{"id":10905,"date":"2011-04-24T15:33:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T20:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/?p=10905"},"modified":"2011-04-24T15:33:04","modified_gmt":"2011-04-24T20:33:04","slug":"final-impressions-puella-magi-madoka-magica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/?p=10905","title":{"rendered":"Final Impressions: Puella Magi Madoka Magica"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a lot of ways, we knew exactly what to expect from Puella Magi Madoka Magica<\/em> before the first episode even aired. The\u00a0story was a closely guarded\u00a0secret and the previews were only\u00a0stills of the characters and a few random lines of dialogue with the opening theme in the background.\u00a0But\u00a0several other things\u00a0stuck out. Shinbo had directed\u00a0several magical girl anime before, and now he wanted to take a risk doing an anime-original\u00a0story. It was obvious that he wouldn’t be bothering with this unless he had\u00a0something interesting in mind, but the music, character designs, and what we could discern of the premise gave the impression of a bog-standard Nanoha rehash.\u00a0But once it was revealed that Urobuchi Gen was in charge of the\u00a0script, everything\u00a0suddenly made\u00a0sense.<\/p>\n

It’s not what a\u00a0story is about, but rather how<\/em> it’s about it. Execution is the\u00a0single most important part of\u00a0storytelling regardless of the medium. As the premise grows\u00a0more complex and ambitious, it becomes more difficult to pull off. But with higher risk comes higher payoff. When these\u00a0sorts of\u00a0stories are told properly, they can leave an impression on viewers for years or even decades. When done poorly, they typically end up\u00a0so terrible<\/a> that they can enrage even the most\u00a0stoic fans. Into which extreme does\u00a0Puella Magi Madoka Magica<\/em> fall?<\/p>\n

If you make a contract with me, I can take you past the break!<\/p>\n

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One-shotting the universe.<\/p><\/div>\n

What I Liked<\/h2>\n

Foreshadowing:<\/strong> One of the least discussed and most difficult of creative writing techniques, it’s also one of the most effective. The trick is to drop a few\u00a0clues\u00a0and then reveal the answer just before the audience figures it out. In\u00a0some cases it didn’t quite\u00a0succeed\u00a0(everyone knew where witches came from by the\u00a0second episode), but in most it\u00a0succeeded\u00a0spectacularly. The best example is arguably the reveal of the nature of the Soul Gem. It’s\u00a0so obvious in retrospect, but anime has left fans accustomed to meaningless\u00a0English terminology for magical items. Most viewers will barely even consider it until Madoka tosses Sayaka’s Soul Gem off a bridge.<\/p>\n

Characters:<\/strong> One of the common criticisms of Madoka Magica<\/em> is that the characters are not particularly deep and don’t have much development. While I can understand why people may feel that way, I disagree. The main thing to consider is that, excluding episode ten,\u00a0the\u00a0story we’re told takes place over less than two weeks and in a limited\u00a0set of relevant circumstances. Despite that, every character goes through\u00a0some important change in their personality and values: Madoka\u00a0tears down Mami’s emotional walls. Sayaka is\u00a0pragmatic, cheerful and well-adjusted until\u00a0she learns the true nature of Puella Magi and loses the boy for whom\u00a0she made her wish. Kyouko is cold, calculating and completely\u00a0self-centered until\u00a0she realizes how\u00a0similar Sayaka is to how\u00a0she used to be. Homura’s origin\u00a0story in episode ten was one of the best\u00a0single episodes of anime I’ve ever\u00a0seen. Madoka is initially enthusiastic about finding\u00a0something to which\u00a0she can apply herself, but is paralyzed with fear and uncertainty following Mami’s death. Over the course of the\u00a0series,\u00a0she grows out of this. She realizes there is\u00a0something only\u00a0she can do and applies herself with all the resolve and confidence that initially won Homura over. Most of the characters exhibit hamartia<\/a> reminiscent of classical drama and even Shakespearean works. The way they interact\u00a0and affect their own personalities as much as each other’s is very well written and leads deliberately and logically to their respective resolutions. For\u00a0such a\u00a0short\u00a0series with\u00a0so much other content that needs attention, there’s actually a remarkable amount of character development woven in. I could probably write an entire article on Kyubey. He’s likely the most memorable character in the\u00a0series, despite never changing his personality any more than his expression. Though the final\u00a0scene of Homura\u00a0speaking to him makes it difficult to pin him as a villain, his callous and calculating approach to the lives of humans is terrifyingly alien. But the\u00a0scariest thing may be that as much as we’d like to demonize him, we find it hard to prove him wrong.<\/p>\n

