I have gone back and forth on this over the years, but it's very clear now that the orange girl, Selema Terez (as styled in the official English translation) is not only the bear girl from the concept movie trailer, but is also apparently responsible for the strange tea house and desserts which share the bear theme. I'm not sure how exactly that works in practice, but I don't know how else to interpret what I'm seeing.
Her wand being capped by a winged bear with a crown pretty much settles the bear connection - I'm not sure what is going on with the bear's body, but it looks like part of it might be a spool of thread? That would certainly be appropriate given the rest of her theme.
The bear with the halo on the menu, the winged bears on the wall, the bears on the cupcakes and the winged angel bears on the merry-go-round are also suggestive that this place is "hers" or under her control.
The general fandom consensus is that she's Quitterie the needle witch, but the "R." plus the dessert focus makes it seem like she may be an original witch that hasn't appeared in other media before. That said, witches normally use runes, so I wonder if there's some other explanation for the "R.", like the initials of the restaurant. Or maybe this is an exception since they're different from normal witches and the rules are different now.
That said, the fact that the bear is in a birdcage always makes me think of Roberta the Birdcage witch, even though nothing else is right, and it only comes up here (so far?). Perhaps there's another meaning, such as our bear girl being "trapped" here without the Law of Cycles, that isn't immediately obvious from the clips, or perhaps certain details might not appear in the finished film.
This whole segment at the tea house/amusement park is very clearly meant to let the girls indulge in "childish" things and enjoy themselves as magical girls, as opposed to the "adult" world represented by the strip club, with its grief cubes, which is thematically connected to witches as the "mature" form of magical girls.
It also seems like Selema Terez is "bribing" them in some way by plying them with sweets in an effort to get on their good side. Which is odd because Madoka is also here, and Selema Terez was there in Zi Diang Xiang (green girl/Shichouka)'s quasi-labyrinth when she was threatening Madoka, so it's a little odd. Did Selema Terez promise to "make it up" to Madoka in some fashion, as the "good cop" in this routine, or does that particular episode come later? Did they try sweets when threats didn't work, or vice versa? Is this after Madoka becomes a magical girl and is thus "initiated" into the club and can hang out with the others? I can see the pieces, but I'm not quite sure how to put them all together yet.
(It looks like Madoka and Sayaka may swap places, with Madoka at the amusement park while Sayaka is busy with other things and Sayaka at the strip club/bar and Madoka is busy with other things, which would track - Madoka is more focused on the "magical girl" part and Sayaka on the "witch" part.)
I don't quite understand why Selema Terez's power set is both "needles/sewing pins" and "cake", but this shot with the bear desserts is undeniably her work. The dessert theme parallels nicely with Nagisa's theme, and "sharp pointy objects" contrasts nicely with her counterpart's beach ball/inflatable theme, but both at once seems a little much, at least until the movie provides some more context as to why it works. I'm very curious to see Doroinu's cryptic commentary on this.
I've said this before, but Mami chomping on the bear and "blood" spraying everywhere on the desert tray is super ominous, and does not bode well for Selema Terez's ultimate fate. Mami might start as pro-bear, but I don't think she'll end it that way.
After reflecting on the new footage from the trailer, I think I have a better understanding of Homura's system now.
tl;dr: Homura may have taken over Kyubey's role as Contractor-in-Chief, but that doesn't mean she also has his powers.
I'll start by saying that I was reasonably certain that the hybrid girl did not have a soul gem, but I wanted to wait until the trailer came out in case we got some more action shots. We did, and it confirmed what I had suspected and also gave us the reason for it: she doesn't have a soul gem because she's not a magical girl.
To be a magical girl, you have to have a soul gem. A soul gem is the source of a magical girl's power as well as the proof of a contract. To create a soul gem, you have to separate soul from body and transform it into an object - something that only Kyubey can do. So if a girl is "making a contract" with Homura, she won't have a soul gem, because while Homura has considerable powers, most of those are illusion or memory-based. She can transform the appearance of things, she can erase memories, but there are limits to what she can do, and this is one of them. So the end result is a "fake" system that appears superficially similar to the old one, but isn't the same once you start looking more closely. Therefore, no soul gem.
