Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica

I feel like I'm in the minority here on MAL, and that's kinda depressing. Madoka Magica by and large is one of those programmes which receives no shortage of praise that I simply can't agree with one way or the other. I wouldn't mind it so much were it not for the fact that any sort of valid criticism or complaints anyone has with this series is instantly lost in a sea of downvotes and angry rants made by rabid fans who're breathing heavily whilst typing on their keyboards rapidly. Regardless, I'll make a feeble attempt at getting my voice heard. Will it work? Probably ... not, but it's still worth a try.

What really baffles me is how Madoka Magica is a moe drama along the lines of Elfen Lied and yet people praise Madoka ad nauseum whilst talking shit about Elfen Lied at every available opportunity. Even people like JesuOtaku who generally have no patience for moe dramas ended up giving this programme a glowing review despite the fact that Madoka Magica and Elfen Lied end up trying to accomplish similar goals. It's amazing as to how much the power of emotions can override one's better judgement but then again, maybe that's why I couldn't get into it in the first place.

Let's just get this out of the way first: moe drama by and large is an extremely manipulative genre at its core that's rather poorly written in general. Why is this the case? Well, the writers know all too well that most viewers will gladly put up with all this shit so long as they get their cute girls in anguish that they can fantasise about consoling and/or fucking. Obviously, Madoka Magica has quite a way's worth of better writing put into it than Elfen Lied does but it still falls prey to the same traps that plague moe drama when it comes down to the writing.

The first biggest problem that Madoka Magica has is the fact that the pacing is horrendously rushed. I don't care what you have to say about the pacing, because quite frankly... it's shit. The 12 episodes we were given did not allow for the events taking place in the story to flow naturally and instead make this programme come off as a rather forced melodrama. Something is horrendously wrong with your programme if I cannot bring myself to feel even the slightest modicum of emotion for what transpires despite the characters making a big deal of it all.

Aside from the rushed pacing, another glaring flaw that Madoka Magica suffers from is the fact that it's heavily reliant on shock value, which is probably another big reason as to why this anime is so lauded in the first place. Shock is a powerful emotion indeed and it can definitely work to great effect to further strengthen the writing whenever necessary. The problem is that Madoka Magica goes out of its way to shock the viewer and then ultimately relies on manipulating your emotions to keep you invested and distract you from the flaws in the writing. People are definitely going to disagree with me on this one but please hear me out.

The way Madoka Magica's been marketed in the past by Aniplex is a dead giveaway that shock value is a major cornerstone of Madoka Magica as a whole. The trailers, the OP, and even the blurb on the back of the Aniplex DVD release basically paint this show out to be your typical magic girl show despite the fact that it couldn't be further from the truth. Granted, a lot of the punch has been taken out of that sort of marketing tactic given that Madoka has become so popular to the point where it's essentially common knowledge that this is a dark, angst-ridden magic girl melodrama but the point still stands.

It seems like Madoka Magica was fundamentally designed to be a smash hit. The very combination of shock and moe drama has been a proven formula for success (look at Elfen Lied if you want an example). However, Madoka Magica takes this a step further by being a magic girl show. Magic girl programmes (and battle shonens to a similar extent) suffer from this "image" that exists in the minds of most people as nothing more than childish drivel about friendship and idealism that can't grow the fuck up. Given the fact that Madoka Magica is a shocking moe drama as well as a magic girl show, the end result is basically having thousands of fans saying that Madoka isn't like other magic girl shows and is a definite must-watch.

Yes, Madoka isn't like most other magic girl programmes but then again, neither is Kill la Kill or Princess Tutu. A series doesn't automatically become a masterpiece just because it "breaks the mould" as the saying goes. If that were the case, films like "The Room" would have to be considered masterpieces of drama despite evidence to the contrary. Don't get me wrong: individuality in anime is a good thing, especially given all the repetition going on in the industry. What isn't good is relying on being different to be your main selling point. This isn't to say that Madoka doesn't have any other merits to stand on, rather the very merits it does have are flawed to high heaven.

Madoka Magica is often praised to no end as a deconstruction of magic girl anime. Yeah... I don't buy it. You mean to tell me that all it takes to be a deconstruction is psychologically torturing your characters whilst going out of your way to be as dark and edgy as possible? I thought there was more subtlety involved with the writing when it comes down to deconstructions. Say what you will about Evangelion, but one thing that Gainax has that SHAFT lacks in its entirety is tact. Don't get me wrong, subtlety isn't exactly Evangelion's strong suit either but it certainly has more than Madoka does, that's for sure.

We got to spend a good deal of time in our typical mech setting before shit got morbid and we realised that being a mecha pilot in the world of Eva isn't a walking sex fantasy. Sure, Evangelion sends us flying head-first into the plot like Madoka does, but once again: we're given time to actually connect with the characters which is something that Madoka's 12-episode runtime simply doesn't allow for. I understand that the length of a show isn't necessarily indicative of whether or not the characters are good because there definitely are 1-cour programmes that deliver quite a bit on the character front (i.e. White Album 2, OreGairu, Usagi Drop, etc). At the same time, this story contains far too much content for it to actually work with the 1-cour length.

I know that some people like to tout this 12-episode length as a strength, saying that it's free from all the unnecessary bullshit that plagues other magic girl shows and goes straight into the good stuff. While I can certainly reciprocate that praise to a certain degree (especially given that Madoka Magica is far more engaging than Sailor Moon is), people fail to understand that without the boring parts of a show, the good bits wouldn't be nearly as good and would instead become mediocre. Princess Tutu understood this concept quite well as it was able to balance out the otherwise boring bits about ballet with the deliciously macabre moments involving Drosselmeyer. Madoka has no such balance.

Another problem that the 1-cour length brings up is an over-reliance on plot twists. Now, plot twists aren't inherently bad and can definitely work to the show's advantage if it was given proper foreshadowing. Unfortunately, the short length doesn't allow for foreshadowing of any kind to really happen so they just take you by surprise (oh look, more shock value!). I don't know about you, but these plot twists don't do much of anything for me. In fact, it made me question the logic behind this show even more. I'd question why shit had to constantly get worse for the characters in every episode, but then I remember that this is moe drama and that it doesn't matter how nihilistic the world actually gets so long as we still have our cute girls writhing in anguish.

What really surprises me about Madoka is the fact that despite being a sadistic viewer who loves seeing cute things being crushed by nihilism, this show was enough to make *me* do a double take on what's being shown. Make no mistake: I couldn't find myself feeling any modicum of emotion (not even pity) for Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, Kyoko, and Mami but at the same time... there was just something rather unnerving about how their circumstances just kept getting worse by the minute. It doesn't help that the short length also brings up stuff that may very well qualify as fridge horror or unfortunate implications (I don't know which trope it is, so bear with me).

For example, the fact that magic girls have to be adolescents because apparently, they're emotionally volatile at that age range brings up so many questions that just don't get answered. For one thing, does this mean that boys that are of the same age don't go through emotional turmoil like teenage girls do? What of teenage girls who happen to suffer from psychological disorders/trauma? Why does Kyubi opt to only focus on teenage girls when there are many other people of both genders across all age ranges that are just as emotionally volatile if not moreso? There's also the concept of power with a price.

The whole "power with a price" concept is not uncommon in TV, film, manga, comics, literature, etc and there have been many twists on the same formula. Madoka tries to do this concept but it doesn't go all the way with it because of the lack of world-building. Because of that, it would seem that the price the girls have to pay is unending psychological torture which is all somehow the girls' faults by the end of it all. Basically, Madoka's flat-out telling you that you're fucked if you decide to remain a Muggle because you're going to die regardless and yet you're fucked if you become a magic girl because it means you'll go through continuous psychological torment. At the same time, it's also telling you that you'd be much better off as a Muggle because of the fact that you're going to die a lonely, merciless death where nobody's going to remember you if you choose to be a magic girl.

