The opening is betrayer, the trailers are, the first episode are... I would say that the so good ED by Kalafina is the only place where we really feel the ambience of the anime, a darkness unexpected and unpredictable. It's a true innovation, Gen Urobuchi completely reinvented the Magical Girl by giving him an psychological side, very mature and frightful. To avoid spoilers, I'll stop right there.
The Art is not perfect, even if some may not have, I liked the Witch's dimension, which is psychelic and I really love that. The plot is amazing. I don't think there's 12 episode plot that are as good as this one, it's the most dense anime that I saw and it's truly a masterpiece, everything is perfect. The character development is sudden, logic but surprising. The sound is perfect, Yuki Kajiura is for me, as good as Hiroyuki Sawano and the enjoyment may not be 10 all the time, but for me it was and there's more than just that. That psychological side, that Gen Urobuchi does so well, make us think, and it's intelligent thought.
The end, we can't just describe it by "sad" or "beautiful', it's beyond that. Some people might dislike it because it doesn't bring any conclusion but that's what so good with this end. It's full of meaning, tragic, very true and reinforces the pasts events in an way that I never felt before, and that makes it even better."The individual is powerless to change History and that by screaming his existence to the world, we just look stupid." That could describe what we feel in the end of the anime. It's realistic, and cynical.
I give 10/10 to everything except Art, where I give 8/10, but it doesn't matter much for me. The rest is from FAR, enough to give Overall : 10/10. Don't believe that it's just the typical Magical Girl show, it's so much more.
