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Why do you have so many version ups?
14th March, 2012 by tri4
Last updated 23rd March, 2012 (8:42 AM)

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We value quality over everything else. Our v2/v3/v4/v∞ are generally for the sake of adding additional polish to things. We pick an anime and stick with it, continuing to improve on our releases as months or years pass by. While we think our very first releases were pretty good, there’s always going to be room for improving them. Being able to throw out version ups whenever we want and constantly revise things is a big part of why we started our own group, even though we don’t have many people and we’re slower.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika got an entire v2 batch because of a coloring bug in x264 which gave the series a slight purple-ish tint. As of writing this (2012/03/14) every version of Madoka☆Magika has this issue except Elysium’s and our v2 batch. It’s mainly noticeable on grays, and only has any serious weight on a couple of scenes in the series (but it stands out a lot in them). A picture is worth 1,000 words (v1 on the left, v2 on the right):

Since we were re-encoding the series anyways, we took the chance to make some minor tweaks to the scripts and typesetting for a couple of episodes. Each Drama CD has also been improved, and we scanned the Blu-ray jackets ourselves, to give us higher quality scans than the ones we had before. Overall though, nothing really major changed except the encoding, so we won’t bother with a detailed changelog, but…

We want to encourage public QC and criticism here, just to see how it’ll go. Tell us everything we did wrong in the v2 batch using this article’s comments. Just remember, our goal isn’t to cater to you. We don’t answer to anyone except the original work itself.

Our v2 batch doesn’t have any major errors, doesn’t require anymore polish at all, and is an accurate, watchable, high-quality release. If that’s so, why would we try to encourage other people to give us input? Shouldn’t we just be proud of the release and not give a crap what others think? Well, we do think it’s great, and we don’t care what others think of it, but to call it perfect would be foolish. If out of 100 comments, only 2 useful minor suggestions are made that never occurred to us, then we’ll deem this worth it.
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Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika Notes
Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika In-depth Extensive Translator's Notes
12th January, 2012 by tri4
Last updated 21st January, 2012 (3:55 PM)

These are under construction. Right now only a couple of episodes are posted and they will be heavily revised, this is a rough draft. We wanted to let people know what the “extensive notes” are, so this is just a small sample. We’ll finish these up in the coming days/weeks, so if you’re interested, come back then. Personally, we think these get really interesting around episode 8.

!———SPOILER WARNING———!
These are not meant to be read as you watch the series! These notes contain major amount of spoilers from the get-go.
Also, I suggest you read these notes with the Madoka☆Magika theme enabled.
Table of contents:
- Preface
- Episode 01: 夢の中で逢った、ような…
- Speech styles
- Episode 02: それはとっても嬉しいなって
- Episode 03: もう何も怖くない
- Episode 04: 奇跡も、魔法も、あるんだよ
- Episode 05: 後悔なんて、あるわけない
- Episode 06: こんなの絶対おかしいよ
- Episode 07: 本当の気持ちと向き合えますか？
- Episode 08: あたしって、ほんとバカ
- Episode 09: そんなの、あたしが許さない
- Songs
- Episode 10: もう誰にも頼らない
- Episode 11: 最後に残った道しるべ
- Episode 12: わたしの、最高の友達
- Drama CD1: Memories of you
- Drama CD2: Sunny Day Life
- Drama CD3: Farewell Story
- General notes / Reference

Preface

A lot of thought was put into our translation of Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika. My ideas behind translating this series were a bit of a mixed bag, though. The amount of thought put into crafting this series by its original staff is astonishing… I wanted to accurately convey every single line, every word, every little piece of nuance in the dialogue, throughout the entire series, as faithfully as possible. I realize that writers pick certain words for a reason, and I know how much revision the original scripts went through. Because of that, I wanted to put an equal amount of thought into its English translation. Overall, I am happy with the end result. The word choices chosen to reflect the Japanese are all very literal, and there is almost not a single dropped word throughout the entire series.

Almost. While I feel that what was “lost in translation” was brought to a bare minimum, this translation is still not perfectly literal. That is because a true literal translation between J<->E is impossible. To give someone with absolutely no Japanese knowledge a perfect understanding of everything said, you would have to flash TL notes across the screen for almost every other line. Of course, this is true for basically all translation across all languages. Generally, I do not see a problem with that concept. A translator’s job is to translate an author’s thoughts from another language… not to interpret, not to re-write, and not necessarily to replicate an experience or feeling. But, as a fan of Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika, this was a double-sided coin.

The problem here is that this dialogue is very immersive. From its conversations alone, this series has the ability to raise tension through the roof and put you on the edge of your seat. As a fan, I love that. I did not, under any circumstance, want the immersion to be broken for the audience, especially throughout the second half of the series. Thus, while this translation is quite literal and perfectly accurate, there is still a lot to say about many lines from a language perspective which were not said in the episodes themselves. Teaching you Japanese as you watch the show was not my main priority. Also, there are things I thought would be nice to TL note on our external notes pages, but they would’ve been spoilers to people reading the notes as they watch the series.

