Hello, Magic Knight Rayearth forum. Today I'll tell you about a show that I love and which I think all of you (Let's just pretend that anyone still comes here besides me and Hikaru) should watch, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica.

Madoka is a 12 episode series that started this January. Very dark series, it's pretty much a slow descent into Hell with every episode taking you a few extra steps deeper. Just my kind of story (I have a thing for stories that start off lighthearted and fun, but become more twisted, bleak, and depraved as they go along). Madoka's an interesting spin on the magical girl genre. This isn't anything like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura or whatever where being a mahou shoujo is portrayed as being a fun experience full of adventures and beautiful friendships. No, in Madoka being a magical girl is a soul-crushing, traumatic lifestyle; those who take up the role of being a mahou shoujo enjoy fighting about as much as the soldiers of World War I loved trench warfare, and every single one that's appeared in the series so far has been psychologically broken (Though their trauma manifests itself in different ways for each girl, which is interesting). Here's some screencaps and a brief, spoiler-free description of the main characters. (While I'm at it, I'll also recommend PostImage as an image hoster. Perfect site, very simple and easy to use in pretty much every way possible.)

Madoka Kaname

Madoka is the heroine and namesake of the series. A very sweetnatured, peaceful, idealistic girl; she's a bit dim (There's one instance in particular where I honestly can't understand the way she thinks even if I try), but in a way that I find very endearing. A lot of people don't like her because she's a very watery, girly, emotional character that's spent most of the series so far depressed and crying, and because for being the main heroine she hasn't done very much (The series is more than halfway over and she isn't a mahou shoujo yet), but these people are terrible and should be ignored. Madoka's actually my favorite character, though I do hope she'll take a more active role the second half of the series.










(Hmm... turns out that I can only make ten images per post... I'll break this up into multiple posts, then...)

Miki Sayaka

Sayaka is Madoka's best friend, an energetic, hotheaded tomboy. She's the character that's undergone the most character development thus far, and is probably the character that the fandom's talking about the most right now (Well, besides Kyubey); although Madoka is the main heroine, Sayaka is the one who's received the most attention so far in the series, she's bordering on functioning as the main protagonist. I was only lukewarm towards Sayaka at the start, but she's developed into a very fascinating character; one of the things I'm looking forward to the most about next episode is where her character evolution takes her from here. I'm glad that episode 8 airs tomorrow, this show is like crack for me.








Kyubey

Kyubey is the creature that grants magical girls their power. Unlike most series, in Madoka Magica you have a choice as to whether you want to become a mahou shoujo. Kyubey can grant any one wish the person desires; the only catch is that, in exchange, you must become a mahou shoujo and fight 'witches' for the rest of your (More than likely short) life. Kyubey is the most often discussed character in Madoka Magica, and I honestly think that one day he will be known as one of the most iconic, (in)famous characters in anime history. There are many people who think Kyubey might be evil - he's a creepy little guy, never opens his mouth when speaking or changes facial expressions - but almost everything about him remains a mystery at this point.








Homura Akemi

Homura is the most experienced mahou veteran in the series. She's a very cold, detached, emotionally dead person; I'm guessing that she's been traumatized over the years into something of a shell shocked state, though her backstory hasn't been revealed yet (I'm hoping it will). She's probably my least favorite character right now, but she can very well jump up several ranks if there's a backstory provided (I love seeing characters slowly transition from being their normal, undamaged selves to broken down shells so ruined that there's no hope for recovery), and I do enjoy her facial expressions sometimes; the third image I'm posting here is outright deathly. I like it.






Tomoe Mami

Mami is another experienced mahou shoujo. She's an aristocratic, upper crust girl with an air of dissonant serenity about her. She's one of the fan favorites, though I don't feel strongly about her either way and don't have much to say about her. I do hope that she shows up again, though; at the moment her last appearance was episode three.





Sakura Kyoko

Kyoko hasn't been around very long (She's the only main character so far that wasn't present from the first episode, actually), but she's quickly cementing a spot as one of my favorites. Kyoko is kind of an antagonist for the series, a bitter, deranged, violent psycopath that uses her powers as a mahou shoujo for her own personal (And selfish) gain. This bitch is emotionally damaged a lot worse than Homura or Mami, and she's so deliciously evil sometimes that she's hard not to like. Urobochi Gen has a style that reminds me of old Don Bluth movies, and this results in a lot of style and flair infused into Kyoko as a villainess. She's a lot of fun when being a playful antagonist, and when she's not being playful she's one of the most genuinely menacing and sometimes outright creepy characters I've seen in an anime.







And that's all the characters introduced at the moment. Great series, I honestly cannot recommend this show enough.

There is a limit of 10 images allowed per post, but there is a way around it Casey-san. The forum doesn't allow double posting, so if you post again it will automatically merge it with the previous one, but it seems that you figured that out though.

