description
A game of memory and improvisation, players take turn singing the nursery rhyme. On their turn, a player has to come up with and sing:
- An object with all the qualities previously mentioned
- A new quality that the object shares
- The next player to pass the song to
The player loses when they fail to sing their lines in time. In-universe, Madoka picked "melon" — which is "round", "red", "something Bebe likes", "goes round in circles", and "sweet" — but couldn't come up with a new quality for "melon".
Sequential description
Alternatively, the requirements could be the following:
- A food object that shares the previous quality.
- A quality that applies to the next player to pass the song to.
The "round" quality does not describe Sayaka because she comes first and Madoka does not have to supply a new quality because she is the last player. With these rules, the following character observations can be made:
- Sayaka is horrible at improvisation, since "red" is a dirt-simple observation. Or, she could be giving Kyoko an easy turn.
- Kyoko is similarly unimaginative; she uses "something Bebe likes" directed towards Mami, who is yellow like cheese, and good friends with Bebe. On the other hand, Kyoko's line on its own is very unspecific.
- Mami sees Homura as a clumsy child.
- Homura sees Madoka as sweet.
Gallery
Cake song lyrics and storyboard from Rebellion Production Note