Kyubey
Part of a series on Puella Magi Madoka Magica. [View Related Entries]
WARNING: This entry contains spoilers for the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, specifically about this character's intentions and nature.
About
Kyubey (キュゥべえ), also known by its nickname "QB" and ASCII form /人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\, is a mysterious character from the popular fantasy "magical girl" anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica[1]. Due to the show's popularity in Japan and Kyubey's characterization as a deceptive, evil creature with an angel-like appearance, it quickly grew into a target of obsession for the Japanese anime fans and illustrators. According to various accounts, Magi Madoka Magica is one of the most discussed anime series on the Japanese textboard site 2channel, even in comparison to the notorious Haruhi Suzumiya series.[2]
Origin
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a sci-fi fantasy anime series produced by Shaft, a well-known animation company behind the wildly popular, albeit controversial, series Bakemonogatari. The first ten episodes aired in Japan between January 6th, 2011 and March 10th, 2011, with the last two episodes getting delayed until April 21st, 2011, following the national earthquake disaster in March.
Initially, the official trailers and opening sequence set up the show as a typical "magical girl" anime featuring Kyubey as just another adorable magical companion, in similiar vein to Kero from Card Captor Sakura. Throughout the series, Kyubey tries to recruit the protagonist Madoka and her friend Sayaka as magical witch fighters by offering to grant one wish in exchange for entering a contract with him. From very early on, fans began speculating that Kyubey had ulterior motives and might very well be evil.[3]
Kyubey makes his appearance in the first episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. During a post apocalyptic dream sequence, where he tries to convince Madoka that if she made a contract with him and became a magical girl, she could reverse the destruction caused by the giant monster demolishing the city. Madoka meets Kyubey later on in the episode when she rescues him from the mysterious transfer student, Homura.
The following section may contain spoiler information about Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Kyubey:
Spread
Kyubey's notoriety comes from the fact that he is a deceptive troll. While very cute (the author commented on Kyubey's angel-like appearance in the manga), he is actually a very frightening creature. In an interview with two of the voice actors from the show, the voice actor for Homura stated, "Please never come to me."[4]
There are a wide variety of fan reactions, games, and fan art that have resulted from Kyubey. Fan art of Kyubey ranges from him being maimed by the cast members, Kyubey being creepy, Kyubey being a pedophile, Kyubey being adorable (often followed by an edit of the image which combines Kyubey's adorableness with his creepiness), a large muscle-man Kyubey, and Kyubey cosplaying as characters from other shows. Another popular icon that's spread from Kyubey is the creation of an Shift JIS-emoticon: /人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\
On February 27th, 2011, Single Topic Blog "Fuck Yeah Contract"[7] was launched to document and curate Kyubey-specific media.
According to Crunchyroll Kyubey has also managed to become a top ranking buzzword for 2011. The phrase "Make a contract with me and become an [x]!" was meme-y enough this year that it took the number third spot, just below the nickname for Japan's World Cup winning women's soccer team, "Nadeshiko Japan." First place was taken by "Popopopo~n!" from the AC Japan public service message, "The Magic of Greetings".[9]
Akihabara
Kyubey 's popularity has caused him to spread all over Akihabara district, a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods in Tokyo, Japan. On Feb 28th 2011, Sanakaku Complex posted an article of images of Kyubey invading computer store desktop backgrounds, mannequins, and store front windows asking people to make a contract with him.
Sankaku Article on Kyubey Takes over Akihabara
Illustrations
On Danbooru, a collection of images titled "Everybody Hates Kyubey[5]", all of which obviously feature Kyubey in a negative manner, has by the 18th April already reached over 300 images, with more being added frequently.
Several extremely funny images have also appeared under in the Ask Kyubey tumblr blog.
Flash Games
There are also flash games[6] based on the anime series, such as Incubator Game (farming little girls' energy) and Shoot the QB (shooting as many Kyubeys on screen as possible):
Scientific Analysis of Kyubey's Knowledge in Entropy
Many fans are also confused by Kyubey's idea of entropy and how energy works and many have posted blogs as to why Kyubey's idea might in fact be wrong (or at least it makes no sense).
The following section may contain spoiler information for Episode 9 / "That, I Will Not Allow":
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External References
[1] Wikipedia – Puella Magi Madoka Magica
[2] YarareYaku – 2channel Thread Archive via WEB ARCHIVE
[3] Puella-Magi.net – Kyubey is Evil Theory
[4] Puella-Magi.net – New Type Interview 3/2011
[5] Danbooru – Everybody Hates Kyubey
[6] Puella-Magi.net- List of Fanmade games via Archive.org
[7] Tumblr – Fuck Yeah Contract – Archived via Way Back Machine
[8] Tumblr – Ask Kyubey
[9] Crunchyroll – Kyubey Worms His Way Into Top Internet Buzzwords 2011
Top Comments
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