I held off for nearly a month on writing this review because I forgot was thinking deeply about what to say. Madoka by far was the most popular show of the spring season, and with good reason. For me, the best part of the show was all the twists and turns in the plot— it really kept you coming back for more, wanting to know what would happen. Madoka was the show I looked forward to each new episode of the most since Code Geass aired. I won’t spoil any of the plot twists, but will just say that many were shocking and unexpected. Everything is wrapped up in the end, although the ending for Madoka was kind of silly.
Madoka also stands out for its excellent cast of characters. The weakest is the titular Madoka, but her indecisiveness serves as the main driving force behind the show. The villain, Kyuubey, will be remembered for a long time. This is how you make a great villain – not someone who cackles evilly while destroying the world, but someone who considers what they’re doing good. Sayaka, Kyoko and Homura also turned into detailed, sympathetic characters.
Shaft went all out on the production for this, and it shows. The battle scenes especially are spectacular. Shinbo needs to do more shows like Madoka and forget about all the crap sequels and moe shows that SHAFT has been churning out lately.
Anyway, don’t be deceived by the title— Madoka Magica is a show about magical girls, but it isn’t a show for little girls. Expect something dark and violent.
- Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Plenty of twists and turns, great mystery development.
- Characters – 9 / 10 – Excellent, especially for Sayaka, Kyoko and Homura
- Production – 10 / 10 – Beautiful, especially the fights and witches’ worlds
- Overall – A-
Recommendations – Noein, Mai-HiME, Narutaru
The characters were really the weakest link in the show for me. They weren’t quite as bland as others have claimed, but they weren’t excellent by any stretch of the imagination. They were much closer to the cliches-with-backstories in Angel Beats than they were to the girls in Red Garden on kids in Bokurano, for instance.
Still, I won’t look a gift-horse in the mouth any more than I should. Once I set aside the lofty expectations that it’s fandom set for it, Madoka was still a good show. They didn’t have time to characterize the cast beyond cliche, yet they still tried harder to entertain me than most of the anime airing the past year.
And yes, Shaft needs to be rewarded for Madoka. I think they should also be punished for cranking out more crap like Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, but that’s asking too much of our moe-obsessed otaku brethren.
actually, the fact that the characters weren’t anything new and were cliche’s made it better, or at least more of a deconstruction. I felt that this show wanted to take overused characters that we’ve seen over and over, and throw them into a world where not everything is black or white, or pretty. Where every heroic action or good deed has a consequence.
“although the ending for Madoka was kind of silly”
No it isn’t. YOU LEAVE MY GODDESS MADOKA ALONE!
Sorry, I am a godless heathen who should be burnt at the stake.
Yes, the ending seemed rather odd but I found that it made a whole lot more sense in the dub and the official subbed version by Aniplex. I know that this review is old but the ending is so much better without the lackluster translation in the fansubs. I got so bored at the end of Madoka Magica at first but when I watched the blu ray I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
Interesting, I might have to give the ending a second look then.