Puella Magi Madoka Magica
| I know a lot of people call this a "deconstruction" of the magical girl genre, but why is this? Here are the similarities it has with regular magical girl anime along with examples: -Pink haired protagonist (Shugo Chara, Tokyo Mew Mew, Precure (most seasons), Lady Jewelpet) -Familiar who looks like a stuffed animal (Precure, Jewelpet, Cardcaptor Sakura, Full Moon wo Sagashite) -Said familiar has ulterior motives than just helping the protagonist(s) (Carcaptor Sakura, Lady Jewelpet, Smile Precure) -Magical girls must die in order to keep order in the universe (Cardcaptor Sakura, Nurse Angel Ririka SOS, Lady Jewelpet) -Soul takes on a different form (Shugo Chara, Pretear) Differences: -Violent death is show on screen (usually deaths are off-screen and are non-violent in traditional magical girl anime) -Total sacrifice is higher (arguable since hundreds of people died in Lady Jewelpet, albeit temporarily, and many people lost their souls in Shugo Chara, some permanently) -Fewer episodes so the scary stuff is told earlier on -Magical girls don't reincarnate after they die (maybe this is the reason, but it seems pretty minor honestly) Am I missing something here? There are magical girl anime like Lady Jewelpet and Nurse Angel Ririka where the magical girls are recruited partly so they can sacrifice their lives in order to save the planet, which is similar to the premise of Madoka. Since this is found in regular magical girl anime it isn't a "dark twist", so there either must be something else that makes it darker or this whole thing is just misguided. |
  |
| It's essentially a deconstruction for the overall despairing tone of the show in its themes/messages (nature of people and the cattle metaphors) rather than in the edginess aspect (with all the deaths). Edginess does not equal dark. Hence, I think this is the main differentiator. |
| I need sleep. |
| I don't know about deconstruction, at least in the sense of being some "anti-"magical girl show. I think that line's been pushed hard by people who don't want to feel that they like an MG show, frankly - and Madoka definitely is one. That said, an important item you left off your list is the fact that MGs become witches - and not just anomalously, but routinely, as part of their 'life cycle'. Then there are a quite a few ways in which it does play with the genre, in the "let's see what would happen if we took this standard trope literally" line. E.g. Why are magical girls able to beat the shit out of each other and still stay alive and fighting? In a lot of anime (not just Japanese) that's a convention, and you accept it as such. Here it gets an explanation. There are quite a few examples like that. |
| "Burn this sight into your minds. This is what it means to be a magical girl." |
| it isn't really different from other magical girl shows, most people who claim it is haven't seen many magical girl anime and think madoka is the only one with "darker" themes and whatnot. and it definitely isn't a deconstruction, people should stop using this word. |
 |
| Most team based mahou shoujo have heavy themes of friendship and teamwork, while Madoka spits on the very idea of people working together to help others. Madoka does not acknowledge a important core aspect of the genre as something of value. The general public has minimal knowledge of what mahou shoujo is beyond Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Most mahou shoujo series get dismissed as being cutesy fluff, so even if they're capable of being "dark" as Madoka, they'll be ignored as long as they don't look as "dark" as Madoka. It doesn't help that people conflate "magical girl" with "female character who changes appearance to fight". Tokusatsu inspired things like Symphogear and YuYuYu get lumped in to the genre because they share similarities with Madoka, and it dilutes genre into a mess of barely related things. Madoka is "different" because people can't tell what the norm even is. |
| I don't get the hype around Madoka. It doesn't seem to be much darker than your usual mahou shoujo and is incredily tame compared to Utena. Madoka Magoka does very few new things, it justs throws everything in your face to make sure you know it's there. "HEY VIEWER THAT GIRL JUST GOT KILLED" "HEY VIEWER, LOOK, SHE'S CRYING" fuck this I'm not totally stupid and it kills any attempt at building tension or drama. Now I don't have much experience with mahou shoujo (saw a bunch of them when I was a teen, they don't appear on my list) but I'd say Madoka just capitalizes on shock value and low episode count to make an impression on the viewer. |
 |
| Madoka is very much a mahou shoujo with hope at it's very core, at the end of the day, they're all still fighting for the sake of what they believe is good. The difference, I would feel, is that Madoka does away with black and white morality, there is no real big bad here, all the characters do what they believe is right but that puts them at conflict. It's not so much about how "dark" or violent the show is but the theme it presents. The show, to me, gives a sense of being powerless. Despite being protectors from the unseen evil of witches, they're ultimately fated to undo their good deeds. Despite their magical powers, the girls still feel very small in face of the world and the MG system. Despite the cruelty of their situation, the small and silent triumph that Madoka accomplishes is a message of hope and that is very much what Mahou Shoujo is all about. |
| Because other magical girl never loses? XD |
 |
| A magical girl anime just has to have a magical girl in it. I'm pretty sure that's it. Its different in the sense ccs is different to sailor moon Or arjuna is different to nanoha Or futari precure is different to splash star precure |
| It's darker and grittier. And anyone who calls Madoka Magica a deconstruction does not know what deconstruction means. A deconstruction of mahou shoujo would be as follows: "Magical girls don't exist. The end." |
More topics from this board
Poll: » Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )tsubasalover - Apr 21, 2011 |
1541 |
by Biisoo
»»
Apr 15, 2:44 PM |
|
Poll: » Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 )tsubasalover - Apr 21, 2011 |
229 |
by Biisoo
»»
Apr 15, 2:11 PM |
|
Poll: » Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )stevewiess01 - Mar 10, 2011 |
704 |
by Biisoo
»»
Apr 15, 1:41 PM |
|
Poll: » Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )stevewiess01 - Feb 24, 2011 |
627 |
by Biisoo
»»
Apr 15, 12:51 PM |
|
Poll: » Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )stevewiess01 - Feb 10, 2011 |
523 |
by Biisoo
»»
Apr 15, 11:18 AM |