Boy, was I wrong.
Most reading this will know the story. Reading other reviews will reveal that this is an anime that makes one think it will turn out one way, only to violently and, sometimes, unexpectedly switch gears. Since that has been hashed out so much, I'll skip that and cut straight to the ratings:
STORY:
Beginning (15 points): 14
The story begins fairly simply, introducing the general plotline in the first few episodes. As the characters are introduced, their personalities are very slowly (sometimes painstakingly so) revealed as to show their hidden motives and interests, which piqued my interest early on. Curiously, characters' pasts are not well-documented here, unlike in some of the manga and even the PSP game that exists now. My only criticism of the introduction is that Mami and Madoka, the main focus of this arc, could have benefited from even a few more minutes of delving into their past and/or present lives, but even in omitting that information, the viewer still has plenty of information to understand the characters. Even still, this is enough of a flaw to deny the beginning a perfect 15. The beginning was sufficient in explaining the beginning of the character development, and it amazed me in how it very efficiently shifted the plot into the middle of the story and on into the climax--every single scene had a purpose that became crystal clear as the story progressed.
Climax (15 points): 15
The story continues, throwing plot twist after plot twist at the viewer. Not only are they true to their name in that many of them are simply unexpected, but they also have amazing cohesion into further developing the characters. Not only that, in the transition from the beginning to middle, I found the emotion on display during each episode to be so strikingly real, that my emotions matched each character's own feelings with disturbing consistency. In no other anime has my empathy been that strong and consistent with the characters. It's common to feel bad for the characters, but it's much more difficult to give a viewer that level of empathy. As much as I try to think of a flaw for this section, none comes to mind. As a result, the climax gets a perfect 15.
Ending (15 points): 15
At some points, I got a little misty-eyed towards the end of the climax section. In the end, I was holding back tears through most of it. The level of emotion easily eclipses that of the climax, making it very hard to keep a straight face, much less outright sobbing (Clannad After Story, anyone?). At first, I honestly didn't like how the very last episode worked, but as I looked into it through reading other reviews among other things, I realized that I simply didn't understand it, and then it really grew on me. I then concluded that there was no other ending I would have liked more than that one--for the dark nature of the anime, it really was a perfect ending in that it wasn't your stereotypical "Happy ending". It had a giant asterisk. What it was, well...you'll have to find out ;) Combining the emotional appeal of the episodes leading up to the final one as well as the conclusion of the last episode itself, I would have to say that the ending also earns a perfect score. If you are easily touched by happy or sad scenes, bring a hankie. You'll need it.
Character Quality and Development (20 points): 19
I'm really trying to find flaws here. In my opinion, it's damn near impossible. EVERY character has a 3-dimensional personality, and there wasn't a single main character who didn't seem real, human, and likeable, within reason. The weakest link of all the characters is really Madoka, but even her personality is realistic. The ONLY flaw I can think of is the lack of history in two of the five main characters (even the Pokemon reject Kyuubey gets his own development) that I mentioned in the "Beginning" section of the story review. One point lost for lost potential, but other than that, any criticism is really just splitting hairs.
Art (15 points): 15
The character art is pretty good stuff. As you progress through the story, the witch world art is absolutely surreal--the term I used to describe it after my first night watching was "Alice in Wonderland-meets-LSD hallucination". It was so good, and even haunting, that I had a dream where my surroundings were witch world-esque. The art was creepy at first, but it grows on you. I really liked it. Perfect score.
Sound (10 points): 10
Really hard to argue with the sound. SFX were as creepy as the art. BGM was probably a little thinner than most, but so many scores stuck with you. Stuff I hadn't heard in a week, I still remembered. The rest made it on my iPod. Really hard to criticize a soundtrack that you're listening to in your spare time.
Enjoyment (10 points): 10
I never thought I'd watch an anime that I would like better than Clannad. Till now. Though it's close, this has to be my new favorite anime, and I doubt that will change anytime soon. I spent several rewatches staying up until the wee hours of the morning simply because I couldn't put the series down long enough to go to sleep. With that kind of obsession with Madoka Magica, I can't give it anything other than a 10 for enjoyment.
Tally that up, and the final score for the series is a whopping 98/100, good enough for an easy MAL score of 10. Outrageous as it sounds, I've never had an anime that made me laugh, cry, and spend sleepless nights awake in a mixture of shock and horror as much as this one. I truly enjoyed it fully, and if Kyuubey were real, I'd contract with him to let me watch this over and over again for the first time every time.
