puella magi madoka magica 9
Categories: episodic review, puella magi madoka magica
Tagged: madoka magica
28 Comments »
I Won’t Allow That
(“I am not sexting you, Kyubey.”)
“Madoka, someday, you shall become the strongest Puella Magi… and turn into the strongest witch. When that happens, we’ll be able to get immense amounts of energy. If you feel like dying for this universe, just call us. We’ll be waiting.”
I don’t even know where to begin. One, everybody hates Kyubey. There’s already a danbooru “Everybody Hates Kyubey” image pool. There should be an “Everybody Hates Kyubey” Facebook page. Hell, there should be an “Everybody Hates Kyubey” Twitter feed. Shit, I think there’s political satire created in Libya now where they show Kyubey paling around with Gaddafi. The problem is… I can’t hate him. He’s just someone doing his job. There’s an old Calvin and Hobbes comic that I remember (if you remember this, plus fifty points for you) where aliens come to earth, beam up all the water, and then steal all the air, saying that “Please don’t hate us. It’s just our job. If we don’t do this, we’ll be fired.” Obviously, that Calvin and Hobbes comic was nothing more than an environmental parody to say, “Hey, maybe we should think twice about destroying the habits of species less able to protect themselves.”
In essence, Kyubey (and his species) are those aliens from Calvin and Hobbes. Just their job. Instead of harvesting oil, lumber, water, diamonds, or whatnot, they harvest young, nubile girls. It’s their desired resource (and a desired resource amongst men)… and, again, it’s their job. Think about if Kyubey were tasked to cut down young saplings or slaughter young cattle for veal or destroy wetlands for oil… would you think of him the same way? In essence, we decide the same things Kyubey does every single fucking day, and we all make the same decisions that Kyubey makes. We pick money and convenience and all those modern niceties over a lesser species. Every. Fucking. Single. Day.
(Note: when I say “we” I mean “we” as in the human race as obviously individuals will feel differently, but humans are responsible for the sixth mass extinction.)
So I can’t “hate” Kyubey. But I can “hate” him.
“It is our, the Incubators’ job, to collect that energy.”
Okay, aside from hating Kyubey for being an environmental undertone for us, I can hate him for his blanch treatment of thermodynamics. One, the second law of thermodynamics states that “heat cannot spontaneously flow from a colder location to a hotter location.” This is also referred to the law of entropy in which in any system, heat will always spread out to an equilibrium. It does, however, account for closed systems where a local system can create order at the expense of increased environmental entropy– an example is a refrigerator. It manages to chill and decrease the heat inside it, but at a net cost of about 3X the energy taken out. For the fridge to cool by a certain about of energy, we need to expend 3X elsewhere. This I think is a better model for what Kyubey is doing. He is simply collecting energy in those little girls at the expense of greater trauma and energy around the environment.
“Your souls are an energy source that counters entropy. And above all else, the fluctuation of hope and grief in girls in their second growth phase is the most effective.”
After all, even though we all know how emotionally unstable teenage girls are, they do not have enough power to move a car, let alone power a space cruiser or whatever else the Incubators have earmarked for such power. More so, the girls expend shit loads of power in fighting the witches, which I doubt can be made up for with “emotional” energy. Yes, I know this is a magical girl show, but I am of the belief that I can suspend my thinking for the base premise of any series as long as the rest flow with kinda established physics. Like I can believe we have emo 19 year old kids piloting huge Gundams in some geo-political warfare, but I cannot believe they can move fast enough to dodge pew pew lasers, which, you know, travel at the speed of light. I can accept magical girls and accept that some all powerful species has found a way to counter entropy, just can’t believe teenage girls is the answer or that this equation is a strong net positive investment for Kyubey.
(Also, the sun release and stars releases heat as entropy all the fucking time. How many magical girls will it take to counter the billions of stars in the milky way? Just seems so frickin’ nonsense if you consider the scale of energy lost every second and how much Kyubey needs to recover… is Madoka really going to generate more power than billions of stars? And if she releases such power, wouldn’t it destroy, you know, the universe? Rip out space-time and have Tauburn steppin’ through?)
Shaft’s animation is just awesome. Just awesome job this episode. They really nail drawing industrial backgrounds like ports, factories, refineries, and train yards. Beginning to think Shinbo wanted to be an architect for industries… do you think he’ll be excited like Tomoki in the girl’s locker room if he ever visits Boeing’s factor in Everett? Can’t wait for what they do with Kizumonogatari. I hope they have nakkid Heart Under Blade OP.
I understand the musicians and the conductor, but I don’t understand the wheels in Sayaka’s witch mode. What do they symbolize?
