Rebellion Material Book

A booklet is included with the Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica The Rebellion Story Limited Edition Blu-Ray. The full contents of the BD are listed on the Products Page.

Akiyuki Shinbo (Chief Director)

I WANTED TO SEE THE CHARACTERS IN ACTION AGAIN

In your opinion, why didn't Rebellion get a so-called straightforward happy ending?

SHINBO: Well, I think one reason is because that's not how the story was leaning. There's also the fact that it wasn't easy to open new doors after the TV series had already ended once. With that being the case, we decided to go for that kind of ending.

So does that mean that you had the desire to make something new from Madoka Magica, despite the difficulty in doing so?

SHINBO: It wasn't so much that I wanted to continue building on the story, but rather that I had a strong desire to see those characters in action again, and that's probably why I made this film. The fans had embraces the characters, and everybody on the production team had a really great time, and I wanted to experience that again - that was my starting-off point. The one thing is that the distortion of those feelings must have seeped into the story. That it was as if we'd balanced everything out with this installment.

You're saying that you've balanced out the happy world of the first half with the second half, when it's revealed that it was much like a dream.

SHINBO: Part of me felt that our viewers probably wanted to see that kind of world, from the first half. But some people have said that it was precisely the upbeat first half that creeped them out. That wasn't my intention; I just thought that it was nice to see that kind of world, too. But for Madoka Magica fans, that kind of world might be "somehow off or contrived." That was an unexpected effect, but I think that may be why it turned out to be such an unexpected title.

Since it's so popular, you could say that what people seek in Madoka Magica as a title varies from person to person.

SHINBO: But I think that might be the impression of someone after they've seen it once. If you watch a second time, knowing the structure of the story, I think you can enjoy the first half. There's a difference between watching it without knowing the story, and watching it with full knowledge. If you watch it without knowing, then yes, the first half might really come off as everyone putting in a contrived performance to make it seem like this happy world. But if you know everything when you're watching, you can say to yourself, "Oh, I see, so that's what's going on," so that sense of falseness might actually start to wear off.

Either way, it's not as if you deliberately set out to create that sense of falseness, right?

SHINBO: That's right. because I wanted to see that scene where everyone's working together in battle. But that's not how the fans saw it; I think there was an unexpected synergistic effect. And that was probably a good thing. I don't think it would've been right for there to be only one way of interpreting the story. And that might be why, when you watch the ending, you get a different impression every time you re-watch it.

About the ending, on one hand it seems as if the story is starting right there; on the other, with the god and demon being born, it can also seem as if the "myth of creation" type of story has ended.

SHINBO: Although that doesn't mean that there's another story coming; that ending on its own should just be seen as the conclusion to this story. It does seem as if the story has come to an end after achieving a mysterious kind of balance. Considering the fact that it's the sequel to the TV series, it's really not that far-fetched to say that we planned to end that way from the start.

Kyubey, who you could say was the mastermind of the story since the TV series, has been reduced to a complete wreck.

SHINBO: Well, it does seem as if he's been defeated by Homura, but personally, I hope he doesn't surrender! After all, even if Kyubey dies, there's plenty more of him.

Did you propose anything specifically in terms of how you wanted Rebellion to turn out?

SHINBO: Yes, as I mentioned earlier, I said that I wanted them to create a situation where they'd all be battling side by side as friends. And not just the battle; I told them that I wanted to see them going to school, doing ordinary things like that. That's what I wanted to see myself. So in terms of creating the film, I was more motivated to put the characters in those kind of situations and set them in motion again, rather than focusing on the story. Without that, I don't think there would've been any point in making a new film. That's why this time around; we created a situation where Sayaka was fighting by Kyoko's side.

So it wasn't all about the story - what you wanted to do first was to depict the characters?

SHINBO: I've mentioned this in other interviews as well, but if our viewers have no interest in the characters, then no matter how engrossing the story is, no matter what kind of secrets there may be in the world, they'll just brush it off with an "Oh, I see. Hmmm..." It's because they have an emotional investment in the characters living in that world that they start wondering where the story will lead them, or what kind of world it is that they're observing.

In the case of Madoka Magica, would you say that those characters were developed well?

SHINBO: That's part of it, but to put it another way, I believe that Madoka Magica is a title whose characters were partially "raised" by its viewers. This brought on a synergistic effect, and so I wanted to set these characters that they'd raised in motion.

AN EMPHASIS ON KEEPING IT MADOKA MAGICA-ESQUE

Once you knew you were going to make the movie versions, was there anything that you personally made a point of doing that was different from how you made the TV series?