Now I could bring up the whole wish fallacy argument that plagues other shows that involve wishing, but then you have to remember that all the wishes that the girls made in Madoka horribly backfired because apparently, the wishes that the girls made were really selfish even though they seemed selfless at first. Even if Madoka herself was to make a wish like being able to grant her own wishes exactly as she intends for them to come out, there's no telling how horribly it can backfire because the world this show takes place in is an extremely cruel and nihilistic one. This actually brings me over to another problem I have with the show: how sexist it actually is.

I don't consider myself a feminist of any flavour, nor can I say whether or not a specific programme is female-positive media because I'm a guy. At the same time, I don't understand how people can just let all this bullshit slide. Have people forgotten that women have been pressured for millennia to be as selfless as possible and to put their own desires to the side? What's so wrong about wanting to be with the person you love? What's so wrong about not wanting to die or to actually eat something for dinner? Madoka's logic in and of itself is something that really just doesn't sit right with me one way or the other.

Am I reading too much into Madoka? I don't even know at this point, but there's no denying that there are many fundamental flaws that exist within Madoka Magica as a whole. However, there's this one aspect of Madoka that never ceases to piss me off more than anything else and that's how it ends. For a show that spends 11 episodes psychologically torturing its characters, I'd expect for the show to at least end on a downright depressing note but that's not the case at all. In fact, Madoka Magica's ending couldn't be happier. Fans like to say that the ending wasn't completely happy, but we all know that the circumstances the ending presents to us are infinitely better than what Homura et al had to put up with for the bulk of this show's run.

I don't understand how a show can simply spend 11 episodes saying that ideals will only result in permanent suffering only to do a complete 180 at the final episode and say that hope, happiness, and whatnot will always prevail. Then again, Madoka Magica IS a moe drama and we all know that moe dramas wouldn't be as successful if they don't end on *some* semblance of a happy note (I'm looking at YOU, Clannad: After Story!). One thing's for certain though, this ending is something that I take umbrage with on so many levels because it just forces a happy ending out of nowhere, which is the kind of ending that I really just can't stand.

All things considered, Madoka Magica is certainly an interesting beast to tackle indeed. I wouldn't call it average in the slightest because it managed to evoke this much of a reaction out of me and it's definitely a cut above the more typical entries of the magic girl genre. At the same time, this show gets far too much praise than it actually deserves. I'm not saying it's terrible, because it really isn't and I suppose you'll have a good time watching it if you don't read too much into the story. Regardless, I don't think Madoka Magica is a "good" show. Feedback is always welcome, so with that... I'm gonna start barricading my house so that you rabid Madoka fans don't come at me with the intentions to kill me. Peace.

Ah yes, Madoka Magica. Upon request of another I am reviewing this show and believe when I say that I did not truly wish to do this because of two reasons. Firstly, I see no reason in reviewing shows that will receive exceptionally low scores as it only wastes my time and yours, plus make a lot of people angry at the same time. Secondly, the director of this series is someone I do not like either based on many of his other works in addition to this one, so it is not fun to talk about him. His name is Gen Urobutchi, sometimes called ... the "Urobutcher" due to the extremely harsh ways he kills his characters. Without further ado, make a wish and lets go:

Plot: The series uses the same one Sailor Moon did in order to start itself. A young and fairly naive girl discovers an animal that is not as it seems and through some means becomes a Mahou Shoujo (Magical Girl). Naturally she tells others and her friends become them as well. I am bound by spoiler-free style to not talk much about its overall plot to prevent ruining anyones experience. However, when a show has a plot this bad I feel their is very little to spoil, this is very true in light of the ep 3 death that nearly everyone knows about. Mami, a mentor of sorts dies from the attack of a demon (Called a witch) in ep 3 and from there the girls are left to fend for themselves with a magical animal named Kyubey "helping" them every step of the way. I also need to mention that Kyubey is the animal/entity that bestows these powers on the girls in the first place. Giving out wishes to girls in exchange for near slavery as Mahou Shoujo. The first plot hole we need to address is Kyubey itself. This "thing" is emotionless and claims to merely be following a prime directive to harvest the energy (fancier word used in show) for its alien planet. If Kyubey can grant these wishes for anything to the girls, why not take their energy by force? Why have a roundabout way of getting them to be Mahou Shoujo and waste time killing an infinite amount of Witches and a lot of crap when it could just take the energy and leave. Its because Urobutchi said so thats why. Next point is that one of the girls named Homura is actually a guardian for the main girl Madoka. For reasons that never had what I would consider sound reasoning she cannot tell Madoka to not become a Mahou Shoujo outright, and since Kyubey is likened to that of a god in power thus never dying she also cannot kill the instigator. It stands to reason that Homura's best option would clearly be to either kill Madoka to end her protection cycle (Oh yeah, Homura is stuck in a time loop protecting Madoka because terrible reset ending said so) or yelled it out to her at the several points she could of instead of being emo and stand-offish every chance she gets. Even reality would of had a collapse because of Madoka learning this it would still be preferable to the never-ending "Groundhog Day" scenario Homura finds herself in. I could go on through several more plot holes but these two illustrate my main point. Point being that the series ignores solutions to problems in order to create a false sense of danger despite it just being a reset ending so the danger isn't really there. 1/5

Character Development: I am guessing that at some point Urobutchi decided to take a page from Evangelion and use its characters as pure symbolism. This is great in theory, but the problem is that in Evangelion they were Characters with a personality first and symbols second. This series' cast are all supposed to be symbols first and every once in a while some part of them develops. Madoka despite being the main character never develops, all we see is an alternate reality version of her where she is better but thats not development, thats just another version of her. The only girl worth mentioning for development here is the blue-haired girl named Sayaka and her friend who is a sickly boy in a hospital. Thanks to their interactions both develop and learn to cope with that situation in a great way. But of course a good male character with development need not stay long and once he is healed is kicked from the story, thankfully not in Urobutchi's favorite method of death, but is simply fazed out. Sayaka's development ends shortly there-after and everyone else either stays the same or has an alternate "what-if" version shown near the end. 2/5 for taking a small amount of time out to develop someone. 2/5

Sound: Finally, a good aspect of the series! I will not lie I loved all the dark music and the way it helped build tension and atmosphere. If the plot and characters were as fun and interesting as this music it'd be another story. Then again, the music had nothing to do with Urobutchi in terms of design, so it makes sense to me. The openings and endings are nicely done too. Not much t say here since it was all handled quite well. It'd be higher if it actually had a better variety aside from brooding sadness, but it does that very well thankfully. 3/5

Art: Its no secret to those who know me that grossly disproportioned moe (Cute for sake of being cute, big eyes small facial features with waxy feel) turns me off from a title. The good news is that "Madoka Magica"'s designs were handled by someone with no knowledge of the story and it resulted in nice concept art. While I am not fanatical about it, the backgrounds in the witch's realms and the girls' designs are not the worst I've seen (See K-On! for pure moe hell). It gets the job done but does not impress me. 2/5

Final Thoughts: If I owe my critical views of moe and Urobutchi to any show it is this one. Every type of trope modern anime has come to behold from reset endings (Thanks Key/Visual Arts), moe visuals (Wow K-On! "nice" job), and also flat characters (Thanks every boring battle shonen) Madoka has it all in one pretty bloody Urobutchered package. As I sign off from this review, I urge to remind the haters that these are my views and they do not need to match theirs, if you are a lover of Madoka thats fine (even if I honestly am saddened by that fact) and you should continue watching whatever interests you. I am here to merely give a harsher analysis with more detail and higher bars for media to live up to. Oh and one last note, you gotta love how the name of the studio that made this is called Studio Shaft, Urobutchi sure loves to give us the shaft all day long. Final Rating is 4/10

People may praise this anime to the skies but I think otherwise. I first watched this show like a typical magic girl action anime with very low expectations (due too the nanoha similarities at the beginning). I wont try to spoil anything for you but the show starts to make drastic turns and got me excited for a couple of episodes but the excitement dies later on. I didn’t like how utterly by the book it was at its presentation and story. It starts of like a typical magic girl anime. Episodes latter its not, but oh wait it resembles a typical tragic anime from ... 90s-early 2000s. Everything just rolls along perfectly and foreshadowed predictably that it isn’t a surprise to find people predicting the events that’s going to happen.