“It sucks to be alone.”
Seeing Kyoko in action makes me want Shaft to remake Shakugan no Shana. They would definitely make it more interesting than JC Staff’s attempts at animating fighting sequences. Also, can you imagine Shaft being Shaft version of the fuzetsu? Awesome. Just I hope Shaft keeps the Shana-tan bonuses alive… URACHAI URACHAI URACHAI! So adorable. Melts one’s heart.
“It’s okay. I’ll be right next to you, Sayaka.”
Another underlying motif of Puella Magi Madoka Magica? Being alone. What is all the characters afraid of? Being alone. Mami was alone, but later became happier when she realized she could be together with Sayaka and Madoka. Sayaka wanted to be with Kamijou and his magic fingers. No one wanted to be alone, yet they all end up alone. And, now, it’s Homura who is alone. Mmmmm…
(Kyoko kills herself thus preventing herself from becoming a witch… just became a bit more awesome in my book.)
Also as awesome? Emo facial distortion! Awwww yeah.
Why are there so many chairs in Madoka’s bedroom?
(Maybe Shinbo dreams of being designer for Ikea as well? He wants to both design the Ikea store and chairs for Ikea?)
Also, Kyubey is so Republican-like in his ability to manipulate those around them. He basically sent Kyoko to her death in a futile challenge of Sayaka just to isolate Homura for the Walpurgis and thus forcing Madoka to become a magical girl. He is Scott Walker. “Hehehe, I’m not destroying unions because I just want to sneak some energy bill through that basically gives control of Wisconsin’s utilities for free to my best bud. Hehehe.”
(Couldn’t decide on which gender to use for Kyubey, except then I realized Kyubey is white, a fat cat who will even eat himself, appears out of shadows, and likes manipulating others for personal gain… how is he not modeled after Rush Limbaugh?)
Loved when Kyoko gives Madoka a treat instead of shaking her hands. Best part of this episode. Hands down.
Kyoko’s last supper. I think I had the same thing last night for dinner… burger, Pocky, melonpan, fried chicken, etc. How does she keep her shape despite her terrible diet? Can I really believe some teenage girl being able to eat so much junk food and yet remain so svelte? Kyoko must burn more calories than Michael Phelps in battling witches… so, yeah, how much energy exactly is Kyubey getting for all this trouble?
Whatever Shaft is drinking, I might want some of it. I watched the new Aa! Megami-sama OVA, and the animation quality is just so horrible… the first thing I thought? Shaft needs to work on this franchise too. Ever thought I would push for Shaft everywhere? Just feels like yesterday I was pushing for Kyoto everywhere. Mmm… yeah, maybe the thought of Shaft being Shaft magical girl animations for the goddesses trumps Kyoto animating the Goddess Fantastic Club, which, really, really needs to make a comeback. Complete with Gan-chan, the Anti-Kyubey.
(The progression of one’s psyche is like the reverse of Persona’s progression… mmm…)
“You’re telling me to die for you.”
“Yeah.”
But first, before you die, let’s film a nakkid magical girl transformation sequence! I like how Kyubey works.
28 Responses to “puella magi madoka magica 9”
Leave a Reply
Kyubey is such a magnificent bastard.
Also, I think there’s got to be more about magical girl then them being a living battery.
Can’t wait to see how it pans out.
It’s a translation problem. Instead of “witch” read “demon”, as in “Maxwell’s demon”. It’s not energy, it’s Maxwell-demonic power.
Either that, or Kyuubey’s employers have discovered that the missing ingredient for cold fusion is adolescent angst.
After this episode, I was like “wait, if Kyubey’s telling the truth, he’s been the good guy all along?” Sure, lying to little girls and making them suffer is not ideal, but if that’s the only/most efficient way to stop the heat death of THE ENTIRE FRICKING UNIVERSE it sounds pretty justified to me. Imgaine if you stopped their energy harvesting scheme: you’d be perosnally responsible for dooming every sentient species to extinction, along with the generations-long suffering of untold billions in the slow disappearance of habitable ares in the universe.
As to how/why the girls generate that much energy and don’t explode, tehy’ve already probably got the energy gathering system inside them… Kyubey’s species created humankind, remember?
Why do I continue to read up on shows that I’m not even watching?
I love Persona. Telling me this show is the anti-Persona is the fastest way to stop me from watching it ever. Also, to counter your political wisecracks, a Democrat is much more likely to fall for this hokey “entropy” jive. Wait, shouldn’t we be applying Carter’s “misery index” to this show?
Kyuubey is like an evil vulcan here to harvest our young girls for their vibrant energies.
