Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica


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Xanadu, very nicely said. Madoka made it to my hard drive as well and I dont save many animes.

Would you be so kind though and resize your signature? The instructions are in the pm you received. Thank you!
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QUOTE (Xanadu @ Apr 23 2011, 11:36 PM)and Homura probably got more powerful with the angel (and later witch) wings



I am very perplexed by Homura's witch wings at the way end. So this new world has no witches but it sure seemed like evil manifesting from Homura. I'd really like to get others opinions on this.

Also the evil saint's are more terrifying of a foe to battle! I really hope we have a second season or some OAV.

This show is going to take a while to digest!
 
Well I thought Homerun was going into what I could probably dub here as Genicide Mode agains tthose magic monsters. Although now that I think about it normal Maho Loli series usually have it where Maho Lolis fight mostly monsters in some shape or form mind you. I guess they wanted ot give a homage to the classics I guess here.
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QUOTE (warita200 @ Apr 23 2011, 11:17 PM) Xanadu, very nicely said. Madoka made it to my hard drive as well and I dont save many animes.

Would you be so kind though and resize your signature? The instructions are in the pm you received. Thank you!
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Resize complete. Just recently learn how to do pic resizing from the time I posted. Forgot about my sig though
 
But I liked that giant sig.
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In any case you could always cute th epic in half and have it look like it's still one sig pic though.
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Thank you Xanadu, I appreciate it. The giant signature was causing me problems, because it was stretching the page to the side and I needed to scroll horizontally in order to read your posts.
 
Xanadu-san I have one thing to you and that's can I have the full sized pic of your new sig now?
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Sorry for the delay but here is the full size pic. Would have don't it sooner, but didn't notice the post till I was about to sleep 7 hours ago

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And two more just for kicks:
 
A really great ending to a really great series.
The ending didnt leave any question, no it answered even a question I didnt think it would. Why is Madoka so strong. I didnt think we would get a real and logical explanation to that.

Xanadu posted a great page where everything is explained, so I wont dive into that too. I just say that I dont have any questions left since everything was answered in the last ep. Even the things in the last ep.

A great part of the series were defenitely the scenes with Junko, especially the one with her and Homura.

In the end the world is much the same except that nobody becomes a witch so its not really a all-happy-ending what I really welcome. Sure everyone was resurrected, but in my eyes it was done a good way.

Overall the show had a really great plot, good characters and good setting. I didnt really like was the animation at first, but after a bit of time I really like it now. Only thing that was negative was Homura since I never liked her. Her story and such are great, but I still despise her since she is so full of flaws its unbelievable.
Still a full 10/10 from me for Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (the first series after Hanasakeru Seishounen in the year 2009).
 
So the first Drama CD was subbed and its about the time Homura gets out of hospital and her time with Madoka in Homuras original past.

It was mostly about Madoka and her becoming friends with Homura and then Homura learning about Mahou Shoujos and stuff. And there was a major revelation. Madoka became a Mahou Shoujo to save a stray cat shes friends with who got hit by a car. And that wish totally suits Madoka in my eyes since its a wish for someone else instead of herself and she always wanted to do things for others rather herself. Just like the end of th series.
 
Hey guys. I just stumbled upon a picture of Madoka which was done by Sayori(it's an artist) and I wanted to share that one with you
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Here are also a few other pictures ^^






 
Nice pictures, Jun-tan. The girls look lovely in all of them. Did you start watching the series yet? A good one to watch so get to it. ^^
 
He better have since he was the one who posted up a reomendation for this series my dear Yaya-san.

In any case those pics that you've found Jun-san are rather lovely, so I'll probably be saving a few of those later... and maybe asking for some ecchi suff somewhere else too.
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This is going to be a long review....

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (hereafter abbreviated as PMMM), the so called "miracle work" of 2011 when the year has only just began. With a godly staff composed of Akiyuki Shinbou, Gen Urobuchi, Ume Aoki, Yuki Kajiura, and animation studio SHAFT to name a few of those behind this show, the possibility of this show being amazing is without a doubt. So why all the fuss? Well the main argument behind why many claim this show as a non-masterpiece is because of its lack of originality or creativity. With that in mind, I will go into how I viewed this show now that I've finally finished it.

