A Faint Hope

There’s a lot to discuss about Madoka Magica: Magia Record episode 13. I’m sorry if this week’s review is all over the place, but I’m going to try to fit everything in without letting this post go on for too long. So let’s start off with some miscellaneous stuff and then move into a more structured format.

First up, let’s just go over what was good and what was bad about the episode from a technical standpoint. The music was good (obviously), especially the song which accompanied “queen” Mami. And the sound effects, specifically Sayaka running along Yachiyo’s spears, were also pretty nice.

Animation was a mixed bag, though — and I’m sorry in advance that I don’t know animators. Whoever animated the explosions, smoke, and Sayaka taking on Mami’s (not) Tiro Finale did a great job. Those were the best looking parts of the episode. The character animation, however, was pretty bad.

Though, I assume this poor animation will be fixed for the Blu-ray release in typical Shaft fashion.

Next, I have a minor issue with a claim Touka made during her definitely not a fascist Wings of the Magius pep rally. She claimed that humans have been wishing for whatever for 13 million years. I know most people probably don’t care, but as a historian I’d just like to point out that 13 million years ago humans didn’t exist.

I know, minor thing, but that’s about 11 million years before the genus Homo appeared.

And lastly, I think I touched on this in last week’s review, but the final scene of Alina mentioning the Walpurgis Night confirms once and for all that Magia Record is in a different timeline from Madoka Magica.

Touka’s Mind Control

While Touka’s magic hasn’t been revealed yet, I’m pretty sure it’s a form of mind control. I originally believed it would have to do with toys, like the toy train she played with in the hospital. And while I wouldn’t exactly say that prediction is wrong, it’s not how I expected it would be.

Rather than her magic allowing her to control toys, I think it simply allows her to control whatever she wants as if it was a toy. So for example, when she was younger she could use it to control actual toys, but now she’s developed her skill more and can control other people (magical girls) to do her bidding.

This is why we see that Felicia, Tsuruno, Kaede, and Mami have all joined the Wings of the Magius. Mami is obviously the most important of these, because as I’ve been saying for weeks, her joining doesn’t make the most sense.

Have I accepted the fact that Mami may have initially joined because she believed in the end goal of the Wings of the Magius? Yes. But that’s with the caveat that she didn’t know everything they were actually doing to accomplish that goal — and her being controlled by Touka seems to back this up.

It’s also important to keep in mind that Sayaka didn’t know what Mami was talking about when she was going on about despair and being lied to before turning into “queen” Mami. So I would caution against using Mami’s speech there as evidence that she’s some sort of willing participant.

What’s more likely is that Touka, or Mami’s Doppel, is somehow manipulating her feelings — taking what would normally just be a tiny amount of despair and turning it into the only thing she can focus on.

“Queen” Mami

I don’t know if “queen” Mami is supposed to be Mami’s Doppel, but considering it doesn’t look like any of the other Doppels we’ve seen I’m just going to guess that it isn’t. If it turns out that this is her Doppel, though, that doesn’t really change anything from my perspective.

Mami transforming into this form was pretty good, but I couldn’t help myself from laughing at everything else she did in this episode. When you compare the Mami vs. Homura fight from Rebellion to the Mami vs. Yachiyo fight in this episode — and even “queen” Mami vs. Sayaka — it’s clear which is better.

I’ll accept the fact that Mami isn’t actually fighting like she normally would on account of her being controlled right now. But seeing her do things like randomly shooting into the air while fighting Yachiyo just looked so stupid. And if you want me to care about this fight against “queen” Mami, maybe make her do more than T-pose in mid-air shooting a bunch of 3D CGI guns.

The reason Mami vs. Homura is the best fight in all of the Madoka Magica series is because of two things:

1. There’s actual choreography in the fight — Mami and Homura are moving around in sync.
2. There’s actual strategy at play in the fight — Mami and Homura are each trying to predict each other’s next moves, planning ahead, and attempting to bait mistakes out of one another.

This whole fight against “queen” Mami didn’t have any of that. It had some flashy animation when she fired that large (basically a nuke) shot which Sayaka deflected, but that’s it.

