[Anime]/Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Cute Can Be Evil

Would you like a contract?

Okay, so at the pressure of a couple of our friends (you know who you are), CK and I sat down and did a marathon of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  Admittedly we weren't 100% sure of what we were getting ourselves into outside of the fact that a) this was a magical girl series and b) it had turned the genre on it's head in quite a few ways. With that knowledge, we felt that we were pretty well armed to weather the storm.

What happened over the course of the next 6 hours was confusion, bewilderment and a few extreme "WTF?!" moments (Episodes 3 and 6 come to mind). That's not to say that series is bad, it isn't by a long shot. However, due to our own tiredness or just not catching everything or even by design of the series, confusion did abound in quite a few places. That said, this is not your happy go lucky Sailor Moon by a long shot.

• Genre: Magical Girl
• Length: 12ep
• Rating: 8/10
• Recommendation: I'd say that you definitely should watch it, especially if you're a fan of the genre. It raises some interesting questions and ideas, and while confusing at times, is pretty damn good.

To start things off, usually around here we like our comedy or at least things with a decent helping of it as far as anime goes. While there are small moments here and there throughout the series, none of them were really that great outside of the first few episodes. Which, given the nature of the material and tone of the series as a whole, not that surprising. However, it did seem like there was a shift about 1/3 to halfway through the run to a much more serious and philosophical slant on things. Again, not a bad thing, just unexpected. Even the intro points to humorous moments that are never seen and kind of seem out of place given the direction that the show took.

Throughout the series we follow Madoka along with Sayaka (her long time friend and classmate), some other magical girls and very brief introduction of her family at the beginning. Most of the series, though, is focused on Madoka and her struggle to deal with choices brought about by Kyubey (that cute little fellow pictured above) and what she becomes witness to. This is especially thanks to a dream at the start (we actually had to stop and make sure we didn't start at the wrong point somehow) and magical girl, Mami (at least at the start). Though Madoka would love to become a magical girl, she hesitates from what she witnesses and experiences.

Due to her hesitating she becomes a spectator, much like the rest of us, to what's going on despite her wanting to help in the fight against the "Witches", who cause all kinds of nasty problems for humans (some of which hit close to home). The worlds that these witches live in are insanely trippy and bizarre. The style they used really is extremely disorienting and makes for a wild contrast to the rest of the show's style. It's this back and forth nature of things that shows the duality of the worlds our heroines live in.

You can feel there is almost a constant heavy burden on not only Madoka but also the other magical girls, who are at the very least...an interesting bunch (Some completely psychotic and their backstories equally so. As more of them appear, more layers of complexity are added to the picture as well. Their appearances either explain things or only serves to muddy up the choice being dangled in front of Madoka even further. The writer's did a great job of keeping things in the dark for the viewer and not giving too much away, there are hints, but it always seems out of reach as far as understanding it fully.

It's not until towards the end of the series that things start to sort themselves out and things get explained in much greater depth as to what's going on. (Spoiler: There's a lot of wibbly wobbly timey whimey stuff) At that point, we felt a lot more comfortable with things that we'd seen and a few things we obviously hadn't due to whatever reason, but were hinted at. While, we think that maybe they could've skipped a few things here, it still served it's purpose well and helped to tie up loose ends that had been confusing the living crap out of us up until that point. It's also what drove us to keep watching. If anything, just to find out just what the deal with certain characters and events was. We also really didn't see the ending coming at all and while I won't spell it out for you, it's not entirely what you expect and, at least in my eyes, creates a few more questions that need answering.

Overall, the show is a great entry and I would say it's something that any fan of the genre should put into their much watch list. There's a lot of things that the show deals with that no one else has really thought about, or at the very least only glossed over in the past with passing reference. Puella Magi Madoka Magica covers a lot of it and while there is a good bit of confusion that will be felt by many, stick it out until the end and most, if not all, will be cleared up.

We're looking forward to catching both of the movies that are out currently, though they're basically recaps of the series and a third movie which is to be released in the future and will feature all new material.