Puella Magi Madoka Magica

The last two eps of this are out and they were rather fantastic!
I want to hear what you guys think.
But this is probably the best Magical Girl anime I've ever watched personally. XD

 

-bump-

Alright, so Chev made me watch this series this week. At first I thought it would be just another majjykal gurl animu, but it was so much better than I gave it credit for. The character designs were amazing especially Mami, the music was gorgeous, and the plot was actually, as joj mentioned in the first post, much more mature than it looks.

The character development made me hnnnnnng so much. Especially Sayaka, Makoda and Homura.

Spoiler

Sayaka mental breakdown was just...wow. After Mami was killed in the third episode, it was clear that the consequences of being a Puella Magi were high, but I never thought it would get to the point it did with Sayaka. And Homura reminded me A LOT of Davesprite from Homestuck; having to give up your timeline to save your best friend (Homura's was much worse since she went through about 10+ timelines all ending horribly). As for Madoka, her wish was just something I really wasn't expecting. Breaking the rules, Makoda style!

Anyway, I do recommend that people do watch this, for even though it's short is is incredibly well written and you will love every second of it.

 

I'd like to add that the action is pretty good. I mean, this kind of action animation is the kind you find in anime movies, not in anime series. You can tell that this Anime was developed with quality in mind.

And of course, Yuki Kajiura with her weird music. I personally think some of the music isn't that amazing. It's really just standard Kajiura, which isn't bad...but yeah. It does add to the atmosphere a lot.

 

Kay so, about dat ending and Homura/Madoka:

Spoiler

In my opinion, Homura actually fulfilled her wish to the dot in terms of protecting Madoka (despite "failing" a bunch of times).

It seems like overall in all of the timelines, the one constant that never changed was Homura, in that she didn't die. Everyone else in the timeline (with the exception of Kyubey) seemed to be variables.

i.e. Madoka and Mami die peacefully in Timeline 1
but come Timeline 4 Madoka gets turned into a witch.

Also, across all the timelines, it seems Sayaka is predestined to give into grief and turn into a witch. (Only possibly, as she was never a magical girl in Timeline One).

Anyway, Homura only became a constant within the timelines because of her wish to protect Madoka, whose existence was highly variable. At each end of the timelines she traveled to, Homura always saw Madoka die, which made her think of herself as a failure come the alpha timeline (aka the timeline of the show), in which Walpurgs is about to slay Homura, and Madoka is about to become a magical girl. However, because Madoka had information ahead of time about all of these "doomed" timelines, she was able to make the favorable outcome, which was the "hard reset" of the current timeline.

This also provided a shift in the constants/variables in the show:

Instead of Madoka's existence being a variable, it becomes a constant across all of space-time due to her ascension to God hood (which only happened because she created a paradox due to destroying her own future!witch, but still being bound to existence by the terms of her wish, which made her transcend all of space-time and pretty much spectacularly foil all of Kyubey's plans. All of them).

This in turn, disabled Homura's time abilities (as there was never a Madoka to protect?), so her existence became a variable within the show.

So in the end, Homura's failures actually saved Madoka - in fact, all of the Madokas, and it was pretty much Homura who orchestrated this favorable outcome, even if she did think she failed at first

 

I like how you've put all of this, and yes, I have to agree with EVERYTHING you said...
Also, I have come to realise Plums... what is it with us? In terms of... we watch anime where:

Spoiler

the main character(s) end up reaching a state of god hood

I mean... Gurren Lagann and Madoka etc...
It's mind boggling lol.
Anyway, Madoka has been declared the greatest Magical Girl anime of all time and for good reason.
I was a fan of Nanoha, but I think Madoka even kicks Nanoha's butt.
Anyway... yeah. lol
I was watching MAdoka as it came out (with all the delays lol... and that made it unbearable) It was one of those shows where I could not wait for the next week to come for the next episode. lol XD

 

I know this is a megabump, but I'm not going to make a new thread for this, so I apologize.

I finished Madoka quite a bit ago and enjoyed it. I never considered dropping it, but that's probably partially due to the fact that it was so short.

Although I enjoyed it, I didn't find it to be the best. I can't even accurately call it the best magical girl anime, because I don't venture into that genre much at all. While everyone was raving about it, I felt like that awkward 'nod and smile' chick.

I feel this series is extremely overrated. For some reason, it didn't really leave me feeling much of anything at all at the very end of it. It was a good experience (watching it), and was a good way to pass the time but it wasn't godly or anything that I'll look back on and hnnng.

The animation was great, but the art style annoyed me. I wish I could say I'm referring to the witches art style, but I'm not. I mean their eyes and their huge faces. It's definitely unique, but it wasn't visually appealing to me. Not enough to make me vomit, but enough for 'ewww' to always be in the back of my mind somewhere during a close up.

