Madoka Magica Episode 6: This Just Can't Be Right

This Just Isn't Right; こんなの絶対おかしいよ
First airing	10 February 2011
Script	Gen Urobuchi
Storyboard	Shinsaku Sasaki
Episode director	Fujiaki Asari
Animation Director	Jun'ichi Fukunaga; Hitoshi Miyashima

"Unfortunately, only doing the right thing doesn't always end happily."
"Then just make a mistake, somebody has to be in the wrong to balance out her need to be "correct".
"Looking back after a while, you realize that was actualy the best choice in the end." ~ Junko Kaname

Summary

As presented in the previous episode, Kyoko Sakura almost finishes off Sayaka, only to discover that her spear is stabbing thin air and Homura has intervened. Sayaka is quickly knocked out by Homura. Annoyed, Kyoko asks Homura whose side she is on. Homura then states she is always with the cool-thinking people and against the troublemakers, demanding that Kyoko identify which group she belongs to. Kyoko complains, but retreats. Madoka asks Homura if she came to save Sayaka, but Homura berates Madoka for not following her advice at all. She warns that next time she may consider other (presumably brutal) options to make the fool listen, leaving Madoka horrified.

Sayaka uses a Grief Seed to clean her Soul Gem, and asks Kyubey how important it is to do so. Kyubey answers that it's needed to strengthen her magic. He advises Sayaka to get more Grief Seeds in order to become stronger, and tells her that if Madoka contracted, she'd have the power to defeat rivals like Kyoko. However, Sayaka firmly rejects the idea of involving Madoka.

Homura approaches Kyoko in an arcade and proposes a deal to let Kyoko have the city as her territory, but forbids her to attack Sayaka. Kyoko offers Homura a snack in a gesture of cooperation.

Madoka, concerned about the violence between Sayaka and Kyoko, tries to persuade Sayaka to seek a truce. She argues that Sayaka and Kyoko are both magical girls, who are supposed to battle witches, not each other. Sayaka rejects the idea, pointing out that selfish magical girls such as Kyoko intentionally let familiars attack humans, resulting in the deaths of innocent victims. Next time, it may even be Madoka's parents or Tatsuya.

Madoka, deeply worried about Sayaka, asks her mother for advice. She tells Madoka that people sometimes need to make mistakes. If there's no right answer, it's necessary to be wrong - something she believes Madoka must learn how to do gracefully in order to become an adult.

The next evening, Sayaka is once again confronted by Kyoko, who goads her into another fight on top of a highway bridge. However, before the battle starts, Madoka arrives and seizes Sayaka's Soul Gem, the source of a magical girl's energy, throwing it off the bridge in the hope of stopping the fight. To Madoka and Kyoko's shock, this causes Sayaka to suddenly collapse, lifeless. Kyubey says Madoka has just thrown Sayaka. It turns out that as part of the contract, the Soul Gem literally contains a magical girl's soul, with their body becoming a mere shell that turns limp and lifeless if the Soul Gem is more than 100 metres away from them.

Appalled, Kyoko explodes, claiming that what Kyubey has done is practically turning girls into zombies. Kyubey expresses his difficulty in understanding all girls' repulsion towards the idea, describing how useful the arrangement is for enabling girls to survive witches' attacks. Meanwhile, Homura rushes to retrieve the Soul Gem and brings it back to Sayaka in order to revive her. Sayaka wakes up, not remembering anything that happened after Madoka threw her gem away.

