Madoka Magica - Review
If you have not heard of Madoka Magica you would not be alone, the tv series ran some years ago and it did have a loyal fan base. The series ran in 2011, but in order to help provide something more for their fans the team re-released the story in the form of two movies.
The story of Madoka Magica is the tale of Madoka Kaname and Sayaka Miki, two high school students who after meeting the new transfer student, suddenly find themselves rescuing a strange creature and then inside a bizarre place and as they proceed further into this zany space another girl, Mami finds them and saves them from danger. This starts both girls down a strange and troublesome path after they are informed that Mami is a Magical Girl.
It is from this point on that the lives of the girls is turned upside down, not only have they discovered that magic is real and witches are also real, but the cat like creature they saved, Kyubey has told them he can grant them anything they desire, but in return they must become Magical Girls and fight the witches as payment. The new transfer student, Homura repeatedly tells Madoka not to become one and to never become one, but never elaborates as to her reasons. The girls then start to follow Mami around, to learn if they should accept the offer or should they ignore what they see around them now.
The story takes a great many weird turns and at times I was lost as to what was actually going on, but towards the end things started to click into place. I did wonder why it was disjointed and found out about the series then, it is a shame that you need to watch almost all of the second movie to understand parts of the first but and once you do it is a solid ending. Thankfully the characters are represented pretty well, Homura is stoic in her desire for Madoka not to become a Magical Girl, while Mami is carefree, which reflexes the life she leads in her off time. The other characters you meet are just as interesting to watch, with some of them stronger than others. My only real gripe character wise is Madoka herself, through out everything that she experiences in the first film, she seemingly ignores all rational reason and keeps charging into battles, even though she is not a Magical Girl at those points.
Thankfully, I can overlook such a detail because the world is beautifully animated, both characters and world work great here. The characters are almost your typical anime girls, but once they start to experience the world of Magical Girls they change a little, Sayaka stands a little taller when she gets more confident and Mami opens up a lot more, her expressions are great to see. The world itself is detailed, both in the real world and the domains of the witches, with those being the absolute stand out of the movies. When you see the world transform from the city of Mitakihara to those strange domains, you are not only seeing the world change, but also the characters change as they go from knowing what is around them to being utterly confused.
The domains of the witches are strange places, looking at them I get a real Alice in Wonderland feeling, as things that could never exist just walk past you, the walls have eyes, strange patterns adorn the walls and even the witches exude an eeriness about them, not from their actions but there looks. The only part that I struggled with here was feeling connected to what I was seeing, the team who made these movies have done an amazing job creating a space that feels like it could exist, if only in the mind of a madman, but also made it feel inviting, like it is a place you may want to explore. The problem with it all is that with the randomness of how things act and scenes change, walls move around, strange creatures attacking and such it was really hard to keep up with it, in fact I paused the first movie when they entered the second witches domain just to process what I saw, it is almost too much at once.
Overall Madoka Magica is an odd collection, the movies themselves need to be watched back to back, because what happens in the first gives you 1000 questions and almost no answers and the ones you do get are just as the movie ends, but the story that is told here is done very well, the characters are not as two dimensional as the artwork would have you believe and the worlds, both of them, feel like they could exist. Thankfully Madman have released the movies in a nice collection that adds a little extra to the normal collections you find, with a very well thought out art book. While not 900 pages of art, what is in their helps provide you with a clearer picture of the world as well as the characters.
If you are a fan of anime and want to watching something a little off centre, Madoka Magica is a worth addition to your collection; it asks some deep questions of what a girl in high school could really want, but adds enough fantasy to keep you engaged passed the girl in high school stuff. The art book is just the topping on this dessert of wonderful and creepy.
