Manga Review: Madoka Magica Homura's Revenge Volume 2 Part 2: So close but no cigar.

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A girl who started out appearing to be a remorseless killer turns out to  be just someone who was hurt by their family; looking out for themselves but just took it too far.

 Once again, life finds. a way to screw up even the most basic, simple and harmless of plans. But I'm back in the saddle and ready to ride. Now to get everyone caught up on Homura's Revenge with the links down below.

Part 1: https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/04/manga-review-madoka-magica-homuras.html

Part 2: https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/07/manga-review-madoka-magica-homuras.html

Part 3: https://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2019/08/manga-review-madoka-magica-homuras.html

 Caught up? Okay then, moving on. The final chapter opens with Kyoko telling Homura to get Madoka out of the area and take her someplace safe. Madoka says that she can't just sit back and let the people of Mitakihara die and asks if she will help them. After some sentiments are exchanged and memories of the last timeline are remembered Kyoko and Homura head off to face Walpurgisnacht with her telling Madoka that she'll be back soon, thinking back to before she became a magical girl and Madoka said some similar words to her.

 The two begin their assault with Homura telling Kyoko her plan while they use up the last of Homura's time stop magic. She'll pull out all the weapons she has and use them which will create a blind spot for Kyoko to unleash everything she has on it. However even if that doesn't work there's always the final option. The time magic runs out and they execute their plan. As expected it doesn't work so Homura pulls out the magical girl last resort.

Oh fuck that's an anti tank rifle. Oh fuck that's an anti tank rifle! A magically powered anti tank rifle to be exact but still, fuck!

 But before she can fire Kyoko stops her and the two get smashed by a building Walpurgisnacht chucks at them. Madoka rushes over to Kyoko who barely survived but they both see Homura who's in the words of Batman "dead as roast beef" leaving Madoka with only one option. Homura then wakes up to the sight of Madoka, as a magical girl. Yep she wished to bring Homura back to life so this whole exercise was entirely pointless in the end. With nothing else better to do Madoka and Homura combine their powers and take down Walpurgisnacht with one shot of Madoka's arrow. 

 After its destroyed Homura starts to wince in pain due to her Soul Gem about to become a Grief Seed. Kyubey tells Madoka that she only contributed a small amount of her energy, the rest was all Homura in an attempt to make sure she didn't use all of her power. So Homura, knowing what needs to be done asks Kyoko to destroy her Soul Gem before it hatches and becomes a witch. Kyoko however pulls out Sayaka's Grief Seed and purifies her Soul Gem. There's been enough death throughout this whole escapade and Kyoko didn't want another body on the pile.

 So to wrap up Homura offers Kyoko to come back with her but she declines since she says that a month isn't far back enough to fix all of her mistakes. Um you could still go back to try and save Mami and Sayaka, you know, your mentor and apprentice that are the only friends/family you still have? It's not like you have anything to lose by going with her in fact you could help make her case to the others and get the best ending?

 You can travel through time, how is this not wrapping around your sugar coated skull Kyoko?! As Homura prepares to leave Madoka gives her goodbyes as well since if she goes back she'll still be a magical girl and Homura's entire quest is to save her without having to make the wish and becoming the pink destroyer of earth. 

No we do not need another version of this assclown running around, especially after what happened in Zi-O!

 So our story ends with Homura and Madoka sharing another tear filled hug, Homura activates Bites the dust and wakes up in her hospital room swearing that she'll save Madoka no matter what it takes. That was Madoka Magica Homura's Revenge, honestly it's a very mixed bag. Let's get the negatives out of the way first, namely one of my biggest detractors with a story; logic tending to get chucked out the window for the sake of perpetuating the conflict. Some examples include Homura not discussing her plans to save Mami with Madoka away from Kyubey. She knows that for every inch she gives him he'll take a mile so why would she give him a chance to plan how to screw her over?

 Speaking of Mami why didn't Homura just stop time when she opened the door to Charlotte's sanctum? She had to have known that Kyubey wouldn't have set her free without a reason, in fact that one situation gave Kyubey the chance to turn Sayaka and Kyoko against her and it worked. Another gripe I had was the shift in tone. Back in the first two chapters the tone was clearly trying to be more comedic and not so serious but it's like when chapter 3 came the writers' antidepressants wore off and remembered that Madoka is supposed to be a drama and so wrote accordingly making the lack of logic in the first chapters all the more glaring. I mean it's nowhere near as much of a caring tonal shift as the early episodes of Ryusoulger as this book does eventually setting into a consistent tone. 

 To quote the writer, Masugitsune "at first this was supposed to be a fast-paced, comedic story but a lot of things happened, and the result turned out a lot different". I'm of course curious what exactly happened to change the tone of this story so dramatically but for now they remain a mystery so we'll just leave it at that. But there are some good elements of this story particularly the artwork which looks almost exactly like the anime. Even the witches look like stills from the anime from their Labyrinths to their designs themselves they look spot on. The human characters also look on target though something seems off, I'm guessing it's the eyes I don't quite know why but it just throws me off, its not bad quite the opposite; everything looks like a clear adaptation of the anime and it really helps you feel that this is a cannon timeline that Homura traveled through to her final goal.

 Speaking of, the initial concept is a good idea, bringing someone else back in time to help make her case. And since it's Madoka who gets brought back Homura won't have to worry about her making an uninformed contract. Though again the biggest snag was Kyubey hitching a ride on top of not bothering to create lies to placate Sayaka, Mami and Kyoko. Though again since Kyubey has knowledge of the last time line any plans the two would come up with would be undermined and collapse as showcased multiple times. Though in the end Homura did get a better ending than usual, Madoka not becoming a witch and Kyoko is still alive so better then nothing. 

 But again, while I get why Kyoko didn't go back with her, she could have still joined with Homura to save Sayaka and Mami and that just annoys me to no end. Though overall Homura's Revenge is a decent but annoying chain of events that does end on a good note. The duo that created this story also worked on the wholly original story Tart Magica which tells the story of Joanne of arc as she and her Magical Girl team fought during the crusades. But that's another day right now we might as well check back in on the franchise's Anti-Villian Oriko Mikune as we see another timeline in Oriko Magica Extra Story. Hopefully in a much more consistent rate of release, maybe sandwiched between October, eh who knows?

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Homura's revenge is owned by, Masugitsune/ Kawazukuu, Magica Quartet and Yen Press.
Back to the Future is owned by Robbert Zebecks, Bob Gale, Stephen Spielberg, Ambling Entertainment  and Universal Studios.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.