The (not BL but) Anime Thread

[Kreekakon]

Well...I seem awfully late to this latest hype train, but I just marathon-ed the entire series of Puella Magi Madoka Magica all today, and now I feel like giving some thoughts on the whole thing.

A bit of a disclaimer before we dive into what I have to say:

Spoiler below!

When thinking back on the show I think I realize that my memory wasn't the greatest, and I may have forgotten/mixed-up some of the themes or happenings in my head (Usually tends to happen with loads of shows/movies before I watch them a second time), so it may be a bit wise to take what I say below with a pinch of salt, because I very much likely may come across as ignorant, or plain wrong!

As per my favorite type of writing, the following thoughts of mine will all be SPOILER-FREE! Minor sections with spoilers will have spoiler tags Read on without fear!

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Story

Starting off I'll give a little quick brief on what the show is about. It's a show about two middle school main characters at start (Madoka, and Sakaya) who discover about the existence of magical girls, and the duties of those enlisted to have to fight off evil beings called "Witches". To many this may sound like the premise of a generic "monster of the week" magical girl show. Well to that I say that that is absolutely, and definitely not the case at all!

The show will start off with that sort of typical premise in mind, but it adds a great degree of lovely twists to almost all the aspects of the genre. It takes many of aspects which are usually taken for granted, and usually ignored with suspension of disbelief, and plays them out in a realistic fashion. Think of Adam West Batman from 1960 going over to the Dark Knight we have today. It's a very similar kind of twist.

In Madoka, becoming a a magical girl is not all glamorous, and upbeat. It seems that way at first, but gradually you will see that it is a very dangerous job where the danger is very real, and not all encounters with Witches are guaranteed a happy ending. It can be a very real, gritty, brutal, and potentially fatal career. Worse yet for our main characters, the road gets even darker as the series goes on.

That's also one of my favorite parts of how the story progresses. We are basically discovering the properties of the Magical Girl alongside Madoka, and Sayaka. Anything they experience, or learn about what it means to be a magical girl the audience will learn alongside them (And often share their surprise)

The story will start off fairly standard, but will pick up more, and more near the end getting more, and more dark, and the ending nearly blew me away.


Characters

Also about the story it has a lot of meaningful interactions between the characters, and I thought many of their reactions to happenings were very realistically depicted. Many times you could feel where a character was coming from, and feel their pain, and despair. It was conveyed very effectively, and I think this may very well be one of the anime's best points.

As for characters I personally liked the development of Sayaka the very best. Without going into spoilers, I'll just say her reasons for becoming a magical girl, thinking about it, eventually agreeing, and subsequent mindsets I felt were the richest from all the characters. My least favorite was probably Kyoko whose characterization I personally felt was much more stiff than most of the other characters who had more well-flowing, and organic developments.

Honorable mention of my favorite characters from the show would have to go to Kyuubey, who is the being that makes contracts with young girls, and transforms them into magical girls. For sake of spoilers, but his character being too good to not mention in detail, it'll go into spoiler boxes:

Spoiler below!

The reason I love him so much is that you gradually, but surely realize that he is by human standards (This is important, I'll get to it later) an absolute, manipulative jerk. He'll trick young girls into becoming magical girls for what he believes is benefiting the universe, but also destroying them in the process. However during all this the main cast will seemingly still keep him around (More like tolerate him), because if you pay attention closely that while he is a dickbag, he is not an openly hostile entity.

Many times characters can still converse with him, and still get straight answers out of him even after he's revealed his true colors. The way this was done for me I felt was a very organic way of handling when his character appears in the main cast, and flawlessly integrated what arguably is the series main antagonist amongst the main cast.

Another thing I love about him is that while he displays some typical big baddy traits such as "Not understanding friendship, or human values" a twist is added where he isn't just questioning his confusion over these values as sarcasm, or being a snarker. From where his species comes from, he GENUINELY doesn't know why what everyone is going on about, or why they care so much.

Art and Animation

The actual animations while for the most part function okay, more often than not you'll see some distorted animations, and/or faces.

HOWEVER...and this is a biiiiiiiggggggggggggg HOWEVER: I have to say another one of the series main selling points would have to be the art design of the Witch battles. All of these take place in extremely surreal environments, and are displayed with seemingly real-life paper animation. It adds a great sense of appeal as well as creepiness to the witch battles, and is absolutely amazing. I can't even imagine what their budget for these things must've looked like!


Sound

One thing: Soundtrack is stellar. The only word to properly describe the feel of all the tracks is MAJESTIC All of them are beautiful whether it's filled with mystery, despair, or both!


Ending

Anyways all in all I'd say this show is an insanely good show that adds many twists to the magical girl genre, and sent chills down my spine more than once whether it was because of the characters, story, music, or amazing set pieces.