Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Movie 3: Rebellion Story - Movie Review

It has been a while since Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica first aired in 2011. Since then, there have been two movies which is a recap of the anime series with better animation. Of course, there are also two console games released, bunch of manga spinoff series, a dedicated Manga Time Kirara magazine filled with Madoka stuff, and recently, a smart phone game, Magia Record.

Of course, there is also a sequel movie, which starts where the anime and the first two movies left off. That movie is of course the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Movie 3: Rebellion Story.

Synopsis

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Some time passed by after Madoka made a contract to become a magical girl. Her wish completely changed how the magical girl and witch system worked. Instead of magical girls turning into witches, Ultimate Madoka will take them to the Law of Cycles. As a result, Madoka is wiped away from existence, leading Homura without a purpose. She is left fighting dark monsters called Wraiths. Homura transfers into the school in Mitakihara. In this new world, the girls don’t fight witches, but instead nightmares. Madoka, Mami, Homura, Kyouko and Sayaka eventually calm down a nightmare after Hitomi gets upset over not being able to spend time with Kyousuke since he is busy with practice. With Mitakihara peaceful and Madoka still alive, everything seems well, right? Not exactly since Homura realizes things are a bit off. She finds it odd that Kyouko is now living in Mitakihara. Not only that, Madoka and Sayaka went to the Law of Cycles and not supposed to exist and the monsters Homura fights are wraiths, not nightmares. After convincing Kyouko to go to Kazamino City, they boarded a bus to get there, they wind up back in Mitakihara City. After several attempts, Kyouko is convinced that Homura is right that there’s nothing outside of the city and some of the memories are fake. Homura tells Kyouko to keep it a secret for a while. After untying her braids and removing the glasses, she eventually visits Mami. She notices something odd about Bebe, which looks very familiar to the witch Charlotte. While Mami is not looking, Homura transforms and stops time. Then she takes Bebe to a different location and interrogate her. Mami eventually finds out and she got into a fight with her. Bebe eventually reveals her true self as Momoe Nagisa, who is a magical girl. Sayaka eventually shows up to free Homura and knows that the world is fake. Afterwards, Homura feels lost and conflicted. Madoka eventually finds Homura riding on a boat. They went to a flower field and talked to each other. It seems that Madoka has no recollection of her sacrifice she made. With that, Homura believes that Madoka doesn’t want to become a goddess to change the magical girl and witch system. Afterwards, Homura calls Kyouko one last time trying to confirm one last thing. She places the soul gem on a table and boarded a bus. From this experiment, she finds that something is odd. She finds out that she is not a magical girl, but instead a witch. From this, Kyubey reveals his true intentions to Homura. Kyubey created a witch-like barrier inside Homura’s corrupted soul gem isolated in a barrier to try to lure the Law of Cycles. Their intention is to take control of it and revert the system back to the way it was. Homura decides to turn into a witch instead of allowing Kyubey to take control of the Law of Cycles. Eventually, Madoka, Sayaka, Mami, Kyouko and Nagisa shows up to stop Homura as a witch from reaching the guillotine while destroying the barrier that Kyubey created. After Homura and Madoka destroyed the barrier, all the Kyubeys that were observing the experiment died from their attack. From the sky, Ultimate Madoka came down to bring Homura to the Law of Cycles. However, Homura instead turns into Akuma Homura and separates the human Madoka away from Ultimate Madoka, thus rewriting the system again. Now, Kyubey only exists to take on the sorrows from everyone. In this new world, Sayaka lost her special abilities as Homura rewrites everyone’s memories. However, she remembers that Homura is a demon. Madoka takes Homura’s role as she transferred into the school. However, Homura knows that once Madoka knows the truth, her powers will return and she will become her enemy. However, Homura knows that Madoka will be happy even if Madoka doesn’t fall in love with Homura.

Spoiler Inside

Select Show

Some time passed by after Madoka made a contract to become a magical girl. Her wish completely changed how the magical girl and witch system worked. Instead of magical girls turning into witches, Ultimate Madoka will take them to the Law of Cycles. As a result, Madoka is wiped away from existence, leading Homura without a purpose. She is left fighting dark monsters called Wraiths.

Homura transfers into the school in Mitakihara. In this new world, the girls don’t fight witches, but instead nightmares. Madoka, Mami, Homura, Kyouko and Sayaka eventually calm down a nightmare after Hitomi gets upset over not being able to spend time with Kyousuke since he is busy with practice. With Mitakihara peaceful and Madoka still alive, everything seems well, right?

