the buddhism of madoka & the madness of faust

"Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Walpurgisnacht Rising," Date to be Announced

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a 2011 anime series of twelve episodes, which in 2012/13 were condensed into two feature films and given a glossy well-produced third installment called "Rebellion." A fourth film is being released "soon."

Its world in the fake Japanese city Mitakihara consists of magical girls or "mahō shōjo" (a trope in manga/anime) whom each make a contract with an Incubator named Kyūbey. This results not only in a single wish being granted but in a compulsion to fight and kill entities called "witches" which bring disaster through invisible labyrinths. Witches' labyrinths trap innocent people and cause them to harm themselves and others. We learn as the story progresses that witches were once magical girls who at some point turned to despair. They turned to despair for a variety of reasons. Due to finding out the devastating truth that all witches were indeed once magical girls, or because their wishes ended up causing more harm than good. Both and then some. A magical girl runs out of magic if she doesn't purify her "soul gem" (which is the locus of her mind-soul or kokoro, rather than it being in her body which is more like an empty shell used for combat). She purifies her soul gem with "grief seeds" she collects from defeating witches. The grief seeds of witches were once soul gems. See the cycling? It's this violent transformation of a hopeful magical girl into a witch that Kyūbey curates into energy. This energy is used to maintain the universe. Apparently, the universe is running out of heat due to entropy (or the idea that destruction is quicker than creation and therefore superior, and so time is not on the side of maintaining life). 

A lonely and ill girl named Homura wished to turn back time to once more meet her best friend Madoka (a magical girl) after Madoka dies defeating a witch called Walpurgisnacht. Homura therefore possesses the power to time-travel. When she turns back one loop of time, she discovers the secret of the Incubator when instead of Madoka dying by the shattering of her soul gem she's rather turned into a witch by using up too much magic fighting Walpurgisnacht and caving to despair. Homura repeats the loop again. And again. And again and again and no matter that Madoka continues making a contract with the Incubator and  becoming an ever-more powerful witch. The truth is that Homura makes Madoka a more powerful magical girl, and therefore a more powerful witch inevitably, by looping back time as often as she does. Homura doesn't realize that her own power is of the same nature -- and, so, has the same effect -- as the cycling of magical girls needing to defeat witches until they become witches themselves the more fruitless their endeavors become. And, that's the tragic story.

Until Madoka breaks the cycle in the... what, hundredth time-line? Yeah. Madoka rewrites the universe given how powerful her karma is, and becomes a principle with which any and all magical girls in existence (past, present and future) never become witches but rather die peacefully. Madoka becomes a kind of goddess. In order for this accomplishment, Madoka must disappear from any and all timelines and anyone's memory... except Homura's. Witches no longer exist and what magical girls fight in exchange for their wishes are entities called wraiths. Naturally, since Homura gave her the karma in the first place. The anime ends there and we're all a little sad but hopeful.

Until "Rebellion." 

In "Rebellion" Homura has made an awful mistake of revealing to the memory-erased Incubator the truth of what had once occurred. Boo. This causes the Incubator to wonder whether or not "trapping" Madoka (now called "the Law of Cycles") can reverse Madoka's deification and return the universe to its original state where magical girls become witches. Kyūbey accomplishes this by using Homura's soul gem. Homura is exhausted and ready to die, but Kyūbey creates a barrier between her body and soul gem, and Homura is none the wiser. Kyūbey allows through the barrier foreign entities to enter the "labyrinth" being created by Homura's darkening soul gem, but doesn't allow anyone out. This is in order to catch the Law of Cycles (Madoka). Homura's and Madoka's friends, including three other beloved magical girls Mami and Sayaka and Kyōko, along with some other characters, enter the soul-gem-labyrinth and participate in Homura's fantasy of what a perfect world would be like. The entities she and the other girls fight are called Nightmares, and they're fairly easy to defeat. Things are peaceful, everyone is happy, but Homura figures something is strange. The world is shadowy, and she soon realizes that nothing exists outside of Mitakihara. Poor Homura goes through a grueling process of discovering the Incubator's plan, and that the world she's living in is her soul gem with actual people drawn into it. The labyrinth is formed, and Kyūbey practically orgasms. Finally, the demon-creature can identify who the Law of Cycles is: Madoka, who has no record of ever existing in anyone's memory in any universe. Madoka's there to bring peace to Homura as she dies, manifesting as the sweet girl Homura remembers her as. Sayaka and another magical girl Charlotte remind Madoka that she's a "goddess" and everyone helps Homura break through the Incubator's barrier so that the demon-creature may avoid catching Madoka. Everything returns to the world in which magical girls die a peaceful death, and goddess Madoka reaches out to bring Homura to blissful death.

Until (big spoiler) Homura becomes the fucking Devil.

