TEH ANIME REVIEW: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Well, as I said previously, I'd be using this LJ to review Anime I watch, and since just today I finished watching this series, I can't hold back my necessity to let everyone know what I think of it. Especially since it's the first series I finish watching in a long time (not counting the third season of Zetsubo Sensei
So tonight I'll be reviewing *drums please*
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Also known as Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Magical Girl Madoka, Madoka Magica or simply Madoka. (with Madoka being obviously the girl in pink)
With a title that screams MAGICAL GIRL and a character design that brought me back to Ojamajo Doremi (though I thoroughly loved that series), and those HUGE eyes, frilly dresses and baby-like faces, I was very reluctant to watch this series (I even remember catching some commercials of it in some of my weekly anime streams from the 2010 Autumn season and thinking it would be some Shojo Romance). And I was even more surprised to see the HUGE uproar about it, with polls placing it in the Top 10 titles of 2011 and people making lines to watch the finale; I even caught news about a dude applying for a job at Fukushima and saying "I saw the end of Madoka, so I'm not worried"
So I was wondering, "What's the hype with Madoka? It's just a Magical Girl? With all the great series out there like Deadman Wonderland and Bakuman, why is everyone so pumped up about a girl in a pink puffy dress?"
The answer finally came when I borrowed the series from my older brother and finally got to watch it. And I was completely surprised by what I met with
It starts as a regular Magical Girl series, Madoka Kaname, the protagonist, dreams of a girl in serious trouble and a strange creature offering her a contract so that she can save her. The next morning, the girl from her dream appears in her school and introduces herself as Akemi Homura, and warns her not to change who she is or she will lose everything she loves. This rings a bell to the first episodes of Card Captor Sakura and her meeting with Syaoran telling her to step back and whatnot. Pretty typical Magical Girl up to now.
I started to sense something was not so typical when the cutesy little creature from the dream (this cutesy little creature) rushes towards Madoka in a dark underground room covered in blood. You don't do blood in Magical Girl, I tell you that. Not in the cutesy creatures at least. Never has Mokona or Kero-chan been stained by the evils of dirty blood. But poor innocent Kyubey (creature) was. Something smells iffy.
It appears that the new student, Homura, had been chasing and trying to KILL the cutesy creature to prevent it from meeting with Madoka. But it's too late and Madoka and her friend Sayaka Miki have found him. Just then the environment changes and they are swallowed by a strange surrealistic labyrinth full with strange phenomenon and weird creatures trying to attack them. They would die in seconds if they were not saved by Mami Tomoe, a Puella Magi (Mahou Shojo/Magical Girl) that defeats the creator of the labyrinth, a witch, and saves their lives.
Mami explains everything about the Puella Magi and Kyubey, the creature with whom they should make a contract if they want to become one. Puella Magi fight against witches risking their lives to protect people, in exchange they get to realize one single wish, no matter how impossible it might be, the moment they sign their contract. She insists that it's risky, so they're not forced to do it, and that they should take their time to think about it, but Kyubey seems to be in a hurry to contract them, especially Madoka.
And that's the story, pretty simple it seems during the first three episodes, with Madoka and Sayaka tagging along Mami, trying to get a glimpse on the job of a Puella Magi and deciding which wish they should ask for if they become one, though both of them feeling hyped by the glam and excitement of being a Magical Girl that fights for justice and to protect the people they love.
But as I just said, this is just the first three episodes, and the series has 12. In the third episode, Mami is killed by a witch and the bubble of excitement and pink magic pops. Maybe being a Puella Magi isn't so great, maybe it's too dangerous, maybe it isn't worth it. After Sayaka contracts with Kyubey and a new Magical girl comes to town, more and more terrifying truths about Puella Magi and Kyubey's real objectives (he wasn't such a cutesy after all) are revealed, driving all the girls to despair and having to sacrifice themselves to save each other, making this series mostly dark and full of crying, rather than pink and Sailor Moon-esque transformations.
Positive Points
I really enjoyed the series, it has a twist that I never expected to the Magical Girl genre. Even the first episodes delve into the human and psychological aspects of thinking and deciding if there is anything worth risking your life for. The rest of the series makes the whole Magical Girl concept pretty dark and twisted and very interesting at the same time. Because after all, the girls in the series are at all times being manipulated by Kyubey for his own purposes and because of his own views, he doesn't understand that he is causing harm, or rather, he doesn't think he is doing so, since he seeks just his best interest.
