We Have No Choice but to Die!

About

We Have No Choice but to Die! (Japanese: 死ぬしか無いじゃない!, Shinu shika nai janai!) is a remark of Mami Tomoe in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

The scene of her remark with despairing look gave a huge impact to viewers as well as her epic death scene. And it became to a subject for fan arts, exploitables and MAD videos on both pixiv and Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Origin

This remark is taken from Madoka Magica's 10th episode "I Won't Rely On Anyone Anymore" which was first aired in Japan before dawn of March 11th, 2011, the day of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It appears in a scene of Homura's recollection to the second timeline that she had experienced.

In that timeline, Mami who noticed the fate of magical girls by Sayaka mutating to a witch loses her head and kills Kyōko by shooting her soul gem. Then, she pointed her rifle in Homura's face and utters this remark with a very impressive despairing look.

Transcript

Kyōko: Sayaka… Damn it… How could this happen?
Madoka: It's too horrible… This isn't right!

(Mami kills Kyōko)

Homura: Miss Tomoe?!
Mami: If Soul Gems give birth to witches… then we have no choice but to Die, Do we?! Both you… and me!!
Homura: S-Stop…!

(Madoka kills Mami to save Homura)

Madoka: I don't want this… I can't take any more… of this…!
Homura: It's Okay… The two of us will keep going by ourselves. We'll beat Walpurgisnacht, just two of us!!
Madoka: Okay…

Spread

The catastrophe of Mami in this episode was so much shocking for viewers, especially for her fans who had been looking forward to her next appearance since her miserable death in the episode 3. Then, her very impressive look and remark immediately derived to various kind of online fan creations for that anime. In the fandom, despairing Mami in this episode is usually called as Yami-san (病ミさん), which is generated from a pun for Yamu (病む, get a (mental) illness) and Mami-san (マミさん).^[1] A large number of illustrations for Yami-san are posted to pixiv.^[2]

In addition to this, an Aka-san style exploitable fad for Yami-san quickly spread to the web via illustration response feature in pixiv. The series of those parody illustrations is called as "That's Mami-san" (まさにマミさん, Masani Mami-San). The trigger of this fad is a blank template mimicking Aka-san by that despairing look of Mami, which was posted by user えら～^[3] on the same day of the episode's airing.^[4]

All you say Mami-san, Mami-san… You are older than me, aren't you?!

More than 200 illustration responses had been posted to pixiv in its first month despite of the chaotic period by that earthquake and nuclear power plant accidents.^[5]

On the other hand, this scene started to be featured in many MAD videos on NND around the end of 2011, though several precursive parody videos for it had been already posted. The trigger on that video sharing site is a remix of her remark and Mozart's "Turkish March" included in jubeat from KONAMI's BEMANI series. This video was posted on November 20th, 2011.

The series of those MAD videos utilizing this scene is called as "We Have No Choice but to Die Series" (死ぬしか無いじゃないシリーズ, Shinu sika nai janai series). The amount of videos in this series, which had been posted to NND in its first year, is about 200.^[6]

Notable Examples

That's Mami-san Series

Don't gimme that look… Don't give that look at my boobs!!	In Soviet Russia…, neck eats you!!	Really Hate big boobs? Damn Lolicon!
Don't give up… You DON'T give up!! BECOME HOTTER!! (Shuzo Matsuoka Parody)	(Mami, I thought you were…) Dead? No. It was a trick (Commando Parody)	Dr. Volga!! Please forgive me!!! (Chargeman Ken! Parody)

Blank Template

MAD Videos

For more videos, check out the videos section in this entry.

Search Interest

[Not Available]

External References

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