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If the sight of Kyouko, Sayaka, and Madoka hunting a witch together left Satori bewildered, then the sudden appearance of Mami Tomoe caused a massive question mark to manifest over her head.
'Wait, wait, wait.'
If she remembered correctly, this work was supposed to be a sequel to the Madoka Magica series. Of course, in the finale, the timeline of the entire world had been rewritten because of Madoka's wish to erase every witch with her own hands.
Since the past had been altered, the future followed suit. Because Madoka had transcended humanity, she was no longer there to save Mami, but the butterfly effect meant Mami Tomoe had never been decapitated by Charlotte.
In this new reality, Mami, Homura, and Kyouko were all alive and well. However, Sayaka Miki was the exception. Even in the revised timeline, she had still made a contract to heal the boy she loved, Kyousuke, only to succumb to despair and "fade away" as her magic was exhausted.
Satori quickly reviewed the facts of the main series in her mind, yet looking at the opening of the theatrical movie The Rebellion Story, she felt utterly lost. The logic of the animation seemed to have collapsed.
'Is this what the internet trolls were warning us about?' she wondered. 'Is the script for the Madoka movie actually a train wreck? Is it just a low-effort, brain-dead plot designed to milk the fans and drag a masterpiece through the mud?'
A dark shadow of doubt fell over Satori's heart. But then, the animation delivered a massive pivot.
Madoka woke up in her room. It was the same large, comfortable bed, and she was clutching the same adorable plushie.
Satori froze. 'Wait... was that entire opening sequence just a dream?'
'No, that didn't feel right. The framing of this scene…'
If she remembered correctly, this was an exact replica of the first episode of the television series. Back then, Madoka had dreamed of a different timeline where she became a magical girl to save Homura. But here in the movie... it was the same scene, the same storyboards, with only the slightest, most subtle differences in the art quality.
Satori knit her brows.
Regardless of the circumstances, Madoka existed here as a physical person. How could a being that had become a fundamental law of the universe be back in her bedroom?
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in her head.
"This isn't a sequel at all! It's a prequel!"
The moment the thought occurred to her, everything felt like it clicked into place.
If this was a prequel, it was simply one of Homura's hundreds of failed timelines. That would explain why Mami, Sayaka, and Madoka were all together. But then she remembered the Warrior of Love had explicitly stated this was a sequel. If he was putting out a prequel and calling it a sequel, wasn't that just blatant false advertising?
The subsequent scenes were eerily similar to the first episode of the TV series. Madoka woke her mother up, they brushed their teeth together, her mom went to work, her dad stayed home to handle the chores, and Madoka headed off to school.
However, a jarring discrepancy appeared. In the movie, Madoka was already partnered with Kyubey from the very beginning. She had already made her contract.
Then, the narrative grew even more unsettling. In the TV series, Madoka's social circle consisted of Sayaka and Hitomi. They would walk through the school gates together every morning. But in this movie version, her best friends were Sayaka and... Kyouko?
Kyouko? Since when was Kyouko a student at their school? And why were they all acting like best friends?
In the original series, she was a rival magical girl who had stormed in from a neighboring city to seize territory by force!
Satori was lost again. 'If this is one of Homura's many loops, it still doesn't make sense! No matter how many times Homura resets time, she can't rewrite reality so that Kyouko and Madoka are classmates!'
The mystery deepened. Curiosity was now clawing at her mind. Then came the introduction of the transfer student.
Homura Akemi. But she wasn't the cool, stoic "Stoic-mura" from the end of the show; she was the shy, awkward girl with glasses and braided hair.
'So, if this is a prequel, it must be one of the very early loops,' Satori reasoned. In the main story, after a few resets, Homura had used her magic to fix her eyesight and changed her personality to become the confident, veteran warrior the fans knew.
