(◕‿‿◕) I command you to watch Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika
I command you to watch Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika.
If you do, make sure to give it a real chance: at least episodes 1-3 because episode three is the "hook" episode, not 1-2. I'm serious. Take one hour of your time and have a really trippy hour.
Want to know what it's about? Bare facts: There are girls out there who can have magical powers to fight witches, which are monsters that curse and kill innocent people. They make a contract for these powers: I'll fight witches with this magic, and in return, I get one wish. Any wish. Anything in the world that I want. This is about one decision, one moment in time, and all the girls involved. It is probably the best deconstruction of mahou shoujo and the heroic story in general that is currently on the market.
It's excellent. It's Princess Tutu excellent and I rarely say that. It loves more than anything else to rip out the viewer's still-beating heart and jump up and down on it, but oh, in a good way. It knows it can do that. It has the things I love best in a series: excellent pacing, sharp writing, and the most fantastically written characters in a long time. A really long time, if I'll be honest.
Best of all, to me: it has exquisite female characters. khyata and qwirky recommended me this series in part because they wanted to torture me by making me cry, but also in part because they know how genuinely upset I am by Orihime and, quite frankly, most Orihime fans. Right now, I feel like Orihime fans are overdoing it. I truly think that objectively speaking, Orihime's behavior is just adequate. It's nothing to write home about, and if you want to argue with me then explain to me why she didn't heal Ishida if she actually is using her fairies, and no, Ryuuken is not a good excuse because if she has enough time to hand-deliver bread every single motherfucking day, she has enough time to visit Ishida after 11 o'clock at night when Ryuuken is in his armchair with a cup of tea and a monocle and not harassing his son. And yet every chapter, I lay this out and someone tries to convince me that bullshit tastes like candy.
I've felt frustrated with Bleach fandom for years now, but it's truly wearying on me as of late. I feel like I'm in an alternate universe whenever I read Bleach fandom praise Orihime because I'm just like: do you know what real heroines are like? Because they're not like this. Real human heroines or real anime heroines, no one is as as overbaked as Inoue Orihime. Let's face it, Kubo-sensei should have taken her out of the oven a long time ago, but instead he covered her with frosting and inexplicably stuck her back in the oven to bake more, except sugar burns so now nothing is left but this black and crusty shell where an admirable character used to be years ago. Then he slapped frosting on again and was like HAY LOOK DELICIOUS PAN TAKE THIS PAN? and I said D: except then fans said YAY THIS IS THE BEST PAN I HAVE EVER HAD, I LOVE THE WAY IT BREAKS MY TEETH AND CUTS MY TENDER TENDER MOUTH, IS THIS PAN NOT BETTER THAN THE HUECO MUNDO PAN, CANNOT WAIT FOR THE UPGRADE TO THIS PAN, I THINK IT WILL HAVE BROKEN GLASS THIS TIME!
And look, I have one truth about Orihime: until she actually thinks about who she is, what she really wants, and what she's done, she is not going to get a power-up and that's because she doesn't deserve one until that happens and until then you cannot expect anything. I'm not trying to be nasty. At the beginning of the arc, I knew Orihime still had to have feelings for Ichigo because when Orihime has a chance, yes, she will deny what she conveniently can. And a hell of a lot of things are convenient to ignore for her. (HE GAVE ME BREAD! MY OWN BREAD OH MY GOODNESS HE IS SO NICE TO ME HE GAVE ME MY OWN BREAD) And I'm tired of giving her passes. She's not more real just because she's not awesome. Furthermore, she's not a better character just because she's seventeen, which is what I assume people are trying for whenever they pull that card. This is the kind of behavior I didn't tolerate in myself or other students when I was, in fact, seventeen.
You know, I realized the other day that the things people praise Orihime for in this chapter - great fighting stance, nice expression, said she wouldn't let him go for Tatsuki-chan Ishida-kun, she used Santen Kesshun - these are the things that she achieved in 2002, when she and I were both fifteen years old. Fifteen. I turn twenty-four in May. That makes me genuinely quite sad.
It takes more than words: it takes thought and it takes action. That's why I recommend Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika. Don't let the character design fool you: this is some of the very best writing you will see about what it's like to be an ordinary teenage girl with extraordinary powers, with all the possible outcomes. Some have that intangible unselfishness that I so desperately need in a character to like and that hurts me every day that I don't see it in Orihime. It's willpower. It's facing up to reality. It's being beaten down and crushed and trying your best anyway because the alternative is intolerable in oneself. It's putting your heart and soul and very sanity on the line for the person you love most in the world even if they never know it and maybe especially then. And ... yes, there are the self-made martyrs, the characters who think that love can be bought, the characters that want easy passes without consequences when in the real world for real people, consequences exist every day. And they are not exempt, because this anime about teenage girls with magical powers is as real as it gets.
Watch it. Streaming or torrent. It ends in just two more episodes at 12 total, so catch this while it's hot. It's insanely popular and tons of mangaka are watching it, from Tanemura Arina to Kubo Tite. If I were a religious woman, I would describe what I do every day as prayer: my desperate hope that Kubo learns from what is the truly cathartic, emotional experience that is Mahou Shoujo Madoka.