Observations

Madoka's homework is Hey diddle diddle!, an English rhyme.
The game Kyoko is playing in the arcade, Dog Drug Reinforcement, is based on Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series.
- The characters decorating the arcade cabinet seem to have a resemblance to Konami's pop'n music series of music games.
- Kyoko is dancing to a remix of the show's opening theme, "Connect" by ClariS.
- The arcade cabinet features a logo that says "inudaruma" on its sides.
The opening sequence in episode 6 changed once again. This time, the transformation sequence is more colorful than before, and the angle changed slightly.
Rabbit heads are seen twice during this episode, first on Sayaka's bedding and latter on the screen of the game Kyoko was playing in the arcade. When Kyoko finishes playing the game, the smiling rabbit heads on the screen change to a "dying" expression" and a halo and pair of wings float upwards from them.
During the arcade scene, Homura mentions something by the name of "Walpurgisnacht" (ワルプルギスの夜, Warupurugisu no Yoru, Night of Walpurgis). At this point in the story, little is known about "Walpurgisnacht" (is it an event? A witch? Something else?). You can find more information about the real-life event here, and the anime "thing" here (caution: mega-spoiler ahead).
The grief seed that Sayaka used and Kyubey consumed was Elly's.
Junko's speech with Madoka is interpreted as moral relativism. Just because you think you are doing the right thing doesn’t mean that you will make others or yourself happy. However, “the desire to lead the world in the right direction is not wrong in itself,” as illustrated by the ending.

Madoka's and Junko's Conversation

Madoka: "A friend of mine is in a tough situation... What she's doing and saying probably isn't wrong... But the more she tries to do what's right, the worse it gets..."

Junko: "That happens a lot. It sucks, but you can't expect a happy ending just by doing what's right all the time. Actually, the more people get stubborn and insist that they're in the right, the farther away happiness gets..."

Madoka: "It's not fair if you can't be happy even though you're not doing the wrong things."

Junko: "Yeah."

Madoka: "What do you think I should do?"

Junko: "That's not a problem that can be solved by someone not involved."

Madoka: "..."

Junko: "Do you want to solve this, even if it's not the nicest way to do it?"

Madoka: "Yeah."

Junko: "All you have to do is make a mistake for her. Somebody has to be in the wrong to balance out her need to be in the right."

Madoka: "Do something wrong?"

Junko: "Tell a white lie, or run away from something scary. Sometimes you realize that was actually the best choice in the end. Sometimes when you hit a dead end with no real alternatives, making a big mistake is an option."

Madoka: "But do you think she'll understand that I'm doing it for her own good?"

Junko: "She may or may not. Especially at first. I told you it might not be the nicest way to do it. But would you rather give up on her, or give her the wrong idea about you?"

Madoka: "..."

Junko: "Madoka, you grew up to be a good girl. You don't lie, and you don't do anything bad. You're always trying hard to do what is right. You're already a wonderful child. That's why you should start learning how to make mistakes before you grow up."

Madoka: "Learning how to make mistakes?"

Junko: "You recover from injury faster when you're young. If you learn how to fall down now, it'll be easier for you later on... When you get older, making mistakes gets harder. The more things you're responsible for, the less mistakes you can make."

Madoka: "I see..."

Runes

No runes were featured in this episode.

Speculations

The theories below have not been proven yet.
Please keep in mind that they are fanmade theories, and not official material.

If Mami's soul gem can be recovered, it may be possible to revive her. There is a catch, however: Mami's soul gem takes the form of a hairpin, and as you know it was the first thing to get crushed in episode 3.
Kyubey appears to eat Grief Seeds. What this means has yet to be seen. For more speculation on the subject, please refer to Kyubey is Evil

Images

Screenshots

Madoka's homework is an English rhyme.
The dancing game Kyoko is playing, probably inspired by Dance Dance Revolution.

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.

Madoka dont throw your friend.png

Even for Kyubey, throwing your friend is just wrong.

Miscellaneous

The opening in episode 5 (top) versus episode 6. (bottom)
Madoka's keyboard is similar to this commercially available Laser Keyboard.
Elly's grief seed from episode 4 was used in this episode.
After flipping the original picture, Mahou Shoujos form the character "死" (death)

External links

Madoka Magica Episode 6: This Just Can't Be Right summary at official website (Japanese)

Episodes
Previous episode	Current episode	Next episode
Episode 5 There's No Way I'd Regret This	Madoka Magica Episode 6: This Just Can't Be Right This is Definitely Odd	Episode 7 Can You Face Your True Feelings?