Episode 4 of the Magica Record anime has been released. Enjoy this binge-watched review, full of my own opinionated and biased thoughts.
Review of Kyubey
These incubators are intelligent lifeforms from outside Earth. They have developed an advanced civilization and, in order to "prevent the current universe from its eventual heat death due to increasing entropy and ensure its survival," have developed a method to convert emotions into energy. However, because they themselves are emotionless lifeforms, they have set their sights on Earth's girls who have not yet reached their second growth stage. Their goal is to recover the energy generated when impurities are transformed from magical girls' soul gems into witches' grief seeds.
While living beings, they share a common consciousness with the surrounding incubators. Their appearances on Earth are temporary, remotely controlled from their planet.
Does Kyubey really not remember Ui?
In this work, a power separate from the witches is at work in Kamihama-shi, making rumors come true. Furthermore, there are also rumors circulating about saving magical girls in Kamihama-shi. If those rumors were to come true, Kyubey would have no benefit at all. Kyubey's goal is to harvest grief seeds, which exploit negative emotions.
However, in Madoka Magica, Kyubey is a rational being and never lies. The story progresses based on their rational behavioral principle of not answering questions unless asked.
Furthermore, when Mami appears in episode 3, it is revealed that Kyubey loses consciousness in Kamihamashi.
Kyubey's statement that he has no memory of Ui seems to be true.
Maybe the small incubators convert positive emotions into energy?
Let's start by listing the characteristics of Kamihamashi.
- Witches are strong
- Incubators lose consciousness
- Small incubators are active
- Rumors come true
Here, rumors come true. Moreover, the rumors that have emerged so far have all come true: meeting a loved one, making a breakup happen, and saving a magical girl.
The Incubator's purpose is to protect the universe by storing negative human emotions in Soul Gems and collecting the energy that can be transformed into Grief Shields.
Why did the Incubator convert negative emotional fluctuations into energy? There's no absolute speed involved, and it makes sense if intelligent life forms in other universes can convert raw emotions like joy into energy.
If the small Incubator is turning rumors into reality in order to utilize raw emotions, then the Incubator collecting negative emotions would get in the way. Perhaps this is why the Incubator becomes unable to function within Kamihama-shi.
So why do witches become so strong? Raw emotions don't necessarily emerge when rumors are turned into reality; even if a wish to achieve perfection is fulfilled, negative emotions inevitably emerge. Could it be that there are many such situations, and the witch's food supply increases in a way that doesn't align with her purpose, making her stronger?
Is Ui a small Incubator?
Ui likely made a contract with the Small Incubator. If her wish at the time was something like wanting to grant everyone's wishes, it makes sense that a system would be created to make the rumors come true. Perhaps the Small Incubator became a Small Incubator because it was attached to Iroha.
Madoka Magica is full of horrifying stories, so the Small Incubator proposed a contract to Ui, who wanted to grant everyone's wishes. Incubators turn girls into magical girls, creating witches and recovering energy. The Small Incubators recover joy, but although their species lives in an advanced civilization, there is a reason they cannot be sent to Earth as executive officers, so perhaps they are using Earthlings as human sacrifices to recover raw emotions.
Kamihama-shi can also be interpreted as meaning that God is better.
This may also contain irony, as they exploit raw emotions in comparison to the incubators that mass-produce witches.
Considerations on the Small Incubator
The Small Incubator does not speak. However, it has emotions toward Iroha, and possesses the power to disrupt the Incubator.
In contrast to Kyubey, who uses language proficiently and has abandoned emotions,
the Small Incubator is an intelligent lifeform boasting a superior civilization to the Incubator, having evolved without speaking and retaining emotions.
(There was a time when cell phones were getting smaller and smaller, so perhaps the temporary forms used to retrieve emotions are becoming smaller.)
However, the temporary forms on Earth are almost identical. Considering this, it may make more sense to say that the Incubator evolved on a different timeline and has evolved differently.
