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YMMV / Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Go To

The franchise in general

The 2011 anime

  • Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Quite a lot arises from the conflicting themes of the show, from "hope triumphing over despair" to "think before you act" to "the road to hell is paved by good intentions" to other, more unfriendly ones. However, the whole series seems to at least go by the Aesops of "hope and despair always balance out to zero" and "selfless intentions always have a degree of selfishness to them".
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: See here.
  • Alternate Self Shipping: A recurring theme in fanart is showing interactions between Homura pre-contract and post-contract, often adding Madoka into the mix.
  • Americans Hate Tingle:
    • More than a few US fans don't like Sayaka for being too angsty and unheroic. This has notably declined as the latter has been resolved with more moments for Sayaka to shine.
    • A much more significant part of the American fandom thinks Kyubey is inconsistent, with plans that work ineffectively long term for the sake of sadism, in comparison to the Japanese fandom. As a result many more Western fans see Kyubey as outright evil than the Japanese fans.
    • Part of the reason behind Kyosuke's hatedom in the West is because since the West is less inclined to view people with disabilities as burdens. Western viewers are more likely to think that he should get over himself and stop wallowing in self-pity over being unable to play the violin.
  • Angst Aversion: Knowing that the show is going to be a tragedy series can easily put people off, and if you aren't a fan of those kinds of stories, you aren't going to like this series as much as its fans will.
  • Archive Panic: Well, first there's the original anime, then we have the movie trilogy (the first two movies adapt the show, while Rebellion is a sequel) and the manga based on the anime. But then we have ten manga spinoffs, two anthology series, a magazine, ten licensed games (plus an anime based on Magia Record, one of the games), drama CDs, and a light novel. Whew. Good luck trying to get through it all.
  • Awesome Music: Now has its own page!
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Opinion is split on Kyubey. He's either a disgusting, irredeemably evil monster, or an adorable, yet nightmarish, Chessmaster with admirable goals. Then there's a third camp that thinks he's a logic defying caricature of a villain that makes Dick Dastardly look sane, considering his ultimate plan has the human race exterminated in order to fill his quota (quota implies that the demand needs to be regularly filled and his plan destroys his supply so next time he needs energy, he won't be able to gain it).
    • Madoka herself, for not accomplishing much for most of the series despite being the main character, although Episode 10 and onwards justify the entire matter, and show that she was an active, asskicking protagonist in previous timelines before her death in the first timeline and the later revelations that her being a magical girl would end with her becoming the most powerful witch in the world that's capable of destroying the planet. However, she redeemed herself to a portion of the fanbase for ending the magical girl-witch cycle, but the ending itself is an entirely different matter.
    • The characters involved in the Sayaka-Kyosuke-Hitomi Love Triangle are controversial as people have different opinions on who was to blame for the tragic results. One camp thinks that the main fault lies with Hitomi, who, while not knowing Sayaka's situation, told her that she intended to confess to Kyousuke, which helped put Sayaka on her downward spiral. Another group blames Kyousuke, arguing he didn't care enough for Sayaka as a person (e.g. not telling her when he was released from the hospital), and bringing up Word of God that he'd miss dates to practice his violin (he does the same thing with Hitomi in Rebellion), meaning Sayaka made all those sacrifices for someone who didn't deserve or appreciate it. Another group believes that it was mainly Sayaka's fault for going so far for Kyousuke and expecting him to return her feelings.
    • Sayaka herself has garnered divisive opinions. Depending on the fan, she's either a very well-done and sympathetic tragic character, or a whiner who felt unnecessarily entitled to Kyosuke's love.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment
    • In the movie remake, before Homura's backstory is told, we are treated to a random scene of her in a red fog-covered graveyard with Kyubey after the deaths of Kyoko and Sayaka, replacing the backdrop of her house in the scene where they discuss the consequences of Kyoko's death. The scene after that involves her walking very slowly across a strange white clearing in a forest, before a very out-of-place and weird-looking hair flip. All of this is never foreshadowed, explained, nor is it brought up ever again.
    • After Homura's backstory is told in full in the second movie, we're treated to a reanimated opening of "Connect"... in the middle of the movie.
    • One of the intro cards has Lord Humongous taking up half the picture for no apparent reason. Nothing remotely similar appears in the episode, or the series for that matter.
  • Broken Base: See here.
  • Cargo Ship: Kyousuke's haters tend to ship him with his violin. Several of them even wanted him to marry it.
  • Crack Pairing:
    • Mami/Charlotte is a little too popular. Even Ume Aoki seems to ship it! Mitigated by Rebellion, which gives us Nagisa Momoe, Charlotte's human form.
