MAHOU SHOUJO MADOKA☆MAGICA
STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
April 22, 2011
LENGTH
24 min
DESCRIPTION
One night, 14-year-old Madoka Kaname has a terrible nightmare - against the backdrop of a devastated city, she witnesses a girl fight a losing battle against a dreadful being lingering above, while a cat-like magical creature tells Madoka the only way to change such tragic outcome is for her to make a contract with him and become a magical girl.
The next day, the teen's dream seemingly becomes reality as the girl she saw in her dream - Homura - arrives at Mitakihara Middle School as a transfer student, mysteriously warning Madoka to stay just the way she is; but when later on she and her best friend Sayaka encounter the same cat-like magical creature from her dream - who introduces himself as Kyubey - the pair discovers that magical girls are real, and what's more, they can choose to become one. All they must do is sign a contract with Kyubey and agree to take on the duty to fight abstract beings called 'witches' that spread despair to the human world, and in return, each one of them will be granted any single wish they desire. However, as Homura's omen suggests, there might be far more to becoming a magical girl than Madoka and Sayaka realize...
Notes:
- Due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the broadcasts of episodes 11 and 12 were delayed and were later aired as a double feature on April 21, 2011.
CAST
Homura Akemi
Chiwa Saitou
Madoka Kaname
Aoi Yuuki
Kyouko Sakura
Ai Nonaka
Sayaka Miki
Eri Kitamura
Mami Tomoe
Kaori Mizuhashi
Kyuubey
Emiri Katou
Junko Kaname
Yuuko Gotou
Tatsuya Kaname
Kaori Mizuhashi
Hitomi Shizuki
Ryouko Shintani
Kazuko Saotome
Junko Iwao
Walpurgis Night
Kaori Mizuhashi
Tomohisa Kaname
Tetsuya Iwanaga
Kyousuke Kamijou
Seiko Yoshida
Nakazawa
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
Host B
Shinichirou Miki
Shou
Nobuo Tobita
EPISODES
Dubbed
RELATED TO MAHOU SHOUJO MADOKA☆MAGICA
REVIEWS
Xelrog
80/100A grimdark deconstruction of the magical girl genre with an ending that will keep you coming back.Continue on AniListIf you haven't heard of Madoka Magica, you might have suspected that it was a magical girl show. If you have heard of Madoka Magica, you probably know that it's a deconstruction of the magical girl genre... and a pretty damn grim one, at that. Don't let the happy, bubbly art style and cute little pink-haired main character fool you, because that's exactly what they're made that way to do. This is not the feel-good series you may have been hoping for.
Writing: Let's be frank. This series is written such that it's supposed to regularly throw you for a loop. If not for Netflix tagging the show as "dark" and "ominous," I would have been rather surprised by the twists, to say the least. The only reason I was able to consistently predict the story was because I jokingly started expecting the worst possible turn of events and was repeatedly proven right. ...of course, now that I've said that, you'll probably go through the same experience. But, it's still interesting to watch the deconstruction of a genre that's known for being totally feel-good and free of depression by nature. The plot is pretty well-written for the most part, the characters are varied--you'll probably end up liking some and hating others. All in all, a damn strong showing in the writing department.
Art: The show's art can be neatly divided into three categories: The characters, the outer world, and the labyrinths. The characters' art style can be a little jarring at first, due to the contrast between the super-moe babyfaced character designs and the dark colors that the plot often calls for, but you get used to it. The characters also have their eyes drawn in such a way that they look perpetually glazed over and "dead," but that's just another artistic quirk. The setting of the outer world and its backdrops are very... surreal... but in a conservative sort of way. The world of Madoka is a very interesting one in its futuristic but totally inconsistent architecture. It's very fun and artistic, priorities clearly placed high above its realism by the designers. If the design of the overworld were an artistic movement, it might be Cubism or Bauhaus. By contrast, the "labyrinth" areas, alternate spaces created by witches in the series, might be called Expressionism or Surrealism. It's in these witch encounters that the animation really shines. The setting changes drastically to a much grittier, more abstract style without defined boundaries, and the fluidity of the character movements doubles for the fight scenes... not a choice I particularly respect in anime production, but admittedly fun to watch in action.
