"Miracles are not free, and if you pray for hope, they will also spread the same despair. That's how the world cancels each other out and balances them. ”
- "Magical Girl Circle" apricot
The "Dark Series" Magical Girl classic animation "Magical Girl Circle" allows us to see a very different magical world, a world that seeks balance between hope and despair. The audience who watched this work was all surprised by the setting of the work, and the choices of each character in the work were full of human antagonisms.
Poster of the work
The strength of the work is that through the length of 12 episodes, a story with a powerful world view is presented to the audience, and it can quickly transform the relaxed daily fan into a bloody tragedy, placing the responsibility of the world and hope on the girl, and then configuring it with a cruel fate, which will make the audience have a sharp sense of contrast, and the most impressive point is that the growth of each girl is reflected in tragedy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > about Magical Girl Circle</h1>
Magical Girl is an original television anime directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, written by "Warrior of Love" Gen Ikufuchi, and produced by SHAFT. It is also the only television animation that has won three awards for Japanese animation at the same time (Best Television Animation At the 16th Kobe Animation Awards, the 15th Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival Animation Division Awards, and the 11th Tokyo Animation Awards Television Division Outstanding Works Award).
Magical Girl Circle
The story tells the story of the original simple and happy life of an ordinary middle school student, Lu Meow Yuan, who was broken by the appearance of transfer student Xiao Meiyan, an all-powerful but lonely black long straight, who always protected her while seemingly not waiting to see Xiao Yuan. Until Xiaoyuan accidentally rescues a special creature named Cupid on the side of the road, Chubby asks Xiaoyuan as soon as she comes up, hoping that she can sign a contract with her to become a magical girl.
Cupie's request
Magical Maidens are special beings of ordinary human beings who fulfill their wishes, who are saddled with the mission of fighting witches and can put their lives in danger at any time. With the sacrifice of the magical girl around him, Xiao Yuan gradually realizes the cruel truth hidden behind the battle.
The work puts the cruel fate of desire- about hope, despair - the witch on the opposite side, through the choice and sacrifice of the magical girl, to gradually uncover the origin of the magical girl and the witch, as well as the story behind the protagonist Xiao Yuan.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the portrayal of hope, magical girl's wish, in Magical Girl's Circle</h1>
"I think miracles and magic can bring happiness to everyone, and they are very beautiful things."
The reason why magical girls have made countless people clap their hands is that the transition from hope to disappointment is too tragic, and several girls who are still in middle school have to bear the fate of saving the world, especially the arrival of death.
The sentence that the mother said to Xiao Yuan was actually quite appropriate in real life, "When I was young, the wound was good and fast, and if I learn how to fall now, it will definitely help in the future." As you grow up, it becomes more and more difficult to make mistakes, and the more things you carry, the more you dare not act rashly. "But in the wizarding world, we originally thought that magical girls who made mistakes can be redeemed in some way, after all, this is a group of adolescent girls, their future has unlimited possibilities, this is a hopeful stage in life." But the work shows the sacrifice of this group of young girls again and again, so that the audience can face the truth.
girlish
Including becoming a magical girl to save the world, it is also a symbol of hope. What we learn from Cupey is that becoming a magical girl not only protects those around her, but also fulfills a wish. At the beginning of the work, it conveyed the common routine of ordinary magical girls, protecting the world through repeated battles, and the price of becoming a magical girl was also very simple, signing a contract with Cupid.
For the temptation provided by Cupid, everyone goes with expectations, Sister Ba Ma Mei expects to live and harvest a witch companion, Apricot is for the family, to help her father attract more people who believe in him and become a witch; and Sayaka is to help her favorite Jojo Jun re-play the violin; Xiao Mei Yan is to save the small circle in the law of the circle; and the small circle is for the order of the world. Everyone comes with hope, choosing to become a magical girl for the sake of justice in their hearts.
The reason why each of them wants to become a magical girl is simple and pure, basically a common annoyance of adolescent girls, and Chubby brings hope to these girls.
But this hope is even more cruelly set off by the despair behind it. Cupy conceals the cost of becoming magical maidens, and the souls of magical maidens will be materialized and put into the soul gems, so as to ensure that their bodies are not restricted by the condition of the flesh when fighting, and the witches who fight with them are actually blackened by magical girls.
Snack Witch
As they learn about the consequences of their choices step by step, their inner despair is constantly magnified.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the price of choice, the despair revealed behind hope</h1>
More than hope, despair produces the power to strike the heart. The despair of everyone in the work is gradually manifested after everyone has become a magical girl, Andi Meimei has not been able to see her companions until she dies; Sayaka has doubts about the justice in her heart and has degenerated into a witch; apricots who want to protect her family and eventually witness the death of her family; Xiao Meiyan has gone through countless reincarnations and has been unable to save Xiao Yuan; Xiao Yuan has still become the reason of the circle, for the sake of order in the world. Looking at everyone's ending, in addition to letting us see the truth behind the magical girl, it also allows us to see the despair behind the truth layer by layer.
