Kyubey
Kyubey is an anime and manga character who features in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
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Biography
Kyubey (Japanese: キュゥべえ, Hepburn: Kyūbē) was an alien being that came from another world and was a member of a race of beings known as the Incubators (インキュベーター, Inkyubētā). Long ago, they determined that the entropy was going destroy the universe. Thus, they sought to stem the heat death of the cosmos and intended to stop the impending destruction. The Incubators sought to acquire powerful emotional energy that they could harvest through their technology and use it to halt the entropy. However, their kind lacked emotions and in fact the Incubators believed such feelings were a sign of mental illness. As a result, they sought out another species that could be suitable for the task and looked through many worlds. Ultimately, they managed to come to the planet Earth where they found primitive mankind in caves. The Incubators influenced the development of mankind allowing them to allow them to grow as a civilization. Upon seeing humanity, they learnt that young girls were perfect receptacles of emotional energy and began making pacts with these children. The girls were offered a contract with an Incubator whereby they were offered a wish of their choice and become a Magical Girl but unknown to them it would be at the cost of their soul. As Magical Girls, they were tasked with combating and defeating supernatural entities known as Witches who were harvested for their Grief Seeds. For centuries, Kyubey engaged in this practice where he created Magical Girls but withheld the true motivations of their transformation namely that the girls would in time succumb to despair and transform into a Witch.
He later gained an interest in turning Madoka Kaname into a Magical Girl. Unknown to anyone, this stemmed from Homura Akemi having unwittingly boosted Madoka's magical potential to an astronomical level by going back in time repeatedly in an attempt to save her from death thus creating many timelines all centered around Madoka. Kyubey stated that Madoka could become the most powerful Magical Girl and then the most powerful Witch, and that her transformation could produce enough energy to singlehandedly save the universe from destruction. To accomplish this, he cleverly schemes and plans to ensure that as many Magical Girls as possible die in Mitakihara Town, so that when Walpurgisnacht arrived, the girl would be forced to either contract with him or allow her city to get completely destroyed.
It was shown that Kyubey had become a contractor of all the magical girls in Asanaru City, including the Pleiades Saints. When the Pleiades learnt the truth about magical girls, they took one of Kyubey's corpses and used it to create their own Incubator Jubey, who could absorb darkness from soul gems. Furthermore, they had Umika cast a spell that would make Kyubey invisible to all other girls in the city and rewrite their own memories to believe they contracted with Jubey, in an attempt to stop more witches from being born. This ultimately backfired as Jubey turned out to be a failure.
yubey sealed Homura outside the Law of Circles' jurisdiction to force Madoka back into the physical world in an attempt to restore the witch system of the previous timelines since his kind have been harvesting less energy in the new system. But the scheme backfired when Homura ended up stealing Ultimate Madoka's powers for herself, enslaving Incubators to take Madoka's place in taking on the curses of the new world. Kyubey is last seen lying on the ground, disheveled and shivering as he is driven mad by his sudden ability to feel emotions combined with being forced to shoulder the combined grief, suffering, and despair of every magical girl that is, was, or ever will be.
Overview
Personality and attributes
According to him, his race the Incubators were a race that lacked emotions the way humans felt them. He claimed that he had no intention of lying to the children that became Magical Girls. Instead, he professed innocence stating that they simply did not clarify the terms of the contract.
Kyubey was shown as being quite perceptive as following his second death he managed to determine Homura's abilities were time manipulation. During a further encounter, he deduced that she was actually from the future and later put together the theory on why Madoka had such great potential as it was linked to the repeated cycle of events from time travel.
On his true goal, he claimed that he found it curious that the Magical Girls were upset about their fate. Kyubey instead believed that their fate as Witches was for a greater good namely to combat the entropy of the universe. He believed that the Incubators offered a great service namely by extending the life of the cosmos allowing for other civilizations to survive and even potentially mankind when they reached space. Thus, Kyubey felt that the ends justify the means and that the lost lives of a few was a small price to pay for the rest of humanity.
Powers and abilities
Though possessing a physical form, he was able to remain completely invisible from normal humans with him only appearing to either Magical Girls or prospective candidates. One of his powers was telepathy that he could project to himself and others over a certain range.
On his back, there was a circular red symbol that was actually an orifice through which he could consume Grief Seeds. According to him, it was the only means of safely disposing of them once they had been used to clear a Soul Gem.
His greatest ability was the power to grant any wish possible to those he intended to become Magical Girls. These wishes could be anything ranging from healing a fatally wounded person, restoring full health from permanent injuries or even sending a person back in time. Kyubey's capacity to grant wishes stemmed from two things; namely the nature of the wish and the karmic destiny of the person. Once done, the person who granted the wish was transformed into a Magical Girl with her soul being placed within Soul Gem as well as gifting them magical powers. Ultimately, the main goal for the creation of Magical Girls was so that they would succumb to despair and become Witches whereupon they were harvested of their Grief Seed. The stronger the Magical Girl led to a more powerful Witch with this meaning more power for Kyubey to gather.
If physically killed, the death was not permanent as Kyubey simply re-emerged again in a fresh body making such attempts to eliminate him pointless. Once reborn, he went and consumed his former body with him stating that he had numerous such bodies at his disposal.
Notes
- Kyubey was created by Gen Urobuchi and Ume Aoki where it featured in the setting of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
- In an interview on the Anime News Network, producer Atsuhiro Iwakami said, "The mash-up of cuteness and darkness is the central theme to Madoka, and Kyubey is an epitome of that theme."
- Writer Gen Urobuchi in an interview on the Anime News Network said, "In H.P. Lovecraft the creatures are the same as Kyubey in that they are uninterested in humans. He isn't evil, it is his lack of feelings that makes him scary."
- In 2017, Paste magazine ranked Kyubey as the eighth-greatest anime villain of all time.
In other media
Television
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Kyubey appeared in the setting of the anime television series where she was voiced by Japanese actor Emiri Katou and English actor Cassandra Lee.
Films
Appearances
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
External Links
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