Puella Magi Madoka Magica Episode 12 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

My Very Best Friend

Madoka makes her wish to erase all witches before they are born, becomes a goddess, and reshapes the world, removing herself from the universe while Homura is left the only one who remembers her. The episode then follows the aftermath: Sayaka's final sacrifice, Kyosuke's memory, Homura's grief, and the new world's grief-driven wraiths.

• Madoka's wish and transformation

  Madoka wishes to erase all witches from existence and becomes a goddess, breaking the Incubators' system, and then travels through space and time healing defeated magical girls.

• Sayaka's farewell and Kyosuke's memory

  Madoka and Sayaka's spirits watch Kyosuke's audition; Sayaka says she has no regrets and departs, and later Kyosuke, now a violinist, recalls the hospital and says her name.

• New world and Homura's grief

  Madoka is removed from the universe, and Homura alone remembers her; Madoka's parents have no memory of her, though Tatsuya draws her in the sand as an imaginary friend. Mami and Kyoko are alive again in the new world, and Kyubey notes that wraiths now replace witches as the source of grief.

Recent Timeline

• Kyoko's suicide in Sayaka's witch maze (Episode 9)

  Madoka and Kyoko enter the maze of the witch Sayaka to reach her through conversation, but Madoka's pleas have no effect. Kyoko kills herself, which also destroys the witch. Homura, who came to protect Madoka, carries the fainted Madoka out of the maze.

• Walpurgis battle and the contracts that followed (Episode 10)

  Madoka and Mami fight the Walpurgis Night witch together; Mami is quickly defeated, and Madoka defeats the witch at the cost of her own life. Homura accepts Kyubey's proposal over Madoka's body, wishing to redo her meeting with Madoka and to protect her instead of being protected, a wish Kyubey says surpasses entropy.

  After the victory in the timeline that followed, Madoka's Soul Gem turns into a Grief Seed and she becomes a witch, and time loops back to the same moment. In another timeline, Homura and Madoka defeat the witch together but their Soul Gems are fatally tainted, and Madoka heals Homura with a Grief Seed she had been hiding. At her own request, Madoka then dies by Homura's hand so she will not become a witch. In the next timeline, off-camera, Madoka forms a contract and defeats Walpurgisnacht with one shot, but soon becomes the witch Kriemhild Gretchen herself.

• Homura reveals her true identity (Episode 11)

  Madoka visits Homura's house and asks whether Walpurgis Night really cannot be defeated alone, as Kyoko said. Homura denies it, but Madoka finds it hard to believe her. Homura then reveals her true identity and history to Madoka and hugs her.

  The revelation shifts Madoka's understanding of Homura and sets up Madoka's later decision to act.

• Madoka's wish and ascension (Episode 12)

  Madoka wishes to erase all witches from existence, past and future, and becomes a goddess, breaking the Incubators' system. A paradox caused by the wish removes her from the universe, and she loses her physical humanity to become a force of nature suspended in interdimensional space.

  Before leaving, Madoka parts with a tearful Homura, giving her ribbons as a souvenir and promising they may meet again.

• Sayaka's departure and Madoka forgotten (Episode 12)

  At Kyosuke's audition, Sayaka's spirit tells Madoka she has no regrets and accepts Kyosuke and Hitomi as a couple. After using her last magic to help Kyosuke, she disappears from existence.

  In the new world, nobody remembers Madoka except Homura, and even her parents no longer recall her.

Character Graph

Kyoko Sakura

magical girl

Magical girl who came to Mami's former territory after hearing of Mami's death. Learned a new magical girl had already contracted in the area and threatened to crush the newcomer to keep the territory.

A magical girl who once fought witches for a wish and warned Sayaka against the same path. She kills herself after failing to bring back the witch Sayaka has become, but is alive in the new world and fights wraiths alongside Mami.

• Plan

  Stops Sayaka's fight with Anja and proposes letting Familiars attack civilians until they become Witches.

• Duel

  Attacks Sayaka and then starts a duel to the death after finishing a taiyaki.

• Sayaka (Other, Mentor, Mixed)

  Rival who ends Sayaka's fight with Anja and then fights her to the death.

  Kyoko shares her past and warns Sayaka against repeating her mistakes, then is frustrated when Sayaka rejects her apples.

• Homura (Pact, Mixed)

  Has an agreement with Homura and suggested defeating Walpurgisnacht together.

Kyubey

extraterrestrial

Creature that accompanies Madoka and can grant a wish in exchange for something; it speaks with Madoka by telepathy and comments on Homura's intentions.

Creature that offers the contract to become a Puella Magi; it states the wish surpassed entropy and that Madoka may destroy the Earth.

• Contracts

  Completes Sayaka's contract on the hospital roof and nearly makes a contract with Madoka.

