Tear Jerker / Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story

No shortage of meguca tears

While most of the story is Lighter and Softer compared to other entries in the series, there are instances that remind us that, yes, this is still the same universe where girls sell their souls for a wish and risk themselves turning into literal monsters.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Main Story

• The early parts of Chapter 5 of the Main Story tackle's Iroha's Friendless Background which causes her to space out at times. Despite her cheerful front to her classmates she wasn't particularly close to anyone and Iroha reflects on what was wrong with her. The rumor she and the gang tackles relates to this. She later learns that Sana, a magical girl who disappeared, willingly entered the barrier of the Rumor of the Anonymous A.I. out of loneliness. Iroha concludes that Sana had it worse than her. The fact that Sana wished herself to "disappear" due to abuse and neglect is a tearjerker itself.
• Chapter 6 of the Main Story reveals Yachiyo's backstory. Turns out, Yachiyo and Mifuyu had another childhood friend named Kanae Yukino. A softhearted punk guitarist who acted as The Kirk of their little group, Kanae died protecting Yachiyo and revealed to her friends the truth of the magical girls' Soul Gems. Disheartened but still determined to survive, Yachiyo and Mifuyu made another group. Mel Anna, Yachiyo's bright-eyed fortune teller junior, died turning into a witch in front of her friends. As their leader, Yachiyo blamed herself for their deaths and started to think she's a Doom Magnet, thus begun pushing her friends away. Mifuyu went into half a year angst-inducted delirium until she found out about the Wings of Magius and the Doppel. Momoko felt betrayed by Yachiyo's apathy and left to stake her own claim in Kamihama. Tsuruno, who wasn't there when Mel died, was left confused of why her group suddenly shattered. When Iroha arrives in Kamihama, there's almost no trace that these girls were friends; Yachiyo is a bitter hermit, Momoko is hostile toward Yachiyo and actively slandering her, Tsuruno is desperate to bring her acquaintances back together, and Mifuyu is an antagonistic magical girl.
  • Mid-way through the chapter, Mifuyu convinces Iroha's group to attend a "seminar" in which the Magius will explain their goal. Mifuyu talked to Yachiyo in private causing her to become her cold, distant self again. As expected, the Magius's session turned out to be a ploy to brainwash Iroha and the group. They were successful in brainwashing Tsuruno, Felicia and Sana. Iroha then tearfully had a flashback of her first meeting with three realizing the Magius broke the bonds she has forged. It doesn't help that Yachiyo despite seemingly came to help Iroha is still acting cold towards her.
  • The battle with Holy Mami in Episode 13 ends with Holy Mami dragging Iroha down into the pit, and Sayaka barely managing to save Yachiyo before she also fell. The scene then fades to black with Yachiyo sobbing as she mentions Iroha's promise not to let herself die, convinced that she's lost another friend.
• The end of Chapter 6 and then Chapter 7 has Momoko decide to tell Rena and Kaede the truth about Magical Girls becoming Witches. Rena breaks down for a while and cries harder than she ever has before, but Kaede completely shuts down, locking herself in her room for days. Its only when Rena intentionally starts an argument with Kaede to fire her back up that Kaede begins to recover.
• Expanding upon the reveal in Chapter 6, in Chapter 8 Mitama, Yachiyo, and Momoko decide to tell the truth about Witches to every Magical Girl in Kamihama. Although everyone is obviously shocked and distressed, a few reactions really stand out.
  • Rika begins to fall into despair, realizing that she had literally sold her soul for nothing and figuring that this was punishment for her selfishness. She even tearfully apologizes to Ren for stopping her from committing suicide. It's only Ren's emotional support that manages to pull her out of her despair.
  • Aimi, normally a comedic relief character, is devastated when she finds out, crying that she could never be with her beloved crush if she would turn into a Witch one day and possibly kill him. Kokoro manages to give her a Rousing Speech, which in turn encourages Ren to give her own support to Rika.

Arc 2:

• Chapter 1: In the aftermath of the Magius’ attack on Kamihama, all of the Magius’ crimes are brought to light for the other magical girls. Karin is informed that her Sempai Alina was a psychopath who tried to kill countless innocent people. Poor Karin is in denial about what happened, trying desperately to believe in her gruff mentor, and ends up running off upon hearing a sighting of Alina. As if her situation wasn’t bad enough, she ends up being captured by Promised Blood, who try to interrogate her about Alina though she doesn’t know anything g relevant to the Magius. Just as their about to let her go, a poorly-timed rescue by the other magical girls ends up with Karin being badly burned by Juri’s flamethrower, and releasing her Doppel from the pain and misery. Seriously, can this poor girl catch a break?
• Chapters 4 and 6: First, Ryou's then, later, Ikumi's deaths. Both are beautiful yet painfully sad. Not to mention their impact on Hinano.