This is confirmed in the official summary: "Around that time, a series of unusual events were occurring, in which 'girls without soul gems' were hunting wraiths."
When I first read this line, I thought this was referring to Zi Dian Xiang and Selema Terez, who also don't have soul gems (more on this in a bit) but this is actually referring to the hybrid girl. This is confirmed in the trailer itself:
And that was *before* Mami saw how much this girl looked like her!
The official summary explains how it works: "Recently, certain rumors have been spreading among the magical girls of Mitakihara. The lizard phone will grant your wishes—in exchange for battling the curses of this world." And this is exactly what we see plastered on all the signs in this scene - advertisements exhorting girls to call!
I was initially confused by the "no soul gem" logo on the phone, but now it makes perfect sense: you don't need one! All you have to do is call and everything else is taken care of.
Kyubey contracts multiple girls by having multiple bodies. Homura bypasses this problem by setting up the phone system precisely so she doesn't have to. People come to her, not the other way around.
She really needs to work on her customer service skills, though.
Okay. So you make the call, get your wish granted, and gotta pay for it by fighting wraiths. But you don't have a soul gem, so how are you going to transform? Don't worry, Homura's got you covered.
I've already talked about how the transformation process in this scene mirrors the process of death and resurrection - the girl removes her shoes and jumps from the building (suicide), lands curled up in a fetal position on a bed of flower petals inside the cupped hands (funeral/burial). And then - resurrection and rebirth.
Surprise, bitch, guess you thought you'd seen the last of me! FWIW, I did not have this on my bingo card.
A lot of people think this Kyubey is the hybrid magical girl and Homura is making him take human form as punishment - I can see why they might think that and it's a fun idea to contemplate, but I don't think that's actually true. [For fans itching for a human Kyubey, Urobuchi already wrote the canonical equivalent in Thunderbolt Fantasy; I don't think we're going to get it in this movie.]
Once again, Kyubey is the messenger of magic, but instead of ripping out the girl's soul, he's reduced to an errand boy, carrying two things that belong to Homura: her black bow and her glasses, neither of which have ever co-existed in the same timeline before. If I had to guess, it's the glasses that are the catalyst for the transformation, while the bow is the weapon she uses afterwards.
How is this possible? Okay, so for those not familiar with Magia Record, I have to explain how rumors (Uwasa) work as a mechanic. Essentially, they are stories that have come to life and can "possess" people who come in contact with them, often through objects (such as the crown and robes with Holy Mami and Holy Alina). However, rumors actually predate MR and proto-versions can be found in Rebellion [tl;dr: the Law of Cycles and Walpurgisnacht are both functionally Uwasa, as they are propagated and spread via rumors]; and the official summary even uses the word "rumors" in its opening line, so it's not a stretch to assume these rules are in play. The "Rumor of the Lizard Phone" doesn't specifically mention the bow and glasses, but I could see how they could easily be a part of it.
So as with Holy Mami, taking the symbol of the Uwasa transforms your appearance and personality - in this case, quite drastically. The bulk of it is Moemura, of course, but we also see bits of Madoka and Mami. My guess is because these three worked together as a trio during the "good times" Homura had as a magical girl, and because Madoka and Mami are symbols of what is good about being a magical girl (Mami as a mentor to look up to, and Madoka as the quintessential magical girl) and truly believe in their ideals. As a result, whoever puts on the glasses gets mostly good stuff rather than trauma - but still has to work alone because Homura "I Won't Rely On Anyone Else" Akemi is no longer a team player. But that's just a theory - there may be other reasons.
The other fun thing about this Uwasa(?) is that it really captures Moemura's personality while making her far more graceful than anything the real Moemura was ever capable of (recall how much Homura loves ballet). Look at those beautiful bow and arabesque!
This is likely one of the first scenes in the movie and the structural equivalent of the first Nightmare fight in Rebellion - its purpose is to explain the rules of the new system and unsettle us with how strange and weird it is. It also sets up the main plot, in that Mami gets wind of this strange new phenomenon (rumors again!) and decides to investigate.
I'm always here for detective!Mami.