Oh, and I just need to point out that Yachiyo’s scorpion Doppel is the most cursed thing I’ve seen in a while. I don’t like it. I don’t like that she grew two more arms (now legs?). If Iroha decided not to be Yachiyo’s friend anymore after seeing that, I would understand.

Iroha Alter (Kuroe)

For the first time since episode one or two, Kuroe has made an appearance. And since she’s an anime only character, the mobile game players can’t shoot down my theory this time.

Basically, I think that Kuroe and Iroha are the “same” person, just like Illya and Kuro (Chloe) from Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya. And yes, the fact that her name is Kuroe, just like Fate’s Kuro, is my first piece of evidence to back up this theory. She’s a “dark” version of Iroha which somehow split off.

As further evidence, allow me to point out the magical girl outfits of both Iroha and Kuroe. Their outfits are very similar, with both including an exposed midriff section and a hooded cloak — white for Iroha and black for Kuroe.

Additionally, this episode adds even more credibility to this theory when it shows Kuroe present at Touka’s speech. It appears that she was brainwashed just like everyone else in attendance (aside from Momoko and Reina), but she suddenly snaps out of it when Iroha is dragged into the void by “queen” Mami.

This is obviously a sign that the two of them are connected in some special way.

As for how Kuroe split off from Iroha, that’s a bit harder to pin down. Since Iroha doesn’t remember what her wish was, it could have to do with that — perhaps she was attempting to bring Ui back, but created Kuroe instead. Or, maybe Ui’s disappearance and Kuroe’s appearance are more directly linked.

And although it doesn’t really match up with that theory I just laid out, I’m also considering that Kuroe and the little Kyubey could be Ui split into two. I find that less likely though.

Conclusion

What did you think of Magia Record episode 13? Is Touka’s magic actually what’s controlling the Wings of the Magius? It’s obvious they’re being controlled by something, but perhaps Touka’s not to blame. And are you looking forward to the second season? While I’m definitely going to watch it, my expectations aren’t as high as they were going into this season.

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 if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN 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 Magia Record 2nd Season Episode 1 is available now.

Why Is This So Unbearable?

Madoka Magica: Magia Record episode 12 includes many of the “big reveals” of the series. I’ll discuss them, and how they’re not actually revealing anything big, later on in this review. But before we get to that, I need to go through some updates based on information from this episode.

The first thing is Ui. There’s one episode left in the season, and we’re still no closer to figuring out where Ui is than we were at the start of the series. Iroha has come across no one who knows anything about Ui — or at least no one who will admit to knowing anything.

That in turn leads to there being three possible outcomes. Either everything is going to be wrapped up poorly next week, there’s going to be a second season which has yet to be confirmed, or we’re just not going to get a conclusion to this series.

I know that people have been saying Magia Record will need a second season for a long time now, and I don’t deny that. But at this point in time I’m not sure it will actually get one.

From what I’m seeing, we’re going to get a poor, unfinished ending to the anime and a call to action to download the game if we want to know how it ends. I don’t think that was the original intent, but I also don’t see Shaft picking this series up for another season.

If I’m wrong, great.

The second thing I want to mention is Mami. I’ve been pretty stubborn in my defense that Mami wouldn’t join the Wings of the Magius, but based on this episode, I can see why she might join. I’ll explain why that is bit by bit throughout the rest of this review.

Kanae and Mel

Kanae and Mel are two former magical girls who died in the line of duty. We don’t exactly meet them, but we see the circumstances leading up to their deaths through Mifuyu’s memories.

A question for those of you who play the mobile game: Are Kanae and Mel playable characters? Or are they just story elements? I’d imagine they’re still playable characters.

With the deaths of Kanae and Mel, Yachiyo, Mifuyu, and Momoko learn the dark truths of life and death as a magical girl. That’s their main role in the story.

And looking at their deaths from this standpoint, I can sort of see why Mami might join the Wings of the Magius. In this timeline, Mami was able to protect Madoka and Sayaka (who I assume both became magical girls without issue).

But rather than snapping when she learns the truth behind magical girls, she takes it upon herself to save them from their fate. So from that standpoint, I still stand by my assertion that Mami’s mental breakdown in the original series doesn’t play into why she would join the Wings of the Magius.

