Looks like the Magia Record Memoria cards continued the theme of boundaries/crossing over with magical girl Madoka and Madokami!

"Towards Hope" in the official North American version. Card description:

Once again, we have the imagery of a demarcation in space that can only be crossed through wishes, only this one is irreversible. It's a triumph, but it's also a kind of death, requiring farewell to the world left behind. There's a "before" and "after", in which she becomes not just an agent of hope, but the concept of hope itself--not just a magical girl but the magical girl, the Ultimate magical girl, who saves magical girls, not ordinary people--because the only people magical girls can't save are themselves.

In the previous card, Madoka's two selves were more or less on equal footing, but here Madokami is clearly elevated above magical girl Madoka, who is remarkably cheerful about her situation. Their hair appears to be more or less the same shade and vibrancy, but Madokami comes off as motherly and more mature. They're still obviously the same person, but the differences are more pronounced. There's also a lot more movement in this card, with their hair caught in some kind of cosmic wind vs. the relatively flat and static hair in the other card.

It's also interesting that Madokami and magical girl Madoka are embracing, which is a lot more intimate and personal than the fingertip touch, but it fits the themes of their respective cards--the "Girls' Boundary" card is about, well, boundaries, while "Towards Hope" is about moving in one specific direction and becoming it. In "Towards Hope", Madoka's back is to the audience, and she glances behind her--not because she regrets her choice, but almost as if to reassure us that she's fine with it. She's already committed and nothing can change that. Meanwhile, Madokami has eyes only for her other self, in contrast with ordinary Madoka, who can't even look her magical girl self in the face.

The eye color shift is also striking--Madoka might look slightly different when she transforms into a magical girl, but her eyes remain the same, while Madokami is an entirely different order of being. This makes sense, since eyes are "the window to the soul," and are used to indicate more profound differences than hair or clothes, which are more malleable. (See also the doppelganger Homura in the WnK key visual, who has brown eyes unlike the purple eyes of the "real" Homura.) The Law of Cycles is Madoka, no question about it, but not just Madoka, since the two are physically separated in Rebellion.

Seeing all three forms juxtaposed together like this makes the similarities and differences between them really hit home.

I'm not the first person to observe that magical girls are literally a brighter and more vibrant version of their ordinary selves, but I like this particular Memoria from Magia Record, "Girl's Boundary" ("That Which Divides" in the North American server) not only because it shows this juxtaposition directly, but because it also makes the subtext explicitly text:

There's a tendency to focus on the downsides of contracting--and for good reason--but I think that it's also important to focus on the very real appeal (especially for adolescents) of stepping out of your boring everyday life and becoming an idealized and powerful version of yourself, complete with ruffles and sparkles. (The sparkles in this drawing indicate that this is 2-star Memoria, and probably were not meant to be Magical Girl Madoka is sparkling, but wow, does it sure look like it at first glance.) It's such a powerful fantasy, and this card does such a great job of depicting that, and showing what it's like for it to come true.

The use of "boundary," 境界 (kyoukai) here is interesting to me in contrast to the kekkai, 結界, or magical barrier created by witches (translated as "labyrinth" in the official English version). Becoming a witch is literally being bounded, circumscribed, limited in possibilities; instead of being able to transform back and forth, they are fundamentally stuck in a monstrous and inhuman form for eternity. A witch is neither a magical nor an ordinary girl but a secret third thing, reviled and trapped in their own personal hell, existing in a liminal space that is anathema to the world around it (represented by the change in animation). Magical girls, however, have the freedom to cross over at will because their feeling and wishes give them strength and power to do so.

This card's text also reinforces the idea that magical girls literally exist in a different world that ordinary people cannot experience. In the original series, this gap serves to isolate and alienate them from their previous existence and ensure there is no turning back (and Madoka and Sayaka do not even have to contract to experience this for themselves; just being introduced to that world is enough).

However, the act of becoming a magical girl--both the original contract and the transformation--is, like electrons, fundamentally quantum in nature: it allows them to instantly* jump from world to world without passing through any points in between. Which makes sense in a weird sort of way, since "feelings" and "wishes" are literally energy, and the transformation of soul gem to grief seed comes with a powerful explosion reminiscent of nuclear fission.

