So You Want to Watch Madoka Magica? - a guide - pt 2 (episode 1)

Part 2: Episode One - "As if I Met Her In a Dream..."

This blog post is written by a dedicated fan of the anime and is designed for new watchers to get the most out of the Madoka Magica experience! This is Part 2 out of 14. Please watch Episode 1 before reading this post.
Link to Intro
Links to Episode: Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve

Summary if you don't get what happened:

Madoka Kaname was dreaming she ran down a checkerboard-covered hall to an exit. When she opened the door, she saw her city--Mitakihara--- decimated into ruins by an unstoppable force. She also saw a dark haired girl with extraordinary powers trying to fight the force. The girl looked like she was trying to scream to Madoka, but her voice was lost in the wind. Madoka saw that the girl had no chance of surviving and a strange fox-like creature beside her agreed with her. The creature also told her that she had the power to stop the force if she wanted to. "Contract with me and become a Puella Magi!" it said. She was almost ready to accept when she suddenly woke up.
Madoka gets  up and goes to school that morning with her friends Sayaka Miki and Hitomi Shizuki. The very same girl in her dream, Homura Akemi, enrolls in her class as a transfer student. Homura asks her to take her to the nurse's office where, even stranger, Homura seems to know Madoka. She later confronts her in the hallway about whether she cares for her family and friends or not, saying she should not try to change her life, lest she risk losing everything.
After school, whilst visiting a record store with Sayaka, Madoka hears a voice calling for help. Following it to a floor under maintenance, she finds a small creature named Kyubey being attacked by Homura, who is now dressed like a magical girl. As Homura insists that she hand Kyubey over, Sayaka helps Madoka and Kyubey escape by using a fire extinguisher on Homura.
While fleeing, they are caught in a strange illusion and approached by strange creatures. However, they are rescued by another girl named Mami Tomoe, who transforms into a magical girl and defeats the creatures, dispelling the illusion. After allowing Homura to escape, Mami heals Kyubey, who tells Madoka and Sayaka he intents to form a contract with them to make them Puella Magi.

Questions I will answer:

q: So... Puella Magi...
a: Different subs or versions may tend to use Mahou Shoujo, magical girl, or Puella Magi in the script. Puella Magi and Mahou Shoujo both mean magical girl, in Latin and Japanese, respectively.

q: Are you just stealing the summaries from Puella Magi Wiki?
a: Yeah, but I do proofread them. Some of them have incorrect information, like they were written before seeing the next episode. The ones on the wiki also vary in quality. The summary of Episode 2 is filled with colons for no good reason. Others leave out small scenes and details that were actually important. I am using the wiki a lot, since it has a lot of organized information and much more than any fan could figure out by themselves.

q: Madoka's house and school are oddly futuristic-looking. What?
a: Yeah, they are. There are a lot more ultra-modern things throughout the series. Akiyuki Shinbo has said that the anime takes place in the "Near or distant future", although I think I remember someone saying that it takes place the same year it aired, 2011. Of course, this all may just be artistic license and the often clean sterile aesthetic can be used to contrast with the ugly world of the "illusions"/the main characters' struggles.

q: What the heck just happened there when the animation got all creepy and everything what
a: It will all be explained in the next episode by the new Puella Magi, Mami.

q: What are all these weird letter things?
a: Those are runes. They are an original code created by Inu Curry, the designer of the creepy animations in this show. They are a sort of way to communicate mysterious hidden messages and are scattered across the show, mostly in the creepy animation environments.You can see a list of the translated runes that appeared in Episode 1 here.

q: So Madoka gonna contract?
a: Yeah, later.

Coool Stuff!:

Observations of this episode
SF Debris' Analysis - detailed analysis from someone who is not an anime fan. done after finishing the series. highly recommended.
Mark Watches - hilarious and sometimes thoughtful reactions, even if the videos are not available. his comments section is great too.
Matt High's Review - standard review of each episode by an anime fan, in tune with the original airing from 2011. with supplementary review quotes at the end and hq screencaps from the tv version.
Changes made in the Blu-Ray versions

Speculah* from the fans

*Speculah means speculation. First used in threads on anime boards about the anime series Sora No Woto. This series was often compared to K-On!, whose protagonist nicknames her guitar 'Guitah'. Since Sora no Woto was about trumpets (and was somehow similar to K-On!), people started talking about 'Trumpetah', and then made a habit of adding -ah and the end of some words.

The mustachioed puffballs in this episode are shouting these distorted German phrases:

Das sind mir unbekannte Blumen. Ja. Sie sind mir auch unbekannt. Schneiden wir sie ab? Ja. Schneiden wir sie ab! Die Rosen schenken wir unsrer Königin. Und die schlechten Blumen steigen auf die Guillotine. Ja. Schneide sie ab! Ja. Schneide sie heraus!

Those flowers are unknown to me. Yes. They are also unknown to me. Shall we cut them off? Yes. Let us cut them off! We present the roses to our queen. And the bad flowers go to the guillotine. Yes. Cut them off! Yes. Cut them out!

Tiffany talks about things:

4chan really loves to speculate.

This show is so detailed, by the end you'll be reading up on German folklore, moon phases, abstract paintings, philosophy, and architecture from around the world.

Questions to think about:

- What was the destructive force in Madoka's dream?
- How did Homura show up in Madoka's dream?
- How did Homura know Madoka?
- Why did Homura confront Madoka in the hallway like that?
- Why did Kyubey seek out Madoka?