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Saturday, December 26, 2015

Happy Birthday, Mami Tomoe!


Hey everyone ~ ! It's June 5th which means today is a VERY special day for all you Mahou Shoujo and Shounen out there ~ !!
 
According to the official production notes for Madoka Magica, today is Mami Tomoe's birthday!
 
So let's all give our favorite gunslinging magical girl a very happy birthday! 
 

Happy birthday, Mami-san!!!

OH AND BY THE WAY, I did my my own salute to Mami two weeks ago with my cosplay outfit at Fanime Con 2012. Check out me and my magical girl group!! 




Reasons why I like Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Okay, so at first, I was pretty neutral about this character. 
BUUUUT, I quickly learned to love her. Here are some reasons why Mami Tomoe is my favoriete blonde anime character: 

1 ~ Once u make the contract, u lose your humanity, right? Mami was an exception. She was the true "irregularity" of the series. She managed to keep her sanity throughout her short amount of screentime in the series no matter what occurred. Despite everything, she was TRULY human. 

2 ~ She was a kind, considerate, and caring person who did everything she could to defend the general populace. 

3 ~ Her scripts were exceptionally written. "I won't be alone anymore." ? Enough said. 

4 ~ She had awesome fight scenes and transformations and a very fitting character theme song. 

5 ~ She pretended to be cool about things when really, nothing was okay. Honestly, her life sucked. I could seriously relate to that. And I'm a real sucker for relatable characters. 

List of Puella Magi Madoka Magica characters

Madoka Kaname (鹿目 まどか Kaname Madoka?)

Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Christine Marie Cabanos (English)

Madoka is a kind and gentle 14-year-old girl who comes from a loving family. A second-year at middle school, her life changes when she encounters the incubator Kyubey, who offers to transform her into a magical girl. She sees herself as a person without special qualities or talents, and after seeing Mami fighting against witches, aspires to become a magical girl like her. She is a kind and gentle person that is averse to fighting. She hopes that the magical girls will support each other, sometimes even putting her own life at risk to help them. After witnessing Mami's death, she grows uncertain about becoming a magical girl, growing ever more hesitant as the true cost of the role is revealed to her.

In previous timelines, Madoka became a magical girl in a pink dress wielding a rose branch bow and arrow. In the drama CD, "Memories of You", it is revealed that the wish in the first timeline was to save a cat named Amy from death. However, every time, she was either killed or transformed into a witch named Kriemhild Gretchen, the Witch of Salvation, one that became ever more powerful with each time reset, as Madoka's power also increased and if created would, by the end of that same week, consume the Earth in order to create a paradise where there is no free will or individuality to cause strife or conflict. In the current timeline before the final episode, Kyubey claims that Madoka has an impossibly large amount of potential for magic, going so far as to claim that she could become god. The reason for this is unclear, since her life so far has been relatively average and free of tragedies. This is later revealed to be due to her accumulated misfortune, which was caused as a result of Homura repeatedly resetting time, with Madoka's fate getting worse with each timeline, making her magic power grow exponentially with each reset. In the first timeline, she still possesses a high amount of power, being able to defeat Walpurgisnacht (ワルプルギスの夜 Warupurugisu no Yoru?), though dying in the process. Subsequently, by the current timeline, she has the potential to be the most powerful magical girl to date. Towards the end, she learns of this and Homura's efforts to save her.

After seeing the suffering of magical girls throughout history, Madoka decides to make her wish: to prevent all magical girls from the past, present, future and all other timelines, from ever becoming witches. The laws of the universe are rewritten such that at the moment that a soul gem becomes black with anguish, Madoka appears and purifies it before the magical girl passes on. As a result of this wish, she becomes an omnipotent being, named Ultimate Madoka (アルティメット・まどか Arutimetto Madoka?), that exists for all time, erasing her pre-ascension existence from the world; leaving only Homura – and to some extent her little brother – with the memory of her. Madoka becomes only a concept in the new world, one named the Law of Cycles (円環の理 Enkan no Kotowari?). Magical girls absorbed into the Law of Cycles regain knowledge of their lives in previous timelines.

