Medium: Anime
Episodes: 12
Rating: PG-13
Subs/Dubbed: Subs (group unknown)
Dear lord, Madoka Magica. How does one even do a write-up on this show...?
D'aww. Seems I have a guest host this time c:
The adorable little guy up there is Kyuubey, and for a teeny price, he'll grant your deepest, fondest wish! What price, you ask? Oh... don't worry. It's nothing too bad.
You see, creatures called Witches have long attacked the living, unseen, driving them to suicide and other such monstrosities. Worse yet, there's really nothing anybody can do to stop them. Except for the Puella Magi, that is. See, when Kyuubey grants your wish, all he asks in exchange is that you help fight off those terrible Witches. He'll give you the powers you need to do so, too, so you're really making off like a bandit in this deal! Not only do you get a wish granted, you get superhuman abilities too, and the chance to be a hero! It's a win-win situation! What could possibly go wrong?
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a fairly recent anime to be featured here on The Digger, but it's hard to move too far into the internet without encountering it or the memes it spawned, so I figure it's past time I made a post about it. The series focuses on Madoka Kaname, a normal girl who has normal aspirations about living a normal life. She has two good friends, a mother, a father, and a baby brother. And one day, she stumbles smack dab into weirdness city when she goes to investigate a not-so-normal telepathic message she received from the middle of nowhere, and winds up running straight into a Witch's Den. From there, she's rescued by the mysterious and mature Mami Tomoe, and together, Madoka and her friend Sayaka are drawn into the world of Puella Magi- deeper, perhaps, than they really wanted to go.
PMMM is a magical girl anime, but don't let that fool you- Fighting off terrible monstrosities with The Power of Love isn't the main focus here. From Episode 3 on, the series sets out to screw with the viewers in each and every way that it can possibly think of, and it really succeeds. Complex plots are introduced. Horrific truths are revealed about the true natures of Witches and Puella Magi. And people die. Gruesomely.
Madoka Magica lit a serious fire on the internet, with everybody in the fanbase trying frantically to unravel the tale before the show revealed the final truth. Theories were presented, exalted by the theorist's peers for being bulletproof, and then shot down by the very next episode to air. People pulled together to try and examine previous episodes, combing every second for clues they missed that could turn out to be important. And something I've never seen before was, a lot of people cried out in legitimate terror at the thought that the earthquake+tsunami combo that slammed the hell out of Japan might have canceled the show permanently. It's just that good.
Now, I can't actually say a whole lot else about the plot (because after a certain point, everything is spoilers!), but I can say I was seriously impressed with how everything played out- certain infamous visual foibles didn't actually detract from my enjoyment of it, the OST is just as much a part of the series as the plot is (seriously, the music adds so much to the scenes!), and the story is a blast to follow. Despite the generous amount of genre savvy I have acquired from watching just... way too much stuff, I had literally no idea how it was going to end. I'm not entirely sure I'm satisfied with the way it did end, but it did tie up every loose plot point and brought the story to a decent close about the only way it could. To my knowledge, there's really only one strong detractor here: I've heard a couple people say they really didn't 'get' the attraction to this series- The short answer is, if you haven't seen any 'standard' magical girl fare (Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc.), then no, you won't get why this series is so horribly right. To understand how something has been taken apart, you first have to understand what's being taken apart. Other than that, there's also the fantastically catchy OP (which lies horribly about the tone of the show), the amazing ED (which features both a rockin' guitar and a primal beat that's hard to ignore). And Kyuubey. Oh, God, Kyuubey. What a complete monster- He's not really 'evil', per se, but he's about as amoral as amoral gets, and I love him for that.
I realize I'm partial to both the magical girl and horror genres, but a marriage of the two is almost unthinkable, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica pulls it off really really well. Almost everything about it is spot-on perfect, so if you haven't watched it yet- What the heck is wrong with you?!
Score: 10/10
Pass/Fail: PASS
Episodes: 12
Rating: PG-13
Subs/Dubbed: Subs (group unknown)
Dear lord, Madoka Magica. How does one even do a write-up on this show...?
 |
| "I could help you, ScrewBall! Just make a contract with me!" |
The adorable little guy up there is Kyuubey, and for a teeny price, he'll grant your deepest, fondest wish! What price, you ask? Oh... don't worry. It's nothing too bad.
You see, creatures called Witches have long attacked the living, unseen, driving them to suicide and other such monstrosities. Worse yet, there's really nothing anybody can do to stop them. Except for the Puella Magi, that is. See, when Kyuubey grants your wish, all he asks in exchange is that you help fight off those terrible Witches. He'll give you the powers you need to do so, too, so you're really making off like a bandit in this deal! Not only do you get a wish granted, you get superhuman abilities too, and the chance to be a hero! It's a win-win situation! What could possibly go wrong?
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a fairly recent anime to be featured here on The Digger, but it's hard to move too far into the internet without encountering it or the memes it spawned, so I figure it's past time I made a post about it. The series focuses on Madoka Kaname, a normal girl who has normal aspirations about living a normal life. She has two good friends, a mother, a father, and a baby brother. And one day, she stumbles smack dab into weirdness city when she goes to investigate a not-so-normal telepathic message she received from the middle of nowhere, and winds up running straight into a Witch's Den. From there, she's rescued by the mysterious and mature Mami Tomoe, and together, Madoka and her friend Sayaka are drawn into the world of Puella Magi- deeper, perhaps, than they really wanted to go.
PMMM is a magical girl anime, but don't let that fool you- Fighting off terrible monstrosities with The Power of Love isn't the main focus here. From Episode 3 on, the series sets out to screw with the viewers in each and every way that it can possibly think of, and it really succeeds. Complex plots are introduced. Horrific truths are revealed about the true natures of Witches and Puella Magi. And people die. Gruesomely.
 |
| Most people's reaction to the events of Ep. 3. My reaction to the logic bomb dropped in Ep. 6. |
Now, I can't actually say a whole lot else about the plot (because after a certain point, everything is spoilers!), but I can say I was seriously impressed with how everything played out- certain infamous visual foibles didn't actually detract from my enjoyment of it, the OST is just as much a part of the series as the plot is (seriously, the music adds so much to the scenes!), and the story is a blast to follow. Despite the generous amount of genre savvy I have acquired from watching just... way too much stuff, I had literally no idea how it was going to end. I'm not entirely sure I'm satisfied with the way it did end, but it did tie up every loose plot point and brought the story to a decent close about the only way it could. To my knowledge, there's really only one strong detractor here: I've heard a couple people say they really didn't 'get' the attraction to this series- The short answer is, if you haven't seen any 'standard' magical girl fare (Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, etc.), then no, you won't get why this series is so horribly right. To understand how something has been taken apart, you first have to understand what's being taken apart. Other than that, there's also the fantastically catchy OP (which lies horribly about the tone of the show), the amazing ED (which features both a rockin' guitar and a primal beat that's hard to ignore). And Kyuubey. Oh, God, Kyuubey. What a complete monster- He's not really 'evil', per se, but he's about as amoral as amoral gets, and I love him for that.
 |
| Still wanna make that contract? |
Score: 10/10
Pass/Fail: PASS
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