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. After a sequence full of implications, she finally parts with a tearful Homura, giving her her ribbons as a souvenir.

The episode ends with a world where no one but Tatsuya and Homura remember Madoka. Everybody's living, except for Madoka (obviously) and Sayaka (she still used all her magical power, but disappeared instead of becoming Oktavia von Seckendorff): Kyousuke is a famous violonist; Hitomi dates him; Mami, Homura and Kyouko are Magical Girls as usual; Madoka's parents live a peaceful life with their only child Tatsuya; Kyubey is just hanging around serving as a trash can (he still harvest curses, but they don't come from former magical girls). The magical girls are still fighting, but they peacefully disappear when they run out of magical power. What they are fighting are magical beasts that appear randomly.

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

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.

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

Accept Madoka into your heart, for she has died for our sins.
from 4chan
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.
Thank you for watching
Madoka 12 Yellow Eyes White Madoka.jpg
The magic circle (?) that Madoka shoots to destroy witches.
Puellamagis.jpg

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