Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Japanese: 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ, Hepburn: Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika), also known simply as Madoka Magica, is a 2011 Japanese anime television series created by Magica Quartet (an artist collective consisting of director Akiyuki Shinbo, screenwriter Gen Urobuchi, original character designer Ume Aoki, and producer Atsuhiro Iwakami) and animated by Shaft. The story follows a group of middle school girls, led by protagonist Madoka Kaname, who make supernatural contracts to become magical girls (mahō shōjo). In battling surreal enemies known as "witches", they learn of the anguish and peril associated with their new roles.

In the fictional city of Mitakihara, Japan, a middle school student named Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a small, cat-like creature named Kyubey. It offers a contract in which a girl may have any wish granted in exchange for obtaining magical powers and being tasked with fighting witches. Meanwhile, a transfer student and magical girl named Homura Akemi tries to stop Madoka from making the contract with Kyubey. Madoka and Sayaka then meet Mami Tomoe, an upperclassman at the same school who is also a magical girl. Noticing their indecisiveness on whether to become a magical girl, Mami offers to take Madoka and Sayaka along on her witch hunts so they may learn of the responsibilities that come with being a magical girl.

However, after witnessing Mami's death at the hands of a witch, Madoka realizes the life of a magical girl is filled with danger, anguish, and suffering. This is further enforced by the appearance of Kyoko Sakura, a veteran magical girl whose wish indirectly caused the death of her family. Madoka also discovers magical girls give up their souls to form their Soul Gems, the source of their magic, and that when Soul Gems become too tainted with despair, magical girls change into witches.

Sayaka decides to become a magical girl after learning that doing so would allow her to heal a young musician who she admires. However, her classmate Hitomi Shizuki confesses to him first, causing Sayaka to become disillusioned and fall into an inescapable despair that turns her into a witch. Kyubey reveals to Madoka that he is of an alien race that has been harvesting the emotions of magical girls for centuries to use as energy to counteract the spread of entropy, and thus stave off the heat death of the universe. Madoka also learns that Homura is a magical girl from a different timeline who has repeated the same month countless times to try to save Madoka from a grisly fate.

Madoka and Kyoko attempt to reverse Sayaka's transformation, but the plan fails and Kyoko is forced to sacrifice herself to allow Madoka to escape, leaving Homura as the only remaining magical girl. Following this, an extremely powerful witch known as Walpurgisnacht approaches the city. Homura attempts to stop it, but is defeated. She prepares to rewind time to repeat the month again, but Madoka stops her. With the past month's events in mind, Madoka decides to become a magical girl and makes a wish to stop the creation of all witches in the past, present, and future. The paradoxical nature of her wish causes her to transcend into a godlike psychopomp, and establishes a new "Law of Cycles" in which magical girls are purified and disappear into a higher plane instead of becoming witches. A new reality, in which Homura is the only one who remembers Madoka, is formed. Homura vows to continue fighting in honor of Madoka and the world she cherished.

Main Characters

Madoka Kaname (Kaname Madoka)

Miki Sayaka (Sayaka Miki)