Satori suppressed her mounting confusion and kept her eyes glued to the screen. Once Homura joined the group, the "Holy Quintet" of five magical girls was complete. Madoka and Homura became fast friends again, sitting under the starlight, gazing at the moon, and talking about life and philosophy. All the while, the adorable Kyubey was constantly in the background, being cute.
But it didn't talk.
From the moment it appeared, Kyubey behaved like a silent, mindless pet. Furthermore, the setting of the world was fundamentally different. In this movie, the magical girls' mission wasn't to fight witches.
Instead, they were hunting "Nightmares", strange phenomena manifested from the subconscious of ordinary people. No one mentioned the word "Witch" at all.
'If this is a prequel, why is the setting so different?'
When Hitomi manifested a Nightmare, Satori felt like her brain was starting to short-circuit.
'Nightmares? Where did this come from?'
Then came the transformation sequence.
Madoka, Mami, Kyouko, Sayaka, and Homura all prepared to enter the Nightmare world.
The scene was breathtakingly high-budget, with fluid animation and a high-octane score. Oddly enough, Mami Tomoe was keeping the very witch that had eaten her head in the original series, as a pet.
"What am I even watching?" Satori muttered, blinking in shock.
'Warrior of Love, what kind of bizarre direction are you taking this?'
The movie was suddenly leaning into the tropes of a traditional, "magical girl" anime.
The transformation sequences were incredibly well-produced, and each girl had a unique style: Mami's was a fusion of figure skating and ballet, Kyouko's looked like a ritualistic religious dance, Sayaka's was inspired by street dance, and Homura's... Homura's looked like a drunken, frantic scramble.
Despite herself, Satori was captivated by the sheer artistry of the visuals. The aesthetics were hauntingly beautiful.
"Puella Magi Holy Quintet!"
When the five girls finished their transformation, struck a synchronized pose, and shouted the team name in unison, Satori couldn't hold it back anymore. She burst out laughing in her living room.
Holy... Quintet?
"You're going to be the death of me, Warrior of Love! Are you trying to kill me with laughter so you can inherit my credit card debt?"
For the first time, the show actually felt like a "normal" magical girl anime. The group worked together to defeat Hitomi's Nightmare, concluding the battle with a bizarre, ritualistic ceremony to purify the manifestation.
Satori felt like her mental CPU was overheating. The plot was simple enough on the surface, if you ignored everything from the TV series, it was a heartwarming story about friendship.
But she knew better. There was no way this was a genuine "healing" story.
Absolutely no way!
Sure enough, Homura began to feel that something was deeply wrong.
A sense of wrongness permeated the world, even if she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Through her conversations with the others, that sense of unease was transmitted directly to Satori.
Homura realized that their memories were inconsistent. When exactly had Kyouko Sakura transferred to their school? That was the question both Homura and Satori were asking. Yet, in the movie, even Kyouko couldn't provide a clear answer.
Driven by a growing sense of dread, Homura invited Kyouko to take a trip with her to the neighboring city.
From that point on, the atmosphere turned chillingly surreal.
The two girls boarded a bus heading out of the city, but no matter how long they traveled, they never reached their destination. They found themselves looping back into Mitakihara over and over again.
A spatial loop?
Satori felt goosebumps break out across her arms. The art style of the world was becoming increasingly abstract, distorted, and gothic. It felt like being inside a video game. On the surface, it looks like a vast world, but the player's movement is restricted by invisible "boundary walls" that prevent them from leaving a specific area.
Realizing the bus was useless, Homura and Kyouko decided to walk toward the city limits on foot. Still, they were blocked by the same invisible barrier.
The transformation in Homura's character was sudden.
Her expression shifted, and her voice dropped an octave, returning to the cold, analytical tone of the original series.
"Am I the only one who knows? That's right... I recognize this trick."
Homura turned around, removing her glasses and untying her braids, letting her hair fall loose.
"A labyrinth with no exit, designed to lure prey inside."
Satori's heart hammered in her chest. She realized the truth a second before the character spoke.
"There's no mistake. We are inside a Witch's Labyrinth."