    • There's also a small but significant fandom that pairs Mami with the nameless Office Lady she saves in Episode 2.
    • Mami/Kyoko used to be considered crack, because they never met during the story proper. Then the 3rd drama CD revealed Kyoko and Mami used to be very close friends before Kyoko's family died. Later, the manga The Different Story expanded upon their relationship. Now they're one of the more popular pairings.
    • Mami/Homura, despite the fact that both girls have little in common. Homura and Mami were on friendly terms... until Mami snapped and tried to kill Homura, followed by Homura's Break the Cutie moment.
    • Sayaka/Homura has been gaining steam despite these two having the most openly hostile relationship with each other and an inability for them to get along (much to Madoka's distress).
  • Death of the Author:
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: Alongside Homura's former heart condition, she shows a couple signs of being on the autism spectrum, such as her mostly unemotional face, monotone speech, and clumsiness before she made her contract. Her emotionless behavior could alternately be due to PTSD, since she was much more openly emotional before she became a magical girl, and didn't become as emotionless until she went through numerous time loops where she failed to save Madoka and repeatedly watched her fellow magical girls die.
  • Die for Our Ship: A portion of the fanbase now despises Hitomi for confessing to Kyosuke and, unbeknownst to her, breaking Sayaka mentally and emotionally which turned her into a witch and thus killing her and the person who Mercy Killed her. It's full of Moral Myopia because the major part of her haters insist on how Hitomi's worth and goodness as a person relies solely on renouncing her own happiness, when Sayaka has the exact same flaw on her end — in fact one of the lessons of her arc is that renouncing your own happiness leads to bad things.
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Mami and Kyoko — the two least important magical girls to the overall plot and with the least development, but the second- and third- most popular characters in many circles, behind the inevitable Homura. The latter even has a self-demonstrating page.
    • Out of all the witches, Charlotte has a respectable amount of fanart, despite appearing for all of two minutes. Even though she's an Eldritch Abomination, many fans find her adorable; having a face that wouldn't look out of place next to Hello Kitty helps with that. The biggest reason for her popularity is likely her status as the Knight of Cerebus — most of the artwork of her is with Mami, albeit usually under a more benign setting. Also, with the revelation that witches are corrupted magical girls, there's now fanart popping up depicting what Charlotte might have looked like as a human. All of this led to Nagisa Momoe being introduced in Rebellion.
      • A close second is Elsa Maria, who is praised for having a unique ascetic of shadow puppetry to her fight and a terrifying death sequence which shows how far gone Sayaka is by this point.
    • First Timeline/Original Madoka. She is brave, confident and so badass that even when this is her first timeline and she hasn't gotten any power-up from Homura's time travelling, she is still powerful enough to defeat Walpurgisnacht, even when that costs her own life. It also helps that her introduction let people see that Madoka isn't just a so-called "weak" or "useless" girl.
    • A nameless, faceless classmate was the subject of an image macro, captioned "Poorfag is poor", because she was the only student who had no laptop. When the Blu-rays were released and the fans got a better look of "Poorfag", her popularity soared.
    • Another background character, a boy nicknamed "Failurefag", also became memetic, sitting behind Madoka while slumping in apparent frustration.
    • Yet another background character, a girl nicknamed "Tan Girl" or "Fake Sayaka"note , while not as memetic as the two above, has a fair share of popularity on Pixiv due to resembling Sayaka with a dark tan.
  • Epileptic Trees: These started sprouting just after the first episode. Some of those were right and some of them that were right qualified as Poison Oak Epileptic Trees right off the bat.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: On the one hand, Madoka was able to stop magical girls from becoming witches. On the other hand, her solution is basically to make them disappear from the world forever. And she gets erased from existence to boot. The ending is still hopeful and optimistic, but it implies that the remaining magical girls won't last long in the new world, and Homura will only be reunited with Madoka in the afterlife.
  • Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Madoka sacrifices herself for humanity in the final episode and becomes a goddess. The episode first aired on Good Friday.note 
  • Evil Is Cool: Kyoko is portrayed as a minor antagonist at first and is also one of the more popular characters in the series, especially because of how badass she is in combat and due to the Character Development she undergoes.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Again, Kyoko, who has her fanboys (and fangirls), though this is of the somewhat squicky variety because she's underage (which is par for the course for many series).
  • Fandom Rivalry: A given considering the nature and tone of the series. Its fans not only quarrel with the fans of traditional Magical Girl shows such as Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, but also the fandoms of fellow dark shows such as Princess Tutu and Day Break Illusionnote . The most contentious part is that Madoka led to a Newbie Boom of people who had never seen Magical Girl stories before, and many of said newbies carry a fairly condescending attitude towards the genre despite many elements of Madoka being Older Than They Think.