• Final remark

  Notes that girls who will become Witches should be called Magical Girls.

• Hidden motive

  Did not stop Kyoko's rescue attempt in order to push Madoka toward becoming a Puella Magi.

• Entropy remark

  Comments that the wish has surpassed entropy, and that Madoka may destroy the whole Earth in the near future.

• Madoka (Other, Pact, Mixed)

  Kyubey stays with Madoka and speaks to her by telepathy.

  Explains everything to Madoka in detail, and is manipulative toward her.

• Sayaka (Pact, Neutral)

  Made a contract with Sayaka on the hospital roof.

• Homura (Other, Pact, Neutral)

  Is shot by Homura to stop the contract, and is identified by Homura as an Incubator.

  Offered the contract to Homura and realizes she is from a different timeline.

Hitomi

Friend of Madoka who has received love letters and offers thoughtful advice about dreams.

Watches Kyosuke's performance from behind the curtain; expected to form a happy couple with Kyosuke.

• Love letters

  Has already received a second love letter this month.

• Dream advice

  Suggests Madoka may have met Homura before without remembering her.

• Madoka (Friend, Affinity)

  Close friend who advises her about the dream.

• Sayaka (Friend, Affinity)

  Friend who is in the same group with Madoka.

• Kyosuke Kamijo (Other, Affinity)

  Expected to become a happy couple with Kyosuke.

Homura

transfer student · magical girl · Puella Magi

Transfer student who introduces herself to the class and feels unwell after questions. She knows the way to the infirmary and warns Madoka against changing herself. She later attacks an injured creature and demands that Madoka hand it over.

The only person in this world who still remembers Madoka; keeps Madoka's wish in mind even in the corrupted new world.

• Transfer introduction

  Introduces herself to the class after being announced as a transfer student.

• Other timeline

  Is identified by Kyubey as a person from another timeline.

• Protective role

  Protects Madoka in the witch maze and takes her out after Kyoko's death.

• Time-rewind wish

  Wished to redo her meeting with Kaname-san and to protect Madoka instead of being protected by her; the wish surpassed entropy.

• Madoka (Other, Guardian, Friend, Affinity)

  Newly met classmate who warns her not to change and says the matter does not concern her.

  Parted tearfully; Madoka gave her ribbons as a souvenir with the promise that they may meet again.

• Mami (Other, Mentor, Affinity)

  Homura competes with Mami over grief seeds, yet returns the seed Mami tossed.

  Veteran Puella Magi who trains Homura in combat.

• Sayaka (Other, Hostility)

  Refuses Sayaka's demand for the item, saying it belongs to magical girls

  Prepares to kill Sayaka, and is accused by her of lying.

• Kyoko Sakura (Pact, Mixed)

  Holds an agreement with Kyoko and reminds her of it; offers to leave the city to her.

• Kyubey (Other, Pact, Neutral)

  Shoots Kyubey to stop Madoka from forming a contract, and says Kyubey's real identity is that of an Incubator.

  The creature that offered the contract; Homura's refusal to fight Madoka reveals her to Kyubey as a time traveler.

Kyosuke Kamijo (Kyosuke)

Formerly hospitalized boy who shares a rare CD with Sayaka and sobs while the music plays

Violinist who plays Charles Gounod's Ave Maria at an audition and later performs as a famous violinist; recalls the hospital and says Sayaka's name.

• Recovery

  Is discharged early because his rehabilitation goes faster than planned.

• Reconciliation

  Apologizes to Sayaka for having been rude to her earlier.

• Sayaka (Friend, Other, Affinity)

  Invites Sayaka to listen to the rare CD with him

  Apologized to her for earlier rudeness and was then escorted by her to receive his violin.

• Hitomi (Other, Affinity)

  Expected to become a happy couple with Hitomi.

Madoka

Mitakihara student · magical girl · Puella Magi · goddess

Middle-school girl with a family at home and friends in class. She serves as the class health representative and has had a dream that felt like a warning.

Became a goddess through her wish, erasing witches from existence; removed from the universe by the resulting paradox and now suspended in interdimensional space, in contact with everyone and everything.

• Class duty

  Serves as the class health representative and is asked to escort Homura to the infirmary.

• Doubt about Homura

  Asks Homura whether they have met before after Homura breaks down in tears in front of her.

• Emotional state

  Saddened and angered by Kyubey's revelations.

• Witch transformation

  Forms the contract and defeats the witch with one shot, but becomes Kriemhild Gretchen shortly after.

• Sayaka (Friend, Other, Affinity)

  Close friend who teases her and claims she would marry her.

  Her close friend, whom she wants to make happy and follows in search of after Sayaka runs away.

• Hitomi (Friend, Affinity)

  Close friend who advises her about the dream encounter with Homura.

