Gundam Anime Rant-Madoka Magica the Movie 3: Rebellion

The title Madoka Magica brings up many an emotion when mentioned to Anime fans.  Most who have heard of it will either start balling in tears or cheering or immediately go into their favorite ship, while those who haven’t seen it will at least say they have heard of it.  So I think it was right before or right after Katsucon 2015 that I finally decided to sit down and watch this show all the way through, it’s only 12 episodes so a solid nights watch.  It lived up to the hype for me and overwhelmed me a bit from watching it all in one sitting but how could I not stop watching? 

Well before I go further, some premise:
Madoka Kaname is a pretty ordinary high school girl with a loving family: including a mom who might as well be her sister based on her character design (serioulsly she mustve had Madoka at the age of 5) and the most adorable baby brother EVER…and a dad, yeah not much to him really.  But her pretty happy life is turned upside down with the appearance of a transfer student name Homura Akemi and a mysterious creature named Kyubey.  Kyubey offers Madoka the chance to become a Magical Girl, to do battle against monsters known as Witches and defend humanity.  Homura, offers a counter, DON’T.  As several of Madoka’s friends take on the role of Magical Girls, she soon finds herself the ultimate key in a long time struggle and her decision could change the world forever.

I should also say from this point going forward that in a couple of paragraphs I’ll be getting to my reason for this entry: Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3: Rebellion.  And I will not be holding back on details on either that movie or the series finale, so be forewarned…

 

SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!!!

 

As I said, Madoka Magica lived up to the hype.  It was a fascinating twist on the magical girl genre that dared to push the envelope and it did.  The animation was nigh groundbreaking, the action intense, the character development and story arcs…heartbreaking.  Yes there were plenty of moments where the fates of the core five Magical Girls moved me to the point of tears.  The chief of these tear jerkers goes to Homura, who gets one of the best developed and yet most tragic backstories of any character ive seen in an Anime and ive seen plenty.  Basically, Homura has the power of time manipulation and has traveled back through the past hundreds of times.  She’s lived the same few weeks over and over again to prevent the same outcome, the death of her best friend Madoka.  Each time she fails, each time she becomes colder and more withdrawn when she meets her would be allies, each time she must watch Madoka die horribly, as well as the others.  Mami’s shock in one of the timelines is so great that she begins to off the team one by one before Homura manages to kill her herself. 

 

Intense doesn’t do it justice.  The story of Homura Akemi is a whole semesters worth of study all on it’s own.

So what’s the catch you might ask?  Why all the drama over being a Sailor Moon type?  Because what that SOB Kyubey fails to tell Madoka and the others who make the contract with him is that Magical Girls will, no matter what, end up turning into Witches, the curse of their wish.  It’s inescapable and Kyubey could care less about it cause it doesn’t know how to care and thinks human emotions are trivial.  It’s cant understand the grief of Homura who has lost Madoka hundreds of times or Madoka who has to watch Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko all die in their own horrific ways…especially considering that unlike Sailor Moon, these girls actually look 14 and not 18 so it’s tough to watch them go through so much hurt.

Which leads to one of the best finales ever.  Madoka takes up her inevitable fate to become a Magical Girl.  But this time, she wishes for the eradication of Witches from existence: past, present and future, taking all of the curses into herself and then dying to contain them all.  Homura and the others are spared but only Homura is aware of Madoka’s existence, leading to a heart wrenching farewell.  Witches may be gone but another force, the Wraiths, come to take their place.  Homura mourns Madoka but swears to keep on fighting, to protect the world Madoka made in her honor, alongside Mami and Kyoko.

It’s about as perfect as finales get, the ultimate show of love and friendship.  It’s not what Homura wanted but it is enough to know Madoka didn’t die horribly but helped reshape a world where Magical Girls don’t have to suffer at the end of their run.  Cue the tears and grab the tissues.

And then came the movies….

The first two films released: Beginnings and Eternal, are a two part refresher of the series and actually, if you’re short on time it’s not a bad way to view the story.  Granted it had been a while since I watched the series  but I know it got all the important plot elements in and left little out.  It was the complete 12 episodes package in two 2hour features.  Not bad at all.

