Bye, Kuroe

As I figured may be the case, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season fell apart a bit at the end. I knew something was going to go wrong based on how much I liked Episode 9 and the low rating of the “season” as a whole.

And, In my review of Episode 11, I pointed out that by the end of the episode, there were a lot of loose ends. Iroha had to save Kuroe. She had to defeat Touka and Nemu. And she had to defeat Alina Gray.

But, what I didn’t realize is that the ending scene of the previous episode was Kuroe’s death. Episode 12 opens with Iroha standing over the Grief Seed dropped by Kuroe’s witch. Rather than trying to save Kuroe, Iroha chooses to release her from her fate instead.

I have mixed feelings about the end of Kuroe’s story. On one hand, I like the dark, despair-filled parts of Madoka Magica. The fact that Kuroe wasn’t saved is good in that regard. A good death can turn an average character into a good character.

Unfortunately, I’m not convinced Kuroe’s death meets that threshold. Abrupt character deaths are fine with me. Sometimes the abruptness makes the death hit harder. But, Kuroe’s death was pretty much offscreen, which takes away from it a little bit.

What takes away from it even more, though, is that Kuroe wasn’t important. She’s not one of the main characters of the series. She’s a supporting character who we don’t know much about. We only got a brief backstory for her in the previous episode.

And, from what I remember people telling me, Kuroe’s also an anime-original character. So it’s not as if there’s more to her character from the game.

Bye, Alina

We’re done with Kuroe’s character arc. Up next are Touka, Nemu, and Alina. And, unfortunately, the conclusion to their stories aren’t much better. But, considering we only had this one episode to wrap everything up in, I don’t know what more they could have done.

Despite doubling down on their plan in Episode 10, it didn’t take much to stop Touka and Nemu. Iroha took a page out of Naruto’s book and talk-no-jutsu’d them. There wasn’t a battle or anything. All it took was a few minutes of Iroha talking to them and they swapped sides.

And that brings us to Alina Gray. After Touka and Nemu ally themselves with Iroha, Alina shows up to say that the show must go on. She reveals herself as the final antagonist of the series, which is fitting since she was also one of the first.

According to Alina, her plan wasn’t the same as Touka’s and Nemu’s. While they were trying to save all magical girls, Alina was trying to create more of them. Alina planned to use her Doppel magic to turn everyone on Earth into a magical girl. And she wanted to do this for two reasons.

First, Alina’s an anarchist. She likes chaos, and that’s exactly what her plan creates. Second, she wants the world to recognize the sacrifices of magical girls. By turning everyone into magical girls, she’s forcing them to face the hidden truth.

I have no problem with Alina being the final boss of the (anime) series. But, she’s defeated almost immediately. Alina lets her Doppel take over, turning her into a witch. Then Touka and Nemu do the same, sacrificing themselves to take down Alina.

As with Kuroe, we never learned much about Alina. Her character could have been so much more.

No One Knows Our Record… Our Magia Record

This kind of started in the previous episode, but the “final battle” of the series went all-in on the gacha game theme. For the most part, Magia Record has stayed away from making it obvious that it’s based on a gacha game. And that’s good.

But, starting in Episode 11 and hitting its peak in Episode 12 was the inclusion of a bunch of random magical girls. And I don’t mean the generic-looking Wings of the Magius magical girls. I mean characters with unique outfits, personalities, and voice actors.

You’d think that adding more characters beyond the main cast would be a good thing. In theory, it could make the world feel more alive. It could show that there are other people doing things in this world beyond what we see from the main cast. But, it didn’t.

The inclusion of all these other magical girls for the final battle came off as an ad for the game. “Look at all these other magical girls you can collect!” And, yes, I do understand that this was kind of the entire point of making the anime. Anime are often marketing tools for whatever the source material is.

But, there are better ways to go about it. Look at Fate, for example. Fate/Grand Order is the big money-maker of the series. But the Fate anime, even the ones based on chapters of the game, don’t throw in a bunch of extra characters.

A better way to get people interested in the game would be to end the anime by setting up what comes next. Remember how the end of Madoka Magica teased the Wraith Arc? The same thing could have happened here. Instead, we got an “open” ending that didn’t set anything up.

