Creators:
Magica QuartetScreenplay:
Gen UrobuchiCinematography:
Shin'ichirou EtouComposer:
Yuki KajiuraCast:
Aoi Yūki, Emiri Kato, Chiwa Saito, Ai Nonaka, Rumi Ōkubo, Shin'ichirō Miki, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Eri Kitamura, Yūko Gotō, Nobuo Tobita, Ayane Sakura (more)VOD (1)
Episodes(12)
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As If I Met Her in a Dream... (E01)
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That Would Be Truly Wonderful (E02)
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I'm Not Afraid of Anything Anymore (E03)
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Miracles and Magic Are Real (E04)
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There's No Way I'll Ever Regret It (E05)
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This Just Can't Be Right (E06)
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Can You Face Your True Feelings? (E07)
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I Was Stupid, So Stupid (E08)
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I'd Never Allow That to Happen (E09)
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I Won't Rely on Anyone Anymore (E10)
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The Only Thing I Have Left to Guide Me (E11)
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My Very Best Friend (E12)
Plots(1)
She has a loving family and best friends, laughs and cries from time to time… Madoka Kaname, an eighth grader of Mitakihara middle school, is one of those who lives such a life. One day, she had a very magical encounter. She doesn't know if it happened by chance or by fate yet. This is a fateful encounter that can change her destiny- This is a beginning of the new story of the magical witch girls- (Crunchyroll)
(more)Reviews (2)
I finally got around to watching the show that I’ve heard so much about, a classic that every anime fan should know. I didn’t manage to escape a few minor spoilers, so I had certain expectations. I suspected that Madoka would be exactly the kind of series that would mentally destroy me like Made in Abyss, and I would be bawling my eyes out like I was when watching Clannad. I thought it would be one of those unforgettable experiences that I wouldn’t want to repeat for at least a decade. It’s true that Madoka is an incredible rollercoaster of emotions, alternating wonderful feelings and sweet moments with incredibly depressing ones, escalating to a point where I felt uncomfortable. It works very well emotionally, including the finale, which is quite over-the-top, reaching almost biblical proportions. However, it does bring everything to a decent close, even though it feels bittersweet just like the whole series. Everyone on the creative team that made Madoka knew exactly what they were doing. You can tell by the show’s premise, the carefully thought-out twists, as well as the score. The high production values and the overall execution of the series, combined with an incredible amount of imagination on the part of the writers, is what keeps you interested, hooked, and enjoying this wild, intense, and surreal ride which sometimes makes you feel as if you were under the influence of drugs. It’s obvious from the first episode that this is the work of Shaft Animation Studio. The cinematography is excellent. They know how to create an atmosphere through the use of color, light, shadow, and depth of space. The backgrounds have elaborate details, and the camera captures the movement in such a way that the action looks great right from the first few frames. Most importantly, the editing work, although not as striking as in the Monogatari series, is so distinctive that you recognize it right away. And then there are the psychedelic fights with the witches. First, they make you wonder what the hell you’re looking at, but when you focus on the detail, you start noticing a lot of subtlety and hidden meaning. On top of it all, there's Yuki Kajiura's brilliant score, which is a bit subdued this time (compared to Noir or .hack//SIGN), but still amazing and distinct enough to make you fall in love with it the first time you see Mami transform. Even though the series has only twelve episodes, the first three (or rather two and a half) don’t go all out, but slowly bring you to the top of this imaginary roller coaster to gain enough height for a proper ride. To anyone who isn’t familiar with Madoka I recommend hanging in there until the end of the third (ideally fourth) episode, even if you don't like the character animation (which is deliberately cute to create a powerful contrast) and you think it’s just another cute anime about girls saving the world – which might not be your thing. The deconstruction of the genre, the change from a cute mahou shoujo to a depressing, intense drama full of powerful themes and symbolism that diehard fans rave about doesn’t start until the fourth episode (though an attentive viewer will surely notice the signs much earlier). Madoka is an unforgettable series where everything works as it should. The series knows exactly what it wants to say and where it wants to take you. Apart from the slower opening, the pace is fast, and there is always something going on, yet there is enough space to flesh out the important characters, also thanks to there not being that many of them. I don’t really have much to criticize about this show. It was a powerful experience, absolutely perfect in many ways, which I truly appreciate. 9.5/10
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Much has been said and written about Madoka Magica’s excellence and its uniqueness, and how Urobucchi managed to deconstruct the magical girl subgenre, and I cannot disagree with any of this. Stories of cute, sweet, girls endowed with magical powers usually have only a limited audience, so the above-mentioned gentleman decided to turn it into a psychological thriller with the addition of a small amount of GL. The result is great: the mood swings in the story are masterfully done, the character designs and the level of animation are magnificent, and Kajiura's soundtrack proves here just how well it suits anime led by female characters. Only two things were bad. The first was the fact that the series was animated by SHAFT, so their proverbial propensity for visual self-indulgence, and a desperate attempt to prove themselves to the audience with how "we are terribly original, and do everything differently, not like the others". Unfortunately, this showing off is at the expense of real entertainment. The fight scenes with the witches may have a cool effect as art on someone, but it seemed to be more like a sloppy mess to me, during which they simply tried to use them in order to shock people which perhaps worked once, but after that people were already bored when it was repeated. The second thing is the anti-climax. In essence, the season peaks at the 9th episode, after which the remaining three episodes are just an effort to repeat all the elements of previous episodes together and turn back a seemingly irreversible fate, and heal everyone’s pains in the style of Steins;Gate. As with the above, the last few episodes are not bad in themselves, they just did not grab my attention as much as the previous episodes. Despite these criticisms, however, it is a unique experience that I recommend without exception to any anime lover. I give it a strong 4 stars. –– P.S. I suspect that in 2011 Urobuchi signed a contract with a purple chinchilla and became a screenwriter with magical powers. How else could we explain how between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, when he managed to create three essential, unmistakable works (Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass, and this), which other screenwriters can not manage making in a lifetime, and then it is as if he suddenly vanished into thin air…
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