#ask muffin

STAR MAGICAL GIRLS

YOU'VE FUCKED UP I WILL NEVER SHUT UP NOOOOOOOW

Every girl gets a cool star magical girl uniform a la Tanabata Yachiyo and an associated star (or constellation).

Yachiyo is Vega, of course! Vega is the weaver star of Lyra and occasionally considered one of the more important stars of the sky (besides the sun) that we base all other stars on. It's a very cool star! It will become a north pole star at around 14,500 AD, and a pole star suits Yachiyo's nature imo.

Tsuruno in Magia Altair was the Altair to Yachiyo's Vega, but I'm not sure if it really fits her? I feel like Mifuyu might work better here, but Mifuyu is also very moon-coded so I don't know. I kind of like Altair-Mifuyu so let's go with that and pick something else out for Tsuruno.

Altair is associated with fishing, with birds (particularly hawks and eagles) and with lightening. Not the most Mifuyu of stars. However one way it can work would be the Ganymede myth of Aquila (Altair's constellation): Zeus used an eagle, represented by Aquila, to grab Ganymede from earth and keep him in Mount Olympus forever. Perhaps this can suit Mifuyu's role in the Wings of Magius.

If Mifuyu is Altair, then who will Tsuruno be? I feel like she could be Deneb from the constellation Cygnus then. Someone who is a bridge between two places, who is part of the Summer Triangle alongside Mifuyu and Yachiyo (suits them!). Deneb will become a north pole star in the future and honestly I think Tsuruno deserves that kind of importance.

Touka associated Iroha with the star "Beta Pegasi" (also known as "Scheat"... not sure what's going on there but okay) so that can be who Iroha is. Touka, Nemu, and Ui can be other members of Pegasus (a famous four-star box-shaped constellation! all together <3)

Sana can be the star "Alcor" from Ursa Major, which often means the forgotten one. However, Sana also gets two doppels and had a hinted-at dual personality, so perhaps she can be "Mizar" AND "Alcor" which would be cool and she deserves to be special. Mizar and Alcor are commonly associated with each other as they look very close together to the human eye. We actually used to use them as a way to test eyesight back in the day! If you could distinguish Alcor from Mizar then you were said to have very good eyesight.

Felicia can be... hm.... actually I have no idea who Felicia would be. I guess someone from Taurus cause cow. Perhaps she'd be Aldebaran. I don't really have any strong feelings for her, I apologize ;_; I will say that the Pleiades are in there, but Kazumi Magica famously has the Pleiades saints so giving her someone from there feels incorrect.

Maybe the plot could be something like: star magical girls are doing star magical girl guardian stuff, and the usual plotline of Tanabata is occurring where Vega and Altair can't see each other except for one day of the year-- however this year there's rain and that's kind of a problem because how can you see stars if there are clouds in the sky? At a loss of what to do, different stars band together to try and get Altair and Vega to meet up anyways.

If the Madoka girls pop up:

Madoka can be the Sun, because of course she is. But being the sun is very lonely, because you can't see other stars in the sky when she's out, and you naturally can't see the sun when other stars shine. You also should never look directly at the sun, but you can always feel her when she's out-- the warmth on your skin. I think that suits her role as Madokami in the future.

Homura can be Venus, the morning star/evening star. Not a true star of course but I think she shares a lot in common actually, especially since the morning star is occasionally associated with the Devil/Lucifer. As a "wandering star" (planet), she is able to move around in the timelines when other stars cannot, and she is not fixed. Venus is also associated with a "fall from grace" due to its movements, and I think that suits some of Homura's character progression. Venus is the third brightest object in the night sky and you can occasionally see it during sunsets/sunrises, which suits a Sun-themed Madoka.