  • Fanfic Fuel: The premise and setting gives a lot of fuel.
    • Magical girl OCs as Kyubey made contracts with a lot of girls before the main narrative.
    • There's plenty of stories on the magical girl forms of the canon witches.
    • Homura's constant timeline jumping also leaves people to wonder what she did in offscreen timelines.
    • The finale provides fanfics with a post-Madoka world and how people deal with it, and the vague nature of the wraiths that replaced the witches. Some fans also ignore that Madoka's little brother Tatsuya eventually forgets about her in some fanfics.
    • It's popular to speculate about what Hitomi would be like as a magical girl, as the possibility never comes up in the series, and it also provides a good way to kill her off so that Kyosuke and Sayaka can get together, or otherwise pair her up with Sayaka and outright boot Kyosuke offstage.
    • It's extremely popular for virtually any fandom to contain at least one or two crossover fanfics, which are often about the characters becoming magical girls/boys.
  • Faux Symbolism: There is no way that Homura could be Faust, Madoka couldn't possibly be Gretchen, and Kyubey representing Mephistopheles/Satan? Patently absurd. There are outright quotes, and symbols referencing Faust.
  • Fountain of Memes: Kyubey. Just type his name into Google and see what comes up. If that isn't enough, he even has his own page on Know Your Meme.
  • Friendly Fandoms: Several of note given the series wide appeal:
  • Gateway Series:
    • Along with Attack on Titan, this show has become one of the biggest introductions to anime for many newcomers to the medium in the early 2010s.
    • And for those who already were into anime (and some who weren't), it was a big driver of new attention to the J-horror scene.
  • Genius Bonus:
    • This show is crammed full of it, from the Shout Outs to obscure 19th century literature and musicians, mythological references, Faust quotes, and coded runic fonts. Sometimes you have to pause and zoom in on a tiny portion of a frame to find some of them.
    • Physicists will laugh when they realize that Kyubey is Maxwell's Demon.
    • The outside of Homura's house is reminiscent of a locale in the video game Shadow of Destiny. Some of the possible titles used before they settled on the final one were The Day and Night of Walpurgisnacht, Days of Walpurgis, and Time Adventure. Sounds like a regular Shout-Out, no? The game is about a man who travels back in time to prevent his death multiple times, which it turns out is very similar to what Homura is trying to do with Madoka.
    • The witch Oktavia von Seckendorff who was once Sayaka. Her name comes from Karl Siegmund von Seckendorff, who composed for "Der König in Thule", the poem that appears in Goethe's Faust, as well as wrote a book called "Das Rad des Schicksals" (The Wheel of Fate). Oktavia fights by throwing wheels, and the word "Schicksal" appears in her labyrinth. Also, the Wheel of Fate (or Fortune) is a tarot card which symbolizes "possibilities, opportunities, new developments, sudden changes"; a rather apt description of Sayaka's life after meeting Kyubey.
      • Those scores that float around her barrier while she fights Kyouko? They're actually a transcription of the main melody of Symposium Magarum, the song that her familiars play during the fight.
    • The DVDs add wind chimes to the foreground of a particular scene, one with a mermaid, one with a unicorn. The mermaid obviously represents Sayaka and the unicorn, Kyouko, but if you're familiar with unicorn myths, it's a deft bit of foreshadowing. In the early middle-ages, unicorns were described as being impossible to capture alive, because they would climb up a cliff and then throw themselves off of it to land horn-first on their target, ensuring both their deaths.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Glurge: Some people think that episode 12's ending message falls under this, especially since Madoka becomes a Jesus figure and calls Homura "her very best friend" which feels like a slap in the face to Sayaka, Madoka's best friend since childhood.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: See here.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: See here.
  • Hype Backlash:
    • Hearing all the hype about this series as a Deconstruction of magical girls can be annoying to people who have already watched series that have done that (particularly since a noticeable portion of Madoka's fanbase has Small Reference Pools regarding the genre). It turns even heater with the existent debate about whether Madoka is actually a deconstruction or rather an elaborated yet regular Darker and Edgier take on the genre.
    • This could be the case depending where you live in, as although succesful in both regions, the show is nowhere near as loved in Europe as is in US. Many people, especially the ones to which Madoka was not their Gateway Series to anime nor their first Deconstruction series, believe that while the anime is good, it is definitely not as good as the sheer amount of fandom, reviews and promotion on the internet might lead to think, nor as deep or revolutionary as those reviews commonly advocate. It doesn't help that SHAFT capitalized on Madoka's uber-memetic status by launching spin-offs and merchandising nonstop, with the effect that the franchise was pretty much everywhere on the internet for many years yet at the same time it did not get actually developed beyond the 12 episode series - at least until the movies, which brought their own controversy to the table.