Instead, Mami is taking the role of Homura in this timeline — which is also what Mifuyu has done in a sense. Originally Homura sacrificed herself to protect her friends from their fate, and that’s what Mami and Mifuyu are doing here by joining the Wings of the Magius.

However, we also have Yachiyo who takes the opposite route. Rather than trying to protect her future friends, she decides not to make any more friends so that way she can’t lose them.

And this could lead one to argue that Yachiyo is in the wrong, while the Wings of the Magius are in the right.

The (not so) Big Reveal

Now, as for what was learned from the deaths of Kanae and Mel, that’s not actually anything revolutionary. I thought the big secret Momoko planned to tell Rena had to do with what we later learned are called Doppels, but that’s not the case.

Instead, the first big reveal is that soul gems physically house the souls of magical girls; so breaking a soul gem is the same as killing a magical girl. And the second big reveal is that magical girls are just adolescent witches.

If you’ve already watched the original series, which I think is fair to assume most viewers have since this is a spin-off of it, then neither of those things are a surprise. I understand that they’re surprising for these characters, but to make that the “big reveal” doesn’t really make sense.

Look, I don’t think many people would argue with me when I say the original Madoka Magica anime is better than the Magia Record anime. And one of the things the original series did better was how it revealed these dark truths about magical girls.

So I think a better way to go about doing this would have been to take a page from the original series. Rather than having this series explain these concepts again, they could have simply had Mami explain it to the girls (mostly off screen) a bit earlier and then saved this episode to focus on Doppels.

The original series is only 12 episodes and a movie, so it’s not a big commitment for people to watch that and understand how magical girls function. It’s not like when Boruto re-explains ideas from Naruto for newer fans so they don’t have to go back through 720 episodes.

Take advantage of the previous storytelling of the series.

Doppels

We’re finally given a name for the pseudo-witch forms magical girls in this series can take advantage of: Doppels.

This final part of the episode is really the only time when we’re given new information about how this world works in the episode. And it’s also the main reason I could see Mami joining the Wings of the Magius. But at the same time, I don’t think Mami knows everything, and if she did, I’m not sure she would have joined.

So the main thing here is that by using a Doppel, a magical girl’s soul gem can be purified without the need for a grief seed. This has two huge benefits.

1. Magical girls won’t die and turn into witches when they fall into despair, because they can self-cleanse their soul gems.
2. Magical girls will no longer need to fight witches in the future, because all witches will be defeated and no new ones will be created thanks to this self-cleansing.

I think Mami would view those two benefits in a very positive light, and this is why she joined the organization. But, the fact remains that the Wings of the Magius are producing witches and Rumors which are harming civilians.

I just don’t see Mami agreeing with this, even if it’s only a temporary thing until all witches can be destroyed. She obviously knows they’re harvesting the power of witches, but maybe she doesn’t know they’re also the ones creating them in the first place.

Also, although it was revealed that Touka created the Doppels, how she did this hasn’t been explained yet. That’s a major gap which is going to need explaining. There’s obviously a downside to Doppels which simply hasn’t been revealed.

And how did Touka “implant” Doppels into the other girls?

Conclusion

Normally I’d suggest that Touka does know who Ui is and actually used Ui in the creation of the Doppels. But considering we still have no information about Ui, I’m going to differ to a more reasonable stance and say Ui has nothing to do with this.

But what did you think of Magia Record episode 12? Has your opinion on Mami joining the Wings of the Magius been changed in either direction? Did you like how the truth of magical girls was explained in this series? And how do you think Doppels are created? 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 if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN 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 the final episode is available here.

Memory Museum at 3:00 PM

Last week I received a lot of comments from Minmin and katiethetransbian. Some of these comments were correcting things I mentioned, others were confirming or denying things I was unsure about, and they both also felt that I was incorrect in my assessment of Mami.

So let’s start off this week’s review by responding to their comments, because I think that could clear some things up for other readers as well.

First up we have the fact that Alina is one of the three Magius. I did see that it said Magius when she started using her witch mode, but I incorrectly assumed it was trying to say that she’s using her Magia, the witch power.

