Stats:Episodes: 12Aired: January 7, 2011 - April 22, 2011MAL score: 8.91MAL rank: 12Synopsis (provided by me): Madoka is an exceptionally normal young girl; she has a loving family and lively friends. One day, however, her life is forever altered when she comes in contact with a "witch," a paranormal entity that feeds upon humans. Before the witch has a chance to devour her, a puella magi (magical girl) comes to Madoka's aid and introduces her to the perils that puella magi face. At first, the puella magi seem to be all frills and glamor, but their life isn't as amazing as one may assume; their fate is much darker than you think, and in Madoka Magica, anything can happen.I will admit that when I first started this series, I doubted it would be a masterpiece, that it would live up to all the great comments I've been hearing, that it would become one of my favorites.While it didn't necessarily become one of my all time faves or reach the ranks of masterpieces such as Cowboy Bebop and Brotherhood, it still proves to be an incredible show that lives up to its name as a deconstruction of the mahou shoujo genre. I was definitely impressed.The plot was crafted skillfully for the most part. With only twelve episodes to work with, Magica definitely knew what it wanted to do and how it was going to get there. They did a great job of utilizing the time they had. However, there were some characters who should have gotten more character developement; some characters just didn't get enough time to grow on me. I wanted to love them, but they were gone before I had reason to.Riyoga made an interesting comment on my post about Mami. I'm slapping myself for not thinking of that while I was watching episode 3. Summarizing, he said that some particular deaths in the series were used to show the audience early on that this wasn't your average sugar-coated mahou shoujo; it was actually a lot more darker than people assumed. I understand the reasoning behind that, and looking at it from that standpoint, the writers were very successful. However, I found the character development to suffer here. Their reasoning doesn't really justify the lack of development for some characters.Also, I felt that later in the show, characters were dying too quickly and closely together. It never became too overwhelming, but it was enough to be ever so slightly annoying.Speaking of annoying, Madoka could be just that at times. She was always crying and trying to break up fights even though she couldn't do shit.God, this far into the review and I already sound like a fucking Debbie Downer! It seems like everything I've mentioned so far is negative. Don't be fooled, though. Madoka Magica's pros definitely outweigh the cons. Please allow me to delve deeper into all the positive, awesome things that I loved about this series.One of the first things that pulled me into this series was the art. All of the normal animation and art was clean and captivating, but the witch fights really set this anime apart artistically. It reminded me of a a moving 3D scrapbook page. The scenes were dark, spooky, and grim. I loved every bit of them. Not only the art during the witch fights, but the action during those scenes were always exciting. They did a good job of making the magical girls look like badass warriors.Although some characters weren't developed to their full potential, many other characters received a satisfactory amount of screentime. I found Akemi Homura to be particularly inspiring. At first, I believed she was a cold, heartless mahou shojo, one who put work over people, taking little to no interest in protecting those around her. I thought she was selfish.In episode 10, I discovered that all of my assumptions and opinions about her were dead wrong. She had so much more to her character, such a captivating story, that you would never have known about just by looking at her.They took her character, someone I thought to be self-centered, and revealed her back story, her true intentions. They drastically changed my opinion of her.
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