Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc, Vol. 2

Puella Magi Madoka★Magica: Wraith Arc #2

by Magica Quartet, Hanokage (Artist)

Through Madoka's sacrifice, no magical girl will face the tragic fate that once awaited them, though not one remembers the name of their savior-save Homura Akemi. Clinging to the memory of her dearest friend, Homura struggles to rely on her teammates, even when failing to do so has allowed the giant wraith to devour her powers! To reclaim her powers, Homura begins a desperate search for the giant wraith, finding help in the most unlikely of places...

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Fiction, Comics, Horror

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 11, 2016

About the author

A group collaboration consisting of director Akiyuki Shinbou, writer Gen Urobuchi, the original character designer Ume Aoki, and the producer Atsuhiro Iwakami.

Reviews

[katie?]

OH HOMURA WE’RE REALLY IN IT NOW

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continuation of Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc sees Homura growing more wary of the new, post-Madoka world and with very good reason. The Wraiths, previously an indefinable collection of bad energy, become semi-sentient beings who can impersonate humans and know exactly how to manipulate their victims. Homura finds that she's lost her power after a Wraith attack and becomes increasingly consumed by self-doubt and isolation. Unable (and unwilling) to confide in her fellow Puella Magi (whom she avoids with a newly-developed memory-warping power), she proves an easy mark for the Wraiths, one of whom boldly impersonates Madoka in a bid to defeat a greater evil. The manga has all the usual angst and tortured introspection common to the franchise, which will likely make it feel redundant and repetitive to less charitable readers. The Wraiths still remain a less-than-great antagonist compared to the Witches, despite their new abilities (though Wraith Madoka has her moments of guileless charm). What works here is what usually works in this series: the characters are sharply drawn, with Mami stressing under her role as Self-Appointed Team Mom, Kyoko coming to terms with her feelings for now-departed Sayaka and even non-Magical friend Hitomi having a neat moment in the spotlight. Homura's self-loathing provides the story's engine, and as always it's both complelling and painful to watch battling her grief. The main complaint about this arc, again, is that it offers Madoka veterans little new in a lore or narrative sense: but for fans, time spent further exploring these flawed, fascinating protagonists is reason enough to read it.

[ElsaMakotoRenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah yes, PMMM Wraith Arc v2, in which poor Homura is slowly losing her mind as we march toward the events of Rebellion...

Reading Wraith Arc having seen Rebellion many times over honestly makes a lot of what is happening even more of a punch to the feels since we know what will happen to her later on.

5 stars, art is lovely as usual, and would highly recommend to any PMMM fan. Very very excited for the next volume to release in English!

[Letteredpanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

At last the real story gets going, courtesy of Homura Akemi and Her Inexhaustible Trauma. Much more engaging than volume 1.

We get more glimpses into the lore of this new world of wraiths and grief cubes. Homura now has memory manipulation powers instead of time powers, though she admits she has no idea why. The nature of wraiths is explored. If we believe the wraith-disguised-as-Madoka, wraiths are actually self-aware, well-intentioned, and cosmically necessary creatures. A shocking revelation—but frustratingly, neither Homura nor Kyubey probe this idea. If it were me, I’d be having a crisis about my work fighting and killing wraiths as a magical girl...

We get some A-class psychological warfare thanks to the imposter-wraiths, with "Sayaka" guilt-tripping the hell out of Kyoko and Hitomi, and "Madoka" playing on Homura's deep loneliness and yearning. We also get a nice little battle team-up with Homs and Mami, the sharpshooters.

Hanokage’s Homura is more expressive than her anime counterpart. She’s caught by surprise more often and shows it, her eyes going wide and even uttering “Huh?” a couple times. Yet she’s still the same standoffish “anomaly” we know, hunting wraiths alone and brushing off Mami’s gentle concern. And we get a marvelous new reason for it: Homura’s afraid that if she integrates too much with those who never knew Madoka, she’ll forget Madoka herself.

This expressiveness is best shown off in Homura's mental breakdown at the end, a beautiful spiral that almost rivals the witchy one in Rebellion (it just lacks the cinematic artistry). Hell yeah, this is the Homu-angst I came here for! It’s the beating clockwork heart of PMMM for me. This one has tantalizing parallels to a crisis of religious faith—in God, in salvation, in comfort, in the afterlife.

