Kyuubey

"I want you to form a contract with me and become magical girls!"

- Kyubey

Kyubey is a character in the anime and manga series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and had some minor roles in its spin-off mangas Kazumi Magica and Oriko Magica.

He appeared as the "Messenger of Magic" who would grant wishes to girls. However, they would have to often sign a contract, and serve as a Puella Magi (Magical Girl) in exchange. Their job was to kill Witches, creatures that fed on the hopes or dreams of ordinary people. These "Witches", however, turned out to have been Magical Girls that had their souls removed. In its successor, it was revealed that Incubators could prevent this by purifying the corruption from the Soul Gems. It is implied that Kyubey knew of this and kept that a secret to himself to Madoka in the first series.

Trivia

 * He is arguably one of the most hated villains in anime.
 * People still argue as to how to write his name. Is it Kyubey or Kyuubey? His name is written in both Hiragana and Katakana as キュ(kyu)ゥ(u)べ(be)え(e), so Kyuubee or Kyuubey would be most accurate as a romanization.
 * On the other hand, the fifth commercial has his name romanized as "Kyubey", which resulted in controversy. However, the lack of the extra u is probably just a use of the modified Hepburn system, which never accounts for extended vowels.
 * Gen Urobuchi joked that the "Kyu" comes from the katakana of the English word Cute so it could also be Cubey.
 * Episode 8 suggests that his name comes from 'Incubator', which would be romanized as 'inkyubeetaa.' In the same episode, it is revealed that he has multiple replacements.
 * During Kyubey's dialogues in episode 9, he keeps saying "we", meaning that he isn't the only Incubator.
 * Some fans of 2ch have taken to assigning the kanji 「九兵衛」 (Kyūbē, lit. nine protector soldiers or nine warriors in defense) to his name, speculating that like Doraemon (whose name can be written as 「銅鑼衛門」), Kyubey's naming might have been inspired by old Samurai dramas.
 * 'QB' is short for 'Kyubey' in Niconico Douga. This name is also common on 2ch.
 * Kyubey claims that he turns girls into magical girls (and thus eventually into witches) to keep a surplus of usable energy in the universe. He explains that through entropy, energy is gradually lost and the energy formed by the emotions of magical girls restocks that energy.
 * It's a bit more complex than that. Entropy dictates that in a closed universe, producing energy always costs more than it produces. Common examples of this include the fact it takes dozens of years to grow a tree which will in turn grow apples, but that the total of apples that tree will produce in its lifetime will give less energy than it took to grow the tree itself. In this end this means that all energy is destined to eventually run out, even if it's at a pace our human minds can't conceive. Emotions however aren't bound by entropy; to Kyubey's species, humans are basically walking emotion dispensers and can produce hundreds to thousands of times more emotional energy in their lifetimes than it takes to give birth to them. Since they themselves don't have emotions, Kyubey's species has decided to use humans and to convert their emotions into energy they then, presumably, pump into the cosmos somewhere to give entropy the middle finger. Madoka's transformation into a witch is said to be able to produce so much energy that they "collect even more energy than their quota", meaning that her transformation has enough juice to save the entire universe.
 * Small quibble: technically, energy is never lost. It is only made unusable.
 * The quota statement was likely just that he got more energy from Earth than he was assigned to (or what was expected to be extracted). You'd require an infinite amount of energy to permanently stave off the heat death of the universe after all.
 * It is also possible that transforming a girl into a witch converts heat to energy, and that Kyubey's explanation was simplified.
 * For more information about energy and thermodynamics in general, see Thermodynamics.
 * Freud also has a concept, an extension of his Pleasure Principle, that he terms 'entropy', which he defines as a state of reduced or absent tensions that are caused by differentiation (the recognition of 'separateness' of self from others and the world, etc.). Entropic pull refers to the desire to return to that state. So, the use of the term 'entropy' here could also be subtly implying the idea that the girls eventually return to the undifferentiated state of the universe's energy. For more information, please see Rosemary Jackson's "Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion".
 * In one of the alternate timelines in episode 10, Kyubey remarks that Madoka's witch may be capable of destroying the entire planet. However, he doesn't care as he already got his surplus of energy.
 * Kyubey appears to be capable of teleportation. In episode 10, at the end of the first timeline, he appears to fade into reality above Homura.
 * A fanart meme tends to point out Kyubey's similarity to Hummy, the mascot of Suite Precure♪, the other (much more traditional, child-friendly, and optimistic) magical girl series that began airing in Winter 2011. Due to the closeness of their airing dates, this is likely a coincidence, but it has not gone unnoticed and adds to the series' postmodernist deconstruction of the magical girl genre.
 * Kyubey always uses boku (僕) as a first-person pronoun, this being typical for boys and young males. When addressing the girls, he always uses kimi (君), which, in modern Japanese, is usually used when addressing people of the same or lower social status, usually by male speakers. He also never uses honorifics when referring to people by their names. This is uncommon in real life, especially when referring to people present around. He also always uses plain (as opposed to polite) verb forms, which is normally used only in close relationships. While he does not say anything specifically to insult the girls, these patterns of speech (especially calling by full name without honorifics) can be considered rude and may indicate he doesn't respect the girls and considers himself clearly above them in the social ladder.