That’s why I’m writing this. Using these in-depth extensive translator’s notes, I will go over the entire series, and give you insight into why things were translated the way they are – I will explain any dropped nuance brought about by how incompatible Japanese and English are – and among that, I will give analysis/observation on how a line ties into a bigger picture, from a writing perspective. I have combed through this series’ dialogue countless times over the last year, and I’ve come to find that almost every single line (seriously) holds a greater meaning or is said for a very specific reason. Not all of these observations are mine alone. I will also point out interesting things I’ve read in interviews with staff, on 2channel, on nico douga, on the puella magi wiki, in the commentary tracks, etc… Basically, this will serve as the sum of everything notable I’ve learned about this show’s dialogue in the last year. Also, I will assume you’ve already read the regular notes, so I’m not going to point most of that stuff out.

If you’re interested in both Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika and the Japanese language, I hope you enjoy this.

Episode 1: 夢の中で逢った、ような…

It was as if [we] met in a dream…

Note: If you know basic Japanese, bear with me for this episode. I’m going to start from square 1, but I’ll also assume you know what stuff like honorifics are.

01:37 QB	「でも、彼女も覚悟の上だろう」 “But, I believe she is also at the height of her preparation.”
覚悟(kakugo – preparation) also means something close to “resolve.” This line could easily be interpreted as mental preparation. Like, Homura’s resolution to do what she is doing is already in its highest state. 上(ue – height) means “up” or “on top of” in this context, so 覚悟の上(kakugo no ue) means something like “preparation’s summit” literally.
02:19 Madoka	「本当なの？私なんかでも、本当に何かできるの？」 “Is that true? Can a person like me… really do something?”
First of all, Madoka says なの(nano) after 本当(hontou – true). “Nano” is a cute, feminine copula that Japanese people can say, which has no equivalent at all in English. Madoka uses it often. Another habit of Madoka’s is the 私なんか(watashi nanka – a person like me)… saying なんか(nanka) after referring to yourself is an extremely humble (almost derogatory) thing to do.
02:32 QB	「もちろんさ！」 “Of course!”
This line drops さ(sa), which is an interjection that indicates assertiveness. According to dictionaries, it’s also mainly masculine. It’s kind of cute when QB says it.
02:55 Madoka	「夢おち…？」 “A typical dream ending?”
As outlined in the ep1 notes, this refers to the cliche of a story/scene/whatever ending in a dream. But I want to point out that this means Madoka retained some subconscious memory of the last time axis. Also, the usage of yume ochi as a plot element is particularly widespread in mahou shoujo anime. A trend probably popularized by Card Captor Sakura in the late 90s (although it does predate CCS), this genre is very well-known to use dreams in their first episodes as setup, which originally gave you the “This really does feel like a mahou shoujo anime” feeling in Madoka☆Magika. Another thing that helped create this feeling was the fact that the show opened up by introducing Madoka’s family, and then saw her off to school (she even had toast in her mouth). Again, very typical of mahou shoujo anime, such as CCS or Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.
04:34 Madoka	「おはよう、パパ」 “Morning, Papa!”
お早う(ohayou – [good] morning) does not actually mean “good morning.” It’s a greeting with that same sentiment, but it literally means something closer to “honorably early”, as if to imply “it’s admirable that you are up so early”. Also, “ohayou” = informal, and “ohayou gozaimasu” = formal (note that Hitomi says the “gozaimasu” even to her friends; this is why “ohayou” is TL’d as “morning” and “ohayou gozaimasu” is reflected as “good morning”).
05:06 Tatsuya	「ママ起きたね」 “Mama woke up, huh?”
ね(ne – huh?). “Ne” is tough. Generally it is explained as a fairly casual feminine interjection/particle (although many males use it, in non-feminine ways) that means… well, a lot of things. If someone just says “ne” by itself it usually means something close to “Hey” (to get attention), or “Right?” (to either agree with someone or ask someone for confirmation)… as a sentence ender it can just be cute, it can indicate emphasis, it can turn something into a question… “Ne” is something I would prefer to leave untranslated as it has nothing like a direct equivalent, but due to how English is structured, tacking it onto the end of sentences later on in this series reads very poorly, and it broke immersion too much for my liking. Thus, it’s reflected different ways based on context. This “Huh?” is to request for confirmation, but also doubles as reflecting some emphasis on the end of the sentence. “You know” is a very common reflection I used throughout the series and it retains the double meaning of request/confirmation in most contexts. When it’s said alone, it’s usually TL’d as “Hey” or “Right?” There’s also a few lines where it’s just dropped (sorry). If you don’t really get it, use your ears and try to get a feel for it, you’ll pick up on it quickly. In my commentary translations, “ne” is left untranslated very often, and I think you’ll find it reads just fine in that lax environment.
05:12 Junko	「最近どうなんよ？」 “How are things lately?”
よ(yo). “Yo” as a sentence ending particle is very similar to ne – it can indicate certainty, emphasis, contempt, request… except it doesn’t have any connotation of being feminine tied to it, and isn’t used on its own much (unrelated to the particle, “yo” on its own in JP can be an informal greeting, same as English). Unfortunately, “yo” is dropped in most all translations, including this one. Like “ne,” use your ears to get a general feel for this.
05:27 Junko	「和子はどう？」 “How’s Kazuko doing?”
Because Junko refers to Saotome Kazuko by her first name, this indicates that the two are already close friends (which helps explain why they’re drinking with each other in episode 11).
05:31 Madoka	「ホームルームでのろけまくりだよ」 “In homeroom she gets carried away speaking fondly of her loved one!”
