Is this season actually the last one and is this episode actually the series finale? Those are questions I had at the back of my head when I was catching up on Magia Record. The mobile game the show is based on is still active in Japan and its second story arc is complete. It’s possible that we could get more of this anime (yay?). I did however learn in a comment by AWJ that the anime deviates a lot from the game. That had me thinking about the anime’s ending and after watching this episode and doing a tiny bit of Googling, it seems that the staff went the anime original ending route for this show. In other words, they themselves aren’t sure if they’ll make more. So for now, I guess this really is the last episode of the show.
As someone who isn’t terribly fond of this show, I think this is a pretty good finale. I like the little arc Iroha has here. She fails to save Kuroe and ends up putting the latter out of her misery. She manages to talk Touka and Nemu out out of merging Embryo Eve with Walpurgisnacht but her surrogate sisters end up sacrificing themselves to stop Alina from enacting her own plan (more on that in a bit). Ui appears before her one more time but she vanishes again and Iroha never truly accomplishes what she had set out to do at the beginning of the series. In stark contrast to the friends Iroha made along the way in Season 1, Iroha loses a bunch of people that matters to her. Throughout the episode, she’s on the brink of complete despair and her Doppel wrestles with her for complete control of her mind and body. It’s a nice last minute challenge to the character’s kind and hopeful personality.
The resolution to Iroha’s arc also reminds me a bit of how the original Madoka ended (before Rebellion decided to ruin it, I mean). Iroha falters a bit more than Madoka did but in the end, she remains as unwavering as her predecessor was at the end of her show. Despite losing Ui, Iroha decides to continue on and find the happy life her sister wanted her to have, kind of like how Homura decided to continue fighting in honor of Madoka’s sacrifice (before she decided to completely change her mind, I mean). Iroha also inherits Ui’s ability to gather other magical girls’ energy. It reminds me of Homura inheriting Madoka’s bow at the end of the original series, though I think Iroha’s inheritance is a lot more overpowered.
I’m fine with Touka and Nemu sacrificing themselves to stop Alina. I sympathized with them more than I expected but those two went so off the rocker and had so much blood on their hands that them surviving would’ve been a bitter pill to swallow. I figured Alina would be real big bad at the end but I do take issue with it, simply because this show never gave the character her due. She’s just come crazy lady Touka and Nemu ran into and the show mistakenly thought that was enough to carry what little screentime it gave her. I will however concur that Alina’s plan is great. Rather than save every magical girl, Alina decides to make everyone a magical girl with the same witchy timebomb that she and the others have. That way, the whole world can suffer on equal terms. At least on paper, that’s a delightfully vile twist on Touka and Nemu’s once innocent plan.
While the finale is Iroha’s time to shine, I am baffled at the minimal presence of the other heroines. They rescue her from giving into despair after Kuroe’s death, help contain Embryo Eve, and contribute their powers to Iroha’s giant laser crossbow cannon at the end but that’s about it. Tsuruno, Sana (Yui Ogura), and Felicia (Ayane Sakura) feel about as relevant as all the miscellaneous magical girls from the gacha that all help with the final fight. Rena (Kaori Ishihara) and Kaede (Ayaka Ohashi) have more of a standout moment than any of those three. At least Best Girl Yachiyo gets a little bit of attention. Her receiving some power from her dead friends does feel like an excuse to include them into Iroha’s finishing move but it is kind of nice that the show gave Yachiyo a slight upside to her wish and Yachiyo carrying on the will of her friends is a neat parallel to Iroha’s resolution.
Granted, if we want to talk about who gets the short end of the stick this episode, that “honor” easily goes to the Holy Quintet. After the so-called crossover at the end of Season 2, these five have been relegated to a scant amount of cameo appearances. It really defeats the point of having them in this spin-off. Ultimately, I would’ve preferred it if they weren’t in the show at all. The logistics involving them and Walpurgisnacht are interesting though. I was afraid that Walpurgisnacht would be easy pickings since there’s so many magical girls in this series but evidently, the vast majority of them are dealing with Embryo Eve and Walpurgisnacht is entirely the Holy Quintet’s fight. You’d think having all five of them would still make the fight easier but I guess not since the episode implies that Madoka still dies in this timeline and it shows Homura traveling back in time. Honestly, I’m okay with this. Even if this is a different timeline/canon, having the original main cast succeed in defeating Walpurgisnacht without Madoka going god mode would’ve been a huge disservice to the original show.
