Puella Magi Madoka Magica review

Madoka Magica is a twisted-dark version of powerful, magic-using, transforming girl superhero anime. It incorporated all of the elements of such a show with the addition of creepy imagery and haunting music. While at first I wasn't really sure if I enjoyed all of these aspects that made it creepy, I genuinely appreciated the uneasy tension, the music composed by the genius Yuki Kajiura
and the atmosphere which I can only describe as heavy, slow, and lingering... like humidity.

oh snap!

The series don't only look sombre, but it's also laden with some heavy themes. Throughout the series we have pairings of friends who ultimately show us that although friendship is fragile (Sayaka) and imperfect (Hitomi), it can also be surprising (Kyoko). Although people die and people fade, some friendships are eternal (Madoka + Homura. Also, Hitomi is a whorish bitch who thinly veils her selfishness with "respect". 

My favourite part in the anime: when it was revealed how Homura would turn into a witch. It was kind of endearing that the moment she let go of all her efforts in trying to save Madoka, the very trauma of it would consume her heart. *shudders*

My favourite character? Probably Kyoko. If you read back to my "watch with me" posts, you'll know that I sensed an discomfort within her. I feel like she was the most interesting and dynamic character, or at least the most surprising. Yes, Sayaka is the naive stupid girl. Madoka was always selfless and kind. But Kyoko, despite "giving up" on living for others, still stood up for probably the most intolerable character in this series (next to Hitomi) just because in the end she decided that she was her friend. The reason why Kyoko was so uncomfortable with her new values is while ultimately she knew that she was being smart and practical, her conscience disagreed with it. When your conscience is constantly battling your actions and behaviour, obviously it is going to cause some sort of imbalance in your psyche, which is why I think she has such an obsession with food.

I'm not a fan of cookie-cutter endings, and I had to give props for this one. While nauseatingly selfless and heroic, it's still not the "perfect" ending; sacrifices had to be made for the sake of mankind. I also thought it was clever how Homura's time traveling was a double-edged sword. On one hand, it made Madoka a potentially invulnerable witch who would have destroyed the world upon her transformation. However, it also gave her god-like potential for power which allowed her to become a god who travels through time keeping girls from turning into witches.

Overall, I give the series a 3.8/5 thumbs up. While it wasn't my cup of sweet tea I was still impressed, which says a lot.

Watch With Me! Magica Madoka (Episode 8)

Sayaka continues to crumble as she doesn’t know how to cope with the knowledge of her soulless body coupled with Hitomi’s confession of love for Kamijo. She starts to blame Madoka for her suffering and eggs her on to experience what she is going through now. The guilt of what she said to Madoka will eventually eat away at her, and the weight of everything will cause her to eventually become what she fought so hard against.

Noticing Sayaka's deterioration, Kyubey finds Homura and Kyoko to inform them that Sayaka’s progress downhill is expediting at an unexpected rate. Both of them know that this means the end of Sayaka. When Homura confronts Sayaka in order to save her, Sayaka refuses her help, only calling out Homura for her empty coldness. Homura then attempts to rid of Sayaka, stating that she won’t bear to watch Madoka get hurt. Homura cares for Madoka in kind of an indescribable way, and lo and behold, she is someone who has traveled back in time in order to save Madoka from her devastating future fate.

Madoka, being the selfless heroine that she is, is ready to make a contract with Kyubei. Intervened by Homura murdering Kyubei's body, she flees to find and rescue her friend. When Madoka leaves, we come to learn that Kyubei is probably as evil as they come, and his real name is incubator? Hmm I wonder why...maybe he takes all of those grief seeds in order to cultivate power for himself, who knows? But as the scene comes to a close Kyubei has a chilling quote for us all. He says that it's fitting that girls who will eventually become witches are called magical girls... dun dun dun.

And then we witness…Sayaka becoming a witch.

Watch with me! Magica Madoka (Episode 7)

Kyoko is what Korean people would call: “nalari” – someone who never takes anything seriously, and only likes to go out partying or doing things for the sake of themselves, immature and selfish good-for-nothing. However, Episode 7 totally flips this image upside down. I don't mean that it totally discounts her selfish ways, but it does show that she has taken a practical route, and she understands her role much better than Sayaka ever will.  There is still a sense of discomfort within her though, I don't really know how to describe it, but she's not the twisted person Sayaka believes her to be.

Kyoko's story

In this series, there are heavy themes of "equilibrium". Nothing is done for free, and anything pure and good that is set out for the world is countered by darkness. I guess that is why the girls' Gems become polluted when they use magic.

To be honest, I like Sayaka in some ways. In all of the other anime, she’d be the perfect hero – selfless and idealistic. But I have a feeling that in this series, she’s going to end up the fool who didn’t take anyone’s advice. All three maho shojos we’ve encountered so far have told her to not live for someone else, yet that is what she continues to do. In the end her ignorance will be her downfall.