• Chapters 5 and 6: Felicia finds out that she herself caused her parents' deaths, resulting in her Doppeling out and running away hating herself. Nothing her teammates can do helps her; it's only when Kako and Ayame convince Asahi to summon the ghosts of Felicia's parents to speak with her that she finally forgives herself.
• Chapter 7: Yuna finds out that Sakuya died and blames herself for starting the war. Then the Kimochi take over her body and make her attack her followers, meaning she's causing even more pain to the people she's fighting for. She almost kills herself before Iroha manages to convince her to keep going.
• Chapter 8: Juri attempting suicide. It's not something that happened abruptly; hints of her wanting to die have already scattered throughout previous chapters. While initially seen as a ruthless pyromaniac (see Arc 2 Chapter 1 above), she has her own issues, blaming herself for what had happened back in Futatsugi and thinks the world should better off without her. Tsuruno voiced her opinion exactly as such, not knowing that the words were slowly sinking into Juri, breaking every kind of coping mechanism she's trying to put up, with the truce between Promised Blood and the Union as the last straw. Juri herself has already had stress that are buried and yet to be let out already, so all of them bottled up leading to the aforementioned decision. If not for Yuna coming Just in Time and put a stop to it, there would've been another casualty.
  • The fact that she chose to break her Soul Gem instead of Witching out is even more heart-breaking, as Juri wants to die as a human, not the monstrosity that will eventually disrupt the peace she's been desiring so badly. It shows that even if she wants to die, she still want the world to have peace, even without her.
• Yukuni City, aside from Tokime village is another place where Magical Girls are well-known. They're viewed as evil beings who only cause suffering and make people miserable. Whenever there's one around, civilians will drive them away by any means, including abusing them both physically and verbally. Asahi, being a resident there, was beaten up so bad that scars and burn marks are seen covering her body. No wonder why Folklore wants to conceal the truth of Magical Girls to the world.
• Poor Mitama finally reaches her breaking point in chapter eight when the mayoral election goes bad and her beloved sister Mikage gets pelted with ROCKS by YET MORE vicious brats who hate her because she’s from Daito. Having lost faith in Kamihama, Mitama chooses to join Neo-Magius to become a villain for them to unite against, while Kanagi follows her out of sincere devotion to her dearest friend. These two just can’t catch a break.
  • Becomes even sadder in Chapter 12: The both of them have to say their goodbyes to Iroha, clearly regretting what they have done, wishing that they could take her place and promising to look after the others in Iroha’s place. And to make things sadder, they end up being the last two girls who got to speak to her, as no one else could see or hear her anymore right after.
• Iroha’s ultimate fate in the final chapter of Arc 2: She no longer exists. Just like Madoka in the original anime, she becomes a godlike figure in order to restore the Uwasa-turned girls and to ensure that no other magical girl will witch out. And similarly to what happened to Sayaka and Nagisa in the original canon, Ui, Touka and Nemu end up joining her. So while the four are still together, it’s very unlikely that they will see their other friends and family again, even though everyone else believes otherwise.
  • Even more saddening is that while Iroha does manage to say goodbye to the leaders, Mitama and Kanagi, she doesn’t get a chance to talk to Mifuyu, the Aname Sisters, Momoko and her team and the Mikazuki team, as she ends up ascending, rendering them unable to see or hear her.
• The truth about Tsuyu and Chizuru: Years ago, there was a civil conflict between the east (Chizuru’s bandit clan) and the west (the Mizuna clan) and the two girls met on the battlefield, clashing with each other. Despite that, they were able to come to an understanding of each other and became friends, realizing that everyone wasn’t that different from each other and urged their fathers to make peace with each other. Unfortunately, Chizuru’s father had no intention of making peace, so he and his clan sided with an forgein country that wanted to take advantage of the conflict and they launched a massive attack at Mizuna castle during the peace talk, killing Tsuyu’s father. And when Tsuyu and Chizuru clashed again due to this, a sniper ends up shooting Tsuyu on his orders, as he had realized his own daughter can not be trusted. As such, as Tsuyu laid dying and her Soul Gem about to hatch, she made a vow that her grudge against the East will last forever, witching out as Chizuru can only watch on in horror.

  • What’s worse, this tragic event ended up impacting the present, as the witched out Tsuyu fused together with the Symbol Witch, and it spread her hatred for the people of the East to the people of the West, causing the divide the girls of Kamihama (particularly, Mitama and Kanagi) constantly deal with. As for Chizuru, she ended up dying in despair over not being able to save Tsuyu and her spirit ended up eventually encountering Mikoto and fusing with her, helping drive her into becoming the monstrous Mirror Witch that wanted to destroy humanity just to stop their suffering. Essentially, asides from the issue of magical girls becoming witches (and the Wing of Magius’s attempts to stop that cycle and the consequences that followed), a large part of the story is caused by one man refusing to end the conflict he was in and deciding to take advantage of the chance for peace to try to wipe the other side out.

