The first two films, Beginnings and Eternal, were released in October 2012 and serve as a recap of the television series with redone voice acting and newly animated footage.
In Mitakihara city, a girl named Madoka Kaname meets a new transfer student, Homura Akemi, who coldly warns her to remain as she is lest she risk losing everything.
Later that day, Madoka and her friend Sayaka Miki are shopping when they find themselves protecting a strange cat-like creature named Kyubey from Homura.
However, Sayaka falls deeper into despair after learning that her classmate and friend, Hitomi Shizuki, plans to confess her own love to Kyosuke.
Kyubey explains that he is part of an emotionless alien species called "Incubators" who have long used human teenage girls in this manner because the transformation into witches produces massive amounts of energy, which they collect to ward against the inevitable heat death of the universe.
It is then revealed that Homura's true ability is time manipulation, and that she is from another timeline: Initially a shy student who was rescued by Madoka in magical girl form, and witnessing her demise, Homura forged a contract with Kyubey with the intention of redoing the past to prevent Madoka from becoming a magical girl and save her from her fate.
She has relived the one-month period leading up to Walpurgisnacht numerous times in the hopes of saving Madoka, with each attempt ending in failure.
With this new information, Kyubey deduces that it is Homura's actions that have caused Madoka to possess the massive potential energy from multiple reset timelines to become the greatest of all magical girls and subsequently a witch whose power dwarfs Walpurgisnacht.
The paradoxical nature of her wish causes her to transcend into a psychopomp form, and establishes a new "Law of Cycles" in which magical girls are purified and disappear into a higher plane instead of becoming witches.
Homura awakens to find herself in a reality where Mami and Kyoko are still alive, as the three of them now hunt new monsters called "Wraiths", and no one else remembers Madoka.
Homura is spirited away by Sayaka, while Mami is kept from pursuing them by Bebe, now taking her original form as a magical girl named Nagisa Momoe.
As she fell into despair, a labyrinth in the form of a fake Mitakihara was created within Homura's Soul Gem, and subconsciously populated with people from Madoka's original life.
While Kyubey admits that Madoka did appear, and was pulled into the isolated labyrinth, she seemed to be no more than a regular girl, and they decided to observe her until they devised the means to contain her.
Now reconnected to the universe and to her powers and memories as the Law of Cycles, Madoka moves to cleanse Homura of her curse and bring her into the higher plane.
In November 2011, it was announced in the December issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine that a three-part theatrical film project was in development by Shaft.
[9] The first two films were released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on July 30, 2013 in standard and collector's edition sets and is available for import by Aniplex of America.
[14] To assist with the process, Shinbo conferred with film editor Rie Matsuubara about how much and where they could condense the series and made suggestions and recommendations from there.
[16] Taniguchi reminisced that he didn't recall how he got the job, but that he had simply continued receiving copyright illustration work for the series until he eventually was.
Hiroki Yamamura replaced Mika Takahashi from the television series as Taniguchi's co-chief animation director, and likewise joked that he was unsure of how he got the job aside from Shaft continuing to give him work.
[29] After the end of the original television series, writer Urobuchi and Aniplex producer Atsuhiro Iwakami separately decided that they wanted to do more with the story.
Urobuchi started writing a scenario with no particular medium in mind, and Shaft president Kubota credited Iwakami with the idea of turning it into a film.
[32] Commenting on the production, director of photography Shinichirou Etou from Shaft stated that the biggest challenge on the project was the incorporation of Gekidan Inu Curry's materials, but said that one of the film's unique circumstances was the fact that all of the staff were working together to bring their images to life without compromise.
As such, he didn't know how to approach the production aspect of the film and asked various people for advice, but due to the studio's system found it mostly unhelpful.
Shinbo, Ume Aoki, Gekidan Inu Curry, and Junichirou Taniguchi returned in their respective positions, while Miyamoto took on the role of unit director.
According to Kubota, the concept film was meant to launch the start of a new Madoka Magica project in which the short's ideas would serve as the base.
[38] It wasn't until the 10th anniversary event held on April 25, 2021, that a sequel movie to Rebellion was announced, titled Walpurgisnacht: Rising (ワルプルギスの廻天, Warupurugisu no Kaiten).
With the announcement of the work, Iwakami apologized to fans for the long wait saying that it took longer than expected to solidify plans, and Kubota specified that it was difficult getting it to a point where they thought "This is it!"
[46] An action-adventure video game based on the films, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Battle Pentagram, was released in Japan on December 12, 2013 for the PlayStation Vita.
[56] Jacob Hope Chapman of Anime News Network gave Rebellion a B rating, praising its story, symbolism and characters, writing "Gorgeous and mind-bendingly creative, far more fascinating and entertaining than it had any reason to be, works very hard to justify its grand shift in theme".
[58] Geoff Berkshire of Variety gave a good review, stating "Rebellion delivers a convoluted conclusion sure to prove beyond baffling to any franchise newcomers."