14) · 5:36pm Nov 30th, 2014

...Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Have you ever been told about an anime that someone really enjoys, thought it was extremely girly, check it out anyway, and then go "huh, that was a heck of a lot darker than I thought it was going to be"? These were my first thoughts on Puella Magi Madoka Magica. My thoughts, obviously, have changed on this series, and you will soon see why I and many others believe this show to be a master piece.

Ladies and gentlemen and others, my name is darkponyD, and welcome to D's Thoughts. This weeks review is on Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Lets roll!

Story

Set in modern day Japan, in the city of Mitakihara, Puella Magi Madoka Magica follows the story of Madoka Kaname. A middle-school student who stumbles upon the world of Magical Girls and Witches.

Madoka and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a small, cat-like creature named Kyubey, after hearing a mysterious call from a disembodied voice. Kyubey, after being rescued by Madoka, Sayaka and another Magical Girl by the name of Mami Tomoe, offers a contract to Madoka and Sayaka, in which a girl may have any wish granted in exchange for obtaining magical powers and being tasked with fighting against witches.

Now, I know what you're thinking right now; it sounds like a cutesy and girly anime about Magical Girls, hahaha. WRONG!!!

Madoka Magica is what we call a "deconstruction anime". This is where we take a preexisting plot element or genre, such as Magical Girls, and totally smash it to smithereens, leaving the writers to re-imagine the plot element or genre, and add new elements to the whole, making it into something brand new. For Madoka Magica, the writers broke down the original Magical Girl genre/plot element, rebuilt it adding a more modern spin on how Magical Girls come to be, and questioning the very building blocks of the Magical Girl genre/plot element. Questions such as "what is the cost of becoming a Magical Girl" or "where do the enemies, in this case Witches, that they're fighting come from" and, of course, "who or what is this person/creature that wants to give me magical powers?" are asked. Questions that none of the others characters can answer, or simply don't want to answer.

Now, its time to take a look at characters, before I get off into a rant and go into spoiler country.

Characters

While pretty much every character introduced into Madoka Magica is important and serves a purpose, I will only be talking about the truly important characters, specifically the five Magical Girls and Kyubey.

Madoka Kaname
Madoka Kaname, the protagonist and title character, is a gentle and friendly 14 year old girl. Living an ordinary life, Madoka has a loving family and is surrounded by good friends. One day she has a dream of a mysterious girl fighting an ominous creature. The next day, that same girl from her dream, comes to her class as a transfer student.

Madoka, while not being seen in her Magical Girl costume doing Magical Girl stuff until late in the series, is still the prime focus of the series, with it following her discovery of the Magical Girls, her watching other Magical Girls fight Witches, and even their fellow Magical Girls, and finally, her final decision. Her Magical Girl attire involves a pink, semi-ballerina dress and a bow, which is her primary weapon.

Homura Akemi
Homura Akemi is the deuteragonist of Madoka Magica. She is first seen by Madoka in a dream of her fighting a monster in a desolate landscape of skyscrapers. The day after the dream, Homura has transferred to Madoka's school where she gives her ominous warnings.

Homura is easily the most mysterious of the characters. Up until the end of the series we know absolutely nothing about her, except for the fact that shes a Magical Girl, and that the magic she uses allows her to attack and escape enemies at incredible speeds. Her Magical Girl Attire involves a black and white school girl uniform, and a small shield on her left arm.

Sayaka Miki
Sayaka Miki is a main character and Madoka's best friend. Like Madoka, she is also a second-year student at Mitakihara Middle School. Tomboyish, confident, and a little brash, she upholds a strong sense of justice and adopts a heroic attitude as a magical girl.

Sayaka is also one of the most judgmental characters of the series, quickly jumping to conclusions without actually investigating to find out if her conclusions are warranted. Her Magical Girl attire involves a diagonally cut skirt, a sleeveless top, and a billowing white cape. Her primary weapon is a cutlas.

Mami Tomoe
Mami Tomoe is a magical girl who rescues Madoka and Sayaka from a witch in episode 1. She is already contracted to Kyubey and offers to act as a mentor to the pair should they choose to become magical girls. She is a powerful veteran who fights with summoned muskets and ribbons, as well as a ladylike older sister figure who enjoys tea.