Arc 2.5: Puella Historia Arc

• An occurring element in this arc is the fact none of the girls can’t meddle too much in they historical eras they get transported to in order to keep history on track. While this is understandable, it ultimately means that the girls can not change the fates of the magical girls they encounter, despite wanting to save them.
• Gunhild and Olga’s story; Kyubey approaches Gunhild behind Olga’s back, hoping to have both sisters contract, and she wishes for a band of soldiers that would follow Olga’s lead, declaring that Olga’s dreams are her dreams. Tragically, this all changes with they join Harald’s campaign in England, with Gunhild convincing her sister to join in for the sake of their dream. When things inevitably went wrong and Harald’s army is overwhelmed, Gunhild ends up revealing her secret to Harald, causing him to wrongfully blame her for their army’s misfortunes and tries to have both sisters killed, declaring that Gunhild will never go to Vahalla. This ends up being the point where Gunhild crosses the Despair Event Horizon and she ends up witching out after killing Herald, while Yuna could only pull a protesting Olga away. After Yuna and the others explain things, Olga was left blaming herself for her sister’s state…which draws Kyubey towards her for a contract. She immediately agrees, only asking for the power to send Gunhild to Vahalla. In the end, Olga is left distraught over everything that went wrong and Gunhild’s death and it’s only with Yuna and the other’s encouragement that she finds the resolve to keep on living.
• Heruka’s ultimate fate: She is accused of being a Rakshasi and she and Dolma try to escape, only for the Rongi soldiers to quickly catch up. Knowing that they can’t escape and that she would be executed, Heruka instead uses her remaining time to have one last talk with Dolma, assuring her that she doesn’t regret anything and hugging her, even laughing as Dolma comforts her one last time as the soliders finally find them.

Side Stories and Events

• Ren's entire backstory:
  • Ren being bullied for being shy and having difficulty speaking in social situations is something that many readers can relate to. By the time she gets to middle school, the bullying has become so vicious that Ren decides to kill herself. Mid-fall, however, she realizes that she doesn't want to die, and when Kyubey offers her a contract she cries out that she wants to live.
  • Ren gets her hopes up when Kyubey tells her about how Witches spread negative emotions, and that they may have been responsible for her bullying. And Ren actually manages to defeat the Witch controlling the bullies, causing her bullying to stop. But Ren begins to realize that she can't eliminate all of the malice in Kamihama, and the thought of other people having to go what she went through breaks her all over again.
  • By the time that her sidestory begins, Ren is so broken that she's decided to kill herself again, having given up on the world and believing that she doesn't deserve to live if she can't help anyone. Even when Rika catches her, she just apologizes for being heavy.
• The ending of Rika's sidestory, which in many ways is extremely similar to the ending of Sayaka's character arc in the original anime series. Having realized that her spur-of-the-moment wish had brainwashed her girlfriend and broken up a great relationship, Rika decides to break up with her girlfriend and get her back together with her forgotten ex-boyfriend. Although Rika is glad that she could fix her mistake, she's still heartbroken that she could never truly have her friend's love, and sees this as confirmation that she doesn't deserve love. Even Hinano is moved to tears by it all. When Rika tells her story to Ren in Ren's own sidestory, it's clear that she hasn't gotten over it.
• Rena's side story:
  • Rena's family moved around frequently due to work reasons. Without the chance to establish a close friendship with anyone, she had no communication skills and was bullied badly, which led to low self-esteem and depression. Rena hated herself and wanted to throw everything about herself away, so she wished to become a different person. However this didn't solve anything, only gave her an ability to change her physical appearance.
  • At the start of her side story, Rena made a friend: Momoko. She narrated that Momoko was her first and only friend, and that she was happy to have someone like her. However everything crashed down when Momoko wanted to add Kaede into their group. Having led a friendless life, Rena hated the idea of having someone stand in her and Momoko's way. Yet she hated herself even more for having such a selfish thought. This caused her to lash out against Kaede, telling the other two that they should just group up themselves and get rid of her, then ran away, avoiding the other two for days.
  • Rena regretted it but couldn't find the strength to apologize. Having pushed away her first and only friend, Rena once again drowned in depression. She decided the world is better off without her and attempted suicide in a witch barrier. However she was saved by Kaede. Rena tried to run off again but was caught by Momoko and transformed into Kaede. In Kaede's appearance, Rena started to let loose of her feelings and berate herself, calling "Rena" a terrible person who didn't deserve kindness. Momoko saw through the disguise, stopped her and said she loved Rena for who she was - an awkward but kind and straightforward person - causing Rena to break down crying and revert to her original appearance. With Momoko's encouragement, Rena apologized to Kaede and the three had been together ever since.