I wasn’t expecting something totally original and unpredictable. I was expecting something with a little character. Madoka has failed being the unique show I was looking for. I think it rose my expectations too high when I saw the first 6-8 episodes. And shows its true nature later on and it just becomes nothing more than a shell of its former self. I actually found my self rolling my eyes near the end. Nothing surprises me anymore, I don’t care about the characters anymore because all of them seem to act completely out of character for the sake of drama. The character archetypes can be found in a random no name anime/manga so don’t expect any deep characters. The story itself has been written a million times over since the beginning of time. There is nothing wrong with reinventing the wheel, but if you’re going to do it make it unique. And the ending is a complete joke and typically anime like and follows anime laws.

The art and animation is very bland and moeish. Shaft doesn’t do the art justice with its annoying directing skills. The only good thing about this show is the action scenes. Its what got me hooked on this show in the first place. But the action takes a back seat for a poor excuse of a greek tragedy play.

Don’t watch this show if you are expecting something fun, and don’t watch this show expecting it to be something deep and character driven. Just turn your brain off and watch this show mindlessly like the people giving perfect tens on this show, and you will enjoy it.

The animation looked nice to me, even with the people not in the foreground being all wierd, and the characters weren't very bad at all. But really, everything else was just bad. All the drama barely made me feel anything and it felt totally out of place especially towards the end when QB was talking about killing cattle and livestock. That whole scene was used to make all the obsessive fanboys/girls feel like the show just got DEEPER. I've heard that whole speech since I was in elementary school and every time I hear it, it's just a nuisance.

I liked Madoka in the beginning, it ... had a real good "something" going on, and that was the action, the plot actually having potential, and the emotion hitting you fairly hard. but when Walpurgis and time travel and forced drama came in, it was executed so badly it felt like I was just watching a bunch of girls talk about death. And thats just what it was.

Madoka Magica is an overhyped, overrated, pretentious mess. The pacing is horrid, characters are stale, the story is all over the place and the conclusion is plainly bad.

It's a "dark" magical girl series, which fails to get any emotional response because of how bad the pacing and the characters are. All this is held together by very pretentious "artsy" artwork and music. The only thing decent in the whole series is Kyubey, everything else is passable at best, horrible at worst.

This series is neither dark nor is it artsy, It's just a pretentious mess which tries to be dark and fails, the "dark" plot twists ... are neither unexpected nor are they particularly original, nor did they make me care about what was happening. This series tries to have some message, and also fails, because everything the characters do proves to have been a pointless waste of time by the end, when the plot completely disregards all their prior actions.

Characters are stale and cliche, they don't change, don't grow, anything they do has no relevance to the plot.

The music/sound in this series would be good, but it's hard to swallow it together with how pretentious the rest of the series is. Pretentious to the max.

Enjoyment... I guess Kyubey was enjoyable.

I advise everyone stay away from this series. If you really need a "dark" and "edgy" magical girl series, try something like Uta Kata, it's far from perfect but certainly more coherent.

This show is absolute trash. People try to say it is good just because of the poorly written plot twist at the climax of the story. The shows narrative is complete garbage, switching from one characters insecurities to the despair of homura due to madokas ignorance; with almost no transition. In the end nothing changes. This show tries so hard to be something that its not. Which only makes it worse overall. The ending provides no resolution to the story at all, instead just making it worse. This show ruined the magical girl genre.

The art is terrible, the scenes where they fight witches are ... awful. It looks like a 3-year old played with crayons over their frames. Like seriously what were they going for with that. People think its abstract so it must be a masterpiece. These people do not know what GOOD art is.

The opening is mediocre at best, and even then its not that great. There are a few good background tracks, however apart from this the show again fails to deliver in yet another category. Definitely not as bad as the other though.

The characters are boring and 1-dimensional. Madoka has no depth to her at all despite being the main character. She doesnt change throughout the entire show, forcefully re-arriving at the same outcome, despite how hard Homura tries to stop her. She learns nothing and doesn't grow as a result of that, she instead remains a dumb little girl. How is this a masterpiece? It isnt.

People who actually think this show is good are suffering from cognitive dissonance right about now. Trying to argue otherwise is like trying to detect brain activity in a Madoka fan. You cant. You could say Madoka herself is the personification of her fans, brainless and steadfast. Please take a hard look, and see this show for what it really is. That one edgy emo kid you hate for thinking they are big and bad but in reality they are pretty lame.

This show is down right appalling

Story 4/10
The story had potential but failed due to pure edge I couldn’t enjoy it. The plot overall fell short of what it could have been.
Art 2/10
The line art half the time isn’t even fully done and is just plain lazy.
Sound 5/10
Some interesting instruments but the songs themselves are just okay.
Character 1/10
It’s not possible to get attached to any of the characters as they all die before they even get interesting.
... Enjoyment 1/10
This show can really only be enjoyed if you’re a 14 year old going through an edgy phase.
Overall 1/10
This show is down right abysmal.

I am only halfway through this show and already I am haveing trobble finding anything that special about it.
The story had potential, but ended up feeling like it was just on the serface and never really delved deeply into. Even at the halfway poinnt I finde myself not careing what happens. That's bad.
The art and sound are, in my opinion, the best things about this show. I find the art style interesting, if a bit strange at times. The sound is clear and...well...what else can I say about that?
The characters are dull. I finde I don't know much about them and that makes it ... hard to become emotionally attached. Without that attachement I find it hard to care about them. I don't even miss Mami because I barely knew her and had no attachment. She was juat like that one episode character you nbever see again. That's the way most of the caharcters feel. The exception would be Sayaka,at least we know a bit about her.
Overall this isen't the worst thing I have seen, but it dosen't live up to the hype either. Most things don't.

"Madoka Magica" is considered one of the best anime not only of the mahou shoujo genre but also one of the best in history. But is that true?

Story (3/10):
The plot of madoka magica is considered by many a subversion of the genre for being a much more mature anime than others of the genre, which I think is false, the reason is simple, Madoka Magica explores her themes in a not very subtle and immature way, it's funny how other mahou shoujos for all ages like "Ojamajo Doremi" or "Sailor Moon", manage to be more subtle and have more depth than Madoka. Maybe some ... do not understand what I mean so I will explain it better: Having death, depression and other themes that only edgy people consider mature DOES NOT make an intelligent anime, actually things like this have a name which is torture porn. It is full of these attempts to make its viewers believe that they are watching something smart and mature having misery and the characters suffering in incredibly convenient ways when in reality the themes are explored in an immature and unsubtle way.
Another negative thing about this anime is its ending. The ending is super childish and ruins this anime even more, I can understand that an anime for children has an ending like that, but in an anime that pretends to be mature it is a complete contradiction.