At the end of Rebellion, Ultimate Madoka was usurped by Homura and had her human and goddess selves split, with her role as a martyr being forced onto the Incubators. Homura places human Madoka in a new universe where she and her friends can live normal lives unaware of their pasts, though Madoka regains her memories at the last second and a final conversation with Homura implies that it is only a matter of time before Madoka merges with her goddess self once more.

Homura Akemi (暁美 ほむら Akemi Homura?)

Voiced by: Chiwa Saitō (Japanese), Cristina Vee[1] (English)

Homura is a magical girl who first appears in a nightmare of Madoka's. She transfers into Madoka's school the day after the dream. She is unnaturally good at everything she does, including academics and sports. This makes her instantly popular, even though she is cold and demeaning towards others. Homura's indifferent personality is the result of her failures while going through approaching 100 timelines.[2]

Originally a shy second-year student, she was befriended by Madoka and eventually saved from a witch by her and Mami, who revealed that they were magical girls. When Mami died in the fight with the rampaging witch Walpurginacht, Madoka sacrificed her life to stop it. Homura, overcome by grief and uselessness, contracted with Kyubey in order to become a person that could protect Madoka, just as Madoka protected her. Her wish was to be able to go back to her original meeting with Madoka, leading Homura to receive the power to manipulate time to a certain extent. Homura cares deeply for Madoka, however this caring is eventually twisted into a sole, obsessive fixation on Madoka's survival regardless of her feelings, and Homura never gives up on trying to "save" Madoka, even as she grows more cold, intimidating and antagonistic to others, taking on the role of the "rival hero" magical girl archetype. Caught up in a predestination paradox, she tries again and again to prevent Madoka from being killed or making a contract, but time after time fails to save her. After a timeline reset, Homura always returns to the hospital room she formerly lived in. Since she is always reset to the same age as when she was living in hospital, as a result of her timeline resetting, Homura's physical age is not the same as her mental age; mentally, she is far older than she looks, again a result of her going through what is now approaching 100 timeline cycles.

Her magical weapon is a shield filled with sand that allows her to freeze time. However, this power becomes useless if she is physically restrained as she cannot turn her shield to activate it. She can also use this shield to block projectiles and store the various infinite amount of weapons that she carries. Since her shield and magic has no offensive capability, she instead attacks using stolen firearms and homemade explosives while time is stopped. None of the girls actually know what weapons she has, since she only uses them while time is stopped. Homura cannot reset time until all the sand in her shield is drained – which happens approximately a month and a half from her discharge from the hospital, on the day of Walpurgisnacht – after which she can reset the timeline whenever she desires.
In the final timeline, she inherits Madoka's bow – now a sleek ebony bow with purple diamond setting – and arrows, along with a set of white wings. Homura continues to fight in the new world against the wraiths, despite believing that the world was irredeemably full of tragedies, because it was a world that Madoka once tried to protect, and she vowed never to forget Madoka's resolve.
Her witch form in the PSP Game and the movie Rebellion is Homulilly, known as the Witch of the Mortal World in the PSP Game and the Nutcracker Witch in Rebellion.

At the end of Rebellion, Homura usurps Ultimate Madoka and becomes the being Akuma Homura (悪魔 ほむら?), splitting Madoka and her goddess form, sealing her powers and rewriting the universe. Unlike Ultimate Madoka, Akuma Homura can take human form in the new world, and does not exist as a concept. She managed to enslave the Incubator race, who now work under her to take on the curses of the new world. Ultimate Madoka's powers are sealed within her earring, which can change to and from a lizard form, and walk around on its own.

