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madoka final impressions
- Ever since the first episode, I thought that there was going to be a time loop that never changes and whenever Madoka runs into Homura battling against Walpurgis Night, she fails to save the world (or something), and wakes up in a new loop, thinking it was all a dream. Seriously, for the longest time I was convinced that was where they were going. Thankfully I was wrong.
- Nice Bokurano reference there with the chairs in episode 9.
- This show is not a deconstruction. No, really. They played everything straight in the end. The tone was different and the stakes were higher than in your usual magical girl show, is all.
- Madoka really didn't become a magical girl until the final episode, ha ha. I liked that! Rather than making a mistake early on and then spending the rest of the series correcting it, she took her time learning from everyone else. And by the end she was able to make a fully informed choice. (Madoka's mother asking whether she is sure she is not being tricked by anyone was easily my favourite bit in the whole show.)
- Every time Kyosuke was playing: animators! If you can pay attention to mouth movements, you should be able to pay attention to bowings. It's not like you need to be musically inclined to do a little research, if your ears don't tip you off. It looked pretty horrible when he was constantly changing his bowings while only one continuous note was playing in the background.
- I am totally in love with Homura.
- And Kyubey.
- They stayed true to Kuybey's nature and didn't make him a bad guy! I'M THANKFUL FOR THIS, I was so afraid they were going to go that way, what with every single character thinking he was evil. I mean. It's understandable in their situation. Double so if we go by the general anime explanation that they are teenaged girls and as such emotional, irrational creatures (I don't). But it would have been so great it if at least one character would have said "oh, raging at you accomplishes nothing because your moral framework is just so out of tune with ours. Guess I'll find other ways to work around my feelings/this situation then!" (Well, I guess Homura did that at the very end. And Madoka too. At the very end.)
- While talking about gender essentialism, the biggest emotional power resides in an apparently homogeneous group called teenaged girls? Individual differences, what are those.
- Not sure what to think of the implication that everything every notable woman in history has ever done was accomplished by magical means. Whereas, since Madoka's history is our history, every single notable MAN in history pulled himself to fame and power without interfering aliens. ://////
- Weird animation style! With a purpose! This is what I've been waiting for since Gankutsuou: actual narrative significance for these kinds of visual elements. Shaft usually throws in random bits of stop-motion animation here and there, and it sure looks pretty, but it starts getting very old very fast since it serves no purpose.
- Pretty things: MADOKA'S BOW IN THE FINAL EPISODE OH WOW, Charlotte, Walpurgis Night (THAT SMILE)
Final verdict: The characters' mental state was almost completely alien to me (seriously, Kyubey's matter-of-fact explanations made so much more sense so me), which made me enjoy the show less I might have otherwise. For example, the soul jar thing, which I expected to be a five-minute crisis at best. I'm not even slightly spiritual, so maybe that explains why its horribleness was lost on me. Other than that, very good indeed. And I really want the OST.
- Nice Bokurano reference there with the chairs in episode 9.
- This show is not a deconstruction. No, really. They played everything straight in the end. The tone was different and the stakes were higher than in your usual magical girl show, is all.
- Madoka really didn't become a magical girl until the final episode, ha ha. I liked that! Rather than making a mistake early on and then spending the rest of the series correcting it, she took her time learning from everyone else. And by the end she was able to make a fully informed choice. (Madoka's mother asking whether she is sure she is not being tricked by anyone was easily my favourite bit in the whole show.)
- Every time Kyosuke was playing: animators! If you can pay attention to mouth movements, you should be able to pay attention to bowings. It's not like you need to be musically inclined to do a little research, if your ears don't tip you off. It looked pretty horrible when he was constantly changing his bowings while only one continuous note was playing in the background.
- I am totally in love with Homura.
- And Kyubey.
- They stayed true to Kuybey's nature and didn't make him a bad guy! I'M THANKFUL FOR THIS, I was so afraid they were going to go that way, what with every single character thinking he was evil. I mean. It's understandable in their situation. Double so if we go by the general anime explanation that they are teenaged girls and as such emotional, irrational creatures (I don't). But it would have been so great it if at least one character would have said "oh, raging at you accomplishes nothing because your moral framework is just so out of tune with ours. Guess I'll find other ways to work around my feelings/this situation then!" (Well, I guess Homura did that at the very end. And Madoka too. At the very end.)
- While talking about gender essentialism, the biggest emotional power resides in an apparently homogeneous group called teenaged girls? Individual differences, what are those.
- Not sure what to think of the implication that everything every notable woman in history has ever done was accomplished by magical means. Whereas, since Madoka's history is our history, every single notable MAN in history pulled himself to fame and power without interfering aliens. ://////
- Weird animation style! With a purpose! This is what I've been waiting for since Gankutsuou: actual narrative significance for these kinds of visual elements. Shaft usually throws in random bits of stop-motion animation here and there, and it sure looks pretty, but it starts getting very old very fast since it serves no purpose.
- Pretty things: MADOKA'S BOW IN THE FINAL EPISODE OH WOW, Charlotte, Walpurgis Night (THAT SMILE)
Final verdict: The characters' mental state was almost completely alien to me (seriously, Kyubey's matter-of-fact explanations made so much more sense so me), which made me enjoy the show less I might have otherwise. For example, the soul jar thing, which I expected to be a five-minute crisis at best. I'm not even slightly spiritual, so maybe that explains why its horribleness was lost on me. Other than that, very good indeed. And I really want the OST.