We come to a moment of truth when Hitomi confesses to Sayaka that she is also in love with Kamijo. Hitomi gives Sayaka one day before she takes that confession directly to Kamijo himself. Sayaka is devastated because she can never receive Kamijo’s love as an empty shell. During her fight with a witch, she starts going a tad insane, and I guess that’s what everyone was implying when they said that Sayaka is too weak to be a magical girl…

Watch with me! Magica Madoka (Ep 6)

I got a little sidetracked with the holidays coming up, but Episode 6 was intense! Straight off the bat we see Kyoko backing off from a fight with Homura. Homura threatens Madoka directly this time, insisting that she should stay uninvolved. This anime makes me think about Sailor Moon and other shojo anime with the same motifs: cute cats awakening magical powers within ordinary girls who go out and fight evil. If you think about it, those girls always willingly become kick ass superheroes without reservation. Without question they accept their destiny. In this one, Madoka and Sayaka are both given the chance to reflect on what they are to give up…but enough about that.

Kyoko

We learn later on that the more magic you use, the more polluted the Soul Gem becomes, and this is all too ironic. What that means is that the magical girls are dependent on the grief seeds to clean out their Soul Gems. Sayaka is in desperate need to find more so that she doesn’t get her ass handed to her by Kyoko. But it seems to me, that Sayaka will be eliminated by none other than Homura who claims that she will quietly deal with Sayaka’s ending. 

Homura approaches Kyoko, telling her that a Walpurgishnacht is approaching their city. I have no idea what it means, but it sounds dangerous.

One thing in this episode that I don’t understand is Madoka’s conversation with her mother. Madoka says that her friend is having trouble lately trying to do the right thing, and her mother tells her that maybe she should make a mistake in order to save her. I wonder in what shape her mother’s strange advice will take form.

Anywho, Kyoko disregards Homura’s advice and goes to finish off Sayaka. Madoka is really frustrating because despite not knowing anything about the Soul Gem and how it operates, she throws away Sayaka’s Gem in order to keep her from fighting. When Sayaka’s body goes slack, Kyubey explains that Sayaka’s soul has been ripped out of her body and placed into the Gem, so that Magical Girls can fight more effectively. This is risky business, isn’t it? Anywho, more next time.

Watch with me! Madoka Magica (Ep 5)

Conversations with Homura always reveal the most honest forms of everything. In the fifth episode, Madoka approaches Homura to ask her to protect her friend. Homura assures that the moment Sayaka made the contract, her fate was sealed. Makes me wonder if what I thought before was right. Homura is mad foreshadowing the end of Sayaka’s days, amirite or amiwrong?

Sayaka making a contract

Disheartened by that magical girls must give up on their lives for a single wish, Madoka goes to protect Sayaka herself by accompanying her. She’s pretty much ready at this point to make a contract if anything goes wrong. The girls find a familiar and Sayaka starts fighting it, only to be interrupted by the newcomer Kyoko. She starts reprimanding Sayaka for trying to kill the familiar before it’s taken a few more victims and finally turning into a witch. Kyoko then tries to crush Sayaka and Madoka’s disillusionment of the honourable and proud life of a magical girl. Magical girls are people who are trying to survive to protect their wish. So instead of “good” being codependent with “evil”, there is no such thing as good at all, just a hierarchy of power. Those who are at the top prey on those who are weaker. This theme is kind of cliché, but definitely not for anime. Most anime are focused on friendship and good vs. evil where a lot of the time there is a clear cut boundary between the two. In this one, there is no such thing, or at least, there are no definite sides or boundaries. It’s more like, everyone has to fend for themselves and they are alone in the process of it all. This episode is sombre. 

Watch with me! Madoka Magica (Ep 4)

So Mami’s death is being actualized, not remembrance or mourning, but by other things that I will reveal later.

Madoka is haunted by the image of Mami’s death, and she decides to back out of the deal. Homura tells Madoka that once magical girls die inside a labyrinth, she will forever remain a missing person, with no one to mourn for them. Madoka is horrified by this, and Homura also makes it clear that magical girls don’t fight to protect others, they fight to protect their wishes.

Sayaka, on the other hand, is struggling to open up Kyosuke’s heart, who is starting to become angry because the doctor confirmed that his fingers will never heal. He is heartbroken because he must give up playing the violin. Overcome with sadness, he crushes the CD that Sayaka brought him, cutting up his hand in the process.

the strange labyrinth

 Desperate to make him happy again, Sayaka tells Kyosuke that magic and miracles exist. At that precise moment Kyubey flashes before her eyes. And we know there this ends up. I’m not sure if Kyosuke will ever find out that the miracle was Sayaka's doing, and I’m not sure if Sayaka realizes what she’s sacrificed for the prepubescent boy who doesn’t seem appreciative of her at all.

Madoka realizes what her friend has done when she spots their third friend Hitomi walking to a warehouse with a witch stamp on her neck. When Madoka and Hitomi arrive to the warehouse there is a congregation of the witch’s victims who have gathered to kill themselves, and Madoka ends up getting caught in the labyrinth. Sayaka comes to the rescue, and a girl named Kyoko comes to claim Mami’s former territory, only to hear that Sayaka has claimed it, to her dismay. And that concludes this episode.

I don't have an analysis for this episode, but I just know it's not really going to end well for Sayaka I can feel it. She's the typical mess up character who meets a tragic ending because of her foolish actions. I really do pity her though...