• Homura (Other, Friend, Affinity)

  Newly met transfer student who warns her not to become someone different.

  Friend whom Homura tries to save across timelines.

• Kyubey (Other, Pact, Neutral)

  Kyubey accompanies Madoka and they communicate by telepathy.

  Hears from Kyubey about her apparent power and nearly agrees to make a contract.

• Mami (Mentor, Colleague, Affinity)

  Assures Mami she is no longer alone and agrees to fight beside her

  Fellow Puella Magi who fights alongside her on Walpurgis Night.

• Kyoko Sakura (Colleague, Mixed)

  Kyoko makes Madoka skip school and brings her into the maze to talk to Sayaka, with Madoka agreeing to the plan; when it fails Kyoko kills herself there to destroy the witch.

Mami

magical girl · Puella Magi

Experienced figure who rescues the girls from familiars, reassures them, and heals the injured creature.

Warns Madoka of the consequences of her wish; alive again and fights a wraith alongside Kyoko.

• Rescue

  Intervenes to reassure Madoka and Sayaka that they are safe.

• Dismissed gratitude

  Deflects the rescued being's thanks toward the girls, saying she only happened to pass by.

• Breakdown

  Upon learning the true nature of the Puella Magi, attempts to kill all the magical girls, including herself, to prevent their transformation into witches.

• Sayaka (Mentor, Affinity)

  Mami treats Sayaka as a future student and refuses to lose in front of her.

  Mentored Sayaka and warned her against rushing her wish

• Madoka (Mentor, Colleague, Affinity)

  Mami leads Madoka on the witch hunt and laughs with her over outfit designs.

  Fellow Puella Magi who fights beside her and later stops her attack.

• Homura (Other, Mentor, Affinity)

  Homura throws back the grief seed Mami tossed to her, refusing it and leaving it to Mami.

  Mentor who trains Homura as a Puella Magi.

• Kyoko Sakura (Colleague, Affinity)

  Alive again in the new world and fights a wraith alongside Kyoko.

Sayaka

magical girl · Puella Magi

Friend of Madoka who teases her playfully and joins her in the emergency-exit search.

Appears as a spirit at Kyosuke's audition; used her last magic to help Kyosuke and disappeared from existence; says she has no regrets.

• Playful teasing

  Jokingly declares that Madoka will marry her instead of a suitor.

• Combat

  Refuses to tolerate Kyoko's plan to let Familiars feed on humans and heals the wounds meant to sideline her for three months.

• Fatalistic despair

  Says all that is left in her life is fighting witches, and her train of thought grows increasingly fatalistic until she begins to transform into darkness.

• Witch fight

  Turns into a witch and is defeated by Homura with firearms while Madoka and Kyoko try to restore her.

• Madoka (Friend, Colleague, Mixed)

  Close friend who teases her about being more popular with boys.

  Runs away from Madoka, telling her not to follow, even though Madoka wants to make her happy.

• Hitomi (Friend, Other, Mixed)

  Friend who is in the same group with Madoka.

  Still hurts a little to see Hitomi and Kyosuke together, but she can no longer hold it against them.

• Mami (Mentor, Affinity)

  Sayaka hunted witches under Mami's guidance.

• Homura (Other, Colleague, Hostility)

  Clashes with Homura, who refuses to return the item and leaves Sayaka sobbing

  Doubts Homura's warnings and accuses her of collaborating with Kyoko; Homura defeats her with stolen firearms.

• Kyosuke Kamijo (Other, Affinity)

  Visits Kyosuke and tries to heal him, while he resents her for playing music he can no longer perform.

  Cheerfully escorts the recently healed Kamijo to the roof to receive his violin.

• Kyoko Sakura (Other, Mentor, Mixed)

  Rival Magical Girl who ends her fight with Anja and then challenges her to a duel to the death.

  Kyoko confides her past and urges Sayaka to live for herself; Sayaka rejects her offer of apples as stolen food.

• Kyubey (Pact, Neutral)

  Made a contract with Kyubey to become a Magical Girl.

Tatsuya

Draws a picture of Madoka in the sand; Madoka seems to manifest to him as an imaginary friend.

• Madoka (Other, Affinity)

  Sees Madoka as an imaginary friend.

World Memo

• Grief seed restores power

  A grief seed dropped by a defeated witch can be used by a magical girl to restore her power, and the victor of a witch battle receives it.

• Magical girl duty without recognition

  Magical girls accept their powers to fulfill their own wishes and must keep fighting witches even if their efforts are forgotten.

• Magical girls beyond salvation

  Magical girls have given up everything for their wishes and are beyond any hope of salvation.

• Body control limited by soul distance

  Magical girls can control their bodies only within roughly one hundred meters of their souls, so separating from their Soul Gems is dangerous.