Having seen episodes 1 through 10 at least 10 times each along with episodes 11 and 12 seen 3 times now, I can say that I have a firmer grasp of what the show is actually trying to pull. The first distinction to make is that originality and creativity are not synonymous. Originality means coming up with something new that has never been done before. PMMM is no original work and I agree with the critics out there on this point. PMMM's concepts and themes have been done countless times by many shows both magical girl theme and not including Yami to Boushi, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Princess Tutu, Uta Kata, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and to some extent Kannazuki no Miko, etc... That said, it doesn't mean PMMM is a bad show for its lack of originality, it excels in creativity. Creativity is the ability to take elements, original or non-original, and mix them together. Whether or not it's new, old, successful, or a failure doesn't matter. The staff behind this show, particularly Urobuchi took the strong elements of the shows former shows and managed to weave them together in a masterful and more or less compelling manner. This is what truly made PMMM stand out and thus a successful piece of work. Rating a show simply based on its originality alone in this day and age is simply impossible. Creativity, on the other hand, is a whole new ball game. The staff managed to pull together what other groups have tried and failed and shown that it is indeed possible to make a so called "masterpiece" with this level of staff. However, PMMM's story isn't all fun and games. Setting aside my bias fora Ano Hana from this season, which is giving PMMM a potential run for its placement already, PMMM's story has a lot of holes that were unexplained. A simple 13th episode would likely have been helpful in explaining the details or cutting back on the slice-of-life aspect early on could have helped too.
The major flaw I saw in the finale is what exactly happened to Homura's magical powers, how did the existence of these new "shadow" creatures come about, and Mami. To start with the first point, we know that Homura originally had the power to transcend time. However, when Madoka redefined the laws of the universe, how does this imply Homura losing her ability to traverse time and acquiring Madoka's bow instead? Does this imply that Homura has now taken Madoka's place in the new world or have they become one entity where Homura now lives the life of both them by carrying on Madoka's memory? In addition, Homura's "wings" both angel and dark don't make much sense. Having seen the final episode 3 times, I still don't understand what they mean. For the second point, while Madoka managed to redefine the universe and the reason for magical girls, it doesn't make much sense as to how these new creatures came about. Were these shadows around in the original series, and if so, why fight them now? Saying that because there's no more witches for magical girls to fight is not a legitimate/convincing excuse. Finally, for the third point, since witches no longer exist, this means that Mami no longer died, which should therefore imply that Sayaka should not have become a magical girl. While this is debatable, it's difficult to justify as to why Sayaka should have died in the same spot especially considering that Mami would be the one to guide her through "training." In other words, Sayaka's death no longer makes much sense simply due to the fact that Mami lived.
Plot-wise, this show had a very strong premise, but the finale left a lot of questions to be answered. The main story concluded nicely, but the creation of the new universe opened up a lot of loose ends to the series. Providing Madoka the ability to transcend god is a very sensitive idea and while I thought Urobuchi did significantly better than most scriptwriters in execution, it certainly was not flawless as described above.

Animation...SHAFT! is all I have to say. "A-Level" shows from SHAFT is the reason why I like them. Shows like ef, Bakemonogatari, and PMMM is the reason why SHAFT is so successful. The ability to use imagery and metaphorical representations to open up for interpretations of the series's content. They really went all out on this show and it was certainly fulfilling. While some of the imagery did get repetitive at times, I'm sure they had a budget constraint at some point so I'm very satisfied with the quality put in. I can only imagine the Blu-Ray looking even more gorgeous though I imagine each file will rape my hard drive. Art...Ume Aoki is the original character designer, so if you've seen Hidamari Sketch, you've seen the characters for this show. There's actually a lot of debate as to the characters being too moe and not fitting the theme of the show....all I can say to that is it's Ume Aoki. Wide faces is what you should have been expecting since the show's announcement in October. On another note, the animation in episode 12 between Homura and Madoka was gorgeous. That yuri/shoujo-ai scene was fantastic and best non-hentai scene since Kannazuki no Miko.

Music...Yuki Kajiura. This was godly. After hearing Kajiura's works in a lot of sub-par/fail-tastic shows lately like Ookami Kakushi, I'm finally glad to hear Kajiura's works put to good use again and this certainly did not disappoint. After over a decade, Kajiura is still as spectacular as ever. The composition for this show is a masterpiece and I cannot wait to get my hands on the OST for this show. While the show used a lot of re-hashed music, it was nonetheless well done from beginning to end. Magia by Kalafina was also a solid song as a TV version (not so much in the full single). Connect by junior high school pair ClariS is also another masterpiece. While not as good as Irony from OreImo back in Fall 2010, for a junior-high duet, it's a gem to be treasured. In fact, I'm very surprised to see Shinbou and staff pick them for this project. This must have been one heck of a surprise for them considering that makes them 2 for 2 in successful singles during their first year debut. Seiyuu wise was a bit odd. The main cast (Kyubey + 5 main girls) is composed of less experienced or underrated seiyuus. While each of them have had their fair share of main roles, most of them didn't really receive much recognition until recently so it's a very interesting choice that the staff went with when picking the cast for this show. Nevertheless, while the cast was certainly solid, I felt it could have been better, but that goes to show how difficult is to truly get a "perfect" project when money is involved.

