Gen Urobuchi is known for a lot of crap, mostly for being one of the writers for Nitroplus and by proxy the brains behind Saya no Uta (a Visual Novel). Now if you haven't read it, I strongly recommend you do. It isn't particularly long so take a few hours out of your schedule and just read through the whole thing in one sitting. You'll thank me for it later. I'm mentioning this because there are a lot of similarities between SnU and Madoka, particularly in the overall themes that are presented in both works. The particular things I'm looking for are mainly subversion and corruption/perversion, which Madoka is rife with. Urobuchi's style really shines when he takes something that is considered sacred and paints in a horrific manner. In this case, he's taking Mahou Shoujo and painting it in the same colors or...dementia he used to paint SnU. Now don't get me wrong, Madoka isn't good because it's a piece of dark fiction, but because its a well-written piece of dark fiction. A lot people get too caught up in its grittiness and play up on how its a revolutionary anime because its DARK AND BROODING. But that's not really the case, it's more like Urobuchi's inherent style melds so well with the genre he's working in. Mahou Shoujo already some entries that take darker approaches to its cliches (the aforementioned Nanoha) and its even got some good deconstructions (Revolutionary Girl Utena and the second half of Princess Tutu). What Madoka does is twisting the guts of the genre only to to pull out every organ slowly and concisely, getting its hands completely bloody in the process while showing the audience the rotted flesh in its hands. It's plot follows the generic magical girl fight monsters scenario but the actual execution is very different. So much so that it gives off a distinctly different vibe from even the triple A anime in this category.
A good story generally is split up into 3 different Acts, the first is setting the stage, and the third is climax and resolution. The dramatic question comes up in the first act which is pretty much the goal the protagonist must achieve by the third act, and the second is about the protagonist doing what they must to answer the dramatic question. The importance of all that highbrow BS is simply that Madoka has a completely different dramatic question compared to the norm of the genre. In Mahou Shoujo or even Fighting Shounen, the protagonist gets power of some sort of power in the beginning and is asked by the plot whether they can/will defeat/save/restore something of importance. The question posed to Madoka is "Will you become a Puella Magi (Magical Girl)?". First things first, we know by definition that if this is the dramatic question, than we know for sure that we won't see Madoka become a Magical Girl half-way through the series or anytime soon for that matter. We know damn well that its going to part of the climax. Dramatic questions usually force the protagonist to be proactive: to change themselves so they are better equipped to tackle the question. Madoka's as you guessed, commands more a reactionary response. This in turn changes the focus to inwards instead of outwards so its fair to say that this is a primarily character-driven anime. Now that's not to say that the plot remains on the backburner for most of show, in contrary it keeps going with or without Madoka driving it. In that regard, both plot and characters are well done, and one isn't really sacrificed for the other. Both work together concisely to drive the experience home.
One thing Madoka manages to pull off consistently well is the feeling of uncanniness through out the entire show. In good horror/thriller stories, fear is either presented to the audience in three ways: through the "self", through "uncanniness" and and through the "other". Madoka employs all three to startling good effects. The "self" aspect really brings out the psychological aspect of the characters, its the parts where they sit down and sort of think aloud to themselves accentuating their thought-process and presenting it to the audience. This happens a lot, and more importantly each character has their own monologue. Its effective because the girls really convey their own fears to the audience and not only that but a lot of that fear is something most of us can relate to. The "other" is basically the unknown and things that we cannot understand. For example, all witch scenes and FX that are done by Genkidan Inu Curry. These scenes are very surreal and abstract which is meant to evoke an otherworldly feeling. Or better yet, Kyubey is a very good personification of the "other" simply because the audience cannot understand him or his actions with human perceptions and concepts. The final piece is the uncanny, or the feeling that something is slightly off. This is the one horror aspect that is present in Madoka all the time and its there to unsettle the viewer. Its not the direct kind of "Boo" horror, but its a more subtle variety which is designed to peeve the audience and to keep them thinking about it long after they've stopped watching. In this anime, there's always something off, and it really adds a lot to the atmosphere. And if I had to pick only one good thing about Madoka, its the atmosphere. Its essentially draped over the viewer like an enormous blanket and can very well become almost suffocating at times. Its something that made Silent Hill 2, and in my opinion also becomes the driving force behind Madoka. Its the one quality that really separates from it from other good anime and pushes it up there with the best of the best.
The music is really incredible and is probably my favorite soundtrack composed by Yuki Kajiura. The tracks are very beautiful and melodious, and also border on haunting at times. I really cannot describe how important the music is, because it really is the atmosphere at times. If you were to take the soundtrack away from Madoka, it would substantially worsen the final product. It really just draws the audience into itself and the show. While in some other anime the music can be mediocre and even forgettable, over here its absolutely pivotal. The audio design is also great, the right tracks and used at the right moments and are always in sync with the direction or composition of a scene. One thing I'd like to bring attention to is the script which I actually liked a lot. There's not much filler in the dialogue nor are there any meaningless lines. All of it is put to good use which is really pretty rare to see, most anime these days are rarely efficient with the allocation of lines or script writing. Shaft is especially a bit lenient with this quality and most of the dialogue in their anime can be rather gratuitous at times.
However if Madoka can be criticized for anything in its presentation, its definitely the animation. The art style itself is good and contrasts heavily with the subject matter, but the animation often leaves something to be desired. While there are some good action scenes and generally the animation fidelity is actually much higher than in other Shaft anime, it's still a bit choppy. There are also a bunch of art errors in every episode (Meduka Meguca anyone?). This does get better as it goes a long, and its apparent that Shaft saved much of the animation budget for later episodes which do look very impressive from an animation stand point (espeically episode 10, GoHands helped out with that one). Hopefully if Shaft ever decides to do a sequel, they'll budget this appropriately and save up all the money, hookers and blow made from the Madoka BD sales.
Overall, Madoka is one the best anime to come out in a few years. It's not based off of a manga which is based off of a light/visual novel, it's not a fanservice-ridden sack of crap, its not utterly and completely generic and most importantly its a big breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the anime that have come out recently. If you're not out to hate it the second you start watching, than you should be able to take away a lot of enjoyment from it because like I said in the beginning, it's a hell of a ride. To all the people who have already seen it, I strongly recommend just marathoning the entire series again after a couple months. Because honestly, Madoka will be an entirely different beast when marathoned compared to being watched weekly. The atmosphere practically begs the audience to watch the entire thing in one go and it'll definitely be an experience worth the trouble. For all those who haven't watched it yet, what exactly are you waiting for? More importantly, why are you reading reviews instead of watching this anime? It's a no-brainer, don't make me beg you all to watch it.