(*Many arguments have been made about how long magical girl transformations actually take in-universe and whether the slow montages are experienced by the girls and/or observers or are only a representation for the audience; YMMV, but on several occasions we see magical girls in PMMM transform instantly without an extended sequence, which makes the latter seem more likely.)

Speaking of transformation sequences, this card evokes Madoka's in the opening of the PMMM, where she dances with her double. More poignantly, it also speaks to Madoka's profound self-worth issues, where she feels she is useless in her ordinary life and can only find fulfillment as a magical girl.

Finally, I have a lot of questions about that magic circle design in the upper right corner, and I wish more of it was visible in the background.

In the first meta essay I wrote back in 2022 speculating on Walpurgisnacht's identity, I primarily emphasized her thematic and visual parallels with Homura, with the possibility of her being a corrupted Law of Cycles mostly as an afterthought. Lately I've been wondering if I was too hasty about that--which is not to say that I've changed my mind about Homura and Walpurgisnacht being connected. Rather, given the complex nature of personhood in PMMM, I think it's likely to be more of "both/and" than "either/or" situation.

Or, to put it slightly differently: following her wish at the end of the original anime, there is no meaningful distinction between Madoka Kaname and the Law of Cycles; they are the same entity with two different names. However, at the end of Rebellion, Homura splits them, so there now exists a "Madoka Kaname" separate from the Law of Cycles. This raises some fascinating questions about identity and personhood--are they really two different beings now or fragments of a whole?--that Rebellion ends before it can really address, but I hope this issue will be taken up again in Walpurgis no Kaiten, because I'm very curious about the answer.

I don't think it's controversial to say that Homura and Madoka are parallels and foils to each other, or that Walpurgisnacht is the dark mirror of the Law of Cycles. From there, I think it's not unreasonable to suspect that Homura--who has set herself up as Madoka's opposite as a deity--might be to Walpurgisnacht what Madoka is to the Law of Cycles. [In mathematical language, it's the classic ratio, "If A:B::C:D, then A:C::B:D. Will this prove to be the case in the narrative, which follows its own rules? We'll see.]

There are other entities that exist within the Law of Cycles that are not Madoka--all of the magical girls who Madoka has saved from becoming witches by absorbing their curses into herself--but Madoka, while not the entirety of the Law, serves as its primary avatar. Even after Homura rips the "human" portion of Madoka away, the Law of Cycles still retains Madoka's face and appearance, but with empty eyes to suggest that no one is really home. This in turn suggests a vacuum that someone else could fill--something that Homura or her double might well take advantage of. [The ending of Rebellion is notoriously ambiguous about the mechanics, but FWIW some fans believe that Devil Homura has already taken over the Law of Cycles by the end.]

The Law of Cycles was born out of Madoka's wish and thus resembles her because the Law of Cycles is Madoka. What would happen to it if someone else was in charge? What would it look like then? What form might it take? A corrupted Law of Cycles would be a conglomeration of witches that takes on a single form--which sounds like Walpurgisnacht or something very much like it. And if that's the case, who would be the most likely avatar for it? A self-proclaimed devil, perhaps? Or that devil's double? And is there really a difference?

(Side note: another possibility I considered in my original essay was that Walpurgisnacht was another version of Homura. Back then, I was envisioning a Homura from another timeline rather than a shadow/witch/alternate self born from her repressed emotions, but either way, I will laugh so hard if all three answers end up being technically correct.)

The obvious counterargument here is that Walpurgisnacht in the original anime looks nothing like Homura--which, fair enough. But given that one of the show's major themes is "illusions/appearances vs. reality"--and there's reason to believe this theme will be especially relevant in Walpurgis no Kaiten--that's not enough for me to automatically rule out some kind of connection. There has to be more to Walpurgisnacht than what's visible on the surface, or what's the point of bringing her back for a new movie in the first place?

On a narrative level, Walpurgisnacht's true identity and origins only matter if she is a person or concept the audience is already familiar with, otherwise the big reveal won't be much of a twist. On a meta level, Gen Urobuchi uses this same trope--that the enemy is not who you thought they were and was hidden in plain sight the entire time--to great effect at the end of Thunderbolt Fantasy season 3, which suggests it's a theme that interests him and thus one we may well encounter in again in his other works.

