To recap: Mami introduces the girls to the world of the Puella Magi as she takes down the Monster of the Week. Let's begin the first Wham Episode!
So it starts out with Kyousuke thanking Sayaka for taking care of him and for getting him a rare CD. And yet he hooks up with some bitch who until late in the series showed no interest in him... Urobuchi loooooooves being cruel so much that he derails characters to get his goal. Sayaka and Kyousuke listen to a song as he cries. Aw... how sad... Let's focus on Mami taking out a random monster in one shot now!
As she explains to Madoka and Sayaka that the Magical Girl business is dangerous and not a game, she tells them that familiars can become Witches. This goes nowhere soon after. Don't you looooooove how these plot points go nowhere? Sure, a small moment in chapter five has this, but it focuses more in the Let's You and Him Fight part. Sayaka asks what Mami wished for and instead of her storming out like Homura, she explains. Mami was in a pile up (which I think was either caused by a Witch or Kyubey) and she asked Kyubey to save her life. There, simple as that. Mami foreshadows Kyouko's wish as she explains that wishing for someone else's benefit is a bad idea. More foreshadowing as she tells Sayaka that she might regret the wish. She says that she was naive and that she might not make the wish... Yeah, right. We know what happens next chapter.
So we go back to Kyubey's room as he says that he can't rush Madoka (coughliecough) even though he had a perfect opportunity last chapter. Oh, and he hypes that Madoka will be the God of the new world. Or something like that. And he can't imagine how big the soul gem Madoka could create would be. Aren't they all the same size?
NEXT MORNING! Madoka and Sayaka pop by the hospital and see a Grief Seed. Madoka asks why it's there and Kyubey just drops the topic and says they have to leave. Oh, and that's cool that they reused the old art instead of drawing a new one, it makes it look more like a flashback. Sayaka is all like "OH NO! KYOUSUKE!" and asks Madoka to get Mami, thus sealing her fate. Yes, I just said that Sayaka is to blame for what is to happen. Kyubey stays behind while Madoka goes to get Mami. Kyubey and Sayaka talk about her wish and Sayaka again claims that she doesn't want to make a half-hearted wish... At least until next chapter. Mami and Madoka make it to the barrier and look who happens to pop up! Oh hai, Homura! What was that? You want to help out now? After you made yourself look like the bad guy? Nope! Too bad! Enjoy some bondage now! Maybe if you stuck to the sidelines like you did the previous chapter and jumped in ala Tuxedo Mask, you wouldn't be in this mess.
So as Homura warns them that the Witch is very powerful (no she isn't, see Puella Magi Oriko Magica), Madoka tells Mami that she has no skills and that she has no wish other than "I want to be a Puella Magi", which is automatically granted when one makes the wish, so it's not a possibility (unless Kyubey goes all Amoral Attorney on it). When Madoka looks up to Mami as a hero, she cracks and starts killing- oh wait, that's not for nine more chapters. She cracks and tells Madoka that she isn't the Cool Big Sis Madoka thinks she is and Madoka is like "That's not true! That's Impossible! You Are Not Alone!" and Mami is like "Yay! I have a partner!" Wait... then what was Kyouko to you? Okay, the Witch hatches, let's get this out of the way now.
Oh, and Mami says "I'm not afraid anymore!" Oh, trust me, Mami, you will... you will... So instead of going John Woo on the familiars, we cut to the Ensemble Dark Horse of the Witches, Charlotte, arriving. I like Charlotte, but not as much as the others. Her Witch Card's pretty sad though. Mami goes with that one blow thing like she did with Gertrude, and blows a hole in Charlotte. I'm starting to think that it wasn't Mami's friendship with Madoka that caused her downfall but rather her noobish "OHKO" tactic. Charlotte then sends the tape worm from her body (blame the WMG page) and...
Well, we know this was coming... THE MAMI MOGU MOGU SCENE IN ALL IT'S BLOODY GLORY! I would comment on the blood, but since everything is in black and white, making shapes quite difficult to make out, it doesn't squick me as much. Although it would squick me if they cut to a scientist telling us how Mami died in gruesome detail complete with an CGI x-ray of Mami getting killed and showing us the gruesome parts of the death. And I kinda giggled at Kyubey's reaction to this. It's like "FUCK! My Meal Ticket's dead and left me to get killed by the Witch! Gotta make new ones! FAST!" I mean, we don't look at his face so it could be either absolute horror or "not this shit again!"
Homura pops in... and OHKO's Charlotte. Wait, what? Yeah, she pretty much uses the Flash Step and leave bombs in my place tactic, which is different from bonding the enemy in ribbons and blowing them to hell, but if this is how easy Witches are taken care of, why is the Puella Magi business such a busy life? All that's needed is pop in the labyrinth, kill the Witch in one blow, and bam! Task is done. Sure, the fights were more elaborate in the Anime, but when the fights in this manga are shorter then the ones in The Phantom Tollbooth movie, there's a problem.
Homura then takes the Grief Seed and leaves Sayaka and Madoka to be traumatized from the incident. That's a good girl, Homura, mentally scar the poor girls! Hell, slap one for good measure! I am sorry that I'm saying this, but Homura is a bitch.
We end the wham episode. Tune in next time when we have Sayaka make her wish.
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