Madoka Kaname

"If someone tells me that it's wrong to hope, I'll tell them they're wrong everytime." ~ Kaname Madoka in Episode 12.

Madoka Kaname
Japanese Name	鹿目 まどか (Kaname Madoka)
Seiyū	Aoi Yuuki
Age	14
Weapon	Bow

The protagonist and title character Madoka is a gentle and friendly 14 years old girl. Living an ordinary life, Madoka has a loving family and is surrounded by good friends. One day she had a dream of a mysterious girl who was fighting an ominous creature. The next day, that girl in her dream - Akemi Homura - came to her class as a transfer student.

Official Info

• Character profile:
  • A good-natured and ordinary eighth-grader. Even her bow-wielding magical girl form projects an air of kind friendliness. Her choker bears an impressively-sized red gem.
  • Ms. Aoki’s Design Check!: I drew her keeping in mind that as the main character she needs to be average, but also an exceptionally good girl. Hence her puffy, high-placed twin tails. The design and color of her ribbons took a lot of work, but in the end calmed down to something simple.
  • Magical girl outfit: Madoka was drawn to be the very image of a magical girl. I added an almost fairytale-ish hints, so hopefully female viewers will be charmed by her as well. (Aoki)
  • Full of tiny frills, with ribbons arranged at the neck, waist, and on the shoes. It’s perfectly “cute”, and seemingly unsuited for combat, but…
  • School uniform: Designed to convey the classy image of a private girls’ school, while not being -too- normal. Its distinguishing point is the small hole at the nape of the neck. (Aoki)
  • Of the heroines shown here, Madoka has the most childish body. Her legs are clad in pure, virginal white over-knee socks.
• From pre-broadcast November promotion video:
  • "A gentle 2nd year middle school girl who think of friends before herself."
  • "If anything could be granted with a magic…"
  • "What would you do?"
• From anime:
  • Madoka's mother, Junko, commented that she has always been a good child and never lie.
  • Kyubey, Homura and Mami confirmed that Madoka has great magical potential.
  • Madoka became the Embodiment of Hope in the finale.
• A 100 Question Survey has been published revealing details about Madoka.
• According to NewType 2011-07 interview with Gen Urobuchi, Madoka character is written based on Yuno from Hidamari Sketch (Aoki Ume's creation).
  • "To be honest, Madoka, the protagonist, is a pretty unusual character for my writing style."
  • "A foreign character that did not exist inside myself."
  • "I wrote the screenplay as if Yunocchi (from Hidamari Sketch) is to be put as the protagonist. I even had the preparation that seiyuu Asumi (Kana)-san would play her (lol)."
  • "I imagined all the other characters by starting from “Madoka = Yuno”."
  • "And every time I got Yunocchi to cry I got hated by the Hidamari fans more (lol)."

Trivia

• The characters of her last name means "deer" (鹿) and "eye"(目), respectively.
• Her last name can also be used as a first name.
• Her last name sounds same as (要) the word means "keystone" or "hub".
• Her first name is written in hiragana which has no particular meaning. However, when written in kanji, it can mean "round" or "tranquil" (円).
• Madoka owns many stuffed animals in her room.
• Madoka and Mami are the only Magical Girl known who are never seen having a mark on any of their fingernails. Homura, Kyouko and Sayaka all have marks on their left middle fingers, matching the shape of the emblem of their respective Soul Gem.
• Madoka is never seen with her Soul Gem in a ring form.
• Madoka loves cats like Homura.
• Yuuki Aoi (Madoka's VA) really likes Kyouko and she claimed that Kyouko is her wife. You can hear her confession in the Magical Girls Tea Party bonus CD.