Sayaka Miki (美樹 さやか Miki Sayaka?)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese), Sarah Williams (English)

Sayaka is Madoka's classmate and best friend, a second-year at Madoka's school. She is a lively tomboy with strong ideals of love and lawfulness. After helping Madoka rescue Kyubey, she contracts with him to grant her wish to heal the wounded hand of Kyosuke Kamijo, a young violinist that she is infatuated with, visiting him daily in the hospital. As a magical girl, Sayaka's weapon of choice is a cutlass, being able to produce multiples of them at a time. She also has an extraordinary regenerative ability due to the healing nature of her wish. Sayaka insists that her wish is selfless and feels that fighting witches to save people is a bonus, even after witnessing Mami's death. As Sayaka's ideals are put against the reality of her wish's consequences and the stress of fighting, her view of the world is slowly corrupted. She becomes hateful and distrustful towards others, including Madoka, whom she lashes out at and accuses of being selfish. Because of this, Sayaka seems to be based off the original story of the Little Mermaid, because like the little mermaid who saves the prince from near-death, Sayaka heals Kyousuke; like how the little mermaid gives up her tongue to become a human and get the prince to fall in love and marry her, Sayaka gives up her humanity so she can heal Kyousuke and also get him to fall in love with her; like the prince instead falls in love with another princess and breaks the mermaid's heart, Kyousuke falls in love with Hitomi, breaking Sayaka's heart; Finally, like the little mermaid is told to kill the prince and have his blood drip onto her feet so she can turn back into a mermaid, but doesn't and turns to sea foam, Sayaka refuses to cleanse her tainting Soul Gem, causing her to turn into a witch, who is like a mermaid.

After learning that her soul is no longer in her body, but in her soul gem, Sayaka starts to believe she is a zombie; and when her friend Hitomi confesses to her about her love of Kyosuke, Sayaka falls into isolation and refuses all help. In her despair, she loses faith in humanity and justice, making her give up on her ideals and herself; thus leading to her soul gem becoming fully corrupted, turning into a grief seed, making her into the witch known as Oktavia von Seckendorff (オクタヴィア・フォン・ゼッケンドルフ Okutavia Fon Zekkendorufu?), the mermaid witch, an armored mermaid witch with her barrier resembling a concert hall, where a figure similar to Kyosuke is playing among faceless figures. Though Kyoko and Madoka attempt to communicate with her, they realize that they can't do anything to save Sayaka. Kyoko then performs a powerful attack to finish off Oktavia, taking her life along with the witch's.

Despite Madoka's reworking of the world in the final timeline, Sayaka still makes a wish in the new world, and thus ends up disappearing after exhausting her soul gem. Despite this, however, Sayaka does not regret her wish, and hopes that Hitomi will make Kyosuke happy, before leaving with Madoka to the afterlife.

In Rebellion, Sayaka assists Madoka and Nagisa in saving Homura, and has received knowledge of all previous timelines as a result of becoming a part of the Law of Cycles. She shows the power to summon and manipulate witches, including her own witch form Oktavia, though she can control Oktavia independent of her body, unlike Nagisa. Sayaka states that she became an assistant of Madoka because she "regretted leaving Kyoko behind".

At the end of Rebellion, Sayaka and Nagisa were pulled from afterlife by Homura, and given a new life and human forms in the new world. Unlike Madoka and Nagisa, Sayaka retained all her memories in the new world, however Homura took these away too after their confrontation. Even so, Sayaka promises that she will never forget that Homura is a demon.

Mami Tomoe (巴 マミ Tomoe Mami?)

Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi (Japanese), Carrie Keranen (English)

Mami is a veteran magical girl and a third-year student at Madoka's school. She lives alone in a penthouse after the death of her parents in a car accident, during which she was only able to survive by contracting with Kyubey to save her own life. Her magical abilities revolve around yellow ribbons, which can suspend enemies, and be manipulated to produce nearly infinite amounts of Tanegashima-like flintlock rifles, as well as also possessing healing magic. Mami is characterized as being much like the stereotypical magical girl protagonist: she is particularly focused on saving those around her, with a traditionally selfless perspective on the role of magical girl, and has a habit of giving names to her finishing attacks. She had previously been Kyoko's partner – as shown in the drama CD "Farewell Story", and expanded on in the PSP game and The Different Story – but was left alone after they fought over their ideals.