• Sana’s side story in a nutshell is a cruel mixture of Hope Spot, Alone in a Crowd, and Yank the Dog's Chain. To further elaborate:
  • The story begins with showing Sana's abuse and neglect from her family. Despite her best attempts, her father, mother, and two step-brothers treat her as a nuisance at best and a useless idiot at worst. Finally, part 1 ends with Sana’s stepfather telling Sana that she is unworthy of the Futaba name and will no longer be a part of the family.
  • Part 2 – Yay! It looks like Sana made a friend, albeit a stray cat. However, based on the title of part 2 alone "She was my friend", the Foregone Conclusion is very obvious. Sure enough, one day, after looking for her cat friend (who had gone missing), Sana learns that someone from the health department came to get rid of all the stray cats. All she can do is sob.
  • Part 3 – As if things weren’t bad enough, Sana once had a human friend, a girl from her class. Things are looking up but one day her friend didn’t stand up to the bullies tormenting Sana, and both girls grow apart.
• The conclusion of Shizuku's sidestory; Yachiyo and Iroha try to bring Shizuku into their group, but she rebukes them because she thinks she's a stranger among friends who had passed great trials together and she has no place among them. Shizuku then continues to drift aimlessly, possibly even fall into a dark path, not knowing what to do with her life - exactly like at the beginning of her story.
  • Her story continues to the event "Whereabouts of the Feather"; it confirms that the "shady group" she pledges her service to is the Wings of Magius, and Shizuku gets brainwashed to better serve them. While there, she befriends two other Feathers, Ryou and Ikumi, who unlike Shizuku are not brainwashed. Seeing this half-lucid friend of theirs goes about her life doing a cause that she doesn't really put her heart on, Ryou and Ikumi take pity on her, break her brainwashing, and drive her out of the organization. If the two didn't do this, Shizuku would not be found and get evacuated and by the time Kamihama magical girls storm the Magius' base, Shizuku would be one of those faceless minions the heroes, including Yachiyo and Iroha, cut down.
• Homura's story in Valentine 2018 is a deconstruction of the What Measure Is a Mook? mentality of the Wings of Magius that was implied in Holy Mami's side-story. Homura befriends a nameless Black Feather who is pretty similar to her. Overworked by the Magius and without someone to confide with, the Black Feather curses her powerlessness for failing her wish to save a precious someone and for troubling Homura, before turning into a witch in front of her. Homura then kills the witch, crying bitter tears the entire way. The kicker is the witch is nothing but a Palette Swap of Candy the Stuck-out Ear Witch and the witch's profile says:
  MATASABURO. The Chocolate Witch. Her nature is to play a minor role. The final end of a Puella Magi from somewhere.
  • Despite her name and appearance being unknown, we know quite a lot about her. Her base of operation is in Kamihama, but her parents' house is in Mitakihara. She was hospitalized and released around the same time as Homura, and there was a nurse who is kind to her. She's bullied quite often at school. She doesn't have other friends and Homura is the only one whose number is in her phone. She wants to be a hero just like in her favorite book. She's entirely devoted to the Wings of Magius' cause, believing her 'God' will bring salvation to the magical girls. It's implied that she attacked her bullies after they destroyed the chocolate she made for the nurse, possibly killing them, before turning into a witch. But it's exactly because we know a lot about her that her situation becomes very tragic; in the end, she doesn't matter.
    Homura... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Homura, Homura... I love you. I love you so much. I love you the way you are. I love everything about you. So, please tell me just one thing! Why do I have nothing!?
  • This event basically demoralizes Homura, who had thought that she can be just like Madoka, whose kindness and friendship could pull her out of the chasm of despair. When she fails to save her friend, it serves as a reminder that she had always failed and she will always fail.
• Momoe Nagisa's Wish Was Granted, the event that showcases Nagisa's circumstances and the Start of Darkness for how she turned into Charlotte.
  • Nagisa has an awful life. She lived alone in an empty house full of garbage, her father left and her mother was hospitalized. She found comfort in reading fairy tales with unhappy endings because they "wrap things up nicely", unlike her painful life that drags on and on.
  • Nagisa's mother was mentally unstable and abusive. This got to the point that Nagisa considered trading her soul to heal her mother - not because she cared about her mother, but because she was just that desperate to be loved again. However when she asked her mother for permission to make the wish, her mother told her to go kill everyone in the world instead, and that her life went downhill the moment she gave birth to Nagisa. A broken Nagisa later decided to wish for a single cheesecake out of spite.
  • The story also featured two original magical girls: Inui Itsumi and Yu. Inui was a girl who clinged onto her abusive boyfriend, serving as a foil to Nagisa's relationship with her abusive mother. Yu was an amnesiac magical girl with the nickname "Sleepwalking ghost" who killed people she deemed "bad", including Inui's boyfriend and Nagisa's mother. Inui tried to stop Yu from killing her abusive boyfriend but failed and turned into a witch shortly after. Nagisa tried to fight the witch while Yu went on to kill Nagisa's mother.
