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[Nosebleed]

Watching madoka...I feel ill guys, i feel ill.

Would you like to form a contract? ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

[Kurisu-Chan]

Would you like to form a contract? ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!! I'm super cereal.

[Stray Cat]

Time this went up (spoilers):

 

[Flutterz]

Madoka review:

Story: 9

Originally watching it was kind of Higurashi-esque, everything starts out all cutesy and nice, and then you realize that shit's fucked, man. Around episode 5 you start to realize that Madoka probably isn't going to make her wish and don the outfit she wears in the OP.

Characters: 8

I lost my head over Mami, Homura did nothing wrong, Sayaka/Kyouko almost as yuri as Madoka/Homura.

／̖͎͆̕人̙̤̂̒́◕͙͓͖̗̀̌̈͊ ͖̱̠̐ͪ̆͌ͪͭ͜͡‿̮͇̑͗̒‿̶̝̺͈̲̺͙ͤ͐̊͢͝ ͆ͤͨ̑ͤ҉̴̜̺̠̳̙̕◕̨͉̜̲̺͉̰̖̫̤̀͒ͧ̌̃̔ͯ̀̚人̢͍̹̖͕̳̯ͧ͊ͤ̋̽̍ͯ͒͊ͅ＼̢̢̢̩͙͖̄ͪͫ̃͋͋͋͋̚҉̞̻̦̗̲͜ ̡̩̲̭͖̬͔̘͎ͮ͌ͭ̐͂͐͘͞ͅD͔̥̫̤̬ͮͥ͐̃O̶̮̠͎̎̑͂͑̀ ̘̘̗̲̰͉̹͉ͮ̈̒ͤͥͥͧ̋̈́́͠Y̸̨̯͙̰͌̚O̘͍̜̘̦̱͙̓ͫͬ͠Ǔ̱̮ͥ͋̽͜ ̸̴͈̞̱̣̳͚̰͖̲̐̒͜W̿̇͐̌͢҉̼̠̯̙̲͙̬A̙̰̼̦̗͉͌N͈̼̥̰͖̪̜̻ͯ̿̾ͮ͒͆̚ͅN̙̱ͦ̀ͯ͌̅ͅÂ̶̙̼̙͉͇̫̏̀ͯ͒̽̀̎̈́͝ ͖̮̳̇̍́M̧͇̩ͨ͑͝A̴̗̻̥ͨ͗͛ͭͧ͘Ķ͓̰̥͎̠̉̆ͣͭ̌́E̴̢̺͓͇͓̗̍̑͊̀ͤ̎ͭͅ ̢̙̤̯̩̄̑̌̉́́́A̷̴̙̲̺͔̩͔̺̩̓ͥͮ ̣̫̗̊͆͗C̮͚͑̔̔ͨ̐̎ͅͅO̢̜̗̼̦͇͍̮̘͛ͬ͒̀N̵͍̜̞̖̦̱͙̰̑̌̆T̯̻ͥ͐̋́̔ͨ͢͢R̸̵̝̯̬̜̞̅ͨ̃̅̋̚A̵̫̦̠͓̖ͭͨ̏C̼̪̱̪̄͆͘Ṱ̯̮͙̩̄̐͌̓̒̄́͡?͓̖̲͉̱̄̎̀́?̼̻͍͎̫̼̔͌̓̏̈́̆͌̑͒͘?̷̣̠̪̼̻͌͂ͪͬ̐ͅ

Soundtrack: 10

Great OST, I particularly like the ED song.

Art style: 7

The biggest complaint I have about Madoka is that their faces look weird. And this is coming from someone who likes pretty much everything made by Key and the original art in Higurashi/Umineko. I would have given this a lower score if not for the awesome witch scenes.

Enjoyment: 9

Was fun, would sell my soul to make a wish to go back in time to watch it again.

Overall: 9

[Nosebleed]

Might as well review it now

 

Story: 7

Rewatching the movies didn't provide any additional enjoyment after I had watched the TV series.

The problems with the story are still the same, especially with the 3rd movie that just comes back to ruin what could have been a greater plot.

I think if they had left it off after the TV series/ Movie 2, I would have given it an 8, maybe a 9. But as it stands everything felt forced after the TV series and i particularly disliked the 3rd movie's conclusion.

While I get they were trying to go for a bittersweet/dark-ish ending, it just felt poorly written.

 

And it's not to stay the original TV series is perfect either. There's a lot of pacing issues early on where everything is very slow paced only to try and add suspense even though you already know the show is going to be d4rk.