Art and sound (7/10):
The visuals are quite successful, there are some details that I do not like, such as the character designs, but in general it is a good job in terms of productive values.
But remember my golden rule: "If an anime has a shitty plot, then the visuals don't matter to me" Ahiru229 1924-2012.

Characters (2/10):
Undoubtedly the worst aspect of this anime are the characters.
Madoka: The protagonist is one of those characters that during most of the anime, do not contribute anything to the plot, Madoka remains a "peaceful spectator" for more than three-quarters of the anime. Another negative aspect of the protagonist is her way of solving the conflict, becoming a goddess sacrificing her life just to help others (being that these never gave a fuck for Madoka). Altruism for save people you don't care doesn't exist.
Mami: Tomoe is a plot device that only serves for a desperate attempt of the series to completely change the tone of the anime and generate a shock to the viewer (which does not happen because I do not give a fuck for a character that I hardly know).
Sayaka: Sayaka is not such a bad character since at least she has a motivation and desires, even so the deepening of these is almost nil leaving this character as wasted potential. In the first episodes her character development are handled well but ends up throwing all this away because Sayaka begins to suffer from the "character rewriting syndrome" her personality constantly changes making it impossible to take the character seriously.
Homura: Homura is a shitty character too, he achieves everything he sets his mind to, characters like Homura are what is known as "Mary Sue". She becomes obsessed with Madoka for just a few interactions that can be summed up in 5 minutes. During the first half of the anime, she is a mysterious character who only appears to help them at the last minute (as in chapter 3).
Kyouko: Kyouko is an archetypal and boring character, like Sayaka she also has a bit of development and deepening that is never fully explored.There is also a kind of lesbian love between Kyouko and Sayaka that is also not explored.
Kyuubey: If we talk about plot devices, Kyuubey is the easiest example that comes to mind, their existence and their motivations don't make a shit of sense.

Enjoyment (2/10):
Almost all the time I spent watching this anime made me want to fall asleep.

Overall (3/10):
In conclusion, Madoka Magica is an anime that completely fails in what it proposes and that in the end ends up being more immature and childish than other mahou shoujos for all ages. It could have been a really good story but it just ended up being wasted potential.
If you want a Mahou Shoujo with mature themes and a good deepening I recommend "Princess Tutu"

With that said i end this review.

I was very much disappointed by this anime show.

Earlier I had read that it would do to the 'magical girl genre' what elfen lied had done to the 'guy finds cute girl genre'…

Halfway through the show I most definably found that it did not.

The story did not engage as I had hoped it would. I was not able to really relate to any of the characters which makes it hard to really feel for their struggles. Also the grown ups in this show are incredibly stupid it seems.

The biggest buzzkill for me was that the show uses a very specific style of animation to depict ... the evil spirits in the anime and I did not care for that at all.

Other then that the combat in this show for which I had high hopes (magical girls meet elfen lied!?) did not deliver!

Even though I had high hopes for this one I'm fairly sure I would not have enjoyed it much even if I hadn't set such a high standard. Honestly the concept they went for was quite nice and original but I can't help but feel they could have done so much more with this…

Madoka Magica seems to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it type anime, and as someone who doesn't like it, I hope I can still explain both sides of the debate. But first, I'll describe its basic story structure, characters, and themes, and take into account the context of the show's production.

Story and Themes

The overarching plot follows Madoka as she learns more about the dark nature of magical girls through her encounters with them, all the while trying to decide if she should become one herself. Though this should come as no surprise considering Gen Urobuchi's style and Madoka Magica itself being already famous as a ... deconstruction, the events can be summarized as twists designed to show the unforeseen negative consequences arising from heroism and idealism. In doing so, the show establishes a world full of inevitable tragedy in order to set up for a hopeful conclusion; it tries to bring you low so that the message of hope feels uplifting and cathartic at the end. Along the way, the scenarios that the magical girls find themselves in evoke several questions such as:

-Is the sacrifice required to be a hero really worth it?
-Am I doing heroic acts for selfish reasons?
-Is good destined to be negated by bad?
-Is tragedy inevitable or can fate be changed?

Characters

The characters are very divisive--- on one hand, each of the girls has a compelling internal conflict and sympathetic situations. On the other hand, their personalities by themselves are archetypal and in twelve episodes there is not enough time and attention given to them to flesh them out and give them fuller arcs. Madoka is an exception with regards to a fuller arc because she's the one character that the show follows for 12 episodes, but again, her personality remains archetypal. On the other end, Homura is the most egregious example of how rushed the characters were, as her backstory was given in one episode and her relationship with Madoka was established in a few minutes. Many people will cry for her backstory because the trope they use is naturally poignant, but since Madoka Magica never puts in the work to put the meat on the barebones framework, all I see is a plot device used for cheap emotional manipulation.

SPOILERS

You know that romantic trope where a couple deeply in love separate because one person had a memory loss, and we watch the other's heartwrenching efforts to reach/protect their amnesiac lover? Madoka Magica basically uses the same structure compressed into 20 minutes to manipulate your emotions the same way.

ENDSPOILERS

Meta-view

In combination with the story, the characters feel like they were designed to propagate the message and carry out the twists rather than people first and foremost. This makes sense when you consider how Gen Urobuchi described his writing process for this show: "He said he would first determine the actions and the ultimate fate of a character before even assigning it a name, and contrasted this with other writing methods that first focused on developing the characters and then creating a storyline for them to follow," according to Wikipedia's paraphrase of his interview (original interview found here: http://ultrajumpegg.com/#/column/0004/0029/02). In addition, comments made by the creators strongly indicate that their intention was to shock viewers by lulling them in with the cutesy exterior and following it up with death and despair.

All this is relevant because 1)a show should be able to stand on its own even you know the shock is coming 2) some people praise the show for the shock effect itself 3)the show has a reputation for being a deconstruction of the magical girl genre. I'd love to evaluate a show on its own merits, but in this case it's necessary to disentangle Madoka Magica from its hype and shock factor before I can do that.

So first, is Madoka Magica good because it's a deconstruction of the magical girl genre? My response is, was there anything worth deconstructing in the first place? As literaturenerd said, the magical girl genre has always been tongue-in-cheek--- I don't think anyone who watches a magical girl show is unaware that it's a bad idea to put so much power and responsibility in the hands of an adolescent girl while also endangering her life. Furthermore, I doubt those same people are sitting there complaining about the cartoony, unrealistic stories in a animated show whose main target demographic is young girls. Bottom line is, simply exposing all the downsides of being a magical girl isn't saying anything groundbreaking. Evangelion wasn't just a show depicting all the downsides of being a mech pilot; that was only one facet of a larger central theme about depression.

That's not to say that all Madoka Magica tries to be is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, especially since at its core it's more of a deconstruction of idealism and a proponent of hope in the face of despair. So I'm not bashing the show, but pointing out that being a deconstruction of the magical girl genre wouldn't be primarily what makes it good.

