Mami Tomoe

Mami Tomoe
Japanese Name	巴マミ (Tomoe Mami)
Seiyū	Kaori Mizuhashi
Age	14-15 (estimated)
Weapon	Rifled Matchlock Muskets

This section may contain major spoilers!

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

Mami Tomoe is a magical girl who appears to Madoka and Sayaka as they are attacked by a Witch in episode 1. She is already contracted to Kyuubey and offers to act as a mentor to the pair if they so chose to become magical girls themselves. She seemingly dies a gruesome death in the battle against the witch Charlotte in episode 3.

Official Info

A ninth-grader who attends Madoka’s school. A kind senior to Madoka, she’s the helpful, sisterly type. However, the gun she wields contrasts with that image.

Ms. Aoki’s Design Check: Her twisty, curly hair and floral hairpin make her seem like a big sister. Also, I gave her pretty big boobs. {tl note: Never change, Ume-tentei.}
Magical girl outfit: Mami’s design was definiely centered around her image as a gunner. The second thing that stands out are her breasts. (Aoki)
Her bustier and boots give her a Western flavor which her cap accentuates.
School uniform: Her style stands out even in uniform. Just as Ms. Aoki says, her breasts are the largest of the four. She wears pure white tights. (However, in the final design, she's seen wearing dark color tights.)
As revealed in episode 10, Mami has had multiple demises. Her first demise was when fighting Walpurgis Night. In a later timeline, Madoka kills a Mami who has fallen into insanity and despair in order to protect Homura.
She was brought back to life due to Madoka's wish at the end of Episode 12. She now fights Demons with Kyoko and Homura.

Fun Facts

The character for her last name (巴) literally means "comma design," a Japanese swirl pattern. More info here.
Her last name can also be used as a first name.
Her first name is written in katakana, which has no particular meaning. When written in kanji, it can be read as:
- graceful jewel (雅珠)
- light of love (愛光)
- true heart (真心)
- truth （真実）
- sea of the heavens (天海)
- dancing beauty (舞美)
- dancing light (舞光)
- polished beauty (磨美)
- sparkling purple (晶紫)
- magical beauty (魔美)
- magical charm (魔魅)
- intense hemp (麻深)
She is the only character whose first name is written in katakana. This is an accent (of elder grade) contrasting to Madoka, Sayaka and Homura, which are written in Hiragana.
The finishing move Mami used on the witch Gertrud and later Charlotte voiced out as "tiro finale" which means "final shot" in Italian.

Observations

She lives alone in an apartment after her parents died in a car accident. She used her wish to save her own life from the accident and feels guilty for forgetting about her parents in that moment of desperation.
Mami does not regret making her wish, preferring life as a lonely magical girl to death. What she does seem to regret, however, is not having had more time to think over it. She tells Madoka to think carefully of her wish, as she wasn't able to; she also chastises Sayaka when she asks if the wish has to be for herself or someone else, asking her outright if she truly wants to help the other person (Kamijou) or wants him to be in debt with her instead.
When assaulting Gertrud's barrier, Mami fights in a very focused and disciplined manner, choosing her shots carefully and reacting quickly when she gets into trouble. When hyped up on the Power of Friendship in Charlotte's barrier, she jumps recklessly into battle and freezes up when Charlotte transforms.
It's implied in the series that she knew Kyouko, and may have learned what her wish was. In Episode 2, Mami talks about how magical girls can view each other as competition. She displays hidden eyes when saying this, suggesting she had a very bad personal experience. In Episode 3, after Kyuubey says someone had previously made a wish for someone else, Mami claims that the wish didn't have a happy ending and again seems to have a pained expression. It seems in both cases she is talking about Kyouko, who views other magical girls as competition and who also made a wish for someone else. The unreleased prequel manga Oriko Magica is likely to explicitly confirm this, as it stars Kyouko and Mami.
Her fighting style while fighting Charlotte's minions resembles the gun kata from the movie Equilibrium. Urobuchi Gen is a fan of the movie and has written a fanfic about it, called Jouka no Monshou.
The magic that Mami uses to summon muskets inside her skirt during her curtsy visually resembles the manner in which Roberta the Maid unloads grenades from her skirt in the manga/anime series Black Lagoon. In Bakemonogatari -- another anime by director Akiyuki Shinbo -- the heroine, Hitagi Senjōgahara, unloads office supplies from her skirt for use as weapons in much the same way.
In episode 10, Mami from Timeline 1 seems to know that Walpurgis Night is coming. In episode 6, Kyouko implied that Walpurgis Night's approach cannot be predicted.
While she appears to be mentally strong, Mami is much more emotionally frail than she seems to. In episode 3 Mami admits it openly in front of Madoka, and in the manga rendition of said scene she even says that she cries a lot when on her own, thus declaring that she is no real role model for anyone before Madoka tells her she's not alone.
In episode 10, learning the awful truth about the Puella Magi after fighting Sayaka/Oktavia makes Mami from Timeline 3 lose her mind, since her whole view of the world is shattered. She breaks down in tears, kills Kyouko by shooting her Soul Gem, then wraps Homura in vines and tries to kill her in a similar manner, genuinely thinking that she is saving them from a fate worse than death. Madoka, however, destroys Mami's Soul Gem with a beam arrow and kills her to stop her rampage, before she and Homura go fight in Walpurgis Night.

Speculation

The exact phrasing of Mami's wish is currently unknown. It's possible that she wished not to "die alone", and thus died in episode three because the terms of her contract/wish were fulfilled. According to the manga, she simply asked Kyuubey to "save her" during her car accident, but whether this is canonical for the anime is unknown. However, this is theory is called into question when she is shown alive and well in Time Line 3, when all of Madoka, Sayaka, Homura and Kyouko are her Puella Magi colleagues.

It is possible that Mami may be able to be brought back to life without a wish. This is due to the body of a magical girl merely being the "husk" and that the soul is what keeps them alive; as long as her Soul Gem can be found, her life may be able to be restored. There is a catch, however: Mami's soul gem takes the form of a hairpin, and it was the first thing to be crushed in episode 3.

Gallery

Original character design by Aoki Ume
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Screenshot
Mami's soul gem
Charlotte's grief seed and Mami's cup.
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An early 4-koma speculating on Mami's wish.
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A 4-koma speculating on Mami and Homura's relationship.
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Coincidence, or something... DEEPER?