But then we get to Part 3: Rebellion, the point of this little entry. I know I said this would be a rant but the praise above may make you think differently…brace yourself.

In Rebellion, Homura is fighting Nightmares alongside Madoka, Sayaka, Mami and Kyoko plus familiars Kyubey and Bebe…wait what?  That definitely wasn’t how we left things at the end of the series.  I thought they were fighting Wraiths?  Why are Sayaka and more importantly Madoka there?  Why does Kyubey sound all cutesy and what the hell is Bebe and why does she look…familiar?  By the time Homura begins to piece together that this world isn’t real, I had sort of figured out what the catch was and I might as well have been correct in my suspicions…

I had a feeling that Homura would have retreated into her own world, the absence of Madoka eventually weighing on her too much.  It also makes sense she would turn into a Witch because of it.  OK I can accept that outcome even if it is unnecessary, like the rest of the movie but we’ll get to that.  I can even accept that Kyubey is playing dumb and being a sore loser at not getting its way at the end of the TV Series.  I can even kind of smile seeing Madoka, Mami, Sayaka and Kyoko back together trying to save Homura…

But then we get the mother of all twist endings that does little more than to piss off the fanbase…or at least me.  After believing Homura is safe, Madoka comes to her one last time…only for Homura to suddenly take a different tune, separating Madoka from her Goddess powers and rewriting the universe so that Madoka can exist again.  Homura becomes a new being that transcends Witch or Magical Girl and becomes a Demon.  She no longer honors, respects and loves Madoka’s self sacrifice but instead selfishly refuses it, her love becoming something far worse.  The film ends with the series restarting, Madoka the new transfer student and Homura a darker, more sinister student who’s relishing in having Madoka back.  But Madoka for a brief moment senses this isn’t right and Homura accepts before Madoka forgets again that they will end up becoming enemies one day.

WHAT
THE
F****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What happened to the (more or less) happy ending that the series gave us?  Was that too happy for the series creators?  Or did the studio just want an excuse to leave the door open for more Madoka stories we DO NOT NEED!!!  DO…NOT…NEED which is exactly what Rebellion was in the end.  The series ending was perfect.  Rebellion was one last bit of fan service to ride the hype train of the series.  Did it do anything right?  Nothing needed even if I did like seeing the girls as a team and the potential outcome of Homura becoming a witch.  I would have been fine with that…until Homura becomes a bad guy.  Was there anything in the series indicating she might snap that badly?  She had toughed out hundreds of time loops and never lost it enough to become a Witch or even a Demon.  And in the end, even if she couldn’t be with her, Homura at least lived on with the knowledge that Madoka did not become a witch and had a better outcome for herself than any of the numerous timelines she experienced.  Hell even Mami and Kyoko had a possible future now.  This was fine, just fine. 

BUT NOOOOOOO…

Now Homura needs to become a selfish bitch and have Madoka no matter the cost.  It was an infuriating twist that I think made my brain shatter for a second.  Was this really happening?  Did Madoka Magica just go all End of Evangelion on me?  Was this really the “true” ending that the series fan had been waiting for since this movie was announced?  To be honest im not sure what the mass fan reaction was even though I know people were hyped as hell for this movie to be released.  Heck I was excited when the Madoka movies popped up on Netflix so I could eventually marathon them all…note to self don’t do that again, too many emotions in the first two movies aka THE REAL STORY alone to stomach and sleep after watching.  I was even warned by my sister, who wasn’t a big fan of the series herself, to expect something worse to come from Rebellion. 

I was unprepared for what I saw, was anyone? 

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is such a well done and nigh flawless series that it def has a spot on my top 10 Anime of all time list and will always be there…im just going to try and ignore the fact that Rebellion happened.  Cause this is what happens when you take greatness and infuse it with a bit of dark juju that it makes you lose a tiny bit of faith in humanity.

The ending of Rebellion made me mad…that’s not what I ever expected from Madoka Magica.  No wonder I needed to go watch something filled with laughter afterwards. 

 

Which at the time was this, enjoy,