 

Madoka took freaking forever to make a contract despite we all knowing she would do it and it just felt meh to watch her drag the whole thing out for episodes on end. Her whiny self was also annoying to handle.

 

But overall, it was still executed well enough to be entertaining. The fights were great, the drama was pretty good too when it didn't focus on Madoka. So I feel like a 7 is fair.

 

I feel like at this point they're actually calling for a sequel, though I don't know wether or not I want to see it.

 

Characters: 8

Homura best grill.

Nuff said

 

Soundtrack: 10

Easy 10 for me.

I still have the singles from both the TV series and the movie and listen to them regularly.

The soundtrack during the series is also incredibly fitting and well composed, particularly during the witch fights.

It's like having your own personal orquestra playing while you watch some amazing action.

It just felt nice to listen to each time.

 

Art Style: 10

Aoki Ume is my favorite mangaka. Needless to say her character designs resonate within me a lot.

The overall character design was very charismatic and unique. The eyes gave off this relaxing expression, they weren't bulging balls of bright colors like most anime.

 

I know the wide faces take time for some people to get used to and I can't do anything about that.

 

But for me, this artstyle just grew on me with time and I can never have enough of it

 

Good job Aoki-sensei

 

Enjoyment: 8

Despite my problems with the story, I still find the series as a whole to be fun to watch.

 

The fights are great, especially in the movie where the visuals were somewhat improved.

 

The plot doesn't get boring, it always keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what will unfold next.

 

And even though you can already predict most things, the twists and turns are still a surprise and are fun to watch.

 

The characters also easily grow on you and I think they are really what made the series shine the most

 

Overall: 8/10

The movies didn't add to my experience, but they didn't downgrade it either.

I still felt like i did when i originally watched Madoka.

It's a good dark show and albeit I find flaws in the story, I think the loveable characters, the music and the artstyle, really make the show come together and make for a fun dark ride.

[Kurisu-Chan]

My review thus far of Madoka.

 

 

 

10/10 will never follow Urobutchi work.

[Nosebleed]

Out of everything written by Urobuchi, Madoka isn't really the most inspiring.

It's just that highschool girls suffering touches people a lot more.

 

I still think Saya no Uta is his Magnum Opus.

 

Though Madoka is probably the best introduction to the whole "suffering" genre.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Out of everything written by Urobuchi, Madoka isn't really the most inspiring.

It's just that highschool girls suffering touches people a lot more.

 

I still think Saya no Uta is his Magnum Opus.

It's not only that.

 

If they were full grown girls, no prob.

 

These are lolis.

[Nosebleed]

It's not only that.

 

If they were full grown girls, no prob.

 

These are lolis.

Eh, in Nanoha there's 10 and 9 year olds suffering, that's elementary school age.

Middle School girls like in Madoka are pretty standard in Mahou Shoujo anime, Madoka doesn't go too far on that end.

 

Of course watching girls suffering is hard either way, but out of all the characters in the show, Homura was the only one I emphasized with the most and the one who suffered the most.

The rest were just kind of caught up in all of it and mostly cried over stuff, they didn't exactly go through a ton of hardships like Homura did. Just saying.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Eh, in Nanoha there's 10 and 9 year olds suffering, that's elementary school age.

Middle School girls like in Madoka are pretty standard in Mahou Shoujo anime, Madoka doesn't go too far on that end.

 

Of course watching girls suffering is hard either way, but out of all the characters in the show, Homura was the only one I emphasized with the most and the one who suffered the most.

The rest were just kind of caught up in all of it and mostly cried over stuff, they didn't exactly go through a ton of hardships like Homura did. Just saying.

 

To be honest, it's not that i'm sad, it's just that i'm more in a "WTF" face, being standard doesn't mean you can't be hurt by things like that, if so....you may become a psychopath.

[Nosebleed]

If you want people suffering, just watch Jigoku Shoujo.

That's suffer fest.

 

While I admit Madoka Magica was tough to watch by the end when they revealed everything that happened, I still didn't think it was a huge torture fest for the girls, it's just that the overall atmosphere lingering and how the show was written really brought out whatever small amount of suffering there was.

Which is good, don't get me wrong, but if you really analyze things, the show is not much different from several others in terms of how people are suffering.

 

I could easily compare Madoka to Steins;Gate in terms of how much the characters suffer.

[Kurisu-Chan]

Well it worked at me, but to be honest, i don't care that much about the characters, i dn't know, the genre shifting is too fast, i can't emphasis with the characters in such time.

[Down]

My post ended up being kinda spoiler-ish so I guess I'll spoiler it.

 

The difference is that in Madoka everything centers around the characters' suffering. It unfolds in a tragic way (in the greek sense of tragedy, the one of the "ineluctable fate"), and everything is done to show that.