Character development...this show really did not skimp on this. With 5 heroines, the show did not skimp. Each character was dedicated at least half an episode of background story...that is except for the titular character, Madoka. Whether or not the staff purposely did this to portray Madoka as the "ordinary" girl that suddenly becomes the strongest magical girl and thus the strongest witch will never be known. Homura receiving the most amount of background (1 full episode) was definitely satisfying and emotional to no end. Considering how much of a mystery Homura was at the beginning of the series and how well of a secret they kept it up until that point was absolutely fantastic. It truly showed why Homura became the person she was and most importantly, IT WAS CONVINCING! Many shows fail in this aspect and say "accept and move on" but PMMM provided enough dedicated evidence to provide such a justifiable conclusion and I praise this show for doing so.

Enjoyment? This show was certainly a wild ride. Episodes 1 and 2 made it seem like a cross between your typical magical girl show and Hidamari Sketch. That all changed with the biggest plot twist of the year in episode 3. While it should have been anticipated given Urobuchi's dark themes in stories, it was hidden very well. However, while PMMM was certainly enjoyable to watch as a whole, it was very dialogue heavy. While I liked the constant "food for thought" in each episode that leaves me pondering about the remainder of the series, once solved or broken down, the show loses rewatch value. The biggest weakness in PMMM is its rewatch value. Once you manage to deduce the information PMMM, most of the story becomes crystal clear as to why events happen as the should (barring the finale) since the show focuses greatly on the theme of temporal manipulation. While PMMM is still rewatchable presently, I find it difficult seeing myself 5 years from now want to rewatch PMMM. Putting the bias aside that there may be "better" shows then or shows of higher caliber and simply looking at PMMM as a 2011 show, it loses rewatch value not because it will be "old" but rather there's no more "fun" left in it compared to say Serial Experiments Lain, Ergo Proxy, or Neon Genesis of Evangelion, all of which have ridiculously difficult mysteries still hidden within them.

Overall, PMMM is a wonderful show and definitely a great way to start off the 2011 year. It's a show that will certainly be missed and it also shows that the anime industry does still have steam in it such that a successful show can be done when the proper management is there. While it remains unclear as to whether there was an "alternative" script that was lost due to the March 11 earthquake will never be known since most 12 episode shows are recorded and made 3 weeks in advance of its airing...in the case of SHAFT, it's usually 1 week. For better or for worse, the show ended on a relatively conclusive note. While a number of questions do remain as to what happens in the final minute of the show (after ending credits), the possibility of a "true" sequel is likely zero. In addition, Shinbou did claim plans earlier this year on a "second Madoka" series where it focuses more on the lighter aspect rather than the dark aspect we saw. I personally think it would be detrimental franchise and hopes Shinbou chucks it out the window. There's no use in beating a dead horse. While it would be an interesting project, I can't see it be more than another Hidamari Sketch with magical girls, which in that case would be better to just to make a fourth Hidamari Sketch TV series.

tl;dr, this show is a shoujo-ai/yuri magical girl show.
On an unrelated note.....I knew that Homura was going to be awesome in some way, shape, or form, and I'm glad it delivered. Homura with Madoka's ribbons is amazing
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needs more of this artwork now.

Preliminary Score: 8/10
Final Score: 10/10
 
I can answer two of your questions Kit.
Kyubey once said the witches are there to produce energy for the universe to go on. But thanks to Madoka there are no witches anymore in the real world. This is solved by Madoka fighting the witches in her own world, but for witches to still appear there need to be Mahou Shoujos. And for Mahou Shoujos to exist there must be an enemy. And thus Kyubeys race/boss-race/whatever "invented" the new monsters so that there are still Mahou Shoujos, witches and whatever, except that the witches are killed by Madoka before they are actually existing.

And Sayakas death is totally not not making sense. The whole part about beeing a Mahou Shoujos is except for the witch part the same. You still have to kill monsters to get energy back or you die. And it seems that she used everything so she died. Madoka didnt make the Mahou Shoujos immortal, she just prevents them from becoming witches. So they just die. And that happened to Sayaka and it can have various reasons. For example it is possible that there just was not enough energy for four girls. So maybe she didnt get any so that the others can move on. That selfsacrifice wouldve suited her. Or they fought against something which was simply to strong for the four and she sellfsarificed herself for the others to live on.
We dont know what happened, but it is by no means not not making sense.