SHINBO: No, there wasn't. The concepts I came up with were like, "It's Madoka Magica, so why don't we include an OP theme?" If I were making it as a movie, I don't think I would've out in that TV series-like OP theme. As for the number of shots, I probably would've reduced them, and made it more movie-like. But the reason I went out of my way not to do that was because I was more intent on showing people Madoka Magica. I wanted it to be something that wouldn't make our fans feel uncomfortable with.

So do you think the staff wasn't really that self-conscious either? Of the fact that it was a movie this time?

SHINBO: No, I think the other staff members were conscious of it being a theatrical release. They all made adjustments, knowing that the visuals would be displayed on a huge screen. In that sense, even if we were working on the same film, I'm sure that the animators and directors approached it quite differently.

As far as the visuals were concerned, did you instruct them in any way?

SHINBO: I might have said something during the first meeting, but I don't really remember (laugh)! But I never did any micro-managing. It was Mr. Sasaki who expanded the gunfight scene between Homura and Mami. In the first draft of the script, they were supposed to battle it out in a parking structure, but I told them that they didn't have to do that, that it was totally okay to play with different ideas. But other than that, I didn't say anything specific. So when Homura points her gun at herself and shoots... that idea was developed out of Mr. Sasaki's storyboards. Actually, I did agonize over whether or not I should approve that!

Because the viewers might find that disturbing?

SHINBO: Yes. Like, what would we do if people see that scene and think she's really going to kill herself? Of course, I'm sure that they'd realize that she wasn't doing that at all, that it was all fake, but what if it just didn't come across as fake to some people? That's the kind of worrying that I did. Because if they misunderstood, and they saw it as Homura committing suicide, that would've been tough to take. But in that sense, Mr. Sasaki's storyboards were really intriguing.

Other than that, what were you cautious of, while making this film?

SHINBO: Production was mainly handled by the same staff that had worked on Madoka Magica since the TV series, so even if I didn't say much, "If these people are around, and we have storyboards like these, then this is how it will probably turn out..." I was able to get that kind of a read on it. Other than that, what I personally tried to be careful about was not to let it become too much of a burden for everybody, not to let it go on endlessly. So rather than me being the one to say, "More! More!" and keep adding things, I'd be like, "Will we be okay if we do this?" or "Won't it be risky in more ways than one if we do this?" That's how I operated.

Is that the job of a chief director?

SHINBO: I'm sure there are a lot of different ways to do it, but for this title, it was for me. Because the staff couldn't foresee how much work it would take to complete a movie. On top of that, they were making something that was nearly two hours long, so there was that added burden - you couldn't say it was merely 5 TV episodes' worth of work. Taking that into account, I tended not to say things like, "Let's do this, let's do that." Actually, Mr. Miyamoto and his team are fine with, "Let's do it, let's do it!" But I was acutely aware that if I added to that workload, we'd never be finished.

You incorporated a lot of Inu Curry's sequences in this film. I'm guessing that once you start working on those parts, it can be really time-consuming.

SHINBO: Yes, that's right. That did cause me some anxiety. So I think that even as I said such things as "This is too much, shouldn't we trim it down?" I was still pressuring them. And even as I told them to cut stuff out, they were thinking, "If we really cut that out, this guy is gonna be mad!" I'll bet that Mr. Miyamoto and the others were aware of that (laugh)!

I hear that in the end, Inu Curry's scenes weren't cut that drastically.

SHINBO: No, because I knew it was going to end up that way anyway, I deliberately told them to cut them out. I think that's a kind of teamwork.

I hear that you divided the overall film into 5 parts, A through E.

SHINBO: The reason why I divided them into parts was also because I basically wanted the story to conclude properly, as if it were a TV show. I did have the intention of concluding the story as an extension to the TV series. Like I was extinguishing the strange sense of it being some kind of epic by doing that. I do feel that it may have been necessary to do so. And I did want to see how far we could take it under those circumstances; I wanted to draw out that power.

I WANTED TO MAKE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER TITLES

After watching this film, I was struck by the fact that there were so many scenes with music and dancing. At what point did you get the idea to do that?

SHINBO: You'd have to say that in terms of the images, Inu Curry's skills played a huge role. As for the transformation scenes, I think we got the idea itself - of making them dance - from Mr. Sasaki's storyboards, but I believe that Inu Curry gave it a darker look and feel. All we really did was request them to come up with "a transformation scene like no other in any existing magical girl show." To think that they came up with something like that... it's incredible.