The downside of Homura's new memory powers—and their connection to Madoka—becomes apparent as Homura first suspects and then concludes that she rewrote her own memories and basically made up the whole concept of Madoka as a "convenient fantasy." Without that anchor, she's lost her purpose and desire to fight on. Her suicidality roars to the surface and she asks Wraith Madoka to "free her from being a magical girl." (Understandable. Girl has been THROUGH it.) Her wraith companion tenderly accepts, takes out Homu's soul gem, and gathers her up princess-style and vanishes in a flash of light.

Poor Kyoko and Mami are left with the task of rescuing another captured friend, and this one doesn't even wanna be rescued.

I have some thoughts about the nature of Madokami's new world and about connections to Rebellion, but I'll save those for when I finish volume 3.

[Seeker of Knowledge, may he never succeed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starts to drop seeds about how this series leads into Rebellion. Although in a way it raises more questions than answers, we begin to see both emotional and plot progression that could set the stage for the world of rebellion and the people the cast become. Greatly hoping that the final third volume delivers on this, however even if it doesn't it remains one of the most true to source Madoka adaptations in both tone, plot and character. Being a true "mystery box" just as the original series was, where we are tasked with watching the secrets of this world unfold, and the dark philosophical propositions that even in a world meant to be free of suffering, everything still has a price, and everything balances out in the end.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now THIS is a story worth telling! This really recaptures what makes this story special - the doubt, the questions, the mysteries, the lingering grief and unfolding consequences that come out of bigger story moments. The characters here are all grappling with the main plot in a very tangible and emotional way and Homura really shines in her unique position in the narrative. I absolutely love the ideas it's toying with by the end of this volume, and the ramp into Rebellion is incredibly clear and haunting all the way thought.

[nana ❀ · Rating 5 out of 5]

it hit so close to home when homura said she couldn't remember what was real or not, which memories were real or something she made in her head. or even worse, how she clung to the idea of someone whom she couldn't be sure still existed. she was on the automatic mode that one day she would reunite with madoka through some miracle but when they took part of her heart away, which contained her memories and feelings towards madoka, what was left for her to hold onto?

[Santiago Bueno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un segundo tomo bastante interesante. La historia toma un camino peculiar. Me gusta mucho como exploran al personaje de Homura. Me resulta muy interesante como van mostrando sus dudas, la hace sentirse mas humana. Se a donde no tiene que dejar, ya que tiene que darle el pie a rebellion, y aún así me intriga ver como llegan ahí.

[Katrina Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up, and devoured it right away

The whole time, feeling a bit of longing

But mostly spending the whole time asking questions about the world building. There are several different possibilities of the mechanics of this Wraith based world, how they work with the other timelines and various other ideas of how all of this functions

My heart is pumping--I love it

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't spoil anything, but I will say poor Homura! She's really in for it this time. And the cliff hanger is killer!

[Azbaqiyah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot - 5 ⭐
Character - 5 ⭐
Writing Style - 4 ⭐
World Building - 5 ⭐
Art - 5 ⭐
Cover - 5 ⭐

Overall - 4.8 ⭐ / 5 ⭐

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this got crazy lol it was cool seeing Homura’s thought process as she struggles to understand her role as a magical girl in this Madoka-less world. And then a cliffhanger ending to top it off 👌

[shanniiine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomo 2 de 3. Parte del pack con el que se distribuyó la saga completa.

[asya ♠︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn the magical girls in love for making me so sad :(

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really creative and interesting plot.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

peak

[Morgan Morison · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Aurakinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting to feel like you absolutely shouldn't watch the Rebellion movie without also reading this series. So much extra context.

[MothAngels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wraith madoka is so sweet and she deserves a million fans i love her with all my heart

[Gláucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

quantas revelações

[lupin mayhew · Rating 4 out of 5]

let these poor girls be happy please im gonna 😭😭

[Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just want them all to be happy dammit..

[Megan Mullins · Rating 5 out of 5]

T_T

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

⎯ ✩✩✩ ⎯

A weaker volume, but not terrible. Not really sure what's going on.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume of interquel depicting the events that happened between Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion is even better the first.

Starting with a meeting with a `Madoka` Homura question what she is fighting for and she believes is the truth. Her soul is getting cloudier which will makes a great conclusion in the final (next) volume.

Kyubey seems to be hiding something (likely the plan to capture the soul gem before it is taken by the law of the cycles)