  UHRMANN. The Canine witch with a craving nature. She has taken on the form of a dog in the vain hope of being loved by all. Humans who enter her barrier can't help but embrace her in concern. One hoping to defeat her can do so by feigning love.
  • The end of the event was simply depressing: Nagisa walked in to see her mother already mangled by Yu. In her dying breaths, the mother begged Nagisa to call a doctor but she just stood there silently as she disobeyed her mother order for the first and last time. After her mother drew her last breath, Nagisa turned into a witch. The story ended with a fairy tale of how Nagisa became a magical girl alone and died alone on a day not too cold, not too hot.
  CHARLOTTE. The witch of sweets with a tenacious nature. She desires everything and will never give up. Though she is capable of creating infinite amounts of any dessert she desires, she is unable to make the cheese that she loves most. One could easily catch her off-guard with a piece of cheese.
• The reason Felicia is hellbent on killing witches is that her parents were killed by one. Even more, this was her own doing and her wishes caused her to believed that witches killed her loved ones.
• See You Tomorrow event is full of this:
  • Seika who suffers from social anxiety was invited by her classmates to eat lunch together. Seika though delightfully surprised that people other than her childhood friends Mito and Leila invited her, was too anxious to accept the invitation. Her classmates gave up and assumed they were bothering her.
  • Mito is actively being bullied by her classmates and calls her and her friends weird.
  • The event is centered around the friendship of Leila, Seika, and Mito which is on the brink of falling apart as Seika who is already a magical girl attempts to keep Leila and Mito out of the magical girl life.
• Mitama's Side Story reveals Mitama's past. Mitama was a former student in Mizuna Girl's Academy. From Daitou, Mitama was admitted as a scholar. She befriended her more affluent classmates despite her coming from a poorer background. However one day, Mitama was pushed down the stairs by who she thought was her closest friend and bumped another student. The incident was reported to be intentional by the school paper and Mitama was asked by the school administration to dropout.
  • It got worse when Mitama returned to Daitou. She was shunned by her classmates since she "failed" Daitou and everyone was "putting hopes on her". One even remarked how they feel sorry for her sister. This was the final straw which causes Mitama to snap exclaiming how she should start "fulfilling" people's expectations by asking for "volunteers" to get pushed down the stairs and threatening others with a fire extinguisher. Good thing her friend Kanagi helped her calm down.
  • This wasn't enough though. Mitama was driven to misanthropy so much that she wished to Kyubey that she wanted to be the one that destroys Kamihama. This is the main reason for her neutrality in the main storyline, she is afraid that if she did fight she may end up destroying Kamihama when the Wings Of Magius go off the deep end.
• Nemu's side story has quite a melancholy feel to it. Having been hospitalized for an extended period of time, Nemu's relationship with her family grows detached over time, most evidently shown with her little brother who regards her as a stranger. Nemu realizes her existence is slowly and steadily fading away from their mind, yet is unable to do anything about it, and eventually comes to accept that her place is no longer there.

  What was I hoping for? What did I want? A newly released novel? An out-of-print book that sounded interesting? New clothes for a change of image? No, no, no. Those are all wrong. I just want to be told I'm loved. It's so close and yet so far. That is all I want.

• Tsukuyo and Tsukasa's backstory. Although they are twins they knew each other just recently because they were separated at birth since their biological parents separated due to class differences. When they meet each other their difference in upbringing caused a rift in their friendship which later led to them wishing not to hate each other.
  • Tsukuyo laments of her Friendless Background before meeting Tsukasa. She notes how many admire and respect her but not a single one offers her friendship due to lack of time to socialize. While Tsukasa has a few more friends, she too barely gets any time with them due to her own overwhelming responsibilities.
• Christmas at Mikazuki Villa narrates how Sana doesn't understand Christmas and it's implied that she was never given gifts or took part in her family's Christmas celebration. Felicia hates Christmas because it reminds her of her happy moments with her parents who were killed by a witch.
• The beginning of Ultimate Madoka's Side Story is a small rehash of the events of episode 12 of the original anime. You can feel from Homura's side that the price for Madoka's wish is a Fate Worse than Death and since this is the cynical Homura, this may be the starting point of her Start of Darkness that eventually leads to the Rebellion.
  • Several of Ultimate Madoka's home page lines are also pretty heartwrenching. Especially the ones about her family, such as Madoka noticing her little brother is drawing by himself, and can only apologize sadly for not being able to play with him anymore and promise to keep watching over him.
• Ultimate Madoka's side story also reveals why the Wings of the Magius doesn't exist in any other timeline: because Touka and Nemu are dead. In all the other timelines, Ui dies, then Nemu tries to stay alive for Touka's sake but fails, and Touka's condition is exacerbated by the loss of her friends and she dies too.
  • It becomes even more tragic in the story of Iroha and Madoka: The reason Kyubey doesn’t contract with Iroha in any other timeline is because Iroha dies in a car accident in those timelines.