What I find most interesting about this MagicalGirl-twist is that you spend the whole series, particularly the first episodes wondering when is Madoka going to do the freaking contract and become a Puella Magi, isn't that what the series is about? you wonder. The series progresses and by the eigth episode I was like... why hasn't she become a Magical Girl yet? And then you discover everything about the Puella Magi and the Incubators and all the darkness and bad things and think, just like Homura does, that Madoka should not become a Puella Magi no matter what. Yet the Opening sequence is all about her in her Magical Girl oufit doing Magical Girl things, so you wonder if she's ever gonna become the heroine in the story, though you know she shouldn't because it's dark and horrible. I think that's a nice and very hooking plot twist, the fact that Madoka takes so long to become a Puella Magi, and the more she thinks about it, it seems like becoming one is the worst option there is.
Another interesting and wonderful thing is the design of the witches. This is not your everyday witch riding a broom and living in a pumpkin. Witches hide in labirynths behind barriers and create completely surrealistic worlds. The animation and design for such worlds is absolutely amazing. I'll show you a couple of shots.
I was completely overwhelmed by the art of this Witch worlds, they are way too amazing for me. The details, the colors and the animation are absolutely incredible and very different to anything I had seen before (perhaps similar to some experimental episodes in Zetsubo Sensei)
The Opening and ending are really good, especially the ending since it captures the dark essence of the series. The Anime has a music score that's really fantastic, there are some creepy tracks that are simply spot on and make me want to get the OST because it's just wow.
Negative Points (beware for heavy spoiler about the finale)
There's little to criticize about this series, I thoroughly enjoyed it and every episode leaves you craving for more, but the ending, I admit, became a bit confusing, at least for me (maybe I'm stupid and need someone smarter to explain it to me). And I didn't really get why in shit's name was Sayaka the only one to die after Madoka reestructured the universe. No matter how much I think about it, it still doesn't make sense to me.
Another thing but that's more of a Pet peeve of mine, is that the Opening is all about Madoka being a Magical girl, even if she doesn't become one until the last episode, barely showing the other characters, which really sucks since there are really amazing characters in the story, the other Puella Magi have just as interesting and terrifying stories to tell, but they are barely considered for the opening sequence. That sucks big time
(END SPOILER)
To sum up, I thoroughly recommend this one, even with how skeptical I was about it, the series proved that it was worth watching, and more than that, that I was dying to watch every next episode. It's only 12 episodes and they go by really quickly, so if you have 1 or 2 days to dedicate to anime, you should really watch Madoka
So tonight I'll be reviewing *drums please*
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Also known as Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Magical Girl Madoka, Madoka Magica or simply Madoka. (with Madoka being obviously the girl in pink)
With a title that screams MAGICAL GIRL and a character design that brought me back to Ojamajo Doremi (though I thoroughly loved that series), and those HUGE eyes, frilly dresses and baby-like faces, I was very reluctant to watch this series (I even remember catching some commercials of it in some of my weekly anime streams from the 2010 Autumn season and thinking it would be some Shojo Romance). And I was even more surprised to see the HUGE uproar about it, with polls placing it in the Top 10 titles of 2011 and people making lines to watch the finale; I even caught news about a dude applying for a job at Fukushima and saying "I saw the end of Madoka, so I'm not worried"
So I was wondering, "What's the hype with Madoka? It's just a Magical Girl? With all the great series out there like Deadman Wonderland and Bakuman, why is everyone so pumped up about a girl in a pink puffy dress?"
The answer finally came when I borrowed the series from my older brother and finally got to watch it. And I was completely surprised by what I met with
It starts as a regular Magical Girl series, Madoka Kaname, the protagonist, dreams of a girl in serious trouble and a strange creature offering her a contract so that she can save her. The next morning, the girl from her dream appears in her school and introduces herself as Akemi Homura, and warns her not to change who she is or she will lose everything she loves. This rings a bell to the first episodes of Card Captor Sakura and her meeting with Syaoran telling her to step back and whatnot. Pretty typical Magical Girl up to now.
I started to sense something was not so typical when the cutesy little creature from the dream (this cutesy little creature) rushes towards Madoka in a dark underground room covered in blood. You don't do blood in Magical Girl, I tell you that. Not in the cutesy creatures at least. Never has Mokona or Kero-chan been stained by the evils of dirty blood. But poor innocent Kyubey (creature) was. Something smells iffy.
It appears that the new student, Homura, had been chasing and trying to KILL the cutesy creature to prevent it from meeting with Madoka. But it's too late and Madoka and her friend Sayaka Miki have found him. Just then the environment changes and they are swallowed by a strange surrealistic labyrinth full with strange phenomenon and weird creatures trying to attack them. They would die in seconds if they were not saved by Mami Tomoe, a Puella Magi (Mahou Shojo/Magical Girl) that defeats the creator of the labyrinth, a witch, and saves their lives.
