Madoka Magica Fans Spent Years Thinking This Famous Fanart Was Official
How crazy is it to find out that an illustration is NOT official after years and years of practically everyone believing it was official artwork?
Yep. That is exactly what happened with one of the most recognizable images associated with Madoka Magica.
Madoka Magica Left Its Mark on a Generation of Anime Fans
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is an anime that premiered in that magical year of 2011, which many fans (at least in Japan) consider the best year in anime history when it comes to overall quality.
And just look at the competition: Fate/Zero, Steins;Gate, Gosick, Infinite Stratos, Nichijou, Ano Hana, Hanasaku Iroha, Usagi Drop, Mawaru Penguindrum, Hunter x Hunter, Guilty Crown, Mirai Nikki, and many others.
Madoka Magica premiered during the Winter 2011 anime season and quickly became a massive hit, leaving a huge mark on the magical girl genre.
The series played with the expectations audiences had for this type of story and helped change the way many people viewed the genre.
And there is one illustration that, for years, practically became inseparable from the anime’s image.
The Madoka Magica Fanart That Looked Official
This is the image showing the series’ five main magical girls:
Madoka, Homura, Mami, Sayaka, and Kyouko, all transformed and holding their respective weapons, ready to take on some kind of witch.
The illustration has that unmistakable look of official promotional artwork. And that may be exactly why the confusion lasted for so long.
For years, both I and countless other Madoka Magica fans simply assumed this illustration was official.
It isn’t.
YES. It’s FANART.
The Artist Behind Madoka’s Famous Fanart Reveals Themself
Thanks to the new Madoka Magica movie hitting theaters, the artist behind the famous fanart shared the illustration again on Twitter/X, once again drawing a ton of attention.
Read more: The artist’s identity had already been revealed in 2021, when the discovery went viral precisely because so many people had no idea the image wasn’t official.
Now, on September 12, the artist shared the illustration again and revealed that it had been drawn around 15 years ago.
I took a look through the comments and found an absurd number of Japanese and international fans reacting in exactly the same way:
“WAIT, HOW IS THIS NOT OFFICIAL?”
Fans Spent Years Thinking It Was Official Artwork
The comments perfectly show just how widespread the confusion was:
- “Huh? Seriously?! I’ve seen this image in so many places…”
- “I LOVE this illustration! It’s still saved in a folder on my computer! (I only found out after 10 years that it wasn’t official artwork lol)”
- “If I remember correctly, this was the illustration used for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica article on the Pixiv Encyclopedia!”
- “I’ve seen this image SO many times. Honestly, I thought it was official for a very long time.”
- “I’ve known this image for years, but I thought it was official artwork. The quality is incredible.”
- “This image was apparently introduced in various places as official artwork and was even used without permission on bootleg merchandise, wasn’t it…?”
- “It must have been a huge headache seeing this image being used without permission in so many places.”
- “It’s the illustration used as the main image for the ‘Puella Magi Madoka Magica’ article on the Pixiv Encyclopedia!! It’s literally ‘wild official art’!!”
- “I thought it was official artwork!”
- “I always thought it was official…”
- “It’s so well-made that it looked official.”
- “So this wasn’t official artwork…?”
- “Nice to meet you! I always thought this beautiful illustration was official artwork…!!! Ikezawa-san, thank you so much for this wonderful Madoka Magica illustration! When I first saw it, I thought all the magical girls looked so cool that I kept looking at the image over and over. Sorry for suddenly jumping in like this.”
Even I Thought It Was Official!
For years, I simply looked at this image and assumed it was official Madoka Magica artwork.
The composition, polish, characters, and especially the way the five girls are positioned make the illustration look exactly like the kind of promotional material you’d find on a Blu-ray, poster, or official anime promotion
So finding out now that all of this was actually fanart is just incredible!
And the best part is that I clearly wasn’t alone.
Fifteen years later, fans are still discovering the same thing and having exactly the same reaction.
“Wait a minute… THIS IMAGE ISN’T OFFICIAL?”
It’s amazing how a fanart can become so well-known that it practically gains the status of official material.
And honestly? After all of this, I think the artist deserves even more respect. Creating fanart convincing enough that thousands of people spend years believing it’s official is an ABSURD level of talent