The magical girl genre is one of the most iconic within anime and manga. Known for franchises such as Sailor Moon, Cutie Honey and Tokyo Mew Mew, it's known for tropes involving heroic young ladies who gain mystical abilities full of light and color in order to defeat their many times monstrous enemies. While usually wholesome and optimistic, one notable series inverted the genre's tropes as part of a deconstruction.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica was a landmark anime series from the 2010s, and it reinvigorated interested in magical girls by reinterpreting age-old concepts for a new era of viewers. Part of how it did this was through the "contracts" made with the main characters, with something that was seemingly meant to help them actually being a part of a grand conspiracy. Far from a ere wish upon a star, these binding contracts robbed hopeful young girls of their lives and their very souls.

What Is Madoka Magica About?

Puella Magic Madoka Magica was a series created by Magica Quarter and the studio Shaft, with the aime running from January to April 2011. Though based on the magical girl anime genre, it was an original work that had no ties to previous franchises or properties. Since its release, however, it's gone on to receive numerous spinoffs and sequels across various mediums. The story of the initial 12-episode series involves a young girl named Madoka Kaname, who, along with her classmate Sayaki Miki, meets a strange "cat" that converses with them. The result of this discussion is that they sign contracts that will grant them one wish, and in exchange, they'll become magical girls with incredible powers that are tasked with fighting supposed witches. There are several other magical girls that help and hinder them along the way, with the two soon learning that the contracts that they signed involved a lot of fine print.

Madoka Magica was immensely popular and well-received when it was initially released, namely due to its narrative elements. The series was lauded mostly for its worldbuilding and how it inverted various tropes within the magical girl genre. One of the few deconstructions of the genre, the show's dark elements worked so well because they were relatively hidden. Viewers were seemingly in for a fairly typical shojo adventure, and it was only as the series played out that the more insidious aspects were made apparent. In turn, this made some of the most innocuous parts of the intiial episodes far darker and more tragic, and that includes the "magical girl contract."

Kyubey and the Magical Girl Contract

The magical adventures of Madoka begin when she and Sayaki meet Kyubey, who resembles a sort of alien cat. He tries to get the two girls to sign a contract that will turn them into "magical girls" that fight witches on behalf of the cat, all in exchange for a single wish being granted. Kyubey is a member of the alien race knwon as the Incubators, who used their advanced technology energize emotions. Since they're species largely lacks emotions, they rely on other creatures, namely humans. For the task of drawing the most emotional energy, teen girls and young ladies are chosen chief among any other humans. By channeling this energy, the Incubators aim to stave off the heat death of the universe and keep any other sort of chaos at bay. For Kyubey and others in his species, they can only be seen by magical girls and those with vast magical potential, including girls such as Madoka.

Upon signing a contract with Kyubey, the new magical girl will have her soul encased in a "soul gem," which she can only be 100 meters away from before losing consciousness. Likewise, these girls' bodies become stronger and more powerful than ever in order to fight witches, while they similar gain certain magical abilities based on the wish they want granted by Kyubey. Normal young ladies who have yet to sign a contract and gain their powers are simply called "girls," and those deemed magical girls have already signed said contract. A girl's magical potential is derived from her life choices and experiences, meaning that those who've reincarnated across multiple lifetimes have a lot more of this potential.

The Truth About Madoka Magica's Contracts

As noted, the main enemies in Puella Magi Madoka Magica are witches, which have similar superhuman abilities to those displayed by magical girls. Witches aren't merely old women riding broomsticks, however, and they many times have gigantic and monstrous appearances. They're also shown to live in labyrinths in order to hide, though some of the more powerful examples amomg them do not have to do this. Whenever defeated, the witches in Madoka Magica leave behind "Grif Seeds," and these items are actually vital for magical girls. Not only can a magical girl clean any impurities in her soul gem by using a Grief Seed, but witches can actually become stronger by eating the Grief Seeds of one of their comrades. Likewise, Kyubey has to consume a Grief Seed himself, lest the witch it belonged to be reborn. Thus, each fight against a witch is important, even if they become a bit cliche after a while. It's a similar concept to the Daimons from the Sailor Moon franchise or other takes on the "monster of the week" idea seen in most magical girl anime. While this all seems at first to make Madoka Magica into another typical magical girl series, its most brutal plot twist completely turns the table on its narrative.

In what became one of the most unexpected narrative changes for a modern anime, the genre of Puella Magi Madoka Magica shifted from a normal magical girl series to an outright horror anime. It's eventually revealed as the story in Puella Magi Madoka Magica that witches are actually the final, transformed state of magical girls. Likewise, Grief Seeds are merely corrupted versions of soul gems, which is why it's possible to use them in order to cleanse normal soul gems. The eventuality of a magical girl beocming a witch also causes a massive amount of energy to be dispersed.

Said event is what fights against thermodynamics, which is why it's ultimately seen as a good thing in the eyes of the fairly amoral Incubators. They actually see the magical girl/witch dynamic as being the reason for humanity's evolution and survival. Given the species' lack of empathy or emotions, it's no wonder that members such as Kyubey see the consequences of their actions in such a minute regard. For this reason, Madoka, who's initially a friend to Kyubey, grows to eventually hate him. Ironically, she had to be pestered to become a magical girl herself. She constantly questions his actions, and this only increases by the time that she's forced to become Madoka Magica.

The fate of magical girls that turn into witches is something that's overlooked when Incubators such as Kyubey explain their contracts. These contracts are never explained in the fullest and simply rely on the naivete of those signing, and it's one of the many tragic elements of the Madoka Magica franchise. Other traumatic concepts are seen through characters such as Homura Akemi, who suffers for becoming a magical girl in several ways. Concepts that would have otherwise been positive things in other magical girl anime such as the iconic Sailor Moon are instead turned into outright curses and negative traits. Making contracts with cute animals in other magical girl anime is usually a recipe for a friendship that lasts forever. In the case of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, however, it's one that ultimately ends in a bewitching tragedy that the girls' familiar never cares to warn them about.