Madoka Magica Episode 12: My Very Best Friend

My Best Friend わたしの、最高の友達
Script	Gen Urobuchi
Storyboard	Shinsaku Sasaki
Episode director	Yukihiro Miyamoto
Animation Director	Jun'ichirō Taniguchi Mika Takahashi

Summary

This section may contain major spoilers!

Please refrain from reading if you are not yet familiar with all the latest media released.

The episode starts with Madoka finally making her wish: "I wish to erase all witches from existence before they're even born. Every witch in the universe, from the past and the future, with my own hands". As promised by Kyubey, her wish is granted and she becomes a goddess, breaking Incubator's system at the same time. The next half of the episode is an in-depth animation of said transformation.

The first sequence is a short discussion with Kyouko and Mami: Mami warns Madoka of the consequences of her wish, while Kyouko encourages her in her usual forceful way. Madoka is then seen travelling through space and time, healing defeated Magical Girls (among which we can see historical figures such as Anne Franck, Cleopatra and Joan of Arc).

The consequence of her becoming a Magical Girl follows pretty soon: due to her wish, the laws of nature have altered, and the old world will be put to an end in order for a new one to take its place. Homura witnesses the Earth being swallowed in despair from the moon, where she also sees Madoka's soul gem, the size of an asteroid, travelling through space. The cosmic sequence continues with Madoka losing her nature as a human being to become a force of nature, detached from mankind; however, she is now suspended in interdimensional space, in contact with everyone and everything. After a sequence full of implications, she finally parts with a tearful Homura, giving her her ribbons as a souvenir, promising that they may meet again.

The scene cuts to an audition where Kyousuke is playing. In two of the seats are the spirits of Madoka and Sayaka. Madoka apologizes for causing Sayaka trouble, and says that she believes her sacrifices were not in vain. Sayaka responds that she only wanted to hear Kyousuke play one last time, as many more would come to see him in many years to come; she states that she has no regrets and that she believes Hitomi (who is hiding behind the curtain watching the performance) and Kyousuke will be a happy couple. The two get up and depart, and the scene cuts to Kyousuke as a famous violinist; as the audience applauds for him, he is struck by a memory of the hospital and says Sayaka's name.

Mami, Kyouko, now alive, fight a creature (revealed later to be a "demon"), and find that Sayaka had used the last of her magic to help Kyousuke, disappearing. Mami reflects on how the fate of a magical girl is to disappear before they can cause grief; Homura, wearing the ribbon thinking of Madoka, says her name and starts crying, and it is revealed that nobody in this world remembers Madoka but her. Homura later sees Tatsuya drawing a picture of Madoka in the sand; she talks to Madoka's parents and find that they also have no memory of their daughter, though she seems to manifest as Tatsuya's imaginary friend. Junko comments that the name Madoka feels nostalgic.

Homura then discusses her story with Kyubey, who says that it's possible everything Homura went through could be her imagination, and there would be no way to prove otherwise. However, he remarks, the concept of harvesting witches for energy would be more efficient than the new method: because there is still grief in the world, it manifests in the form of demons that the magical girls must fight; these demons also drop cube-shaped pieces much like Grief Seeds. Homura reflects on the world, thinking that this corrupted, grief-filled world is what Madoka seeked to protect, but she will never forget that. She then leaps on the demons, extending wings of light and carrying a bow and arrow.

After the credits, Homura walks through what looks like either a wasteland or a barrier towards a bunch of demons. Black wings sprout from her back, with distorted images that look like those of a witch's barrier; Madoka's voice encourage her, and Homura springs upon them to fight.

And with some hopeful words, Puella Magi Madoka Magica comes to an end.

Runes

See Runes of episode 12

Observations

• Once again, this episode used Connect as an ending song. However, there was no animation sequence, as instead the credits rolled in black on a white background.
  • This episode doesn't have a proper opening either.

• This episode ends with a squence which shows first the back of Madoka, Kyouko, Sayaka, Homura and Mami followed by the silhouettes of all Puella Magi which appeared in the anime. Even those which were only shown in their witch form´s. After that Madoka´s ribbon falls and Madoka´s soul gem is shown for a second.

• According with some fans the end of Episode 12 is considered a Lain ending. Madoka is the Jesus figure, Homura is her prophet, and Kyuubei is the Devil (analogous to the Temptation of Christ). Others have dubbed the ending a "Reverse Evangelion" ending. In Evangelion, all of humanity becomes a higher being except the protagonist(s), while, in Madoka's ending, the protagonist becomes a higher being while everyone else maintains a regular existence.

• Even if there are no witches in the world the Puella Magi have to fight against demons now. Therefore Kyuubey still can gain energy to fight against entropy

• The Incubators have been on the earth since the stone ages. Without them granting girls wishes, humans would still live in caves

• Madoka has changed the laws of the universe thus changing the Puella Magi system and humanity's relationship with Incubators: Witches do not exist on that world as spent Soul Gems disappear mysteriously before they can curse the world. But curses continue to haunt humanity in the form of Magical Beasts that no one knows where they are coming from, it is the role of Puella Magi to defeat these monsters to gather the curses to be harvested to slow the effects of entropy (once defeated, these new monsters become cubic fragments that can also be used to purify Soul Gems). Puella Magi who overexert their magical powers will die (or disappear) so they must use the dark cubes to purify their Soul Gems before that happens. And apparently Homura and Kyuubei have a better relationship on this new reality because of the new nature of the universe. Since Incubators cannot harvest Grief Seeds (as they do not exist), they cannot also harvest despair for it has no effect on fixing entropy (Kyuubei admits that if it was the opposite, the nature of Incubators would be totally different), so it seems that Puella Magi wont have to worry about the consequences of emotional distress.

