When watching for the first time, you may not catch the nuances right away, but here is a piece that you describe as magical girls. What's more, several screenings pass and nothing from Madoka becomes one. There are other magical girls, but they are not a real group. Sometimes there is cooperation, sometimes rivalries, or the type of weapons used is not so cute ... "There is something different here", you think. And yes, you are right.
There are witches who kill people. Magic heads fight against this evil. To make a girl magical, you make a contract with Kyubey, a kind of cat, and exchange services, and accept any wish. It sounds like a good deal, right?
That's just what the anime subverts: is it really good to be a magical girl? Is there glamor in all of this? Young little girls fighting terrible monsters? These are things that, normally, are not questioned in other works of mahou shoujo. Simply acceptable that those girls are going to fight evil by risking their lives, and apparently they like it. This is sold as something, something cool, fun.
The visual aspect of the anime is noteworthy. The contrast between cute characters and how situations shown make an impact. The animation quality is excellent. The eyes have some risks as if they were traces of a manga, or the outline of the characters is not always black, all of which gives a nice visual identity. The strong point are the battles against witches, where the style of animation changes, becoming a kind of doodles and collages, very colorful and psychedelic, real animated works of art. All this combined with the soundtrack that deserves a special mention.
Music is very important here. All are great separately
and look even better when used in context. The anime still plays with an opening and closing. An opening song lyric, with the passage of the song, takes on a new meaning and the cute scenes get a little melancholy throughout the series. There is also care to insert an opening at different times, depending on the episode, and this helps in the narrative itself. The closing of the first two episodes has a lighter song, while, from the third, drastically changes to something very dark and heavy, even without lyrics, in view of an important event. The third episode is the big turning point of the series, is where you really know what Madoka Magica is.
A narrative develops very well, the facts are tied together, as characters take on new dimensions and the ending is quite satisfactory. It is not possible to say if you are totally happy, it depends on your interpretation. But definitely, Madoka deserves to be watched, as it offers technical quality and a great story.