    • It also has to be noted the overhype caused by distribution companies when the anime was licensed in countries like Spain and France, where the series came out well after its jump to fame in internet and thus it didn't have the same impact anymore. With the exception of the spin-off mangas, which were generally well received, the licensed anime was underlooked by many people because it was being promoted as the next big thing when most of the Madoka craze had faded years ago.
  • It Was His Sled:
    • At the time of release, the Disguised Horror Story nature of the show was a big twist, with the studio going as far as to hide the involvement of known writer of depressing stories Gen Urobuchi. But nearly everyone new to the series knows going in that PMMM is not the sweet magical girl anime it advertised itself as, since the brutal subversion and deconstruction of magical girl conventions is precisely what the series is famous for, in addition to the series popularizing the Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction to the point that similar series which don't bother hiding their dark nature get called "Madoka clones". It went to the point where trailers of its later works stop hiding the show's macabre nature or Gen urobuchi's name at all. Google's suggestion feature makes it even more obvious, as if you type in "Depressing anime" or "Horror anime", Madoka comes up.
    • Even people who haven't watched the show at all know that Charlotte decapitates Mami, due to it being the moment when the series drops the facade and a big meme.
    • Likewise, most people who've heard of the series are aware that witches are former magical girls, a twist that is revealed two thirds of the way through the series.
    • An interesting case with Kyubey. If you've heard anything at all about this show, the first thing you're likely to have heard is that Kyubey is the ultimate evil of everything that exists and should die in a fire, as their unique appearance and general performance is so iconic and memetic that many people know going in Kyubey is the real Big Bad. Ironically, it's not as simple as it sounds.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Kyoko. Her father founded a new church, but the general public dismissed his teachings as heretical, so Kyoko used her wish to brainwash the congregation into believing in her father's religion. After he found out about this, he became crazy and killed the whole family. Probably the only reason Kyoko survived was because she was a lich by that time. Yep, she had to live through a lot of crap in her life... but it still doesn't justify how much of an ass she was at the beginning and neither does it excuse how she's used to bash Madoka.
    • Sayaka is also a hopeless girl who becomes a magical girl out of eagerness for Kyosuke's love. Though despite the fact that the aforementioned decision ends up being her own fault, at the end of the day, she's just a teenage girl who didn't deserve everything that happens to her.
    • Homura mixes this with Stoic Woobie, as her cold attitude is a coping mechanism for all the tragedy she's gone through. By the end, though, she's just a full-on Iron Woobie.
  • Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Although the Witches and even Hate Sink Kyubey have their own supporters and redeeming qualities, especially after what episode nine reveals, the same can't be said for the Straw Misogynist duo on the train in episode eight who do nothing to the story but talk politically-incorrect smack about their girlfriends and serve as the final catalyst for Sayaka's transformation into a witch by shattering what little faith she had in her idealist mission in protecting Earth.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Madoka/Mami, Madoka/Homura, Madoka/Sayaka, Madoka/Kyoko, Madoka/Madoka, Madoka/Ultimate Madoka. It's slightly hilarious that the trope namer is Doctor Faustus.
    • Mami ended up being one too, thanks to her lack of a defining relationship in the series and to the fact that some people dislike her being paired with Nagisa. There's a contingent of people that pairs her up with Kyoko thanks to Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story, another that pairs her with Madoka thanks to their dialogues in the series, and some smaller groups that pair her with Sayaka and even Homura. She's even paired with people outside the franchise. At some points it gets... bizarre.
  • Les Yay: Has its own page.
  • LGBT Fanbase: While Madoka Magica is popular with yuri fans of all genders and sexualities, it seems to have picked up an unusually large fandom of lesbian and bi/pansexual women. This may be because the relationships between the heroines are treated seriously, with Les Yay used for drama and plot advancement much more than it's used as fanservice.
  • Love to Hate:
    • Kyubey. Most of the fans would love to see him die horribly, yet he's also a Fountain of Memes and the source of much humor and entertainment in the fandom.
    • In a somewhat lesser extent: Kyousuke, given that he ignores Sayaka and even called her a monster in the PSP game.
  • Memetic Badass:
  • Memetic Loser:
    • Mami Tomoe herself served as a Butt-Monkey for head rolling-themed jokes.
    • Homura, friendzoned by a god after 12 Episodes, 1 movie, several spin-off manga and games, and in countless timelines.
    • Hitomi, of a sort. After mistaking Madoka and Sayaka for becoming a couple and vehemently declaring that "girls can't love girls", her statement came off as too strong and it became common to depict Hitomi as a closeted yuri fan.
