I don't think it's because Junko is too pragmatic to believe in miracles it's because she's should be the actual evolution of a magical girl. She's Wonder Woman. In a sense that she doesn't need a cute animal to give her powers because she's has them already. A girl is too naive to not understand that she doesn't have to sacrifice her peaceful life of family and friends to vanquish darkness because she's going to die for it. A woman has tools defeat it. Diana has her sword and lasso and Junko has her makeup. Each brush and eyeliner is a tool to help her. That's probably what Mami role is trying to play. An adult. Junko would wish for the job because that could be another tool in arsenal(more money could mean a nice family vacation. That's what Homura needed to do get Madoka out of the city. Take everyone to Disneyworld while Walpurgis is out there. Heck recruit some Americans.) she can't wish for it so she has to think on how to get it. I mean that's how Madoka changed the universe. She thought about what would end the torment. It's because she's in the genre she's in her sacrifice can't be mourned like a hero in a comic book.

@SirEriol

11 ай бұрын

"If you want children to grow and be happy, strong and considerate, then lead by example. It will hurt like hell". Madoka really has a great support system, doesn't she? No wonder she's the one to save them all.

I think a lot about how the first shot of darkness in sayaka's gem, the growing curse, was after her fight with Madoka that immediately had her in tears afterwards.

Speaking of Junko, there's this nice fanfic called Tangled Regrets in Questionable Questing, where she guided Madoka right beside her in "the final loop". It's interesting as Madoka is far more resilient there as Junko helped Madoka make sense of everything, and with her help, she managed to make the right wish: “I wish for a world where hope doesn’t mean regret.” It's a very abstract wish, but it allows her intent rather than word to guide the world - allowing for everyone to have a chance to grasp happiness without her sacrifice (well, she still sacrificed her magic, but she was able to purposefully reject becoming a goddess to stay with everyone while still saving everyone). I think having a real supportive adult like Junko really would help, even if maybe not to the extent of that one.

@clearandsweet

2 жыл бұрын

Ooh I'll have to read it that sounds exactly like what I'm looking for.

I always interpreted Homura's response to Madoka's question on the rooftop as her effectively answering the question with a gesture. She turns to look directly at what she wished for: YOU. As for that Faust quote, I wasn't able to interpret all of what was said, but that mourning the lost beauty immediately screamed, to me who really needs to actually read Faust and could be completely wrong about what happened, Gretchen. And by that I mean Homura's perspective of Madoka. I think some similar lines actually appear in some of the songs for Madoka Magica. Probably the biggest flaw with my interpretation I can see is that Homura wasn't really "mourning" until after Madoka's ascension, and was instead convinced that she's not gone forever and doing anything to keep her alive.

Dude...I love this so much. So much care and _love_ put into the analysis. I feel like I'm reliving the series again for the first time...Like I'm falling in love with it all over again. Amazing stuff.

@Wadacup

3 жыл бұрын

Hell Madoka and Fluttershy. Can't get any better than that.

With the German on the side of the building (I can't speak German, but going off of the translation) The demigod shattered her, they carry her pieces into nothingness, as they mourn the lost beauty. I take that as this witches familiars. Gertrude's familiars carry roses and flowers, pieces of the witch, over each other. She mourns her transformation into a witch. When we first see the witch, I thought she looked like she was sad or mourning.

18:13 I like to think that her heart and head(emotions and mentality) are hidden behind fragile glass, or even could be inviting the viewer to interpret Mami from a spefici viewpoint or through a specific lense. Also, with the sunset in the background giving off a orange-rosie gloe, you could argue we're being putright forced to view Mami through rose-tinted glasses. With the exception of her legs. We know she walks this world alone from the very start, but we don't necessarily get to see how that affects her for a while longer. The grief seeds are also interesting to me. Your segment on them made me realise the Grief Seeds are the black holes to the Soul Gems' sunlight. The Soul Gem eventually goes supernova, resulting in a violent event like a Witch, and the Black Hole is the remainder after the star's death fully runs its course. I think the most interesting part though, is the Seeds can only hold so many curses and evil/melancholic emotions before becoming full, as opposed to Black Holes that just keep devouring. But I realized that is also accounted for in the text. If left to their own devises they birth a familiar, which eventually grows into a witch if it is not killed. The Grief Seeds are essentially just the purgatory/dead space between the dying sun and that black hole; the all-consuming entropy. . And the one thing that stops that from happening is the Incubators literally coming in and eating the entropy before it happens.

How do these videos not have more views??? They’re so good!!!