Not exactly since Homura realizes things are a bit off. She finds it odd that Kyouko is now living in Mitakihara. Not only that, Madoka and Sayaka went to the Law of Cycles and not supposed to exist and the monsters Homura fights are wraiths, not nightmares. After convincing Kyouko to go to Kazamino City, they boarded a bus to get there, they wind up back in Mitakihara City. After several attempts, Kyouko is convinced that Homura is right that there’s nothing outside of the city and some of the memories are fake. Homura tells Kyouko to keep it a secret for a while.

After untying her braids and removing the glasses, she eventually visits Mami. She notices something odd about Bebe, which looks very familiar to the witch Charlotte. While Mami is not looking, Homura transforms and stops time. Then she takes Bebe to a different location and interrogate her. Mami eventually finds out and she got into a fight with her. Bebe eventually reveals her true self as Momoe Nagisa, who is a magical girl. Sayaka eventually shows up to free Homura and knows that the world is fake.

Afterwards, Homura feels lost and conflicted. Madoka eventually finds Homura riding on a boat. They went to a flower field and talked to each other. It seems that Madoka has no recollection of her sacrifice she made. With that, Homura believes that Madoka doesn’t want to become a goddess to change the magical girl and witch system. Afterwards, Homura calls Kyouko one last time trying to confirm one last thing. She places the soul gem on a table and boarded a bus. From this experiment, she finds that something is odd. She finds out that she is not a magical girl, but instead a witch.

From this, Kyubey reveals his true intentions to Homura. Kyubey created a witch-like barrier inside Homura’s corrupted soul gem isolated in a barrier to try to lure the Law of Cycles. Their intention is to take control of it and revert the system back to the way it was. Homura decides to turn into a witch instead of allowing Kyubey to take control of the Law of Cycles. Eventually, Madoka, Sayaka, Mami, Kyouko and Nagisa shows up to stop Homura as a witch from reaching the guillotine while destroying the barrier that Kyubey created.

After Homura and Madoka destroyed the barrier, all the Kyubeys that were observing the experiment died from their attack. From the sky, Ultimate Madoka came down to bring Homura to the Law of Cycles. However, Homura instead turns into Akuma Homura and separates the human Madoka away from Ultimate Madoka, thus rewriting the system again. Now, Kyubey only exists to take on the sorrows from everyone.

In this new world, Sayaka lost her special abilities as Homura rewrites everyone’s memories. However, she remembers that Homura is a demon. Madoka takes Homura’s role as she transferred into the school. However, Homura knows that once Madoka knows the truth, her powers will return and she will become her enemy. However, Homura knows that Madoka will be happy even if Madoka doesn’t fall in love with Homura.

Thoughts

It’s funny how Hitomi is the one that is suffering now that Kyousuke doesn’t have time to spend with her. At least Sakaya now has Kyouko.

While the first half is light hearted, it gets way darker after the first 30 mins.

From watching the first thirty minutes of the movie, it felt deceiving. Sure, everything is peaceful as there is no such thing as wraiths or witches. Not only we have the adorable glasses and twin-tailed braided hair Homura back, everyone is alive. Yes, a witch that looks like Charlotte, which killed Mami in the 5^thtimeline is back and completely harmless. To me, it feels like a parody of some sort and homage to the works from the fandom.

Of course, Homura eventually find out that something is off about this world. If you know her personality already, she usually does things by herself and won’t accept help from anyone. After all, she attempted to fight the Walpurgisnacht and nearly fails doing so. Given the traumatic experiences she went through trying to save Madoka, she will eventually find out that things are off, hugely.

The obvious is of course Bebe since she looks like a witch that Homura saw before. The thing that makes Bebe suspicious is not only her witch-like appearance, but also the inability to speak in runes. She speaks in gibberish with speech bubbles. While these details are subtle, it’s quite obvious that Bebe is not a witch, but in fact a magical girl. It only took a fight between Mami and Homura through a big misunderstanding for Bebe to reveal her true form.

I have to admit that Nagisa is one of the cutest magical girls from the Madoka franchise, excluding Magia Record.

In reality, Bebe is actually a magical girl named Momoe Nagisa. Nagisa uses a horn as a weapon. While the movie let alone the art book that came with the limited edition doesn’t really go into depth about her, she is simply there since Charlotte is popular. Several years later after the movie premiered, Magia Record expanded on her back story in her character story. Of course, she is only obtainable in a limited time event. Still, I have to admit that Nagisa is adorable.