Mami explains everything about the Puella Magi and Kyubey, the creature with whom they should make a contract if they want to become one. Puella Magi fight against witches risking their lives to protect people, in exchange they get to realize one single wish, no matter how impossible it might be, the moment they sign their contract. She insists that it's risky, so they're not forced to do it, and that they should take their time to think about it, but Kyubey seems to be in a hurry to contract them, especially Madoka.
And that's the story, pretty simple it seems during the first three episodes, with Madoka and Sayaka tagging along Mami, trying to get a glimpse on the job of a Puella Magi and deciding which wish they should ask for if they become one, though both of them feeling hyped by the glam and excitement of being a Magical Girl that fights for justice and to protect the people they love.
But as I just said, this is just the first three episodes, and the series has 12. In the third episode, Mami is killed by a witch and the bubble of excitement and pink magic pops. Maybe being a Puella Magi isn't so great, maybe it's too dangerous, maybe it isn't worth it. After Sayaka contracts with Kyubey and a new Magical girl comes to town, more and more terrifying truths about Puella Magi and Kyubey's real objectives (he wasn't such a cutesy after all) are revealed, driving all the girls to despair and having to sacrifice themselves to save each other, making this series mostly dark and full of crying, rather than pink and Sailor Moon-esque transformations.
Positive Points
I really enjoyed the series, it has a twist that I never expected to the Magical Girl genre. Even the first episodes delve into the human and psychological aspects of thinking and deciding if there is anything worth risking your life for. The rest of the series makes the whole Magical Girl concept pretty dark and twisted and very interesting at the same time. Because after all, the girls in the series are at all times being manipulated by Kyubey for his own purposes and because of his own views, he doesn't understand that he is causing harm, or rather, he doesn't think he is doing so, since he seeks just his best interest.
What I find most interesting about this MagicalGirl-twist is that you spend the whole series, particularly the first episodes wondering when is Madoka going to do the freaking contract and become a Puella Magi, isn't that what the series is about? you wonder. The series progresses and by the eigth episode I was like... why hasn't she become a Magical Girl yet? And then you discover everything about the Puella Magi and the Incubators and all the darkness and bad things and think, just like Homura does, that Madoka should not become a Puella Magi no matter what. Yet the Opening sequence is all about her in her Magical Girl oufit doing Magical Girl things, so you wonder if she's ever gonna become the heroine in the story, though you know she shouldn't because it's dark and horrible. I think that's a nice and very hooking plot twist, the fact that Madoka takes so long to become a Puella Magi, and the more she thinks about it, it seems like becoming one is the worst option there is.
Another interesting and wonderful thing is the design of the witches. This is not your everyday witch riding a broom and living in a pumpkin. Witches hide in labirynths behind barriers and create completely surrealistic worlds. The animation and design for such worlds is absolutely amazing. I'll show you a couple of shots.
I was completely overwhelmed by the art of this Witch worlds, they are way too amazing for me. The details, the colors and the animation are absolutely incredible and very different to anything I had seen before (perhaps similar to some experimental episodes in Zetsubo Sensei)
The Opening and ending are really good, especially the ending since it captures the dark essence of the series. The Anime has a music score that's really fantastic, there are some creepy tracks that are simply spot on and make me want to get the OST because it's just wow.
Negative Points (beware for heavy spoiler about the finale)
There's little to criticize about this series, I thoroughly enjoyed it and every episode leaves you craving for more, but the ending, I admit, became a bit confusing, at least for me (maybe I'm stupid and need someone smarter to explain it to me). And I didn't really get why in shit's name was Sayaka the only one to die after Madoka reestructured the universe. No matter how much I think about it, it still doesn't make sense to me.
Another thing but that's more of a Pet peeve of mine, is that the Opening is all about Madoka being a Magical girl, even if she doesn't become one until the last episode, barely showing the other characters, which really sucks since there are really amazing characters in the story, the other Puella Magi have just as interesting and terrifying stories to tell, but they are barely considered for the opening sequence. That sucks big time
(END SPOILER)
To sum up, I thoroughly recommend this one, even with how skeptical I was about it, the series proved that it was worth watching, and more than that, that I was dying to watch every next episode. It's only 12 episodes and they go by really quickly, so if you have 1 or 2 days to dedicate to anime, you should really watch Madoka