だよ(dayo) is yet another cute sentence ender. This is actually a combination of the sentence enders だ(da) and よ(yo) which can both be used separately. “Da” comes up a few times on its own in this series, and unlike the other really multi-purpose enders, this one has a more clear meaning (basically it’s a very declarative ender). While we’re talking about sentence enders, I want to get な(na) out of the way too. That’s another one which indicates emphasis or emotion. One more, わ(wa), often said by Homura, Mami-san, Hitomi, and Sayaka (but other chars say it too). “Wa” as an ender is extremely girly (and also has a feeling of being “proper”). Now I think we have all those out of the way!
06:11 Madoka	「え～。派手過ぎない？」 “Eh? Isn’t it too flashy?”
Being concerned about having ribbons that are too flashy (therefore standing out) is an obvious way to set Madoka up as a girl who thinks of herself somewhat lowly (especially when you consider the fact you already know she says “watashi nanka” sometimes). Madoka has a few other lines around here that clearly point towards this setup too, but I don’t feel it’s necessary to single them out.
07:23 (Madoka) 07:25 (Tomohisa)	「いってきま～す」 “I’m off, be back later!” 「いってらっしゃい～」 “See you later!”
いってきます(Ittekimasu) and いってらっしゃい(itterashai) are both literally like “[I/you will] go and return.”
08:12 Hitomi	「そんな風にキッパリ割り切れたらいいんだけど」 “It’d be nice if that kind of method could be summed up clearly, though…”
Ep1’s notes tell you that this line is referring to the act of giving love letters, but they don’t tell you that this whole love letter business is directly related to some events later on. Considering how up-front Hitomi is regarding Kamijou-kun later on in the series, it’s interesting that they initially portrayed her as a popular girl (who typically can pick their boys) and gave her lines saying she doesn’t understand why people wouldn’t directly confess to her (she’s totally mystified by this indirect method of giving love letters). Hitomi was setup as being a direct character, especially when it comes to confessions and love, from the first time she appeared. This helps you understand why she consulted Sayaka about Kamijou in such a stern manner.
08:19 Madoka	「いいなぁ。私も一通ぐらいもらってみたいなぁ…ラブレター！」 “How nice. I’d like to receive at least one too, you know… A love letter!”
This line is important because I would give Madoka a love letter.
10:08 Homura	「暁美ほむらです。よろしくお願いします」 “I’m Akemi Homura. Please treat me well.”
This line is used as a point of reference for Homura’s character later on, but right now I just want to point out that よろしくお願いします(yoroshiku onegaishimasu – Please treat me well) has no real English equivalent, and can also mean something like “I will be in your care”.
11:35 Homura	「鹿目まどかさん。貴女がこのクラスの保健係よね」 “Kaname Madoka-san… you are the health officer for this class, correct?”
This is a really obvious thing to point out, but Homura knowing the layout to the school, and that Madoka is the health officer, is all because of her time leaps. This is also why she gets extremely irritated at Madoka calling her “Akemi-san” instead of the more familiar “Homura-chan.” These hints of Homura knowing more than she should are dropped throughout the series almost every time she appears, until ep10. Slightly related, this series is very good at using body language to express feelings, with Homura being the best example of this. Her constant heavy steps and clenched fists help drive home the points of how much she restrains herself, and how fed up she is with everything. Homura is basically always visibly agitated.
13:33 Homura	「さもなければ、全てを失うことになる」 “Otherwise, it will result in the loss of everything”
This sort of eye-close up they do here is interesting to me, because later on in the series, Homura says a sentence which is structured in the same way as this (ep8 07:51 「早く浄化しないと、取り返しのつかないことになる」 – It must be purified quickly, or else it will result in an irrecoverable situation) and they do similar close up on her eye there too. They both use ことになる(koto ni naru – result in [a] thing). No real significance I think, but I’ll probably point out subtle consistencies like this, too. On the left is ep1, on the right is ep8.
14:54 Sayaka	「文武両道で才色兼備かと思いきや実はサイコな電波さん。」 “At first I thought she was a well-rounded student in academics and athletics, but in reality she’s a psychotic weirdo!”
電波さん(Denpa-san – weirdo) is a hard word to translate, but “weirdo” is close and seemed to fit Sayaka. It means someone who is overly eccentric, nonsensical, and just generally very weird and “out there.”
15:03 Sayaka	「萌えか？そこが萌えなのかあ！？」 “Is it moé? Is that what moé is!?”
I’m not about to try and explain what moé is (you can only truly experience it for yourself), but it’s interesting that Sayaka references it. Later on this ep (19:35) she also references cosplay. At first I thought they might be setting her up as the type of girl who casually reads a lot of manga or something – well, I could still see that.
15:16 Madoka	「あのね…昨夜あの子と夢の中で会った、ような…」 “Um, well… Last night, it was as if I met that girl in a dream…”
夢の中で会った、ような(yume no naka de atta youna – as if [we] met in a dream) is the episode title. She says あの子(ano ko – that girl) here though, so the TL comes out a little bit differently.
15:32 Sayaka	「あー、もう決まりだ。それ前世の因果だわ。あんた達、時空を超えて巡り合った運命の仲間なんだわぁ」 “Ah, it’s already decided then! This is karma from your past life! You girls are companions bound by fate, meeting each other again!”
Karma is a huge theme in this series, and obviously Madoka/Homura actually are companions, so for them to nonchalantly throw in these lines so early is amusing to me. It’s sort of like even the light hearted joke lines ended up having some meaning in the end.
17:13	In the CD store, Madoka is listening to 「コネクト」(Connect), the OP song.
19:58 Sayaka	「あーもう、どうなってんのさ！」 “Ah, damn it! What’s going on!?”
もう(mou) is an interjection used to express exasperation. I TL it as “Damn it” for Sayaka and “Sheesh” for Mami-san/Madoka due to the differences in their characters. Really, I’d prefer to leave it as mou in most series, but not this one. These TLs are perfectly literal anyways.
21:31	Credens justitiam aka Mami-san’s theme.
I’d like to point out that the lyrics to Credens justitiam, and every other song with words in this series, have no meaning. The composer, 梶浦由記(Kajiura Yuki), has created her own language for use in different OSTs (dubbed 梶浦語(kajiurago) by her Japanese fans, and “Kajiuran” by her English ones). She mostly writes gibberish/sounds that just fit with the music she’s composing.
22:34 Mami	「魔女は逃げたわ」 “The witch ran away”
Interestingly enough it seems as if though Mami-san is already familiar with who Homura is here. Maybe not, though. I don’t exactly know what to make of this, but in any case, Mami-san is a badass.

