I took a closer look at the label in the lower right-hand corner to confirm that yes, this is an outdoor unit of an air conditioner. Most of the text is pretty utilitarian description with info about model numbers, but at the top there's some English text, "MRMASA".
I've seen a lot of speculation that this is a reference to Sengo Muramasa, a famous Japanese swordsmith, which seems kind of random to me, so I'd like to see a bit more supporting evidence in the actual film. Likewise, I'm not sure if there's any thematic significance for the air conditioner beyond "convenient round and spinning domestic object that Japanese audiences would recognize instantly"; I'd like a little more context before I start spinning off theories.
Yes, everything in Madoka Magica is there for a reason, but there's already so much symbolism in this shot--from the spinning fan to the cross-quarted circle to the closed eye to the pink tape crisscrossed everywhere to the "Fragile, handle with care" stickers with the cracked goblet that maybe the label is just the label this time. Maybe.
However, just for fun, I went and searched for what "normal" Japanese outdoor units look like. In general, they have their brand name in English on the front, which makes me suspect that MRMASA is a knockoff name for copyright reasons.
As you can see here, the SHAFT version is just amped up for the aesthetics, but the sentiment is basically the same: a kind of community space where people express their feelings via stickers and spray-paint. (To be honest, that part surprises me a little as it doesn't match my experiences in the country, but Japan contains multitudes and there are enough little details that I feel reasonably confident that the location data is accurate.)
It's even more striking in the context of Mitakihara, which has always been this gleaming, futuristic and utopian city.... at least in the open public spaces. The alleyways and dead ends--the places where witches lurk--is an entirely different story, and it's an open question for me how much witches are responsible for what we see in this image.
The net result is that this seemingly innocuous image of an air conditioner fills me with dread. This latest incarnation is beautiful, but it is undeniably fragile, vandalized and literally held together with duct tape, and I don't think it will take much for it all to come toppling down before the end.
(And that's without the fact that the closed eye at the center will probably open at some point in the actual film!)