 

I've seen people call Madoka nihilist and if they didn't start spewing bullshit about Nietzsche the next sentence to make it appear they read him, they would be pretty much right. Drama, suffering, tragedy existed in magical-girl anime before Madoka, but the only thing Madoka really did that was new was to be this way until the bitter end (a very Urobuchi thing I guess). Everything is meaningless, no matter what you do you get the bad ending. There's no message in this show, no likening it to the traditional magical-girl genre, just a very "modern" cynism - even the bittersweet ending, which doesn't change all that much in the end (not considering the 3rd movie here): Madoka takes a huge sacrifices herself, and the magical-girls are still fighting relentlessly for... pretty much nothing, except their fate is "less worse".

 

So yeah, I can get that it would be hard to watch for some people. The fact that Urobuchi isn't super good at writing humane characters (there must be like, ONE good slice of life scene in the show that helps characterization), and the fact that nowadays people relate and are used to that cynism (there's nothing more nihilist and cynical than the internet and I think it plays a role in how well received Madoka was), kinda put a dent in that though.

 

Tangents inside tangents. Welp.

Maybe I should write a review blurb thingy too. Maybe tomorrow.

[Nosebleed]

I guess because my literature classes in highschool centered so much around the whole inevitable fate thing (Portuguese literature is plagued by it), I couldn't really be touched as much by this series. I've just dealt with the trope way too much which perhaps kind of diminished the value of the whole thing.

 

But I don't think that's really it either.

 

While it was well executed, even when I first watched it I could not for the life of me say this show touched me in a super meaningful way.

I had previously watched shows with this trope that touched me more like Jigoku Shoujo or Elfen Lied (the manga is probably a better example than the anime) and these to me were trully tough to watch.

But Madoka, not as much.

 

It was a good darker story that won't make you smile, everything is pretty well written (forgetting the 3rd movie exists for a moment) but it didn't change my prespective on life or anything.

 

So while I recommend this show to people and concur it has value, I can never be on the side of the coin that considers Madoka to be a masterpiece.

[Kurisu-Chan]

And i never said that madoka was a masterpiece, but, excuse me, this anime is still sad, a show don't need to be a master piece in orde to be appreciated.

 

And when you compare it to steins;gate, sorry but steins;gate had half of the story centered on comedy/slice of life, when you get to know every character and grow fond of them.

 

Here, you just have 2 episodes for that, and of course, the who Burtonian creatues universe(for me, it's a leggit Tim Burton universe) and then, you get a big train of what the fuck, suffering, what the fuck and then suffering.

 

The whole pompous thing like "it changed my way of life" not that much, but it points out some real problem, and just because it don't get too far doesn't mean you can't get something other than "it's just a sad story".

 

It's not a master piece, but it's great, and enjoyable.

[Nosebleed]

I'm not saying you consider it a masterpiece.

I just always feel like the general consensus among fans is often that Madoka is really great and yet I just can't feel the same way.

Moreover I can never pinpoint exactly what makes me feel like Madoka isn't really that special to me which kind of infuriates me because I do think the characters in the show are great, but there's just something about how the whole thing plays out that doesn't let me emphasize with it.

 

I don't know, this show's weird for me.

 

I still gave it an 8/10 though. Just in pure artistic value it's a great anime and I didn't feel bored watching it at all, but I can't bring myself to say anything better than that about it other than Homura made the whole show. Kind of frustrating.

[Kurisu-Chan]

I'm not saying you consider it a masterpiece.

I just always feel like the general consensus among fans is often that Madoka is really great and yet I just can't feel the same way.

Moreover I can never pinpoint exactly what makes me feel like Madoka isn't really that special to me which kind of infuriates me because I do think the characters in the show are great, but there's just something about how the whole thing plays out that doesn't let me emphasize with it.

 

I don't know, this show's weird for me.

 

I still gave it an 8/10 though. Just in pure artistic value it's a great anime and I didn't feel bored watching it at all, but I can't bring myself to say anything better than that about it other than Homura made the whole show. Kind of frustrating.

It's a good advertisements about the dangers of drugs.

[Abyssal Monkey]

I know I said I was going to watch the series, but after finding out that the movies were 5.1,  immediately changed my mind and decided to abuse my home theatre system a bit.

 

After marathoning it, and then sleeping on it, the procrastination ends.

Story - 8/10

While I have watched it before, rewatching it made me once again realize how well written Madoka Magica was. Seeing all the buildup to the events in the show was really fun. However, during the second half of the series when Kyubey starts infodumping on why they are using magic girls really felt out of place as a plot device.