However, I do think the show's reliance on shock factor to deconstruct idealism and heroism undermines what it's trying to do. And this is because shock, by its nature, is jarring and unexpected. Thus, using shock factor to show that there are negative consequences to idealism and heroism causes a disconnect between cause and effect. Instead of telling a fluid, reasonable story about how being too idealistic can gradually turn someone sour and lead them down a path of self-destruction, the situations in Madoka Magica come across more as, you tried to do the right thing, but then that inevitably leads to something bad happening even if that something had a 1 in a million chance of happening. As a series of coincidences, the story is blunt and heavy handed in its attempts to discuss idealism, but in fact it goes further and lays down laws of karmic destiny that stipulate that something bad happens every time you try to do something good. By contrast, Griffith's actions at the end of Berserk certainly created a lot of shock, but at the same time his decision felt natural because the show had spent so much time creating ambiguity around the nature of Griffith's ambition. Madoka Magica came the closest to this with Sayaka's story, but not only is it too rushed, the introduction of karmic destiny and the inevitable fate of magical girls undermines all the naturality of her arc. It's quite telling about his philosophy that Urobuchi used Osama Bin Laden as an example when he said that good intentions don't always lead to good results. Terrorists' "good intentions" meant killing a whole bunch of people and they succeeded. They achieved exactly the result they wanted. Urobuchi has characters try to help other people, only for it to somehow backfire and lead to them getting killed.

Because the show is so forced, so blunt, so contrived in order to produce shock factor, its message of hope doesn't have the proper foundation to lift off. As a viewer, I didn't feel hopeful at the end because I know all the bad stuff that occurred in response to idealism were either highly unlikely, or entirely preventable and just seemed shocking because the girls were too immature to think two steps ahead.

On that note, the best case I can make for the show thematically isn't that it's a deconstruction of the magical girl genre or idealism, but rather a coming-of-age story. That way, the stupid decisions of the girls and unforeseen events make sense from the point of view of adolescent girls, because making decisions as you mature is hard and scary, and reality seems beyond your control. Though the show would still be too rushed, the characters too bland, and the events too contrived, thematically it would be more sound.

On the other side of the debate, it's easy to see this show working for a lot of people. Though the show is rushed, the fast pace and shock factor can make for a thrilling ride. Though the characters are bland in terms of personality, the situations the girls find themselves in and their internal conflicts might be compelling and sympathetic enough to draw you in. Though the events are contrived, it seems many people have found them rich with philosophical and moral implications, especially with its talk about fate. If you buy into everything here, then you will be emotionally invested enough to be wowed by its hopeful finale.

Buuuut I didn't so 5/10.

If you want to see an anime that's actually about how girls realistically deal with despair and a hopeless fate, watch Red Garden.

Recently I have rewatched Madoka Magica and decided to rewrite the entire review in a more comedic tone, since as comedy gold the first review did not do it justice.

Hi kids, ever want to have your wish granted and have functional immortality as well for no additional cost besides the fact you need to fight occasionally for all of your immortal life?

Of course you do, cause the deal is sweet, its such a sweet deal that I would totally gave Kyubey a blowjob as thanks. As for the side effects, you only turn into a big fucking monster when you die from basically not eating ... (yeah, grief seed is basically eating), and the monster sprang from killing people and other magical girls, something that is no concern of mine whatsoever.

See this here is the problem with the core concept of Madoka Magica, after rewatching it again, I realized the core problem of the show is that the deal they are trying to portray as harsh and unfair, is a deal so sweet, so awesome, that if it ever existed in Touhou-verse would have people ripping other people's head off for it. Cause there is no actual consequences if you go by it in a smart way, if you have a brain this deal basically offers you immortality in addition for granting a wish.

When Sayaka whine about being an immortal zombie, I look to the ghouls in fallout and say "Wow, you sure are lucky women." And when they complain about becoming witches if they get depressed and starve, I ask the question "Why would you starve yourself? And even if you are going to turn couldn't you just pop yourself before you do?" The classic zombie apocalypse solution.

The entire conflict seems forced because it is forced, if the plotrilla (the big boss witch) didn't come stomping into town the entire plot is basically 5 girls complaining about a deal that many would kill for, tortured by non-existent problems, like Sayaka's really fucking illogical reasoning for not expressing her love (lady, you don't practise cannibalism, you don't eat brains, you don't have an extra limb, and you don't have the mindset of a monster, YOU ARE HUMAN who just have her soul out of her body.).

So basically Gen wrote these girls as victims first instead of having a logical lead up towards them being victims. And when the basic building block is bad the entire thing is obvious going to be fail.

Here is an idea on how to fix it, how about instead of saying Kyubey is an emotionless alien, we make him a manipulate scheming mastermind, and instead of having the girls whining about their power, we have them using it in anyway they want (take out the grief seed, witch and all that bullshit), and slowly they use it more and more out-of-control and become a threat to society, in which case they are hunted down by new magical girls for being monsters not in their body but in their mindset and morality. And as the old magical girls die, their anger, despair and the negative emotions they generate from their surrounding is used to power whatever thing Kyubey is aiming for...

Oh wait, shit, I'm basically describing the premise of "Touhou - Diamond in the Rough".

Or you could just watch "Touhou - Diamond in the Rough".

What comes as a surprise to me when I hear someone talking about Madoka Magica is the positivity that's surrounding the series. The day before I started MM, I checked its page on MAL, and oh boy, was everyone calling it a masterpiece!

So I watched the first episode the next day and I didn't find it really interesting (at all). And here the curse of MM began: I kept watching the series assuming that there's a turning point and everything is gonna get exciting so the time I had spent on the first few episodes was going to be worth it.

A few hours ago, I ... finished the 11th episode of Madoka Magica, clicked on the "next" button while (as always) hoping the next episode would be the turning point of the series and everything would become as great as the reviews say. But here comes the great surprise, the next episode was the finale of the series.

I remember someone's comment asking three short questions from the people who want to review an anime:

1- Did you watch every episode of it?
2- Did you care about it?
3- Did you enjoy it?

And my answers for this specific anime are:

1- Yes
2- No
3- No

MM had enough potential to become one of the greatest anime series of all time. A lot of you may say it already has achieved even more than that, but the problem with Madoka Magica is that everything here is so disorganized and unrelated that the serie doesn't even have enough time to rush any of the episodes.

At its finest, Madoka Magica is a mediocre moe drama. I have watched a few anime series about magical people with magical powers, I also have read/watched two of the greatest "loop-based" Japanese stories of all time (Steins;Gate and Umineko if you want to know), and I find Madoka Magica as sufferable as going through a time loop without achieving anything of value.

I do appreciate the effort the creators of the series have put in MM, I feel like this is simply a cheap copy of some of the greatest anime elements we've ever seen. I'm not the greatest fan of girl dramas and I don't find them enjoyable, but even I can enjoy an all--girl show if they have interesting and touchable characters with real ideals and ways of doing things; something like Houseki No Kuni which IS the enjoyable version of Madoka in some departments.

And the characters? I want Madoka to burn in hell (the most annoying main character I have ever seen in my life and I'm not even trying to exaggerate things here). Sayaka was the literal meaning of a dumb b****h who was there just to be there. *spoilers* even her death did make any difference except for some sad Madoka moments and a boring discussion. And your favorite girl, yea had some layers in there, but at the end of the day, I didn't feel like she was real even for a second.

Let's be honest, this anime is popular because it gives boys a bunch of cute girls with nice-looking outfits, and gives girls a show about their daily girly life whose better version can be found in an underrated slice of life with actual context.

No one has revealed anything about what the heck the witches are and what their entire point is and I’m halfway through.

Madoka is an unlikable, wimpy, annoying Shinji Ikari wannabe
Tsundere girl Sakura is just annoying
Homura has the personality of a doorknob

No one in the anime really works out Kuubay is bad when its blindingly obvious he's a manipulative little thing that eats evil power and will obviously become evil later if i could bother to watch this drivel.

Most enemies look stupid, esp familiars.

There is far too much dull as hell talking featuring chars I haven't been made to care about due to the total ... dearth of character development.

