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My Very Best Friend (わたしの、最高の友達 Watashi no, Saikou no Tomodachi?) is the twelfth and final episode of Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica. It originally aired on April 21st, 2011 in Japan.
Plot[]
Homura challenges Walpurgisnacht alone and gets seriously wounded. Her action was making Madoka suffer even more, and she becomes despondent, and as a result, her Soul Gem starts to turn black.
Madoka appears in front of Homura with determination -- and she declares to Homura, "I found my wish." Now she knows everything about the Magical Girl's destiny. What wish does she have, what decision is she going to make?
Major Events[]
- Madoka becomes a Magical Girl, after seeing Homura suffering.
- She also beats Walpurgisnacht.
- Madoka unlocks her goddess form, Ultimate Madoka.
- A new world is created where Witches aren't a thing, but Wraiths are born instead. There, Sayaka, Mami and Kyoko are reborn.
- Sayaka passes away again, being purifed by Law of Cycle.
Summary[]
The episode starts with Madoka comforting an injured Homura, telling her that she finally understands what Homura had gone through and promising to take care of everything, despite Homura's anguish at the prospect of seeing Madoka become a witch. Madoka then stands up and, at Incubator's urging, finally makes her wish: "I wish to erase all witches from existence before they're even born. Every witch in the universe, from the past and the future, with my own hands". As promised by Kyubey her wish is granted and she becomes a goddess, breaking the Incubators' system at the same time. The next half of the episode is an in-depth animation of said transformation.
The first sequence is a short discussion with Kyoko and Mami: Mami warns Madoka of the consequences of her wish, while Kyoko encourages her in her usual forceful way. Madoka is then seen traveling through space and time, healing defeated magical girls (among which we can see figures such as Cleopatra, Queen Himiko, Joan of Arc, and Anne Frank).
The consequence of her becoming a Magical Girl quickly follows the "rescue" of the other magical girls: due to her wish, the laws of nature have been altered, and the old world will be put to an end in order for a new one to take its place. Homura witnesses the Earth being swallowed in despair from the moon, where she also sees Madoka's soul gem, now the size of an asteroid, traveling through space.
The gigantic Soul Gem collapses into a Grief Seed and Madoka's new planet-sized Witch form is unleashed: However, true to her word, she erases her own Witch self from existence. The resulting paradox removes Madoka from the universe.
The cosmic sequence continues with Madoka losing her physical humanity to become a force of nature, detached from mankind; however, she is now suspended in interdimensional space, in contact with everyone and everything. After a sequence highly open to interpretation, she finally parts with a tearful Homura, giving her her ribbons as a souvenir with the promise that they may meet again.
The scene cuts to an audition where Kyosuke Kamijo is playing Charles Gounod's Ave Maria. In two of the seats in the audience are the spirits of Madoka and Sayaka. Madoka apologizes for causing Sayaka trouble, and says that she believes her sacrifices were not in vain. Sayaka responds that she only wanted to hear Kyousuke play one last time, as many more would come to see him in many years to come; she states that she has no regrets and that she believes Hitomi (who is hiding behind the curtain watching the performance) and Kyousuke will be a happy couple, and that while it still hurts a little to see them together, she cannot hold it against them anymore. The two get up and depart, and the scene cuts to Kyousuke as a famous violinist; as the audience applauds for him, he is struck by a memory of the hospital and says Sayaka's name.
Mami and Kyoko, now alive, fight a creature together (revealed later to be a "demon"), and find that Sayaka had used the last of her magic to help Kyousuke and thus disappeared from existence. Mami reflects on how the fate of a magical girl is to disappear before they can cause grief; Homura, wearing the ribbon and thinking of Madoka, says her name and starts crying, and it is revealed that nobody in this world remembers Madoka but her. Homura later sees Tatsuya drawing a picture of Madoka in the sand; she talks to Madoka's parents and finds that they also have no memory of their daughter, though she seems to manifest as Tatsuya's imaginary friend. Junko comments that the name Madoka feels nostalgic.
Homura then discusses her story with Kyubey, who says that it's possible everything Homura went through could be her imagination, and there would be no way to prove otherwise. However, he remarks that the concept of harvesting witches for energy would be more efficient than the new method: because there is still grief in the world, it manifests in the form of demons that the magical girls must fight, who upon defeat drop cube-shaped pieces much like Grief Seeds. Homura reflects on the new universe, thinking that this corrupted, grief-filled world is what Madoka sought to protect -- but she will never forget Madoka's wish. She then leaps upon the demons, extending wings of light from her back and carrying a bow and arrow.
After the credits, Homura walks through what looks like either a wasteland or a barrier towards a bunch of demons. Black wings sprout from her back, containing distorted images that resemble those of a witch's barrier; Madoka's voice encourages her, and Homura springs upon them to fight.
Characters[]
Magical Girls[]
- Madoka Kaname
- Sayaka Miki
- Mami Tomoe
- Kyoko Sakura
- Homura Akemi
- Jeanne d'Arc
- Anne Frank
- Cleopatra
- Himiko
Civilians[]
Witches[]
Other[]
- Kyubey
- Wraith
Trivia[]
- This episode does not have an end card, neither in the blu-ray nor the TV version. However, the official website lists an art by Ume Aoki, the series' character designer, as the series' final end card.
- This is the second episode to lack the opening after episode 10. Instead, it is used as the ending theme.
- Additionally, this is the only episode to feature a title card.
- The scenes from the new world Ultimate Madoka has created are also present in chapter 2 of Wraith Arc manga.
- The events from the first-half of the episode are present in Homura Akemi and Ultimate Madoka's Magical Girl Stories in Magia Record.
- Jeanne d'Arc, one of the Magical Girls that makes a cameo in this episode, is actually the titular protagonist of the spin-off manga, Puella Magi Tart☆Magica: The Legend of "Jeanne d'Arc".