Conclusion

Despite my many complaints, I still enjoyed Magia Record Final Season Episode 12. But, it wasn’t as good as the previous episodes. With that said, what did you think of the final episode? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

Alina Gray’s Doppels

With Episode 11 of Magia Record: Puella Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season, I’m starting to see an issue. The series still needs to wrap up a lot of stuff. But, there’s only one remaining episode. Unfortunately, I doubt the final episode is going to conclude everything well.

One thing that’s going to need a conclusion is Alina Gray’s “storyline.” Alina is a pretty important character. And yet, we still know very little about her. In Episode 9, we saw how she came to be a follower of Touka and Nemu. But, that’s kind of the only explanation we got of her.

We did get a little more information about Alina in Episode 11, though. It turns out that it’s Alina’s barrier magic that creates the Doppel system. I guess Episode 10 implied this, but I didn’t realize it was the case at the time.

Before this episode, I was under the impression that the Doppel system was the creation of Touka, Nemu, and Ui. But, no. Alina created the Doppel system because Touka, Nemu, and Ui failed in their original plan. When Ui starts turning into a Witch, Alina sets up her barrier to stop the transformation.

Toward the end of the episode, it’s confirmed that Alina’s barrier is the source of the Doppel system. Kuroe’s Doppel is taking over, and when she exits the barrier, she turns into a Witch. I’ll discuss that more later on in this review.

To finish up this section on Alina, I want to remind you that she was one of the first antagonists introduced. She’s still an antagonist. So not only will our heroes have to defeat Touka, Nemu, and Embryo Eve, but they’ll have to defeat Alina too.

It’ll be weird if Alina surrenders without a fight.

Kuroe’s Past

Kuroe has been in the series since Episode 1. She was Iroha’s first magical girl friend. Though, back then they were more like on-and-off coworkers. From what I remember, they only worked together when they both happened to be in the same area.

Now, almost 2 cours after her introduction, we’re finally getting some of her backstory. Kuroe’s backstory hasn’t been completely revealed yet, though. This means that’s another thing the final episode of the season is going to have to squeeze in.

For now, we still don’t know what Kuroe’s wish was. We know Iroha’s wish was to heal her sick sister. And we recently learned what the wishes of Touka, Nemu, and Ui were. But, I don’t remember if we learned what any of the other main girls’ wishes were.

Anyway, before Kuroe met Iroha, she met another magical girl. This magical girl was a newbie who happened to wander into Kuroe’s territory. Kuroe found this girl fighting a Witch and swooped in to save her despite Kuroe being weak herself.

What made this encounter stick in Kuroe’s memory is that it made her realize how tough being a magical girl is. Before this, she viewed herself as weak and thought that’s why she struggled. She wasn’t wrong about that. But, she now realized that this is common among magical girls. Most of them are weak, scared, and don’t know how much longer they’ll live.

This girl also reveals that her Soul Gem is becoming clouded. She asks Kuroe if she has any spare Grief Seeds, to which Kuroe responds that she doesn’t. She only has one, and so she abandons the girl so that she can save herself.

Kuroe the Witch

As I mentioned earlier in the review, Kuroe turns into a Witch when she passes beyond Alina’s barrier. Her Witch form also tears her human body apart. But, it’s unclear what this action means if anything. There’s no evidence that what we saw get torn apart was Kuroe’s real body.

Why do I say that? We all saw Kuroe’s body get torn apart, right? Well, as far as I can remember, we’ve never seen a Witch and her magical girl body existing at the same time. What I mean by that is, that when a magical girl turns into a Witch, her physical body transforms into the Witch’s body.

This would mean that the body we saw the Witch tear apart here wasn’t Kuroe’s real body. I’m not sure exactly how it all works. But, I’m pretty sure that Iroha can still save Kuroe by getting her back within Alina’s barrier.

As for why Kuroe turned into a Witch, it’s simple. She fell into despair. Isn’t that how all magical girls turn into Witches? Sort of, but not exactly. Although connected, there are two distinct ways of becoming a Witch.

The first is that a magical girl uses too much of her magical energy without purifying her Soul Gem. This is what we saw happen to Sayaka back in Madoka Magica (kind of). You may remember that Sayaka went on a rampage, slaying Witches left and right and using up all her magic.

The second way to become a Witch is to fall into despair. This also happened to Sayaka. But, it was only after she pushed herself to the edge.

Rather than using up all her magic, Kuroe falls into despair. It happened after she thinks about how she’s too weak to save anyone.