Towards their respective endings
1. Ba Ma Mei Mei Sister
Because of the car accident, Ba Ma Mei mei sister promised Chubby the wish to "live", thus becoming a witch, a student sister who has been fighting alone, and the real wish hidden in her heart is to find a companion and no longer be alone. While trying to find a partner, she also deeply realized that the magical girl is actually not so good, and also advised Xiao Yuan and others to carefully consider whether to become a magical girl, and when the sister was teaching Xiao Yuan and Saye Xiang, she was killed by the snack witch, becoming the first shadow in the hearts of Xiao Yuan and others and the audience, and it is also the first layer of the tragic consequences of becoming a witch in the work.
Ba Ma Aesthetic Sister
2. Saya incense
Sayaka became a witch in order to re-play the violin in order to recover jojo, and her belief in her heart was that it was only right to use magic for others. But when Kamijo, who sacrificed herself to save, fell in love with someone else, Sayaka regretted her former wish out of her inferiority to the status of a witch. Expecting the person she likes to like her mood, and the heartache behind it but not being known, defeats Sayaka's original intention of becoming a magical girl, and her rejection of this psychology makes her fall into a deeper contradiction.
Sayaka
Sayaka is the most contradictory character portrayed in the work, whether to save Jojo or not, she will violate her inner principles, knowing that the way to save the painful crush object and give up is wrong for Sayaka; saving him and being deeply trapped in the feeling of being betrayed but not rewarded, but also letting her fall into contradiction, when doubting the justice in her heart, the imbalance between the two leads to Sayaka eventually falling into depravity.
Battle of Saya Incense
The ending of Sayaka is a true reaction to the normality of real life, and ambivalence is the normal feeling of people, and this contradiction is expressed through the way of degeneration into a witch.
3. Apricots
Apricot's opportunity to become a magical girl is the family, in order to help her father attract more people who believe in him, but also indirectly killed her father and family. This despair caused by hope made her gradually become an egoist who only wanted to be herself, but when she encountered the sacrifice of her own Sayaka for others, she found the faith in her heart, so when Sayaka fell into a witch, she chose to die with Sayaka.
Apricots and saya incense
Apricot is the existence that has the most twists in despair and hope, transforming into a magical girl to fulfill her wishes is hope, killing her family is despair, the upright Sayaka is hope, Sayaka has degenerated into a witch and becomes despair, and in the end she can only choose to disappear together to guard this hope, which is the ultimate way to face despair.
4. Xiaomei Flame
Flame appeared at the beginning is with despair, after countless reincarnations, she still failed to save Xiao Yuan, the story of the magical girl and the witch has continued, all along her belief is only to save Xiao Yuan into a god, but more than 200 reincarnations have not been able to stop Xiao Yuan, and finally she even fell into a demon, knowing that Xiao Yuan's sacrificial flame, in the reincarnation again and again to experience the loss, Xiao MeiYan's feelings for Xiao Yuan can be said to be strong, but it is also heartbreaking.
Xiao MeiYan
5. Small circle
Xiao Yuan, who only wants to accompany her family in a simple life, does not want to become a magical girl, and Cupie's repeated temptations have not shaken her. But she chose to become the reason for the balance of the world, and sacrificed herself to save the magical girl in the world, which also proves that the flame has failed again, and she still failed to save Xiao Yuan, which is a rather realistic ending. From the root of the story, the rescue was not completed, and Xiaoyuan was still sacrificed.
Circle God
When Xiaoyuan became a god, all the memories of this person in the world disappeared, if no one in the world remembered her, then the meaning of her existence was no longer known, and Xiaoyuan's "awakening" meant that she lost the shackles of her body and feelings and was no longer a "person".
The combination of five cute magical girls and a tragic fate intensifies this feeling of despair. When Ba Ma Mei mei sister harvested her companions, she lost her life; when Sha Ye Xiang first found justice, she fell into the contradiction of self-doubt; after Xingzi lost her family, she found a friend with difficulty, but Sha Ye Xiang fell into a witch; flames experienced hundreds of reincarnations but still could not save Xiao Yuan; when Xiao Yuan became a god, everything seemed to return to the starting point at the same time.
transmigration
However, from another aspect, Xiao Yuan's awakening has achieved the new rules of the magical world, no one will become a witch, Xiao MeiYan out of love for Xiao Yuan, opened countless reincarnation attempts, and Xiao Yuan felt the love of his family, flame and the people around him, will pay love for this world, become the principle of the circle to save the world, the end of the story seems to have a new hope.
Flame and small circle
From hope to despair, and then from despair to blossom the flower of hope, the disappearance of the small circle balances the relationship between the people, the imbalance brought about by the influence of the two views of the heart, the inequality between giving and receiving in interpersonal relationships, the destruction of the worldview, all of which have been long-term efforts, as well as persistence and waiting for one-time salvation.