Personally, did you want to avoid transformation scenes that screamed "magical girl show?"

SHINBO: Well, I've already done the "girls get naked and transform with a boom while twirling around" thing in other titles. I probably don't have to do that with Madoka Magica. For the TV series, too, I asked them to come up with "transformation scenes that couldn't be less typical of magical girl shows," and I had each animator draw transformation scenes however they liked. That's why they're all different according to each character, and there's no uniformity. That's what I liked about them, but for this film, we showed everyone transforming one after the other, and because of that, it had a uniform look. And I do think that's a good look, as well.

Would you say Madoka Magica is the kind of title that makes you want to keep incorporating elements that you wouldn't find in any other existing title?

SHINBO: For all my titles, I've always preferred to go with whatever's different from anything else. Not just the visuals, but also the acting and everything else - I wanted them to be as different as possible. What I found particularly different about this film was the fact that, since the story was set inside a witch's barrier, Inu Curry's scenes were in the foreground.

Because they've merged, or rather, they were in the barrier from the start.

SHINBO: Right. That's another way that it's different from the TV series, Madoka Magica - this time, you can catch glimpses, little by little, of these foreign-looking aspects even in the scenes of their daily lives. The way the Nightmares are exterminated was also Inu Curry's idea. But since they thought it out to the last detail, I do think ti went to waste. I think we could probably get 13 episodes worth out of those (laugh). I mean, it makes me want to try making at least one season, using just that.

In that sense, you also made lavish use of the world we see at the end of the TV series, where they're battling the wraiths. Because that world was hardly depicted at all during the episodes.

SHINBO: Yes. That's why I'd like to depict the story of what got them to that point. Why Homura was defeated, and why her Soul Gem became corrupted... the story leading up to the movie. Because normally, Homura wouldn't be defeated so easily. I'm sure that there's a reason why she ended up that way.

A MOVIE MADE BECAUSE THE FANS NURTURED IT

When you'd finished the film, the first thing you said was, "I want to make a film in which these characters take action." Do you feel that you were able to carry that out to the fullest?

SHINBO: Of course, I'm glad that I got it done, but I don't really feel as if I'd carried anything out. I've still got a long way to go. Story-wise, I can still go on making Rebellions if I want to, and I think Madoka could use a bit more action.

That was true of the TV series as well, but even though Madoka is the central figure of the story, it's hard to get a sense that she's active.

SHINBO: Or maybe it's just that she can't play an active role because the story centers on her so much. Regarding the story structure of this film, Madoka is there all right, but if she stood out too much from the start, it would be hard to make the story work. As a story based on the TV series, nothing should feel more out of place to the audience than Madoka's very existence, and that's why she's not very conspicuous. That's why in the first draft of the script written by Mr. (Gen) Urobuchi, Madoka has even less screen time. I asked him to give her a little more, and that's what we got.

I see. Due to the narrative flow, there were scenes that you weren't able to depict again.

SHINBO: Yes, although that can't be helped. I did want to do more with Kyoko and Sayaka's conversation. And since we'd gotten this new character, Nagisa, I wished that I could've done more with her.

Would you say that it's because the characters are so well-developed that you can get into that "We can do more!" mode?

SHINBO: The fact that the fans nurtured these characters played a major role in that. We threw something over to them, and the fans threw it back to us. These characters were raised through our game of catch with the fans. It's not that the characters got developed because we created them; they were developed depending on what the fans' reactions to them was. They don't seem like ready-made characters. Being able to do that is one of the virtues of an original title. Without that, we never wouldn't been able to make a sequel film out of nowhere.

And it doesn't have that "We just made this into a movie because the series was so popular" feel, either.

SHINBO: Yes. That's why I think a case could be made that the world of the first half of the story might have been created by the fans. Sayaka and Kyoko battling side by side was also something that the fans wanted to see. We were able to do it because the fans watched the TV series and nurtured these characters. I think Mr. Urobuchi was watching the fans' reactions pretty closely himself. I do believe that it must be reflected in the story. And when you think of it in that way, then the fact that Ms. Aoki was the original character designer was hugely significant, don't you think? The reason those characters are so consistent must be because Ms. Aoki's artwork already existed, like a ship's anchor.

So because of the power of Ms. Aoki's artwork, you didn't have all these different versions of the character images proliferating, and so you were able to play catch with the fans..

