Animation Quality: 8/10
Solid overall. While it felt they cut corners, and art suffered in some part, it did not distract me as badly and Shaft sure knows what to do with the allocated budget. Something that the studio behind that other magical franchise should learn from.
Voice Actors: 8/10
Thank you Chiwa Saitou, thank you Aoi Yuki, thank you Ai Nonaka, thank you Kaori Mizuhashi, thank you Eri Kitamura and thank you Yuko Goto. But especially thank you Emiri Katou for Kyubey, you made him awesome.
Script: 9/10
A common challenge in creative writing is to write a compelling story under a limited number of words. Gen Urobochi does that with an one cour animated series. It's a lesson in writing to remember in regard of other series that have failed with one, two or three cours.
Soundtrack: 9/10
I always said to my irc friends that that other magical girl franchise would have hugely benefitted from a score made by the big names like Yoko Kanno or Yuki Kajiura. If Kajiura's score for Madoka have done anything, it is to nail what I said about it. But even without comparing those two anime, Madoka's score by itself is full of merits that are worth the praise.
Editing: 9/10
Correct me if I get that part wrong.
Stylistic-wise, I could call Shaft and Shinbo the Tim Burton of the anime industry. To me, and in my taste, Tim Burton is a love and hate affair, emphasis on hate, because I felt that his stylistic gimmicks are getting worn, tired and getting in my way when it comes to enjoyment. Shaft often felt that way to me.
However, in this show, this is one of the few times where I have felt that, rather than being a disservice to the show, Shaft being Shaft actually serves the show, by giving the show and the world within the show their own identity and helps it to stand out among the shows of its genre.
Enjoyment: 10/10
Man, this have been a thrilling and fun ride. This is the first show of the 2010s that made me eager for the next week. It did help that it is an original creation as in there was no original material to compare to, and that spoilers were mostly avoided. In the subject of spoilers, it tells you a lot when it is heavily discouraged to spoil the series for the people who are just discovering the series. Yes, keeping newbies in the dark and seeing their face as the events unfolds is just priceless. I enjoyed every single minute of it, and I speak as one who have watched the mahou shoujo genre back in its Momoko, Magical Emi and Creamy Mami days, watched Sailor Moon and Princess Tutu (and still prefers Card Captor Sakura over those classics).
Emotional Involvement: 10/10
This is tied together with my enjoyment. While Sayaka was far from my favorite, I still felt sorry for her when all that shit happening to her, fully knowing that it is mostly her fault. And this is one example among others. If some naysayer says, "Yeah, well Madoka is 90% shock!", I answer, "So fucking what?" even if you got your precious percentage wrong, a little shock here and there doesn't hurt. What mattered to me in the end is that I CARED FOR THE CHARACTERS!
I fucking know that too much grimdark would eventually kill care and interest in the characters. But the other side of the spectrum, where everything is ponies, rainbows and friendship winning the day without bloodshed and tears IS JUST AS BAD. I know that from personal experience, because this is how I eventually felt about that other magical girl franchise.
While watching Madoka, I could see what Vonnegut meant when he said, "
Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of."
General impression of the series.
I have come into Madoka series with one single expectation, not having paid mind to who was writing it (until SpaceBrotha reminded me who did): Please may this show not be another Nanoha. Make the magical girl magic again.
In some way, it met my one expectation. And added its own spin by reminding me that magic is not always a good thing. With wishes, comes the curses, with the magicians, comes the witches, with the innocence, comes the horror, with the miracles, comes the tragedies, with the joy, comes the despair. But in the end, hope.
Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
While the similarities with Faust may run not that deep, Madoka Magica remains a story with damnation and salvation as one of its themes. It's hope brought by the titular character that is the key to salvation for many of those damned souls. In that regard, I think that Gen nailed it right. Moreover, it takes one trope: the transformation of the titular character, teases us with it over ten episodes, by cleverly, slowly but surely unveiling the good and especially the bad aspects of the life of a magical girl, and making us aware that Madoka becoming a mahou shoujo could lead to the worst possible outcome. Homura's hamster wheel run under the sun of the Groundhog Day just serves it to drive it home.
So it looks like that it can only end in blood and tears, right? Well, no. Not all the Pact with the Devil stories ends with the Devil dragging the soul of the poor lad in Hell. Sometimes, it ends with such a selfless and noble act that God intervene and take the protagonist to Heaven, sometimes the man who contracted outsmarted the Devil and gain his own salvation by exploiting a loophole in the contract. Which Madoka did by taking an injustice in the system, exploit it and fix it. And she did not care what would happen to her so not only she earned her own salvation but also did it for everyone in the past, present, future and beyond, and in turn she have become much than that. As a result, her transformation is the climax of the series not because she becomes a mahou shoujo, but also because by doing that she becomes the herald of the very thing Mami said that Puella Magi were spreading and enforcing. The transformation of Madoka have become the climax, and more than the climax it is an apotheosis, Madoka Kaname herself have gone neyond the teenage girl, beyond the magical girl.
Result being, it is a well crafted story within a limited space with a limited cast of characters. As I have said earlier, Legend of Galactic Heroes, like Dune and War & Peace, slowly build its plot and flesh out its characters with a slow delibarate pace that its allowed by its format. Madoka Magica felt closer to the short stories. Short stories, by their brievety, are in no way inferior to novels, or doorstoppers. Done right, they are griping and thrilling. To quote Baudelaire, the brievety of the short stories adds to its intensity and this intensity leaves in the mind a powerful memory. And Madoka accomplish that, it yield great success where Angel Beats failed.It takes a genre, use plot devices that will make the people of great taste, or those who pretend to, roll their eyes, but use them in such ways that it makes you wonder why those plot devices and tropes are so bad that it set the pants of those who despises them on fire. And even the weaker parts of Madoka Magica, some parts of episodes 4 & 9, pales when it comes to contemplate the whole tapestry.
If I have to say one thing about how the plot progressed to that ending, I'll leave the quote that have come in mind when episode 9, 10 and 11 passed (until the last seconds of episode 11)
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Samwise Gamgee
It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo; the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end... because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.
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What the show meant to you.
As you may have concluded from my lenghty post, it meant a lot for me. You know I care a lot about the characters when, myself rooting for a bad end by the end of episode 3, I ended up to hope for a better end after episode 10. Gen Urobochi and Shinbo managed to do that. As I have said, I HAVE watched Sailor Moon, and absolutely hated it, and Princess Tutu while nice did not left a big impression on me, so the anime veterans who want to give me history lessons can go back to their nostalgia booth for all I care; I can't repeat enough how that other magical franchise is disappointing, and Card Captor Sakura is my favorite magical girl anime.
Know what? Madoka Magica is now the magical girl anime I'll make my child, if I even have one, or nieces and nephews (more likely) watch with Card Captor Sakura.
So yeah, 9/10