Observation

Characterization

• Madoka is a nice kid, somewhat naive due to being a teenage.
  • Friendly and gentle toward Homura, a new transfer student no matter which timeline.
  • Wanted to be helpful to other people.
  • Admired Mami for being strong and was severely affected by her death.
  • Constantly worried about Sayaka's safety and willing to face danger for her friend.
• A level-headed person, capable of making decisions on her own, and is the most mature compared to other characters.
  • Didn't believe Homura is "totally evil" as she was told, tried to understand her better based on what she observed.
  • Didn't wish to revive Mami, who is just a new acquaintance, but ready to sacrifice herself for her best friend Sayaka. This added up the realistic aspect of Madoka's character.
  • Tried to prevent Sayaka and Kyouko's unnecessary fight, pursued Sayaka to solve conflicts by negotiation instead of violence.
  • Looked for consultant from her mother without mentioning magic.
  • Can answer immediately to Kyubey that even if the Incubators have good reason to collect energy, they are still human's enemy. This is a proof of her understanding humanity.
  • Kept calm toward Homura's revelation and reminded Sayaka not to stir conflicts between teammates (TL3).
  • Acted fast to take out Mami and saved Homura (TL3).
  • Used the last grief seed to save Homura because she wanted the latter to prevent tragic outcome (TL3).
  • Thought of a wish that bring most benefits to other people based on the info she had.
• Madoka stood as a contrast to that of Sayaka's character. While both are good-hearted girls, Madoka never judges based on first impression, never makes rash assumption, and has the mentality to deal with truth.
• Madoka's wishes always stemmed from her kindness and appeared to be the most selfless compared to other characters.
  • From what we know until now, she had made a contract with Kyubey in order to save a cat whom had just died in front of her (TL1), save Homura from Walpugisnacht (TL4), release Magical Girls in the past and future from their curse fate of becoming witches (Episode 12).
  • Asked to accompany Sayaka on her witch hunt just so if the latter was ever in danger, she could make a wish and come to rescue Sayaka. She nearly make this wish in Episode 8.
  • Madoka's kindness is one of the major reason Homura is so drawn to her. From Drama CD 1 "Memories of you", the reason Madoka became a Magical Girl in the first timeline is to save a cat which had been run over by a car. Madoka also treated Homura very nice from the beginning, who at that time was being bullied. We also learn that whenever Madoka made a contract and become a Magical Girl, she would act much more confident since it gave her a sense of purpose. Homura's interventions during the course of the anime prevented this change.

Important Plot Points

• Episode 8: Kyubey claimed Madoka's power to be godlike, she could even change the laws of the universe if she wished for it.
• Episode 10: In the first timeline, Madoka along with Mami saved Homura from a familiar. She died during the fight with Walpurgis Night. In the second timeline, Madoka turned into a witch for the first time, revealing to Homura the link between Magical Girls and Witches. In a later timeline, Madoka killed Mami in order to save Homura, as Mami lost control of herself and had just killed Kyouko. This is also the timeline Madoka asked Homura to go back time and prevent her from becoming a Magical Girl. Madoka's power increased exponentially after every timeline. The first time showed she was an ordinary magical girl. In later timeline she had enough power to defeat Walpurgis in one shot, capable of destroying the entire planet within 10 days in her witch form, satisfied all Kyubey's energy quotas of the Earth.
• Episode 11: Homura's time repeats had linked multiple parallel universes together with Madoka's fate as their center. With every reset, Homura would force yet another parallel universe to be centred around Madoka. The accumulated misfortune and bad karma is the reason why Madoka's potential power is so great. Hearing the revelations from Kyubey regarding the history of Magical Girls, Madoka was deeply hurt and thus wanting to save these girls from despair.
• Episode 12: Madoka wished to erase all witches in every dimension, in every timeline, with her own hand. This created a paradox because Madoka would eventually erase her own witch self, while she must continue to exist and destroy other witches. This paradox resulted in Madoka escaped the bound of reality and ascended to godhood. Since Madoka never exist in this reality anymore, she is no longer remembered by anyone, except for Homura.

Speculation

• Theoretically there is also the danger that, should Madoka became extremely powerful and turn into a witch, her power may be enough to destroy not only Earth, but the entire universe.
  • INCREDIBLY unlikely. Kyubey's species is (if they can be trusted) trying to save the universe in the first place, not trying to destroy it. They wouldn't create something they can't take down.
    • Then again, Kyubey remarked in the fourth timeline that he didn't know Madoka would turn out to be so powerful. While in this timeline he probably knows (and definitely doesn't care) that the witch form of Madoka could destroy the Earth, he may not know the full extent of her power.

