Puella magi madoka magica - anime review

Rating 7/10

I have always been a big fan of magical girl animes. So when puella magi madoka magica was announced in 2011 I got really happy. As a girl who started with sailor moon as my first anime and role model I soon whent over to mermaid melody, princess tutu, Tokyo mew mew, shugo chara, Capturecard Sakura, My-HIME etc. There is many good magical girl anime/manga you could watch and love. One of the most well-known is probably Sailor moon.

The things that’s most common with a magical girl anime is that it’s about one crybaby girl who will get magicals power and with this power she will grow to be a stronger girl and save the world with the help of her friends.

When they announced puella magi madoka magica they gave the promise to break the “normal” boarder of magical girls. They would make something “newer” to this concept. The story in itself is very new but if you look at the characters it’s still on the same page as every other magical girl anime.

The story revolves around a girl named Madoka Kaname. The anime starts with Madoka having a dream about a black-haired girl fight rainbow like snake-monsters.  Madoka comments on who cruel it is and a white cat-like furry in the shadows tell he she can change the girls destiny by becoming a magical girl. Beofre Madoka can answer the question she wakes up. Later in school she meets the black-haired girl, Homura Akemi. She tells Madoka to never change who she is if she loves the people she has around her.

Later that day Madoka and her friend Sayaka Miki go shopping. While in the mall Madoka can hear a voice calling for her help. She tries to follow the voice and fins the cat-like furry being chased by Homura. Madoka saves the cat-like furry and gets a mad Homura after herself. Sayaka saves her. While running away the wander of in a magical world and can’t find their way back to the real world. An upperclassman, Mami Tomoe, shows up and kills all the monsters in the magical dimension with her thousands of guns. Mami is a magical girl. After the fight Mami tell the girls the cat-like furrys name is Kyubey. Kyubey asks the girls if they want to be magical girls and fight monsters too. If the would want it they would get one wish granted from kyubey.

And after that the story gets more and more interesting and intriguing. Its only 12 episodes and the makers have managed to put every minute of the anime interesting and don’t use themselves of fillers. The story isn’t as cute, sparkling and easy going as most magical girls’ animes. Instead it’s surprisingly well-written, beautiful, sad and very dark. It couldn’t be further away from sailor moon.

I do, personally, think the characters are the biggest weakness. For an anime that is advertising itself to be an anime that breaks the magical girl standard the charecters are still the same. We have the typical perky, clumsy, crybaby, peace-loving girl (Madoka), her tomboy best friend (Sayaka), her busty, kind senior (Mami), and the mysterious girl (Homura). The only one of the five main girls with any sort of diverging personality is Kyoko, the hot-headed girl who eats while fighting and has the most combat experience of the magical girls. Her backstory is not only arguably the most developed after Homura, but explains her personality the best as well.

I would though say Madoka is the weakest link of all the girls. Normally you have a clumpsy, crybaby girl who ends up with powers that will make her grow up and take responsibility. But thru the whole serie Madoka is told what to do and not to do. It isn’t until the last episode that she finally stands on her own two feet and does something she believes in. Even someone as commercial as Sailor moon grow with her power faster. I can’t feel Madoka has a personality that grows thru the anime. The weak characters drag my rating down but other than this it’s a solid and good anime.

Love,

Miss Melpomene