Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 1: Hajimari no Monogatari

Having never been a fan of recaps (nor a hardcore fan of Madoka), I have always wondered why anyone would think that making movie recaps was a good idea. While it may mean an improvement in terms of animation quality, is it really necessary? Are any other successful series ever this lazy? Heck, even 90s Sailor Moon had a different plot for each one of its movies, but I digress.

Although I was happy to see the girls return, cramming 8 episodes into a 2-hour movie often felt like watching the series while pressing the "fast-forward" button. I was further confused by the fact that ... the second movie would be a recap too, but this one would only have 4 episodes in it... Would it really have been so difficult to divide the story evenly and use 6 episodes for each part? Anyway...

Another thing that really bothered me was the fact that the music had been changed. Since my love for Kalafina was partly what drew me to this series in the first place, I was disappointed to discover that "Magia" was used a lot less, and that the instrumental version was preferred over the actual song in some cases.

Additionally, the voice acting was also apparently redone, which again made me wonder... why!? While I don't know whether it was a result of the remastering or not, I personally found Madoka's voice somewhat annoying this time around. (Talking about the Japanese version here).

Undoubtedly, the animation was the focal point of this movie, and, while even more gorgeous than the original, simply updating old material instead of creating new one seemed both lazy and boring to me. (Gotta milk that cash-cow while it still has some milk left, I guess...)

Overall, this movie was a visually pleasant experience, but not a fulfilling one. Maybe I should have waited for years to pass between watching the anime series and watching the movies (instead of months). Maybe I shouldn't have watched it at all.

I went into watching this movie with as little information as possible. I regret that now because had I known this was a recap movie, I would have skipped watching it. This isn't to say that I thought the movie was bad by any means but if you're someone who's already watched the original series and was expecting this movie to be a new experience, I think you'll find yourself disappointed.

Now is the movie bad? No. It's the Madoka Magica story. Of course it was great. The art and animation were stunning as well.

I will say that I did miss the pacing of the original ... series when watching this movie. Key, impactful moments from the original series were sped through in this movie whereas I feel the slower pace of the show really allowed the viewer to sit and take in those moments.

If you haven't watched the original series yet and you prefer a faster-paced story then I'd say this movie and part two would be a decent entry point for new viewers to experience the story for the first time.

I recommand watching the anime before the movies !

Tho is quite confusing. The movie one and two are basicly rip off of the anime. They contain some details which wasnt explained in the anime, but yet, not necessary information kinda. (felt more like; add this extra detail to the story, which wasnt explained in the anime).

due to this being a rip off of the anime, the cuttings between each screen felt very awkward and weird. cause they haver a different smoothness in the anime, and now they just made it awkward, which also makes the sounds in movie weird and awkward aswell.

So i ... recommand watch anime first and then movies, at least movie nr 3, that was worth it!