Things like training or indeed much of anything about becoming a magical girl isn’t covered unlike CCS

Dropped this anime at ep6; thoroughly bored. I'd say the people who like it think its “deep” ala NGE. It’s not: its just a crap anime.

As you probably know the show starts off as a generic magical girl show, and the takes a dark turn by involving death and suffering. It feels as if it was entirely banking on this surprising the audience how ever, and if you know it's coming, it really just comes across as nothing but a cheap gimmick. Honestly, if you removed the magical girl aspect this show would appear as entirely generic. Just because Madoka Magica kills off a character or two, and puts them through some trauma, doesn't turn it into a deconstruction, especially when said characters are really just the archetypes from the ... magical girl genre.

Speaking of characters I find that is where Madoka Magica really falls flat, each one is either undeveloped or handled in a completely ham-fisted manner, and none of the characters motivations really make sense. First off you have Madoka Kaname herself, whom never really develops at all throughout the show, and for the most part doesn't actually do anything except exist for the sake of the others. Her personality is that she is kind, and that's pretty much it, so kind in fact that, at the end of the show, she is apparently willing to sacrifice herself to an eternity of limbo, for some girls, most of whom she has never met. Did I mention she's 14? I should also point out that she's an idiot, evident in the scene in which she throws her friends solidified soul onto a highway, because apparently that is the best course of action she can think of to prevent her having a fight.

After her you have Homaru, who in reality, is the main character of the show, and thankfully actually has some depth to her, which makes it a pity that the show didn't focus more on her. At first she comes across as the generic mysterious, and distant transfer student, how ever she is like this because she has traveled through time, in order to save Madoka, experiencing many tragedies along the way, thus making her desensitized and jaded to the horrible things happening around her. The crux of this is that it relies on the audience buying her devotion to Madoka, who as I have pointed and isn't particularly likeable, and we also never really see much development between the two.

Then you have Sayaka Miki, easily the most frustrating of the lot, which is made all the worse by the ridiculous amount of screen time she gets. Her entire dilemma is that she uses her wish in order to help the boy she is in love with, but then questions whether she did this for her own selfish desire for his affection. While this may seem like an interesting idea, it doesn't really go anywhere, and just turns out to be a petty love triangle, which she immediately gives up on winning for an incredibly flimsy reason, and then she gives up her humanity because of it.
Kyouko Sakura, is another awful character, within days she goes from wanting to kill Sayaka, to sacrificing her life so she can die with her. She outright tells other characters about her past problems, and her childish world view, for little to no reason. She also eats a lot, because at one time she was poor, and thus hates wasting food, which might of been some decent characterization if it wasn't so blatantly spelled out for us.

Also you have Mami Tomoe, who dies 3 episodes in, after having about a total screen time of about 20 minutes, which makes me me wonder how anyone could possibly care about this plot twist, even if they didn't know it was coming.

The actual plot of Madoka Magica is surprisingly predictable, and towards the end turns into a cliche time travel narrative. It's also filled to the brim with idiotic contrivances, the whole reason witches and magical girls exist is so an alien race can harvest their emotions, and turn them into energy, in order to combat entropy. Why adolescent girls? Because apparently they have it way harder than anyone else in the world, move over starving African children, this bitch is upset about her teen-aged crush. The wishes granted to the magical girls are also rather nebulous, the extent of what they can do is never really clear, and the nature of the wish also effects the powers they get as a magical girl, but this is only really apparent in two of the characters. It's also never really made clear why the alien race gives them a wish, or even gives them a choice to become a magical girl for that matter, this is even more confusing when we find out that the alien race apparently have no emotions themselves. Nothing particularly original nor interesting is done with the time travel element, and it only culminates into a completely nonsensical grandfather paradox.

Madoka Magica's animation I find is somewhat hit and miss, while it is mostly well done, with interesting shot composition and background scenery, the characters designs look simply awful. Now I have nothing against moe design by itself, but the ones in Madoka Magica look far too angular and over simplified, to the point in which they barely register as humans, and look down right ugly. The fight scenes may be well animated, and the design of the witches is unique I'll admit, but they never really seem to have any weight to them, and it is never clear how much damage is being done. For being a so called deconstruction, nothing really interesting is done in terms of how the fights play out. A nice bit of background detail is that it seems to be set somewhat in the future, though this is never actually brought up by the characters, which I can appreciate, and the general architecture is also pleasant.

The only way I can see Madoka Magica being enjoyable, is if you don't know what it's about going into it, and even at that I cant really see it as anything but a cheap, one trick pony.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is a poorly developed "deep" Magical Girls anime. Madoka Magica is also pretentious, overrated, and boring. This review is going to be unstructured and i'm just going to say whatever is off my mind.

Madoka Magica is revolves around Madoka and magical girls. These magical girls are granted a single wish in exchange to be sent fighting against witches and stuff.

Madoka herself is a horrible and disinteresting protagonist. She's an indecisive eighth grade schoolgirl which I apparently heard it took her 12 episodes for her to figure out if she actually wants to be a magical girl or whatever. Eh, I ... dropped this bullshit at episode 10 anyways. There are tons of themes and messages that are just thrown in there and not developed at all, such as the one in episode 8 in which you can go see for yourself. There's also this one girl that is attached to some disabled boy and we have no reason whatsoever on why she is so attached to him, it's as if the creator of this godawful show just said "ey, throw in some emotional scene with that disabled kid and his violin and make sure that one chick likes him or something."

Kyubey is the meaning of "oh this thing is cute OH FUCK WHAT THE HELL THIS IS DARK AND SCARY!"

That is basically why this anime is rated so high, because of the fact that it successfully made something that is childish and targeted for pre-teen girls into an anime that is accessible to older people with the fact that they are trying to make this dark and full of meaning. However it's not even near close to well thought it compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion. To this day there are still many theories as to why so many things happened to Neon Genesis Evangelion, and other such things. NGE gets the viewers thinking, the ending of the original anime and the EoE movie has clearly distribituted to the viewer a masterpiece of philosophical and deep content, something that Madoka Magica fails to do.

The only ratings I can give to this anime is to Art and Sound, however, this score will not be an average and Madoka well merits a 1/10.

All the praises this show gets is really for superficial reasons. If this anime is carefully analyzed, all the problems it has can be detected easily. Here are the reasons why I consider Madoka Magica a very bad anime:

1) The characters: One of the weakest points of the anime. Madoka, being the protagonist, is an alien and a spectator of her own story. She literally didn't do nothing during all the episodes until the final one that gets a convenient power up. Despite all the problems presented in the show, she maintains her altruistic thinking because that is how the script demands it. She has ... no real reason to maintain such altruism. Homura is a Mary Sue and a Yandere that had an obsession with Madoka for a few interactions that they had. She's also a plot device that exists only to save the other protagonists (especially Madoka) when they are in trouble. Is a mysterious character of whom we only know her obsession with Madoka. Mami is an one-dimensional character and a retarded one. She was aware of the dangers in the world of the series and still guided the other magical girls as if everything was an ideal world, risking their lives just for the sake of it. Kyoko is a character that is only remembered for her lesbian romance that came out outta nowhere which, also, contradicts the initial characterization of her. Sayaka, the definition of a forced characterization. She was rewritten a lot of times during a few episodes, which it was anticlimactic and didn't allow to take her character seriously. Kyubey had no real reason to be part of show. His laws and motivations were contradicted with the advance of the episodes.

2) The world building and it's logic: The reason for the magical girls' existence was terribly explained. How does putting little girls to fight solves the entropy problem? The time travel logic is retarded. It was never explained why Homura turns more evil with every time travel and why Madoka becomes more special for the same reason. The magical girls, also are saw by normal people. How is possible that they never noticed the magical powers and destruction caused for their fights?