Though her outward disposition is cheery and confident, inside Mami feels deeply alone as she has no friends to confide in or support her as she fights. Madoka offers to become her partner and save her from her loneliness, but Mami is subsequently killed by a witch named Charlotte, never knowing the darker truths concerning soul gems and origins of witches. In one timeline, she had learned the truth, then killed Kyoko and turned her gun on Homura in an attempt to prevent them from becoming witches, but was killed by Madoka. As for her actions, Yukihiro Miyamoto, the series director of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, explains that Mami carried out that action with calm, calculated judgment, as opposed to being driven mad or insane.[3][4]

In the final timeline, Mami is alive again, and fights along Homura and Kyoko.

Rebellion shows that Mami has the potential to become the most powerful of the magical girls if in peak form, when she isn't held back by her crippling loneliness, as a result of her meeting and becoming close friends with Bebe/Nagisa. In the ending of Rebellion, after Homura rewrites reality, Mami is seen saving Nagisa from falling packages of cheese, implying the two will become friends.
Her witch form in the PSP Game is Candeloro, the Dress-up Witch, the smallest witch in size, being barely any larger than a teapot.

Kyoko Sakura (佐倉 杏子 Sakura Kyōko?)

Voiced by: Ai Nonaka (Japanese), Lauren Landa (English)

Kyoko is a veteran magical girl who comes to the city following Mami's death. Her distinguishing features include long red hair, fangs, and a voracious appetite, almost never being seen without food. She came from a poor church family, and used her wish so that people would listen to her father's preaching; when her father learned of this, however, he went mad and killed everyone in his family aside from Kyoko. As such, Kyoko decided only to use her magic for herself from this point on, since using it for others will only cause despair. Having grown up in a poor family, she often has to steal food and hates people who waste it, a logic she also applies to grief seeds, as she only goes after fully grown witches.

Kyoko has been a magical girl much longer than the others, and thus is more skillful; she wields a spear which can extend itself, split into multiple sections, and produce a ball at the end of a chain, which can constrict and hit others at the same time. She also has the ability to put up barriers to protect others or keep them from interfering. She initially clashes with Sayaka, but after learning the truth about soul gems, she sympathizes with her and tries to help her. This is partially because Sayaka reminds Kyoko of her past self, as she too had made a wish for another person's sake and tried to fight for justice. Thus, she wants to stop Sayaka from making what she believes is the same mistake and advises her to live a life of selfishness. Even though Sayaka thanks Kyoko and admits that she misunderstood her, Sayaka refuses to abandon her ideals of justice.

After Sayaka becomes a witch, Kyoko becomes determined to save her and restore her to normal. In the end, though, Kyoko becomes tired of her pain, gives up her previous ideals and abandons her outlook of self-preservation, and chooses to destroy herself along with Oktavia, in an attempt to both find peace in death and make sure that Sayaka will not die alone, by overloading her soul gem to create a massive explosion that kills them both. However, Kyoko's sacrifice leaves only Homura and the potential contract Madoka to face off against Walpurgisnacht, which ends up in Homura being defeated and Madoka contracting.

In a previous timeline, she was killed by Mami, who was driven to kill them all in a desperate attempt, after learning that they would all eventually become witches.

In the final timeline, Kyoko survives, and grieves over Sayaka's death in battle, lamenting how they had "finally become friends".

In the ending of Rebellion, Homura rewrites reality so that Kyoko lives with Sayaka and has a more kinder, cheerful, yet slackish personality, as a result of her better life, instead of being selfish and vicious to others.

Prior to the storyline, Kyoko was previously Mami's partner and also possessed illusionary magic gained from her wish of deception, allowing her to make copies of herself. However, following the death of her family, she subconsciously lost her illusion magic and decided to be more selfish in her outlook, ending her partnership with Mami. This relationship is explored in the third drama CD, "The Farewell Story", the PSP game, and the Different Story manga. In the PSP game, her witch form is Ophelia, the wǔdàn witch, depicted as a horse rider with a candlestick for a head.

Kyubey (キュゥべえ Kyūbē?)

Voiced by: Emiri Katō (Japanese), Cassandra Lee (English)

Kyubey is a genderless (though he apparently identifies as a male) extraterrestrial being posing as a familiar who can grant any wish to a certain girl, on the condition that she become a magical girl and fight against witches. When the chosen girl makes a contract with him, he extracts her soul and places it inside a soul gem, reconstructing their body into a shell that is more resilient in order to fight witches. He constantly tries to get Madoka to make a contract with him, as she allegedly possesses great magical potential within her that would allow her to become the most powerful magical girl. He can only be seen or heard by magical girls and those with "magical" potential, and is able to communicate with them telepathically. Kyubey has an unknown but possibly infinite number of bodies; when one is killed, another body appears and devours the destroyed body.

