The show's atmosphere drips with the depressing normalcy of Cocona's life. She's a realistic shy high school/middle school girl who just wants to live her life in peace. UNFORTUNATELY, a random girl shows up named Papika, who is one of the most unrealistically cheerful and positive plot driving characters ever. If you like that type of character then this is definitely a fun ride, if you would prefer something more realistic, again Madoka like, then this show falls short. Papika might as well be immortal, or at least an inhuman freak who believes she is immune to death. Papika and Cocona are two of the lucky few who get to go to bizarre and amazingly inventive worlds the likes of which no one has seen since the Witch Labyrinths from MM...
Although the worlds are more thought out and unique than MM, they lack a sense of purpose towards the greater plot and are just a showcase for whatever random thing popped into the animator's head that week. The two girls go to these worlds, which may be quite deadly, for no reason beyond curiosity and a prize that neither seems to care about. They desire the greater goal of getting "a wish" but they barely care about the 10 or so pieces they need in order to actually get the wish. Once they learn the organization's overall goal, it becomes even more questionable why they would help out the organization beyond the fact that the story must happen or there will be no show.
Character designs are very unique and purposefully cartoonish, allowing radical changes to their designs when going to different worlds. Unfortunately, the designs are easily the most interesting part of the characters. The art style of their shaded eyes reveal their lack of complexity and failures compared to MM. You might believe there's depth beyond their standard girlish antics, but in reality the character's emotions range from super excited to depressingly sad with nothing but boredom in-between.
The story obviously is just going to string the audience along until the story becomes darker and darker where the leader of the organization reveals his wish that he wants to achieve and the girls must use the power of their love for each other to overcome whatever the "adults" have chosen to believe is the superior ideology. There is an evil organization. They are barely explored and are basically just the villains from the anime Evangelion and Darling in the Franxx.(hooded figures who want to rule/warp the planet into their own ideal world bla bla bla)
It is above the traditional, generic magical girl series, but only just barely and I pity anyone who has much higher hopes than a 6/10 for the show's run.
To be fair, this is probably more like a 5/10, but my standards for stories right now are to at least break previous ideas of the genre and go in a direction that might be better than the ones before it. For that reason I dropped it to a 3/10. You need more than a unique art style to push the boundaries of what's expected in new anime.