Speech styles

I went over the basics of sentence ending particles and some interjections, but now I want to connect that knowledge to the show itself and explain each character’s speaking patterns clearly.

鹿目まどか＜Kaname Madoka＞
The key elements in Madoka’s speech are cuteness and humbleness. She has a habit of ending sentences with 「なの」(Nano) which, as I mentioned earlier, is really feminine and cute. Out of the cast she is the only one with the “nano” habit. She also says a lot of ね(ne), よ(yo), and だよ(dayo). These are all quite cute, but they aren’t exactly “proper” like the わ(wa) which Mami-san and Homura use, which gives Madoka a bit more of a “normal girl” feeling. She also very rarely uses the technically masculine さ(sa). She ends an intense amount of lines in かな(kana – I wonder) throughout the series (like 4x more than any other character), really making the fact her mind is wavering on what she should do stand out. She combines “nano” and “kana” very often, saying things such as “sou nano kana” when often “sou ka”, “sou nano” or “sou kana” would each be more common. This “nano kana” combination feels very Madoka-ish to me. Madoka refers to almost every other character with the honorific -chan (which is cute and girly), the only exception being Mami-san, who she has a very large amount of respect for. She calls her mother “Mama” and father “Papa”, which are very cute and informal. These are what small children usually refer to their parents as, so it has a similar feeling as never growing out of calling your mother “Mommy.” She refers to herself mainly as あたし(atashi), which is a feminine, girl-only pronoun. Note that there aren’t any notable changes in Madoka’s speech itself on other time axis’. Instead, it is Yuuki Aoi’s acting that gives the huge contrast between time axis 1~3 Madoka and time axis 5 Madoka. That and because Madoka is confident in herself, the tempo of her speech picks up (Not very many… pauses and s-stutters… or, um… nervous interjections in her, er… s-speech).
暁美ほむら＜Akemi Homura＞
Homura’s speech changes a lot on different time axis’. Throughout most of the anime (time axis 5), her speech can be defined as precise, sharp, and proper. She does not use many interjections or trip over herself, giving off the impression that she’s the kind of person who chooses their words very carefully. Homura never once uses a nervous interjection before episode 10. She uses the particle わ(wa) as a sentence ender often, which is very feminine, but rather than being feminine in a cute way (like Madoka’s “nano”) this is more like a “proper” thing to do… I’d call it almost lady-like. Homura does use なの(nano) a few times, but it isn’t a major habit of hers and overall isn’t really notable. She only uses さ(sa) once in ep12’s madoka/homura space scene, when she’s very shaken up and her mind is racing. She uses ね(ne) and よ(yo) about as much as everyone else. When it comes to general speech, she pretty much always uses the formal or polite forms of things. On time axis 5, she addresses people mainly by full name (with no honorific attached), only addressing Madoka and Kyouko differently from time-to-time (calling them each by their given name, again with no honorifics). Note that there’s one exception to the no honorific rule, in episode 1 she says “Kaname Madoka-san, you are the health officer for this class, correct?” She refers to herself as 私(watashi), which is a gender neutral, formal pronoun. Then there’s the time axis 1~3 メガネっ子(meganekko) version Homura, who talks completely differently. On time axis 1, Homura’s speech is almost identical to time axis 5 Madoka’s – tripping over her words often and using a lot of nervous interjections such as あの(ano – um/err), えっと(etto – um/err) and その(sono – um/that’s…). She also uses なの(nano) a lot more frequently around here. In these time periods, Homura addresses everyone by their surname with -san attached (Miki-san, Tomoe-san, and Kaname-san (with the exception of the every end of time axis 3, her first time calling Madoka by given name)). She refers to herself as “watashi” here too. Basically, meganekko version Homura sounds cuter, extremely nervous, and overall reminiscent of time axis 5 Madoka. I want to note that there are two scenes on time axis 5 where Homura sort of “lapses” back to this style of speech – in episode 11’s scene when she confesses to Madoka that she uses time manipulation magic, and then in episode 12’s space scene that I mentioned before.
美樹さやか＜Miki Sayaka＞
Sayaka’s speech can mostly be summed up as “ordinary.” She talks exactly like you would expect a slightly eccentric second-year middle school student girl to. She is not particularly polite like Mami-san, or impolite like Kyouko. This realistic-style of casual Japanese makes her easy to understand and identify with. She really does feel close to a real, normal person. She uses a decent amount of interjections and sentence ending particles, like さ(sa) or なんだ(nanda). She also uses a little bit of わ(wa), よ(yo), ね(ne) and なの(nano). She uses nervous interjections like あの(ano) and えっと(etto), but not anymore than your everyday person would. Of course, she does have her little quirks (like Kuu~!). She calls Madoka, Hitomi, and Kyousuke only by their given names (no honorific). For Mami-san, she attaches -san. She never once calls Homura by name, instead calling her only 転校生(tenkousei – transfer student) or things such as あいつ(aitsu – that person, informal). As for Kyouko, she addresses her by given name twice, but always attaches an impolite word onto it – these are 杏子って奴(Kyouko tte yatsu – “‘Kyouko’ person”) and あの杏子とか言う奴(ano Kyouko toka iu yatsu – “that Kyouko or whatever you call her person”). She calls Madoka’s little brother (Tatsuya) “Takkun.” This informal nickname shows that she’s close to Madoka’s family. She refers to herself as あたし(atashi), like Madoka.