Sticking on the topic of Alina, I’m also told that the green cubes she uses are her personal magic. This doesn’t really make sense to me because she already has her corrupting paint magic, but alright. Also we see either Tsukuyo or Tsukasa use the green cubes as well, which would imply it’s not restricted to Alina.

As for Tsukuyo, it was said that she didn’t know Sana, but had heard of her name before. To this I respond by saying, okay, but the way she spoke about Sana implied the two had a connection.

For the lightning round, there was a correction that Iroha is a middle school student, not a high school student, the whole antenna magnet robot was apparently anime-original, and this side story is not set within the normal Madoka Magica timeline. That’s all fine, though I think the timeline thing is a bit strange.

Finally, we come to Mami. First of all, with Alina being a Magius, there aren’t different factions within the organization — Mami just doesn’t completely agree with Alina’s methods. However, I still stand by the fact that Mami wouldn’t necessarily be a member of Wings of the Magius in this timeline.

Sure, Mami went crazy and tried to kill everyone in one of the timelines, but that doesn’t define her character. And in this timeline, we know that she was able to protect Madoka and Sayaka. There’s nothing to suggest she would go down this “darker” path within this timeline.

Tsukuyo and Tsukasa

Onto episode 11, we start off (almost) with a meeting between Iroha and Tsukuyo Amane — who introduces herself as Tsukuyo Akatsuki. I’m not sure if this was a simple attempt at hiding her identity, but the fact that she chose Akatsuki is interesting.

No, not because of the organization from Naruto, but because it means “dawn.” Is this supposed to be some sort of reference to the Wings of the Magius bringing about a new dawn for magical girls? Or am I reading too much into it?

Also, I’m sure the mobile game players are going tell me all the ways this theory of mine is wrong, but what if Tsukuyo and Tsukasa were the same person?

If you’re going to debunk my theory by pointing out the fact that we’ve seen both Tsukuyo and Tsukasa in the same scene multiple times, fair enough. But, there have been plenty of other anime that have done similar things, only to reveal that something we thought existed was actually all in the mind of one of the characters.

I mean, how often is it in anime that you see only one twin at a time? Yuru Yuri comes to mind as an example, but usually twins are always depicted together. This isn’t the case for Tsukuyo and Tsukasa, and as far as I can tell, we’ve only seen Tsukuyo on her own — not Tsukasa.

So does Tsukasa really exist, or is she just in Tsukuyo’s head? She could be an alternate personality or she could be Tsukuyo’s sister who died. Whatever the case, I still have my doubts about her being real.

Not Friends, Roommates

I was a bit surprised when Iroha and the other girls didn’t react to Yachiyo saying they weren’t her friends, just her roommates. But what’s more important than their lack of a reaction is why Yachiyo said this in the first place.

We know that Yachiyo, Mifuyu, and Tsuruno have a past together — and that Mifuyu suddenly disappeared at some point. However, Yachiyo and Mifuyu appear to have a much deeper connection than either of them has with Tsuruno.

Although Tsuruno apparently would have wished to see Mifuyu at the seance shrine, Mifuyu doesn’t appear to even notice her when they’re in the same room. So, what is this past that connects the three of them, and why is their relationship as it is now?

According to Momoko, something big happened in their past. And from what we see of Yachiyo fighting against her inner witch, and Mifuyu’s statement about how Yachiyo is going to do “something” again, I think I might know what it is.

My guess is that the realization that magical girls have the latent power of witches inside of them came from Yachiyo undergoing this transformation at some point.

If Yachiyo was worried about hurting her friends just like Kaede is now, it would make sense for her to distance herself from Tsuruno. Also, if she and Mifuyu argued about the best way to use the witch’s power, that could have been what caused their split and Mifuyu to join Wings of the Magius.

Touka Satomi

The final thing I want to discuss today are the Magius. Last week we learned that Alina is one of the Magius, and this week we learned that Touka Satomi, one of Ui’s roommates in the hospital, is another. There’s also only three Magius, so who’s the last one?

I thought it was already implied that Nemu, Ui’s other roommate was one of the Magius as well, which is what led me to theorize that Ui, Nemu, and Touka were the three Magius. But because Iroha meets with Touka rather than Nemu, who she requested by name, perhaps Nemu isn’t one.

