Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a mouthful. It's also a deceptively good magical girl anime series and a hard sell.
I mean, how do you convince a non-anime enthusiast that PMMM is worth watching when it's promotional materials look like this:
It's understandable for a person to see that and write off the show as some girly crap that isn't up their alley. But that would mean they miss out on the creepy awesomeness that is Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
The plot gets rolling when the titular Madoka and her close friend Sayaka encounter a strange cat like creature called Kyubey who offers to grant a wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl. The catch is that magical girls have to fight witches, monsters that secretly prey on humanity, causing accidents and suicides. Rounding out the initial cast there's also Mami, a veteran MG who shows the newbies the ropes, and Homura, an enigmatic MG who is opposed to Madoka forming a contract.
At 12 episodes PMMM is light on filler. Revelations and plot twists keep the pace up and the viewer (sample size: 1) interested. Characters die, choices are made and idealistic people find out they are not in the right series.
Of particular note is the visuals. The character designs are simplistic allowing fluid motion, and the backgrounds are elaborate and lavish or austere and bleak. But the witches, their familiars and the labyrinths they inhabit are the high point. They have different, sometimes rather jarring, animation styles which emphasis their alien nature.
As much as I like this series, it's not perfect. Madoka and Sayaka are painfully naive and idealistic, and the former also has a saccharine and squeaky voice. I was also a little down on the ending, but that's because I'd seen something similar in another anime where it felt more right. But these are minor quibbles (and ones whose presence I can understand even if I don't like) in an otherwise fine piece of media.
The plot gets rolling when the titular Madoka and her close friend Sayaka encounter a strange cat like creature called Kyubey who offers to grant a wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl. The catch is that magical girls have to fight witches, monsters that secretly prey on humanity, causing accidents and suicides. Rounding out the initial cast there's also Mami, a veteran MG who shows the newbies the ropes, and Homura, an enigmatic MG who is opposed to Madoka forming a contract.
Don't trust anything that doesn't blink
At 12 episodes PMMM is light on filler. Revelations and plot twists keep the pace up and the viewer (sample size: 1) interested. Characters die, choices are made and idealistic people find out they are not in the right series.
Of particular note is the visuals. The character designs are simplistic allowing fluid motion, and the backgrounds are elaborate and lavish or austere and bleak. But the witches, their familiars and the labyrinths they inhabit are the high point. They have different, sometimes rather jarring, animation styles which emphasis their alien nature.
As much as I like this series, it's not perfect. Madoka and Sayaka are painfully naive and idealistic, and the former also has a saccharine and squeaky voice. I was also a little down on the ending, but that's because I'd seen something similar in another anime where it felt more right. But these are minor quibbles (and ones whose presence I can understand even if I don't like) in an otherwise fine piece of media.
(this one's just here for the Facebook thumbnail (which then stopped working after I added it, sigh))
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