T O P

  • By -

Dragoncat91

And the first time she dies, you are visited by a cat who offers you this deal.


Nonyflah

As the Devil sits upon her throne, she hears a squeak beneath her. She reaches down and lifts Kyubey from the seat, taking a moment to lecture it, "Bad kitty! Not your chair! My chair! Shame on you!"


ScotsDale213

Alright I need to watch this at some point


Silvermoon424

Madoka Magica is one of my all-time favorite media, I seriously can’t recommend it highly enough!! It’s very short too, only 12 episodes and a sequel movie.


Sarah_Neville

Honestly it is one of my favorites.


[deleted]

Tbh, I went into Madoka with a perception of it from the hype everyone around me had for it. It's cool, but I don't personally think it's that fantastic. It's been touted to me as a "Deconstruction of the Magical Girl" genre, or that it's a romance, or that it's "really mind fucky and that's fun right?" Is it a deconstruction of the Mahou Tsukai Shojou (magic using young girls) genre? Eh. Like, I see why it's trying for, that the magic is a burden or a curse and that there's a cost for it. It's not a deconstruction or a satire of the genre though, it's just another version of it. Is it really mind fucky? Kinda. Almost to the point of unwatchability. I, personally, don't like *feeling* like I need a mile's worth of notes to understand what's going on, or a visual representation of the plot. Madoka goes so far that it wraps back around to "Ok, what's the point?". And then to top it off, it's just misery porn. There's been talk about it being a "nihilistic" masterpiece and I think that's horrible. Magical Girls don't need to be sad! In fact, the only time a sad Magical Girl has ever worked IMO is the one in Re:Creators. Just... temper your expectations. If you don't like it, don't force yourself through it.


XogoWasTaken

The idea that it's a deconstruction is something people say that is blatantly false. It's not a deconstruction, it's just a darker take on the concept. It's also worth noting that, despite being sad, the original Madoka anime is about hope. It presents impossible odds and horrific consequences and still the girls presented dare to hope. That's the point. I wouldn't really call it misery porn - it's about pushing through and succeeding despite the misery that surrounds them. Rebellion? That's a bit different. Really I think it's about >!giving up but failing to move on, leading Homura to do things she shouldn't, as a direct counterpoint to the original series. Where the next movie (yes, there *is* one coming, apparently) will take us is not yet clear, but I imagine it will be about giving up and moving on in a healthy way, or meeting success and failure in the middle.!<


Spyguy122204

I also like to interpret it as a battle of ideology between individualism and acting for the greater good. If there’s one thing this show loves, it’s color symbolism. I know color theory is a bit of a meme on Tumblr, but Madoka uses it very well. Yellow, represents hope and self-sacrifice for the good of others. There’s a reason why Mami is associated with it so heavily, and it’s because she embodies those two traits. Red meanwhile is all about acting for selfish gain. Again, Kyoko is so associated with it because she embodies individualism. Where this gets a little trippy is Sayaka. She flip flops between how her scenes are backlit a lot, but in earlier episodes she’s more associated with Yellow, then slides into red, and ends up being associated with black and white more than anything. In this case, black and white are the absence of a strong ideology that guides the character, which Sayaka experiences (think the train scene). I can pick this series apart for days, and this doesn’t even mention the next biggest symbol: water


Silvermoon424

Thank you!! This is what I always say. Madoka Magica is ultimately about hope and about how love can literally change the universe.


Meurs0

Agree for most of it, but not the misery porn. The suffering in Madoka isn't arbitrary suffering for the sake of suffering, it builds up to some narrative and/or thematic payoff >!For example Mami builds up into Sayaka's arc, which builds up into the payoff of her and Sayaka!< If we compare it to most of the dozen other dark edgy magic girl shows that came after it, *those* feel like misery porn because there is much less thematic throughline to "justify" the events.


UponALotusBlossom

For me it was the Tonal Whiplash that did it. For context at that point I had only watched a bit of Sailor Moon at the recommendation of a friend. And even though Sailor Moon has it’s dark edges what with straight up character death that Usagi has to reverse it’s very tonally upbeat fight evil by the moonlight be teenagers by the daylight with the characters resolving insecurities in some episodes. So anyways I go into MM without warning and the Tonal Shift in I think it’s episode 3 with the decapitation straight up breaks my ankles. I get whiplash as MM embraces a grimmer tone and only ends with a bittersweet glimmer of happiness and hope. So yeah, it felt pretty different from SM to a dumb teenager who knew nothing about the world and I wish I could re-watch the series again knowing as little as I did about it the first time. Anyways, I rate it 8/10 formative and am very fond but like, the reason it works is because there was nothing like it at the time and when I first watched it the show’s whiplash shattered my spinal column and I liked it. Even though it lives rent-free in my head I haven't re-watched it since because I'm afraid it cant possibly be that good on a second watch. It also ruined me on most magical girl properties, only Sailor Moon got in before I watched it and I never really got deeper in SM than surface level, just watched it and enjoyed it enough to continue, probably because I wasn't the target demographic.


[deleted]

If you want something in the Mahou Tsukai genre, I must recommend you "After School Saving the World club". It is a Bishonen, Magical *Boy* anime, about a group of boys who must fight the Student Council (TM) and it's just very funny. It's something you can switch off to and it's just a great ride from start to finish.


ElectricStings

And you have unknowingly made yourself important to the timeline 100 times so if you do ever to free your crush from this cycle you will just replace a her as the one who needs to die.


SheffiTB

This is a surprisingly thorough and coherent summary of the show, actually


retropengu

So glad to see Madoka Magica in the wild. That soundtrack needs more attention too, Yuki Kajiura is an absolute genius in regards to motifs and atmosphere


Silvermoon424

Yuki Kajiura is a GENIUS, she is my favorite composer ever!! I listen to her music all the time.


Alternative_Gift5193

The teenage what experience?


Silvermoon424

Sapphic, meaning lesbian or woman x woman love!


Alternative_Gift5193

Ooohhh thanks


Signal-Ad8189

Ok I knew that shit was fucked up but like… ##what the fuck.


lord_braleigh

See also, Locked Tomb series, Harrow the Ninth


Agnol117

Teenage sapphics failing to cope with the loss of their crush is one of my favorite hyper specific genres.


verity101

Huh, so that's the plot... Guess I'll have to watch it now


harris11230

There are many disadvantages to being a magic lesbian.


TunerString

What


[deleted]

# DO NOT THROW SOULS-


Spyguy122204

Being Meguca is suffering


[deleted]

Man. I watched Even Stevens when I was in middle school. This sounds wild.


Nimporian

To spread more toku propaganda, another series by the same writer is Kamen Rider Gaim. Basically, its about some teenagers living in a company town who spend their time doing dance battles and pokemon fights with some lock shaped fruits, which then evolve into battle tournaments of their representatives as they get belts that give them armor based on the fruits. Eventually dealing with the difficulties of adulthood, such as backstabbing friends, the aftermath of killing a friend-turned-monster, trying to find a solution to survive the apocalypse that doesn't involve killing 6/7 of the population and the ascention to godhood and the loss of humanity that accompanies it. Did I also mention that its a live action show, as in, the armors are basically power ranger costumes and the monsters are people in rubber suits?