And although I know there are three Magius who are theoretically on equal footing, I get the feeling that Touka is higher up than Alina. It could just be that their personalities are different, but Touka isn’t going out and doing grunt work like Alina is.

So if we’ve met both Alina and Touka, and if Touka is above Alina as far as Magius go, then is it safe to assume the third Magius is the leader?

I sort of get the feeling that Touka is the founder of Wings of the Magius though, which would go against this. The way she acted superior to the other two girls in the hospital makes me think she’s not someone who would be content with being anywhere but on top.

So who’s the last Magius?

Honestly, I have no idea. I’d go with the wild card guess and say that Kuroe from the start of the series is the final Magius, but she’s an anime-only character, so that won’t be the case. Instead, I’ll say that the chibi Kyubey is the final Magius, and that he’s actually been manipulating everyone else.

Conclusion

That’s all I have to say about Magia Record episode 11. Feel free to tell me what I got wrong this time around either in the comments or over on social media. And if you haven’t played the mobile game, let me know your prediction for who the last Magius is.

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 if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN 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 the next episode is available here.

My Name

Madoka Magica: Magia Record episode 10 looked pretty bad animation-wise. Shaft will probably make the animation look better for the Blu-ray release, but I’m not sure it’s even worth it at this point. Who’s going to buy this series? I don’t buy physical copies of anime anyway, but seriously, who needs this?

I can understand wanting to own the original series. I can understand playing the mobile game. But what I can’t understand is wanting to own this anime series based on the mobile game. As a whole, I think this anime has been a flop so far, and I don’t really expect it do sell well.

The original series is one of my favorite anime, and after Rebellion I thought I wanted more Madoka content. But now that it’s here and I’ve seen what it is, I realize I never needed more.

So if you’re looking for the episode at which I decided Magia Record didn’t need to be an anime, it’s this one. Is it good? Yeah, I guess so. Is it necessary? Not for someone like me who hasn’t played the game. If you’ve played the game you might like it more so far, but my rating of it has been dropping over time.

Magnet Robots and Metallic Girls

The first part of this episode made absolutely no sense to me. Hopefully I wasn’t the only one who had no idea what was going on. And simply based on what I saw, I have a feeling that even the mobile game players may have been lost — like when there was a giant, ethereal kitsune in the Azur Lane anime.

There was still never an explanation given for how Yachiyo & friends figured out that the Endless Solitude was going to drop Iroha and Sana out above the Kamihama tower. And then it’s also unclear if that prediction was right or not.

I could be wrong, but didn’t they get dropped above the radio tower instead? I’m fairly sure they got dropped above the radio tower, and then the walking magnet antenna robot pulled them over to Kamihama tower. So if Yachiyo & company had gone to Kamihama tower and there wasn’t a magical robot there, they would have been out of luck.

Also, I think we need to talk about the walking magnetic antenna robot. First of all, I’ll accept it’s existence because magic is at work here. However, that doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s clearly using magnetic forces to pull things towards it which aren’t magnetic.

This may come as a shock to you since our blood contains iron, but humans aren’t magnetic. Our bodies are mostly water, and water messes with magnetic fields. So no, a magnet could not pull in Iroha or Sana.

But, I get it, your next argument is that there’s magic afoot. You’re right, this magnetic robot does rely on magic, but it’s also very clear that it’s using a magnetic force to pull everything towards it. We’re specifically shown metal objects like a bike and trash can get pulled in.

Magius

Also during that scene of magnetic nonsense we see paint girl (I forgot her name already) catching witches like Pokémon by throwing cubes at them. That’s just a thing that exists now I guess because when Mami shows up she instructs the Wings of the Magius twins to do the same.

And, yeah, Mami being a high ranking member of the Wings of the Magius is a thing now too. I’m not really sure how I feel about that. It seems to go against everything Mami stood for in the original series, so is this really her choice? Or is she being controlled somehow?

The only thing that leads me to believe this is really Mami’s choice is that she claims to be doing it for Madoka and Sayaka. If the reason was simply because she believes in what the Wings of the Magius are doing, I’d have some major doubts.

