Magic

Magic in the Magica Universe are forces created from fluctuation of emotion, unbounded by the First Law of Thermodynamic. When Kyubey's scientifically-advanced race discovered magic, they realized its capacity to create new energy can postpone maximum Entropy and delay the heat death of the Universe. However, Kyubey's race is incapable of emotions, thus they scoured the Universe for species with the most emotional potential. He found his answer in Earth's human females, especially those still developing secondary sex characteristics. Magical girls and Witches, and thus the settings of the story, are the result of Kyubey's quest to harvest this energy.

Magical creatures

Three types of magical creatures exist in Magica universe: magical girls, witches, and familiars. However, because both familiars and magical girls can mature into witches, all three may be considered stages of a single species. Souls of magical girls and witches are separated from their bodies and reside in soul gems and grief seeds respectively. Because of this, magical girls and witches are highly invulnerable as long as their soul gems or grief seeds are intact and can recover in due time. Familiars do not have grief seeds so they are presumed dead when killed. Both soul gems and grief seeds are adorned by the emblem of the holder, and familiars carry the emblem of the witch from whom they budded from.

Read more about emblems at soul gems and grief seeds.

Common abilities

These are magical abilities common to all magical girls. For magical girls, magic usage (inside and outside of battle) causes their soul gems to become tainted, which must be cleansed by a vanquished witch's grief seed. With training, magical girls can become more proficient at these abilities and reduce magic usage. According to a magazine article, veteran magical girls will become very powerful in time as they gain experience. They can also develop different magical powers beyond those of their original abilities:

• Henshin: Magical girls undergo a magical transformation that summons a fancy new costume onto their body. It is assumed that the costume provides protection.
• Summon weaponry: Magical girls typically summon their offensive weapon from thin air or their soul gem at will. Each has their own characteristic weaponry and fighting style that they gain increasing proficiency at. Mami and Sayaka at least are able to make as many of them as they desire, and the weapons are not necessarily mundane as Mami's rifles fire blasts of magic, not bullets. For a catalogue of weapons used in the series, see Weapons.
• Summon barriers: Kyoko and Mami were shown to be able to create protective barriers in the anime.
  • Further expanded in Magia Record, any magical girl is capable of using protective magic if she desires or learns to; in Kaoru Maki's side story, Natsuki Utsuho's desire to protect her created defensive magic that saved her from a witch.
• Physical enhancements: All magical girls exhibit superhuman strength, agility, reaction, and regeneration. Further training allows the girls to be able to shut off their sense of pain during battle. They are also capable of harnessing the regenerative power to heal problems like nearsightedness. According to Kyubey, it is possible to keep fighting even with every drop of blood in their body drained by healing it with magic. These physical enhancements also include the ability to jump to incredible heights.
• Magic Detection: Soul gems glow when there are witches nearby, or if there has been witches nearby recently. From Episode 1, when Mami tells Homura that she can still chase after the witch, and from Episode 6, when Sayaka tries to find the trail of the familiar Anja, witches seem to leave behind some sort of trail of energy which magical girls can detect and follow. From episode 9, when Kyoko assures Madoka that the witch she's chasing has the same energy signature, it can be surmised that each witch has a different trail, possibly similar to a fingerprint or other identifier. In essence, every witch may be unique. It is unclear whether a witch's familiar has the same energy signature as the original witch, and it is unclear whether soul gems can also detect victims of a witches' kiss.
  • Further expanded in Magia Record, soul gems are also able to detect the magic of both other magical girls and Rumors.
  • The magical trace of Rumors are noted to be very different from that of witches.
• Telepathy: Magical Girls are able to use telepathy to communicate with other people, including normal humans. However it is possible there is a limited range on this ability or that Kyubey is needed to act as a relay. Only Mami and Kyoko were shown using this ability with Kyubey in the anime.
  • As shown in Magia Record, magical girls are able to telepathically communicate with each other without Kyubey entirely.
  • Also shown in Magia Record, telepathy can be negated by some Witch labyrinths, and is shown to have a maximum range in which it can be used.
• Flying/Hovering: While so far only Homura has displayed the outright ability to hover in the air (during her fight with Walpurgisnacht) it's not impossible they can all learn to do it.
• Magic Imbuement: Magical girls are able to imbue ordinary objects with magic. This can enhance their original functions, or allow them to be used in combat.

While most magical girls who aren't transformed are unable to use their magic, they still use up a bit of it to sustain their body involuntarily in their daily lives. However, even without transforming they can still use their Soul Gems in a limited fashion to perform magic. For example, the Soul Gem can be used:

1. To summon a magical weapon still attached to the Soul Gem.
2. To heal any form of injuries on themselves or others.
3. Adjust a body's ability.
4. Preserve a dead body from decomposition.

