Madoka Magica - General Discussion

[omimon]

Originally Posted by applejuice

Preorder ranking is amazing.
http://animapple.blogspot.com/2011/0...of-winter.html


So, everything that staffs, shinbo, urobuchi, Iwakami, Ume, basically everyone said was a LIE. They were even thinking of hiding the name of 'Urobuchi' until the airing. Shaft and Production team still wanted the 'surprise' effect, so they purposefully made contradicting statements.

and look at preorder ranking. It's too good to be true.

So....this anime isn't slice-of-life with cute characters and actually full of blood and gore and shit hitting the fan?

[Cloudy]

If Deadman Wonderland replaces Madoka in its timeslot on April, we could refer to this anime timeslot as ''Dark Anime No Chikara''

Afterall Togainu No Chi and Kuroshitsuji II aired in the same timesort before Madoka.

[HitoriTomoyo]

XD I love the trolling staff.

I'm totally going to advertise Madoka Magica as a cheerful, positive, uplifting series to anyone that displays interest in this series from this point on.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by omimon

So....this anime isn't slice-of-life with cute characters and actually full of blood and gore and shit hitting the fan?

Midonin is going to be disappointed...

I am, too, to some extent. I was hoping the show would be able to strike a balance between light-hearted slice of life and darker stuff.

[Ichijo]

I created a theory how the plot can go Eva level dark until the last episode and then still be able to set up the sequel manga with a 'happy' ending. I'll wait until the 4th episode to see if plot really goes downhill.

[Cloudy]

I wonder if Gen is trolling us with the ''happy story'' stuff or he is trying to pull off Disney Deaths ala a certain Sunrise anime that was created in 2004.

[applejuice]

^ Not much people were trolled actually (since Urobuchi did this kind of lie a lot before). It's more like anti-troll hype, where people gets satisfaction for something they expected becoming true when they are saying 'it can't be happening!!' on surface.

If Urubuchi goes with his usual characteristic, there will be death in every episode. This kind of spontaneous zetsubou shita can't possibly be compared with that certain sunrise animu.

[panzerfan]

Here's my crappy translation:

Originally Posted by Butch_Gen

So, this here below would be my alibi-
"What's up with this Uroboshi Gen writing a heartwarming title?" -- Seriously, we've wanted to keep [my] name out of the radar, but because the info was leaked in the spring prior [2010], the scheme fell apeart. But the director [Shinbo] still was really hoping to see how the audience would react [to the story].


So, I wanted to mislead everyone as it'd be awfully bad if people get wise on where the plot's gonna go because of 'me', so I went to douse the fire a bit. It seems that this ploy didn't really work.

That's that. I feel as if the boulder's off my shoulder. Thank you everyone for your support up till now! Here's to going back to being good'ol Uroboshi!

[Ichijo]

Here's to going back to being good'ol Uroboshi!

*Poor, poor cast.

[Cruor]

I laughed when Ryohgo Narita ( writer of Baccano! and Durarara!!) replied to Urobuchi's Twitter saying "Always expect the worst possibility! He will surely exceed that!"

[felix]

*looks at gloomy*

Mybe it's just me, but don't we now have two trigger happy idiots just itching to bring her back?

Heck, one of them doesn't even care what she wishes for anyway...

[Cloudy]

I just realised the last ep of Madoka is airing on the same day as the opening of Sucker Punch.

AMV or fanart ideas anyone?

[J the Drafter]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Midonin is going to be disappointed...

I am, too, to some extent. I was hoping the show would be able to strike a balance between light-hearted slice of life and darker stuff.

All the grimdark in the story doesn't mean the show can't have scenes, or even entire episodes, dedicated to reflection, contemplation and satisfaction. Themes are stronger when there's contrast, which is why the character designs are light-hearted and cutesy. I don't think the production staff would have gone to all the effort of adding the sunshiney elements if they weren't going to give those elements some burn. The horror needs something to be measured by.

[Kanon]

I don't know. Now that the man himself has pretty much stated that the story will be "classic Urobuchi", I'm not getting my hopes up at all. That doesn't mean I won't enjoy the grimdark or grotesque stuff. I loved Saya no Uta. I was just hoping to see something different from him this time, that's all.