Sound: The soundtrack ranges from ordinary to excellent, in my opinion. Most of the music is fairly mundane and not something I would listen to by itself, but every now and again you'll get a track that stands above the others and really brings the series to life for a minute or two--in my case, it's a theme that sounds reminiscent of Susumu Hirasawa's compositions (Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Berserk). I haven't spent any time with the Japanese dub of this series, myself, but the English is passable. Not fantastic, but certainly not bad. Character voices are very stereotypically "moe," a choice made intentionally to mislead viewers on the nature of the show... and one that does bring home the point of how out of place the characters eventually find themselves in the situation they've been placed in.
If you like things that are dark and morbid with a strongly-written storyline and a sound ending, Madoka may just be worth your watch. If you like magical girl shows with bubbly heroines and lessons about love and friendship, prepare to be let down. Perhaps my pointing out the show's dark nature has lessened its impact on some of you reading this, but I hope you give it a chance regardless--the plot is a spot above the rest, and the ending is truly memorable.
biogundam
42/100watch sailor moon and princess tutu first then come back to me.Continue on AniListWaring this review may contain spoilers
First impressions, so today we are going to be reviewing the critical acclaimed magical girl deconstruction(TM) known as madoka magica which are clearly not an overrated and blotted piece of crap that not even a good art/ animation or soundtrack could save.
Story,4/10
So our story begins with main character Madoka Kaname and side character Sayaka Miki are regular middle school girls with regular mundane lives, but all that changes when they encounter Kyuubey, magical creature, and Homura Akemi, the new transfer student. Kyuubey offers them a proposition for the girls to get into his van so he can grant any one of their wishes and in exchange, they will each become magical girls in order to fight beings known as witchs , However, Homura Akemi, a magical girl herself, urges them to reconsider has things are not so stright forward as they seem and to top it all off you have a another magical girl named Mami Tomoe an veteran magical girl who wishes for are duo to get into kyuubey van and desides to also mentor them to give them an idea of what there in for if they make a contract with kyuubey.
So madoka magica is a series that starts out like any other magical girl show.you got main character and her friends enjoying life until one day they encounter supernatural monsters and during this encounter, they meet a magical being that will grant them wishes or turn them into magical girls to combat the monsters and they have happy go lucky adventures and friendship power-ups a plenty. But what if I were to tell you that Madoka Magica is not just your tiple happy go lucky magical girl show because it is the fabled deconstration of magical girl genre, tropes, cliches by being dark, depressing and being edgy as fuck.
because on the famous ep three one of the magical girls dies and from there onwards more death and despair will follow are cast of characters who maybe regret getting into kyuubey van without understanding the ramifications of there choices.So the question I pose to you all is having these elements adequate to decent storytelling, well to answer your question I would say fuck no.
Because Madoka magicla takes the heart and soul of the magical girl genre and then preseeds to completely stomp on it with a heel until whats left is a soulless series that the faceless masses hype it up because its a deconstruction apparently and the premise sounds cool.
But being pedantic aside let us get into the real meat of this,
So on paper, Madoka Magica has some decent ideas and if the series wanted to go for a more darker, moodier magical girl story then they have hit the nail on the head perfectly with a few elements. Like for examples I will mention,
as a magical girl you are basically immortal and your life is tied to your magic use and capacity, if you fall into despair and don't clean your soul gem you turn into a witch and my favourite element is magical girls fighting one another for hunting grounds.
If the series was just about that and focused on those elements alone then I would have totally been fine with this series and would have marked it up as a nice one-timer experience that I would want to visit again and appreciate for being different.But the problem big underline problem with this series is that any good idea and concept it has, it completely drops it or forgets about it.
Becuase who give a fuck about consistency and decent storytelling, as Madoka magicla devolves into an unnecessary dark, moody edgy magical girl show for the sake of being a dark, moody, edgy magical girl show.
Like example killing off 90% of the characters by episode 8 in a 12 episode series or the whole reveal of how kyuubey is this alien who has no emotions and is using the magical girls and witches to gather energy to prevent the whole universe from going boom. Which the series uses as an excuse for over bloated drama about the characters complaining about how life is unfair even though they got there wishes grated that gave them some sort of happiness and their sacrifices are saving the lives of not just humanity as a whole but every race in the entire universe and it gets worse when kyuubey introduces pseudoscience in a supposed magical setting about entropy and emotions = magic wishes, how the fuck that works?another pet peeve that really bothers me is how people count it as this amazing deconstruction of the magical girl genre and I feel that these people don't really know what a deconstruction is or even watched anything from the magical girl genre.