Unique Abilities

Wishes

Magical girls are granted unique, personalized powers based on the wish they made to become magical girls. As with the way wishes may be granted, the powers bestowed by them can be interpreted in many different ways.

In some cases, when a magical girl subconsciously rejects her wish, she loses the ability to use whatever power her wish granted her, as was the case with Kyoko Sakura losing access to her illusion magic. However, this may not always be the case, as multiple magical girls in Magia Record have been shown to reject their wishes (consciously or otherwise) and still retain their unique abilities.

Elemental Magic

As initially established in Magia Record and briefly shown in its anime adaptation, magical girls and their magic fall in one of six "elemental" categories: Light, Dark, Fire, Forest, Water, and Void.

In the game, these elements have strengths and weakness against each other: Light and Dark are equally strong and weak against each other; Fire is strong against Forest, Forest is strong against Water, and Water is strong against Fire; Void is neither weak or strong against any other element.

Personal Abilities

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Madoka

• Magical arrows: Madoka can produce arrows of pink magic that seem to explode on impact. She can fire as many as five in one shot and they appear to be able to curve in mid-flight to change direction.
• Incredible potential: Madoka is able to take out Walpurgisnacht in one hit in the right conditions. This would appear to burn through her magic near instantly however, and turn her into a witch.
• Law of Cycles/Vital Circle: Madoka can heal and purify the souls of magical girls from despair, preventing them from becoming witches and transferring them into an alternate dimension (heaven). This power is Madoka's wish, which turns her into a goddess, unleashing her immense potential, unseen by any magical girl ever before.
• Healing: In the timeline Magia Record takes place, it is postulated that Madoka and Iroha Tamaki's magic are very similar. As Iroha has healing magic, and Madoka is known to have wished to heal a cat in previous anime timelines, it is highly likely that she possesses healing magic in this timeline.

Homura

• Time stop: Homura can temporarily stop time in the surrounding area with exception of herself and anything in direct contact with her (such as holding hands).
• Hammer space: Besides blocking damage, her clockwork shield can store any size and amount of munition. Thus far, Homura has seen storing and pulling out from it pistols, grenades, flashbangs, an M249 and a large amounts of RPGs.
• Energy manipulation: She would appear to be able to fire purple-ish blasts of magic out of her hand (or Soul Gem), as well as form energy barriers around her shield to block attacks. In chapter 5 of Oriko Magica she creates a defensive barrier around Madoka.
• Time loop: Homura can rewind time back one month; however, she must wait at least one month between uses (or use up one month's worth of sand in her timer).
• Healing: Homura is seen healing her eyesight, allowing her to no longer wear glasses. It's also possible that she healed her heart condition and altered her physical state, allowing her to beat the school's pole jump record.
• Memory manipulation: Due to her wish in the new universe involving Madoka, whom only Homura remembered, she was granted the ability to manipulate both her own memories and those of others.

Sayaka

• Regeneration: Sayaka can quickly regenerate any otherwise fatal body damages and continue fighting. Because of her wish relating to healing someone, she uses less magic to do this and is more efficient at it than other magical girls, even Mami, who also made a wish related to healing.
• Screen sweep: Leaving blue streaks in her wake, Sayaka is able to quickly bounce across the entire battlefield and take out any enemies in her path.
• Musical platforms: Sayaka is shown creating magical platforms that take the appearance of musical notations to walk on and propel herself from. Whether this is specifically due to her own love of music, or an underlying reason for her wish, is uncertain.
• Witch summoning: In Rebellion, after having been claimed by the Law of Cycles and returning to Earth, Sayaka is shown summoning her witch form to fight alongside her in battle.

Mami

• Healing: In episode 1, Mami demonstrated the ability to heal wounds on others. Unlike Sayaka however, whose wish was related to healing, Mami is not as good at healing quickly like Sayaka can.
• Restrain: Mami can summon ribbons to restrain and incapacitate an adversary.
• Ribbons: She can shape her ribbons as she sees fit, making bridges or giant pistols out of them. Mami had to study the mechanics of pistols first before being able to shape her primary weapon (ribbons) into them though.
  • Ribbon Construct: As seen in Rebellion, Mami can create a duplicate of herself entirely our of ribbons. Whether it is capable of fighting on its own/possesses some form of its own consciousness, or if she is able to control it and experience sensations through it, is uncertain.
• Other abilities: Mami placed a ribbon barrier around Madoka and Sayaka in episode 1 to protect them from harm, and imbued Sayaka's bat with magic in episode 2. In Rebellion, she is shown using her magic to instantly curl her hair.