Unfortunately, Mami suffers from a little thing I like to call fan service. Her entire design shows her as a rather, *ahem* endowed character if you know what I mean, *coughlargebreastscough*. Her outfit isn't much better, with a very short skirt, and form fitting top. As for her primary weapon, Mami alternates between using her summoned muskets, and using a ribbon.

Kyoko Sakara
Kyoko Sakura is a veteran magical girl who appears to Sayaka and Madoka midway through the anime, but not before making a brief appearance at the end of the previous episode. She is introduced as an abrasive, fiery, and self-centered girl who fights only for self but later adopts a more sympathetic outlook.

Kyoko is, shall we say, the most vindictive of the characters and, like Sayaka, tends to attack first and ask questions later. At least, thats how she seemed to me. Her Magical Girl attire consists of red dress that extends to about mid-thigh with knee-high boots, also red. Her primary weapon is a long spear that can break apart, with each section connected by a length of chain.

Kyubey
Kyubey is a "Messenger of Magic" who grants the wishes of young girls, but in exchange contracts their services as Magical Girls. Girls who form a contract with him are tasked to defeat Witches -- bizarre entities that feed upon the hopes and dreams of normal people.

Kyubey is also an emotionless husk, so to speak. Meaning, the "smile" thats always present on his face, is fake. He also disposes of any and all of the "leftovers" from the Witches.

Animation Style

In terms of animation style, Madoka Magica has two versions; the TV broadcast version, and the DVD/Blu-Ray release version. You see, both Shaft and Aniplex, the production companies in charge of producing Madoka Magica, have this troublesome habit of releasing the episode hours after the animation is complete. That being said, there are two versions, animation wise; the original TV broadcast, and the cleaned up and beautified Blu-Ray/DVD release. I only ever saw the final, cleaned up version, and I must say, what I saw was spectacular in the amount of detail they put into it.

The big highlight of the anime, animation-wise, was the Witches' lairs, which are known as Labyrinths. Each Labyrinth has a unique style that goes with the Witch thats hiding in it. Not only that, but 50% of the animation used in the Labyrinths is stop motion collage drawings, making it look a lot creepier than it actually is.

Sound/Music

There are many words that describe the sound and music of Madoka Magica. Eerie, unique and creepy, just to name a few. But the one word that encompasses the entire soundtrack is beautiful. The composer, Yuki Kajiura, certainly outdid herself with this, with several tracks that stand above the rest, Sis Puella Magica and Magia just to name a couple.

As for the opening theme, I have to say it was brilliantly misleading. Let me explain. The opening theme, Connect, is a nice upbeat track, though a bit on the cutesy side. The animation that goes with, is even more cutesy, making it appear to be a typical Magical Girl anime, rather than the exceptionally dark deconstruction that it is. That being said, if you are someone that judges anime based off of opening themes, do not allow this opening to fool you!

As of the release of this review there is indeed an English dub for Madoka Magica. However, I have only seen bits and pieces of the dub, so my opinion on it is in no way accurate. From what I saw, the English dub for Madoka Magica has the same problem that Attack on Titan has for its English dub; while the translation of the lines from Japanese to English is fine, and accurate, the emotion that you get in the original Japanese version is virtually nonexistent in the dub.

Final Verdict

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is many things, but bad is certainly not one of them. It has an excellent, well-structured, and well-imagined story, deep, thought provoking characters, beautiful animation, and a soundtrack that encompasses everything that is brought up in the anime itself. As for the ending, readers of my previous reviews will remember that for me, the ending is paramount. And did this ending disappoint me? Yes, yes it did. But not for the reasons that I normally give. You see, for me, what annoys me the most are incomplete endings, otherwise known as cliffhangers. The ending for Madoka Magica doesn't annoy me because its a cliffhanger, cause its not. It annoys me because it isn't a "happy" ending, so to speak. I cannot elaborate on this, since that would be major spoilers, but what I can say is that involves character deaths.

So, with all that in mind, I have meticulously calculated values for the categories of story, characters, animation, sound, and my own personal enjoyment, which after having made a wish and battled the Witches, leaves me awarding Puella Magi Madoka Magica with a score of 9.54 out of 10, with a certified Golden rating. Animes/movies/TV shows/video games with a Golden rating are things that you cannot ignore and must see/play within your lifetime.

And that is all from me, so until next time.
Onwards and Upwards!

-D

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