Homura, however, remains unbothered, moisturized, and happy in her lane because she knows exactly what is going on because she's the one responsible for it. To go back to the official summary again: "Homura gazed upon that scenery with a serene composure, as the demon who reigned over this world, and seemed to have everything at her disposal. —Or so it seemed." Duh-dun-dun!
Unfortunately for Homura, three other magical girls without soul gems show up and start making her life complicated. The first is her doppelganger, her dark reflection, who is cozying up to Madoka; the other two are out for blood and trying to kill her. Where did they come from?
Well, the other Homura was likely born from Homura's suppressed feelings and desires, and since she's a mirror image, they have the roughly the same powers and abilities (with a few key differences). So if the original Homura has set up a contracting system, there's no reason why the other one can't set up her own competing system and make her own "magical girls without soul gems"... who would naturally be invisible/undetectable to the original, since she wasn't involved in their creation!
This may seem like a stretch, but we see the other Homura hanging up a landline phone which is different from the lizard phone - and has Walpurgisnacht's cog symbol on it. But instead of waiting for Madoka to call her, she's calling Madoka instead.
(It's also possible that the other Homura is really only interested in contacting Madoka via the phone, especially as it allows her to conceal her identity, and her relationship to the other girls and their origins are different, but there's so much mirror imagery in these trailers that it would surprise me if there weren't parallels somewhere. My working assumption is that everything is mirrored/inverted until proven otherwise.)
Just as there are two Homuras and two systems, I also think there are two conspiracies. The first is the one we already know - that Homura is controlling everything and the world is a lie. As Mami et al. start to explore the first conspiracy, they are aided and abetted (and likely hindered and misdirected as well) by the new magical girls, not realizing that this is part of a much larger conspiracy orchestrated by the other Homura.
Going back to the hybrid magical girl from the beginning, I do not know if she is a one-off character or if we will see her again later in the film; it could honestly go either way. My gut feeling is the former, but even if she does appear again, I doubt she'll be directly named within the script (possibly in supplementary material/production notes) and I don't think she'll have very many spoken lines.
The real question is, if you're a magical girl without a soul gem under Homura's system, what do you do with the grief cubes the wraiths drop? You don't need them for anything, so... do you just feed them to Kyubey or what? That's the part we haven't seen yet, and the part I'm the most curious about. I suspect it's tied to how Homura appears to have frozen the world in place if her moon-orrery is anything to go by, as well as her limitations and creative repurposing of the previous system.
There are also a bunch of logistical questions the movie may or may not address because Urobuchi is uninterested in any worldbuilding beyond what is needed for plot. Does each girl get one wish per fight, or what?? What happens if they die in a fight? ... and so on. I will meditate on it some more and see if anything comes to me, but this is probably enough for now.
Hey, so I missed this on my first go-round of the latest trailer, but we finally got to see the False Homura's soul gem mark and it isn't a purple diamond like the original Homura's, it's a black "peacock's tail" style mark just like what we see in Walpurgisnacht's mandala and in the stained glass around the stairwell.
I don't think we've seen the original Homura's soul gem mark since she became the devil, but unless it has changed since the last movie, the black and white headband Homura is a separate distinct entity from the original. And it sure looks like this new version of Homura is connected to Walpurgisnacht somehow... hmmmm....
Also, her soul gem ring appears to be broken and that's probably a metaphor for something.
@raze-raise, I think you're on to something! It's difficult to get a good look at everybody's rings in the show, but there are a few screenshots + production notes to go on.
Kyouko's soul gem ring + official merch version. [x]
Production note sketches from the original series.
The "gem" part is the front and the "name" is written on the back in runes. This isn't always easy to see in the show because the ring shifts sometimes --usually when the animators want to make sure the audience sees the rune part. [The gem part is already obvious from the fingernail mark.]
So, yeah, it looks like this new Homura is missing the soul gem part, which is absolutely fascinating. Where did it go? Does it even exist anymore, at least in a form that we would recognize as such, or is it nothing but void? Or is the ring itself a fake, and she's not a "real" magical girl, but only pretending to be?
...but it gets even more interesting, because in addition to the gem part being missing, this new Homura is wearing the ring backwards from the way jeweled rings are typically worn (doing things in reverse is her specialty) and conveniently hiding her name from us, because that would be a huge spoiler at this point.