• Crimson Resolve event shows the brutality of the war in Futasugi city and the start of Promised Blood alliance. Due to the Magius' doing, witches from everywhere leave for Kamihama. Starved for grief seeds, a war broke out among the three magical girl factions, resulting in countless deaths and leaving deep trauma on the survivors, most notably Yuna, Juri and Ao. Yuna transformed from a calm and kindhearted girl to a demon of revenge, Juri became a murderous inferno of hatred and Ao had to repress her kind nature to become a cold blooded murderer.
  • Prior to the events was Juri's own side story, where she not only struggles with her internal anger issues, but ends it by accidentally killing a girl who she befriended and helped her let out her angers with sparring, accidentally creating the very split between her and Yuna's gang that said friend was trying to prevent in the first place.
• Yozuru's side story is quite depressing.
  • Grew up with a strict mother, Yozuru was meek and obedient, always trying to keep up with her hard study schedule to please her. Her mother, however, seemed to value her study over anything. She always berated Yozuru for not being as good as her friends, to the point where she ripped apart Yozuru's drawing for her birthday because she did badly on the test. This caused Yozuru to fear her and never expressed affection again, only doing what her mother told her to. This continued until she reached rebellious phase. Yozuru started talking back to her mother, even return the beatings and insults. Till the time her mother died, Yozuru never apologized or had a chance to make up with her.
  • When cleaning up her clothes, Yozuru found her mother's diary. Inside the diary are her mother's thoughts, love and concerns for Yozuru that she was never able to get into words. At the end is Yozuru's old drawing carefully taped together, with apologies written all over the note. Yozuru deeply regretted the way she treated her mother and wanted death. However she wished to keep on living as a punishment to herself, which resulted in Kyubey erasing her compassion and thus her guilt and suicidal thoughts.
• Sudachi was made the sacrifice in a mass shooting and had to die so that others can live. In rage and fear, she wished to be the only survivor. This caused the shooter to spare her on a whim and killed everyone else in the class instead. It was too much for Sudachi and the experience along with her regrets gave her PTSD, making her unable to speak from then on.
• The reason for Kanagi being possessed by a Witch and mind-controlling the other magical girls during the Halloween event: The Halloween season brought back memories of all the magical girls who died under Kanagi’s leadership, and her guilt at being unable to save them or help the ones who mourned them process their grief. It swiftly becomes clear that Kanagi is suffering a horrible amount of guilt for all the allies she lost, and is truly tormented by not being able to help them. Thankfully, Momoko is able to reassure her that everyone has their own way for mourning those they’ve lost, and their is nothing wrong with mourning them in her own way.
  • While trying to reach Kanagi, Momoko ends up encountering Kanae, Mel and Ryo. Or rather, representations of Kanagi’s memories of them. From her behavior, it’s clear Momoko is still very saddened by what happened to her teammate and is sympathetic to Yachiyo and the others, despite not knowing Kanae or Ryo very well. Even more painful is the idea of Kanagi torturing herself with the memories of her dead allies, blaming herself for their loss.
• The side story of the Madoka/Iroha duo is just plain heartbreaking: The duo end up travelling to another world due to a branch of the Mirror Witch, and this world shows what happens to the other Mikazuki Manor girls in the other timelines (where Iroha never contracts): Yachiyo had never gotten over her aloof nature and has remained cold, refusing to reconnect with Tsuruno. Felicia and Sana can’t be found, and Iroha herself had died in an car accident before she could make her wish to save Ui from her illness, meaning Ui (followed by Nemu and Touka) likely died from the heartbreak of losing Iroha. How does Iroha learn about all this? She calls her mother in that world, who, as Iroha tells Madoka later, was still mourning over the consecutive deaths of both her daughters that she angrily told Iroha through the phone to stop impersonating her recently deceased older daughter and to cut the "prank call" out, unaware that that she really was talking to her firstborn kid (albeit one from an alternate universe).
  • Madoka doesn’t get off easy either: She has to learn that she doesn’t exist in this timeline (as the Magia Record Madoka is the only one who DIDN’T become part of Ultimate Madoka) and she is afraid to contact her family.
    • This actually makes Felicia’s and Sana’s fates in this world even more sad, as it’s very highly likely that they got whisked away by the Law of Cycles. Sure they would had avoided becoming witches if they were, but they would never get to form a new family with the others or find happiness during their lives.
• The event Stardust Mirage depicts an illusionary world where Magical Girls do not exist shown to Iroha by the Kimochi and crafted from their access to the feelings of Kamihama's Magical Girls. In it, Iroha runs into Himena while praying for a world where everyone could be happy after witnessing Ren committing suicide due to her bullying. The two talk about Iroha's ideals and how she won't ever give up on it. Iroha asks Himena for her contact info because she wants to talk to her again and Himena agrees, Iroha leaves believing Himena plans to run away together with Himena, after hearing her talk about the big plans she has for their happiness.