In Kazumi Magica

Madoka's silhouette appeared once during Juubey's explanation about Magical Girl system. She also makes a single-panel cameo in the extra pages in the first volume of the collected edition.

In Oriko Magica

• Madoka appears in Chapter 3, asking Homura to go home with her, along with Sayaka and Hitomi. She is well protected by Homura and isn't aware of Magical Girl system.
• She appears in Chapter 4 for one page. She is shown with her friends Homura, Sayaka and Hitomi going out for snacks after school.
• In the last chapter, Madoka escaped from the protective barrier by Homura, and tried to help Homura with Sayaka and Hitomi. She was killed by Oriko at the very end, when they dying Orik used a shard of kirika's witch body to impale Madoka through the torso. Once Oriko dies and the witch barrier is lifted, we see Hitomi and Sayaka mourning for the dead Madoka.

Gallery

Official art

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  Initial design

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  Original character design by Ume Aoki

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  Madoka having a sleepover with friends

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  Translated Ume 4koma from Madoka BD volume 1

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  Autographed illustration by Ume Aoki

• Ume madoka kyubey.jpg
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  Ume Aoki's Dojinshi "RKGKMDK"

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  Animedia 2011-06

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  Megami magazine, April 2011.

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  Nyantype magazine, April 2011.

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  from the Blu-Ray Volume 1 Booklet.

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  Madoka as drawn by Takashi Tensugi, the artist for Kazumi Magica.

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  Madoka as she appears in Oriko Magica.

Screenshots

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  Closeup of sleepy-eyed Madoka in the OP

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  Madoka Kaname

• Screenshot madoka fascinating.jpg
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  Madoka daydreaming about getting a love letter.

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  Madoka with a ponytail

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  A self-portrait. Drawing is one of Madoka's hobbies.

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  Madoka x Madoka in the opening animation

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  Madoka's soul gem

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  Madoka dodging wheels

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  Kaname Madoka, Total Badass.

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  Closeup of Madoka's hands in Episode 10 (TBS version), Timeline 1, when she is walking Homura to the nurse's office. She is known to be contracted by then. Note no Soul Gem ring or fingernail mark.

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  Madoka is purifying Homura's Soul Gem in Episode 10's Timeline 3. Again, note no fingernail mark.

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Fanart

• Superfriends.png

  Many experts believe something sort of like this happened after the final episode of Madoka Magica ended

• Madoka fuels the Universe.png
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  Fan coloring of Ume's work

• Madokami art front back.jpg

  Madoka as the Goddess/concept of Hope

• Fan creation Madoka Soul Gem.jpg

  Fan jewelry creation of Madoka's Soul Gem with a pink nebula inside (?) or a pink rose bud (?)

• MadoKami gundam.jpg
• Scary madokami.jpg

  You shall have no other gods before Me. That includes that wannabe Haruhi.

• MadoKami and Charlotte.jpg

  Madoka rescues Charlotte.

• Madoka evolution magical girl.jpg

  Madoka has evolved into MadoKami!

• It's tough to be a goddess.gif

  No Mahou Shoujo Predator? But they are practically born into the hunting tradition!

• Madoka learning how to befriend.png

  Madoka learning from the master.

Miscellaneous

Madoka's bow

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  Rendition of Madoka's bow; it looks like a branch with a rose on its end

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  Madoka's bow in action

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  You're gonna get befriended!
  Animated version

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  A close-up of Madoka's arrow

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  Madoka using Multi-Shot
  Animated version

Aoi Yuki

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  Aoi Yuki. BLT magazine, 2011-6.

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  Aoi Yuki Data file.

See also

• Kriemhild Gretchen, Madoka's witch form.

External links

• Madoka Kaname at Pixiv image repository (Japanese)
• Madoka Kaname at Danbooru image repository (NSFW)