Homura is just as powerful as Madoka, if not more. She gave Madoka all the power in the first place, no? In the original universe in which magical girls turn to witches? She created Madoka's power with her loops and Madoka made her choice. So... Homura decides to do as Madoka does and create her own world, in which "good intentions" and "self-sacrifice" are thwarted. Most importantly, in Homura's universe, a meek human version of Madoka exists. Madoka resembles the original Homura, awkward and alienated, and Homura is strong. The Law of Cycles still exists. But, Homura has her cake and eats it too. Madoka's godhood remains, and Homura's godhood exists to tempt Madoka out of remembering her godhood so as to hold her forever or some shit. Kyūbey is now a slave to Homura and aids magical girls in defeating wraiths.

Is it Sapphic? It's fetishy. But, I don't think it's as Sapphic as much as it is platonically combative. Schoolgirls as God and the Devil, who each have equal footing. It's dualistic, definitely not truly Christian. Although, it is Calvin-y Christian. But, are Calvinists Christians? Ehhh... Iiiaaayyy... don't... know... Double predestination is pretty fucked-up. Double predestination (not to be confused with double penetration heh 😈) is basically the tenet that some people are destined for Hell no matter what. So, there's no use in "doing good." What kind of God are Calvinists and all the churches that have emerged from Calvinism worshiping? Sounds more like a Devil than a loving God. In the more sophisticated traditions of Christianity, we believe that evil has no rights and no footing in nature. God doesn't make evil. Evil exists existentially. Our actions can be inherently evil, but human actions are not God's doing. God is the source of all being and truth; He's not a "thing" but rather creates things and nothing He creates is evil. Human actions are evil, and those are not things (existents). And all the weird stuff pre-Christ in the Old Testament must be read symbolically and allegorically, otherwise we'd be worshipping a Nero-like genocidal angry and envious God. 

That's why I get along better with intelligent atheists.

Back to 2024. So, all right, Homura's loops and her relationship with the Incubator is an excellent retelling of Goethe's (and even mythical pre-Goethe's) Faust. Faust represents lunatic obsession with accomplishing that which cannot in good conscience (and therefore, not rationally) be accomplished -- by virtue of a pact with a spirit who, if you're not happy in the end, you become a slave to. As mentioned, it's dualistic, and while dualism in Christianity sucks it actually makes more sense in Buddhism. Desire = suffering; inevitability = unmoving; awareness = liberation; detachment = bliss; compassion = divinity. Madoka achieved enlightenment by accepting the inevitability of suffering, by detaching from her own selfish desires, and in her compassion found her fate in existing as a deity to lead others of her kind to similar enlightenment (except for Homes, who did the opposite).

BUT WHAT ABOUT WALPURGISNACHT? Walpurgisnacht is German for "Night of St. Walpurga" which in Faust is represented by a kind of witch festival (though it used to be in real life more of a harvest festival). Who is Walpurgisnacht in Puella Magi Madoka Magica?

Well, surreal trailer is... surreal. Watch the imagery, and here are transcripts of the words appearing and being spoken.

Written (what seems to be Homura's thoughts and memories):

WALPURGISNACHT

Official name: Stage Witch (Unknown)

Its nature is helplessness.

The symbol of a fool who spins around and around.

The legend of a mysterious witch that has been passed down

...from generation to generation throughout history,

A mahō shōjo's worst and most powerful enemy,

CALAMITY.

In the past, this "existence" brought hope,

and eventually scatters curses.

The Law of Cycles saved us.

I want to see you one more time.

The world is for Madoka!

Spoken (what seems to be mostly Madoka's voice):

[telephone]

[call answered]

Can you accept the risks and responsibilities?

Can you fight against the curse of this world? (except for this line, spoken either by Homura or Walpurgisnacht, I can't tell)

It's a secret, a secret.

Don't tell anyone.

There's one thing you must do.

That's love.

What nonsense.

Devil.

A mahõ shõjo I don't know.

Bring hope.

Just bring hope.

Goodbye. 

Release that girl.

Homura-chan, my best friend.

[click]

And so, let the curtain rise on tonight's dream (Madoka).

And so, let the curtain rise on tonight's dream (Homura).

I don't have theories, but I have some impressions and guesses. There was a side story series called "Magia Record" which isn't worth mentioning except for the concept that a magical girl can create a "doppel" or a mirror image of what her witch form would look like. 

Maybe... Homura becomes the once-unbeatable Walpurgisnacht in her own new universe so as to lure Madoka away from the humble and happy human life she's leading (which was Homura's doing, anyway, go figure) and toward her godhood so they can battle to the death. Or, better, lure Madoka toward becoming a witch herself. Maybe Homura's doppel is Walpurgisnacht. What's with all those files and papers? That's how it feels to be a graduate student lol.

HOWEVER, THIS, I FORGOT THIS AND THIS SEEMS LIKE THE KEY TO EVERYTHING:  Homura had, in the third loop, almost turned into a witch with Madoka and said "let's burn down this world together, because it's not worth saving," until Madoka cleaned her soul-gem and prompted her to go back in time and stop her from making the contract with the Incubator. I talk, and I've heard other fans of the series talk, about Homura's obsession, but... are we going to talk about Madoka's manipulation of Homura, compelling her to go back and back, because Madoka said "don't allow me to be stupid and get tricked by Kyūbey again"?

Who 👏 is 👏 the 👏 real 👏 Devil?