Mami’s ribbons are symbolic of the strings of life. She wished to live, so she “bound” herself to it.

23:14 I think it's more about her character being a sort of "ascended chuunibyou" as she is living her life as a super hero (though not in the way she wanted as she is mostly alone). And it also ties nicely to Madoka being in a universe in which magical girl anime exist with Madoka in episode 5 saying something like: "Sayaka and Kyouko shouldn't be fighting, that's not how it goes", with magical girls being actually called "magical girls", and, of course, Mami trying to replicate what she saw on TV by having a catchphrase (and in the Different Story manga she gives a name to Kyouko's ability)

Let me gush about Mami. She's literally a flower bud who can't bloom because she will wither and die. Mami is able survive because her crushing loneliness hurts her so much she needs to keep her guard up. She got a dopamine hit when she's was able to perform. When she blooms it's because she isn't going to be alone. Then she dies because her guard is down. I felt that Magia Record took place after Rebellion and this is consequences of Homura's actions. The city is called Kamihama. KAMIhama. God. It's why Doppel is an ability because the world was rewritten with Sayaka and Nagisa alive but their witch powers are baked with their magical girl power.

Mami reminds me a lot of Minako Aino/Sailor Venus as she is in the Manga rather then the 90s Anime, where she is the leader of the Senshi and did spend a longer time then anyone fighting alone as Sailor V.

So something I felt worth mentioning about MagiReco now that it’s over. While I do feel it’s not as strong as the original, it still addresses many things I feek are worth considering. One of the big ones is a response to Madoka’s line in episode: "If someone ever tells me it's a mistake to have hope, well, then, I'll just tell them they're wrong. And I'll keep telling them 'til they believe! No matter how many times it takes." It answers this in the form of Kuroe. She’s the magical girl who tells Iroha it’s a mistake to have hope, and then turns into a Witch to finally be free of this role. Kuroe was someone who felt such intense pain, sadness, anger, and general negativity from being a Magical Girl, that becoming a Witch seemed like the better choice to her. MagiReco essentially takes the girl off stage, the one the story wouldn’t be centered around, and shows her plight. How as much as Madoka pines about the value of being a Magical Girl, the worth of preserving that role because of the value it gives to people, there will exist people this system not only does nothing for, but actively hurts. I find it infinitely interesting to ponder. We accept it because the characters we see, the characters we love accept it. But what about all the other who might not?

I just happen to know about one music analysis youtuber that did pick apart Madoka Magica... just that's he did so in spanish. Video is cc'd in english though, so if you are ever curious, please check out Jaime Altozano's "La banda sonora de Puella Magi NO debería funcionar"

As someone who is anime-first when it comes to Magia Record but only right before it finished airing, I actually enjoyed it a lot as a "what does being a normal magical girl looks like in this world, when the world isn't at stake." Thematically, it's an interesting flip on the theme of hope - taking a more Grecian view of "hope is the last disaster within Pandora's Jar - it is the continuation of suffering," as can be seen by the Doppel and its effects. It also shows the wider impact of Madoka's wish - these are the girls that she saves and these are the bloodbath she prevented. It brings the idea of sacrifice and memories even more to the forefront. There's a ton of value to MagiReco as a spin-off to me, and while it's no successor, it is worthy to be part of the series for me.

I think your interpretation on the setting is really interesting! Personally, I always thought that the more 'off' features of the setting were supposed to call back to a child's imagination when hearing a story. When you are a kid trying to imagine what an adult's room would look like or what type of trees are outside the heroine's house, it not going to be the most realistic idea. This also explains the references to Monogatari and other series, since a child will likely incorporate settings/places from other stories into their fantasy. I think this also lends itself to the "Madoka as a fairytale" reading if you believe that the audience of the story is a child. But that's just my theory, can't wait to listen to the rest of your thoughts!

Everyone better watch it now before we have to wait months for it to be back.

