I finally understand why one should not judge a book by its cover. To be honest, I never liked the design of the characters in Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica and I’m sure there are those out there (like me) who may be skeptical with this show due to that fact alone. I mean … doesn’t the swollen, flattened, wide, and overblown faces turn you off? It sure did for me. But boy, I cannot describe how glad I am now after marathoning Madoka★Magica in two days (despite all the assignments, projects, and exam deadlines)!
So what can you expect out of this show? Certainly not the typical magical girl story one would be expecting. Taking place in a futuristic world, the story started off like most other magical girl series. School setting, bunch of young girls hanging around together, the typical “happy care-free” life. But that quickly changed as the pace of the story drastically increased as well as the mood darkens at the same time. Soon the viewers are engulfed with deep hatred and sorrow and a wide range of emotions that will only leave one hanging and lust for more. To say Madoka★Magica is an emotionally driven show is not an overstatement.
The sound department is just as brilliant as the story itself. With the new junior high duo ClariS doing the opening theme and Kalafina doing the ending theme, that should automatically ring some bell for some hardcore anime followers. But putting the fame of these singer groups aside, both the opening and ending theme songs for Madoka★Magica are just splendid in itself. You know how some songs have to grow on you; where you need time to get used to it and even then, it might not be catchy enough for you to fell in love with? Rests assure there is no such problem with neither the opening nor ending themes for this show. As if that is not enough, Yuki Kajiura-sama herself is responsible for the BGM, theme song lyrics, and composition! We all know how emotionally driven her music can be, certainly one of the greatest musician in the industry to date.
Character. Can’t really say there is a lot of character “growth”, BUT, I can safely say they have enormous depth making them more believable and lovable. The depth mainly comes from the background stories of the girls. Viewers will find out why each girl chose to become a magical girl and how they live with their choice afterward. If you are a keen viewer, perhaps you may even be able to see through what each girl represents symbolically and relate their experience throughout the show with our own daily lives. On that note, I have to give the production studios (SHAFT and Aniplex) credit for a job well done as well as finding the appropriate seiyu to voice cast the respective characters.
On to our last topic, it’s also one that I have briefly mentioned in the beginning. Yup, it is regarding the animation of Madoka★Magica. Surely most of us are familiar with SHAFT and its style of production, but not everyone accepts the way SHAFT handle its own anime. While one can argue that SHAFT is being creative with their work, which certainly differentiates them from other studio, but for the everyday norm like my humble self I cannot say I appreciate their work of mixing reality into anime to create something nightmare-ish. By that I do not mean the incorporation of real city sceneries into the anime, but rather, I am referring to the infrequent random usage of flowers, candies, or butterflies that takes away any seriousness to the show. Perhaps I just don’t understand “art”.
Lastly, I wish to say that as an anime original work (not adapted from light novel or manga like many anime these days), Mahou Shoujo Madoka ★Magica certainly deserves some praise. If I were to describe the excitement level of this show, the closest I can think of is a mathematical exponential curve. The early episodes serve as the typical story foundation blocks, but right after that is done, you can sure as hell expect an emotional rollercoaster ride =D