  • Memetic Molester: Homura's dedication to Madoka is often exaggerated by the fandom, to the point of portraying her as a perverted stalker whose life revolves around lusting after Madoka. A lot of humorous fanart goes so far as to have Homura steal Madoka's panties and wear them on her head.
  • Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
  • Memetic Psychopath: Homura is often portrayed as a trigger-happy stalker and paranoiac whose trigger is anything related to Kyubey.
  • Memetic Troll: Kyubey lends himself quite handily to fanon portrayals as a troll, given his manipulative and duplicitous nature in the series proper.
  • Misaimed Fandom:
    • At one point during the show's airing, Yuki Kajiura tweeted that her mother had decided that the dark, dread-inducing ending song "Magia" was a good workout song.
    • Despite the fact that the entire latter half of the anime was supposed to showcase how awful being a Magical Girl can be, there are still quite a few people who walk away from the series thinking it would be the coolest thing in the world and wanting nothing more than to make a contract with Kyubey.
    • Sayaka Miki was supposed to deconstruct or at very least criticize tropes like Love Martyr, Unrequited Tragic Maiden, and Patient Childhood Love Interest, as well as the unrealistic concepts of love and romance they rely on. Even at the start of the series, when she implies that she wants to be a Magical Girl and use her wish to heal her crush, Kyosuke, Mami immediately points out the self-interest behind such an intention. Fandom, however, embraced Sayaka as a straight-up example of the tropes she was created to "attack", and still believe Sayaka is entitled to have his affection and that he and Hitomi is the ONLY reason for her Face–Heel Turn.
  • Misaimed Marketing:
    • This wishboard to be put up at Otakon 2011, where convention-goers can write their wishes down on pieces of paper mounted on the board. Maybe not quite marketing per se, but a strange promotion in context nonetheless - whoever was behind displaying it either hasn't watched the show, or they'd know what making a contract with Kyubey entails, or it's some very Black Comedy.
    • Then there's this poster to raise awareness of training guide dogs featuring Kyoko Sakura. Even putting aside that they used a character that has absolutely nothing to do with service dogs (Sayaka would've been a better choice), the poster is to be displayed in elementary and middle schools. While it's a for a good cause, they probably be shouldn't be tying it into a series that is not kid-friendly.
    • They have Madoka Magica inner tubes. Including one shaped like Charlotte's mouth. Even if it didn't have the Charlotte one, it would still be strange because why would Madoka's target audience need an inner tube?
    • MasterCard Japan released a Madoka credit card. Think about the Faust references in this show, and then the reputations that big banks and credit card corporations have developed, especially since the 2008 sub-prime meltdown. This is also weapons-grade irony, folks.
    • And then there's the tag line on the box of Nendoroid Miki Sayaka, which also happens to be her last words before turning into a witch.
    "I'm such an idiot."
    • There are also Soul Gem bath bombs. They come in a random assortment like capsule toys. When a Soul Gem breaks, a magical girl dies. Nice work killing dozens of girls for the sake of the pins inside, You Bastard!.
  • Moe:
    • The promo materials made it look like the "adorable magical girls have cutesy, sugary, light-hearted adventures together" type of moe, but it turned out to be the "adorable magical girls have terrible things happen to them, cry a lot, and desperately need a hug" type of moe.
    • Two characters have won Saimoe Tournaments on separate occasions: Mami won in 2011 while Madoka won in 2013.
  • Moral Event Horizon: See here.
  • Narm:
    • Considering that Kyubey's "charm" is his Perpetual Smiler traits, his "Nightmare Face"◊ from the manga (which he pulls when Homura calls him "Incubator") could come off as more overblown than truly scary, complete with Black Eyes of Evil. Kyubey's voice actor was unimpressed◊.
    • Charlotte's One-Winged Angel is a large worm that appears to be made out of candy and looks as though it has the face of a clown. It's something of the equivalent of Lelouch's pink sword in dramatic effect after it devours Mami.
    • Homura breaking down and crying in the last episode as Madoka is about to fade away. The last few times Homura cried during the series, it was genuinely heartbreaking, and a real indicator of just how pear-shaped things had gotten. The last one, however, came out as a kind of "Eeee...EEEEHUEEEEEEeeeeEEEEeeeeEEEE". It was...well, just a touch goofy.
    • The movie version of Mami's death scene will probably be narmy if you speak German, because the background music is Ominous German Chanting that translates to "Cheese! Cheese! Where is the cheese?" (Bonus points for it being literally cheesy). It doesn't help that the song lyrics also contain a slight translation error (the song should be "Wo ist der Käse" instead of "Wo ist die Käse").