Characters - 7/10

I'm the type of person who doesn't really understand characters very well, but having gone through a character driven story before, I can say that the characters are not really what held me on through the run, but they sure didn't detract much either.

Soundtrack - 10/10

This soundtrack is the sound track that made me finally get my shit together and start building my anime OST. The music placement in this series stands out from any other in how grand it is. Every moment has a piece playing in the background, perfectly fitting the atmosphere that the show was going for, highlighting it without being too entirely overbearing.

Art-style  - 10/10

The artstyle of Madoka Magica is one of its standout points. Placing cute typically animated characters into a fairly high quality background as the main set piece really helps reinforce that while they are in a good world, not everything is perfect. When they encounter a witch, the art style immediately changes to something much more abstract and obtuse emphasizing the stangeness of the place they have encountered. Every bit of art in this series does its job excellently at creating the mood.

Enjoyment - 9/10

While watching the series I just couldn't help but enjoy myself at how well it was put together. I really don't have anything else to say.

Overall 8.5/10

 

If I had one complaint, it would be

the placement of Connect by Claris at the one hour mark in the second movie.  It was the first time while watching them that I had the "What the hell is this doing here, and why are they doing an opening segment in the middle of a movie?  They should have just saved this for the ending when Madoka finally makes the contract."  It seriously felt out of place, and thanks to the tags in the movie I felt the need to just skip it.

[Abyssal Monkey]

And i never said that madoka was a masterpiece, but, excuse me, this anime is still sad, a show don't need to be a master piece in orde to be appreciated.

 

And when you compare it to steins;gate, sorry but steins;gate had half of the story centered on comedy/slice of life, when you get to know every character and grow fond of them.

 

Here, you just have 2 episodes for that, and of course, the who Burtonian creatues universe(for me, it's a leggit Tim Burton universe) and then, you get a big train of what the fuck, suffering, what the fuck and then suffering.

 

The whole pompous thing like "it changed my way of life" not that much, but it points out some real problem, and just because it don't get too far doesn't mean you can't get something other than "it's just a sad story".

 

It's not a master piece, but it's great, and enjoyable.

I honestly think that there was more than just 2 episodes of getting to know the characters in Madoka Magica.  Throughout the entire thing there were 5 minutes of daily life here and there littered around the place.  Also, slice of life isn't the only way to get to know a character, as they say: actions are louder than words, a lot of character can be interpretted through how the character react to their surroundings, and I would claim that this is where the majority of Madoka's character development comes from.  The slice of life at the beginning was only there to highlight and set a baseline standard for their society, and nothing more.  This is once again emphasized with the first 40 minutes of the third movie where Homura is clearly disturbed at how peaceful everything is as she knows she does not live in that kind of world.

 

I will also participate in the next cycle,  and will probably make this a continued thing.  I don't actually have any purely comedy series.  If I had to put one in, it would be Seitokai Yakuindomo, but I can't see this being any more than just gag after gag, rather than a story.

[Stray Cat]

Putting my two cents in. 

 

I think Madoka is a wonderful anime, mainly due to the tragic situation and suffering (which I am a huge fan of) but it falls flat in several areas, especially characters (which is something I feel Selector Infected did a much better job on despite it's other flaws).  I can honestly say I have no attachment to any of the character and would probably just as content if they were all replaced with pigs in the anime.  

[Abyssal Monkey]

Putting my two cents in. 

 

I think Madoka is a wonderful anime, mainly due to the tragic situation and suffering (which I am a huge fan of) but it falls flat in several areas, especially characters (which is something I feel Selector Infected did a much better job on despite it's other flaws).  I can honestly say I have no attachment to any of the character and would probably just as content if they were all replaced with pigs in the anime.  

[Kat]

Why do you talk about it now? Lol

But anyways. Madoka is good. Even if you don't like the plot twists , just ignore them and it'll go away. Probably.

[Stray Cat]

Sign-up will remain open a bit longer. 

[Flutterz]

Comedy, eh?

In that case my recommendation is Nichijou, mostly because I really, really need to finish it. >.>

Nichijou spoilers:

Not really, but only those who were brave enough or have already seen the anime will see this gif

[Shikomizue]

Comedy, eh?

In that case my recommendation is Nichijou, mostly because I really, really need to finish it. >.>

Nichijou spoilers:

Not really, but only those who were brave enough or have already seen the anime will see this gif

 

Oh? You watch Nichijou? The only reason I didn't suggest it, was because I just finished it. But even so, I'd be willing to watch it again if it gets picked 'cause it's just too awesome.