And honestly I cant see Homrua beeing awesome anywhere. For me she was as unintereesting and useless as Madoka (ok until the end of course). All she did the whole time was either b*tching (at first) or beeing a crybaby (at the end).
Totally cant understand why she is so popular.
 
Ok I did put up a link earlier explaining most of the things, but I'll try again using the blue text

The Majuu were formed to the fact that there were no witches. in the old systems, witches grew stronger by absorbing the grief of others. However in the new system, there were no witches to absorb the grief of humans which caused it to manifest into the new beings known as the Majuu. Kyubey's race of furballs would not create them due to their low energy output.

With Sayaka's death, Madoka did give Sayaka the choice to not be a Puella Magi anymore but she declined the offer as it would destroy Kamijou's future of playing the violin and because she remembered the true reason behind her wish.As for why she still died in the same spot, it is similar to the movie "The Time Machine." Sayaka already raised the witch flag when she become a PM, and Madoka only has the ability take away their grief when it becomes too much. Madoka only changed the rules of the game not when they would turn to a witch

As for Homura's part, what I think is that her wish and her powers were redefined as Madoka was taken out of the equation. A PM's abilities are based on their wish. weapons not so sure. Homura's Shield of Time (received from the wish of going back through time to redo the meeting with Madoka) only has enough red materia for one month of time-stop before she has to turn the shield around and reverse time to fill it up again so a new weapon is needed for her as she doesn't need to save Madoka anymore and since we do not know the wish Homura's body made before her consciousness was placed in the new world .... no wait, let me rephrase that: Homura's memories and the ribbons didn't surface in the new world didn't surface until that point of time, that's why Mami and Kyouko were confused when Homura started crying about Madoka. Sorry if that made no sense.

And the wings: not going to go there because of the fact that there is too much speculation on that topic. Guess it was left to the interpret the way you want
 
QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ May 11 2011, 02:22 AM) And Sayakas death is totally not not making sense. The whole part about beeing a Mahou Shoujos is except for the witch part the same. You still have to kill monsters to get energy back or you die. And it seems that she used everything so she died. Madoka didnt make the Mahou Shoujos immortal, she just prevents them from becoming witches. So they just die. And that happened to Sayaka and it can have various reasons. For example it is possible that there just was not enough energy for four girls. So maybe she didnt get any so that the others can move on. That selfsacrifice wouldve suited her. Or they fought against something which was simply to strong for the four and she sellfsarificed herself for the others to live on.
We dont know what happened, but it is by no means not not making sense.
Fair enough, the self-sacrificing logic makes a little more sense to me but it's still not convincing. There's too many loose ends with the world now changed. This also raises another question. In episode 11, Kyubey mentioned that it was the death of magical girls and the creation of witches that allowed the world to advance into the world that we see in the first 11 episodes of the show. If that didn't happen, humans would still be living in caves apparently. As a result, with Madoka having rewritten the laws of the universe, how is it possible that the same or a similar present world exists, e.g. one where Sayaka still dies in a similar fashion, let alone disagreeing with Kyubey's theory? In my opinion, the events are too coincidental and there's too much ambiguity involved with Madoka's wish. As much of a god-like figure Madoka is now, I find it difficult to believe that she is capable of doing anything she wishes to the world. Also, how is Madoka capable of replenishing her soul gem? She absorbs the grief of others, which Kyubey mentioned was immense each time.

EDIT: having rewatched the scene with Sayaka, it seems like they were fighting one of the new "distortions" of the world. The self-sacrificing idea makes little sense now for two reasons: 1) Assuming Sayaka sacrificed herself...in that case Mami's line about how Sayaka was taken away by the "Laws of the Universe" no longer make sense, since this implies that Sayaka was turning into a witch and Madoka stepped in to stop that. 2) Looking at the other perspective by assuming Madoka stopped Sayaka, then it doesn't make sense why the "new distortion" appeared in the imagery. Anyone else see where this contradictory logic is going?


