Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is one of those magical girl series that leave me saying, "What the heck?"

Some magical girl series ("mahou shoujo" series) are just straight up sugar.  Nah, y'know what?  I'm lying.  Some magical girl series are dubbed and edited and cut into straight up sugar.  They're never born that way.  The authors and artists are careful to include enough troubles and trials from real life to ground the girls.  Hell, Sailor Moon isn't just a star-crossed lover, she's stuck in a repeating time-loop of failure.  CardCaptor Sakura doesn't just have to overcome the Clow; she has to deal with her gay brother, her brother's boyfriend, the price of her own inadequacies, and life without a mother.  You don't want to hear me even get started on Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena ("Shoujo Kakumei Utena")!  Magic Knight Rayearth was written as a tragedy.  Alice Academy ("Gakuen Alice") turned out to be basically enslaving children.  Shall I continue, or have I made my point?

Many of the series I've mentioned here are among the most famous magical girl series.  The fact is that there are many, many magical girl series out there that, like CardCaptor Sakura, overcome all their darkness with sweetness.  Puella Magi Madoka Magica...is not one of them.

Madoka was advertised as a magical girl show.  It has an opening reminiscent of CCS.  And yet, even in those first two episodes, read into the lyrics.  It is showing its fangs, gently, behind its smile.  In the third episode, its strikes, shattering your hope that all will be will for these little girls.  The credits song changes accordingly, alerting you that all pretense has been dropped.  When marathoning the series, it serves as a spine-shivering contrast between how things should be and how they are.  There is the unmistakable feeling of something being terribly, horribly wrong.

I love this series.  It didn't give me a happy ending.  It did amaze me and keep me engaged for all of its twelve episodes.  Each episode served a purpose and advanced the plot.  The pacing was tight, the music appropriate and in some places haunting.  One track in particular stood out, with its heavy emphasis on woodwinds creating a medieval air  They had a strong sense of timing as well: when you saw the girl's transformation sequence, God help her because Kyubey won't.  Everything was well-executed.  The witch's dimensions were fascinating.  The avoidance of true black helps advance the facade of a children's fairy tale, but like most fairy tales it had darkness at its core.

There's a reason there were four separate AMVs of Madoka entered in this year's Otakon AMV contest.  Go check this series out!