Kyubey comes from a race named the Incubators (インキュベーター Inkyubētā?), whose goal is to find and gather a form of energy to counter entropy and prevent the impending heat death of the universe, developing a technology to turn emotions into this energy. After evaluating many species throughout the universe, the Incubators find that the souls of humans, specifically pubescent and prepubescent girls, contain the most powerful form of this energy. This energy is the strongest when a magical girl's soul gem turns into a grief seed, and then can be collected and used towards preventing entropy. Kyubey claims his race lacks emotions (or, at least, that those in his race who have emotions are abnormal), and has little understanding of human values and morality, not understanding why the death of one human among billions is viewed so catastrophically, instead believing the Incubators' actions are not cruel but utilitarian in nature. Despite this, Kyubey is a very skilled manipulator, never actually lying, but instead leaving out important details involved in the forming of contracts and the details behind them, only presenting the truth when it is asked of him. According to Kyubey, the very existence of the Magi-Witch system is what allowed the evolution of mankind's civilization, as many of the main events in human history have had magical girls involved. Despite answering all questions posed to him, there is still much about the universe that Kyubey has not spoken of.

In Puella Magi Kazumi Magica, Kyubey also appears as the contractor of all the magical girls in Asanaru City, including the Pleiades Saints. When the Pleiades learnt the truth about magical girls, they took one of Kyubey's corpses and manufactured their own Incubator named Jubey, who could absorb darkness from soul gems. Furthermore, they had Umika cast a spell that would make Kyubey invisible to all other girls in the city and rewrite their own memories to believe they contracted with Jubey, in an attempt to stop more witches from being born. This ultimately backfires as Jubey turns out to be a failure.

Rebellion shows that the Incubators are a hive mind race. In the events of the movie, the Incubators tried to control Ultimate Madoka and the Law of Cycles in order to restore the witch system of previous timelines, since more energy could be harvested via the old system. However, their plan was thwarted and Homura ended up stealing Ultimate Madoka's powers for herself, enslaving their race and using them to take on the curses of the new world in place of Madoka. Kyubey is last seen laying on the ground, disheveled and shivering as he is driven mad by his sudden ability to feel emotions combined with being forced to shoulder the combined grief, suffering, and despair of every magical girl that is, was, or ever will be.

Mami Tomoe

Mami Tomoe (巴 マミ Tomoe Mami) is a veteran magical girl and a third-year student at Madoka's school. She lives alone in a penthouse after the death of her parents in a car accident, during which she was only able to survive by contracting with Kyubey to save her own life. Her magical abilities revolve around yellow ribbons, which can suspend enemies, and be manipulated to produce nearly infinite amounts of Tanegashima-like flintlock rifles, as well as also possessing healing magic. Mami is particularly focused on saving those around her, with a traditionally selfless perspective on the role of magical girl, and has a habit of giving names to her finishing attacks. She had previously been Kyoko's partner – as shown in the drama CD "Farewell Story", and expanded on in the PSP game and The Different Story – but was left alone after they fought over their ideals.
Though her outward disposition is cheery and confident, inside Mami feels deeply alone as she has no friends to confide in or support her as she fights. Madoka offers to become her partner and save her from her loneliness, but Mami is subsequently killed by a witch named Charlotte, never knowing the darker truths concerning soul gems and origins of witches. In one timeline, she had learned the truth, then killed Kyoko and turned her gun on Homura in an attempt to prevent them from becoming witches, but was killed by Madoka. As for her actions, Yukihiro Miyamoto, the series director of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, explains that Mami carried out that action with calm, calculated judgment, as opposed to being driven mad or insane.
In the final timeline, Mami is alive again, and fights along Homura and Kyoko.
Rebellion shows that Mami has the potential to become the most powerful of the magical girls if in peak form, when she isn't held back by her crippling loneliness, as a result of her meeting and becoming close friends with Bebe/Nagisa. In the ending of Rebellion, after Homura rewrites reality, Mami is seen saving Nagisa from falling packages of cheese, implying the two will become friends.
Her witch form in the PSP Game is Candeloro, the Dress-up Witch, the smallest witch in size, being barely any larger than a teapot.

