Magia Record Episode 8

Magia Record Episode 8

You Definitely Shouldn’t Respond

This week I’m going to start the review off with a lightning round by briefly touching on a bunch of topics and characters.

First up is how the opening of this arc tied into the opening sequence (OP) of the series. This isn’t a revolutionary concept, but I like how it was done here. At first I thought it was just a quirky way to slide into the OP, but after the OP was over and the scene continued, it was clear something more was going on.

And speaking of the OP, I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but the OP and ED of this series are worse than those of Madoka Magica. Sorry Magia Record and TrySail fans, but Connect by ClariS is a better song with better OP visuals. And although I do like ClariS, Magia by Kalafina is a much better ED.

Now, the first part of this episode also shows us where a bunch of the characters we’ve previously met are now. And to be honest, exactly what this means for the story isn’t quite clear to me.

Rena Minami sitting on the roof of the school from the anime series Madoka Magica: Magia Record
Rena Minami sitting on the roof of the school

We know that Tsuruno, Rena (depicted above with a pile of chairs and desks in classic Shaft fashion), and Momoko all attend the school Iroha has now transferred to. Kaede also attends that school, but isn’t present for an unknown reason — I did like that her house was full of plants though.

Then we have Felicia who’s a truant, but now working at Tsuruno’s family’s restaurant. And lastly there’s Yachiyo who apparently isn’t in school either. Is she supposed to be a college student or something?

Invisible Girl

The first of three rumors we’re told about (which appear to all be connected), is that of the invisible girl. As the rumor goes, there was a girl who didn’t really socialize with the other students in her class, so they slowly started ignoring her. Then, over time, she literally turned invisible due to a lack of people acknowledging her.

Although this rumor is introduced in this episode, we don’t actually get to explore it much further than that. We can assume it’s connected to the other two rumors in the episode though, and I’ll get into how it ties into those later on.

But for now, there’s basically four paths I could see this invisible girl rumor heading in. The first one that came to mind, which is definitely not going to be the case, is that Ui became a victim of this rumor. I’m ruling this one out because Ui didn’t merely become invisible, her entire presence — past and present — was erased.

The next option is that Kaede has become invisible, and that has something to do with why she isn’t responding to Iroha and Rena. I don’t think this is the case either because we see Kaede at her home. However, I will entertain the possibility that Kaede could turn invisible in the future.

Third option is that the invisible girl in question is from the one room schoolhouse which we’re shown in the “where are they now?” montage. And tied into this is the fourth option, which is that Sana Futaba — mentioned by the girl from the Wings of Magius — is the invisible girl.

I’ve combined options three and four because while they could be separate, I think Sana is the invisible girl and the empty seat in the one room schoolhouse is hers.

Electric Wave Girl

The electric wave girl rumor is seemingly unrelated to the invisible girl rumor, but once we get to the third rumor it will all come together. This rumor states that if you listen to your phone while underneath the radio tower, you’ll hear a girl crying for help.

However, as we see throughout the episode, the rumor doesn’t actually work out this way. If you do listen to your phone while under the radio tower, you’ll instead her a girl laughing. And this laughing is the same laugh we hear at the beginning of the episode when Iroha’s phone starts acting strange.

But it’s not as if the part of the rumor about the girl crying for help is entirely untrue. Once Iroha’s phone starts acting up, she receives a bunch of “emails” (which are what text messages are referred to as in most anime) from someone claiming to be locked up and in need of help.

The landscape below the radio tower from the anime series Madoka Magica: Magia Record
The landscape below the radio tower

So, since we know that Iroha is receiving these text messages, that the voice under the radio tower is laughing, and that the same voice was heard when Iroha’s phone started acting strange, we can come to the conclusion that all three are related. The rumor had all the right pieces, but they were placed together incorrectly.

It seems pretty clear that whoever’s laughing on the other end of the phone call is the culprit here. What isn’t clear is exactly who that is. Is it a member of the Wings of Magius? Is it a witch that’s not being controlled by them? Or, is it perhaps something else?

And before moving on to the final rumor, I’d like to say that the landscape below the radio tower being a massive, claustrophobic cemetery is an interesting choice.

Endless Solitude

The endless solitude is the third and final rumor of the episode which ties the other two together. But despite this being the case, we actually know the least about this rumor. All we know is that there’s a place called the endless solitude and that you don’t want to go there.

There’s also the fact that all but the most recent post online regarding the endless solitude have since been deleted. For now it’s unclear how this is related, though, so I I don’t have too much to say about that. But what I will say is this: perhaps these deleted posts are evidence of “deleted” people like Ui.

So, how exactly does the endless solitude tie everything together?

First, we know that it’s a place you don’t want to go to, and it’s implied it makes you disappear. This disappearing part is similar to the rumor about the invisible girl. Then, we know that the electric wave girl is being held captive somewhere unknown, and the endless solitude would be a great place to hold someone captive.

Iroha entering a witches' labyrinth from the anime series Madoka Magica: Magia Record
Iroha entering a witches’ labyrinth

At the end of the episode we did actually get confirmation of that second point, which is rare. Iroha receives a text from the electric wave girl claiming that she’s within the endless solitude; usually we would have to wait until the next episode for the pieces to fall into place like that.

But, the invisible girl rumor is still only tangentially related at this point. We don’t actually know if it’s connected, but it’s highly implied.

We can also be pretty sure that this time around the Wings of the Magius aren’t involved. One of the White Feathers didn’t appear to have any knowledge of the electric girl or the endless solitude.

Conclusion

What did you think of Madoka Magica: Magia Record episode 8? I enjoyed how the three rumors started out separate, but were slowly revealed to be interconnected. It felt like a miniature version of the first seven episodes and how we learned all the previous rumors connected back to the Wings of the Magius.

But, do you think the Wings of the Magius are the ones controlling these new rumors? And how do you think the invisible girl rumor is going to tie into those of the electrical girl and endless solitude? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

2 Replies to “Magia Record Episode 8”

  1. from what I gathered kaede is just avoiding her friends because she thinks she’s dangerous and a witch. Something I really liked is that they used the invisible girl rumor as a reflection of how iroha is feeling by making said invisible girl look like her in the explanation animation thing.

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