Well, I totally agreed with that prediction wiki that somebody posted an episode or two ago, but it seems that theory of Sayaka being the witch in Madoka’s dream in episode 1 was crushed.
Anyways Entropy is just all around one of my favorite words of all time, so when I heard it being used in an anime that I was already enjoying so much, I flipped. It’s always a grand hit or a shitty miss for SHAFT but damn I’m glad it’s the former this time.
Kyubey’s so blunt and unrepentant. Enjoyed his attempt at a persuasive conversation with Madoka. As well as not understanding the value standards of humans he definitely doesn’t understand the concepts of full disclosure and duress when forming contracts.
Love how the OP for this show is the antithesis of your typical Sunrise OP. Lighthearted fun? Five happy magical girls? None of this will follow!
I do wonder where everything’s going to end up. If Shaft decide to go against the grain of the show to this point and have Madoka pull a miracle out of her ass to revive the dead there’s no way it’s going to end well for her personally (though that’s probably still the best case scenario overall). And if she doesn’t, it won’t end well for her anyway, since she’ll either have lost her friends, or sacrificed herself to become an incubator battery to buy the rest of the people on the planet a little extra time.
…Were you cheering for the anti-spirals in Gurren Lagann too?
wheel attack = wheel chair……I assume
….I was watching this ep, and my thoughts were of…Gurren Lagann!!!
direct transfer of emotions to energy? definitely a Gurren Lagann thing…and, what do you know, QB is obviously an AntiSpiral…it fits perfectly
Great minds think alike, Neriya
As soon as I saw the death flags for Yomi pop up, I could feel it in my veins; “Oh god no this is another Gantz, isn’t it?” well what do you know, aliens, bodies that aren’t yours, likable characters getting killed off in rapid succession…
but this goes even a step further. Targeting young girls who are most vulnerable to fall for QB’s tricks. Placing them through absolute misery for the betterment of the Universe. Gotta love Utilitarianism, its about as human as a typewriter.
This show is sick in a really bad way.
The 12 spoked wheel in buddhism is mostly about cause and effect and the true happiness being constantly out of reach. That seems appropriate for Sayaka. (also interesting that kyoko, the other overtly religious symbolism farm in the show is the one who fights her) It’s a bit much but I wouldn’t put it past Shaft.
I’m glad the post got wrapped up with some symmetrical docking, too much thinking in this episode for. Down with physics and religion! More boob on boob transformation sequences!
the body is already dead
>the wheels in Sayaka’s witch mode. What do they symbolize?
The wheels also symbolizes Wheel of Fortune in Major Arcana, which means opportunities and sudden changes. Sayaka’s life took massive, multiple rollercoaster rides within a very short span of time. She had good moments (Kamijo’s hand healed) and bad (everything else), but sadly the wheel ended on the worst note.
This pic just about sums it up:
http://danbooru.donmai.us/post.....-darkside-
Sayaka’s witch name is Oktavia von Seckendorff. German poet Karl Siegmund von Seckendorff wrote a poem titled “The Wheel of Fate”. QED.
to know what the wheels symbolize, just check out the wiki for episode 9.
or just check the comment above me.
“they harvest young, nubile girls. It’s their desired resource (and a desired resource amongst men)” sorry jason your wrong, I prefer them to be older… unless it is yoko 14 years old age…
I’ll bet Kyubey’s lying about saving the world, and is doing this for shits and giggles. Remember how he never told the girls what they were getting into when they become Puelka Magi? Lying by omission.
Also, knew the Ume Aoki Emo Facial Distortion would get your attention. Sad to see how well SHAFT can animate with a budget, only to see the shortcuts they take in SZS or other shows.
QB confirmed for Good Guy.
@Toiski: I mostly agree with you. Except for this part:
> Kyubey’s species created humankind, remember?
There isn’t any indication of that. Instead he said that they were looking for a good species to work with and found humanity. This shows that human girls just are really, really awesome energy sources. Better than deconstructing the solar system for spare matter to convert into energy. Of course they probably still embedded or otherwise implemented a direct energy harvesting system. We also don’t know how long this has been going on, could’ve been thousands of years, really.
@Neriya:
> …Were you cheering for the anti-spirals in Gurren Lagann too?
This situation is different, really. QB’s side is working against the inevitable laws of nature to save the universe. Not doing this is not just dangerous, it’s deadly.
@Haesslich:
> I’ll bet Kyubey’s lying about saving the world, and is doing this for shits and giggles.
So far he wasn’t really prone to outright lying. He just hid some facts.
