Yeah, we can never be too late to the party with an anime, and editing Nick’s features about this show has piqued my interest to a snapping point, so… here we are. I’ll be watching and learning from the remaining eleven episodes of MADOKA MAGICA. It feels fitting to follow-up CASSHERN SINS, a deconstruction of Sentai, with this deconstruction of Magical Girl (though I suspect this won’t be anywhere near as existential and depressing. Oh no.)
Of course, I’m much more familiar with the expectations of Sentai than I am with Magical Girl, so I can’t shake a nagging feeling that there’s a layer of this show that I’m totally missing as I watch. It’s been a couple months since I watched the pilot, but I do remember it hitting the ground running with tension and danger - - and this seems like the cool down after the sprint out of the gate. A big chunk of this episode’s devoted to some tea-time exposition about magical girls, soul gems, witches, curses and their respective places in this mythos…
(Granted, this show has the uncommon distinction of having some really novel and appealing set design, so at least that lengthy tea time dialog happens on a very unique glass table)
…and, to be totally honest, I’m shrugging about it. It seemS like mumbo jumbo, right now. So far, the show’s sharpest selling point seems to be the collage-style animation that’s being used for all the encounters with the witches in their lairs. It reminds a lot of the sort of stylistic stuff in the COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO anime, so +5XP for that.
Past that, I can see how we might be setting up the visual language of magic in this world. Mami’s whole trick with summoning an infinite supply of single-shot rifles seems like super move schtick, at first; but if this is a world where the Magical Girls’ creativity fuels their “combat magic,” then it could be something clever. I’m willing to give this some benefit of the doubt over its mumbo jumbo adding up.
All that hype can't be over nothing, right?
Watch this episode, "That Would Be Truly Wonderful" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