Conclusion

What do you think of Magia Record Final Season Episode 11? Do you think we’ll get a satisfying ending for Alina’s character? What do you think of the girl Kuroe abandoned having a cloak like Iroha’s? And, do you think Iroha will save Kuroe in the end? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can support this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 12 is available now.

The Plan Must Continue

I’m now two episodes into the Final Season of Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story. And so far, I’m still not seeing why people think this “season” is so bad. Well, that’s not all true. I can see a few things people may take issue with, and I’ll address those in this review.

But, I’m still thinking that there must be something egregious coming in the final two episodes. So far, I don’t see the issue. I still have the season rated as a 10, which is 2 points higher than Season 2 and 4 points higher than Season 1.

The first thing I could see people having an issue with is the twist that came in the first half of the episode. Despite getting her memories back, Touka still supports Wings of the Magius — and so does Nemu.

You’d expect that this is the point of the series when they realize the error of their ways. They would then fight alongside Iroha and her friends to defeat Embryo Eve as she goes out of control.

But, that’s not what happens. And, I can see how that could have annoyed some people. But, I like how things turned out. I wasn’t expecting it and I don’t think it takes away from the series. It’s a good twist.

The fact that Touka and Nemu are still committed to their plan is great. I like that they’re making the choice they know Iroha and Ui wouldn’t want. They’re not doing this to be evil. They believe they need to make the difficult choice to sacrifice magical girls to save them.

Saving Magical Girl Souls

The next part I could see people taking issue with is how Momoko and Mifuyu save the souls of all the magical girls. They saved everyone from turning into their Doppels. I completely understand if you want to call this a Deus ex machina — it pretty much is.

But, allow me to make an argument in its defense. First of all, magic. Second, they have to pay a price for saving the souls of these girls. And third, it actually fits well into the themes of the series.

I don’t think I need to explain the first point. But, the second point is why I’d say it’s not a true Deus ex machina. There was a drawback to saving all those souls. Momoko and Mifuyu had to give up their own lives in exchange (more on that in the next section).

The third point is the one that justifies the inclusion of this scene. Have you watched Madoka Magica? Rebellion? The previous two seasons of Magia Record? If so, you should know that self-sacrifice for the sake of others is a major theme.

(Almost) every magical girl we know of sold their soul to Kyubey for the sake of someone else. In the original series, Mami sacrificed herself to protect Madoka and Sayaka. Kyouko sacrificed herself for Sayaka. Homura sacrificed herself for Madoka. And Madoka sacrificed herself for all magical girls.

In the Wraith Arc, which wasn’t shown in the anime, Sayaka sacrificed herself for her friends. And in Rebellion, Homura once again sacrificed herself for Madoka. In Magia Record, we hadn’t had a girl sacrifice her life until now. But, again, most of them gave their souls to Kyubey in exchange for helping others.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Continuing on with Momoko and Mifuyu sacrificing their lives is there an issue with this? Sure, if you like Momoko or Mifuyu you’re going to be sad. But, is them dying a sign of bad writing? I don’t think so.

Also, considering this is Madoka Magica, I’m not actually expecting them to remain dead by the end of the series. My bet is that everyone who died or is going to die will come back to life somehow.

But, I’ve heard that the end of this season isn’t actually the end of the Magia Record (game) story. So, it’s very possible that Momoko and Mifuyu are still dead by the end of the season. If the anime covered the entire story, their resurrection would be far more likely.

Now, would a resurrection render their sacrifice meaningless? I don’t believe it would. First of all, their sacrifice may very well be what allows whoever resurrects them to do so. For example (this isn’t going to be the case) let’s say Sana resurrects them.

If that happened, it would only be because Mifuyu first sacrificed herself to save Sana. Or, even if it’s Ui who resurrects them, their sacrifice still would have played a role. Saving all the other girls might help out in defeating Embryo Eve.

Regardless, I also don’t believe their sacrifice would be meaningless. It’s the intent behind their actions that counts. What makes their sacrifice such an important moment is that they chose to do so for someone else. The same is true for any magical girl.

Even if they’re resurrected, that choice still stands. Nobody can take that choice away from them.

Conclusion

Do you agree with my assessment of Magia Record Final Season Episode 10? Or, do you think this wasn’t a good episode? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and Key Mochi~ for supporting this blog at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. To learn more about how you too can support DoubleSama.com, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 11 is available now.

