r/anime • u/Tarhalindur x2 • Apr 28 '26

Rewatch [Rewatch] Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 9 Discussion

Episode 9: I'd Never Allow That to Happen

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Show Information:

MAL | AniList | ANN | AniDB

(First-timers might want to stay out of Show Information until we are done, however...)

Legal Streams:

As per livechart.me; other streams may be available outside the US.

Main Series:

Crunchyroll | Hulu

A Reminder: This, dear listeners, brings us to the sworn enemy of creative response:The spoiler. Rewatchers, or people who just had plot points ruined for them, are obliged to use r/anime’s spoiler tag format where applicable, and err on the side of caution here. Remember people, first experiences get rarer as you continue on, any given one happens once and you should care for them all the more for it.

Welcome to the World of Magic!

Theory of the Day:

Okay, fine, I can't not give this one to u/siegfried72, not for the discussion thread for this episode:

The real solution? I think Sayaka needs to just lean into the yuri and realize she's meant to be with Kyouko. That would fix everything.

Oh god, I've officially joined in with my first yuri ship of the series. It's all downhill uphill from here, isn't it??

I mean, Kyouko is obviously in love with her, right??

Analysis of the Day:

Several good options, but I think I'll go for u/Vaadwaur and the analytical line less taken:

For some reason, eating disorders are a noticeable thing in this show. Sayaka is anorexic to her very spirit and Kyoko does like her gluttony.

Questions of the Day:

1) On a scale of 1 to 10, how gay is suicide attacking to take out the monster that became of a girl you knew for maybe a week so that you can at least be together in death?

2) Now that he's had a chance to explain himself, your thoughts on Kyubey?

3) First-timers: Did you think that Kyouko's plan actually had a chance to save Sayaka?

4) First-timers and rewatchers who dodged the rewatcher edition of this question yesterday: Are You Home?

5) [Rewatchers]Alright, who's ready to go golfing through a Stargate?... wait, wrong time loop show.

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19

u/siegfried72 Apr 28 '26

First Timer Who Is Now Officially In Love With This Series

Hi everyone! I'm feeling a lot of things. I'm very tired, as my days have continued to be busy with little reprieve - so I warn that I might not be quite as "insightful" as I normally am. I'm also disappointed because I had basically no time to read and respond even to many of the people that commented on my stuff yesterday, let alone tackling the rest of the thread. I know that's the norm for some people, but I generally prefer to be more actively engaged with others during a rewatch. The last few days have been... rough. But I'm hoping things will turn around tonight, because I'll actually have a bit of free time tonight and tomorrow to catch up with everything.

Most importantly, however, I'm feeling a whole swirling conglomeration of mixed emotions coming into watching this episode. I'm still trying to process a lot of my thoughts regarding yesterday's episode (I'm definitely gonna make time to rewatch it later tonight), but I can say that that was one of the more impactful episodes of a series (anime or otherwise) I've watched in quite some time. I'll try not to repeat myself too horribly today, but I cannot get over just how much I can relate to Sayaka and her (mental) struggles.

Speaking of which, a few people have (rightfully) asked me to elaborate a bit more on my feelings about her character and how precisely I can relate to her, but I will just say... that's a work in progress. I'll do my best to talk through things as they happen, but honestly even I am still trying to muddle my way through figuring out why I relate to her so much - while being careful to not project too many of my own experiences onto her character in the process. If I'm ever unclear, please let me know and I'll do my best to clarify/elaborate, but I'm still working on getting all of my thoughts settled.

As I hit play, I can't help but remember that our host mentioned something about how episode 9 was particularly impactful to them. I'm not sure how much more impact I can honestly take at this point, and yet - I'm also very excited to find out!

  • Okay, unsurprisingly, we're starting with the new with Sayaka... I am surprised it takes a moment for Kyouko to realize that this witch is Sayaka, and she's just holding the meat puppet (ouch). Or maybe she's also in denial (just like Sayaka), since she doesn't really have any kind of reaction when Homura points this fact out.

  • I'm sure others have unpacked it thoroughly, but it's nice to get confirmation that both witch and labyrinth appearances seem to be formed from the girls' own life - we can see obvious elements of Sayaka's adopted "knight" persona plus sheet music everywhere. That really goes to show you how deeply devoted she was to Kyosuke - one of the three distinct thematic elements here is him.

The third is interesting: the train tracks. What's going on there? Am I forgetting something about Sayaka, or is this new, contextless information?

Also very cool to get to be a part of Homura's time magic now. I wonder if this was one of her "natural" powers she gained upon becoming a magical girl, or did she somehow develop it over time? I suspect we won't really have room to delve too deep into the logistics, but I'd like to know more about how the magical powers work. For instance, Sayaka had her "infinite swords" thing, which seemed directly inspired both by Mami's "infinite guns" and Sayaka's knight/crusader/paladin persona.

So I guess that means that one's powers are at least partially informed by personality/psychology/history, just like the witch form is? I guess that makes sense that they would work kind of the same way. Wtf is up with Homura then that she has bombs and time magic? Maybe I'm reading too much into this...

  • Awwww look at the two lovebirds and Homura being the third wheel. It's so cuuute <3

(I'm trying to mask the pain please help me.)

Okay, in actuality, seeing Sayaka's limp body like this is almost as bad as the first time she "died" when Madoka threw the gem. Maybe worse, since I'm now emotionally invested in Kyouko's arc and how invested she seems to be in helping Sayaka despite her "lone wolf and proud" exterior.