To be counted as a deconstruction you have to either be a subversion of popular tropes and cliches or be a critic of it and point out the trappings and pitfalls of that genre. madoka magicia doesn't really subvert or critic the genre in any meaningful way, it uses the whole magical girl element as an excuse for tragedy porn and shock factor. Which isn't really saying much because of it kiddle pool level of themes and theme exploration cause for a series that claims to be about hope and despair and how you should never give up regardless. Its so one sided to the point of silliness as life is never that linear and makes it lose any credibility.
Which is encapsulated with the ending of the show being a fucking time resect and Madoka becoming Deus ex Madoka because that's something you can wish for is to become a god? And use that power to fix the universe.Characters,4/10
When it comes to the main character Madoka, she is so bland and her personality can be boiled down to is that she a nice girl and what to help people.
She is such marry sue who I find so fucking boring and there isn't really a reason or Introspection of why she is like this. Like usually people who are like this are either people with a strong sense of justice or their people who have gone through such a hard time in life that they don't want others to suffer the same fate.
Yet there nothing to really imply she has a strong scene of justice or she had a hard time at life so she basically a bland soulless main character who only saving grace is the fact she the only one who wished for something useful which is to become a god.When it comes to the side charters and the magical girl characters themselves.
They are as about as soulless and bland as you can get with the one exception being Sayaka who was the only character who had actually any character instead of bland and vague outlines of personality and motives which helps me slightly care about her.
But in the grand scheme of things you cant care about charters you only know for a few episodes, which brings out my biggest problem is how this series handles its characters. Becuase this series kills off most of its cast before you even get to know them or most importantly get any character development which was very much needed as their characters are shallow.
When a character dies in this show I view it as oh no another lifeless Puppet died big woop and I don't want to be that uncaring asshole but this show makes it so hard to give a fuck about its characters which also destroys the hook of the story as it's about trying to subvert the usual magical girl conventions.Now when to Kyuubi, he Is probably one of the worse characterisations of a creature that has no emotions and is supposed to be Neutral that I have ever seen in anime to date. Because he basically manipulates these girls and prays on there naivety to make a contact with him, and you argue that he gave them the choice, but that's bullshit because throughout the entire series he hangs around Madoka and Sayaka dropping these passive comments of how it would be great if they became magical girls and doesn't even inform them what they're signing up for with the excuse being that you have to ask, which is also bullshit again because the info dumps whenever the plot tells him to he clearly acting like Jafar here.
To add insult to injury he has the gall to criticize humanity for having emotions and reacting in a certain way when he himself has no emotions and wouldn't even understand the concept of emotions so is criticism is just blowing hot air and I would compare it to the idea of describing colours to a blind person.Art,7/10
Art and animation are pretty decent and still hold up today and There are also decent backgrounds and fight scenes are well choreographed.
Another plus I would like to say about the backgrounds is that they do a good job at portraying this feeling of loneliness and isolation because a lot of the streets and buildings are barren and it encapsulates this feeling of backing yourself into a corner that you can't escape from it.
But one problem I have is that the witch realm is weirdly symbolic. But there isn't really any context behind it or reason why other than arthouse and pretty colours.
Because if witches where magical girls then why aren't their realm or forms-based more on there personality or psychology instead of being based on the areas they took residence in. It would have been cool if they did something similar to persona 4 or 5 wherein the tv world or the metaverse realms are based on a more twisted version of someone's personality and psyche, instead of its in a school or hospital and though out the entire thing we are going to bombard you with school and hospital symbolism.
When it comes to character designs I quite like them, like the magical girl forms look pretty cool and the witches look very cool as well in there own arthouse way.Sound, 7/10
Opening and ending song are both pretty decent and I would recommend people go and listen to them. Because I feel that fit the series very well like the opening song has this vibe of joy and regret to it and the ending song as this feeling of despair and the hope that there will be a better tomorrow.
Considering what happens in the series it fits the series like a glass slipper.