Mami... Hm.... I feel like she could be Sirius-- hear me out. Sirius is dog-themed, sure, which doesn't TOTALLY fit Mami, but I think there are still elements there that work. Sirius is a white star that is the fourth brightest object in the night sky (and the brightest non-sun star that we can see from earth), but it's not actually brighter than any other star when accounting for distance and such. Throughout history, Sirius has been associated with good things (the rising of the river nile) and bad things (the dog days of summer, when dogs would go mad with the overwhelming heat of the sun), and I think those can both suit Mami as someone who can represent the absolute best of magical girls and the absolute worst.

As for Kyoko... Ooo, easy. Algol. Algol is a famous star whose name comes the "the ghoul," known as the star of a thousand corpses FOR.... disappearing, aka blinking due to its variable nature. It's a star that seems evil, akin to a gorgon's head or winking eye, but is in fact just a regular ol' star doing what stars do. I feel like this suits Kyoko's backstory (with her father)

As for Sayaka... Hmmm.... I feel like the crab pulsar actually. She's well known for witching out, and what can be more witching out than having a supernova? The crab pulsar (if I recall correctly) had a supernova back in 1k AD and could actually be seen during daylight! Before fading back into the dark. As for the Cancer constellation, its associated myths are all kind of lackluster (a crab who pinched Heracles before getting stomped to death is one, not the most impressive of constellation stories), which kind of suits Sayaka actually imo. Someone who is an "average" non-powerful magical girl who becomes a witch, a supernova, whose death changes how we see magical girls/astronomy.

But I don't find intentional Malice in the way the writers deal with her, it always seems like they want to have it both ways and are just "Not sure how to write her well so they just avoid doing that" which isn't. Good. But feels more like feeling too comfortable with not dealing with these concepts rather than trying to say something.

I think her dialogue and even her sprites while talking on Kaoru's MGS have been specially telling, she's just trying So Hard to keep herself busy with stuff so she doesn't have to think about playing actually means for her, but it's sad that as soon as you start to think "Hey is she doing good?" the story will take a super fast turn and not mention her angst again for a long period of time.

It's like when they write her they can't help but bring topics they don't know how to talk about so they just Switch Topics...

I'm still very early into Magireco stuff but the amount of details that keep showing up has been really worth the watch! Sorta random ramble but I couldn't help but remember you when I saw Natsuki showing up

Yesss! I totally agree! I don't think there's malice in it either-- in fact, I almost kind of want to say that the writers are trying to do something meaningful but that there's a limit to what they're allowed to do (or what they think they're allowed to do).

There's no way to talk around this issue; one problem I think is the target audience for the game. I don't want to be rude or presumptive, but the main audience is going to be older men (by "older" I mean as in "older than teenagers"). Men can obviously relate to female characters-- that's why the series is as successful as it is imo-- but I imagine writers would want to shy away from issues like sexism that could alienate a core part of their audience.

Natsuki can't play baseball because of sexism, but it's not because of a specific man or a group of men. It's a vague set of rules that's preventing her. She makes her wish for her brother and she's very supportive of all her male friends, and those friends aren't portrayed as being misogynists-- sexism is being brought up, but it's tempered by her attitude and her close bonds with other boys. It's a vague bogeyman in the closet that everyone acknowledges is there but can't be fought directly, because it might make the audience uncomfortable.

(I'd talk about the Amane twins but that would be another 15 paragraphs-- suffice to say, Tsukasa is also dealing with her sexist father but I'd argue that Tsukuyo's mother is portrayed as more awful of the two parents. There's a reason that Tsukasa has kept her surname but Tsukuyo abandoned hers to take on her fathers.)

But like you said, I don't think there is intentional malice here. In fact, I think the writers are trying to bring up serious topics that would affect a primarily female cast, it's just that they can't do anything once it's there, so issues like sexism get waved to the side before it could possibly offend anyone or make a person uncomfortable.

The other issue is one that plagues a lot of characters and not just Natsuki: characters don't develop very much, especially the side ones. They have their tragic backstories and then they have a moment where they realize they need to change and then.... and then that's it. There's no moving forward, no development. It's not great, but in a way it's like we're seeing a brief snapshot of these girls' lives, so it's not the worst thing.

