Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
The town is a Japanese replica of Colmar.
The town bears a striking resemblance to the French town of Colmar, yet all the characters act distinctively Japanese. One explanation is that the town is a copy and located in Japan, built as a touristic attraction. This is not so far-fetched, considering the existence of the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Nagasaki
, which contains replicas of Dutch locales.- The issue being—I have never heard of people living in theme parks—or even places like Williamsburg.
- Not to mention there's a mishmash of different parts from different towns in there. For instance, the bathhouse is based on Szechenyi baths in Budapest
- There's actually a small gated community called Wassenaar right next to Huis Ten Bosch where people live in Dutch-styled houses. Furthermore, there's a Sweden-themed neighborhood in Hokkaido called Sweden Hills. So the idea that the town is a Japanese replica is not that implausible.
This and all "cute girls doing cute things" series are a splinter of a Magical Girl universe.
Any time that a Magical Girl and Dark Magical Girl fight and they conclude that they could've been friends had circumstances been different (or, really, anytime a magical girl says or feels a similar sentiment), a splinter universe is spontaneously created. This universe's purpose is to provide an environment where their wish is fulfilled. It waites for either the girls' deaths or some other fate in which their souls can be transferred and live a new life with the friends they should've had. The original universe doesn't even have to have been a Madoka-esque nightmare world, even something as relatively peaceful and happy like Pretty Cure can create such universes. Even if the Dark Magical Girl joins with the other heroines and lives a normal happy life as friends after the fighting is over, the splinter universe will still seek to create a world in which they never fought to begin with. In this case, I think that Rize would've been the Dark Magical Girl.