Kyoko

• Erecting fencing: Kyoko can erect a impenetrable, latticed barrier to keep others from harm or to isolate her adversary.
• Giant spears: Said barrier is made of giant spears. She would appear to be able to ride them and they behave somewhat like snakes due to their chained nature.
• Create Duplicates: This attack was shown in Drama CD 3, "Farewell Story", where she created up to 13 duplicates of herself. The attack was named Rosso Fantasma by Mami. Kyoko's subconscious mind blocks her use of this power after she lost her family.
• Energy manipulation: Kyoko is also able to shroud herself in a powerful magical glow. Whether it has any effect or is just for show remains to be seen.
• Soul Gem detonation: Suicide attack. Able to take out witches in one hit. It is unknown if other magical girls can also do this at will.
• Other abilities: Kyoko was able to keep Sayaka's (soulless) body from decaying while also keeping it warm. This might be a generic use of magic all of the girls can learn to do, but it might also just be an application of healing magic on a body other than hers. In Episode 4, she used her soul gem to transform and enhance a pair of binoculars.

Connect

Connect is a magical skill introduced in Magia Record and expanded upon in its anime adaptation. It is only accessible to magical girls who have been adjusted by a Coordinator like Mitama Yakumo, who describes it as a power "(magical girls) never knew (they) had before" that is brought to the fore, implying it is an innate ability of magical girls, but one that lies dormant within their souls for some reason.

Through Connect magic, activated by direct contact, magical girls are able to share their elemental magic with one another to perform powerful magical attacks (such as Momoko Togame, who has fire magic, utilizing Rena Minami's water magic, or Rena utilizing Kaede Akino's forest magic). If a magical girl is inexperienced at using Connect, or potentially if they have very powerful magic, their partner may be overwhelmed by the strength of the magic they are given.

Currently, the powerful attacks performed with Connect magic resemble the attacking girls' personal Magia attacks from the game, so it is unclear if such attacks are possible to perform without it in anime canon.

As shown in Episode 4, it is worth noting that, as Iroha's Light magic is not tied to a tangible element (such as Fire, Water, or Forest), and Tsuruno's Connect attack did not seem to involve any sort of Iroha's healing magic, it is unknown whether this means not all Connect attacks equally combine both girls' elements; if both girls must willingly combine their magic or must concentrate in order to do so; or if Light and Dark magic are simply less visible or mostly invisible in Connect attacks.

Adjustment

Adjustment, known as Coordination in English, is a magical skill used by Adjustors (Coordinators) that allows them to directly affect a magical girl's Soul Gem. This is usually done to enhance a customer's magic and make them stronger, but can be used adversely as well. This power also allows Adjustors to modify or entirely change a magical girl's outfit (as used by Mitama Yakumo to change Homura Akemi's outfit into a swimsuit), as well as gives them direct (albeit uncontrollable) access to their customer's memories.

As explained by Livia Medeiros, a magical girl can only learn Adjustment if her wish was one out of or that causes despair/ruin, rather than for or out of hope - in essence, a wish that was more like a curse. Such "wishes" bestow destructive powers that are mostly or entirely ineffective against Witches, but can weaken the power of other magical girls; Adjustment, then, is purposefully using this destructive magic wrong, so that it strengthens magical girls instead. Doing so is described as difficult, though, and consumes much more magic than using it properly - thus, those who survive to learn Adjustment offer their services in exchange for Grief Seeds collected by their customers.

Known Adjustors include:

• Mitama Yakumo
• Livia Medeiros
• Yozuru Sasame
• Sudachi Sawa

Magical realm

Witches and familiars reside in magical labyrinths of another dimension. These labyrinths interface with the real world at specific locations through an unknown mechanism, but can be entered by magic girls through ripping open barriers. To attract normal people to their locations to feed upon, witches infest unhappy people with a witch's kiss, which either attract them to these locations to commit suicide (if unhindered) or kill them off with diseases. For this reason, witches tend to gather around violence-prone areas and hospitals.

The labyrinths consist both of elements from their locations in reality and of allusions to the witches that create them. Deeper within the labyrinth, more references to the witch will be seen and fewer elements from reality show up. For example, in Episode 1, the labyrinth is set in a floor waiting for refurbishing, and it was fulfilled with 'under construction' signs and barriers of a construction site. In episode two, the labyrinth is set in an abandoned concrete building, thus the rooms in the labyrinth are made of solid concrete, making its appearance differ from Episode 1 even though the owner is the same. As the protagonists approach the the final room, elements of a rose garden start to dominate the construction elements. In episode three, the labyrinth is set in a hospital, therefore surgery signs, needles, gallipots, and wards are presented first, but deeper in, those are replaced by various kinds of desserts. The barrier can also be influenced by the strong emotions of the people within them, as seen in Episode 3 when Mami and Madoka make their promise.

Magic Seals

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  Madoka's Magic Seal

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  Homura's Magic Seal from Wraith Arc

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  Tart's Magic Seal

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  Suzune using Tsubaki's fire magic

• Iroha magic seal.jpg

  Iroha's Magic Seal from Magia Record

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  Minou's Magic Seals from Magia Record

Further reading

• Speculated magical powers