Well from a magical girl physics perspective, that might work. Remember that Sailor Moon has enough power (via love and her silver crystal/soul thing) to rebuild the Earth multiple times and can change it her own way if needed (future Crystal Toyko as an example). Sailor Saturn can do the opposite and destroy a world with a single attack. Therefore within the realm of magical girls, they are the be all and end all of energy conversion.
>So far he wasn’t really prone to outright lying. He just hid some facts.
So if I leave out the fact that granting wishes and luring girls into witchhood is what’s causing the entropy that the energy I’m gathering is supposedly being used to fight, that makes me a good guy? With that justification being valid, anyone who commits genocide is a good guy because Africa or Asia is overpopulated.
Methods matter as much as stated goals. He may well be lying about fighting entropy by leaving out how they’re fighting it – fior all we know, they’re either incubating the end of the world, or they’re ‘fighting’ it by helping it win.. so entropy itself dies with our universe. I don’t trust his statements, and anyone who does deserves to get their head bit off.
> granting wishes and luring girls into witchhood is what’s causing the entropy
While possible, I would consider this exceedingly unlikely. Entropy is simply a result of the laws of thermodynamics. Do you have any good reason to expect something like this?
> With that justification being valid, anyone who commits genocide is a good guy because Africa or Asia is overpopulated.
The problem of overpopulation is in no way comparable to the certain, inevitable demise of countless galactic civilizations, whose populations will suffer a slow and painful death in the case of a dying universe. The heat death of the universe means that *everything* will die. Including any human teenage girls left at that point in time.
> He may well be lying about fighting entropy by leaving out how they’re fighting it – fior all we know, they’re either incubating the end of the world, or they’re ‘fighting’ it by helping it win..
He has stated the reasons for what he is doing quite clearly. Things like what you are proposing would be in direct contradiction to QB’s stated goals. Direct contradiction does not seem to be the he does things. This is highly unlikely.
> so entropy itself dies with our universe.
How would this even work? Entropy cannot die.
> I don’t trust his statements, and anyone who does deserves to get their head bit off.
I think you are simply prejudiced against sufficiently alien minds.
Kyubey is a beginner in manipulation compared to Prince Baka from Level E.
You talked about the ED’s animation some posts ago, well in my case I always liked it because the silhouettes reminds me of Cat’s eyes ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related. But yeah the silouhettes in this looks much better than in Madoka. I always wondered if this was actually animated or if they recorded people.
You rage at Kyuubey’s description of an actual, bona-fide in-narrative magical violation of the laws of thermodynamics, and yet you believe in the real-world political equivalent, impossible public-union pension plans? Public unions *are* a conspiracy to revoke the laws of political thermodynamics. (Yes, political economy has laws of thermodynamics, look up “dead-weight loss and taxation” for another one…) And it isn’t just Republican governors, Cuomo and Moonbeam are also trying to claw back some portion of their budgets from the all-engulfing maw of the Pension Monster.
Beowulf Lee: Great picture XD
Is it? The anti-spirals and Kyubey’s people are both advanced races who have declared themselves defenders of the universe against a threat that they believe will bring about its end. Both have no problems exploiting or suppressing lesser races to accomplish this goal, regardless of how the race in question feels about it. Forget that the spiral nemesis is made up and entropy isn’t, this is an anime featuring magic, time travelling and reality marbles. Real world physics has no place here.
>While possible, I would consider this exceedingly unlikely. Entropy is simply a result of the laws of thermodynamics. Do you have any good reason to expect something like this?
Thermodynamics again – that energy doesn’t go away. You can only change its location or maybe convert it from one type of energy to another, but in the end it remains. Basically, for all we know, Kyubey’s people are fucking with the universe and they’re the ones who made this mess that is now self-sustaining.
>The problem of overpopulation is in no way comparable to the certain, inevitable demise of countless galactic civilizations, whose populations will suffer a slow and painful death in the case of a dying universe. The heat death of the universe means that *everything* will die. Including any human teenage girls left at that point in time.
In the end, they’re ALL dead. Entropy wins, period – you might be able to hold it off, but it wins in the end. And unless there’s an endless supply of emo girls, you’re fucked as eventually you run out of energy. And humans die. So yes, it’s comparable in the sense that just saying ‘killing girls now means everyone else lives a while longer’ is wrong in itself. OItherwise, I can justify ANY act by saying that it’s for the good of the planet.
>He has stated the reasons for what he is doing quite clearly. Things like what you are proposing would be in direct contradiction to QB’s stated goals. Direct contradiction does not seem to be the he does things. This is highly unlikely.
