[Magician Girl Madoka Magika]

- Can simple good will save the world in a complex world? -

0.

The present Japanese animation industry is full of voices that talk about recession and business difficulties. Its appearance looks gorgeous, but its inside is bleak. When viewed from the outside, the industry looks like a very colorful and absolutely prosperous field, but it is not. In the 1990s, the animation industry was overheating, but its expansion continued to decline. In addition, as the so-called otaku animation is overflowing, an opinion that the quality of work is declining continues to come from the inside. Therefore, the overall atmosphere of this industry is dark. In the meantime, a television animation was broadcast in 2011, and this work gave hope to the dark animation industry. This work is [Magician Girl Madoka Magika] produced by Shaft and aired on Mainichi Broadcast System in January 2011. It was aired late at night and was highly praised by critics after Evangelion. This work was very popular and successful.

[Magician Girl Madoka Magika] is the most important work among Japanese animation works in recent years. This work uses a material, Magician Girl which children are likely to love very much, and asks a very philosophical question, "Does good will always produce good results?"

The stories or analysis of the various settings of this work are already overflowing in numerous animation forums and articles. Those who want such "stories" in relation to this work should refer to such information. The author dares to think that this is one of the most important works of Japanese animation that appeared after the great earthquake on March 11, 2011. And the author would also like to say that the message contained in the work has an extraordinary thing penetrating the age. If asked to evaluate this work, the author will say that this work speaks of “courage facing anxiety about goodwill and the world”.

Let’s ask a following question first and then continue to our talk.

"Will the good heart or good will of the Magician girls bring alwyas good results?"

It may seem a little weird, but first let's talk about a lake in Tanzania.

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(1) A lake in Tanzania

The documentary film [Darwin's Nightmare], released in 2004, deals with people living around Lake Victoria in Tanzania. This work, which has been acclaimed by numerous critics, intellectuals and audiences, deals with the following:

In Tanzania, Africa, there is the world's largest tropical lake named Victoria.  In the 1960s, people introduced the Nile bass to Lake Victoria in the name of scientific experiments, which destroyed its food chain. The other fish species that originally had lived in the lake were extinct by a huge and wild destroyer called Nile bass, and now the only fish left in the lake are the destroyer bass. As the ecosystem of the lake was destroyed, the lives of local natives were also destroyed. The natives who lived peacefully while fishing and farming around the lake with a balanced ecosystem of diverse fish species are now living in capital exploitation, starvation and war. As the big and fat bass dominates the lake's ecosystem, large-scale factories processing the fish settled around the lake and the fish processed at the factories are exported to Western Europe and Japan at high prices. However, the natives who have lived around the lake are dying alienated by the economic logic of the neo-liberalistic globalization. As the traditional economy that depended on nature collapsed, lethargic natives die of hunger and disease, and children who lost their parents are driven to the streets to continue their lives by prostitution and begging. Even more surprising is that air transport is used to export the processed fish from the bass processing plant to Western Europe and Japan, and most of the airplanes used for it are the airplanes that have carried war weapons from the former Soviet Union to Africa.

(The content is quoted from Cine21's article.)

However, we can see that this is a difficult problem to explain from a simple point of view of criticizing neoliberalism in the documentary. The people who released the bass on the lake, the people who built the factory, and the consumers who ate canned bass. No one of these people have done so with any malice. It’s true. Both those who set up factories to address people's poverty and those who thought it was good to raise high-productive fish acted in good faith. There is no one who says, like a villain, that “"No matter what happens in this nigger country, it is ok if we become rich.” However, as a result, the traditional way of life of these people and the environment are seriously destroyed, civil war is deepening, and this area becomes a place where human beings cannot live.

(2) US special forces dead in Somalia.

There is a war movie called [Black Hawk Down] directed by Ridley Scott. The film, which deals with US military operations in Somalia and its tragedy, has been criticized by some film critics for dealing with US imperialist ambitions and giving indulgence to US troops slaughtering civilians. However, considering Ridley Scott's inclination revealed in films such as ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, it would be difficult to regard it as a one-sided US military and American praise film. Somalia is an African nation that doesn't have interests in oil. The US military operation in Somalia dealt with in the film was carried out for humanitarian reasons. The US military operated in good faith to prevent warlords from killing people and seizing UN relief goods. However, contrary to its original intentions, this good will resulted in the largest tragedy US forces have experienced since the Vietnam War. Thousands of Somali civilians and militias were killed in the operation and dozens of soldiers of the top US military Special Forces, Delta Force and Ranger, were killed and injured.

(3) Environmental destruction caused by environmentally friendly products.

The same applies to the environmental movement. Many recycled products and environmental products have been produced thanks to the environmental movement to save the world. However, as a result, more energy must be used to produce these products, which will destroy more area of the Amazon rainforest and release more carbon dioxide, accelerating global warming. There happens a strange effect that is completely different from the good will of people who buy these products.