• Wishes require a major price

  A wish or miracle cannot be obtained without giving something major in return, and hope and despair must always be kept in balance.

• Witch-bound girls named Magical Girls

  A Magical Girl's soul sits in her Soul Gem; when the gem turns fully dark it becomes a Grief Seed and she apparently becomes a Witch. Girls on their way to becoming women are called 'girls', so girls who will become Witches should be called 'Magical Girls'.

• Incubator as Kyubey's true identity

  Kyubey's real identity is that of an 'Incubator', as Homura names it.

  Kyubey belongs to an extraterrestrial society without emotions that worries about the total energy in the universe falling due to entropy. Puella Magi and witches counter this by producing energy from the wavering emotions of young girls. Because Kyubey and its peers are emotionless, they cannot produce such energy themselves and do not understand human morals.

• Walpurgis Night witch battles

  Walpurgisnacht is a single overwhelmingly powerful witch that comes to the city on Walpurgis Night in every timeline Homura relives, and magical girls must fight it when it arrives.

• Karma from repeated timelines

  Repeatedly going back in time created several parallel universes centered on Madoka, and the accumulated karma of each timeline manifested as Madoka's magical power.

• Magical girls in human history

  Incubators' common history with mankind shows that well-known historical figures such as Cleopatra, Himiko, and Joan of Arc were magical girls.

• Wish can surpass entropy

  A contract wish can have an effect that surpasses entropy, as Kyubey remarks upon a wish being formed.

  Madoka's wish erases all witches from existence before they are born, from past and future, and alters the laws of nature so the old world ends and a new one takes its place.

• Grief manifests as Wraiths

  Grief still exists in the new world and takes the form of Wraiths that magical girls must fight; defeated Wraiths drop cube-shaped pieces much like Grief Seeds.

Clue Board

• Homura's wish (Episode 2)

  Madoka asks Homura what her wish was, and Homura does not answer. The wish is revealed in episode 10.

• Homura's opposition to the contracts (Episode 3)

  Homura objects to guiding the girls toward becoming magical girls and singles out Madoka as someone she cannot allow to make a contract. The reason is revealed in episode 10.

• Hitomi's group suicide gathering (Episode 4)

  Hitomi, marked by a Witch's kiss, invites Madoka to a better place; the gathering is a group suicide presented as a sacred ritual toward a world without living bodies. A recalled warning that mishandling certain substances could kill Madoka's whole family shows her the danger, and she stops it at the last moment.

• Magical Girls beyond salvation (Episode 5)

  Homura says Magical Girls have given up everything for their wishes and are beyond any hope of salvation. The meaning of this fate is revealed in episode 9.

• Homura's role in Mami's death (Episode 6)

  Sayaka accuses Homura of letting Mami die in order to obtain a Grief Seed. Madoka denies the accusation, and it is not settled in this episode.

• Homura's knowledge and warning (Episode 7)

  Homura already knows the way to the infirmary and warns Madoka that becoming someone different would cost her everything, hinting at a hidden reason behind her words that is revealed in episode 10.

  Homura says that heeding her earlier warning would not have changed Mami's fate, yet she is glad Madoka's own fate was changed. She admits to having witnessed more deaths than she can count; that past is revealed in episode 10.

  Homura refuses to make promises she cannot keep and tells Madoka to give up on Sayaka, warning that Magical Girls have no hope of salvation.

  Homura says she had tried to tell others about the Soul Gem's true nature before, but no one believed her.

• Madoka's sense of prior meeting (Episode 8)

  Madoka has a strange moment of realization and asks Homura if they have met before, a question Homura does not answer before Madoka leaves.

• Sayaka's Soul Gem recovery (Episode 9)

  Kyoko asks Kyubey whether Sayaka's Soul Gem can be recovered; he dodges, saying no one has tried and that such an achievement would not surprise him given Puella Magi exist. It is later revealed that rescuing Sayaka was in fact impossible.

• Homura's chance against Walpurgis (Episode 11)

  Kyubey avoids saying whether Homura can defeat Walpurgis Night alone and urges Madoka to see it for herself; Homura, who denied that it cannot be done, then fails to stop the witch.

• Madoka's decisive act (Episode 11)

  Madoka says there is something only she can do to stop the disaster, and when Homura's Soul Gem nears total corruption Madoka grabs her hand while Homura tells her not to do what she is about to do; the episode ends before that act is shown.

• Madoka forgotten except by Homura (Episode 12)

  Nobody in this world remembers Madoka except Homura, because the paradox of her wish removed her from the universe.

• Madoka seen as imaginary friend (Episode 12)

  Madoka's parents have no memory of her, yet Tatsuya draws her in the sand and others take her for his imaginary friend, and the reason is unexplained.

Ability Table

Music Releases

• コネクト (OP)