After watching.
The expressions on Seika and the others' faces varied.
Seiji, on the other hand, wore a knowing smile. He left them to eat dinner, then arranged taxis to send them off.
Before the three left, they each offered words of comfort.
"Fujiwara-kun, don't be discouraged. Anime isn't decided by just one episode."
"Don't worry, I've always been confident." Seiji replied with a smile, not spoiling what was to come.
After all, by episode three, everything would become clear.
A week passed.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica aired Episode 3 on schedule.
At the live house.
Seika, Nijika, and PA were all glued to the TV screen.
Episode 3's plot picked up where the previous ones left off.
On screen, the yellow magical girl senpai—Mami Tomoe—was elegantly and confidently fighting the witch named "Charlotte," a creature that looked like a giant caterpillar.
It seemed like standard battle fare.
Nothing special?
Ijichi Seika watched absent-mindedly.
She had to admit, this anime's quality was astonishingly high.
The detailed animation, the fluid battle choreography, the evocative soundtrack—all were top-tier in the industry.
But the script didn't quite match the animation quality. It felt a bit of a waste.
"Because it's a debut work, they're playing it safe? Preferring mediocrity over taking risks?" she judged silently, taking a sip of water.
But the problem was, this was Fujiwara Seiji's script.
With Fujiwara Seiji's reputation, anything less than excellent would be considered a failure.
Seika could almost predict the reviews that would appear online tonight—"A mediocre work with great animation but a tired story."
Nijika: "The animation is really good! But the story is a bit... ordinary?"
Beside her, her little sister couldn't help but frown.
PA nodded in agreement: "Yeah... the quality is undeniable, but the plot direction is too predictable."
Seika smiled wryly at their words.
As expected, she wasn't the only one who thought so.
However, just as she felt a twinge of regret, something in the corner of her vision made her freeze.
On the TV, the magical girl battle was reaching its climax.
Mami-senpai elegantly and confidently used her ultimate attack—"Tiro Finale"—a gorgeous magical cannon that blasted the giant caterpillar witch into oblivion.
Everything seemed to be over.
But then—
Just then—
The witch that should have been obliterated, that seemingly dead husk, suddenly split open like a snake shedding its skin!
A second form—smaller but with an even more sinister aura—crawled out from the ruined shell!
Its speed was beyond fast!
Before anyone could react, it teleported behind Mami, who had let her guard down after her victory.
The background music cut off abruptly!
Amid the protagonist Madoka Kaname's horrified scream—
"Crunch—"
The clown-faced witch opened its enormous mouth and bit off Mami's head in one clean motion.
The crisp sound of shattering bones transmitted clearly into the living room, into everyone's ears.
The air seemed to freeze.
Ijichi Seika's eyes went wide.
Her hand, which had been reaching for her water cup, froze in midair.
The cup fell onto the thick carpet with a dull thud, but no one noticed.
"How..."
Nijika and PA stared at the TV screen, transfixed.
Their mouths hung open, their minds blank.
What did they just see?
That gentle, strong, reliable, beautiful senpai...
That Mami Tomoe who had just been mentoring the protagonist, who had been looking forward to "no longer being alone"... she just died?
And in such a bloody, brutal "decapitation"?!
"...WHAT THE FUCK!!!"
It took a long moment before Seika finally snapped back to reality.
She shot up from the sofa, pointing at the TV screen in disbelief—at the witch happily "savoring" Mami's headless corpse—and screamed:
"This... IS THIS EVEN A MAGICAL GIRL ANIME?!"
...
...
At the same moment.
At the Yamada residence.
"Yes! Yes! That's it! That's the expression we wanted!"
Eriri jumped excitedly from the sofa.
"Did you see that?! Utaha! Ryo! This is what we wanted! This is what we wanted the audience to see! Ahahahaha!"
She laughed like a maniac, her golden twin-tails tracing two joyful arcs through the air.
As the key animator who had personally drawn this shocking scene, the audience's shock was the highest praise for her work!
"Hehe, the viewers must all be dumbfounded right now."
Utaha glanced at the stunned Yamada Ryo with a satisfied smile on her face.
Ryo said nothing, but her entire expression had gone blank.
What was that?
What did she just see?
A magical girl got her head bitten off by the enemy and died?!
Is this still a children's anime?!!
...
...
Online.
The aftermath was explosive.