Given the preponderance of mirror imagery in these trailers, I would not be surprised if when we do finally see the name on the other side of the ring, they were written backwards in runes.
The other big question, of course, is what that name would be... "Homura"/"ɒɿumoH" is an obvious candidate, and "Walpurgisnacht" in any direction is too long to fit on a ring (lol), but "Wasu"/"uƨɒW", which is a name that's come up for this character in some of the recent concept movie reconstructions/translations, would be just the right length. TBD.
This line from the concept movie trailer has always intrigued me, because "two equal halves" feels very different from Homura's "I only took a little sliver of it--the piece that used to be Madoka" line in Rebellion. I genuinely can't tell if this is Urobuchi changing his mind/playing up the dualism (man loves his binaries) or if Homura was deliberately downplaying her actions to Sayaka (and let's be real, it was probably both).
Urobuchi wrote the script first, so he probably didn't have an idea of what that would look like on screen, but visually, "equal halves" makes sense because that's what we see in Rebellion.
This doesn't mean this is always what the "goddess" part looks like (especially since Madokami/the Law of Cycles is simultaneously a single entity, a plural entity, and a physical place, not unlike how witches are simultaneously themselves, their familiars, and their labyrinths) but it does a good job of succinctly conveying how the two parts are simultaneously alike and yet different.
This naturally begs the question of whether the devil is also two halves, which has been conclusively answered in the promotional material: yes and yes.
The difference is that these two Homura are reflections/mirror images of each other--while I think it's possible to think of them as two halves of a larger whole (original + shadow self), each one effectively functions as complete being in and of themselves. However, the demonic equivalent to Madoka and the Law of Cycles (i.e., as an Uwasa-like role than can be taken on or off) is most likely the red eyes we see on both Homuras at various points, which are different from their normal colors.
In other words, it looks like there are two Homuras, each of whom have access to the devil powers (since they are reflections of each other) vs. Madoka, who only has one human self and one goddess self who functions as "another half" of herself. This also ties into the asymmetries in Devil Homura's new outfit, which also emphasizes how she's only "half" of her previous self.
At the same time, the visuals make it clear that Homura and Madoka are also two halves of a whole via all the missing moon imagery.
In other words, there are lots of binaries and halves in this series, but they occupy multiple levels simultaneously, which is both fascinating and confusing to keep track of.
If I had to guess, these illustrations are accompanying a story about Walpurgisnacht recounting her past/backstory rather than anything that happens directly in the movie.
Hey, look, it's the Big Tomato herself! "Red sky in the morning / Sailors take warning" and imperial Japan vibes here.
But she can do oceans, too!
(note the parallels with these 2 shots from earlier trailers - the whole sun vs. the half moon)
Of course, there's a clocktower, lol.
TORNADOES/WATERSPOUTS/spinning very fast in circles, do I sense a theme here?
She can do both fire and water - an equal opportunity disaster.
#i see a mushroom cloud#walpurgisnacht in ww2 theory confirmed#what does this mean
@howdoistuff, I suspect they're really emphasizing the parallels between Walpurgisnacht and the Law of Cycles - specifically, how they are both entities made from the fusion of multiple witches that transcend the normal rules of space and time and appear at various key points in human history. The primary difference is that the Law of Cycles spreads hope and appears only to magical girls (historical events: death of Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, etc), whereas Walpurgisnacht spreads destruction on a much wider scale (ordinary people are affected but can't see her for what she truly is).
This isn't really new - some of Homura's research notes suggest that Walpurgisnacht was involved in both WWI ("1914_Bucher") and WWII ("1939_Europa") - but putting it front and center rather than leaving it as background details. It also ties into Kyubey's assertion that magical girls have been the major driving force of human history, both in terms of their wishes advancing humanity and their witches causing destruction and chaos.
Basically, if Madokami gets a historical montage (as seems likely based on the latest trailer), then it's only fair Walpurgisnacht gets one too.