(4) Dr. Denma and the Devil John.

Urasawa Naoki's comics [Monster]. The main character, Dr. Denma, saves a child shot in humanitarian goodwill. However, the child is a demonic genius that thinks of humans as worms. As a result, the good will of the main character causes millions of people to be killed miserably.

In addition, the library of history is full of the devastating consequences of good will. Of course, the opposite cases are also many. Sometimes what started with personal desire eventually may save the nation, making the man a hero, or the nuclear weapons made to destroy humans ultimately may make the world the most peaceful with the logic of mutual confirmation destruction. Like the irony of fate, the world is full of "unpredictability," which the human brain cannot understand.

[Madoka Magika], which we are talking about today, is also full of such contradictions. The girls fighting with the witches in the work became magician girl for desperate reasons. Their motives are all altruistic reasons. They choose to act for a boyfriend who can't play an instrument because of an injury, to help a friend, or to return forever because of a friend's request to save a miserable death. But these things, which they started with in good faith, eventually fail to achieve their purpose, and in despair they become witches. And new girls, who are filled with goodwill, are made to kill these witches. The main character, Kaname Madoka, asks ‘Kyubei’, who creates these magician girls and pursues his own interests, "Isn't it wrong?" But he replies like this: “What's wrong with it? In the natural state, pigs or cows, which have to live with short lifespan and anxiety, become human foods one day, but until then, they live a peaceful life without such competition. What is unreasonable here? It is reasonable. Magician girls will someday become witches, but until then, they fulfill their wishes and miracles and live with happy emotions. This deal is reasonable. So this is right. Thus don't question about it and it's right to follow it. ”

This conversation is similar to what we often have when we first experience society after puberty.

No, we may meet it at every moment in our lives. We learn that during childhood, justice is triumphed and goodwill toward others produces good results and rewards for its actions. But as we grow, we are faced with the challenges of meeting various values and the complexity of the world. And we are faced with the [Kyubei’s logic of claiming rationality] wrapped in various names such as [the logic of adults], [the logic of the majority], [for the family], and [for the nation].

“Didn’t you know that the world is like that? We can't help it. ”

“You are still a child! Such naive thoughts don't work now. ”

We are hurt and despaired many times by these ideas of the main character, Kaname Madoka and the actual main character, Homura. And many people participate in games that show good will but do not actually do so on the stage of the world's ugly competition with the logic of such adults or cruel attitudes to others.

However, if the conclusion of Madoka Magika was this, the author would not write a long evaluation of this animation. In this work, the main character, Kaname Madoka, responds to the coercive logic and rationality that Kyubei imposes with the extremely common actions that many people have already taken in history.

2.

In the final episode of [Madoka Magika], which was aired later than scheduled due to the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, the main character Kaname Madoka faced a perfect death that she would not even perceive as a [concept] to people. Nevertheless, she completely destroys the magician girls/witch system built by Kyubei and saves all magician girls from the curse through her sacrifice. She does not conform to the system of rationality, but becomes a sacred girl and saves the world through unreasonable but altruistic actions.

Like Kyubei, the world is full of [logic] and [rationality] that forces us to conform to reality. There is also a lot of anxiety that good will may not save the world. There are also many tears in the world that people shed in knowing this. It can be said that this work [Madoka Magika] has a philosophical message because it can tell us what to do when we know the truth of this world.

Let's take a look at the history book. Just over a hundred years ago, it was natural for a little boy, about ten years old, to suffer more than ten hours of hard work a day in a hellish working environment. It was ridiculous for women to have a suffrage before women took their rights by working hard to make weapons on the second front of the war instead of the men who went to war in World War II. People in a country called the world's greatest nation dragged black people living well in Africa and forced them to work until death, treating them as dogs. And they took such slavery for granted. However, people now recognize that these things are wrong and teach it to their descendants.

The main character of the work, Kaname Madoka, throws an arrow of will that resists the world's oppression even if no one knows her. And she makes a miracle. Let us suppose that she is the one who has had good will for human beings in the heart of human history even if somebody in human history does not recognize herself. Imagine that a number of arrows they've blown changed the world.

Even if human behavior demands a harsh price, man is progressing, and history and the way we live today prove it. One literary work implicitly reflects the human world in a short time. [Madoka Magika] tells us an answer to the "anxiety" that happens when we meet the rationality with the complexity that rationality doesn't always produce good results.

It may important to try not to lose confidence in human possibilities, even at the expense of sacrifice. [1] And we must not forget there were those who tried so. Akemi Homura, who only remembers her in the final scene of the animation, sets out for another fight in the desolate ruins. In this scene we can see that Madoka Magika's message is not light. This means that if you have hope for human progress, and know that someone fought for it, you too must take over the values and then fight and progress. The author concludes by wishing you to think about why Akemi Homura has the bow with which Modoca shot for hope in his hand.