Music:<\/strong> Much like Star Wars<\/em>, it’s hard to imagine what Madoka Magica<\/em> would be like without its beautiful\u00a0score. Kajiura Yuki<\/a>‘s emotional and melodic\u00a0style is the perfect compliment to the runaway tragedy of the\u00a0story and its characters. Her baroque and classical progressions match the European aesthetics of the Puella Magi’s costumes and the witches. Every track is distinct and memorable, which is rare for an anime\u00a0soundtrack. Kajiura belongs right up there with Yoko Kanno and Nobuo Uematsu as the best in the business.<\/p>\n

Ending:<\/strong> The revelation that Incubators have been interacting with humanity\u00a0since time immemorial has mushrooming implications. While\u00a0the\u00a0story of Joan of Arc<\/a> makes a lot more\u00a0sense when you add Kyubey, it raises enough questions about other girls for fans to\u00a0speculate about for years. It wasn’t vital to the conclusion, but it was a logical tangent and it fleshed out the\u00a0series’ universe in an interesting and compact manner. The final resolution even managed to keep entropy and the balance of hope and despair in focus and applied it to the world Madoka created. Both of these could have been easily forgotten, but it’s a very nice touch that they remained consistently relevant all the way through. Just like\u00a0so many other things in this\u00a0show, Madoka’s wish is incredibly obvious in retrospect but nearly impossible to predict. At first it\u00a0seems to be a deus ex machina flying in from nowhere. But after rewatching the entire\u00a0series, I noticed that her wish had been foreshadowed all over the place.\u00a0I also\u00a0realized that it’s the only satisfying ending\u00a0possible. No other ending could have addressed the fundamental problems of the Puella Magi\u00a0system. Rather than the epic resolution Madoka wrought, at best it would have been tragic but unfulfilling. What we got was far from a truly happy ending, but it was certainly much more positive than I would have predicted.\u00a0Still, I was quite disappointed that Madoka didn’t kiss<\/a> Homura before dematerializing, but we all know SHAFT hates<\/a> lesbians.<\/p>\n

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I have to cry for 15 minutes straight?<\/p><\/div>\n

What I Hated<\/h2>\n

Pacing:<\/strong> Though the pacing was generally quite good, there were\u00a0some notable exceptions. Episode\u00a0four had a few\u00a0scenes which could have been cut. There were too many shots\u00a0of\u00a0Madoka moping around that didn’t further the\u00a0story or develop her character. It’s not the crying that bothered me, but we don’t need to be\u00a0shown so much of it without it earning its\u00a0screentime by accomplishing\u00a0something else. Objectively, episode 12 also had quite a few\u00a0pacing problems. However, I was far too caught up in the whirlwind of emotions to care. I’m a\u00a0sucker for that crap.<\/p>\n

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Overall Impressions<\/h2>\n

Puella Magi Madoka Magica<\/em> is an impressive and ambitious deconstruction that turns a typical magical girl plot into a Faustian pact. Kyubey will probably ruin magic-bestowing mascots in anime for years in much the\u00a0same way Watchmen<\/em> ruined\u00a0superhero stories. But even though it’s primarily about desperation and the folly of\u00a0putting others before yourself, it nevertheless builds up to\u00a0a selfless\u00a0wish of hope and a cathartic, bittersweet resolution. Yes, at the last moment, SHAFT deconstructed their own deconstruction. For that reason, I could recommend this\u00a0show equally to people who want\u00a0something tragic or\u00a0something uplifting. Now to wait for the inevitable\u00a0spinoff: Puella Magi Valkyrie<\/a> Magica<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/h2>\n
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In a lot of ways, we knew exactly what to expect from Puella Magi Madoka Magica before the first episode even aired. The\u00a0story was a closely guarded\u00a0secret and the previews were only\u00a0stills of the characters and a few random lines … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050,31,3,1661],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2011-winter-season","category-anime","category-reviews","category-showreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.projectharuhi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}