佐倉杏子＜Sakura Kyouko＞
Kyouko’s speech is beyond informal. It’s straight up slangy and rude. Especially in episodes 4~6, she uses interjections and colloquialisms almost every line (especially “sa”), she never really uses polite forms of anything, and she shortens a lot of words. As you can imagine, this kind of character is very difficult to translate well. You do not want to overdo the impoliteness, as Japanese is a fairly formal language by nature, even if a character purposefully disregards all general formalities. So it is difficult to properly convey this kind of impoliteness in English, as it does not really have clear “formal” and “informal” sentence structures/word forms to begin with. For this reason, Kyouko’s speech is reflected a little differently from the rest of the cast, in an attempt to just get the point across. Her ね(ne) is reflected as “y’know” instead of “you know”, and I purposefully used informal feeling word choices on most of her lines. I’ll point out a lot of Kyouko’s speech in these episode notes, because I want to outline why things were done the way they were. It is best to handle her on a line-for-line basis, but the general idea is that she’s slangy as hell. One interesting fact is that as the series progresses, Kyouko’s speech subtly becomes more tame. After episode 6, she drops a bit of the rudeness, and after episode 7-8, she begins to use more common sentence structures. Her talking style still has a very “Kyouko” feel to it, but it’s considerably toned down. This is likely because she begins to remember who she originally aspired to be, and consciously starts making an effort to correct herself. I’ll point out example lines of this in the appropriate episode-specific notes. Kyouko almost never directly calls other characters by name, with the exception of Sayaka, who she mostly just calls by given name (full name a couple of times). She does reference Mami twice, once by given name, once by full name. She calls her father おやじ(oyaji – old man) which is an informal thing to do. It designates closeness, but almost feels a little bit rough around the edges. She refers to herself as あたし(atashi).
巴マミ＜Tomoe Mami＞
Mami-san’s talking style is the polar opposite of Kyouko. She talks in a very polite and formal manner. But in addition to elegance, her speech has a unique hint of confidence in it. This confident air surrounding what she says and how she says it could likely be due to her excitement of finally being able to act a proper senpai. She ends many sentences in わ(wa), よ(yo), and ね(ne). She only uses さ(sa) once, when crying. She uses お（o） at the beginning of a couple words, which designates politeness. Her formal, complete sentence structures combined with her usage of “wa” give her speech an overall “proper” feeling. I believe this is what most people would expect out of Mami-san, so it should not be hard to understand. Overall, Mami-san and time axis 5 Homura have fairly similar speaking styles, but Homura’s word choices are more precise whereas Mami-san’s feel a bit more elegant, and her general speech feels more confident. Of the main characters, Mami-san has the least amount of lines, so picking out particular speech habits is a little bit tough. But, I believe she may say オッケー(okay) and 分かったわ(wakatta wa – understood) often. Also, she never ends a sentence in かな(kana – I wonder), instead opting to always use かしら(kashira – I wonder) which has a feeling of elegance to it. In every time axis, she addresses all characters formally by their surnames, with -san attached. But, in time axis 5, she only directly addresses Homura once, as “Akemi Homura-san.” She refers to herself as 私(watashi).
キュゥべえ＜Kyubey＞
QB’s speech is weird. Extremely weird. Overall it holds a feeling of just being a little bit “off.” Ignoring his usage of cute interjections and particles, the way he structures sentences and his word choices are very strange sometimes. During translation, my editor and I would refer to a lot of his word-choices as “QB-isms.” I think that this feeling can be credited to the fact that he is an alien. They gave him a sort of generally awkward feeling in the way he talks. If a lot of his lines seem goofy to you, rest assured that they were translated in such a way on purpose – however I still feel as if though the translation did not perfectly capture the extent of his odd speech style. This is due to his usage of interjections/particles. He uses a lot of よ(yo). He also uses quite a bit of だ(da), ね(ne), and だよ(dayo). Often times he will tack these cute additions onto the end of sentences that are not cute at all. Like, “while explaining entropy or talking about how much it’d hurt to have a spear thrust into your stomach, let’s make the speech sound cute.” This, combined with his odd word choices and slightly “off” sentence structure (and also Katou Emiri) makes him one of the most unique sounding characters I’ve ever heard. He refers to everyone by name (full and given), without any honorifics. “It” refers to “itself” as 僕(boku), mainly used by males. I am aware that I’ve been referring to QB as a male in these notes, you’ll just have to excuse that as it’s a habit that will probably never be broken… Yes, QB is officially genderless.