@pinkbunnyskyedoesthings7762

2 жыл бұрын

like seriously

I'd say Sayaka and Madoka can represent _both_ active and passive. Sayaka bit first and grabs her wish without hesitation, but struggles with her own self worth and emotions, hesitating far too long with Kyosuke and losing the chance for happiness. Madoka is of course incredibly passive, but jumps at the chance the save everyone because her own feelings of self worth tell her she's not important to anything or anyone. As for Gertud, the discussion on the German speficially represents her. She's lamenting her lost beauty as she's become this eldritch horror witch with a melting rosebush for a face. Painful to look at and painful to be approach, even the flowers she so loved have become hideous. Granted I don't know Gertrud's _actual_ Magical Girl story so I may be completely wrong lol

0:37 You see this quick turn in every single SHAFT anime

PMMM is such a unique creative work because it's not the product of a singular creative vision. If pressed to choose someone whose vision resulted in the Madoka Magica franchise, the person I'd point to is not the obvious figures - Shinbo, Gen, Ume, Kajiura, Gekidan Inu Curry - but Producer Iwakami. Instead, PMMM is really a kaleiscope of creative influences, meshed together of a meriad of creative traditions that shouldn't have worked in a unified work, but somehow did. Assemblying this creative team, believing they could create something great together, is a creative work. Looking through Iwakami's work history, you could understand how before Madoka, he worked and developed with each of the forementioned talents. It's his familiarity with the breadth of Japan's anime production talents to pick from to assemble come to be known as Magica Quartet.

Finally getting through these in a more reasonable time. You note of the dream and how it contrasts with other Magical Girls is very neat.

12:55 also the perspective is totally fucked. the size of the hallway across the room and the lack of chairs implies it's a shorter table you're meant to kneel at, but Mami looks like it woul reach her hips standing up. she looks very small and like her feet should be clipping into the floor

Yaaaay I was waiting for part 2! :D

paused the whole video to say Sayaka's wish is selfish and foolish because she didn't try to give her life selflessly. she expected love and a romance in return and when she didn't get that she hurt her own feelings and spiraled. love Sayaka so much but her wish is not noble at all and it kills her.

Can't wait for ep3

If you enjoyed Method of Rationality, you should check out To the Stars, which is a similar rational fanfic for Madoka set several hundred years in the future, where humanity and magical girls ventured into the stars.

@clearandsweet

4 жыл бұрын

See I've read a chunk of that and I didn't find it super engaging. It's more about the technical aspects of how things operate. I've never cared for the details. HPMOR was kind of like that as well. I think the strength of a good narrative is using just enough detail to be able to tell the character story.

@xHomu

4 жыл бұрын

@@clearandsweet That's a fair point. Madoka can be exposition at time as well (see certain scenes in Rebellion), but Gen had SHAFT to cover for him with interesting visions to intersperse the dump.

@clearandsweet

4 жыл бұрын

@@xHomu yeah you're right on, but I think it extends a little bit further too. PMMM was crafted particularly perfectly to drill down on core issues. Everything else serves that. When you start world-building for the sake of world building, that's when my eyes glaze over.

Remember everyone, 1 like = 1 magical girl getting her wish granted!

A lot of Junko's lines (at least in the dub) are very weird and nonsensical. I wonder if it's just the translation

I like the video, but dislike the BLM message added ontop of it due to how in a video series that goes so in-depth, you take an issue and make it really shallow, as if simply defunding the police will do anything when there are so much evidence to show that it just hurts the situation. That is why I will leave the dislike on there.

@clearandsweet

3 жыл бұрын

You're right, it should say end qualified immunity, replace the police with social workers, end the for-profit prison industrial complex, and dismantle systematic racist structures like germandering, educational inequality, and wealth disparity as a result of unchecked capitalism, but that was too hard to read in a few seconds on screen. Maybe I'll make a follow up video describing why a magical girl would never kill a defenseless person so people understand that the continued actions of America's police force aren't acceptable, natural or justifiable.

@TheEnmineer

2 жыл бұрын

This will date the video series, yeah... But at the end of the day it doesn't really do anything to the commentary of the videos and can be ignored as you skip to the next in the series as soon as the talking is over. [in fact it'd be missed if you listen to the series as the author intended.]

@TindraSan

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheEnmineer I sure hope it dates the video series, as that would imply the issues in question have been resolved in the future. as of now, two years after the video was uploaded, it doesn't feel very dated at all, because the world still sucks and cops still act like society's made up of sheep, wolves and sheepdogs

@TheEnmineer

2 жыл бұрын

@@TindraSan I was really just poking at the guy who got upset about a contemporary political statement. While optimistically positing the only really valid argument he'd be able to make. To be fair I'm also not a fan of unrelated content in the video-essays I watch, but it's not *that serious* of a deal to get all fussy about.

@dearratboy

2 жыл бұрын

🤡