    • The dub's usage of (slightly outdated) teen speak in serious conversations can easily trip up the drama and make it sound like the characters are joking. One example is in Episode 6, when Sayaka bluntly tells Madoka that there is no chance of her getting along with Kyoko (whom Sayaka had fought in the previous episode).
    Sayaka: That was a serious battle to the death for realz.
    • The Spanish dub and manga translations get hit by this due to Mami's name, which is both written and pronounced exactly the same as "Mommy". This makes some sentences sound unintentionally funny, and can get a bit in the way of some emotional scenes. Specially considering that, in Spain, "Mommy" is not used very often (It's way more common to say "Mamá", or "Mom"), and when it is, it's usually only said by children under 7 years old.
  • Narm Charm:
    • In episode 12, when Madoka makes her wish and out gambits him, the camera zooms to Kyubey making His Most Epic Face EVER◊. Unlike other cases, it works.
    • In episode 10, during the scene where Madoka asks Homura to Mercy Kill her, Homura does a quick transformation... making a cutesy "Poing!" noise in the process. Only the fact that this is by far the most heart-wrenching scene in the whole series keeps it from being regular old Narm.
  • Nausea Fuel:
    • A regenerated Kyubey eats the corpse of his body, which Homura had just killed.
    • The manga version of Mami's death is far worse and more graphic.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • If all the fanart and official merchandise showing them together is any indication, Charlotte will be remembered for one thing and one thing only — killing Mami, and, to a slightly lesser extent, From all of her deaths in Episode 10 and the end of The Different Story and her transformation to a Witch in the game, Mami will be remembered only for being killed by Charlotte.
    • Thanks to a few memetic lines, Hitomi Shizuki is considered the patron saint of anti-yuri. Tell us, Hitomi, can girls love girls?
  • Older Than They Think:
    • This is an anime that starts out as a lighthearted magical girl series, featuring a sweet main girl with two hair ribbons and associated to the color pink, her boastful best friend with free short hair and associated to the color blue, a more experienced magical girl with curly blond hair associated to yellow, a long-haired tomboy with an aggressive attitude associated to red or orange, and finally a quiet, gloomy magical girl with her own story who bonds with the first one (specifically for Because You Were Nice to Me reasons). Endowed with powers related to femininity, all of them are forced to fight enemies that are older women whose own powers are twisted forms of the same elements, all of which turns sour when they find out the entity that gave the girls their powers is actually darker than he looks. It may look like we're talking about Madoka, but not the case: it is actually Cyber Team in Akihabara, a Cyberpunk magical girl anime from The '90s.
    • Most anime fans tend to think that this was the one responsible for the whole "grimdark magical girl" trend, with other similar series such as Magical Girl Raising Project and Magical Girl Site. But before that, there have been other dark and serious magical girl series, such as the mentioned Cyber Team in Akihabara, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Shamanic Princess, Majokko Meg-chan, Princess Tutu, and Lyrical Nanoha.
    • This isn't the first magical girl series where the Mentor Mascot turns out not to be trustworthy and has ulterior motives for helping out the protagonist. In Phantom Thief Jeanne, which predates Madoka by about 13 years, Maron/Jeanne's own Mentor Mascot, Finn Fish, turns out to be a Fallen Angel and The Mole for the Devil himself.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Charlotte's popularity is inversely proportional to her screentime.
  • Periphery Demographic: Despite being aimed at older males, the show has gained a large female fanbase due to it being a Magical Girl series. A lot of teenagers watch the show, too. As a result, the series is an extremely popular cosplay subject; due to the Improbably Female Cast, most of the series' cosplayers are female (with rare exceptions), and some of them are even in the same age range as Madoka and her compatriots.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Witches are everywhere and they are responsible for suicides. What's worse, they are invisible to normal humans until you wander into their lair, wherein you will be killed in a horrific way. That friend of yours online that just killed herself? Could have been because of a witch. Wanna take that shortcut through the alleyway? Could walk in right into a witches' lair. You are never safe.
  • Replacement Scrappy: As any fic writer will tell you, compared to the witches, the wraiths are just kind of bland. Before the release of the movie Rebellion, it was expected that the wraiths would get more attention and exposition on in the movie, due to a lack of such from the end of anime; however, they do not make a single appearance in the movie, aside from mere mentions. Because of this, some have come to view wraiths as a pointless, filler enemy that really just ends up being there, because something had to take over the witches after they all were erased at the end of the anime.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Madoka enters the show as Shinji Ikari. She comes out as Jesus. Eventually we learn the truth about magical girls and the reason why Homura actively keeps Madoka from becoming a magical girl: it's a Deal with the Devil that involves transforming into a lich for a single wish that you are very likely to screw up. Madoka became savvy enough in one of the timelines to make Homura promise to keep her from becoming a magical girl.