The other thing this sequence does is emphasize that Walpurgisnacht as a calamity, which is not a description that has received a lot of use prior to this point. I've seen it in a 2011 Megami article, when the original anime first came out, and it also gets used in the Madoka Magica online intro, so it's not a new thing by any means, but since the beginning, the trailers for WnK have been using it in addition to "the Stage-Construction Witch" as an additional descriptor, putting it front and center.
The English translation didn't translate the kanji here, but this is the characters for "calamity" (yakusai, 災厄) written backwards. Interestingly, the reverse (saiyaku, 厄災) has the exact same meaning. The 災 character uses the radicals for "flame" and "river", which is fitting given what we've seen in the most recent trailer of Walpurgis utilizing both elements.
The most recent trailer uses both "the Stage-Constructing Witch" and "calamity" to describe her, and completes the trifecta with "the fool that spins in a circle" to include all 3 major motifs because they want to make absolutely sure the audience is familiar with all of them.
When we talk about characters being "disasters", we usually don't mean it literally, but in this case it's not an exaggeration in the slightest.
Rebellion is such a referential and self-referential movie, and it looks like Walpurgis no Kaiten is doing the same thing, so here are a few sketches of what that might look like in practice:
A Homura monologue briefly and succintly explaining How We Got Here (quite possibly the Homura and Madoka dialogue in the concept movie trailer). Bonus if the dialogue or visuals reveal huge plot twists from the get-go or if there's any hidden dialogue.
A scene showing, rather than telling, the audience the rules of the current world and just how weird things are, similar to the first Nightmare fight in Rebellion. Since the wraiths are structurally the equivalent of Nightmares - a scary early boss that seems like a big deal, but is quickly supplanted - my guess is that the mystery girl fighting the wraiths may serve this purpose.
Madoka waking up and going about her morning with her family, as in Beginnings and Rebellion - some things are the same and some things are different, again showing us rather than telling us what "ordinary" life is like in this world and includes a thematically relevant Junko conversation.
Seemingly unrelated TV-style OP with a ton of symbolism that Hits Differently on rewatch.
Madoka meeting up with Hitomi and Sayaka and walking to school - again, with similarities/differences from previous iterations of this scene.
Previously, the inciting incident was always a new transfer student, but it looks like instead we get Madoka meeting the other Homura on the way to school.
(whatever Hitomi and Kyousuke are up to is also probably thematically relevant as well, even though they are unlikely to play a huge role in the plot except as well-meaning outsiders/victims).
Kyouko meeting the green girl in the cafe is a direct Rebellion callback; the fact that the green girl is sitting in Homura's place suggests she's going to ask Kyouko to go somewhere/do something with her that will push the boundaries of the world somehow (possibly leading to the club scene).
Madoka being attacked in the green girl's labyrinth gives major "first episode stumbling into a labyrinth for this first time" vibes from the original season
Homura spends the middle part of Rebellion exploring the world and trying to figure it out; looks like that role goes to Sayaka, Mami, Kyouko, and Nagisa in WnK, as they are clearly looking for something.
The sequence with Homura, Sayaka, orange girl + Kyubey (possibly others) looks like it parallels Homura's dollhouse scene in Rebellion - I expect a lot of self-righteous and smug Kyubey exposition followed by all hell breaking loose.
Countdown to Walpurgisnacht's appearance, roughly in the same place as Homulilly's, followed by a big and visually impressive fight; the outcome is ultimately determined by Homura's revelations and her relationship with Madoka, as in Rebellion.
Mostly or entirely dialogue-free post-credits scene with surreal imagery whose interpretation is left to the audience
My two biggest questions are "What is WnK's equivalent to the Cake Song?" (possibly the teahouse/amusement park sequence because of the same cutesy/sinister vibes, but TBD) and "What is WnK's equivalent to the Mami vs. Homura fight in Rebellion?" Personally, I'm hoping for Homura vs. Homura (original vs. mirror image), and I don't think the original Homura will win, especially if it takes place in the middle third or so.
This is all very tentative and provisional right now since we only have a few clips, but it's something I'm going to be looking for when the movie comes out. It's very clear from what we've seen that there will be numerous and deliberate parallels, references, and callbacks, both within the movie and with previous installments, even if it's not immediately clear what all of them will entail.
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