User:Prima/Musings of a Chineseman

translated from http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1999314147?pn=1

Watching Madoka Magica using Hegel (casual level, haphazardly written, apologies in advance)

A while back, I was deeply moved watching Madoka Magica. Intuition told me this work has a surprising depth to it, and it remained constantly on my mind. Later on I learned from the web that this work has ancient origins, counting Goethe's Faust as one of its inspirations. Goethe is a central figure for German Literature, and Faust was his greatest masterpiece, it would inspire some of the most important German philosophers such Nietzsche.

One of these great philosophers was Hegel. Personally, I see certain parallels between Hegel's "Phenomenology of Mind" and Madoka Magica. Thus, I wanted to use Phenomenology as basis to analyze this anime. Because I am but a casual reader, and both Phenomenology and Magica are very complex, there'll be obvious issues with my analysis. My apologies.

The Tragedy of Mami and Charlotte

Non-Existence of Sense-Certainty and the Fleeting Present

All that ever existed, in reality are without essence. It no longer exists as it was. What we refereed to had already disappeared, and the present is too short to comprehend.

Certainly, Mami was a very gentle figure. She was the first magic girl in the story and was its original focus. She was the one that explained the various perceptions of a magic girl. She was gentle to her senpai, as well as to the innocent victims she saved. What grace she shown, was both beautiful and lovely. However, all these are mere reactions to sense-certainty, the logical consequence of "existence." We can see a hint of this from the wish Mami made as a magic girl, which most likely be "please save my life." Of course, anyone else would had made her choice given this life-in-danger scenario. It was an normal response.

However, life in certain form, is rather ethereal; a rather fragile existence. Every moment flowing to the whims of fate. Her wish likely exposed a truly vulnerable interior. We learned from later in the story, that when she learned the truth, she would break completely - perhaps another reflection of this vulnerability. Life's struggles are often meaningless, given its weak essence.

As the "Witch of Invitations," she was once who welcome life's brilliance, but no longer can she rescue another life.

In the primary storyline, Mami fell victim to Charlotte. Charlotte represented drive was the search for food, and she's known as the 'Hunger Witch.' This may also be another pursue of sense-certainty. Life naturally requires sustenance.

I do not know Charlotte's backstory. Perhaps her story was also one for survival, so Charlotte's appetite was a want for the life sustaining power that food provides.

Brilliance and hunger, both are important to sense-certainty of life. Unfortunately, all these present are merely temporary existence. An eternity does not wait for an instance, survival is naturally an uphill battle.

Thus in our story, Mami and Charlotte both left stage right in short order, one after another. Together they demonstrated the tragedy of pursuing sense-certainly. How fleeting sense-certainty can be.

May they find peace together in Her Yuriheaven.

Thoughts on the Cycles of Cause and Effect

How Sayaka and Kyouko Inspired and Saved Each Other

{t/n: completely clueless on this section until I read Hegel. Expect major revision}

After experiencing the false nature of 'sense-certainty,' we naturally seek a greater consistency. To grapple with existence, Self-Consciousness] came about as a reflection of perception and sense-certainty, the opposition of which is essence. Here we must involve the casual relationships, and deduce the cause-and-effect, mutually interacting world. For an individual, self-consciousness naturally arise when facing another. It's an internal reflection, how one consider oneself from what besides her. In the other's existence that we find ourself, understand the sameless between self and her, and slowly understand her existence, finally to merge as one.

Sayaka is a genki girl who has fallen for her classmate Kamijou. To give Kamijou hope, she exchanged her soul for a wish and cured him. However, Sayaka did not realize her own wishes. Happiness from a long relationship with Kamijou, was the true intent of her wish, but Sayaka was unaware of her own feelings, creating a fracture between her wish and her intentions. From this fracture led to turmoil, and turmoil to tragedy. Sayaka holds strong conviction for reason, and a stubborn attitude to match. As a result, believed firmly in magical girl's role as mankind's protectors. These convictions andadfafjdldkajfdklasjdfalsk