Unless Walpurgis no Kaiten introduces more characters or concepts beyond what we've seen already, that means Walpurgisnacht has to be part of the established cast or worldbuilding in some fashion. Unless Walpurgisnacht is some Incubator plot gone horribly wrong--or horribly right, depending on your point of view--the most likely candidates are (in no particular order) original Homura, doppelganger Homura, and the Law of Cycles. Which brings me right back around to my opening question--to what extent are these four separate entities vs. different versions or parts of the same thing?

"Of course they're all completely different," you might say, but in a world where magical girls become witches, Homura herself became one without (consciously) realizing it, and both the story and animation repeatedly question the nature of reality itself, forgive me for not immediately being convinced without further evidence.

I keep seeing people saying variations on "Gosh, I can't wait to see Madoka fight Homura in Walpurgis no Kaiten!" and while far be it from me to rain on anybody's parade (the id wants what it wants), I can't help doing a double-take every time this comes up, because it's so dramatically different from my own viewing experience and perception of the characters.

Apart from the inherent assumption that violence is the only possible method of conflict resolution, you're telling me that Madoka Kaname, who wants all magical girls to be friends and team up together to fight witches, who repeatedly throws herself in between angry combatants who could break her like a twig, who tosses her best friend's soul off a bridge to break up a fight, who faces down a witch on the faint hope of getting said friend back, who sacrifices herself so magical girls don't have to suffer anymore, and whose reaction to finding that her best friend has become a big scary monster in Rebellion is to rush over and hold her hand--is going to fight Homura, of all people?!

Let's just say I'll believe it when I see it.

It's not that Madoka isn't capable of violence--she made that abundantly clear when she shot Mami at point-blank range to save Homura--but to say it's not her preferred solution is a vast understatement. Being forced to kill both Mami and Sayaka in quick succession devastates her--and if Homura hadn't been present, there was a very real chance of Madoka becoming a witch herself in that moment. When we do see Madoka fight, she tends to win in a single shot, as in later timelines against Walpurgisnacht. Maybe Devil!Homura is the only one strong enough to stand against her--but that assumes that Madoka would ever choose to fight her in the first place, no matter how angry/hurt/betrayed she feels, and no matter what Homura has done.

Madoka is not only the show's title character, she is its moral center, and the literal heart (there's even one on her magical girl outfit to drive the point home); the goddess she becomes, while still bearing death, is guided by compassion and mercy, not aggression and cruelty. Even if she were to fight Homura, it would be very much a "I'll kick your ass to bring you back to reality" kind of fight rather than one to kill.

Homua might well see herself as Madoka's enemy, but I don't think Madoka sees Homura as hers. Their conflict is real and deserves to finally be addressed, but ultimately it be can only be resolved by honest communication with each other. You know, that one thing Homura simultaneously craves and shies away from in equal measures, so it isn't like this is going to be easy! True emotional openness and vulnerability requires far more courage than blowing stuff up and always has.

It's tempting to see Homura and Madoka's reification as two opposite and opposing forces to be the primary conflict moving forward, but I think that will ultimately prove to be a false dichotomy. If the two are truly on the same level, the yin to the other's yang, neither can win against the other in the end; the only true ending involves them united as equals.

Instead, I see Homura vs. herself to be the ultimate conflict, with "self" taking a wide variety of externally manifesting forms thanks to previously established worldbuilding. The key visual for Walpurgis no Kaiten appears to support this premise, with Homura facing off against another Homura, while Madoka hovers in the background. It's not that I think Madoka isn't important, but the framing here certainly does not suggest that a violent struggle between her and Homua will be a large part of the plot.

And sure, trailers and promotional materials can be misleading--but like Kyubey, they generally do so by putting the truth in plain sight and trusting the audience to mislead themselves.

Madoka Magica + text posts, part 8, MadoHomu edition.

Madoka Magica + text posts, part 6, Walpurgis no Kaiten trailer edition.

Madoka Magica + text posts, part five.

Madoka Magica + text posts, part four.

Madoka Magica + text posts, part three.

Saw the extra snippet in the new Walpurgis no Kaiten 1.1 trailer this afternoon and here are some thoughts:

My second PMMM AMV, featuring MadoHomu, role reversal, and of course major spoilers for literally everything, set to “Ride With U” by Smash Into Pieces. Enjoy!

AMV - “Wake Up”

My first Puella Magi Madoka Magica fanvid/AMV/whatever the heck we’re calling these things these days. Canon-typical angst and suffering starring Mami, Sayaka, and Madoka. Enjoy!