The music was okay. I have the OST and only one song stands out and the rest are just derpKajiura.

Now the plot itself... Warning; Spoilers present.

I believe my dislike for some aspects of it is simply due to the fact that this anime wasn't long enough to me. There wasn't enough time to make me feel passionately about anyone or any of the storylines or freaky time ****.

Only two things in this serious really made me feel something interiorly;

Mami getting her head bitten off. ~ Because in those types of scenes, it's generic and predictable for them to win the fight and everything is fine. But instead, Mami died and it was a very unique and different approach. However, I felt nothing for Mami because for some reason during the entire beginning, I found her suspicious and weird.

Second was Kyouko's character. I enjoyed her the most. She's the only character I felt for at all, but her character development (along with everyone else's) was rushed. If the series was longer, I would have absolutely adored her forever. I love how she went from hurrdurr selfish prick to not-so-much. She actually cared, and her 'unlikely friendship' with Sayaka was touching. Her suicide was interesting, if not sad. I didn't really see her doing it, but it wasn't misplaced.

Sayaka and Madoka annoyed me. More-so Madoka.

I commend Sayaka for using her wish for Kyosuke. But as stated in the actual show, she was so naieve it was sickening. The fact that she did that, but she didn't even confess just made me want to jump off of a building and die. Then she became this 'stoic' crazy mess and no, this didn't make me feel sorry for her. It made me think she was a doormat. Even confessing and being horribly rejected would have given me more respect for her than how she handled it.

Hitomi gave her an opportunity and she didn't take it. Her fault, even if it was because she was like, "i r magicall, this r better for himmmz'. Truth is, in my opinion, she should have confessed well before she became a magical girl. It was obvious she had feelings for him, and maybe if she had gathered the courage to do so and be strong and by his side, then when Kyubey came fishing for lolis she would have had a reason so stay grounded and refuse. Maybe this was emphasis that they're young and misguided.

Madoka was horribly Mary Sue. My feelings for her did not improve at the end when she went Super!Madoka, either. The whole time she just watched and angst. She could not make up her mind and her conviction was so weak that she was easily distracted by Homura. I felt this way when the Mami death happened. They were apparently frozen in fear, but really? CONTRACT, OR DO SOMETHING. SOMETHING. Of course, being a magical girl wasn't that great a thing at all. It was all misleading and terrible, but there is no doubt in my mind that if I were put into this situation...As soon as Sayaka became a Magical Girl, I would have contracted. If only to attempt to protect and stand by my 'best friend's side.

I understand that this is all just supposed to contrast with the end and the freaky time **** where Madoka was a badarse and everything but it was just painful to watch her do nothing. Nothing. Then it was like, "now that everyone's dead, i must do this. /characterdevelopment trollface."

Homura was like Madoka's Snape. She seemed like a bad guy at first, which was weird. But she's actually just protecting you, bro, no worries! No, but seriously, I don't know. I didn't care about Homura at all, tbh. No anger, no praise. Just. I don't know. What's the moral here? Gradually going *****-mode and losing your innocence is the only way to protect your friends, but regardless, you'll always be suffering?

If not witches, demons? You can change the future, but not really?

Morale -2000. What is life?


Okay. So ultimately, I'm over-exaggerating a lot of the bad simply because I see no one bringing it to light. The series was good. It was a nice watch. But it was in no way perfect, and it won't be everyone's cup of tea. The series didn't make me sad. I felt sorry for no one. I chalk this up to the series being too short. I think that I would have liked everything better if it were more drawn out and I actually cared a bit about the main cast.

Oops. I'd also like to point out that when it comes to anime, games, movies, books, fiction...I think I might be a bit desensitized. I've always been into more graphic, deep, twisted, psychological things. So while a lot of the things brought up had some people in tears, or freaking out, I just...It takes quite a bit to move me when it's fiction unless it's just flat-out intense. I personally didn't find Madoka very intense at all.

^All of that = opinion, not fact.
​

 

So... did anyone know the series is getting three movies?


From TV Tropes:

Thoughts?
I'm personally intrigued, I mean, a compilation is alright, especially if they do it how Gurren Lagann did and keep the story the same, but maybe enhance some of the battles and such. I dunno, but I can't complain.

I'm also intrigued for the third movie about how on earth things will continue from where they left off.
Unless the ending of the second compilation will lead into the third or something. But yeah.

Again, I ask for your thoughts and such. lol

 

Eh, it depends. What could they do with the movie that hasn't been done in the anime? Elaborate on things I guess? Heck, I feel terrible that, regardless of any timeline and what may happen, that Sayaka can never exist. It just saddened me to death that she could never exist except for the brief moments she is there. But I guess that is because GreenHairChick was always in existence. So that means in order for Sayaka to be alive, she would have to be dead, eh? I dunno, me rambling I guess.

Still, I wonder what they could actually do with three movies...