Magia Record Final Season Episode 11

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.

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My review of Episode 12 is available now.