Puella Magi Madoka Magica? Really dawg? You watched that? Yes, yes I did…one of the sites that does top ten lists had this list of gruesome murders and it was on it so I had to see what happened. I will say that the murder was pretty brutal so I have to go find that site and thank them.
On the face of this one, you would think it’s just a shiny magical girl show but it’s not. Trust me, it’s not. It starts off looking like one but this show is much much darker than that. Where else would you see magical girls using guns or trying to kill each other? The magical girl game is getting hardcore. Don’t take that for the whole show being like that, it’s not an action show for the most part. It does have it’s girly girly moments too but there was a lot that I didn’t expect from this one. A lot.
Madoka is a middle school student who along with her friend Sayaka, encounter a creature known as Kyubey. This creature offers to make a contract with them to be magical girls but a transfer student named Homura stops Madoka from forming the contract. Along the way, Madoka and Sayaka meet another magical girl named Mami who brings them along on witch hunts so they can see what being a magical girl is about. Madoka learns quickly that it’s a pretty cruel lifestyle filled with danger, anguish, suffering and even death. This is only the beginning od the journey for Madoka, Sayaka and Homura.
Production value can be seen as bad by some and great by others. This show has gotten tons of accolades for the story, visuals, sound and everything else about it. The art is kind of awkward but different. It might kind of remind you of Bakemonogatari with the tight face shots, face shots from different angles, abstract concepts, etc. But some of the art looks thrown together and maybe even childish depending on your eyes. Like how people would talk about “A Small World” at Disney and make it look evil in shows. It gets downright creepy. While the characters are drawn in a sketch style, the rest of the show is dark and dingy. A lot of black palettes with bright colors. I will say the show is a treat for the eyes.
While the show is well put together, it was very slow for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good show but for me it was too slow and not enough action. They even movie-ized the show so that it’s 2 movies and then a 3rd movie (Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion) was released after that, which is long enough to probably be a full season. So you can see it that way too which is the way I chose to watch it. I won’t recommend it but I won’t say don’t watch it either. Like Bakemonogatari it’s a very abstract show and might not be for everyone. For a comparable, I’d say Yuki Yuna is a Hero, which is also a dark side to the magical girl genre.
[yasr_overall_rating]