[Madoka Magica Episode 3]
[Mami Decapitation]
[Fujiwara Seiji Has No Heart]
If Episode 3's "Mami decapitation" was a depth charge dropped into a calm lake.
Then starting from Episode 4, the constantly accelerating, constantly twisting plot that followed was like a nuclear explosion sweeping across the entire world.
The truth about magical girls—their souls were literally extracted from their bodies and placed into "Soul Gems," turning their bodies into empty puppets.
The truth about witches—they were actually magical girls whose Soul Gems had been corrupted and who had finally fallen into despair.
Kyubey's true face—that cute, harmless-looking creature was actually a cosmic MLM cult leader with no moral compass, who viewed human emotions as energy and tricked girls into signing contracts.
One malicious, despairing revelation after another was dropped as the plot progressed.
The entire audience was being played like puppets.
Word of mouth exploded completely!
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, this anime that countless people had mocked before its premiere as "cliché," "childish," and "a cash grab."
After Episode 3 aired, overnight, it was elevated to godhood by countless viewers!
[Masterpiece! An undeniable masterpiece! I haven't seen such an amazing original anime in ten years!]
[Fujiwara-sensei, I take back everything I said before! You are a true god! The Dark Horse of the anime world!]
[Right now, all I want to know is where I can send razor blades to Fujiwara Seiji?! My senpai was so wonderful! Why did you kill her?!]
[To the person above, are you naive enough to think sending razor blades will hurt that man at all? He'll just appreciate your cries of despair while showing a pleased smile.]
Countless viewers poured out their anger and shock online.
...
...
At the live house.
After binging through several episodes, Seika felt numb.
Madoka Magica's twisted settings and plot left her, an adult, in massive shock.
No way!
This was nothing like the magical girl shows she remembered!
Seika collapsed onto the floor in defeat.
Meanwhile, on LINE.
Messages were flying like crazy.
[Nijika: AHHHHHH! Witches are transformed from magical girls?! Then all those enemies we've been fighting... oh god! This is too... too cruel! What kind of mind does Fujiwara-san have?!]
[PA: I just looked it up. "QB" has now become synonymous with "manipulative" and "deceptive"... I feel slightly traumatized whenever I see a small white animal now...]
And those industry peers who had been mocking and waiting to see Genesis fail? They were equally shell-shocked.
How could there be such an insane plot twist!
This wasn't like a magical girl show at all!
But at this point, the competitors weren't about to put up a fight. They all rushed to kneel in worship at light speed.
Message after message full of "repentance" and "flattery" flooded into Fujiwara Seiji's phone like a tide.
Utaha found this very entertaining.
Like a dutiful secretary, she picked up Seiji's phone and read out the messages in a dramatic tone to everyone:
"[President Fujiwara, I offer my most sincere apologies for my previous ignorance and arrogance. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is, without a doubt, a great work that will go down in history.]—From your defeated rival, Ryuji Aida."
"Pfft—" Eriri burst out laughing without restraint. "This guy's flattery is way too blatant."
"And this one," Utaha continued, "[Fujiwara-sensei, from this day forward, you are my god! Please accept my knees! By the way, I hope my latest work could receive your guidance...]—From your faithful believer, Sonoko Machida."
"Hmph, another woman trying to cling to you." Eriri scoffed dismissively, but the upturned corners of her mouth betrayed her inner satisfaction.
After all, she had participated in the production of this work too.
Seiji listened to all these glowing praises, his expression utterly calm.
He simply reached out—
One hand gently stroking Utaha's silky long hair,
The other pinching Eriri's puffed-up, collagen-filled cheeks,
Then he lowered his head and ate the strawberry Yamada Ryo offered to his lips.
As if all this glory and praise was simply what he deserved.
But everyone knew.
After tonight, the TV animation industry would have to acknowledge and respect Genesis as a company!
...
...
After Puella Magi Madoka Magica finished airing.
The entire Japanese public discourse became Fujiwara Seiji's stage.
If Episode 3 was merely an earthquake within the subculture sphere, then once the full series aired, this media storm burst out of its bubble with unstoppable force!
It swept across every level of society!
From the most professional animation critics to trend-chasing entertainment accounts; from serious media discussing social phenomena to fashion magazines hunting for hot topics.
Every major headline was dominated by Madoka's subversive plot and the "Madoka Shock" phenomenon it sparked.
"Decapitation," "Dark Grim Cruel," "Warriors of Love"...