You only choose to hear what you want to hear, like Madoka. I can state my goal is to save the world… but my actions reveal more about my goals than anything else I say.
>I think you are simply prejudiced against sufficiently alien minds.
After a while, it doesn’t matter how alien they are – if they want me dead, and I don’t want to be dead, you damned well better believe I’ll fight.
Also, Ep 10 just came out… and it seems to prove me right. If you believe so strongly that sacrificing innocent girls is justified by saving the universe (not necessarily Earth), then I challenge you to live by your statements. I’ll bet you wouldn’t.
Damn, Command Girl Homerun-chan Magica is just too awesome. Ep 10 was done pretty much perfectly…. Poor Homura-chan. She tries so hard for the person she loves but no matter what she does it never works out.
Lol while I don’t like Kyubei at all, I don’t hate his guts like some people do.
@Haesslich
> Thermodynamics again – that energy doesn’t go away. You can only change its location or maybe convert it from one type of energy to another, but in the end it remains. Basically, for all we know, Kyubey’s people are fucking with the universe and they’re the ones who made this mess that is now self-sustaining.
Well what Kyubei’s referring to is the heat death of the Universe. It’s not that energy disappears, but rather all usable energy is converted into a form that can no longer be used to create more usable work, which means the end of all life everywhere. While it may sound good that Kyubei’s trying to prevent the end of the universe, we really don’t have enough information to know how imminent the threat is. According to modern science the heat death of the universe won’t happen in well, forever. But maybe Kyubei’s civilization have discovered that the end of the universe is nigh and they are rushing to save the word. Or, everything Kyubei said was all bullshit and he could be doing it for the lulz. Judging from his past action and character, I believe there might be some validity to his statements. His people are more likely just gathering energy for its convince as opposed to staving off some galactic apocalypse, but there just isn’t any concrete evidence either way.
>And unless there’s an endless supply of emo girls, you’re fucked as eventually you run out of energy. And humans die. So yes, it’s comparable in the sense that just saying ‘killing girls now means everyone else lives a while longer’ is wrong in itself. OItherwise, I can justify ANY act by saying that it’s for the good of the planet.
Well, according to Kyubei Puella Magi generate energy in a way that gives physics the middle finger, so as long as they can keep the human race from dieing off they will have emo girls to get + energy from, thus perpetually stalling the end of the universe.
>He has stated the reasons for what he is doing quite clearly. Things like what you are proposing would be in direct contradiction to QB’s stated goals. Direct contradiction does not seem to be the he does things. This is highly unlikely.
You only choose to hear what you want to hear, like Madoka. I can state my goal is to save the world… but my actions reveal more about my goals than anything else I say.
Hmm I’ll have to agree with Invalid on this one. While it’s true that Kyubei’s a prick, troll, and evil trickster, I don’t recall him ever directly tell a lie. He omits the truth or stretches it to manipulate people, but he uses facts.
My guess is that Kyubei’s main goal is just to gather energy for his race and gain wealth from it. The energy gathered probably contributes to stopping the Heat Death of the universe, but that’s probably not something that Kyubei’s people are really concerned about, it was just a speech to try and make becoming a Puella Magi sound more noble then it really is.
>I think you are simply prejudiced against sufficiently alien minds.
After a while, it doesn’t matter how alien they are – if they want me dead, and I don’t want to be dead, you damned well better believe I’ll fight.
x.x is that a nonsequitor? Your answer doesn’t seem to relate to the question. Kyubei’s people don’t really want you dead, they trick you into committing suicide in a way that benefits them.
Regardless, if I knew about Kyubei’s intentions I sure as hell wouldn’t trust him either, at least when it comes to decisions regarding my life. However, he has shown a track record of being truthful for explanations when he actually bothers to give them. So if he tells me that Mahou Shoujo can’t control their bodies if their Gems are 100m away from the body, I’d believe him on that one.
Kyubei definitely seems like an evil prick ass troll that’s ruining girl’s lives without a justified reason. However, I can’t HAETTTT him because I know there are much more evil things out there even in the real world. Compared to some dictators or murderers, he’s not really all that bad. He has never killed anyone in cold blood, or caused deliberate suffering. Heck there are lawyers out there in real life that trick people into even worse deals then Kyubei gives the girls, and unlike Kyubei, said lawyers don’t even pretend to have a good cause like saving the universe. I can understand how he believes himself to be justified in his actions despite how blatantly wrong he is according to our morals. Like Jason said, he’s just doing his job.
Hey Jason,
I thought that the chairs in Madoka’s room were a pretty blunt reference to Bokurano — watch it again, and look at the layout.
Jim