  • A few days later without hearing anything from Himena, a bullying call out post goes viral on social media about the suicide of a boy and how the school did little to address the bullying directed at the boy, along with detailing the identities of the bullies responsible. Additionally on the message is a note of the poster's declaration that the bullies responsible need to live for a long time and continue to suffer as she'll never forgive them or forget what they did no matter who else does, and that she intends to leave the world one step ahead of them, signed Himena Aika. Iroha receives a video from Himena, recorded at the spot that Hiko committed suicide at. Himena tells Iroha that she'd have joined Hiko immediately but considered first killing all of his bullies but decided not to because she wanted them to suffer longer and in a way that wouldn't get them any sympathy from onlookers. But after meeting Iroha she started to feel hope from seeing Iroha's desire for future where everyone is happy. But in the end she can only be happy with Hiko, and hopes Iroha succeeds and that they meet again in the next life:
  Himena:"But I'm sorry - I can only be happy with Hiko. I can't breathe in a world without him... So this is the only way, right? ...I really wanted to live on with you, Hiko. I wanted us to grow up together, and get married, and become parents someday...but that's a dream that will never come true now. So I'll get my happily ever after in my next go-round! So Irorin, please set the stage for everyone's happy future before my return.★ We'll meet again in the next life...Irorin."
• The Special Story/Christmas Login for 2022, Don’t Show Tears to Santa Claus, shows the girls celebrating Christmas sometime after Iroha ascended, and it’s clear all of the girls are trying their best to cope with her departure. However, it’s clear they are still saddened over her fate, with Felicia being unable to finish the story of the Fire Demon and The Ice Queen due to the aforementioned characters disappearing like Iroha did.
• Both of Yachiyo and Mifuyu's school uniform costume stories are rather sad, as they struggle to have any happy memories when they dress up in their school uniforms again, only being able to remember the friends they lost to death or the sides they choose in the Magius fight. Its even worse for Mifuyu who unlike Yachiyo, who had Iroha eventually end the story on a happy note by saying Yachiyo looked good in the uniform after a barrage of memories of her old friends making fun of said outfit, Alina 'relished' in Mifuyu's melancholy instead, encouraging more of it for her artistic endeavors.
• Ui's Swimsuit costume event is bittersweet as she, Touka, and Nemu can finally make good on a promise they made to all go to the beach together when they were all cured, but due to Nemu's loss of mobility following Act 1, its not as they wished and Touka and Nemu are squabbing, mostly because Touka genuinely feels bad about this and is annoyed Nemu isn't as openly upset about the fact.
• Mami's Pajama Costume story has her admit that she gets very lonely when she's the last one up, or alone, in her apartment. Everything in it pretty much reminds her of her loneliness, and all her juniors falling asleep leaves her rather miserable. Fortunately Madoka wakes up and can alleviate things.
• I'll Keep Waiting For You delves into Sakuya's pain. She had to kill her best friend with her own hands during the Blood Tragedy, she can't sleep, she isolates herself from people who want to be her friend because they might become her enemy and have to be killed. She's not in a good place, and everyone recognizes it, especially Ryouko who wants to help her even if Sakuya doesn't want the help.
  Sakuya: "Shut the hell up! I've had enough. I'm not killing my friends again! Don't turn me into a friend-killer! I don't want to be friends with you when we're in a position to kill each other! *pant*…*pant*… I mean… why…Why are you even doing all of this for me in the first place…?! You have NO obligation to do this!!
• Sudachi's Valentine's story has her meeting the father of one of her dead classmates, one of the ones who died because of her wish. He's still heartbroken, unable to be in his house without being reminded of her and spends the nights in the park to avoid the painful memories.
• Shizuka's Magical Girl Story has her discover that the wish she was requested to make wasn't a noble wish, but the wish of a businessman who wanted to protect his factory, throwing her into a funk as a result. While this is eventually clarified to have done good for more than just the one person, as Kanoko's family’s factory was also benefited, she still has to live with the fact that while her wish protected Japanese jobs, it did cause many people outside of Japan to lose their jobs.
• Yuuna's Winter Costume Story has her being admired by a young girl who believes she saved her and her family. On top of this being a misunderstanding, they were in fact saved by Mami, this girl has an untreatable illness and is living in Satomi Medical Hospice. And just as Yuuna is talking with Mami about how she feels guilty for being given praise that should be Mami's, but the girl's condition takes a sharp turn for the worst. The costume story ends with Yuuna visiting the girl's grave.
• And So, the Azalea's Bloom introduces us to the backstories of the three, and being orphans raised in an orphanage, its naturally tragic.
  • Konhoa was born into an affluent family, one who immediately started suffering financial reversal. As this coincided with her birth, her father blamed her for it, and after the stress of financial decline killed both him and her mother she was sent to the Azalea orphanage at a young age already with a iced-over heart.
