Siqua Messiae Madoka Magica: Madoka Kaname and Charity

First off, I should apologize for the long delay in posting. Maybe not that long, but too long if I wish to become serious about the whole blogging thing.

So, I've been watching the reviews of Puella Magi Madoka Magica by SF Debris on an almost Marathon basis today. I myself love this anime to bits. And after a good deal of thinking about it, well, the Latin in this entry's title should sum up my opinions of the eponymous character quite nicely (even if it did come from Google Translate).


For those not in the LDS know, when an LDS person says the word "atonement" (which, by the way, was orignally coined by William Tyndale, the guy who basically made the KJV Bible possible), we are talking about the generally accepted Christian concept of grace. The Atonement is Christ taking upon himself, as the only perfect being to have ever lived, all of humanities sins. Here's the Church website for more detailed info.

For those not in the anime know, Puella Magi Madoka Magica (which I will henceforth abbreviate to PMMM), is a wonderfully well written 12 episode anime series that completely subverts the magical girl genre from something sappy to something dark and tragic. For the sake of brevity, I will give you a link to the TVTropes page.

Are you done? I'll assume yes. FYI though, here there be spoilers. Lots of them.

Let's step into the mind of Madoka Kaname at the moment before she makes her universe-rebuilding wish to end the existence of witches, and therefore, prevent magical girls from turning into them through despair. She has seen:

• Mami Tomoe's head get bitten off by the witch Charlotte
• Her best friend Sayaka Miki turn into the witch Octavia voc Seckendorff
• Kyoko Sakura, who was at first seen as an enemy, sacrifice herself in order to take out said witch
• Homura Akemi reveal to her that all she's done was to fulfill her own wish to save Madoka (via a Groundhog Day Loop)
• And Walpurgis Nacht ravage her home city of Mitakihara

All throughout this horrific ordeal, Madoka believes that, somehow, things will be better in the end. That a happy ending is still possible. But something has to be done to break the seemingly unbreakable cycle that Kyubey and his ilk have made.

She has been told by Kyubey several time that she has the greatest magical potential he has ever seen, a result of Homura's Groundhog Day Loop that centers on our pink haired leading lady. Perhaps, just maybe, she could undo all the pain and sorrow the Incubators have caused on young girls throughout mankind's history.

And so she takes the leap. She wishes for all witches to have never existed. She knows the cost will be great. After all, the wishes of her friends have all turned into horrible curses in the end. It might not even work. But if she does not take this chance, who will?

"Here am I, send me."  

What Madoka did, she did out of what the Greeks called Agape. What most folks today call unconditional love. What I call Christlike love. Charity.

She gave no thought for herself when she made that wish. She probably had plans and dreams, but she loved her friends, loved her family, loved all previous magical girls, loved the entire world enough to say, in essence, "If my life as a human being must be forfeit to save humanity, then so be it."

She didn't stop despair. Christ didn't, either. But there is still hope for a better future, whether you are a dying magical girl in the Magi-verse, or a despairing average Joe reality.