So like... Natsuki. Her story could be so good if we go the route of "she thinks her dreams are impossible so now she devotes her time to cheering on others." Any time Natsuki says "oh I'm fine this is all I actually wanted," it could be a lie she's telling herself and others around her. I honestly thought this was the route her magical girl story in Exedra was going, but the ending did a hard 180 and made me want to spoon out my eyes and eat them; so the less talked about that, the better.

I think it wouldn't take too much. I think there's already a lot we can read into as it is. For example, Natsuki watching the female athletes practice. Yeah she's a person who wants to cheer on others, but maybe there's a bittersweet forlorn happiness in there at what could have been.

I just remembered that Natsuki got an Alina's Atelier thing where she got to see her witch. Let me rewatch it real quick.

Like this is all good right here. Natsuki lets go of her smile and admits what her despair looks like. She puts all her passion into other things to avoid having given up on being a player herself.

However she doesn't ever talk about sexism or frustration with her gender or the system. Like, I'm not expecting a feminism 101 course here, but it's interesting how she phrases this-- jealous of everyone who could play baseball that she wanted to blame them. Jealous of EVERYONE (not just men) that she wanted to blame THEM (her friends and not the system).

Not that it wouldn't be valid for some misplaced anger against her dudebro friends imo, but the phrasing implies she's mad at herself for having negative feelings at being denied a passion of hers for something she had no control over.

Which again, could be a very interesting thing to go into with her character. It's heartbreaking that Natsuki lost her dream and then would deride herself for feeling bad about it. As though she thinks she can only support others, no matter the cost to herself, and that any negative emotion she might feel is something she must get rid of.

Alas.

Natsuki doesn't move forward, she stays right where she is. There's so much to examine here, but her talking about "choice" breaks my heart. What choice? You mean your wish? Do you mean to stop playing baseball? That wasn't your choice. Was it to be a cheerleader? When did you ever get a choice in this, Natsuki?

Like... if I was more confident in the writers, I'd say that this sad heartbreaking feeling is intended. That Natsuki doesn't allow herself to feel sad because she's already given up, that she avoids how she feels by throwing passion and activity over it until she's too busy cheering up others to think about how she feels. It's so close to be that. If I trusted the writers a tad more, I WOULD believe that.

But, for me, they just... don't. Cowardice or restraint by audience, I think that Natsuki is intended to be a character who briefly mentions that sexism against women exists before scurrying back and assuring the reader that everything is fine, she's okay and happy! See? You don't need to worry or feel bad about yourself.

That's so cute!

So you actually kind of can!

I ended up deleting this post a while back because knowledge about the server and project took off and folks were worried about info getting out and compromising everything, but I've since checked and the creator is saying it's safe to share this information. So I'm gonna assume that's still the case.

"Spread the Word: Share Totentanz with your community. There are no limitations or restrictions on spreading the info and links."

There is a project called Totentanz that is in the works for making a playable Magia Record.

It's still in it's initial beta state and while you can play the game, it's in a "stateless mode" which means it's uhhh I'll use the creator's own words:

"It means that for most methods, the changes are not preserved. To improve the gameplay experience, there are a few exceptions"

So you can do battles, read storylines, and check out menus and such but you can't progress your characters or things like that. From what I understand, it's set to be some sort of badass master account that has every character unlocked + every event story and such, so if you want to play around as a mega hyper whale who has a super duper maxed account then feel free!

I do hope it eventually gets to a state where you can make an account and start from scratch. I like games where you have long term investments and such.

But yeah, it's not the same as the OG magireco. I wish you could have played too. I don't want to hype it up as the best game ever; it had numerous flaws and it wasn't perfect. However it was also something special and there's a reason there's a small bastion of fans who are absolutely obsessed with it still.

A-are you taking about my madomagi fanart? Bruh????

If you think those noses are big (???) then you'd hate a lot of my OCs.