3) The magical girl powers: Another retarted aspect of the show. Why didn't the magical girls make unlimited wishes in exchange for their powers? Because there is nothing established in the logic of the acquisition of these powers that prevents them. Also, they could have wished that the entropy, magical girls and/or witches don't exist in order to solve the main issue of the show. Also, why Madoka is the only magical girl that can wish the world peace? This one, contradicts the only limitation established in the wishes for Kyubey.

4) Symbolism: They are only used as aesthetics. They do not complement each other in any way with the plot or the characters. They feel alien in the context of the show.

5) Edgelord scenes: Many people praise this show for the suffering and murder of magical girls for no special reason. Why should I worry about the suffering and death of a little girl that I literally know nothing about? The only purpose of all this egelord shit is to raw the attention of the audience, characteristic of Urobuchi's masterpieces.

The only good aspects are the soundtrack and the animation. In conclusion, like I mention in the beggining, the only reason of why this show is praised is for the animation, the edgelord shit and, sometimes, for the soundtrack.

This rating is actually not really what I would've given it. This is a reason to always be skeptical.

Mahou shoujo Madoka magica isn't the typical mahou shoujo anime. Yeah I already knew that shit was supposed to take off after the third episode and I was still pleasantly surprised.

Story - (7) The plot is actually really basic. Girl tries to protect another girl from a bad guy. Nothing too special here to be honest. How it's revealed, is where things get clever. The show first starts of by placing Akemi as the antagonist and kyubey as a protagonist. Eventually their roles change. This also occurs ... with Sayaka and Kyoko.

What stems from this is one of my favourite themes; ignorance.

Not everything is as it seems and everything may be bit too rushed for the viewer to realize and take a grasp of the situation, but that all depends on someone's thoughts on pacing. I'm usually fast to pick up on things so I don't tend to find anything hard to follow. You probably shouldn't watch this if you find fast pace things hard to follow because this series tries to slip in a long story in 12 episodes.

Anyways, the true beauty of the plot development was very clear to me as I watched the entire series a second time out of boredom seeing as I had it installed and Cuba had no internet. It's almost like watching an entirely different show. Understanding what is going on completely changes the perspective and really tries to change the viewer's opinion. Even watching it for the first time, naivety is present in most of the characters.

Another theme is probably the obvious "be careful what you wish for" but what impressed me was that it didn't go for the "faults in humanity" (except for that one time on the subway). Instead, it focused mostly on "the things that make us human" and it really brought the ethics of morals into question especially with an antagonist such as kyubey who doesn't exhibit any emotion. Another book that does the exact same thing is Gullivers Travels - Part Four where of course morality is compared with logic.

Aside from themes, which there are definitely many, another thing to appreciate is the subtle things that occur throughout the franchise which the audience most likely won't pick up on. Such as that moment in the third movie, during the cake song where Mami says she is the cheese.

The plot twists do their job by shocking the audience and any mention of them will completely ruin the experience for people that are completely new to the show (I'd say that's the sign of a good plot twist).

Art - (5) The part that really stands out is the atmosphere, I felt the mood indefinitely.

However...

The character designs are horrendous. I just can't get over them and never will. The outside world is too abstract for my liking and the world of the witches is also too abstract. The only reason I was able to bear with most of the art was because I got used to it.

Music - (10) If there is anything this anime has above all else, it's the music. Even though I mostly listen to classical, the music was a treat.

Yuka Kaijura is a very talented composer and I enjoyed the orchestral OSTs, especially the ones with a choir. Many of the words are sang in German and it just sounds so right.

Characters - (4) What I liked about the characters was that each one had a different upbringing giving us a chance to see the difference between the privileged and the unprivileged.

Unfortunately, the majority of them are just there and don't really develop. The only one that really does is Akemi and she doesn't really make an appearance too often. It's great that she ends up basically having the entire plot revolve around her but that only really happens towards the end. This worked out perfectly for me because all I really wanted was to know more about her the entire time.

Enjoyment - (10) Loved it. For me, it was well worth watching. Gen Urobuchi generally makes fun stuff but this is really quite good. Love seeing people suffer. Definitely a unique concept not that I really care about originality. Ridiculous amounts of wasted potential. Pleasant to listen to the soundtracks. Not too interested in deconstructions or parody but I enjoyed this one.

Reached for the moon and landed on a cloud.

Overall 10/10

“Madoka Magica” is an anime made for adults, a psychological drama and, to make matters worse, it deconstructs the magical girls’ genre, some say. It sounds like if it were a masterpiece, right? Well, no. You need to be careful.

The magical girls’ genre is part of a series of conventions that make this theme somewhat relaxed that serves as a fantasy for girls. However, if we want to take it seriously, the key would be to start from the reality of magical girls and see its logical consequences. That is to say: what inconveniences, dramas, reflections, situations can occur if there were really fourteen-year-olds ... who face monsters. For this, we should use the genre itself, not create alternative magical girls with alternative problems that have nothing to do with the idea of ​​shojo of magical girls that we know.

I do not know if I am explaining myself clearly, but this seems to me very important to discard "Madoka Magica" as an anime that shows the dark side of magical girls. Lie. What it does is simply prime that magical world with random personal dramas, which could be on any other theme, with any other characters. That desires bring despair (why? Why!) Or want to kill each other is not inherent to gender nor is it because they have magical powers; It is because the author has wanted to do it like this to create a story of magical girls seinen that is very serious.

In this way, as seinen of magical girls it is too silly. The absolute lack of communication between the warriors and their selfishness and / or narcissism when facing the enemy are two totally artificial conflicts: talking to each other and collaborating together one hundred percent of their problems are solved. What's on your mind, really? The very psychology of these girls is chaotic: I make myself sick because Pepito doesn't love me; today I'm trying to kill you just because tomorrow we become friends just because; He was kind to me and I am faithful to him for life ..., but beware, saving the world is the least of it, I do it for her and only for her ... Please ...

There is a time travel plot that although you already imagined it is cool, at least as an idea, and that is revealed and developed in the last four chapters, which are the ones that raise a dot to the series. The design of the witches' world, very original, and in sharp contrast to that of the main characters, of a possibly intentional childishness, also has merit.

Anyway, it is nothing spectacular.

Waring this review may contain spoilers

First impressions, so today we are going to be reviewing the critical acclaimed magical girl deconstruction(TM) known as madoka magica which are clearly not an overrated and blotted piece of crap that not even a good art/ animation or soundtrack could save.


Story,4/10

So our story begins with main character Madoka Kaname and side character Sayaka Miki are regular middle school girls with regular mundane lives, but all that changes when they encounter Kyuubey, magical creature, and Homura Akemi, the new transfer student. Kyuubey offers them a proposition for the girls to get into his van so he can grant ... any one of their wishes and in exchange, they will each become magical girls in order to fight beings known as witchs , However, Homura Akemi, a magical girl herself, urges them to reconsider has things are not so stright forward as they seem and to top it all off you have a another magical girl named Mami Tomoe an veteran magical girl who wishes for are duo to get into kyuubey van and desides to also mentor them to give them an idea of what there in for if they make a contract with kyuubey.