QUOTE And honestly I cant see Homrua beeing awesome anywhere. For me she was as unintereesting and useless as Madoka (ok until the end of course). All she did the whole time was either b*tching (at first) or beeing a crybaby (at the end).
Totally cant understand why she is so popular.
But see, episode 10 is how the audience came to understood why Homura became awesome and why she acted the way she did. Homura use to be and still is a shy, weak, and nothing but a crybaby character. However, after repeating the same time over and over again, she became a significantly stronger character, both physically and mentally. She had to change herself and show hatred towards Madoka and friends if she wanted to change the end result of the time she was living through indefinitely. I mean, what were the odds of someone believing her that she came from a different world? She also still carried the original personality she had since timeline 1 as shown in the scene with Madoka and Homura in episode 12, but that's a result of grief she built up over the repetition indicating that while she did manage to changer her external appearance, her internal character says otherwise.
I just happened to notice her awesome character earlier on :3 There's a trend once you watch enough shows with characters of her type....if you want to call it, Homura is technically a tsundere....in a slightly altered form. Kannazuki no Miko's Chikane Himemiya is a perfect example for this...in fact, I got Kannazuki no Miko vibes during that shoujo-ai scene between Homura and Madoka in episode 12.


QUOTE With Sayaka's death, Madoka did give Sayaka the choice to not be a Puella Magi anymore but she declined the offer as it would destroy Kamijou's future of playing the violin and because she remembered the true reason behind her wish.As for why she still died in the same spot, it is similar to the movie "The Time Machine." Sayaka already raised the witch flag when she become a PM, and Madoka only has the ability take away their grief when it becomes too much. Madoka only changed the rules of the game not when they would turn to a witch
Giving the choice of not becoming a mahou shoujo is not something Madoka has control of. As you said, Madoka is only capable of preventing destruction from when magical girls reach their limit and are about to die. She's not capable of changing the decisions one make in their lives, i.e. the wishes, the reasons magical girls make contracts, or whether or not contracts existed in the first place. Raising the witch flag is not something I'm convinced by given what Kyubey said in episode 11 about how the present world is constructed. In essence, there is a lot of contradiction in Madoka's wish, or at least the result of it.


QUOTE The Majuu were formed to the fact that there were no witches. in the old systems, witches grew stronger by absorbing the grief of others. However in the new system, there were no witches to absorb the grief of humans which caused it to manifest into the new beings known as the Majuu. Kyubey's race of furballs would not create them due to their low energy output.
What the heck is a Majuu? And when did the show ever claim that witches absorbed the grief of humans? I don't know who's translations you were watching, but the creatures at the end were never given a specific name. All we know is that according to Homura: "The distortions created by cause and effect have changed forms and still attack people from the shadows." There is a hint that the "distortions" are created by "curses, which humans harbored towards the world" but there is no concrete confirmation or evidence, which makes it difficult to accept.


QUOTE As for Homura's part, what I think is that her wish and her powers were redefined as Madoka was taken out of the equation. A PM's abilities are based on their wish. weapons not so sure. Homura's Shield of Time (received from the wish of going back through time to redo the meeting with Madoka) only has enough red materia for one month of time-stop before she has to turn the shield around and reverse time to fill it up again so a new weapon is needed for her as she doesn't need to save Madoka anymore and since we do not know the wish Homura's body made before her consciousness was placed in the new world .... no wait, let me rephrase that: Homura's memories and the ribbons didn't surface in the new world didn't surface until that point of time, that's why Mami and Kyouko were confused when Homura started crying about Madoka. Sorry if that made no sense.

And the wings: not going to go there because of the fact that there is too much speculation on that topic. Guess it was left to the interpret the way you want
Based on your argument for Homura's powers, it doesn't make much sense then for Kyouko. Kyouko's wish was based around her father, such that people would believe her father in that witches do exist (if I recall correctly). This would technically change Kyouko's wish along with her powers since witches no longer exist. While it wouldn't change the outcome of Kyouko's family's fate, it's a debatable topic now. In addition, Homura's past should technically have changed as well. The reason why Homura became a magical girl was because she wanted to protect Madoka. Since Madoka no longer exists, Homura technically never meets Madoka and thus Homura's contract should be voided. While it is entirely possible for Homura to have made another wish, it seems out of place as to why she would if she could simply retain the memories of Madoka and not have to deal with the magical girl incidents anymore after suffering through that much horror in her repetitive time warps.

From what I gather, Homura regains consciousness right after Sayaka dies (around 15:49 in the release I'm watching where Homura suddenly opens her eyes). Note, however, that this is already in the world where Madoka no longer exists.

All in all, this is what happens when you make a show that revolves around time manipulation, there's too much ambiguity, particularly with Homura since not only did her wish center around Madoka, it raises the question of how does Homura even fit into all of this now.
 
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