    • Sayaka. In an /a/ poll she was the least popular of the five main characters as of episode 10, but the hatred for her seems to have cooled since the show ended. This is likely due to her accepting her fate as a magical girl in the last episode.
  • Ron the Death Eater:
    • A big part of the fandom took Mami's Freak Out in a horrible way, declaring that she's only a mass murderer and nothing else. In addition, these fans tend to ignore Mami's repeated warnings about being cautious about their wish and instead focus only on how desperate Mami is to have other magical girls in her life, depicting her as completely unaware of the dangers and selfishly putting her own needs before others, despite the fact she was quite clear on the dangers. The only thing that made her different from Homura was that she didn't know just how dangerous the life was, and didn't know about the origin of witches and, presumably, the literal nature of Soul Gems, or that Kyubey was not a friend, factors that if she had known, Mami would have told Madoka and Sayaka about given how willing to remind them on the danger of being a magical girl and the dangers of a poor wish she was.
    • The fandom and even Portable tend to exaggerate Hitomi and Kyousuke's flaws, respectively making them out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and Domestic Abuser. In reality, they're more Unwitting Instigators Of Doom. While the surface-level social conflicts in their Love Triangle are painful on their own, Hitomi and Kyousuke are completely unaware of the additional stress Sayaka feels due to magic's role in her corner of the triangle. But many people tend to ignore that in favor of their more soap opera-ish version.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Hitomi gets a lot of flak from the fanbase because she told Sayaka that she has 24 hours to tell Kyosuke her feelings (Locked Out of the Loop about why this wouldn't work for Sayaka aside, this is far too little time for such a decision), or else she will confess, or simply they think Sayaka would be better with him. Meanwhile, the video game demonstrates what would happen if Sayaka took her advice (namely, Hitomi slapping her), heavily implying that Hitomi wasn't actually sincere about her offer and just wanted to intimidate Sayaka out of making a confession. Also doesn't help in Rebellion, when fans feel she complains about trivial things (like her boyfriend not paying attention to her in favour of studying) when the rest of the cast are embroiled in life or death struggles.
    • You'd be very hard-pressed to find a fan who likes Kyosuke. At best, fans are neutral towards him. At worst, people loathe him for being a male in a show full of yuri subtext and being an "obstacle" to Kyoko/Sayaka, not telling Sayaka that he got out of the hospital, or being a "dense idiot" who committed the "crime" of being Oblivious to Love and didn't deserve Sayaka or Hitomi's love. Fans gained more reason to hate him when he reacts poorly to Sayaka's appearance in a Bad Ending of the PSP game. And because of this, many of the fans wanted him to painfully die from a possible Karmic Death.
  • Self-Fanservice:
    • Mami is a frequent one because of her...well, assets.
    • Likewise, Sayaka is also drawn with a slightly enlarged chest, but not in Mami's levels.
  • Signature Scene: Mami's head getting chewed off by Charlotte. It truly marks the shift in tone from other Magical Girl Warrior shows, and on a more crass note, has become the main thing Mami is remembered for.
  • Sliding Scale of Social Satisfaction:
    • Categorized as "Knowledge is forbidden". The Incubator's system only works because they purposefully refrain from giving key information to the magical girls. For example, that their Soul Gems can become tainted not only by using magic but also feeling negative emotions. And when it's totally black, they don't die, they turn into the very witches they fight.
    • Gets upgraded to "Revolution is the Key" at the end of the anime and even more in The Movie: Rebellion. Thanks to Homura's shenanigans, Madoka gets powerful enough to become the Law of Cycles and rewrite the universe to save magical girls from their bleak fate. She rebels against the Incubators by making a wish that backfires on them. Then, in Rebellion, Homura takes it to the next level, rewriting the universe again so the Incubators have to suffer the pain they've inflicted upon magical girls.
  • Super Couple: Madoka and Homura. Just look at the amount of fanart and fanworks...
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Decretum can easily be seen as a Dark Reprise of Greensleeves. There is in fact a version that combines the two, which requires some knowledge about both melody lines to distinguish the two.
  • Tear Dryer: In the penultimate episode, Homura is reduced to tears over her inability to defeat Walpurgisnacht and save Madoka. She sobs and confesses to Madoka that she failed to save her and all her attempts have only made everything worse. This happens just before Madoka ascends to godhood and becomes the literal concept of hope, granting everyone a happy ending.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • Some of the DVD edits haven't been well-received.