  • Hazuki had loving parents who were killed on the way back from a family vacation by a car accident, sacrificing their own lives to save hers. After which she was in the custody of relatives who mistreated her before eventually dumping her at an orphanage.
  • Ayame was abandoned in an alley so young she didn't even remember her parents, only the faintest memory of large hands.
• Scene 0 brings its fair share of events, on top of Mabayu living the events of the original anime's earliest timelines alongside Homura. To wit:
  • Mabayu herself is pretty tragic. She was depressed upon moving in with her aunt, due to the recent insanity and eventual death of her mother, finding herself incapable of making meaningful connections with anyone at school, constantly comparing herself to others. The fact she doesn't show up in Rebellion implies Homura was either so caught up in her own grief that she didn't care about her anymore, or given the fact she didn't even appear in the original anime at all, her story might as well end in a way where everyone will forget about her existence (not helped by the reveal her powers also affect memories), even in Ultimate Madoka's universe. Where Madoka had someone to mourn her erasure, Mabayu might as well cease to exist while forgotten from all.
  • Homura's decaying friendship with the rest of the girls is seen in full effect. In more than one timeline, Sayaka accuses her of deceiving Madoka out of being skeptical about the truth behind Witches and Magical Girls. In many others, Madoka contracts with Kyubey, ignoring her pleas about the dangers it comes with. Even learning about Witches being former Magical Girls encourages her to contract, making Homura's struggle to stop her during the time loop much more understandable if her best friend won't listen to reason no matter the outcome. And there's always the fact she ends up losing the girls to either an argument, witching out, or dying against Walpurgisnacht.
  • The fourth film is packed full of it. As it turns out, thanks to Madoka ignoring her warnings, Homura did know who Nagisa was before the events of Rebellion. Madoka wished for the Witch attacking the hospital to no longer fall in despair, resulting in a personification of Nagisa's emotions to be born from Charlotte. In the remaining month of the fourth film, the off-color Nagisa slowly became closer to Madoka, Homura and Mabayu... until Kyoko brought her back to reality by reminding her she was responsible for Mami's death prior to Charlotte's defeat. This causes Nagisa to lash out and actually kill Kyoko in frustration and self-loathing, calling herself a bad girl (calling back to how her mother treated her in her last moments as well as to how she viewed herself in her story event) and running off. Mabayu's prediction even shows she might've eventually become a Witch again or at least asked everyone to kill her before she did so. Fortunately, Sakie making good on her promise to make a cheesecake, as well as Homura forgiving her and apologizing for her own antagonistic behavior, allows Nagisa to finally eat her favorite cake one last time and rekindle her friendship with the girls. On the day Walpurgisnacht arrives, her friends (including Homura) part ways with her in sadness, as she was able to fulfill her hopes and disappears, leaving Madoka behind as she wishes Mabayu and Homura good luck before the timeline gets reset.
  • Sayaka's fate at best is getting injured while in a Witch's Labyrinth, being discouraged from contracting. In every other timeline, she either turns into Oktavia due to not trusting Homura and her stubbornness getting in the way, or dies to Walpurgisnacht. The fifth film involves a budding friendship between her and Mabayu that turns sour once she realizes Mabayu is a Magical Girl and Homura's ally. A one-sided fight sparks until Madoka contracting puts a stop to it. From then on, Mabayu is left feeling powerless because of her failure to be friends with Sayaka reminding her of her inability to have any friends before she discovered her powers, as well as feeling responsible for this timeline being a failure.
  • The two following films make things further hard for Mabayu and Sayaka's friendship. Because of the latter will always try to heal Kyosuke's arm, her finding out she's essentially a zombie during fights against Witches ends up drawing Madoka's sympathy and contract no matter what. She ignores Mabayu's warnings because of her own emotions clouding her reasoning (and Kyubey egging her on) and upon discovering Mabayu was a Magical Girl in the seventh film, she accuses her of using her prediction powers to try and manipulate her feelings (which is only wrong regarding the use of magic, as she's still used her knowledge from Homura's time loop to try and win Sayaka's favor). Upon being told to her face that they're not friends, poor Mabayu shrieks in defeat, powerless as Sayaka contracts, reminded of her loneliness and inability to make friends. The film then skips to Walpurgisnacht's arrival, where Homura finds Mabayu catatonic under her kotatsu. It takes some necessarily harsh words to snap her out of it and convince her to go and properly apologize to Sayaka, with Homura justifying it as self-satisfaction to make up for the fact their actions remain unchanged. It doubles as Heartwarming as Homura is helping Mabayu leave the timeline without regrets, but also serves as a cruel reminder that both girls can never make friends with anyone, not even Sayaka and Madoka while Walpurgisnacht is still looming.
• Whenever Suzune is defeated as a unit, she says "Tsubaki…”. Despite her brainwashing, she still remembers her surrogate mother and how kind she was to her.