So madoka magica is a series that starts out like any other magical girl show.you got main character and her friends enjoying life until one day they encounter supernatural monsters and during this encounter, they meet a magical being that will grant them wishes or turn them into magical girls to combat the monsters and they have happy go lucky adventures and friendship power-ups a plenty. But what if I were to tell you that Madoka Magica is not just your tiple happy go lucky magical girl show because it is the fabled deconstration of magical girl genre, tropes, cliches by being dark, depressing and being edgy as fuck.
because on the famous ep three one of the magical girls dies and from there onwards more death and despair will follow are cast of characters who maybe regret getting into kyuubey van without understanding the ramifications of there choices.

So the question I pose to you all is having these elements adequate to decent storytelling, well to answer your question I would say fuck no.
Because Madoka magicla takes the heart and soul of the magical girl genre and then preseeds to completely stomp on it with a heel until whats left is a soulless series that the faceless masses hype it up because its a deconstruction apparently and the premise sounds cool.
But being pedantic aside let us get into the real meat of this,
So on paper, Madoka Magica has some decent ideas and if the series wanted to go for a more darker, moodier magical girl story then they have hit the nail on the head perfectly with a few elements. Like for examples I will mention,
as a magical girl you are basically immortal and your life is tied to your magic use and capacity, if you fall into despair and don't clean your soul gem you turn into a witch and my favourite element is magical girls fighting one another for hunting grounds.
If the series was just about that and focused on those elements alone then I would have totally been fine with this series and would have marked it up as a nice one-timer experience that I would want to visit again and appreciate for being different.

But the problem big underline problem with this series is that any good idea and concept it has, it completely drops it or forgets about it.
Becuase who give a fuck about consistency and decent storytelling, as Madoka magicla devolves into an unnecessary dark, moody edgy magical girl show for the sake of being a dark, moody, edgy magical girl show.
Like example killing off 90% of the characters by episode 8 in a 12 episode series or the whole reveal of how kyuubey is this alien who has no emotions and is using the magical girls and witches to gather energy to prevent the whole universe from going boom. Which the series uses as an excuse for over bloated drama about the characters complaining about how life is unfair even though they got there wishes grated that gave them some sort of happiness and their sacrifices are saving the lives of not just humanity as a whole but every race in the entire universe and it gets worse when kyuubey introduces pseudoscience in a supposed magical setting about entropy and emotions = magic wishes, how the fuck that works?

another pet peeve that really bothers me is how people count it as this amazing deconstruction of the magical girl genre and I feel that these people don't really know what a deconstruction is or even watched anything from the magical girl genre.
To be counted as a deconstruction you have to either be a subversion of popular tropes and cliches or be a critic of it and point out the trappings and pitfalls of that genre. madoka magicia doesn't really subvert or critic the genre in any meaningful way, it uses the whole magical girl element as an excuse for tragedy porn and shock factor. Which isn't really saying much because of it kiddle pool level of themes and theme exploration cause for a series that claims to be about hope and despair and how you should never give up regardless. Its so one sided to the point of silliness as life is never that linear and makes it lose any credibility.
Which is encapsulated with the ending of the show being a fucking time resect and Madoka becoming Deus ex Madoka because that's something you can wish for is to become a god? And use that power to fix the universe.



Characters,4/10

When it comes to the main character Madoka, she is so bland and her personality can be boiled down to is that she a nice girl and what to help people.
She is such marry sue who I find so fucking boring and there isn't really a reason or Introspection of why she is like this. Like usually people who are like this are either people with a strong sense of justice or their people who have gone through such a hard time in life that they don't want others to suffer the same fate.
Yet there nothing to really imply she has a strong scene of justice or she had a hard time at life so she basically a bland soulless main character who only saving grace is the fact she the only one who wished for something useful which is to become a god.

When it comes to the side charters and the magical girl characters themselves.
They are as about as soulless and bland as you can get with the one exception being Sayaka who was the only character who had actually any character instead of bland and vague outlines of personality and motives which helps me slightly care about her.
But in the grand scheme of things you cant care about charters you only know for a few episodes, which brings out my biggest problem is how this series handles its characters. Becuase this series kills off most of its cast before you even get to know them or most importantly get any character development which was very much needed as their characters are shallow.
When a character dies in this show I view it as oh no another lifeless Puppet died big woop and I don't want to be that uncaring asshole but this show makes it so hard to give a fuck about its characters which also destroys the hook of the story as it's about trying to subvert the usual magical girl conventions.

Now when to Kyuubi, he Is probably one of the worse characterisations of a creature that has no emotions and is supposed to be Neutral that I have ever seen in anime to date. Because he basically manipulates these girls and prays on there naivety to make a contact with him, and you argue that he gave them the choice, but that's bullshit because throughout the entire series he hangs around Madoka and Sayaka dropping these passive comments of how it would be great if they became magical girls and doesn't even inform them what they're signing up for with the excuse being that you have to ask, which is also bullshit again because the info dumps whenever the plot tells him to he clearly acting like Jafar here.
To add insult to injury he has the gall to criticize humanity for having emotions and reacting in a certain way when he himself has no emotions and wouldn't even understand the concept of emotions so is criticism is just blowing hot air and I would compare it to the idea of describing colours to a blind person.


Art,7/10

Art and animation are pretty decent and still hold up today and There are also decent backgrounds and fight scenes are well choreographed.
Another plus I would like to say about the backgrounds is that they do a good job at portraying this feeling of loneliness and isolation because a lot of the streets and buildings are barren and it encapsulates this feeling of backing yourself into a corner that you can't escape from it.
But one problem I have is that the witch realm is weirdly symbolic. But there isn't really any context behind it or reason why other than arthouse and pretty colours.
Because if witches where magical girls then why aren't their realm or forms-based more on there personality or psychology instead of being based on the areas they took residence in. It would have been cool if they did something similar to persona 4 or 5 wherein the tv world or the metaverse realms are based on a more twisted version of someone's personality and psyche, instead of its in a school or hospital and though out the entire thing we are going to bombard you with school and hospital symbolism.
When it comes to character designs I quite like them, like the magical girl forms look pretty cool and the witches look very cool as well in there own arthouse way.


Sound, 7/10

Opening and ending song are both pretty decent and I would recommend people go and listen to them. Because I feel that fit the series very well like the opening song has this vibe of joy and regret to it and the ending song as this feeling of despair and the hope that there will be a better tomorrow.
Considering what happens in the series it fits the series like a glass slipper.
Now when it comes to ost wise.
I feel that the ost, in general, is lacking a lot of punch and is mainly used for the feels.
Which isn't a bad thing per say but I think its a waste to focus on the one emotional style. But that nitpick aside I still feel its worth a listen even if I am not the biggest fan of it. The ost was done and worked on by Yuki Kajiura the godless of ost of music and I feel that this soundtrack is probably the weaker of her works.
Sub and dub are pretty decent as voice acting was ok, but I did find the main character voice in dub painful to sit through, but other than that thumbs-ups all around.



Enjoyment,5/10

Now I know that I have been rough on this show throughout this entire review, but the only reason I am tough on series like this is that I expect more.
When it comes to enjoyment I love as just a one-time experience and nothing else because Madoka magica is like roller coaster to me and once I got off the ride and thought about it my enjoyment went kinda downhill from there and what saddens me is it has some great ideas and there were parts that which truly entertained me
but once I got off the ride and seen the series for what it is that was the final nail in the coffin for me enjoyment wise.



Overall, 4/10

In conclusion when you strip away the critical acclaim or the massive hype that this series has gathered. What Your pretty much left with a one-timer experience that mostly relies way too much on shock factor which in retrospect kills any rewatch value as the twists only work once. If you like really superficiality dark and edgy shows for pretentious overthinkers and edgelords in training Madoka will be the series for you. But if you're looking for a dark magical girl show with actual plot and charters your better of watching sailor moon or princess tutu