Bokurano is a really great watch, since you enjoy Madoka I say give it a shot, but don’t look into it too much before you do, it’s easily spoilerable. I’m so happy to have already seen it by the time Madoka originally aired and saw it in the online speculah discourse of the time too. I loved that stuff! Great vid btw I’m lovin the in depth analyses!! 18:00 this is one of my absolute favorite sequences from the show period.

Man, this in depth break down makes me wanna shackle every normy I know and make them watch Magical Madoka.... and Sailor Moon~♡

Jaime Altozano made a music theory video on the soundtrack, but we can definitely use more like that!

17:01 Unrelated to the anime, but to Kajiura's work. One thing that drives me (and my sister)crazy about the earlier SAO seasons is they have no clue how to use Kajiura's music. Village music tends to play just fine, but I swear if I have to hear that Coffee Soda song play at the most unfitting time again I swear- They would use that lovely Coffee Soda theme all the time in SAO and ALO, but with little regard to which part would play. So the triumphant orchestral bit would play during a tense moment and the titular caffeine-themed vocals would play during any still, slow, or triumphant moment. They managed to make me dislike Yuki Kajiura's music and that in itself is one of the most impressive failures I've seen in an anime. It gets a bit better starting with Gun Gale, since they started incorporating new, better music that fit the theming of the setting.

31:00 Just thought I'd mention that it's Jen A Blue. Met her on Twitter, she transitioned after publishing the book.

The stop motion pieces that the artists used for the weird witch and labyrinth designs came and were inspired by Czech animation style.

Why didn’t I get notified about this video 😭

With that monogatari tangent I'd like to add my two cents on the series. I recently got into it and decided to read the light novels first (the officials TLs are pretty good), then watch the anime, I've only gotten through bake first but I've got an interesting relationship with the anime I'm still trying to grapple with. Its no doubt incredible looking and striking in its visuals, but I'm honestly surprised the anime did so well or that any of the emotional impact got through as it apparently did, its not even about missing dialogue one has to infer, its just how little time there is to really soak in the characters/story in between all the fast paced surrealism on screen. On the LN you quickly realize a bit of a pattern, each arc has a supernatural conflict masquerading a personal conflict, and through Araragi and conversations we piece together a sort of misunderstanding, a red-herring on the situation, and its not until the end that the "mystery" clicks into place and with it the emotional weight of the personal conflict. The anime kind of goes through this by virtue of having the same plot, but its lost in not only the pace but the visuals. The introductory arc in the LN has Araragi casually make assumptions that the reader runs with, and in the end we come to realize our understanding, the conflict, the timeline of events were all wrong. In the anime all of this is supposed to happen in 1 episode, the 2nd episode starts with Hitagi first expressing her personal conflict but in 22 minutes we have to have an emotional resolution before we've had time to interpret her situation, let alone misinterpret it. Reading the LN Araragi is no doubt an unreliable narrator, but not in this over the top surreal way, in this down to earth and human way, I'd like to stay positive on the anime but can't help but feel like the visuals almost undermine all of this, the conflicts are ultimately mundane, human, down to earth, the supernatural and surreal is a red-herring and I can't help but wonder if the entire anime fandom has the completely wrong read on the appeal of the story because they're understandably caught up in all this crazy imagery being thrown at them. While reading my mind always pictured a very common and mundane Japanese town (much like Haruhi's anime setting, there might be some parallels here hmmm), the climax of bake's last arc just being two people talking under a common streetlight as Araragi has to come to terms with his relationship to others, but the anime has this crazy surreal field of lights flashing as we cut back and forth to accentuate and punch up dialogue that DIDN'T NEED IT, and almost serves to remove the actual weight behind it all. Its like if all of Haruhi was adapted like Kyon's choice in Disappearance was. Maybe the point was to accentuate the supernatural to highlight the mundane, but regardless of intent it feels like its asking you to buy into the story's misdirection instead of making you notice its there. I'm not sure if it can or has been properly adapted, the books are ultimately just dialogues between people, when people talk we don't need nonsense on screen to keep it interesting, the talk is interesting enough, and its not a crazy supernatural action thriller either. The author even says so in his first afterword, after a whole paragraph on how communication is made up of misunderstandings, he said: "This book contains two tales that revolve around aberrations-- would be a false statement. All I wanted to do was write a fun novel crammed full of stupid exchanges, and these tales are what happened when I did exactly that."