 * This may also be used to give a "foreign" touch to Kyubey's speech, as this pattern emulates the typical way of speaking in other languages, such as English.
 * It can also be interpreted as Kyubey treating personal names just as tags for identifying individuals, similar to a social security number.
 * Boku can be used by girls, too, but this is uncommon in real life. In manga, anime and alike, this is often employed for girls exhibiting "boyish" personality traits. Such girls are called boku-kko (僕っ子).
 * Given how many times Kyubey says he just doesn't understand humans, it might be he doesn't understand the need to be polite. That aside, since he isn't even human, it's also possible that nobody ever bothered correcting him. You can't expect magical familiars to abide to the same rules. This may be similar interpretation above one. It is possible. He however could use more general and short expression, last name (or family name is more formal) without honorifics, which are identical enough if he just doesn't need to be polite. I feel his social advantage (upper stage of social layer) as incubator against incubating eggs from his choice.
 * Kyubey's name's spelling is supposed to be Kyuubey by Puella Magi Kazumi Magica logic. There is another Incubator called Juubey (which is "Juu" (ten) + bey). Thus, Kyuubey is "Kyuu" (nine) + bey. This also means that there are at least ten Incubators in the Puella Magi world.
 * In Episode 9 Kyubey states to Madoka that his race is incapable of producing emotions, that they are driven by logic and utilitarian beliefs. Their lack of emotions makes it difficult for them to harness their own emotional energy to offset entropy, so it is for this reason that they sought the solution outside of their own galaxy. However, in Episode 11 Kyubey reveals to Madoka that while this statement is true on the majority of their race, there have been extreme rare cases of those capable of expressing emotions, but because this is a very rare phenomenon they are considered to be mentally ill.
 * Spa Weekly! Article: Kyubey's utilitarianism prioritizes the continuation of the whole universe and takes precedence over the happenings of individual entities. Kyubey's actions are not based on ignorance since he is aware of the cause-and-effect law of nature, he consciously decides that the law is immutable and conveniently uses it to exploit the Puella Magi system. Apparently this makes Kyubey a Bad Buddhist. "If you meet Kyubey on the road, kill it with fire."
 * In the Drama CD "Sunny Day Life" Kyubey tries to convince to an exasperated Madoka that "he" doesn't see himself as male (in human terms) so "he" doesn't understand why "he" isn't allowed to be in the bathroom with a naked Madoka.
 * Madoka isn't buying it.
 * Neither are the fans.
 * According to the Blu-Ray Episode 2 voice commentary:
 * Kyubey was not based on any animal, just the concept of a "small mahou shoujo animal"
 * When asked what animals were used as the basis for Kyubey's design, Ume Aoki was very cryptic because of spoilers. The only clue she gives is "coil". According to the drama CD interpreter, it's possible that it relates to the theory that Kyubey's design is based on the uterus. Supporters of this theory believe Kyubey's ears look like fallopian tubes. It could also refer to Incubator, which has a similar meaning to it. *This interpretation was proven wrong in the commentary for episode 8, where Chiwa Saito explained that the truth that was hidden was that the marking on Kyubey's back is that of an egg, and that was the connection to Incubator.
 * Considering his real name is Incubator, this is not farfetched.
 * In an interview with NewType, Shinbo was thinking of giving lip-synching to Kyubey in the new world but Yukihiro Miyamoto said no since fundamentally Kyubey remains the same creature as before, only interested in energy efficiency, so he remains unchanged. Also in the interview it's stated Kyubey doesn't move his mouth to speak because he is communicating by telepathy. It also enhances the creepy factor.
 * Prior to broadcasting, no one told the seiyuu (specially Emiri Kato) that Kyubey's mouth doesnt move, so she tried to properly lip-synch her lines. When they saw the first episode on the air, the seiyuu were shocked that they were tricked.
 * Aoi Yuuki (Madoka), Chiwa Saito (Homura), and Kaori Mizuhashi (Mami) tried for the role of Kyubey. Saito was told her Kyubey sounded too stupid, and in Yuuki's part hers sounded too naive and that she was too cute for it (no surprise there). They all found the role for Kyubey to be too difficult for them. They also found the Kyubey character to be too smart for them.
 * In the Audio Commentary for Episode 9, before reading the script or knowing the nature of the show, Emiri Kato (VA of Kyubey) was very happy that she was voicing a cute animal character.
 * According to Shinbo, he just finished reading Michael Sandel's book, and he describes.
 * Kyubey as a Michael Sandel-esque character (this is regarding with the book's section on Utilitarianism).
 * On the Blu-ray commentary it was pointed by Gen Urobuchi that Kyubey has no gender.
 * Gen Urobuchi comments in the Audio Commentary for Episode 12 that (the) Kyubey's presence is world wide (WWQB). This can be interpreted as that multiple Kyubeys are being used to contract and reduce entropy; and are not limited to just using one single incubator at a time. If all Kyubeys are coordinating with each other as a global network in their efforts to contract and collect despair energy, it would make their labor process and collection very efficient.
 * During the Sakura-Con 2012 panel interview, Urobuchi explains that Kyubey is not evil, it is his lack of human feelings that makes him scary. Urobuchi compares H.P. Lovecraft's creatures to be same as Kyubey, in that they are uninterested in humans.