Production errors

Even though Shaft had an extra month to check the quality of the episodes, the TV broadcast had at least one production error

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  Don't you see anything wrong here?

Speculations

• Cleopatra (Roberta) and Joan d'arc (Elsa Maria) were magical girls. ...perhaps Anne Frank too?

• There are many speculations regarding the ending. One camp says that we are seeing Homura in an apocalyptic future after a thousand years has passed (the actual year is unknown and this is a guess), but it is possible that Homura is actually inside a barrier so this idea could be incorrect. Another observation believes that Homura is about to die because she can feel Madoka's presence and hear her voice as Madoka has come for Homura's Soul Gem before it can cause harm on the world. There is also speculation that Homura is carrying Madoka's spirit with her as noticed by the strange wings she possesses and her new magical weapon that is the bow (similar to Madoka's magical weapon). Some suggest that the epilogue was left open ended for the possibility for a second season or maybe a new series.

• According with fans Madoka has become a Bodhisattva. She is not a deity but a person who could become a Buddha but chooses not to to help others attain Nirvana. Another way to see it is that Madoka has become the guardian angel of Puella Magi collecting their Soul Gems to be purified so she can led them to Paradise (her white wings makes her look like an Arch Angel)

The word you're looking for is valkyrie, not guardian angel.

Platonic Love or Yuri End?

The Yuri subtext is strong on this one

Just like the ending with Kyouko and Sayaka, there is speculation with fans regarding Homura's relationship with Madoka and her willingness to sacrifice it all for her. On this new world Sayaka dies but she has no regrets, and Kyouko laments her death just when they have became friends (fans have interpreted this in many ways).

In Episode 10, we learn that Homura was willing to create new timelines for all eternity just for Madoka. But once she learns that each new time line she creates only makes Madoka's fate into becoming a witch stronger Homura starts to have doubts but also makes her more resolute into saving Madoka from her fate. Kyuubei contest that Homura's hope is a trap and it is only a matter of time before despair consumes her. In Episode 11 Homura and Madoka have a conversation in which Homura confesses everything to Madoka, she even professes her love for her and how important Madoka is to her (this have been interpreted as a love confession, others see it as a strong bond of friendship). At the end of Episode 11, Homura is tempted to travel back again for a do over, but she stops and gives up, she knows that it was Homura's fault that Madoka carries such a heavy cosmic karma and the odds are against Homura on getting the right ending. She realizes that the more she travels back in time the more certain it is that she will fail as Homura has created a powerful reservoir of despair energies from different timelines concentrating on Madoka. To end Madoka's suffering and her own, Homura was close in becoming a witch as she was drowning in despair from her realization that her mission was hopeless. But Madoka stops her and tells her to never stop hoping.

Once Madoka defeats her own Witch version she causes a paradox, Madoka has become a deity of sorts but at the cost that Madoka the person ceases to exist in her world. Homura is not happy with this outcome but Madoka promises to Homura that she will always be there for her, that she hopes that one day they would meet again.

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  Similarities between Kannazuki no Miko and Madoka

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• Lilies.jpg

  Lili petals, cant get more yuri than that

The New World

The new world is the same as the old but with few changes, there are no more witches, Puella Magis dont become witches when they die, and despair wont change Puella Magi into witches. The whole Puella Magi system used to collect energy to stop entropy has been altered. Now Puella Magis are girls of justice fighting Magical Beasts to stop spreading curses (and conveniently those curses can be altered as dark energy cubes to recharge Soul Gems and slow down entropy). Madoka has become a deity whose role is to collect and purify spent Soul Gems before they become Grief Seeds allowing girls to die without cursing the world. Madoka now shoulders the burdens of Puella Magis but not of the world, which is why Curses are plaguing the world because human nature has not been altered as it remains the same (Puella Magis can still die or disappear, but this is a result of girls using too much magic before they can recharge, not as a result of despair). The issue of entropy has not been fixed but the new system solves it without sacrificing the soul of girls or forcing them into a system that will cause them despair and regret. Because of these new changes the relationship between humans and Incubators have been radically altered (for one, they are more friendly. But how radical is the change in Incubators, we can only speculate).

Initial broadcast and delays

This episode was scheduled to air on 24 March 2011 but has been pulled due to the 2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami. On April 10, 2011 it was announced that Madoka was scheduled to resume its broadcasting on the 21 of April 2011 and it would air the last two episodes back-to-back.

• MBS (Kansai area): 11th & 12th episodes on Thursday, April 21 at 26:40 (effectively Friday, April 22 at 2:40 a.m.)
• TBS (Tokyo's Kanto area): 10th, 11th, and 12th episodes on Thursday, April 21 at 27:00 (Friday, April 22 at 3:00 a.m.) TBS had preempted its airing of the 10th episode due to its news coverage of the earthquake.
• CBC (central Japan): 10th, 11th, and 12th episodes on Sunday, April 24 at 26:45 (Monday, April 25 at 2:45 a.m.).

• The fact that this episode aired during Good Friday, and the similarity between both events, led to jokes and far-fetched speculation from the fanbase.

Images

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  Accept Madoka into your heart, for she has died for our sins.

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  from 4chan

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  Remember kids, Jesus Madoka died for our sins.
  
  Our prophet is Homura, she is our leader and our Saviour.
  
  Join the Church of Madoka now.

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  Thank you for watching

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  Similarities between Kannazuki no Miko and Madoka

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  The magic circle (?) that Madoka shoots to destroy witches.

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  All the Puella Magis of the show, even the girls that only was shown as witches

• MadokaAndAnthony.png

  Madoka petting an Anthony

See also

A FAQ about the ending

Episodes
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