Now this is feeling a lot like a zombie movie of some sort.

That said, Homura trying to find out the truth is bound to happen. It’s logical for her to go to Kyouko first given her harsh and cynical personality. What is interesting is that after they rode on the bus, Kyouko the first to know that the world they are in is not real. While the other girls knew about the world, they won’t reveal it. In short, Kyouko is the only girl who Homura trusts about the secrets of this world.

Even so, she still doesn’t want Kyouko’s help. It’s obvious that Homura want to do it alone and it doesn’t come at a surprise. This becomes a recurring theme of the movie as she finds the answers about this world without any help. This means trying to kill Bebe/Nagisa even though she said who is the culprit, causing a fight between Homura and Mami. Even Sayaka is willing to help Homura giving some hints about the barrier, but she won’t listen. This doesn’t come at a surprise given Homura’s past experiences from other timelines.

While this is a nice Madoka and Homura moment, it kind of gave Homura the wrong idea in regards to Madoka’s intensions.

The only person she listens to is of course Madoka. I have to admit that this led to a nice scene with them talking together intimately. Sadly, Madoka’s interaction with Homura causes a misunderstanding in the end in regards to Homura’s motives. Madoka pretended not to know her sacrifice so she wouldn’t be found out by Kyubey. This of course gets her into to trouble towards the end as Homura takes matters into her own hands.

As expected, it’s quite obvious that Kyubey is up to no good again. After Madoka rewrote how the system worked, Kyubey is deprived of its energy as wraith’s do not provide enough. This can explain why they used Homura as a lab rat to try to lure Ultimate Madoka. Once they do, they can take control of her powers. They want to do this to revert back to the old system so they can gather more energy.

From this, it’s obvious why Homura decided to sacrifice herself by turning into a witch. By turning into a witch, she can stop Kyubey’s plan.Thankfully, Kyouko, Madoka, Mami, Nagisa and Sayaka stopped Homura as a witch from committing suicide and destroyed the barrier. Despite this, Madoka didn’t use her true powers, which Kyubey intended.

Despite Homura being Akuma Homura now, she knows that this won’t last forever.

At the end of the day, it’s clear why Homura decides to become the devil, hence Akuma Homura. It’s obvious that the effects of Kyubey’s experiment was her tipping point. After all, she endured many horrifying experiences of the world ending, her friends dying, including her love, Madoka and having to mercy kill her at one time to prevent her from becoming a witch. In the past, Homura can simply turn time back if her mission fails. However, with Madoka becoming Ultimate Madoka through her wish, Homura can’t bring her back through her time traveling.

Of course, Madoka’s misunderstanding, which Homura misinterpreted explains her actions. She believes that Madoka didn’t really want to sacrifice herself to take the role of preventing magical girls from becoming witches. After all, Homura loves Madoka to the point where she will do anything to protect her. Madoka means a lot for Homura since her wish is to protect her no matter what. In other words, she is willing to become the devil to achieve this.

In the end, I have to admit the ending is bittersweet. Sure, Homura created a happy world of her own. However, she now has Sayaka and possibly others hate her for what she did despite Homura altering their memories. Despite protecting Madoka and giving her a happy life, it’s obvious that Homura hates herself for doing this to the person she loves. She knows that this won’t last forever and eventually things will be worse with Ultimate Madoka becoming an enemy. When that happens, she will probably try to fix things again so that she will receive the desired result. Given how much she went through with all those timelines, I can’t blame her.

There is one thing. Kyubey receives the justice that he deserves.

At least there is one good thing that came out of the Rebellion Story. Kyubey is now worse off than before when they started their experiment. Now, they have to deal with the blunt of despair from humanity while having to do Akuma Homura’s bidding. That will show them not to mess with Madoka.

Lastly, there are some nice paring moments. Besides that, scene with Homura and Madoka, Sayaka finally admits her feelings towards Kyouko doing the battle.

As for the limited-edition box set, this is currently the only version that is only available on RightStuf. It come with a few extras that the regular edition. It comes with a Blu-ray and DVD version, the movie soundtrack, an art book, and a nice box. For $69.99, it’s not too bad given how much I paid to obtain the Japanese Blu-ray for the Love Live School Idol Movie back in 2016. Aside from that, from watching the movie, I look forward to what the Magia Record anime adaptation has in store later this year. ¶