Madoka Magica Beta Designs Pt. 3
Building on the work set out in the previous post, I want to take advantage of now having of the 10th Anniverary Exhibiton Archive Book. While much of the contents are pieces we've seen before, there is genuinely new (to me) design concepts.
(10th Anniversary Exhibition Archive Book, Pg. 17)
While quite a few fans have seen versions of Homura's early design in these Ume Aoki sketches, the newer piece is the evolution of the buckler, and they're distinctly a product of the mechanical works of magic at the time of production.
This sheet (Archive Book Pg. 46) shows it form from the "time" necklace she has, a very sharp and angular shield, the bottom right graphic almost making it look like it has "depth".
This is followed up by this sketch, maintaining the sand timer in the sketch, but forming a more "heraldic" shape overall. Still a far cry from the buckler we know and love today.
This is where things start to get interesting though.
As highlighted in my previous post, at this point, soul gems were rocks or rings, and depending on how the timeline actually shook out, there still wasn't a convenient place for them to put them.
So what did the next stage seem to do? They put the soul gem in an armcuff to hold the buckler, to hold it up. While this version does maintain the iconic "gears at the center" graphic there are other graphics along side it that don't seem to maintain that same visual.
Perhaps I'm reading the ordering wrong.
Also on this page is what appears to be a different design for the bow, whether it would be wielded by Madoka or Homura at this juncture is unclear to me. I'd imagine Homura based on the positioning.
What else does this page have with respect to early weapons?
Well, page 47 gives us a slightly interesting insight into a potential weapon design for Sayaka, where instead of her traditional swashbuckling design cue, she'd instead have knives between her fingers (!?), evocative of Wolverine.
We also get quite a few gun variants for Mami that seem wholly unused. Such variety!
But perhaps the most interesting divergence is how this same text showed the summoning of the bow in the earlier ages, appearing organic as it seems to grow from Madoka's soul gem... but I've already gone off about that in paralleling the Walpurgisnacht Rising poster.
(Archive Book Pg. 17) Combine this with the organic wrapped trim that appears to hold the soul gem for the girls in those early designs, and I feel somewhat confident in that we could have gotten a very different show.
