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Recap / Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 01 "As If I Met Her In My Dream..."
aka: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 1

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Madoka Kaname is your average, pink-haired middle school student with a happy family, good friends, and a normal, everyday life. But everything changes after the arrival of a cool but cryptic transfer student followed by the appearance of a talking white creature.


This episode provides examples of:

  • The Ace: Homura shows herself to be quite an excellent student in class and proves herself to be an excellent athlete when she breaks the track record for every school in the city.
  • Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear at the moment why Homura is attacking Kyubey, and when Madoka demands an explanation on why she's trying to hurt a cute creature begging for help, Homura refuses to answer.
  • Big Damn Heroes: When Madoka and Sayaka end up in what would be identified in the next episode as a Labyrinth, they are saved from the attacking Familiars by Mami Tomoe.
  • Book Ends: Madoka's dream has her talk to Kyubey, who tells her she can make things better for Homura if she makes a contract with him and becomes a Magical Girl. The ending of the episode has Madoka meet Kyubey personally, where he requests her and Sayaka to become Magical Girls.
  • Cryptic Conversation: While alone in the school, Homura warns Madoka to never change how her current life is if she truly cherishes it. She doesn't go into specifics leaving Little Miss Cotton Candy confused over the intentions behind it.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: While at the music store, Madoka can be heard listening to her show's theme song.
  • Dream Intro: The episode begins with Madoka having a dream of Homura facing a powerful opponent and losing, while Kyubey tries to convince her to make a contract with him and become a Magical Girl.
  • Establishing Character Moment: While plenty of characters show Hidden Depths and Beneath the Mask moments later in the series, the entirety of the first episode gives us an accurate first impression of Madoka's kindness and her desire to help people. Her dream at the beginning shows that she wants to help Homura in the hopeless battle she's facing desperately to the point of considering becoming a Magical Girl, and later she also goes out of her way to save Kyubey when he's being attacked by Homura. She is also shown having a happy life with her family and her friends, greeting them kindly and wishing them good morning.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • When Madoka tells her mother about how Hitomi received another love letter, Junko tells her that if the writer of the love letter can't say he loves Hitomi to her face, then he's not worth the girl's time. This will become important later on in Sayaka's character arc regarding her crush on Kyosuke.
    • When Homura asks Madoka to take her to the Nurse's Office, Madoka is confused about how she knew she was the nurse's aide until Homura tells her that their teacher told her. But then she becomes confused when Homura starts leading her to the nurse's office instead of the other way around, despite this supposedly being Homura's first day at their school...
      • During this moment, also take note of how when the scene focuses on Homura's face her eyes become hidden as her mouth twitches in anguish, hinting that Homura is hiding some emotional baggage.
    • When Madoka tells Sayaka and Hitomi of how she first saw Homura in a dream, Sayaka jokes that Homura and Madoka met in a past life and fate has reached across time and space to bring them back together, while Hitomi theorizes that Madoka had met Homura before, and her subconscious simply brought up an image of her in the dream. Later episodes would show that in a sense, both theories are right.
      • Earlier when Madoka tells her friends about how Homura told her to never change or she would lose everything she cared about, Sayaka says "I hope she doesn't think acting like a weird transfer student is cool. That's so moe, it makes me sick!"
    • After Hitomi leaves, Sayaka asks Madoka if she can accompany her to the mall's music store. Her reason being that she wanted to pick out a CD for someone.
  • Interclass Friendship: The middle class Madoka and Sayaka are good friends with rich girl Hitomi.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After hearing Madoka's first weird meeting with Homura, Sayaka jokes on how it was some fated first meeting. Later, she would point out how weird Homura is for attacking people in cosplay.
  • Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Saotome's recent breakup was because her recent boyfriend wasn't happy with how she cooked eggs.
  • More Dakka: After transforming, Mami makes quick work of the Anthony infestation by summoning hundreds of magical rifles.
  • Noodle Incident: Sayaka's comment about Sensei Saotome's ranting suggests that it's not the first time the class has had to listen to her rants.
  • Synchronized Morning Routine: Madoka and her mother do their Morning Routine together as a way to show their close relationship and their difference in maturity —Junko wears makeup while Madoka ties her hair in Girlish Pigtails, Junko is a night owl because of her job (and stress) while Madoka is an early riser. This part becomes important later in the anime, as the Incubators target teenage girls because they are more gullible and emotional and overall less experienced than adult women.
  • Title Drop: Madoka references the episode's title "As if I met her in my dream" when hanging out with her girlfriends at the mall.

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