Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Japanese: 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ, Hepburn: Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika), also known simply as Madoka Magica, is a Japanese anime television series created by Magica Quartet,[b] and animated by Shaft. The story follows a group of middle school girls, led by protagonist Madoka Kaname, who make supernatural contracts to become magical girls. In battling surreal enemies known as "witches", they learn of the anguish and peril associated with their new roles. The first ten episodes of the series aired on TBS, MBS, and their affiliates between January and March 2011, while the final two episodes were delayed until April of the same year due to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

A manga adaptation of the anime and various spin-off manga have been published by Houbunsha and licensed in North America by Yen Press. A novelization by Nitroplus was released in August 2011, and a dedicated magazine, Manga Time Kirara Magica, was launched by Houbunsha in June 2012. A video game for the PlayStation Portable was released in March 2012 and another for the PlayStation Vita was released in December 2013. A mobile game, Magia Record, launched in August 2017, and a three-season anime adaptation produced by Shaft aired from January 2020 to April 2022. An anime film series, beginning with two films recapping the television series, was released in October 2012. A third film featuring an original story, Rebellion, was released in October 2013. A sequel film to Rebellion, titled Walpurgisnacht: Rising, is set to be released in August 2026.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its complex narrative, visuals, themes, and soundtrack, as well as its unconventional approach to the magical girl subgenre. It became a commercial success; each Blu-ray Disc volume sold more than 50,000 copies in Japan. The series garnered a variety of awards, such as the Television Award at the 16th Animation Kobe Award, as well as 12 Newtype Anime Awards and the Grand Prize for the Animation Division at the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2011.

In the fictional city of Mitakihara, Japan, middle school student Madoka Kaname and her best friend, Sayaka Miki, encounter a small, cat-like creature named Kyubey. Kyubey offers them a contract: in exchange for having any one wish granted, they can become magical girls tasked with fighting mysterious creatures known as witches. At the same time, a mysterious transfer student and magical girl named Homura Akemi repeatedly warns Madoka not to accept Kyubey's offer.

Soon after, Madoka and Sayaka meet Mami Tomoe, an upperclassman who is also a magical girl. Seeing that the two are uncertain about making the contract, Mami invites them to accompany her on witch hunts so they can better understand the realities and responsibilities of being a magical girl.

However, Mami is suddenly killed during a battle with a witch, shattering Madoka's idealized image of magical girls. She realizes that their lives are defined by constant danger, suffering, and sacrifice. This grim reality is reinforced by the arrival of Kyoko Sakura, a veteran magical girl whose wish ultimately led to the tragic destruction of her own family.

As the story unfolds, Madoka discovers the truth behind magical girls. Their souls are removed from their bodies and transformed into Soul Gems, which serve as the source of their magical powers. Over time, Soul Gems accumulate despair and corruption. Once they become completely tainted, they transform into Grief Seeds, which eventually hatch into witches.

Despite these revelations, Sayaka chooses to become a magical girl in order to heal her childhood friend and crush, Kyosuke, whose hands were injured and left him hospitalized. Although her wish succeeds, Sayaka's hopes are crushed when her friend Hitomi Shizuki confesses her love to Kyosuke first. Overwhelmed by despair and self-loathing, Sayaka's Soul Gem darkens completely, and she transforms into a witch.

Kyubey then reveals its true identity as a member of an alien race known as the Incubators. For centuries, the Incubators have exploited the emotional energy released when magical girls fall from hope into despair, using it to counteract entropy and delay the heat death of the universe. Madoka also learns that Homura is a magical girl from an alternate timeline who has traveled back through time countless times, reliving the same month over and over in an attempt to save Madoka from her tragic destiny.

Madoka and Kyoko try to save Sayaka, but once a magical girl has become a witch, there is no way to reverse the transformation. Kyoko ultimately sacrifices her own life in a final attempt to stop Sayaka, allowing Madoka to escape. With Kyoko gone, Homura becomes the last remaining magical girl capable of defending the city.

Soon afterward, the immensely powerful witch Walpurgisnacht descends upon Mitakihara. Homura fights desperately to stop it but is ultimately defeated. Exhausted and consumed by despair, she comes close to becoming a witch herself. At that critical moment, Madoka arrives and finally decides to make a contract with Kyubey, despite Homura's repeated attempts to stop her.

Madoka wishes that all witches, across the past, present, and future, would disappear before they are ever born. The paradoxical nature of this wish transcends space and time, transforming Madoka into a divine existence known as the Law of Cycles. Under this new universal law, magical girls no longer become witches. Instead, they are purified at the moment they would have fallen into despair and are gently guided to a higher plane of existence.

As reality is rewritten, a new world is created where witches never existed. Only Homura retains the memories of Madoka and the previous world. Carrying those memories with her, Homura resolves to continue fighting in honor of Madoka and the world she gave everything to protect.