Oh, Madoka Magica – the explosion of posts on your final episodes is nothing short of prolific. And with the religious overtones of the conclusion, I was particularly intrigued. Never has a search for “Jesus” in my blog reader brought up so many posts which didn’t use the name in an exclamatory and not-so-hallow way.
Here are a sample of the blogs that particularly focused on the religious symbolism in the series finale:
Over at Drastic My Anime Blog, dm00 goes William Blake on us, setting the Romantic poet’s poem, “The Little Vagabond,” to images of Kyoko. The post works very nicely, emphasizing Kyoko’s church background with a famous poem that has some fun poking at the church and Christianity.
Catchercatch gives a wonderful review of the show (including a breakdown of the characters’ endings) and mentions the parallels between Madoka and Christ, as does the Star Crossed Anime Blog. Yumeka, likewise, draws the parallel, writing, “Madoka is a Jesus figure, Homura is her prophet, and Kyubey is the tempting Devil (the final episode aired on Good Friday too).” Leenina adds, “Madoka just died for our sins, guys,” but says we shouldn’t go overboard on the ending, and Arc writes, “SHAFT is one sneaky studio releasing this episode on Good Friday, maybe as a coincidence or on purpose, as Madoka’s sacrifice is almost the same as Christ giving up his life for us( sorry if i sound evangelical), but this way it makes the episode even better.” Myssa isn’t sure it was intentional, but she saw the allusion as well, as did Tsuki.
Christianity is not the only faith expressed in Madoka Magica – it may not even be the one that shows us strongest. Chikorita157 and Aorii mention that there are both Christian and Buddhist overtones in the finale, with Yi doing a masterful job of outlining the the series in terms of Buddhist principles and ideas. DrSenbei also emphasizes the Buddhist philosophies in the show, particularly karma. Likewise, Omo feels that there might be better allusions for the ending than a Christ story.
On a lighter note, I would be remiss to skip out on discussing a newer religion. The church of Madoka idea has spread like wildfire, with Kurogane even supplying a FAQ. Misterowl is certainly on-board with the tongue-in-cheek faith. Otakurean, finally back to blogging (yay!), has spent her time delving into the church of Madoka, even providing basic estimates as to its size, in addition to connecting it with Haruhism. Speaking of Haruhism, Kuro fears a holy war is about to begin. -_-‘
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