Episode 2: それはとっても嬉しいなって

I’d say, “That’s really delightful.”

00:13 Mami	「私は巴マミ。あなたたちと同じ、見滝原中の３年生」 “I am Tomoe Mami. Just like both of you, I attend Mitakihara Middle School as a third-year student.”
I want to make it extra-clear that the “Just like both of you” is a reflection of あなたたちと同じ(anatatachi to onaji – identical to you-group) and is only meant to apply to the fact they’re Mitakihara students, not to say they’re third-year students. Madoka and Sayaka are second-year students.
04:58 Junko	「その手があったか」 “So I could use that technique.”
A more literal TL of this is something like “So that hand was there?”, where “hand” means “method/technique/means.”
05:26 QB	「魔女は呪いから生まれた存在なんだ」 “Witches are beings born from curses.”
This line refers to the fact that a curse (majo) always balances out a wish (mahou shoujo). But, what I’d like to point out is that I dropped the なんだ(nanda) at the end, which is something like an exclamation of assurance.
05:43 Mami	「理由のはっきりしない自殺や殺人事件は、かなりの確率で魔女の呪いが原因なのよ」 “Murders and suicides without clear motives are very likely to be caused by a witch’s curse, you know.”
This line played a slight role after Sayaka died and they explicitly stated multiple times that they “can’t figure out the cause of death.”
05:55 Sayaka	「そんなヤバイ奴らがいるのに、どうして誰も気付かないの？」 “If those guys are so dangerous, why doesn’t anyone notice that they exist?”
奴ら(yatsura – guys) is a hard thing to reflect in English. It doesn’t really mean “guys.” It’s basically a derogatory way to refer to a group of people. By the way, 奴(yatsu) is the same, but it refers to a single person – the ら(ra) makes it plural. Also, this line is slightly liberal. It’s actually closer to “If such dangerous yatsura exist, then why doesn’t anyone notice?” but this was hard to get flowing due to there being no decent ways of reflecting “yatsura.”
06:22 Mami	「そう、命懸けよ。だからあなたたちも、慎重に選んだ方がいい」 “That’s right. My life is certainly at risk. Therefore, both of you should also choose your path carefully.”
It is no wonder that between Homura’s warnings and Mami-san’s cautiousness that Madoka did not become a mahou shoujo until the final episode (on this time axis). I’m pointing this out because I have seen people criticize Madoka’s character for not developing until the very end, but with all this pressure pointing towards not becoming a mahou shoujo, wouldn’t it actually be stranger if she did it earlier? Remember that she holds Mami-san in very high respect too, so these early warnings left a big impression on Madoka. It also seems that she always becomes a mahou shoujo pretty early on if Homura isn’t planting that seed of doubt in her. After all, in time axis 1~3, Madoka was already a confident mahou shoujo before Homura even got to her!
06:41 Mami	「二人ともしばらく私の魔女退治に付き合ってみない？」 “For a short while, would you two like to accompany me while I exterminate witches?”
This line serves as setup to rope Madoka and Sayaka into the mahou shoujo world, but it’s also perfectly in line with Mami-san’s character. Obviously, Mami-san is lonely to an extent that most of us probably can’t imagine, so even though she knows she’s putting their lives in danger, she would still do almost anything for some company.
07:40 Hitomi	「お二人とも、さっきからどうしたんです？」 “What has been the matter with both of you since earlier?”
Note that Hitomi slowly begins drifting away from Madoka and Sayaka, since she knew nothing about the whole mahou shoujo situation. Probably, after their friendship began to drift too far apart, she got lonely and decided to pursue Kamijou-kun more seriously, even if it meant possibly running into problems with Sayaka later down the line. I don’t think it was entirely a “bad timing” coincidence.
08:19 Madoka	「今日の仁美ちゃん、何だかさやかちゃんみたいだよ」 “Hitomi-chan is kind of acting like Sayaka-chan today…”
Slightly liberal line, should be “Today’s Hitomi-chan is kind of acting like Sayaka-chan.”
11:50 Sayaka	「まあきっと、私達がバカなんだよ」 “Well, I’m sure… we’re just idiots.”
This is the beginning of Sayaka calling herself an idiot. She does it a couple times throughout the series, and it ends up being her last words. Those are the ep8 title, “I’m… really an idiot”, but she had been thinking this way about herself since around this point.
16:55 Mami	「それから、病院とかに取り憑かれると最悪よ。ただでさえ弱っている人たちから生命力が吸い上げられるから・・・目も当てられないことになる」 “And then… it’s the worst when they possess something like a hospital. Since even under normal circumstances only weak people are there, and they get their vitality sucked out of them… It becomes something too horrible to look at.”
In episode 3, when Charlotte’s Grief Seed was about to hatch on the hospital wall, and Sayaka said “I can’t leave it alone… in a place like this”, she was mostly concerned about the well being of Kamijou-kun. However, Mami-san saying this in the previous episode surely also played a role in how urgent and serious she was about preventing the Grief Seed from overtaking the hospital.
22:37 Homura	「貴女の獲物よ」 “It was your game.”
Homura refers to witches as “game” (as in, hunting prey) a few of times (the other times being in episode 3 (13:28 「今回の獲物は私が狩る」 “I’ll cut down the game this time”) and episode 7 (20:26 「そんな理由で貴女が獲物を譲るなんてね」 “You’d let her have the game for that kind of reason, would you?”).
23:23 Sayaka	「一件落着、って感じかな」 “It feels like the case is closed, doesn’t it…?”
Somewhat liberal line. The literal is more like “‘The case is stable now’ is the feeling, I wonder.”
23:47 Madoka	「それは、とっても嬉しいなって」 “I’d say, ‘That’s really delightful.’”
Episode title! Of course, Madoka aspiring to be like Mami-san leads you to believe that she will make her wish and become a mahou shoujo soon, but instead, I think that this affection Madoka has for mahou shoujo-ness was meant for deepening her sympathy with them, giving her more of a reason to erase all witches in the end.