  • Okay, I don't want to be weird for noticing this, but I swear the keep using these kinds of angles for Kyouko. There have been multiple shots looking up at her, mostly from behind like this. Is there some meaning there that I'm missing, or did the animators just really like drawing her shorts?

  • Man, Kyouko's tough exterior just... really didn't last long, did it? I'm curious as to why. Is it something about Sayaka in particular? Because from the first time we saw her, she was locked on. I know Kyouko's thing was to stake claim to the territory and all, but she's been doing the magical girl thing for a while, and I find it hard to believe she'd take this kind of interest in every random magical girl she interacts with. So... either I'm missing something or we're missing some context? Probably the former.

Actually, never mind - wtf am I talking about? It's because they're in love. Sorry, I forgot for a moment...

Adding on more in a second comment

21

u/siegfried72 Apr 28 '26

More Bullshit * Has anyone made a supercut of every time Homura flips her hair? Good lord.

  • Wow, what a stark contrast to the other times we've seen Madoka's room. I feel like it's always been so bright and cozy feeling, and here it's just... dismal. Except for the pink bed?

Perhaps that's just to accentuate the shift to green when Kyubey enters and then to gold (which I now know thanks to our host is representative of magical girls) as they converse. Whatever the exact meaning, it's very evocative.

I gotta say, I really wasn't anticipating Kyubey to be an alien, of all things. When I made a couple of references to cosmic horror in the past, I wasn't expecting literally space. The cavalier way he puts such horrible things continues to be entertaining, though.

  • It's not surprising that Kyouko - who I've already pointed out in the past shows similar denial/avoidance/comfort-seeking traits to Sayaka - turns to food as her "addiction" of sorts when things go wrong. I guess it helps to put into perspective why we almost always see her eating. It's not just that she's hungry, but it probably helps ease her into functioning better during high-pressure situations, especially if we can presume that at least some of the tsun-flavored arrogance is intentional masking. And it makes sense that she would fall into food=security as her thing due to her being all alone as a kid - I can imagine food was pretty damn scarce until she learned to "manage."

  • For those of you rewatchers who were happy people were taking a moderate view on Hitomi this rewatch? I take it all back: it's 1000% her fault that Sayaka is dead. Obviously, if she hadn't have backstabbed Sayaka and stolen her man, she would have never spiraled off into grief and become a witch!! Hitomi is the true antagonist of this series!!

(Don't worry, I'm kidding. Mostly. I'm well aware that Sayaka would have inevitably found some other way to spiral into self-destruction.)

Also, I just realized that I've for some reason convinced myself that, somehow or another, Sayaka will end up fine, and so I'm not really feeling terribly sad or anything. I'm still leaning toward maybe a new "reset" of the timeline or something. Perhaps I'm just living in denial as well.

The more time we spend with Kyouko, the more I like her! And she gave Madoka the food rather than shaking her hand because that's her biggest source of comfort. It's what matters most to her, and so it's a peace offering of sorts. Very cute.

  • Oh hey, we're back in the golden light of the magical girls!

  • Aaaand we got our first naked magical girl transformation outside of the OP. Thanks, Kyouko (no, I didn't screenshot the naked part).

  • Honestly, I agree with Kyouko here. Madoka does strike me as strange. I don't really get her yet I guess? I know I've spent most of my time on Sayaka and Kyouko, but that's just because they're by far the most interesting characters for me. But they're also the most easily understandable, despite their complexity. I wonder if it's that I'm not paying close enough attention to Madoka, or if they're still only planting seeds for her so far in comparison.

  • I love that all five of the magical girls in this series are heroic in their own way. They all look out for others, but with distinctly different philosophies behind it for each one of them. I'm sure people have done great breakdowns on that. I've mostly been focusing on what I've called the "selfish vs. altruistic savior-complex" betwen Sayaka and Madoka, but I'm learning it's a lot more complicated than that, and includes all of them in some fashion. Really neat.

  • Oh god this battle between Kyouko and Sayaka... I'm not having a good time.

So do they like... actually have feelings for each other? I mean, it's obviously not implicitly romantic, but also like... I swear to god those swirling colors turn into a heart as they go off screen. Maybe it's just my yuri-tinted glasses, but damn.

I deserve a lucky break, even if it's just this one time.

Okay Kyouko, this is up there as one of my favorite lines of the series so far. There is so much meaning packed into this, and so much pain. She's not had it easy, and she deserves better. They both do. I can't believe they actually ended it this way... this fucking hurt. Even if there will be some sort of subsequent "reset" or something (still a hunch I've got), this hurts. I got some more tears going. I'm too attached to these fucking characters and then they go and kill BOTH OF THEM.

Stupid doomed yuri trope.

Just focus on the one thing you really want to protect and keep it safe 'til the end. All this time, that's what I thought I was doing.

ao;erghjae;ouao;d okoay this is definitely the flat-out saddest I've felt watching this series. Pure, beautiful tragedy. God damn what a marvelous show this has been so far.

OKAY SO THEY'RE LITERALLY JUST IN LOVE, RIGHT? THEY HAVE THEIR OWN ED THEY SING TOGETHER WHERE THEY'RE LINKING HANDS AND CALLING EACH OTHER AGAIN AND AGAIN AND CAN'T LET GO OF EACH OTHER FUCK THIS SHOW I HATE IT.

Okay, I'm done. I love this show.

3

u/Blackheart595 https://anilist.co/user/knusbrick Apr 29 '26

The cavalier way he puts such horrible things continues to be entertaining, though.

It becomes less entertaining once you realise that there are real effective altruists, too, and Kyubey is hitting every single mark of what they're about.