Originally Posted by felix

*looks at gloomy*

Mybe it's just me, but don't we now have two trigger happy idiots just itching to bring her back?

Heck, one of them doesn't even care what she wishes for anyway...

I'm sure they will. Just don't expect her to still look human.

[rocket]

Originally Posted by Starks

Especially the idea that

Spoiler for general:

Sayaka is the witch from the ep1 prologue

Sorry for the repost, but...

Lost of people see similarities between Sayaka's Puella Magi outfit and the witch in the ep1 opening, but I think they're just close similarities, not exact matches. There's just as many things that don't match as there are things that match.

The diagonal cut on the skirt *is* there in both, but...

* The witch has a full bell skirt, while Sayaka has a short and form fitting skirt that is pleated like a school uniform.
* The witch has a full petticoat under her skirt with a ruffly edge, Sayaka has a white trim at the edge of her skirt which matches the pleats on her skirt.


There is a loose cloth hanging from the top of both costumes, but...

* The witch's is more of a medieval headscarf, while Sayaka's is a cape hanging from her shoulders.
* The image claims that both cloths are white, but you can clearly see the runes through the witch's, which means it's a sheer translucent material, not a white cape like Sayaka's.


There is a claim that the witch's skirt is blue, but... with the weird end of the world lighting Homura's tights also look blue when we know they are purple, the building looks blue when we know that the concrete really should be grey... there's really only so man ways to draw shades of dark and most of them are cool and bluish.

In fact there are similarities to Mami's design, not just to Sayaka's. The witch's hairdoo has twin curly ends... like Mami's. The Witch's dress has a tight cinched waist... like Mami's. The witch's sleeves taper outward to become open bells (not like Sayaka's form fitting sleeves with separate cuffs)... like Mami's.

If you think about it, it would be hard for any witch design that was done by the same illustrator to not share some of these costume details because there's only so may ways to make a frilly dress.

Maybe Sayaka does meet a bad end. Maybe she does become the ultimate evil. But I'm not convinced that it's foreshadowed in these images anymore...

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by omimon

So....this anime isn't slice-of-life with cute characters and actually full of blood and gore and shit hitting the fan?

Did anyone actually believe it wouldn't hit the fan? :P

[applejuice]

Wow. Madoka preorder ranking. I've never seen anything like this since Angel Beats and Bakemonogatari.



After that Evangelion episode, the BD ranking suddenly soared and since then, it is keeping its position around ranking 5 (now it is 3rd for entire Bd ranking, and top place for animation only ranking). This is definitely the biggest hit of this season. It's in centre of all focus after all with bunch of MADOKA THREAD spamming in 2ch and 4chan. IS is only around rank 40 and Yumekui Merry is about 120, which isn't good. (and fractale is.... orz...)

This year = Urobuchi's year

[Kaoru Chujo]

Preorder ranking is fascinating. So is the fact that when I list current 2channel anime threads by number of posts per hour, the top ten threads (and also 12 through 15) are all for this show. The latest thread is running at 500 posts per hour, and the total number of posts on this show is over 61,000. The second most popular new shows are Infinite Stratos and Fractale, at 13K+ posts.

This year may be Urobuchi's, but it is Yuuki Aoi's, too: her role in Gosick is also gaining her a lot of fans. She has hit her stride there more than here.

I thought ep3 was excellent in all aspects. As someone wrote, this is where MadoMagi really begins.

[Midonin]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Midonin is going to be disappointed...

I'm more than willing to try out shows outside my comfort zone, and attempt to do so at least once a season. But I am, in the end, an idealist, an optimist, and a bit of an idiot...but at the same time, I'm fascinated by the strange dreamlike other realities of shows like 11eyes and the 5pb/Nitro+ science trilogy. I'm just the kind of person who focuses on the absurd, the comedic, the stuff that makes people smile and laugh. I'm not going to drop Madoka, but I will say upfront I'm not the kind of person who considers "dark" to equal "good", but I respect "dark" a storytelling device, when used sparingly. Sparingly.

It's a very complicated issue.

Plus, I'll have Suite Precure to balance this out and remind me that being a Magical Girl is sort of awesome too.

[Seihai]

I'm usually not a sucker for FanFiction but it'd be really interesting to read some about this show sometime in the future.