Also, since she refers to herself as Madoka and Sayaka’s mentor, that implies this series takes place after the original series and Rebellion. It has to be after the original series because she knows who they are. And it has to be after Rebellion because she knows Madoka specifically.

With the arrival of Mami we also learn that even the Wings of the Magius isn’t a cohesive organization — which doesn’t make much sense. Based on how they were introduced into the series, you’d think this is a highly organized group. But as we see, paint girl is clearly part of some other faction within the group.

And, at the end of the episode it’s revealed that one of Ui’s hospital roommates is probably one of the three Magius. If you remember, there were three of them in that room, so are they all Magius? Is that what happened to Ui?

A Place Called Home

At the end of the episode the girls bring Sana back to live with them in the boarding house. They each get their own mugs so that everyone feels like they’re at home — and these mugs each represent their owners. However, Yachiyo’s mug is basically just her magical girl design put on a mug; it’s not subtle at all.

But the mugs aren’t really what I want to discuss right now. Instead, we have a new magical girl added to the party: Sana Futaba. Sana is interesting in that while we know her backstory and the wish she made to become a magical girl, we still don’t know much about her.

Before Sana was officially introduced into the series, one of the Wings of the Magius twins mentioned her by name. It seemed like she had once been friends with Sana, but hadn’t seen her for a while. However, when Sana and the twins come face to face in this episode, nobody mentions any connection between them.

The twin didn’t appear to know what the Electric Wave Girl rumor was, and yet she knew who Sana was. Is this a plot hole? Did the anime cut something out from the game in relation to Sana? Or is this something which is going to come up later and was merely skipped over for now in an awkward fashion?

My source (@katiethetransbian on Tumblr) has confirmed that Yachiyo is, in fact, a college student. We also know Iroha and Tsuruno are high school students, but what about Felicia and Sana? They both seem like middle school students to me, but as we know, Felicia doesn’t attend school.

As for Sana, I don’t see how she could really attend school either considering her invisibility. And unlike Felicia, she can’t exactly work at Tsuruno’s restaurant — at least in a way that involves interacting with customers. So is she just going to spend her days alone at the boarding house?

Conclusion

This week’s review of Madoka Magica: Magia Record was all over the place, but the episode kind of was as well. There were a lot of things which either didn’t make sense, contradicted previous parts of the series, or are going to require a lot of further explanation. But what did you think of episode 10? 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 if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN 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 the next episode is available here.

A World With Just Me

As expected, Madoka Magica: Magia Record episode 9 ties together the three rumors which were introduced in the previous episode. However, the rumor about the invisible girl didn’t exactly tie in as I expected. I’ll discuss that more later on, but first, let’s recap how the Endless Solitude and Electric Wave Girl rumors are connected.

So, I need to start by pointing out that there is currently no Electric Wave Girl — and there hasn’t been as long as Iroha and her friends have been investigating the rumor. The voice they hear over the phone is the Rumor (with a capital “R”) which controls the Endless Solitude.

If you’re wondering what the difference between rumors and Rumors is, it goes something like this: Rumors are the man-made, witch-like creatures which are behind the rumors spreading around local school. The subtitles on the sites I’ve been watching this series on differentiate the two by using the Japanese word “Uwasa” (噂) in place of “Rumor.”

But, if there’s currently no Electric Wave Girl, how did the rumor start? Well, just because there’s no electric wave girl right now doesn’t mean there never was. Before Sana Futaba became trapped in the Endless Solitude, there was an Electric Wave Girl.

Basically, the Electric Wave Girl and Endless Solitude rumors are one and the same. The Electric Wave Girl was merely the girl trapped in the Endless Solitude. But, because Sana wanted to be trapped there, she wasn’t crying for help like the previous captives — which is why there’s no longer an Electric Wave Girl.

The Endless Solitude

The explanation of the Endless Solitude was definitely the best part of the episode. It had a good story, it was explained well, and it had some unique visuals to go along with it.

So, what’s the deal with the Endless Solitude?

Like all Rumors, the Rumor of the Endless Solitude is man-made, just in a slightly different way. It’s not entirely clear, but I’m pretty sure most Rumors are created by the Wings of the Magius, and then rumors spread about them via the local students.