Episode 3: もう何も怖くない

Nothing is scary anymore!

03:15 Sayaka	「いやー、やっぱマミさんってカッコイイねえ！」“Man… Mami-san really is cool, you know!”
いやー(iyaa – man) is an interjection that literally means “No” or “Nah.” In English, that does not make much sense in this context, so I picked a different interjection that felt Sayaka-ish and seemed to work with this context without destroying the original feeling.
05:07 Madoka	「それって上条君のこと？」 Is this about Kamijou-kun?
それ(sore) means “that” not “this” so the TL of this line is a bit liberalized for flow.
06:09 QB	「僕としては、早ければ早い程いいんだけど」 “For me, the sooner the better, though.”
Localized. “As for me, if it’s soon then sooner is good, though.” is a slightly more literal line.
15:58 Madoka	「でも、それでもがんばってるマミさんに・・・私、憧れてるんです」 “But, Mami-san, who perseveres in spite of that… I aspire to be like you!”
This part of this conversation is linked to the scene between Madoka and her father from earlier this episode (7:52). In that scene, Madoka’s father explains that “the very way you live can become your dream.” He says that Madoka’s mother works so hard not because she wanted to work at a company, but instead simply because she is persevering to overcome hard obstacles, which brings her great satisfaction. When Madoka heard that, she realized that mahou shoujo do the same – they persevere through the tough times to help people – and Madoka felt as if though leading that lifestyle would give her a purpose. Before that conversation with her father, she was talking with QB (06:48 「だからマミさんみたいにカッコよくて素敵な人になれたら・・・それだけで十分に幸せなんだけど」 “So if I could become someone like Mami-san, who’s cool and wonderful… That alone would bring me enough happiness, or something”). The conversation with her father deepened this thinking style, also leading Madoka to hold Mami-san in an even higher respect due to the similarities between her and her mother. All of this is what she means when she says 「願いごと、私なりにいろいろと考えてみたんですけど」 “I’ve been thinking about a lot of things in my own way regarding a wish” (14:41).
16:05 Mami	「憧れるほどのものじゃないわよ、私……」 “I’m not someone you should aspire to be…”
This line and another which comes up soon (18:48 「私、一人ぼっちじゃないもの」 “I’m… not someone who’s alone!”) both use the word もの(mono – someone). “Mono” can be written in kanji as either 者(person) or 物(object). All transcriptions (and official references) only have this word written in hiragana (もの), making it a little bit ambiguous between “object” and “person.” My translation interprets it as 者(person/someone), because it is a far more common usage in this context – but it is interesting that they’d leave it in hiragana to create this ambiguity to begin with. Also, the line at 16:18 (「いい物じゃないわよ。魔法少女なんて」 “It isn’t a pleasant thing… to be something like a magical girl”) has it written clearly as 物(object).
17:10 Mami	「契約は契約なんだから、ものはついでと思っておこうよ。億万長者とか、素敵な彼氏とか」 “A contract is a contract after all, so think of it as an opportunity to get something. Like billionaire status, or a wonderful boyfriend.”
億万長者(billionaire status) is actually just “billionaire.” It’s a noun, and I did not want to change that – yet getting it to connect with the last line in English was too hard without changing this to something like “a billion dollars” or “like becoming a billionaire,” etc. So, “status” is added to the translation for clarity.
17:35 Mami	「私と鹿目さんの、魔法少女コンビ結成記念よ」 “In commemoration of Kaname-san and I becoming a magical girl combo!”
This “combo” is a reflection of コンビ(conbi) which is a Japanese loanword meaning “combination.” However, “conbi” is almost always used to refer to two people – a duo – and not a combination of a group of people.
18:41 Mami	「もう何も恐くない！」 “Nothing is scary anymore!”
Episode title check! Mami-san, after making her wish, was left alone. She lives by herself, has no relatives except distant ones (ep4 Homura 10:40 「巴マミには、遠い親戚しか身寄りがいないわ」 “Tomoe Mami had no relatives except distant ones”) and as implied by her lines earlier in this episode (15:55 「恋したり遊んだりしてる暇もなくなっちゃうよ」 “You won’t have free time to fall in love or play around”) she probably has no friends at all. Mami-san just wanted companionship. It is speculated that her wish may have been “I don’t want to die alone,” thus when she found this companionship, her time came to an end. While that seems likely but is ultimately uncertain, one certainty is that upon finally getting a companion and being able to act as a senpai, she got overly-confident in her own abilities which dulled her senses during the battle with Charlotte.
20:26 Homura	「こいつを仕留めるのは、私」 “The one who’ll kill this thing… is me!”
こいつ(koitsu – this thing) is a bit hard to translate. It is a somewhat informal way to refer to someone (but not necessarily disrespectful), and usually I’d translate it as something like “this guy.” However, Charlotte is very clearly not a guy, so that TL just felt off. For this line, it’s just “this thing” but I thought it might be worth pointing out.
22:08 Homura	「貴女達には、触る資格なんてない」 “You two don’t have the qualifications to touch it.”
なんて(nante – something like). Throughout the series, “nante” is almost always reflected, but it is dropped a couple of times, this being one of them. A more literal TL might be “For you-tachi, you don’t have anything like the touching qualifications.”

