John Hartman The trailers and posters of this show are practically false advertising: When all they show is cute girls with wide eyes and colourful hair smiling and having fun, the show looks like it could be a shoddy clone of Sailor Moon. In reality, beyond the physical appearance of the characters Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a psychological-horror style genre deconstruction that has more in common with 'Faust' or 'Requiem for a Dream' than it does with anything else in the Magical Girl genre. Like the other infamously existential anime 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', Madoka Magica starts out with the pretension of being representative of its genre so it can tear down those assumptions and tropes moments later. The first two episodes are a brilliant but not entirely out-of-the-ordinary set-up for a magical girl anime. By the end of the third episode it is made abundantly clear that things do not go according to plan. The remaining 9 episodes cover a nightmare-inducingly fatalistic and hopeless series of events that rank this show as among the emotionally darkest works of fiction I've ever seen.There are no monsters that jump out at you, and there are no gruesome character deaths to make you cringe. Make no mistake, this is definitely horror - but it's horror in the sense of total and utter despair, regret and hopelessness in the face of the inevitable. The juxtaposition of the impossibly grim storyline and the overly cutesy visuals leaves a constant feeling of nausea and unease, such as how Kyubey keeps his cute-but- cold smile even as the story descends into hell. The casting of well-meaning and naive 14 year old girls as the tragic heroes only adds to this contrast.The plot will surprise you at every turn - even if you're a savant at foreseeing twists, I can guarantee you that you will be caught of guard at more than once. I really can't say anything about the plot except the obvious, which is that there is more than meets the eye in the world of magical girls - but keep in mind that just as you think you understand what's going on, you don't.My single problem with the show is that the ending felt rushed and incomplete, and the set-up for the 'Rebellion' movie at the end seemed a bit forced. I think the last episode or two should have been an entire movie, like 'End of Evangelion' - squeezing such apocalyptically dramatic events into a 20 minute episode was bound to leave things undercooked. Otherwise I have no complaints. This is, without a doubt, one of the best made stories in any medium that I've ever seen. It's arty but not pretentious, emotional but never clichéd, action packed yet thoughtful. It manages to hit hard without losing subtlety. Every character is believable, interesting and necessary. The art switches between clean and conventional scenes of the real world to portrayals of psychedelic lovecraftian destruction with total fluency - Madoka Magica is at every point incredible to look at. The soundtrack is well produced, emotionally versatile and never boring.Even if you don't like anime or have never seen it before, if you like stories with originality, intellectual and emotional depth, themes of cosmic significance and painfully human characters, watch Madoka Magica. You will enjoy it.

Timothy McKann When I first heard about this series,I have to say that a lot of people have been getting into it. I have to say that after seeing people dressing up as the characters at Anime Cons,this is a show that I wanted to see. After watching the series on crunchy-roll,I really wanted to own it. But after buying it on DVD,and watching it in English,it feels like watching it on Crunchyroll again. It has a great storyline,and the characters were amazing,and the dimensions where the battles take place reminds me of .hack//sign. But what this series reminds us that we should be careful on what we do. We all need to take responsibility on our actions,and never be reckless on what we do. I do believe that the Magical girls in the show have tried to be careful on what they do,and what fate they have. But however,this is one of a kind,and I think you all need to get this show,it's the best.