If you do, make sure to give it a real chance: at least episodes 1-3 because episode three is the "hook" episode, not 1-2. I'm serious. Take one hour of your time and have a really trippy hour.
Want to know what it's about? Bare facts: There are girls out there who can have magical powers to fight witches, which are monsters that curse and kill innocent people. They make a contract for these powers: I'll fight witches with this magic, and in return, I get one wish. Any wish. Anything in the world that I want. This is about one decision, one moment in time, and all the girls involved. It is probably the best deconstruction of mahou shoujo and the heroic story in general that is currently on the market.
It's excellent. It's Princess Tutu excellent and I rarely say that. It loves more than anything else to rip out the viewer's still-beating heart and jump up and down on it, but oh, in a good way. It knows it can do that. It has the things I love best in a series: excellent pacing, sharp writing, and the most fantastically written characters in a long time. A really long time, if I'll be honest.
Best of all, to me: it has exquisite female characters. khyata and qwirky recommended me this series in part because they wanted to torture me by making me cry, but also in part because they know how genuinely upset I am by Orihime and, quite frankly, most Orihime fans. Right now, I feel like Orihime fans are overdoing it. I truly think that objectively speaking, Orihime's behavior is just adequate. It's nothing to write home about, and if you want to argue with me then explain to me why she didn't heal Ishida if she actually is using her fairies, and no, Ryuuken is not a good excuse because if she has enough time to hand-deliver bread every single motherfucking day, she has enough time to visit Ishida after 11 o'clock at night when Ryuuken is in his armchair with a cup of tea and a monocle and not harassing his son. And yet every chapter, I lay this out and someone tries to convince me that bullshit tastes like candy.
I've felt frustrated with Bleach fandom for years now, but it's truly wearying on me as of late. I feel like I'm in an alternate universe whenever I read Bleach fandom praise Orihime because I'm just like: do you know what real heroines are like? Because they're not like this. Real human heroines or real anime heroines, no one is as as overbaked as Inoue Orihime. Let's face it, Kubo-sensei should have taken her out of the oven a long time ago, but instead he covered her with frosting and inexplicably stuck her back in the oven to bake more, except sugar burns so now nothing is left but this black and crusty shell where an admirable character used to be years ago. Then he slapped frosting on again and was like HAY LOOK DELICIOUS PAN TAKE THIS PAN? and I said D: except then fans said YAY THIS IS THE BEST PAN I HAVE EVER HAD, I LOVE THE WAY IT BREAKS MY TEETH AND CUTS MY TENDER TENDER MOUTH, IS THIS PAN NOT BETTER THAN THE HUECO MUNDO PAN, CANNOT WAIT FOR THE UPGRADE TO THIS PAN, I THINK IT WILL HAVE BROKEN GLASS THIS TIME!
And look, I have one truth about Orihime: until she actually thinks about who she is, what she really wants, and what she's done, she is not going to get a power-up and that's because she doesn't deserve one until that happens and until then you cannot expect anything. I'm not trying to be nasty. At the beginning of the arc, I knew Orihime still had to have feelings for Ichigo because when Orihime has a chance, yes, she will deny what she conveniently can. And a hell of a lot of things are convenient to ignore for her. (HE GAVE ME BREAD! MY OWN BREAD OH MY GOODNESS HE IS SO NICE TO ME HE GAVE ME MY OWN BREAD) And I'm tired of giving her passes. She's not more real just because she's not awesome. Furthermore, she's not a better character just because she's seventeen, which is what I assume people are trying for whenever they pull that card. This is the kind of behavior I didn't tolerate in myself or other students when I was, in fact, seventeen.
You know, I realized the other day that the things people praise Orihime for in this chapter - great fighting stance, nice expression, said she wouldn't let him go for Tatsuki-chan Ishida-kun, she used Santen Kesshun - these are the things that she achieved in 2002, when she and I were both fifteen years old. Fifteen. I turn twenty-four in May. That makes me genuinely quite sad.
It takes more than words: it takes thought and it takes action. That's why I recommend Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika. Don't let the character design fool you: this is some of the very best writing you will see about what it's like to be an ordinary teenage girl with extraordinary powers, with all the possible outcomes. Some have that intangible unselfishness that I so desperately need in a character to like and that hurts me every day that I don't see it in Orihime. It's willpower. It's facing up to reality. It's being beaten down and crushed and trying your best anyway because the alternative is intolerable in oneself. It's putting your heart and soul and very sanity on the line for the person you love most in the world even if they never know it and maybe especially then. And ... yes, there are the self-made martyrs, the characters who think that love can be bought, the characters that want easy passes without consequences when in the real world for real people, consequences exist every day. And they are not exempt, because this anime about teenage girls with magical powers is as real as it gets.
Watch it. Streaming or torrent. It ends in just two more episodes at 12 total, so catch this while it's hot. It's insanely popular and tons of mangaka are watching it, from Tanemura Arina to Kubo Tite. If I were a religious woman, I would describe what I do every day as prayer: my desperate hope that Kubo learns from what is the truly cathartic, emotional experience that is Mahou Shoujo Madoka.