Madoka Kaname

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

Official Info

• An average eighth-grader, the kind you could find anywhere. 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.
• Kyubey, Homura and Mami confirmed that Madoka has great magical potential.
• In the first timeline, Madoka, along with Mami, saved Homura from a familiar. However, upon the end of this timeline, Madoka dies during the fight with Walpurgis Night.
• In a later timeline, Madoka is the one to task Homura to prevent her from becoming a Puella Magi.
• Madoka's fate is sealed to either dying or becoming a witch, with Homura trying to prevent this.
• A 100 Question Survey has been published revealing details about Madoka.
• According to a recent interview, "Madoka had her personality based on an 'Ume Aoki character'"
• In the final episode, Madoka ends up wishing to be able to go to all times and stop all witches from being born. This changes the very fabric of reality where Madoka is god that nobody remembers except for Homura. However, in this new reality, demons caused by distortions form, thus still giving Puella Magi purpose.

Speculations and Observations

• Madoka's power seems to increase exponentially, within each timeline. The first time she was merely an ordinary magical girl. In the last timeline she already had enough power to defeat Walpurgis with one shot, then in the witch form she was capable of destroying the entire Earth. She also satisfied all Kyubey's energy quotas for the entire planet. In the current timeline Kyubey is claiming that Madoka's power could be called godlike. She is said to be capable of even changing the laws of the universe if she wished for it. It may be interpreted as Kyubey giving her hint of what to wish for, telling her that she can revive her friends or change rules of this world, but Madoka is incapable of imagining her own power.
  • This can be related to Homura's wish which is contradictory to Madoka's fate. Since magical girl's wishes must be always fulfilled and fate cannot be changed, it requires to changing the rules in order to exit the cycle, and only way to do that is to make a wish.
  • Confirmed as of Episode 11, due to a Puella Magi's power being linked to the level of causality they would effect on their world (e.g. a queen whose actions could decide the fate of a nation would make a more powerful Puella Magi than a common schoolgirl whose area of effect is considerably smaller). Homura's resets link multiple parallel universes together with Madoka's fate as their center, augmenting the amount of effect she would have on them. Also, with every reset, Homura would force yet another parallel universe to be centred around Madoka, thus further adding to her potential power.
• 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.
• Confirmed as of Episode 12; Madoka's magic is powerful enough to create a parallel universe and is destroyed by her witch transformation at the end of time.
• In the last two episodes Madoka gains her original strong character back
• Madoka and Mami are the only Puellae Magi known who are never seen having a mark on any of their fingernails (see a picture below). Homura, Kyouko and Sayaka all have marks on their left middle fingers, matching the shape of the emblem of their respective Soul Gem. The meaning of that is unknown, speculations range from a production error to a connection to their wishes.
  • Madoka is also never seen with her Soul Gem in a ring form.

Trivia

• The first character of her last name (鹿) means "deer". The last character (目) means "eye."
• 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 has many stuffed animals similar in appearance to Kyubey in her room.
• It is revealed in the Drama CD that takes place during the events of Episode 10 that the reason she became a Puella Magi was to save the life of a cat from being run over by a car.[1]

Gallery

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  Original character design by Ume Aoki

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  Closeup of sleepy-eyed Madoka in the OP

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  Madoka Kaname

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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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  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!

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  A close-up of Madoka's arrow

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  Madoka using Multi-Shot

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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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  Madoka Kaname, Total Badass

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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

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  Ume Aoki's Dojinshi "RKGKMDK"

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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

This section contains fanart images

Everything in the following fan gallery is created, or the comments accompanying them are created, for entertainment value and should not be confused with actual canon events of the Puella Magi franchise.

• 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

External links

• 100 Questions - 100 questions answered by Madoka.
• Madoka Kaname at Pixiv image repository (Japanese)
• Madoka Kaname at Danbooru image repository (NSFW)