The Fall of Tomoe Mami

She is the ideal fighter of justice. With a pure heart, she fights only to save others from the evils of the world. Refusing recognition for her heroic actions, she fights from the shadows, seeking no form of praise from others.

With firm confidence, she decided to dedicate her life for the sole purpose of fighting for the sake of others.

Now the question is pretty obvious; What caused the demise of such a selfless warrior? 


If we were watching/reading another kind of story, such a character would have received all the praise and recognition she deserved for her heroic actions. However, we already know that Urobuchi is a different kind of guy who likes to take a realistic perspective on things. Thus, in order to understand his work, it is required that we think thoroughly about the reasons behind the events that happened.

The bottom line is this: From Urobuchi's pespective, Tomoe Mami was a flawed character who was fated to fall.

With that said, let's dive into Urobuchi's character, Tomoe Mami, and reveal what Urobuchi has to say about such characters.

In order to do this, we should understand Mami as much as possible from the beginning.

Tomoe Mami became a Mahou Shoujo when she wished to be saved from a devestating car accident, which involved herself as well as her parents. It can be said that, at least when the accident occured, Mami was an innocent and slightly selfish character who clung rather tightly on to her own life. This can be seen by the fact that Mami wished to saver her own life, without thinking about her parents' lives as well.


Tomoe Mami became a Mahou Shoujo when she wished to be saved from a devestating car accident, which involved herself as well as her parents. It can be said that, at least when the accident occured, Mami was an innocent and slightly selfish character who clung rather tightly on to her own life. This can be seen by the fact that Mami wished to saver her own life, without thinking about her parents' lives as well. 

Later on, Mami claims that she did not have enough time to consider her wish, unlike Madoka and Sayaka, which is why she urges the two to make that amount of time to their advantage, so that they would not make the same mistake with their wish as Mami had. 

"But I don't regret my decision. The life I lead now is much better than being dead." - Tomoe Mami, Episode 3.

Even though Mami admits to making a mistake with her wish, she came to terms with her past mistake just like Kyoko. (In fact, Kyoko probably came to terms with her own past mistake partly from the influence of Mami, since it was proven to be most likely that the two had a student-teacher relationship prior to the story.) We can see this to be true because of Mami's highly individualistic characteristics.



Mami lives in a well-kept apartment alone. She dresses nicely all the time and is always shown to be respective to others, which is seen by the way she talks and by the way she always refers to others according to their honorific Japanese names.



Most of all, we see her spectacular individualistic powers when she fights as a Mahou Shoujo. It becomes obvious that Mami, as a fighter for justice, fights both Witches and Familiars, so that the maximum amount of people can be saved. This is extremely important to recognize. 

Why is this such a great feat to be acknowledged?

Since fighting causes dirt to build up in a Mahou Shoujo's soul gem, her power will diminish as she continues fighting. Moreover, if fighting a Familiar produces no grief seed to clean up the soul gem, then the more she fights Familiars, the weaker she becomes.

Basically, fighting Familiars only weakens the Mahou Shoujo, for it wastes energy that will not be replenished. The difficulty of such an action is emphasized when we see Sayaka following the same path as Mami.

Of course, Mami believes that fighting Familiars is worth the energy lost, since such an action may save lives, however small the number might be.

Thus, the awesome individualistic power of Tomoe Mami is shown, because she could follow her path of justice without dying. She not only fought Witches, but Familiars as well! Mami played a tough game that can even be said to be close to impossible among other Mahou Shoujo. It's practically suicide!

Yet, we that Mami is completely capable of such a feat. As shown by her first three battles with Witches and Familiars, she fights with a clear mind in such a way that it seems that she is invincible. Her power throughout all these fights doesn't even seem to fade even though she is fighting Familiars!