Uwasa Origins

Before I get into the review, I should explain why this is Episode 9 and not Episode 1. You see, the title Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season is a lie.

You may be familiar with how Attack on Titan is going to have 3 parts to its Final Season by the time the series finishes. Well, Magia Record is pretty much doing the opposite. The Magia Record “Final Season” is the remaining 4 episodes that weren’t complete in time for Season 2.

Did you notice that Season 2 only has 8 episodes and the “Final Season” only has 4? Put those together, and you get the 12 episodes in a standard cour of anime. So, it would actually be more correct to call this Magia Record Season 2 Part 2, hence this being Episode 9.

The season and episode number aside, this episode takes us back to what started the series. That’s right. We finally learn the secret behind the disappearance of Ui Tamaki. And, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a pretty good explanation.

Included in this backstory is a scene of Ui, Nemu, and Touka coming up with various Uwasa. These were the Uwasa encountered throughout the series. The girls came up with the original concept of the Uwasa as a way to leave their mark on the city after they died. They wanted Iroha to remember them.

Remember, all three of these girls are hospital lifers. We don’t know what illnesses they have, but it’s implied that there’s not much of a chance that they’ll recover. In the previous season, from what I remember, Nemu even stated that she doesn’t have much time left.

The Truth of Magical Girls

My favorite part of the episode is when Ui, Nemu, and Touka learn about the existence and truth of magical girls. This took me back to when I watched Madoka Magica for the first time.

Well, actually, I loved everything about this episode. Even Kyubey’s introduction when he appears before Iroha as she left the hospital was great. But, the main part I want to discuss here is when the younger girls meet Kyubey.

The first time they meet him is within a Witch’s labyrinth in the morgue of the hospital in which they’re patients. If that’s not an ominous meeting place, I don’t know what is. And, I should point out that Ui is lucky Nemu and Touka were there. Without them, she likely would have made a contract immediately.

Nemu and Touka don’t trust Kyubey. But, they do recognize that if Kyubey’s telling the truth, they should consider his offer. If he can grant their wishes, that’s a huge incentive to become magical girls. And so, the girls do some research before confronting Kyubey with some questions.

Kyubey’s interrogation was the best thing about the episode. I love how, as he claims, he never once lies to them in response to their questions. But, he’s very careful with his choice of words. He may not lie, but he leaves all the important information out of his answers.

There’s something about seeing Kyubey masterfully dodge their questions that I love. To me, this scene is as good as the insanely-animated action scenes of Season 2. The psychological aspect of the Madoka Magica series is what makes it so good. And until now, I hadn’t felt like Magia Record nailed that part of it.

We Failed

Alright, so now we’re finally getting to the point of the review when I discuss Ui’s disappearance. Madoka spent a lot of time thinking about her wish. But Ui, Touka, and Nemu put a lot more consideration into their respective wishes.

Even with everything they put into these wishes, they still failed in the end (much like Madoka). Each girl wished to take one of Kyubey’s abilities for themself. Ui wished for the power to collect energy, Touka for the power to transform it, and Nemu for the power to manifest it.

Their wishes strip these powers from Kyubey. But, they also give the girls the combined ability to save all magical girls. Ui takes their negative energy. Touka converts it for magical girls to use. And Nemu gives the energy physical form that enhances their purification’s range.

This is all great. Except, there’s a slight problem. The negative energy Ui is collecting is too much for her own soul gem to handle. In about a minute, she’s already fallen into despair and begins her transformation into a witch.

Luckily, Touka and Nemu are able to extract Ui’s soul, or at least a part of it, from her witch form. Nemu then places it into the empty husk of Kyubey, thus creating the small Kyubey. I predicted a very long time ago that Ui was the small Kyubey, and it turns out I was right to an extent.

The bad news is that this act also erased Ui’s existence from the universe. The only person who remembered her was Nemu until Iroha noticed something was wrong. And since Touka doesn’t realize they lost Ui, she believes their plan was a success.

Conclusion

Magia Record: Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season Episode 9 might be my favorite of the series so far. On its own, I gave this episode a 10/10. But, I do see that the Final Season has a score of 6.83 on MyAnimeList as I’m writing this review.

I’m interested to see what goes wrong to make people think it’s that bad. But, since this is a review of only Episode 9, what do you think of this episode? Did you like it as much as I did? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 10 is available now.