To the Stars (PMMM story)

Fanfiction
Title:	To the Stars
Author(s):	Hieronym
Date(s):	Sep 24, 2011 -
Length:	WIP - 720k + words; 58 chapters
Genre(s):	Sci-Fi
Fandom(s):	Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Relationship(s):
External Links:	at FFN, at AO3
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

To the Stars is a Puella Magi Madoka Magica story by Hieronym. It is a post-canon fic set in the far future. It features an OC protagonist along with several of the characters from the original anime.

Synopsis

FFnet Summary: Kyubey promised that humanity would reach the stars one day. The Incubator tactfully refrained from saying too much about what they would find there.

AO3 Summary: After centuries of turmoil, Humanity has expanded to the stars, just as the Incubators promised. The half-AI Government of Earth is determined to turn the planet into its vision of utopia, but the shadows of utopia hide many secrets. When an alien threat the Incubators failed to mention threatens the peace, one of those secrets steps out into the light. –– In the midst of it all, an ordinary girl looks to the sky, wondering at her place in the universe.

From the TV Tropes page:

To the Stars is a distant sequel to Madoka Magica, taking place several centuries after the anime's epilogue. Featuring a detailed exploration of the possible future, it is one of the most thorough Madoka Magica world-building fics.

Two surviving characters from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mami and Kyouko, are also main characters in this fic, and Yuma from Puella Magi Oriko Magica appears in a supporting role. The third and central protagonist, Ryouko Shizuki, is a girl whose entry into the world of magical girls begins a little after the story's start.

Just to give prospective readers an idea of how long it is, the first 100K words alone cover just the first 24 hours of the story. Despite its length, To the Stars will capture your interest if you're at all interested in realistic assessment of how would the existence and eventual public acceptance of Puella Magi affect mankind for the next few centuries, and what would it look like if magical girls were starring in rather hard Military Science-Fiction set in an elaborate, massively detailed world of the 25th century.

Dark and deconstructive elements as well as interpersonal drama, however, have been toned down - which, however, is expected as the story is set after the original series' uplifting ending.

Reception

As of May 2019, To the Stars has over 1.4k reviews, 1.9k favorites, and 1.9 follows on FanFiction.net.

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Reviews

To The Stars is one of those precious fanworks where the author absolutely pours themselves into it. Bringing post-Madokami magical girls into a military-sci-fi 25th century that ranks rather high on the hardness scale is one thing, but the amount of worldbuilding Hieronym puts into the setting's cultural, psychological, sociological, governmental, and economic aspects is mind-boggling. People who like lots of detail may find this a huge draw.

The characters are also a strong point; some PMMM characters remain on the scene, but there are many magical and nonmagical characters to deal with as well. Ryouko herself is an engaging and sympathetic protagonist, subject to a feeling of listlessness many readers may identify with.

However, if the reader goes into TTS looking for the same stuff they saw in-show, they may not find it. The sheer textual mass of the still-in-progress fic might also turn away readers who prefer shorter works. However, those who enjoy an interesting and deeply-thought-out spin on magical girls (IN SPACE!) may find this to be just what they were looking for.

I'll start by saying that I'm a big fan of this work.

While the characters are indeed a strong point, being well written and sympathetic, the main draw for me was – like the title of this review lets you guess – worldbuilding.

Holy pepperoni the worldbuilding ! The amount of work that went there is staggering, and results in a coherent and very complete universe. The seer amount of text and exposition might not suit everyone, but that's what I liked.

Nevertheless, it is different from the show, so people going for original flavor might want to pass on that one. People that like sci-fy (especially Space Opera) should not.

PS : As a answer to the previous comment (and some notes on the tropes page), I would not say that it "ranks rather high on the hardness scale". I mean, even if one does not take the litteral magic in account, it still is no higher than a soft 3, Honor Harrington style (though it is hard to juge, as every handwave can be justified by said litteral magic)

It was supposed to a soft sci-fi that went harder than the author intended, and it shows in a very good way. A story of post PMMM world in which humanity reaches the stars. The world building is immense and completely enthralling.

An 800,000 word monster fic and counting. It’s an OC-centric sci-fi take on Madoka Magika (though the main cast play important roles in advancing the story and get a good amount of screen time). This fic is colossal in scope, science and lore. It is dense. It is an undertaking. I have been following it for years and it is nowhere near finished. Set aside a week of your life minimum to read this one (if you are a power-reader). And much much longer, if you are doing literally anything else with your week, such as sleep.

Insane science fiction story set hundreds of years after the events of the 13 episode anime Madoka Magica. In the anime, it reveals that Kyubey's people are literal aliens with technology indistinguishable from Magic. This fic just builds on the scifi bones of the "magical girl" anime in a truly unimaginable way and transforms it into a very sciency technomage universe. I cant recommend this fic enough to anyone who watched the anime. In my head all of this is canon now.

To the Stars was also cited as "the Greatest Madoka Fanfiction" by Kim Morrissy of the Anime News Network in a review of the PMMM franchise in 2021, where Morrissy argued that scriptwriter Gen Urobuchi was not the only one telling compelling stories within the universe:

In September 2011, mere months after Madoka Magica finished airing, a FanFiction.net user started posting their magnum opus. To the Stars by Hieronym tells the story of magical girls in space, hundreds of years after the end of the TV series. In this futuristic, post-capitalist world, magical girls are public knowledge and openly aligned with the military, thanks to a cataclysmic alien invasion that forced magical girls to reveal their existence to the world.

To the Stars is an absolute monster of a fanfiction. It was last updated in June, and currently totals 806,316 words in length. Although it's still ongoing, at this point you could describe it as a full-fledged saga in its own right, with a setting much more detailed and elaborate than the anime that inspired it.

Why did I bring up a fanfic? Because it's proof that the original story of Madoka actually did leave quite a lot of room for authors to exert their own creative spin on it. Even after the ending of the TV anime, in a landscape changed irrevocably by Madoka's wish, there were still stories to tell with those old characters, new conflicts, and themes that could have been explored. And it didn't take a Gen Urobuchi to do it.

Fanworks

Some of the recursive fanfiction made for TtS is made with feedback and advice from the author, and are considered mostly canon "Expanded Universe Fanfiction."

• Emma's Story, by El Conservatore - Solemnis, Sodales, and Aevitas

Others are not part of the TtS canon.

Resources

• Wiki
• Author's Tumblr
• TVTropes Page
• To the Stars Fanart
• /r/ToTheStars Subreddit
• Discussion Thread at Sufficient Velocity
• Discord Channel
• Expanded Universe - fan content for the fic such as recursive fanfiction
• To the Stars Imageboard