I promised her I'd watch five episodes (my rule of thumb) before giving up. At the end of five episodes, I wasn't hooked, exactly, but I was intrigued. Within the first few episodes it became pretty clear that this is not a light-hearted show despite moments of childlike fun. Even the nicer moments of Madoka's life--chilling with her friends, bonding with her mother--are tinged by a shadow that doesn't materialize yet.
Significant plot points happen in most of the episodes, but the reason this went from a good anime to a *great* one are in the last three episodes, so if you watch this, you absolutely need to see it through to the end. A lot of anime I wawtch tends to devolve into madness or weirdness or randomness near the end. On the contrary, Madoka Magica has a tight, coherent resolution and payoff that left me *completely satisfied*, a rarity among anime series.
The music is done by Yuki Kajiura. I don't think I need to say anything more about how amazing it is, and how perfectly it fits in with the fight scenes and such.
Along those lines, the fight scenes are pretty well done. I didn't care for the weird magazine-collage aesthetic, but other aspects of the show far outweighed that.
Due to the way the story is structured and certain things are withheld, the pacing feels a bit slow, but I think it's--you know what? scratch that thought. The story is best experienced without even the slightest hints.
I went into this expecting cute little girls, gratuitous transformation sequences, and monster fights interspersed with comedic relief. What I got was a surprisingly deep, dark, and mature show that only uses "magical girl" as a vehicle--perhaps an ironic one, given the gravity--for a solid, coherent story.