SHINBO: Yes. I think that with this film, we were able to achieve a perfect balance. And this was also a first-time experience for me. It really was a a once-in-a-lifetime title for me.

Witches Artwork

CLARA DOLLS

1. Ibari

The first one to come was Pride. Stepping over Good-for-Nothing's head that tumbled across the bare earth, she boldly spoke for all of them. “How arrogant. You think I'd forgive you? This feeling is ours alone.”

2. Nekura

The second one to come was Gloominess. Walking out with a tapping sound, she sneered at Good-for-Nothing. “This is Good-for-Nothing! How very unbecoming.” These dolls are only disciples of Freedom, and are devoted to their lust for it.

3. Usotsuki

The third one to come was Liar. She offered false tears to Good-for-Nothing's soul. “Alas, Mistress Good-for-Nothing. We are proud of your foolish soul.” These dolls will sneer at the foolish and become their ally.

4. Reiketsu

From behind comes the fourth one, Coldheartedness. She stumbled over Good-for-Nothing's head and pouted a little. “Why don't we just cut Mistress Good-for-Nothing into tiny pieces to make her easier to carry?” When the Devil appears, these dolls will obediently follow.

5. Wagamama

Further comes the fifth, Selfishness, walking angrily. “Is this funeral procession still going? We practiced so we could cry quickly, didn't we? I won't wait even a little bit longer!” she huffed. These dolls are someone and no-one at all.

6. Warukuchi

Coming out carefully is the sixth one, Slander. As usual, she says hurtful things. “Mistress Good-for-Nothing, you've been made into a clown.” These dolls play house with causality decided by entanglement.

7. Noroma

At last arrives the seventh, Blockhead. This reticent doll laughs at the witch with her eyes. These dolls comply fairly well with the wishes of the witch, who is unlike a too-serious soldier.

8. Yakimochi

The eighth to appear is Jealousy. Spellbound, she looks up towards the heavens. “Let's prepare a box. I want to lock away that radiance forever.” These dolls are a meeting of colors. They are not empty.

9. Namake

The ninth one, Laziness, chats while yawning. “Do I really have to participate in this game? Knitting is such a troublesome bother.” She kicked Good-for-Nothing's tumbling head, which was in her way. Since the funeral procession hasn't started yet, these dolls take a leave of absence and wander about the city for a while.

10. Mie

The tenth to come running is Vanity. She exaggeratedly avoids Good-for-Nothing's head and says a few words. “I wouldn't be able to bear dirtying my cape with that sticky blood!” These dolls make fun of the witch's self-mutilation.

11. Okubyou

The eleventh, trembling one is Cowardice. “If I am taken into the sky, I won't be able to eliminate the rabbits.” These dolls have a power like magic to implement a perfect recurrence.

12. Manuke

Walking unsteadily comes the twelfth one, Stupidity. She goes out of her way to go around to everyone and tells them a story she heard from a bird some time ago. “I heard this story from the Goddess. She's a beautiful and radiant goddess. I'm sure she'll love us too.” These dolls only want things within reach.

13. Higami

The thirteenth's footsteps are Envy's. “Let's have a wonderful funeral procession like the ones I heard in a story once. Let's bury lots of beautiful girls and cute animals together with her too.” These dolls have power that is not inferior to those of magical girls.

14. Ganko

Next is the fourteenth, Stubbornness. Pointing to the ground, she rejects the sky. “The abyss of this mortal world is our stage.” So, the mourners have gathered. They were pretty slow, but it's alright. All that's left to do now is to wait for the funeral procession.

15. Ai

The fifteenth and last one to come is Love. Nobody has seen this Devil yet. The night is not yet over. She will not end the night again. We are the mourners, the theater troupe of this mortal world.

LOTTE

The Nutcracker Witch's minion. Her duty is to carry out punishment. They are the tin army who conduct the funeral procession of the witch being taken to the guillotine-stage. They detest fools and convict them. So that these stern minds with seriousness cannot understand leniency, they never lend an ear to the witch. Apart from the human-sized ones, there are Brocken-class ones. They hate white mice.

LUISELOTTE

The Nutcracker Witch's minion. Her duty is to exterminate mice. They are a cavalry of decaying teeth that flush out the white mice. They also assist the tin army and eliminate the rude ones who obstruct the progress of the funeral procession.

Ume Aoki 4koma

Gallery

Booklet Scans

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  Lilia's and Liese's names are switched.

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English Translation Booklet

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Other

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  Clara Dolls' text translated by fans.

See Also

• Other BD Booklets
• Translated magazines