i actually really love Magia Record because it meant more magical girls, more crazy and unique witches, and an interesting story now i will say that so far, while the magia record anime is good, the game is much better they changed quite a few things such as Homura and Madoka looking for Mami and helping in the Sana Futaba rescue arc anyways, I adored the first season of the game's story, and am sad I may never get to play the next season now that the NA servers shut down

As someone who has taken 1 (one) AP Music Theory class in high school and spent several years in chorus, here's my highly unprofessional interpretation of the key change in Mami's theme. For those that don't know, the space between notes can be described as either a half step or a whole step. If you look at a piano, a half step is the very next key, which will usually land you on a black key but sometimes lands you on another white key. A whole step is two half steps, so if you moved from C>C# for a half step, you'd move again from C#>D as a whole step. There are two notes that, when moving up, move directly to the next note with a half step. These are B and E. All of this makes more sense if you're looking at a labeled keyboard, so if you're completely lost please Google a labeled keyboard and you'll see what I'm talking about. The point is, what makes a note sharp or flat is when a note is played either a half step above or below where is "should" be. Key signatures determine how which notes are sharp or flat, though you can always add notation to music to change a note while staying in the key signature. Key signatures also determine the expected starting and ending notes of a piece -- they're meant to start and end on the key the signature is named after. The most common key signature by far is C major because it has no flats or sharps, it has a very universal range (particularly chorally, I cannot speak too much on instrumentally). From the little I can find online, which may not be very accurate, it seems the starting chord for Mami's theme is F? Which strikes me as very odd for something meant to be in Emajor. Granted, many musicians will "break" the more official rules of music composition and part writing but it's usually with intent. If my very basic Google searches are correct (which, after so long of not reading sheet music it was giving me a headache to try to decipher sheet music for an instrument I have never played, so I'll probably do more research some other time and update this comment) then the starting chord was a note higher than it should have been for E major. If this is the case it's very likely to immediately intend to lift up the first half of her song and really drive home that maybe something is off, but in this moment it is still triumphant and still hopeful and brings forth this almost awe as well as the elegance of the chorus and instruments used. In my limited experience, I've only seen the key of E used maybe 2-3 times in my 6ish years in public school chorus, and all of which were in songs written (at least patially) in Latin and with VERY heavy and very powerful religious contexts that stick with me, a total atheist, years later. One such song was There is No Rose, but the version composed by Joshua Himes. Given that E is a couple steps higher than C just as a starting note personally made it more difficult to sing songs like this despite them being such beautiful songs. That section is almost purely anecdotal so take it with a grain of salt, but I do find it interesting how much it can apply to Mami's character and what she represents as a classic Magical Girl to compare the other girls to. Mami has faced loss, loneliness, and insecurities but she covers it all up with flashy finishing moves and bright ribbons. Her song would be difficult to perform, but it's so beautiful that it's easy to brush it off. Something slightly more based in fact, however, is the choice to step down to C# minor. I find this incredibly interesting because the notes that make up C# minor are the exact notes that make up E major, just with a different starting note. Every major chord has a relative minor chord, which has sharps or flats placed on the same notes but with a different starting pitch. I personally find it really interesting that rather than going to any other minor chord, the composer decided to essentially "keep" the same chord but with an inherently different implied mood behind it. I personally interpret this as a wake up call to what it really means to be a magical girl. At first it's revered as high, mighty, and even righteous but a simple change of tone reveals it to be so much more serious than that. Also, perhaps it's just me, but does anyone else feel like the chorus singing in the slightly lower notes makes it feel more personal? The high melody feels religious and surreal, and then the key change hits and suddenly the notes are relatable, they're human, they're right in front of you staring at you and all they did was take it down to a minor key This has been very rambly and unprofessional but they really stand out to me as potential double meanings in the composition so I thought I'd share 💛

On Latin G is not pronounced as Gi like in Italian, its hard G (like in "group"). So its Mag-i, not Ma-gi Puella Magi Madoka Magica can only be translated as Magical Girl's Magical Madoka which indeed fits trope of colorful meaningless magical girl titles but it absolutely doesn't mean Magical Girl

Though the shot of the windmill is totally plausible I literally passed by what looked almost exactly like that when the sun is rising every day when I go to work.

