This article includes “Mahou Shoujo Modoka Magica” spoilers. Discretion to the reader is recommended.
If you have ever asked what really means the name of “Puella Magi Madoka Magica“, Prepare, because there is more than it seems. At first glance, it seems that the title only means “Magic Magic Magic Girl” (yes, it sounds a bit redundant), but when we put a magnifying glass into Latin, things get weird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cthwezk2ja
If the creators wanted to say “magic girl” in Latin, then Puella Magi is poorly written. The right thing would be “Puella Magica” either “Puella Maga“, because:
- Puella It means “girl” or “girl.”
- Magica It would be the adjective for “magical.”
- Maga It is “sorceress” or “witch.”
But Magi is Magus's plural, which means “magician” or “sorcerer.” That is, that Puella Magi actually translates as “the girl of the sorcerers”, as speaking of property, or the “witch girl”, as speaking of a stage. So, were they wrong or did it on purpose? This is where it gets interesting. There is a fairly accepted theory that “Puella Magi” is not a mistake, but a hidden track on the plot of the series.
In “Madoka Magica”, magical girls are destined to become witches. If we take Puella Magi as “girl (form) witch,” suddenly makes sense, because magical girls are actually a previous stage to become majo (witches). Basically, Madoka Magica was telling us from the title and nobody realized.
In addition, Kyubey never uses the term Puella Magi in the series. He only says Mahou Shoujo (magic girl), but in Japanese there is an interesting word game: «In this country, the women who are still growing are called 'Shoujo'. And if a 'shoujo' is on the way to becoming 'majo' (witch), it is logical».
In Japanese, the phonetic relationship between Mahou Shoujo and Majo (Witch) is super clear, but when it resulted in English and other languages, that double meaning was lost. Now, if Puella Magi already has the “magical” part of the title, why add Magica to the end? The simplest explanation is that they put it there only to sound cool and reinforce the idea that there is magic in between.
But there is also another possibility: that Magica is a reference to the curse, which in Latin means “evil” or “witch.” This makes sense if we take into account that in the manga “Puella Magi Kazumi Magica”, one of the spin-off stories, the malefic word is used to refer to the witches. So Madoka Magica could be an elegant way to hint from the title that magical girls and witches are more connected than it seems.
Far from being a simple Latin error, the title plays with the real meaning of what a magical girl is in the world of Madoka Magica. They are not only heroines with powers, but girls who are trapped in a cycle of despair and manipulation. From the beginning, they were destined to become what they swore to fight.
Fountain: Reddit
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(Tagstotranslate) Mahou-Shoujo-Mangoka-Magic
