The Transcendence of Kaname Madoka

The wish and transcendence of Kaname Madoka are one of the most unique concepts I have ever yet seen in all of film/anime history.

Urobuchi has done something bold; he has created, in a sense, a god, or at least the basic concept of one, through the innocent character of his story named Kaname Madoka.

In the 12th episode of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Kyubey asks Madoka if she intends to become a god with her wish.

That wish... If you realize this wish, then it's greater in magnitude than tampering with time! It's a violation of the principle of a cause-and-effect itself! Do you really want to become a god? - Kyubey, Episode 12.


Did Madoka indeed become a god?



To answer this question, we should first define what a god is.

I figured that for this particular article, due to the touchiness of the subject, I should pull the definition of "god" from elsewhere.

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Wikipedia:

God is often conceived of as the supernatural creator and overseer of the universe. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the may different conceptions of God. The most common among these include omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence.

God has also been conceived as incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".

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Now that we know the basic concept of what a god is, we can now compare these concepts with the transcendence of Kaname Madoka.


This is the granted wish of Kaname Madoka:

I wish that every witch was erased before they were ever born! Every witch from the entire universe. All of the witches from the past and future. With these hands. - Kaname Madoka, Episode 12.

Madoka became a god for seven major reasons:

1) She created a new world and became the overseer of it.

2) She became omnipresent.

3) She transformed into an eternal being with a necessary existence.

4) She became omnipotent.

5) She became omniscient.

6) She became omnibenevolent. (Although this is assumed.)

7) She obtained divine simplicity.


She created a new world and became the overseer of it.


Madoka's granted wish was to purify and destroy all soul gems before they were transformed into grief seeds. Making such a wish come true meant changing the history of the universe, (since it is likely that Earth is not the only planet that the incubators are interfering with.) Since the history and future of the universe was changed, the way things happened and were to happen was altered, and therefore, became something else. That something else can be called the "new universe" or the "new world" in Earth's case specifically.

And because of the function that her wish, which I will explain more on later, she also became the overseer of this new universe.


She became omnipresent.


Because her wish as granted, Madoka's fate was sealed to travel through time purifying and destroying soul gems, regardless of the limitations of a human being. This is because the function that became her fate (by her wish) could only be made possible by going against the arrow of time, which only travels from the past, present, and then the future respectively. Thus, she transformed into an eternal being with a necessary existence (which fulfills the 3rd reason.)


She became omnipotent. 


Her fate as sealed to purify and destroy all soul gems before they turned to grief seeds, no matter what. What this means basically is that she was granted unlimited power to perform such an act otherwise impossible without the magical power put into granting her wish.


She became omniscient.


This statement can easily be understood by looking at the first three reasons, which I explained above. Since Madoka's fate was sealed to perform an impossible task, she gained everything she needed by the magical powers of Kyubey in order to perform her actions.

If she gained the power (omnipresence and omnipotence) to do this, then there is no reason why she did not gain the omniscience to perform her task as well.


She became omnibenevolent.


With the help of Akemi Homura, Madoka finally found the one true wish that she had been seeking for almost the entire show from the bottom of her heart, which means that it was a wish that gave her happiness.

Although, what is true happiness? (True happiness meaning the essence of it and not just simply the mental and temporary state.) If I were to prove that Madoka became omnibenevolent, I would have to dive into the most intense research of all of history and perhaps even go through an entirely new post (or a series of posts) in order to try and figure out the definition of true happiness, and thus, real proof on whether or not Madoka truly became omnibenevolent.

So for the sake of not trying to define something (yet) such as true happiness, please allow me to assume that Madoka's wish made her truly happy. And since she became omnipresent as well, she will remain truly happy forever.


She obtained divine simplicity


What is divine simplicity anyway? If you are aware of Christianity's concept of the Holy Trinity, which is God in three parts that are also one in the same at the same time, then you most likely understand this concept.

So did Madoka obtain divine simplicity? We can assume that she did because she became a god with a specific function that we cannot seperate from her. And as far as we know, this new immaterial matter that makes up the newly transformed Madoka, although it is split up into different points in time, is still one in the same as the "person" that we know, being Kaname Madoka.

It can be argued that Madoka is not a god for one major potential reason.

1) Her "omnipresence", "omnipotence", and "omniscience" are limited by her function to exist.


Her "omnipresence", "omnipotence", and "omniscience" are limited by her function to exist.


What I mean by this is that although Madoka was indeed granted by unlimited power, she can only use this unlimited power for a specific function. And having a function means that you cannot do anything else but that one function, which means you are limited to what you exist for, which his to exist for that single function.

True, Madoka was granted unlimited power to perform her own function, but not any other thing! She cannot even say, make herself a cake, because making herself a cake is not her reason for existing.

When it comes to performing her function however, she is granted the unlimited power only available by our basic concept of a god to perform that function, which fulfills  her meaning for existence.

But isn't this kind of a ridiculous argument in the first place?

When we ask if the Christian God is omnipotent, he or she will most likely answer yes, and that if he wanted to, he could destroy the human race along with the universe.

But such a thing would go against God's meaning and therefore function, because God is to be a loving God, especially for the human race, which he made specially in his image according to the Bible.

Basically, God has a function of being God, and therefore, a limitation. He cannot say, not be a God, because such a thing would go against His existence!

But then again, this point can be refuted by saying that the Christian God is special because he can even not be God because he is God. And if not being God was necessary in order to be God, then he is still fulfilling his meaning of existence and is therefore, still God.

But isn't this a ridiculous argument as well?

If Madoka truly has the omnipotence required to carry out her function, then that means she could even not perform her function in order to perform her function as well. After all, she has unlimited power to do anything that is possible in order to perform her function and fulfill the meaning of her existence. Performing her function by not performing her function is included. Therefore, she's actually in the same boat as God in this sense.

Thus, the one major argument against Madoka's transcendence is, in a slightly confusing sense, refuted.

Such is the transcendence of Kaname Madoka.

Even so, you have to realize that we're just playing around with the word "god". What does it matter that we agree or disagree who and what a god is? In the end, it's just a word.


One of the main points of this article is to discuss the feat of Urobuchi Gen, which is that he (in my opinion) came the closest out of all storytellers to the actual creation of a god.


Urobuchi created a character/situation that directly leads to the basic concept of "god". 


This is my main point. This what I want to discuss with you all.

Through Madoka, Urobuchi punched a hole through an invisible barrier that has been put up by many people. It is extremely rare and practically unheard of for a mere storyteller to not only define what god is, but to create a potential blueprint for one. 

It's only natural that he did this under the presentation of something such as what Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica gives us. After all, imagine how controversial this situation would be if his "blueprint" for a god was presented in another kind of atmosphere that was not as indirect, on other than seemingly innocent magical girls fighting for the good of mankind!

Indeed, the presentation of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica does hide many things such as the concept I just described above. Whether or not this is the intention of Urobuchi Gen, (and I think that it is very possible...) the presentation did serve as a cover for many hidden themes, messages, and ideas, just like any normal film/series.

And I am glad to say that the goal of this blog series is, in fact, to uncover these exact same things from all works of art pertaining to anime.