Okay but his voice is ASMR to my ears.

Labeling makeup is a thing, for me personally I don't label it like that with a layout. But it's more of a mental numbering. Like first I need to prime my face, then foundation, then set foundation, then apply blush/contour, etc. For the sake of the anime they just laid it out like that for visual story telling. But for anyone who wears makeup can understand what they were getting at haha. I didn't take offense, to any of that because there is no point. If someone doesn't wear or like makeup in any way they wouldn't get or understand why it's laid out like that and it would come off as something kind of OCD or very organized lol. Edit: Just wanted to also add on, I think the reason why they also showed the makeup for Junko is to show how mature and grown up her mom is compared to Madoka who doesn't wear any or much makeup yet because she is young and doesn't seem to care much about that stuff. Unlike her mother, who is extremely successful and confident, wears makeup. Whether it's because she does it for herself or for her job or whatever I'm not sure. But yeah, just to show the maturity difference between them. I think. Lol. Anyways, don't worry about the makeup thing is what I originally wanted to say lol.

i know i'm kinda late here but i don't see anyone else bringing this up, so i will. (sorry if someone already did mention this & i just couldn't find it, i'm very tired.) for Magia Record, there is an explanation as to why it doesn't mesh well with the main storyline: because they don't take place in the same universe. as far as i know, there's no reference to it in the show, but in the mobile game it explains in one of the side stories that, while Madoka merged almost all of the branching timelines Homura made when she became a goddess, there was one that she couldn't touch. it was one that was so astronomically different from the others that the Madoka from that timeline never became a goddess. there's even a scene in one of the game's events where Madoka holds a manifestation of her massive karmic destiny (which was also made of chocolate for some reason?? it was a Valentine's day event don't question it-) & breaks it to share with her friends & all the girls of Kamihama City, symbolizing how the she shared the burden of defeating Walpurgisnacht (who was being lured to Kamihama by the villains so they could, um... absorb its massive energy to... stop girls from becoming witches?? somehow?? yeah, Magia Record's writing is far from perfect) with all the magical girls who lived there. sooo yeah, i also still have qualms about a lot of things concerning Magia Record, but it can't be said that it doesn't at least try to explain its own existence. :p

I wish I'd known about this earlier--a plug for my book would've been a great day-before-my-birthday present! Thank you! But--and of course you had no way of knowing this--I came out in 2018, so if you mention me again please use the name Jen A. Blue and she/her pronouns? Please and thank you! (PS loving the series so far!)

So many Languages 😭 kinda reminds of a game nier automata where all there songs of made up of different languages and called it chaos language

Ok this is a nitpick but why would the Latin pronounciation by Google sound like a racist caricature to you? I'm Italian and it sounded to me about exactly how we normally speak. If anything when you mocked it you were the one who added a caricatural cadence to it that wasn't there in the first place. I'm sorry I don't mean to be rude it just seemed bizarre to me xD

Why do you think all of the characters are mostly white with other colors layered on?

With Magia Record, the game is waaaay better story-wise than the anime. A lot of the anime, especially the second half, was too rushed to really explore the characters and their emotions or troubles.

Puella Magi is meant be magical girl it not if it were it would be Puella Maga because magi means Male magic user. Also the show could be seen as Abandon the cowardice girl Madoka Magica

The game story of Magia Record is much better than the anime

is magia record not that good? ):

As someone who played the games the anime was so disappointing. They cramped so much into such a short amount of time and the interesting ideas and plots shown in the game feel hollow in the show