Now when it comes to ost wise.
I feel that the ost, in general, is lacking a lot of punch and is mainly used for the feels.
Which isn't a bad thing per say but I think its a waste to focus on the one emotional style. But that nitpick aside I still feel its worth a listen even if I am not the biggest fan of it. The ost was done and worked on by Yuki Kajiura the godless of ost of music and I feel that this soundtrack is probably the weaker of her works.
Sub and dub are pretty decent as voice acting was ok, but I did find the main character voice in dub painful to sit through, but other than that thumbs-ups all around.Enjoyment,5/10
Now I know that I have been rough on this show throughout this entire review, but the only reason I am tough on series like this is that I expect more.
When it comes to enjoyment I love as just a one-time experience and nothing else because Madoka magica is like roller coaster to me and once I got off the ride and thought about it my enjoyment went kinda downhill from there and what saddens me is it has some great ideas and there were parts that which truly entertained me
but once I got off the ride and seen the series for what it is that was the final nail in the coffin for me enjoyment wise.Overall, 4/10
In conclusion when you strip away the critical acclaim or the massive hype that this series has gathered. What Your pretty much left with a one-timer experience that mostly relies way too much on shock factor which in retrospect kills any rewatch value as the twists only work once. If you like really superficiality dark and edgy shows for pretentious overthinkers and edgelords in training Madoka will be the series for you. But if you're looking for a dark magical girl show with actual plot and charters your better of watching sailor moon or princess tutu
DanielePiantoni
100/100Anime che parte pieno di colori per finire in una spirale di odio e oscurità senza pari.Capolavoro.Continue on AniListMadoka magica è un anime del 2011 prodotto da Aniplex, stiamo parlando dell'anime più sorprendente che io abbia mai visto e che è entrato di diritto tra i miei preferiti facendomi appassionare al genere mahou shojo.
TRAMA: vede le vicende di madoka che con la sua amica entra in contatto con kubi un essere misterioso che propone un contratto, in cambio di un desiderio diventeranno puella magi ovvero ragazze magiche allo scopo di combattere le streghe. Fino a qui e anche dalla copertina dell anime può sembrare il solito incipit e il solito anime che con la forza dell amicizia e il potere del cuore si può far tutto eccetera.
Bhe non avete capito nulla, mai ho visto un anime iniziare tutto fiorito e colorato e finire nell'oscurità più totale, in drammi psicologici, legami che sfociano nell'odio e colpi di scena mai visti(se ancora penso all' episodio 10) Verranno presentati personaggi misteriosi che pian piano vedranno in maniera perfetta il loro ruolo.
PERSONAGGI: Anche qua 10, pochi ma buoni e tutti ben caratterizzati, mai visto dei plot cosi radicali,anche la protagonista non sembra una protagonista.
SPOILER: l' amica di madoka è la migliore insieme alla vera protagonista infatti hanno la crescita migliore una positiva e una negativa, se si include il film sono tutte negative.
ANIMAZIONE 10 e lode, lo psicadelico unito al color pastello rilascia una qualità assoluta e colori assurdi che rimangono ogni puntata.
AUDIO: 10 e lode , sound track corali gotiche per enfatizzare il cupo dell' anime e op molto bella.
COMMENTO:ritengo questo un anime sottovalutato da molti per un motivo: La Copertina, infatti credo bisogna punire severamente chi lha approvata allontanando molti da questo capolavoro in quanto risulta una copertina rosa alla teniamoci per mano verso il tramonto.
Esiste una trilogia successiva di film, 2 recap più il terzo finale che a molti è dispiaciuto, invece lho ritenuto un altro fiore all occhiello di come un anime vada fatto finito e concluso senza neanche un difetto, potreste farvi ingannare dall inizio friendly dell'anime ma fidatevi sbagliate di grosso, posso quasi dire che come anime si avvicina all horror per certe tematiche e scene di livello non molto family style.
In conclusione è il miglior capolavoro mahou shojo attualmente presente e a livello di plot di anime che partono tutti colorati per finire in una spirale cupa e oscura a livelli assurdi non ha rivali VOTO 10
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SCORE
- (4.1/5)
TRAILER
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Ended inApril 22, 2011
Main Studio Shaft
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