#puella magi madoka magica

catboy-von-seckendorff:

a final prayer and a lonely symphony

Yu is a character who appears in the Magia Record story, Nagisa’s Wish was Granted, and is talked about in one other story, Beachside Bonds. However, Yu only ever appears as a yellow silhouette during Nagisa’s Wish, so I spent some time figuring out a look for her, and I have some observations about Yu and Nagisa.

First of all, this page here contains every reference I could find of her. That is: her magical girl silhouette, her regular silhouette (+mask), a portion of a sketch posted by InuCurry, and the description Nagisa’s mother gives of her during the story.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the similarities Yu shares with Nagisa’s magical girl outfit. Her tails with the tufts on the ends sort of match the strings hanging from Nagisa’s hat, and the shorts she wears match the silhouette given by Nagisa’s. The fuzz around the edge of her ruff (frill?) also may correspond to the fluff around the edge of Nagisa’s poncho and around her neck. I don’t think it’s outlandish to say that—considering their relationship during the story—Nagisa may have drawn some inspiration from Yu.

An observation that came to me in addition to that is that Yu’s torso and arms, unlike the rest of her, have no obvious features in the silhouette, like cuffs/sleeve ends, and she’s narrower there in her magical girl form than in her regular form, suggesting to me that she’s wearing a tighter shirt, something similar to what Nagisa wears beneath her poncho, perhaps?

Something especially interesting to me is the description Nagisa’s mother gives after being attacked by Yu.

“It looked human… but it was all white, and its mouth was split open.”

A description that matches perfectly with Nagisa’s eventual humanoid witch-face form that she takes post-Law of Cycles. The InuCurry sketch of Yu even has similar rings in her eyes.

Nagisa made her wish, and her outfit took a form reminiscent of the first magical girl she met, who saved her and introduced to her the idea that freedom may be what Nagisa really wanted.

Then, when Nagisa died she took a form that matched the description her mother gave of the monster that killed her. Something to take note of there is that leading up to that moment Nagisa had intended to be the sole person responsible for her mother’s passing, before Yu took that opportunity away from her.

Also, I think Yu wears a wig, and her scars come from her tumble down the cliff in Beachside Bonds. No other magical girls, with one exception, have transformations that so drastically change their hair as Yu’s does. I think that much like the mask she wears, her wig disappears when she transforms.

@bebe-my-beloved brought to my attention a reminder that Nagisa’s fringe matches the shape of her face in doll form, to which I responded by removing said fringe.

Witch-face Nagisa has a bit of a fivehead without eyebrows.

happy pride month to these magical girls

I think is stupid to hate Sayaka because “she was selfish”, when Homura was the most selfish of all the puellas. Even in the movie we can appreciate that, Sayaka cared about Homura…