However, it’s also possible that rumors are what spawn the Rumors, and then the Wings of the Magius simply hijack the Rumors which have been created. The Rumor of the Endless Solitude seems to fall into this second category, unlike most of the Rumors which came before it.

As the story goes, there was an AI that was abandoned by its creators and eventually became a Rumor. It then created the Endless Solitude as its labyrinth and captures anyone who enters. However, it only captures one person at a time, so if someone new were to enter the Endless Solitude, the previous captive is released.

But, we haven’t actually heard any accounts of anyone ever being released from the Endless Solitude even though we know for a fact this should have happened in the past. The reason for this may be due to the way in which one enters this labyrinth.

The only known entrance to the Endless Solitude involves jumping off the top of the radio tower. Obviously only suicidal people would even test this rumor out, so it could simply be that they died once they were released. Or, perhaps the Endless Solitude releases its captives mid-fall and they continue the plummet.

The Invisible Girl

The Invisible Girl rumor is potentially the most interesting rumor of the series because it has no associated Rumor. And the truth is that it isn’t merely a rumor, there really is an Invisible Girl. However, the main difference between the rumor and reality is that not just anyone can become the Invisible Girl.

The rumor states that a girl will become the Invisible Girl if she’s ignored by everyone around her for long enough. And previously, I had assumed that the girl turns “invisible” because she’s actually trapped within the Endless Solitude. But that’s not the case.

The Invisible Girl actually refers to a single person, Sana, who wished to become invisible when she made her magical girl pact with Kyubey. It’s then merely a coincidence that the Invisible Girl ends up within the Endless Solitude, the two are not one and the same as the Endless Solitude and Electric Wave Girl are.

Now, I could be forgetting someone, but I think Sana’s wish is the only one which has been fully explained so far in the anime. We’ve gotten little pieces of information for some of the other girls’ wishes, but with Sana we got the full story.

She felt that she no longer had a place in society, so she wished for her apparent invisibility to become a reality. Some people would call Sana’s invisibility a pretty good wish — a superpower, even. However, for her it’s more like a self-imposed curse.

But, there’s something more we can assume about Sana thanks to her wish. The effectiveness of wishes is directly related to the magic potential of the girls making them. So the fact that Sana’s invisibility doesn’t work on other magical girls implies she’s extremely weak.

Alina Gray

Alina Gray is the next member of the Wings of the Magius who we’re introduced to. Does her name imply that she ranks somewhere between the Black and White Feathers of the organization? I don’t know. But what I do know is that there are a couple suspicious things about her.

First, and this has nothing to do with the story, she speaks in two languages: Japanese and English. That’s not that strange in and of itself, but the site I was watching this episode on translated all of the English lines into Italian. I don’t know why, but that’s a thing that happened.

And no, I don’t watch Magia Record on Crunchyroll even though they have it. Crunchyroll is a week behind (even with Premium), so I’ve been using 9anime instead. However, this week 9anime didn’t have the episode, so I resorted to KissAnime which is where this translation quirk was found.

Second, and this one might have something to do with the story, Alina uses some sort of paint magic she refers to as Doppel. The reason this could be important is that, if you recall, Kaede was fighting against a paint-based witch when she first transformed into her pseudo-witch form.

Was the witch Kaede was fighting against Doppel? It looked like she killed it, so probably not, but it still may have been related to Alina in some way. Perhaps Doppel is what she calls any witch familiars she creates, and Kaede happened to be fighting one of those.

I’m not really sure. But, I feel like it’s safe to say that Alina is somehow related to the witch (or familiar, or Rumor, or whatever it was) that Kaede fought when she first transformed.

Conclusion

So what did you think of Magia Record episode 9? Did you like the story about the Endless Solitude? Do you think anyone has actually survived being released from it? Also, is the reason other magical girls can see Sana simply because she’s weak? And, are Alina and the paint witch connected somehow? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

I know at the end of the episode we’re led to believe the Endless Solitude exit is on the top of Kamihama Central Tower, but so far the series has provided no evidence to back this up. In fact, everything in the anime so far points to this not being the case.

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 if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN 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 the next episode is available here.