      • All soul gems have been changed from hand-drawn to CGI. While this fixes the scaling problems the soul gems had all over the place in the first few episodes, it's... conspicuous.
      • Mami's soul gem now has little flowers fluttering around it. These flowers also appear during her transformation and general use of her powers. It's both Narmy and unusual considering no one else's soul gems do anything similar.
      • Mami's apartment has been changed from having the most basic pieces of furniture and a blank hardwood floor to being decked out with pastel upholstery and stuffed animals everywhere. Detractors argue that the minimalistic version did a good job of highlighting Mami's depression due to complete lack of friends and family.
      • Among various architectural edits to the town, the school rooftop's chainlink fence was replaced with a very ornate white one. There would be no problem if they had re-drawn Sayaka's hand as she clutches the fence; the orientation of her fingers makes no sense with the new fence.
      • The Sayaka/Kyoko fight gets better shading, but in every other aspect the new artwork is worse.
    • Some of the changes in the movies are not well received, such the removal of certain scenes and changing of music (for example, "Nux Walpurgis" in Eternal Story being changed to a second playing of "Surgam Identidem", possibly diminishing the emotional impact of the scene). Some of the arguments are rather ridiculous, though; apparently the focus of a broken pipe in an alley dripping water is much more important to the series than Mami's backstory.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Given the confirmation that Homura went through nearly 100 loops, there are those who felt that more than four previous timelines should have been shown.
    • The Witch system is incredibly intricate and thought out, with supplemental information detailing all kinds of information about how Grief Seeds and Familiars can generate additional Witches under certain conditions. Even the Witches themselves each have unique personality traits. This never comes up in the series at all, which instead focuses on the interactions of the magical girls themselves; after a couple episodes, the Witches start fading into the background, with some battles being done entirely in montage.
  • Too Cool to Live:
    • Poor Mami. She's a Cool Big Sis and Lady of War who can summon a sky full of muskets. She dies in the third episode.
    • Just as she starts to get over her Jerkass tendencies, Kyoko dies.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Even people that don't hate Kyosuke usually don't think he comes off as sympathetic since a decent chunk of his screen time consists of him being a Jerkass toward Sayaka out of frustration over his injury. Realistic, yes, but people usually don't sympathize with somebody they don't see being remotely likable. Another common criticism is he could have at least told Sayaka he was leaving the hospital.
    • Hitomi, due to her actions unintentionally leading to Sayaka's demise and not really living up to the "best friend" title Madoka and Sayaka supposedly claim she is.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?:
    • Hey, look at this show where the cast are all cute little girls who wear cute dresses and can do magic — did that girl's head just get eaten by that clown-caterpillar creature?! It gets worse from there.
    • It should be noted that even the official Netflix description for the anime hides its dark nature, merely calling a "new story of magical witch girls".
  • What the Hell, Casting Agency?: While the Spanish dub of the series was generally well received, with critics noting that Carmen Ambrós did an awesome job as Madoka and that Inmaculada Villalonga made it look like Emiri Katou had magically learned to speak Spanish like a native, Ariadna Jiménez's Homura was widely criticized. People pointed out not only that Jiménez was heavily miscast from the start (she usually plays children and hyper characters, not aloof Byronian heroines), but also that her acting made Homura sound as if she had laringitis. Some came to the extent to suggest that she and Carmen Calvell (who voiced Sayaka) should have switched roles, given that Calvell has a long tradition of playing worldly female characters and would have probably nailed Homura.
  • The Woobie: Everyone in the whole series (aside from Kyubey) makes the viewers want to give them a big hug and tell them that all will end well.
    • Special mention goes to Homura for being an Iron Woobie. There's a reason her Fan Nickname is Homurika, you know.
    • Sayaka due to her heartbreaking breakdown, but also because Word of God has declared that she can't be saved in any timeline. Poor girl.
    • Kyoko's backstory implies she's an Iron Woobie herself. It's impressive she didn't immediately turn into a witch after her family was murdered by her freaking out father.
    • The witches themselves count as a Woobie Species because they're fallen magical girls.
  • Woolseyism:
    • At the end of the series, in the original Japanese the new monsters that replace witches are called "majuu", which literally means "magical beast". The fansubs for the anime simply translated the world as "demon", but the official subtitles use "wraith" instead. Not only does the latter better fit their appearance, it also preserves an additional meaning in the original Japanese: the word "majuu" is very similar to "majo", the Japanese word for witch, reflecting the idea that the former are a replacement for the latter. In English "wraith" and "witch" also possess some of this similarity; they both start with "w", end in "h", and have an "it" in the middle.
    • In the English dub, "Girls can't love girls!"

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