What compelled me to watch this show and revise my thoughts was the combination of Aniplex (for great animation), Yuki Kajiura (for wonderful music) and Gen Urobochi (for splendid story). That combination never failed.
At first, I thought the animation was a bit "sketchy" instead of fluid. Aside from the scene before the opening, the animation looks like it's sketched on a notepad. However! It's actually because of a reason in the story, specifically related to the bad guys. When I see them, I feel a sense of dread and horror like when you descend into madness. A twisted version of wonderland. Kudos to Aniplex.
The music is absolutely wonderful. It always sets the right mood for the right scene, whether it's sad, happy or dreadful, and listening back to the bgms makes me remininsce the scenes. I especially love the music during the ominous versions, when you feel like all hope it drained from you. Yuki Kajiura is probably my favorite musician right now. Oh, and Kalafina's "Magia" is going right into my playlist!
Lastly, the story. Like I said in the beginning, the cover is absolutely misleading, so are the few first episodes. It was first like a normal Sailor Moon anime where a young girl without confident begins to see wonders of magic and wants to be a part of it. And then BAM! Real world takes over and it only continues to spiral into madness from there on. While how the story progresses is not entirely original, it is rare enough to take you by surprise. There are definitely some sad scenes, though due to me having seen sadder animes, I didn't really feel teary. The only thing I can complain is the ending actually. While it's not what I expected, I found it somewhat lacking, like they just realized they are on the last episode and just had to throw something in.
Overall, this is one of the best series I have ever seen and I recommend it for everyone.