arorashadow_2003 The deconstruction of the Magical Girl Genre of anime has become one of this years smash hit anime series as well as another personal favorite of mine. Puella Magi Madoka Magica jumped to be my favorite of the winter season and most likely it will go down as my all time favorite of 2011. My interest in this mostly stemmed from a like of Magical Girl Shows and sealed by Yuki Kajiura's involvement because when she makes the music you can't go wrong.First impressions were "yeah okay they have all the magical girl tropes Yuki's music is good enough; hey where's the ending theme?" but the show for sure got more interesting when it got darker by episode 4 and considering Mami was for sure not coming back from the dead in any kind of deus ex machina as well as the torment the other characters go through as the series progresses.This is one of the darker Magical Girl Shows I've seen, I guess I should have expected it from the creator of Phantom of Inferno (adapted into Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~) as for the director Akiyuki Shinbo, who I'm not overly familiar with but I did some reading on him. From what I gathered all I was really expecting was some artsyness which made me go "oh cool an artsy magical girl show." But again wasn't expecting anything overly groundbreaking and invigorating.After episode 10 Home Run Homu Homura-chan easily became my favorite character from the series as well as one of my favorite anime characters of all time. The fact she continued to reset time and try to save Madoka only to have to watch her friends die over and over again....She's got moxy! Really that can't be healthy....The other characters even managed to stand out as well. You have Sayaka who loses it when the one she loves and makes her wish for goes for another girl, the bomb drop of the purpose behind the Magical Girl, Kyoko's own tragic past and Mami's as well. Sadly perhaps the only character who didn't get as much attention was Madoka however I will give praise for the fact she had to wrestle with the idea. While she is the titular character it becomes more apparent afterword that the series is really told from Homura's point of view.As I mentioned before one of the reasons I jumped right on this as opposed to waiting was Yuki Kajiura's involvement. Ms. Kajiura who has written solid classics in the past such as the .hack// OST, Noir, MADLAX, El Cazador de la Bruja and Tsubasa Chronicle once again was able to step up to the plate. The music is wonderfully written but suffers from a few generic pieces in the mix. You have wonderful tracks with a strong emotional grip which can evoke the images of the series but you have the dull everyday tracks which feel more like scratch. If I had to rank it with some of her past works I'd put it with Elemental Gelade which was a good OST but not one of her very best either. Regardless the OST is more than worth a look at especially for fans of Kajiura's music group Kalafina which delivered the stunning ending theme "Magia." The art and animation will strike you a bit strange with a combination of unusual designs. Even I wasn't sure of what to make of the cotton balls with mustaches as well as the acid trip design scheme for the Runes. Each Rune gets more elaborate and strange as the series goes on and many are quite creative. Sayaka's witch form which takes the environment of a full symphony orchestra is a brilliant example of environmental symbolism. Homura's apartment alluding to her time manipulation skills. The art direction is solid even of the characters designs look sketchy and unusual. You have a mix and match of landmarks from around the world from a glass prison to a giant oil refinery to a wind farm, this will be an art student's orgy.Of course things got complicated for enthusiastic watchers during the 2011 Northern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami putting the anticipated finale on hold but happy to say it was creative and daring. The series almost reconstructs itself on the spot with Madoka's final wish and creatively shows Magical Girls from around the world.Puella Magi Madoka Magica easily one of the best series of the season if not of all time. The same way Hideaki Anno's "Neon Genesis Evangelion" deconstructed the Giant Robot Genre. Shaft/Aniplex's Madoka deconstructs the Magical Girl Genre. And like Evangelion this series is quickly becoming a marketing and franchising juggernaut with toys, even books talking to fans of the show including acclaimed filmmaker Mamoru Oshii, shops and other materials dedicated to it.This is the first deconstruct of the Magical Girls genre of anime that I have seen personally, I don't know if Princess Tutu or Akiyuki Shinbo's other magical girl series "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" falls into that. Puella Magi Madoka Magica doesn't fall into a lot of the old traps seen before and it doesn't try to model itself too much to other successful series in the past such as "Sailor Moon" or "Cardcaptor Sakura" though it certainly plays with the staples established by those series.If there is a sequel and there are talks of one, I wouldn't mind a reconstruct but it would be nice to keep it relatively dark and dangerous. Hopefully no earthquakes will complicate things this time and hopefully it can be as good as this, the original.

joelherro i really liked it, despite it being about young girls...the only other magical girl series I've watched is sexy magical girl which is a crazy hentai...this was nothing as mental as that...i had heard this was very dark, and i didn't think so to begin with, but maybe i was thinking 'dark' in terms of horror, which this isn't really, it is 'dark' in terms of despair and hopelessness...its actually a very intelligent, well thought anime, that had me guessing up til the end and keen to watch every episode...Madoka meets a strange creature that looks similar to a small dog, with long ears that talks (it is anime, so that is not as weird as it sounds!) named Kyubey. He offers to grant any wish she wants in return for making a contract for her soul, to fight witches for the rest of her life...what will her one wish be? awesome animation, interesting characters and a gripping story, but probably too deep and possibly disturbing for younger viewers (theres a lot of trippy imagery in this!)...its pretty awesome...