These terms that once belonged only to niche circles became nationwide talking points overnight.
Those industry peers who had been gleefully waiting to see Genesis fail collectively went into hiding overnight.
They deleted all their pessimistic blog posts, deactivated social media accounts where they had posted mocking comments.
When media swarmed in like sharks smelling blood, they collectively went silent, hastily hanging up with excuses like "can't comment" and "company secrets." Like vampires exposed to sunlight, they cowered in the shadows, trembling. They no longer even had the courage to look up at the brilliant sun that Fujiwara Seiji had created. However, for Fujiwara Seiji, the praise from public opinion was merely a victory fanfare. The real war had only just begun.
...
...
Morning. Yamada residence.
Great success naturally called for wild celebration.
The traces of last night's revelry hadn't fully dissipated. The living room still carried the sweet, cloying scent of champagne mixed with the fragrance of young women.
Eriri and Utaha were still lying in the upstairs bedrooms, savoring the joy of victory and the wildness of last night, deep in slumber.
Eriri was even swinging an imaginary paintbrush in her dreams, shouting "I'm the greatest key animator!" while drawing the faces of all the naysayers as despairing witches who had contracted with QB.
Utaha curled up under her blanket with a satisfied smile, dreaming of standing on a literary award podium.
Fujiwara Seiji, however, was already dressed and sitting on the living room sofa.
Before him were three laptops, screens switching between different files and spreadsheets, with a live meeting feed in the corner of each screen.
...
On the screen.
A steady yet excited-to-the-point-of-trembling male voice came through:
"President! We won! We completely won!"
It was Genesis Entertainment's Distribution Director.
"Give me the numbers." Seiji's tone was calm, as if discussing the weather.
This extraordinary composure transmitted to the other end, making that battle-hardened director feel another wave of awe and reverence.
"Yes!" The director took a deep breath and reported in an almost reverential tone:
"As of 9 AM this morning! Pre-orders for Puella Magi Madoka Magica Blu-ray sets have exceeded 300,000 units!"
"At our pricing, this single item alone has already generated over 1.5 billion yen in pre-sales! President, this... this has broken the TV animation industry's fifteen-year record! We're making history!"
"From the manga department, the official Puella Magi Madoka Magica manga Volume 1 that you personally supervised, which we rushed overnight, has pre-sales exceeding 100,000 copies across all major online bookstores! This has broken Kodansha's record for first-day pre-sales of any manga volume in their entire history! Kodansha's president personally called just now saying he wants to take you to dinner!"
"And the merchandise department! Based on the designs you provided in advance, the 'QB' merchandise series we rushed to produce overnight—plushies, phone charms, themed T-shirts... all the pre-order links sold out within ten minutes of going live! The servers crashed three times! Our programmers are crying 'I never want to see that white devil again!' while desperately fixing the servers! Based on preliminary estimates, first-month merchandise pre-sales have already... easily exceeded 300 million yen!"
The director's voice had grown hoarse from excitement.
This wasn't just success.
This was a commercial massacre!
Slaughtering the competition, leaving them in complete disarray, monopolizing all the profits!
"Very good." After hearing the report, Seiji's expression remained utterly calm.
"Director," Seiji set down his teacup and issued new orders, "notify all departments to immediately begin full-channel coordinated marketing according to Plan B."
"For the manga version, partner with all major chain bookstores to release limited edition signed posters."
"For merchandise, immediately launch a second round of 'hunger marketing' pre-sales. At the same time, contact all major convenience store chains to discuss stocking QB-themed ichiban kuji lottery items."
"For Blu-rays, release preview images of different store-exclusive covers, personally illustrated by Kasumigaoka-sensei and Sawamura Eriri-sensei."
"I want to squeeze every last drop of commercial value from the 'Madoka' IP in the shortest time possible."
"Yes, President!"
After finishing business, Seiji finally allowed a smile to cross his face:
"Also, it's time to hold a grand celebration party for our heroes."
"Yes, Fujiwara-sensei!" The director responded excitedly.
—
That evening. Tokyo.
Imperial Hotel top floor. "Peacock Room" banquet hall.
All members of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica project team, along with other company employees, gathered together.
Crystal chandeliers sparkled like a river of stars.
Champagne towers glittered with golden light. Elegant classical music flowed softly through the air.
But all this refined decoration couldn't mask the volcanic atmosphere in the room.
=====
You can read up to chapter 150 on patreon.com/NiaXD.