Speaking of Madoka, I don’t know how I feel about her goddess form’s cameo at the end. I do like the tinge of hope the character provides here. While some of the characters narrate that their work will forever go unnoticed, we see the one person who is aware of them and does care about them. That said, what the hell is Madoka doing here? Helping these poor girls is her job. Why is she only watching them from the cosmos. I assume the game explains it but that doesn’t excuse the show from providing its own explanation.
So at long last, I’m finally done with Magia Record, in all its okay glory. I freely admit that this show actually has some good ideas and moments but in the end, it’s a bit of a mess. It’s not particularly great at explaining itself and it always struggled at juggling its cast of characters (which I’d argue is far too big). Season 3 is marginally better than Seasons 1 and 2. That’s partly thanks to the show finally putting all of its puzzle pieces together but I would also point out that this season is only 4 episodes so long so by default, it was more likely to be a more consistent package.
Again, this may or may not be the ending of the Magia Record anime. Shaft is currently busy digging the original canon out from the hole they left it in with the Walpurgisnacht: Rising movie and they can’t exactly get away with unfinished animation for a theatrical film. If a continuation of Magia Record ever gets greenlit, it’s not anytime soon. I wouldn’t be opposed to continue covering Magia Record via the mobile game but go figure, Aniplex shut the North American servers a few months after Season 1 aired so I’d need a really good fan translation or some other alternative for that. Honestly, I’m okay if this is the last post for the show. I don’t hate it but I don’t particularly like it either so I’m in no rush to seeing the next chapter in its story.
Watch Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Final Season -Dawn of a Shallow Dream- on Crunchyroll and Funimation
Xenodude Scribbles 
The significance of Ultimate Madoka “closing the book” in the final scene is that the entire anime was pointless, nothing more than one of the countless “failed timelines” that Homura’s time looping produced, and that ceased to exist except in Madoka’s omniscient memories after she rewrote the multiverse into one without witches. It’s the same way that several of the Madoka spinoff manga ended, and I found it immensely unsatisfying every time. As you’ve gleaned, it’s not even close to what happens in the game.
It’s not unusual when an adaptation is made of an ongoing story (such as a manga, or as in this case a gacha game) for the adaptation to get an original ending that neatly ties up the story. However, I can’t think of another adaptation-original ending that’s as thoroughly bleak as this one. The closest thing I can think of is Akame ga Kill’s anime ending, but that wasn’t actually all that different from the ending the manga eventually reached; the anime just had a faster pace and an even higher body count than the manga.
Apparently there’s some strong evidence that the section of the game storyline corresponding to this season (the battle with Embryo Eve and Walpurgisnacht) underwent last-minute rewriting due to a publisher mandate not to kill off any characters. Assuming that’s the case, what may have happened is that the anime writer decided to “fix” the game’s overly happy and bloodless outcome to be “more Madoka-ish”, and did so by going all the way to the opposite extreme with an ending where nothing is accomplished except the restoration of the status quo atop a pile of dead bodies (which is not at all how Madoka itself ended!)
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I get the impression that ending is meant to be hopeful, with all the surviving magical girls unionizing (which is kind of hilarious, to be honest) and working together to survive and Iroha continuing on with her life. Now, whether or not the ending succeeds is up to debate. You’re not wrong that the status quo remains the same or that a lot of people died in the background.
The lack of deaths in Seasons 1 and 2 stood out to me. I don’t necessarily need someone to get the axe but it did feel like Magia Record lacked one of the original’s strongest qualities. I don’t entirely mind Season 3 trying to be more like Madoka but it definitely could’ve done it better.
Honestly, when the show confirmed that Homura is still time traveling, I was afraid that she’d end up erasing this timeline with her magic. Even as someone who’s mixed on this series, I wouldn’t be happy with it ultimately not mattering at all. If Ultimate Madoka really does erase this canon, then that’s very lame.
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