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Originally Posted by ChainLegacy
Madoka gets an 8/10 from my point of view. First short anime series I've watched in a while, so it was definitely good enough to get my attention. The story itself was intriguing and I enjoyed the Faustian undertones present throughout. Rather than reiterate the good points of a clearly well-loved series I'll point out my few detracting factors:
Predictable - The series was very predictable, which in and of itself is not a bad thing (Maison Ikkoku being one of my favorite series), but I do not get the impression it wanted you to have everything figured out before they revealed things to you. I had surmised that Homura was a time-traveler, using Kyubey's wish to accomplish this feat, very early on. Kyubey was quite obviously a 'villainous' creature from the first episode - the foreshadowing came on a bit strong in my opinion.
Characterization - Only one problem here, but it was rather glaring... Kyoko and Sayaka sure did pull a rather unjustified 180 in their antagonism/friendship. Guess I'll chalk that one up to not having enough time.
The setting - I am an open minded individual, but the magical girl element only served to detract from the series, in my opinion. The story could have been given a more serious cast and set of powers and still portray the same message. Of course, part of this one has to do with the target audience, but this is my personal viewpoint. It's just a little bit too silly for me.
The ending - Deus ex machina... The demon bit made very little sense in this rewritten world, as well. I hesitate to say I wanted a bad ending for the characters, but having Madoka destroy the world and Homura turn into a witch would have been a more palatable ending than this - some things can't be changed.
Despite these problems, I enjoyed the series quite thoroughly, thus it gets a thumbs up from me.
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I largely agree with you on the characterization criticism, although I'm not sure what Sayaka did that was odd. Kyouko basically went from wanting to kill Sayaka to wanting to be Sayaka's BFF... overnight. Yeah,
that was hard to swallow. However, the way Sayaka rolled with it seemed reasonable to me, short of maybe her forcing the issue with Kyouko (though I can understand why Sayaka would choose not to).
However, as for your other criticisms...
How were these characters "non-serious"? Mami, Sayaka, Kyouko, and Homura all struck me as
deathly serious. Mami made no bones about how she risks her life to fight witches. Sayaka made no pretension over how her and Kyouko were seriously trying to kill each other. Kyouko was firm in her philosophy and clearly willing to severely maim if not kill another Puella Magi to adhere to it. And Homura risked her own life (and the lives of others) to try to save Madoka.
Madoka was the only one who needed to "get real" for awhile, and in the end, Madoka took things very seriously indeed.
Now, set of powers...
Muskets, Hand-guns, Swords, Spear, Bow and Arrow, Heavy Conventional Arms... I mean, these are all real world weapons, for crying out loud. Just somewhat amplified by magical power.
The more fantastical powers were time-stop, binds, and healing.
Honestly, you found this non-serious and hard to swallow? It's no harder to swallow than your average Superman comic book.
Also, I'll never understand how somebody could view this ending as Deus ex Machina. It's not like the wish system, and Madoka's high magical potential, wasn't known from the second episode! Even before the finale aired, I speculated that a well-worded wish by Madoka may well resolve the major conflicts of this anime, and lo and behold, it does.
It's not a deus ex machina when something that's a well-established and commonly referenced plot device actually does what it's supposed to in order to resolve the story.
Your suggested bad ending is what I would have found truly horrible, and a real condemnation of Madoka's character and intellect. Given all the time and knowledge she had to work with, she
should come up with a good wish! I'm very glad that we got the ending that we did. It makes perfectly good sense in-story.