Heya!

I'm not sure if Exedra will follow in the same steps of Record; the two games feel distinct in their philosophies for stuff so far. But to answer the question:

Anniversary was a lot of fun because you could get so much free stuff. Damn near guaranteed one unlimited and one limited of your choosing, and even more if you're lucky. Each subsequent year made it more generous as well. Tons of free pulls! Often two or more free concurrent tenpulls every day.

Limited units were rerun at anniversary. I can't remember the cutoff date exactly, but I want to say it was around either halloween or december (for an anniversary that began in august). I suspect for Exedra's anniversary that it will be up to Bowmura for limiteds. So that would include Ultimate Madoka, and all the summer units.

If you spend money then Record's anniversary would have pretty generous bag options. You'd get a ton of magia stones + a limited/unlimited unit (depends on what bag you picked). Sometimes the unit you got was random, but towards the end you could actually pick the one you wanted, which was nice.

As far as playable content goes... eh? I wouldn't actually say that the new content introduced was all that exciting during anniversary. I remember one year we got this quizz thing (which was real fun because it was all in japanese and I do not understand japanese), and there were occasionally some pretty hard fights to challenge players, but the actual playable content wasn't too attention grabbing.

Sometimes low rarity characters got an unlock, but that's not applicable to Exedra. I do suspect that we might get some new 4* and 3* for Exedra's anniversary though. At least... I hope that we do.

Anniversary was mostly fun because you got all sorts of free stuff-- new characters to play with, an abundance of mats, an exciting new anniversary character, and typically an important or otherwise interesting event to read. It was also exciting to be in the fandom and see what kind of luck other friends had going on.

I'm not sure what to expect from Exedra, but in many ways this game is a lot more generous with what it gives out than Record was. Record didn't have the golden key shards or frequent magia stone campaign giveaways-- (but I'd also argue that Record had more replayability, fight me).

Bascially, I think Exedra will be pretty generous with its anniversary. I wouldn't be surprised if we outright got a free 5*, possibly even one we can choose. We're absolutely due for some free tenpulls. I think that some limiteds (again, I imagine up to bowmura) will be available to pull for again. There might be some game updates we can expect, like quality of life changes that they've been keeping under the hood.

There will probably be an event plus maybe a new main story window? I'm unsure.

I mean i guess it fits localization wise? Darc sounds more french and Tart was already a romanization of De'Arc as it was written in katakana, but…idk its gonna take me a minute to get used to this.

now i know how kush feels

Reira and Kush laughing in the corner. I think Riz might be named "Liz" Hawkwood again too, but I could be wrong. Tart was "Darc" when translated on the English Magireco server too, so at least there is precedent.

Honestly at this point in my life IDGAF about the change. She's the same character regardless. I'm not the one archiving videos or working on the fandom wikis either, so have fun editors!!! HAHAHAHAHA! (It's only funny cause it's not me).

Plus, Oriko is amazing when it comes to multi-enemy stages and ESPECIALLY with things like Score Attack.

:') Yess I love my girls are actually useful for gameplay! Especially Kirika, I think the only time she had a niche was very very early on in Record's gameplay as a dps-tank for mirrors. Oriko at least had the honor of being a decent low-budget magia light girl, and she was great for f2p teams with 100 evils-- Oriko was also a good solo mirrors option for a while. Kirika though...

I gotta say that Exedra made tanks pretty useful. I love defense-type classes so I'm glad that they're important here.

I think it helps that tanks in exedra have a way to get aggro without needing memoria and we don't have them giving aggro to other characters via connect. Also, at some point in record's life, a lot of characters were able to heal or provide barriers and you no longer needed a dedicated tank/healer to protect your team.

I think also we benefit from how characters get turns. In Record you have to rely on random luck to get the needed discs you want for characters, and tanks could muddy it up. In Exedra, every character will eventually get a turn and you can use speed stats to help manipulate how often it is, but tanks won't take up too much turn order.