All of this became possible for Mami because of the will power she has, which is begotten from her selfless cause.

Mami has one goal in mind: Live and fight for the sake of others. 




With this in mind, Tomoe Mami fought in the name of justice with the aim of fighting for the rest of her life. 

However, it is later shown in Episode 3 that fighting for justice is not the only thing she thinks of.

In order to think like Urobuchi, you have to think realistically, so let's do just that.

Mami's decided purpose in life calls for a life of pure loneliness.

But why? This is so because of what we know of Mahou Shoujo. As seen from Kyoko, it is illogical for Mahou Shoujo to work together, since all Mahou Shoujo must survive by consuming grief seeds. This fact of their life will cause them to fight against each other over grief seeds, which obviously represent not only life, but power, since replenishing the light in a soul gem means replenishing one's maximum amount of magical power, which increases one potential to survive.

This leads to the fact that Mahou Shoujo, like animals, mark their territories for themselves. This can be said to be an unspoken code written by the Mahou Shoujo themselves, since it ensures the maximum amount of survival among them.

Thus, Mami, as well as perhaps all other Mahou Shoujo, leads a life of loneliness.

For the rest of her life, she will fight alone. And so, she is fated to die alone.

Does Mami accept this fate?


"I don't deserve anyone's admiration. I'm just forcing myself to man up. Even when I'm frightened of in pain, I have no one to tell. All I can do is hide and cry. Magical Girls aren't as great as you think." - Tomoe Mami, Episode 3.

Up until this point in the plot, it is debatable whether or not Mami accepted this fate.



Even though Mami admitted to bein depressed over this fact and even admitted to sometimes crying when she is alone, it can't be said that she never would have succeeded in living out the rest of her life as a lone warrior. After all, she made it this far in her life being by herself. And judging by the power she shows during her fights, she is one hell of a Mahou Shoujo. 

However, whether or not she is capable of leading such an ideal life to the end, it will never come to be. This is because she met someone along the way who would change Mami and set her on a different path.

In Episode 3, Madoka promised Mami a different life; a life not of loneliness, but of friendship and teamwork. Madoka finally agreed that Mami's life is the life she wanted, so she finally decided to make a simple wish and stay by the side of Mami and fight with her... to be with her.

... to be with her.

Mami decided to live and fight for the sake of others. However, the depression of loneliness occasionally picked at her mind. With Madoka's promise however, that depression was suddenly lifted.

Once again, we reach a typical moment in any kind of fantasy story. The lone warrior finds a friend; a friend who will fight by his or her side forever.

However my friend, to understand Urobuchi, we must break from this fantasy. Let's look at this realistically.

What are the consequences of Madoka's promise?



Madoka filled a hole in Mami's life. Now, since hse is no longer alone, Mami feels extremely happy. We see this exactly in Episode 3, when she is speaking her thoughts to the audience as she fights Charlotte.

"My body feels so light. This is the first time I've felt so happy fighting. There's no longer any need to fear. Because I'm not alone." - Tomoe Mami, Episode 3.

Mami is happy. Typically, such happiness begets determination and therefore additional power in your cliche story, no? In fact, we sort of see this as Mami fights Charlotte and  her minions. In this battle scene, we especially see Mami fighting ever so swiftly and beautifully. It seems as if her newly found joy is giving her an additional boost in energy and magical power through the will of determination to swiftly get the battle over with so she can see through Madoka's transformation into a Mahou Shoujo.


There is something we must keep in mind however; Mami, at this point, is no longer thinking of fighting in order to save others. Instead, she is thinking of herself, because of her new happiness.

The joy she has while fighting Charlotte is found not in justice, but in the fact that she is no longer alone. This is a drastic change in plans, because until this point, Mami has always been fighting for the same goal, which is for the sake of others. However, this goal was suddenly replaced.

What are the consequences of this sudden change of thinking within Mami's mind?

The results of this change include an overly-excited and sentimentally filled Mami, who's thoughts are no longer about survival, but of not being alone, not to mention dying alone.

Ironically, it's as if her hidden wish to not be alone has already been fulfilled... as if she could finally die without being alone.