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Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika Notes
Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika Episode 12
5th January, 2012 by tri4
Last updated 12th January, 2012 (10:58 AM)
Table of contents:

Episode Summary

第12話「わたしの、最高のともだち」	Episode 12 「My best friend」
[source] Taking on Walpurgis Night by herself, Homura is covered in severe wounds。 No matter how many times she challenges it she can’t out-rival it, since her own deeds are making Madoka suffer she is falling into despair, and her own Soul Gem finished dying black。 In front of that Homura arrives a young girl, Kaname Madoka。 Madoka, gazing at Walpurgis Night with a determined look, declares to Homura。「I found the wish I want granted.」 The girl who has come to understand the entire existence of mahou shoujo and their fate, as a result of that what is the wish, what kind of decision has been made? Script: Urobuchi Gen // Storyboard: Sasaki Shinsaku // Director: Miyamoto Yukihiro // Animation Director: Taniguchi Jun’ichirō & Takahashi Mika

第12話「わたしの、最高のともだち」

Episode 12 「My best friend」

[source]

Taking on Walpurgis Night by herself, Homura is covered in severe wounds。
No matter how many times she challenges it she can’t out-rival it, since her own deeds are making Madoka suffer she is falling into despair, and her own Soul Gem finished dying black。 In front of that Homura arrives a young girl, Kaname Madoka。 Madoka, gazing at Walpurgis Night with a determined look, declares to Homura。

「I found the wish I want granted.」

The girl who has come to understand the entire existence of mahou shoujo and their fate,
as a result of that what is the wish, what kind of decision has been made?

Script: Urobuchi Gen // Storyboard: Sasaki Shinsaku // Director: Miyamoto Yukihiro // Animation Director: Taniguchi Jun’ichirō & Takahashi Mika

Dialogue Notes

15:59	Mami: “Guided by the Law of Cycles.”
円環の理(enkan no kotowari – Law of Cycles). If you recall episode 10’s notes, Madoka can be written as 円(round), and this “Law of Cycles” is the fundamental principle on which mahou shoujo are structured in Madoka’s reformed universe (at least, according to Mami-san).
20:46	Kyubey: “The obstinate miasma is thick tonight, isn’t it? Those evil beasts are springing up one after the other too.”
つくづく瘴気(tsuduku shouki – obstinate miasma) 魔獣(majuu – evil/demonic beast) I’m just noting these to say that in the future there is a chance of “obstinate miasma” and “evil beasts” becoming main themes of the series (at the time of writing this, the movies are announced but details are scarce). These TLs are literals of the words/characters themselves and are subject to change if a more standardized/sensible translation comes about in the future, if perhaps more details are revealed about these two things.

Runes

10:19-13:16	Runes floating upwards
10:19-13:16	“————”
As far as I know, these runes are too disjointed to have any meaning.
23:54	Oshimai Puella Magi Madoka Magika
23:54	“The end” “————”

Illustrated Witch Reference Book

?????
Witch Type: Witch of Stage Setting Nature: Helplessness
Witch of stage setting。 (Alias・Walpurgis Night / real name unknown) Her nature is powerlessness。 She is the symbol of The Fool who continues to spin around。 A witch who’s enigma has been passed on throughout history。 Popular name・Walpurgis Night。 She will continue to recklessly spin around this world until all of the entire world is turned into a drama。 When the time comes when the doll that is ordinarily placed upside down turns right-side up, she will fly at equal speed as a gale and in a flash the civilizations on the surface of the earth will be knocked over。 Wikipedia article on what “Walpurgis Night” is in real life.

?????

Witch
Type: Witch of Stage Setting
Nature: Helplessness

Witch of stage setting。 (Alias・Walpurgis Night / real name unknown) Her nature is powerlessness。 She is the symbol of The Fool who continues to spin around。 A witch who’s enigma has been passed on throughout history。 Popular name・Walpurgis Night。 She will continue to recklessly spin around this world until all of the entire world is turned into a drama。 When the time comes when the doll that is ordinarily placed upside down turns right-side up, she will fly at equal speed as a gale and in a flash the civilizations on the surface of the earth will be knocked over。

Wikipedia article on what “Walpurgis Night” is in real life.

?????
Minion Type: Witch of Stage Setting’s minion
The witch of stage setting’s minion。 That duty is a clown。 A countless number of souls drawn to her intense magical power。 If Walpurgis Night was originally a single someone, or if it was a large gathering of souls that gave birth to an illusion, right now it is not clear。

End Card

Illustrator: 蒼樹うめ (Aoki Ume)
蒼樹うめ先生 the original character designer for Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magika. She’s also the mangaka behind ひだまりスケッチ(Hidamari Sketch) which SHAFT has adapted into an anime. Also, this end card was removed from the Blu-ray version of the anime, so here’s a screencap from the 1280×720 TV version of the episode: