Madoka Magica movie 3 LA premiere

On Tuesday I attended the LA premiere of Madoka Magica movie 3: Rebellion, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Like last year’s screenings of the first two movies, this event was a lot of fun, although the movie itself left me with a heavy feeling of ambiguity…

The movie was scheduled to start at 7:00pm, with doors opening at 5:30pm. When my boyfriend Arktavious and I arrived around 4:30, there was already quite a long line of people. They started will-call for tickets at 4:00, but unfortunately they only had one staff member giving everyone their tickets, so the line moved at a snail’s pace. I passed the time by racking up a good 40+ street passes on my 3DS, since roughly 1 out of every 5 people in that line had a 3DS XD


Madoka music was playing outside while we waited


As always at events like this, there were cosplayers :3

Off to the side of the line they had an area set up where staff were interviewing people involved in the Madoka series/movie. I saw them interview the English voice actresses and take pictures with cosplayers.


Veteran voice actor Crispin Freeman was there too, though I don’t think he does a voice in Madoka


My ticket and wristband

After people got their tickets, they could choose to wait in another line to buy exclusive Madoka merchandise, or just head straight to the theater to get a good seat. Like last year, I was planning to buy any available items that caught my fancy…but unfortunately, by the time it was our turn to get our tickets, it was already 6:30 and they weren’t allowing anymore people to line up for merchandise =/


People in line to buy Madoka merch before the movie started

It was a bummer that they had to cut off the merchandise line at 6:30, and unlike last year, the merchandise wasn’t available after the movie or during intermission (since there was no intermission this time). I caught a glimpse of the items available to buy, which included keychains, bandanas, canvas art, posters, and Blu-rays/DVDs. I would have liked to get a few things, but I wasn’t too disappointed because everyone got a nice set of free goodies.


Madoka goodie bags given to all attendees

Everyone got the lovely bag above, with the following items inside…

A Kyubey phone holder…

A nice movie guidebook wrapped in a pretty witch labyrinth-style covering.

Open it up to find the book inside.

A page of the book.

And another page.

And lastly, one of five mini autographed boards drawn by character designer Aoki Ume. It was funny because the autograph boards were randomly packed and each one had different characters on it. So before the movie started, people were walking around the theater asking other people to trade for the board they wanted. Thanks to trading I was able to get the one that I wanted above of Madoka and Homura.

The back of the bag had an ad for this new app that Madoka-fies your smartphone. They even showed a commercial for it in the theater before the movie started. I’ll have to give it a try XD

Since we weren’t able to get in line for merchandise, we had the advantage of getting better seats than the people waiting in that line. Most of the good seats were taken by the time we got there but we managed to find two good ones in the middle.

Due to the large amount of people and slowness of getting everyone their tickets, the premiere started a half hour late at 7:30. It began with a short greeting/introduction from Aniplex staff, including two special guests from Japan – president of Shaft Mitsutoshi Kubota, and Aniplex producer Atsuhiro Iwakami. They asked us to stick around a bit after the movie since the two of them will have a talk session about it. Also like last year, right before the movie they played a short segment of the seven main seiyuu greeting the US fans and talking a bit about the movie. And after that, it began…

Credit to linked pixiv user

Unlike the first two movies, which are basically recaps of the TV series with a few new tweaks, this third movie is a completely new story that takes place after the events of the first two movies/TV series. Since most people reading this have probably not seen it, I’ve decided to post my thoughts on it in both spoiler and non-spoiler form. Below is my non-spoiler thoughts and below that is my spoiler-filled thoughts, so you can choose which to read without risking being spoiled if you don’t want to be.

*Non-spoiler review*: The first third of the movie will have you scratching your head, as it starts off in a way that doesn’t follow what happened in the last film. Things do become clear later on however, and the culprit behind this new world the girls are in becomes evident soon enough, albeit via a shocking twist in my opinion.

There’s some amazing action scenes, great new animation of the girls’ transformations and attacks, and fantastic new tracks by Yuki Kajiura. There’s a new character too, but honestly I felt like she was kind of pointless since she didn’t do much of anything in the movie and didn’t even have a lot of dialogue.

What happens at around 2/3rds in would have been a good place to end in my opinion, but the creators threw in yet another mind boggling development that makes the actual end of the film very ambiguous and polarizing, almost overriding the appealing message of the original TV series ending. I can’t describe it more without getting spoiler-y, but I will say that it’s hard to decide if it’s a satisfying or a frustrating ending and it certainly leaves room for more resolution. It’s the kind of thing you have to watch again to properly judge. As a whole I’d say the movie was great, but I’m kinda undecided on the ending.

*WARNING: SPOILER-FILLED REVIEW BELOW*

I’m sure most people’s first thoughts on going into the movie is “What’s going on? Why are they fighting Nightmares now instead of wraiths? Why are all the girls together, and with Madoka no less? Why is Kyubey suddenly only saying his name like a pokemon? What’s that weird thing Mami’s calling ‘Bebe’ that looks like Charlotte? This doesn’t seem like it takes place after the events of the last movie…” But I knew that we’d find out why we were suddenly watching typical magical girl fare instead of the complex and dark drama the last movie left us off with. I thought the first 2/3rds of the movie were awesome. I really liked the whole twist that it was Homura herself who created the labyrinth she and the others were trapped in and how it was all a plan by Kyubey to try and control Madoka’s powers. There was some amazing animation, including the girls’ new transformation sequences (everyone laughed at break-dancing Sayaka XD), the acid-tripping designs of the witch labyrinths and the symbolic dream-like style of the backgrounds that are a staple of Shaft are always interesting to look at, and that gun fight between Mami and Homura was one of the best action scenes I’ve seen in an anime. There was also a good dose of weirdly humorous scenes too, like the girls chanting that cake song to try and help Hitomi out of her Nightmare, and that ensuing blob of goo that had her face on it XD Bebe was weirdly random too though she ended up turning out to be a rather pointless character. The new music tracks by Yuki Kajiura were beyond stunning and hearing them on that high quality theater sound system was great. The new opening song by ClariS was great too and had adorable scenes of the girls. Basically I thought the first 2/3rds of the movie, up until the part where Homura “changes,” were fantastic. Everything more or less made sense to me and I didn’t have any particular issue with anything. I would have been totally fine with the movie ending at that point – with Homura, after turning into a witch, finally being free of her grief and being reunited with Madoka as the latter comes for her as she dies.

Then we get to the last third of it, which I’m sure anyone who’s seen it will know what I mean by saying it’s ambiguous and how everyone seems to be divided on it. I really thought the movie was gonna end on that happy note with Kyubey’s plan foiled and Homura with her tainted Soul Gem being purified by Madoka, happily reunited with the one she sacrificed so much for. But apparently the creators didn’t think they messed with our heads enough at that point and decided to really mess with our heads in the last part, having Homura’s “love” for Madoka become so great that she couldn’t bear to have Madoka continue sacrificing herself to be the savior for all magical girls, so she used the curse in her Soul Gem to trap Madoka and the others in her newly created ideal world free of witches and suffering, so Madoka could live a normal, happy life. But towards the very end, we get a grim hint that, although Homura may have triumphed over Kyubey, who I assume can’t do much of anything in a world with no negative energy to feed off of, there’s a chance that Madoka may remember the truth and regain her godly powers, in which case she may become Homura’s enemy.

There are already tons of interpretations for the movie’s ending and debate on what exactly did and didn’t happen. What I said above is more or less how I interpreted it, but in terms of whether I liked it and thought it was good or not as the final installment of the saga…gosh, it’s hard to say! I haven’t felt this torn about an anime ending since End of Evangelion over a decade ago! In a way I can accept it as a tragically bittersweet ending that emphasizes how strong Homura’s love for Madoka became – so strong that she basically sacrificed her humanity to give Madoka a good life even if it went against Madoka’s wishes (by trapping her in a world free of suffering, Madoka wouldn’t need to save anyone in the first place). I can say that it’s certainly a shocking ending and I guess I can respect it for being so thought-provoking about many things, like whether Homura is now an evil being or whether what she did was good. But at the same time, in terms of being the real conclusion to the story, it tramples all over the original message of hopefulness that made the TV series so beloved. Plus I felt some things needed more explanation – did Homura actually rewrite the entire world or just trap everyone in an enclosed fantasy world outside the real one (I recall her telling Sayaka that she only used some of the Law of Cycles’ power)? Is Kyubey really defeated for good? And most importantly, will Madoka really become Homura’s enemy? After the message of hope from the TV series, the idea of the two main characters who sacrificed so much for each other being enemies in the end is upsetting. I definitely need to watch the movie again to decide what I truly think of it, but as a whole I thought it was an awesome movie. In terms of being a good ending to the story however…gah, I gotta think on it more =P

*END OF SPOILERS*

After the movie concluded, we stuck around for a while to hear the talk session where Aniplex president Henry Goto posed questions to Mr. Kubota and Mr. Iwakami. They answered your average interview questions like how the Madoka movies came about, the work put into it, what they each liked about it, and what new titles Shaft is working on. What made my heart sink a little was that they said they currently have no plans for more Madoka anime. They didn’t say it was a definite thing and they expressed that they would like to do more with Madoka in the future, but as it stands now they have no intention of making a sequel to this movie. Considering how ambiguous I found the movie’s ending, I would personally feel a lot more satisfied if they had one more movie that ended the saga on a more conclusive note. But as I said, at the same time I can sort of accept the ending to this movie as a painfully bittersweet one that lies on the borderline between a happy ending and a tragic one. I suppose I can live with that, though I’d definitely need to see it again to truly sort out my feelings about it.

To sum it up, I’m once again grateful to Aniplex and Shaft for putting on this event and allowing US fans to experience the (supposed) last Madoka film on the big screen. I really hope this isn’t the last we’ll see of Madoka either in movie or TV series form. At the least, I hope some years down the line Shaft will want to revive their cash cow and make another movie or TV series to be the “real” ending for the story, kind of like what Gainax did with the Evangelion movies. I won’t hold my breath though, so in the meantime all I can do is try and wrap my head around this complex movie and see if I can grasp it as the true ending to one of my most favorite anime of recent years. I look forward to seeing if the impact Madoka and friends made in anime fandom will still be seen in the years to come~

Credit to linked pixiv user

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Silvachief says:

    I can’t even begin to tell you how jealous I am. It looks like the whole event was a lot of fun and those goodie bags are pretty darned sweet as well.
    NZ is small so i’m going to have to wait for an online release to watch the new Madoka movies =/

    • Yumeka says:

      I hope you enjoy this movie when you do get around to seeing it (be prepared to have your head messed with though XD) You don’t necessarily have to see the first two, since they’re basically recaps of all the TV series episodes with a few new scenes. But definitely see this one when you can. Hopefully you won’t feel as torn about the ending as I did!

  2. Kal says:

    Sounds like you had a great time! That book looks pretty good. I read the non-spoiler version, so I’ll just have to wait a while before I can watch this. Thanks for the coverage, I’ll eagerly wait for this one :)

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, I can’t believe everyone got such a nice book for free! That’s why I wasn’t too upset about not being able to buy any merchandise XD

      Hope you like the movie when you do get to see it!

  3. Cytrus says:

    I’m not reading your fiendish spoilers, you evil blogger xD.

    Keeping my fingers crossed for your JLPT scores :]. They adapted that new pattern-scoring system which sometimes turns out unexpected results, so it might not be quite as bad as you said in your tweets.

    • Yumeka says:

      LOL, well that’s why I decided to include a “non-spoiler” review this time. I know this movie is something people definitely don’t want to be spoiled about XD

      I hope you’re right about the JLPT. A lot of the questions on the vocab part I could narrow down to two possible answers, so I guess I have a 50/50 chance of getting many of those right. Same thing with the grammar section, though I ran out of time on some of those and had to just fill in whatever. I’m confident I did well on the listening part at least =/

  4. chikorita157 says:

    I still haven’t watch any of the movies mostly for the fact that I spent a good amount of money on Japanese video games, but I need to watch it one of these days. Aside from that, I’m glad that you enjoyed it and hopefully check it out when it releases.

    • Yumeka says:

      You can pass on the first two movies since they’re pretty much the same as the TV series except with a few different scenes. But they’re good to watch if you want to refresh your memory of the whole story. Definitely check this one out when you have a chance though =)

  5. jimmy says:

    “Veteran voice actor Crispin Freeman was there too, though I don’t think he does a voice in Madoka”
    Not according to ANN, no. That makes me chuckle for some reason.

    They sound like really cool events they’ve put on. I’m not that big a fan of Madoka, but I think I’d have gone and seen the movies if I’d been in the US. The artbook looks especially neat. Well, I saw the first two in Melbourne. The most exciting thing we had was where the cosplay contest was won by some dude dressed in “Sakura’s casual clothes”, (like a green jumper and jeans, or something like that) and the effort looked so lazy (or he might have just made it up; I’m not sure) that it won the hearts of the audience, who voted him the winner as a sort of joke. The host was kind of embarrassed to have to give him first place.

    Your cosplayers looked slightly more serious about it. Was there a contest or anything like that, or did they just turn up for fun?

    • Yumeka says:

      That’s a funny story about the Melbourne event XD Most people who cosplayed at this event did so for fun, but I believe some of the more professional-looking ones were hired to help out, like hand out the goodie bags to people and take pictures with the staff.

  6. Sounds like the movie took an odd turn in its final third, but what an awesome premiere event. XD Producers from Japan, U.S. voice actors, special merchandise… like a big-time Hollywood premiere in the old days and at the Egyptian Theater no less. =D

    I don’t think you have to worry that this is the end. They made (and are making) too much money off of the Madoka Magica franchise to end it completely. =D

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, it was an awesome event. Wish there were more anime events like this!

      I hope you’re right and that the producers weren’t totally serious when they said they don’t have any further plans for Madoka at the moment. But even if they do make more for the franchise, I feel like it’ll be a spin-off series or something rather than another movie sequel. We’ll just have to wait and see~

  7. Shikon says:

    Gah I’m so jealous, I’m going to have to wait and watch it online! XD

    As always, I appreciate your coverage of events such as these. It lets the people (like myself) that aren’t able to attend get a glimpse of the experience.

    Btw, those gift bags looked sweet!

    • Yumeka says:

      Glad you enjoyed my coverage ^_^ As you said, I like giving people who can’t attend events like this a kind of second-hand thrill through my posts, LOL.

      When you do watch the movie I hope you like it =) I’m assuming the video release will be in spring of next year sometime, in which case you’ll be able to buy it or stream/download a fansub at least.

  8. Kai says:

    I liked your review. :)

    I just saw the premier in Hawaii. Probably not even 30 people were there. And NOBODY was dressed up! The closest anyone was to being dressed up was me in my kyubey/pikachu crossover shirt. And though they did give out 6 little signed panels during some trivia, besides that there wasn’t any kind of merch or goodies.

    Nonetheless, I really enjoyed it. I was, like everyone I think, confused as ALL hell by the beginning at first. I came to the conclusion Homura’s first real fight was jaw dropping though. I agree with you that it was probably one of the best I’ve ever seen.

    While I interpreted Homura’s love as a selfish thing (yours seems to fit the bill more though and I agree with you on that), I think it’s a good closing. This isn’t the first time that Homura has had to play the “evil” card before. And while I don’t think it’s all completely an act, I think a lot of it is. She is literally only alive because of her love that transcended pretty much everything. And she earned her happy ending.

    I like to imagine that she’ll fight through it, in the end. I doubt we’re getting a sequel movie. They marketed it too much as a trilogy for that, I think. Though I’d LOVE to be proven wrong. So I hold on to MY hope, haha. Because once that Madoka lives her life to the full, assuming she’s able to, she’ll simply fade away and be, well, reabsorbed, and Homura will have gotten her peace. And if that doesn’t sate her, and she does try to fight, I doubt greatly she’ll be able to beat the embodiment of hope.

    • Yumeka says:

      Glad you got to see the film in Hawaii. That’s weird that only 30 people were there. Guess it wasn’t a big city, and probably a lot of people, especially the hardcore cosplayers, had already seen it by the time you went. A smaller crowd is nice sometimes ;)

      That’s an interesting point you brought up that I didn’t think about – that once Madoka (the one currently in Homura’s new world) lives out her life well, that should satisfy Homura and then she’ll be able to…I don’t know, put the world back the way it was XD I’m still confused about things and really need to watch the movie again before I can properly judge it. But thanks for sharing your thoughts. Every insight counts with something like this XD

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