But that's just a hidden irony that may or may not actually mean anything to Urobuchi.

The point is this, that Mami became perhaps slightly careless when fighting Charlotte, because her thoughts were dwelling in a location within her mind where they have never dwelt before. Instead of focusing on survival and fighting for the sake of others, she was focused on how happy she felt to no longer be alone.

















 But that's not the only way Mami has changed when she met Madoka and Sayaka. There is one other fact that is important to recognize.

When Mami met Madoka and Sayaka, she decided to take on the role of being a perfect teacher and role model. 

Mami felt she needed to present herself as a perfect and flawless teacher and role model to
Madoka and Sayaka. This is actually a critical point that needs to be taken into consideration when discerning Mami's fatal mistake when facing Charlotte.

As we see in Mami's final fight, all goes well until the unpredictable move executed by her enemy, Charlotte. The true form of Charlotte, which is hidden within a tiny and non-threatening doll, suddenly materializes within a matter of seconds in front of Mami, revealing itself to be a giant, monstrous enemy.

It is an unexpected move Mami had never predicted before hand. Normally, Mami would have realized the unprecedented danger and executed a quick defensive or counterattack move to save herself. However, we must remember the fact that she changed; Mami's thoughts no longer dwelt on combat and survival.

As stated previously, Mami's thoughts were no longer focused on surviving for the sake of fighting in the name of justice, for her mind was occupied instead by the joy of no longer being alone, and therefore, the role she decided she must take as a perfect teacher and role model.

And a perfect teacher never makes mistakes. 




This is the fatal flaw of Tomoe Mami. She understood a teacher/role model as being a flawless person, whom others would look up to for strength and guidance in every situation. And, judging by her personality shown throughout the first three episodes, (specifically the way she treats Akemi Homura, who represents the selfish type of Mahou Shoujo), she is also the type of person who would shun all imperfect role models due to her obssession, (recall how Mami finally resorted to binding Homura).

She was no longer fighting as a lone warrior, but as a teacher and role model. Since she had this ideal definition of a role model in her mind as she was fighting Charlotte, her mind was shattered, or rather, put on a halt when she realized her mistake while fighting Charlotte.


Prior to this fight, Mami has executed every single Witch with a finishin move known as Tiro Finale! Because of the nature of Charlotte's abilites however, the finishing move will be proven to be a mistake. 

And a perfect teacher would never make a mistake... right?

Mami's reality was shattered when she saw that Tiro Finale did not finish off Charlotte.


And so, her hesitation, which was caused by the misplacement of her thoughts while fighting Charlotte, allowed her enemy to execute the finishing move. 

This is the realistic way of life presented by Urobuchi Gen.


Even though her acts were of noble valor, she had a great weakness as a result of great misconception, which was her idea of a perfect teacher/role model. 

Just like Miki Sayaka, Mami contained a false ideal within her that caused her death.

Uroubchi is reminding us to look to reality; even the most selfless of warriors will reach a terrible fate if they do not correct and recognize their weaknesses.

Urobuchi Gen reminds us that moral valor alone does not equate to survival and perfection in this world.

In fact, moral valor can sometimes make heroes naive and even arrogant. It is a message that requires much thought, and is related directly to our every day lives as human beings.

Overall, Mami is a very respectable character, since she at least knew about her own deepest wishes, unlike Sayaka. Her inability to see the flaw behind her imaginary idea of a "perfect" role model was also a result of having no teacher to lead her herself, which is rather unfortunate. So when she made a mistake in front of Madoka and Sayaka, she was simply thrown into a state of shock.

Unfortunately, she made the mistake in front of one of the most powerful Witches out there. This can be said to be bad luck, but nevertheless, it was Mami's fault alone.

Such is the reason behind the fall of Tomoe Mami.



I hope this article clarifies some misconceptions that can easily come out of watching Mami's death in Episode 3, especially if the viewer refuses to think about the things surrounding her death.

It's easy to throw up your arms in rage and confusion and ask, "Why couldn't she just move?! Stupid Anime!" Now, you don't have to believe the answer that I've presented to you above, but at least it's something you can think about.








 
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