This is a show that I'm not sure about. I didn't like Hell Girl because the victims and perpetrators were both punished equally. When good vs. evil gets blurred that badly I tend to shy away from the story and dismiss it due to lack of credibility. This series (Madoka) may not go down that path, but I'd have to see for myself. Daytime soaps are something that I'm familiar with, so at times I've seen how script writers seem to enjoy torturing characters emotionally. It's something that can be enjoyable to watch to a certain extent, but the characters in daytime soaps are typically adults, or at least older teens. By that age most people can recover from a bit of emotional distress, but the characters in Madoka seem to be a bit younger than that. Emotional trauma can cause permanent psychological damage to children, which seems to be the case with Homura and Kyoko. Witnessing that process would be a challenge for me, so I'm not sure that I'd go for this series. Loss of innocence is one thing, twisting children into evil monsters is quite something else.

Hmm... I think I might have overdone things in my first post. This story isn't an endless sadismfest by any means, which is the impression I probably gave. The girls have all changed some for the better due to their companionships with each other, and in most cases honestly aren't as twisted as they first appeared; I just emphasized some of the darker aspects because that's how things appear early on, and I didn't want to spoil anything. I'm thinking the show might be heading towards a happy ending or at least a bittersweet one (With equal parts bitter and sweet) rather than a complete downer, and that rather than be a constant descent into Hell the show promotes that there's sometimes light at the end of the longest and darkest of tunnels. It's a very tasteful and intelligently-written show, and I honestly don't think there's much about the series that you would object to, despite the impression my opening post might have given.

Also, episode 10 was the most amazing episode of anything ever. Well, maybe that's going a bit far, but I can't think of many stories that have effected me as much as 10 did.

It's very possible that I may be reading too much into this, but I'd really have to see a few episodes for myself. On ANN the ratings were very positive, so that is a good sign and the torrent downloads I was looking are a quite active, so it seems like you are not the only fan Casey-sensei. ^_^ The ANN write-up described this show in a way that reminded me of K?mpfer where high school students were conscripted by some mysterious beings called "Moderators" and given magical powers to fight on both sides of a war in the place of the Moderators themselves. Despite the interesting premise and fast paced action scenes, K?mpfer (literally "fighter" in German) degenerated into a boob squishing feast of fanservice, so I ended up thinking it was pretty lame and had wasted its potential.

When it comes to light at the end of a dark tunnel, Rayearth is right in the middle of that too, so I will take a look at a few episodes of Madoka before I say anything else about it. ANN also said that the characters were about age 14, but I look at your screenies and I ask ... really? They seem much younger than that although ... l look at my own avatar ... nevermind ... ^_^;;

Yep, Madoka's certainly not hurting for popularity; its DVD sales are higher than any other anime series in history. Quite a few of the anime I like are kind of underground (Rayearth possibly being amongst them, especially considering that many of the younger generation of anime fans have likely never heard of it), but Madoka definitely isn't one of them.

Did you ever end up watching the show? >_> The final two episodes were delayed for quite some time for 'sensitivity' reasons in light of the March 11th earthquake, but they ended up being aired April 21st, so the whole series is out there. The ending is a bit controversial, it's bittersweet and takes some time to fully understand it, but I thought the final two episodes were wonderful and definitely worth the wait. The whole series really does nothing but get better from episode 1 through episode 12.

Hiya Casey-san, I've downloaded a lot of the episodes but I've only watched the first one. The beginning is remarkably similar to Rayearth season 2 beginning, at least in concept anyways - 14 year old girl is being tormented by horrible nightmares with an profound sense of world ending impending doom. Modoka's two friends are also remarkably similar to Umi and Fuu which also adds to the Rayearth atmosphere. It's eerie enough to give me a twitch about where the author's inspirations may have come from.

Another observation I had was about Madoka's school. It's an ultramodern place but it gave me the same kind of overwhelming epic feel that I got from Ootori Academy in Revolutionary Girl Utena although not from the same Napoleonic time period. I'll pretty certain that I will watch all of this series given that I like a lot of what I've seen so far. The remaining episodes I'll have downloaded shortly and if sales are as brisk as you describe, licensing will be here before you know it.

Huh, sounds like I need to rewatch the second season of Rayearth (I haven't watched any MKR since finishing the episode reviews about five years ago); I know the three girls were traumatized from the ending of the original, but I don't remember Hikaru being plagued by nightmares. Revolutionary Girl Utena I've never watched at all, but I plan on doing so sometime because I've heard a lot of good things about it. Ootori Academy is indeed a fancy place, very pretty. That light blue's easy on the eyes. There's a lot of things I enjoy about Madoka's artwork, I could go on a huge picture spree if I wanted to, but I'm not sure you've seen anything past the first episode. :p So how far along are you, Hikaru-chan? I'd be interested to hear what you think about the rest of the series.

About as far as I got with Madoka Magica is episode 3 I think. For some reason it just didn't hold my attention, although I'm not sure why. Maybe there were just too many other things competing at the same time ... which is not unusual in my life. Sometimes life is like someone pouring a large trash can full of ping pong ball on top of me (or maybe chocolate goodies? lol) ... for sure, I'll catch some of them and hold on, but sadly the majority will wind up on the floor. v_v It was some months ago that I saw those episodes and I do remember some of the fierce rivalry between some of the characters, the reversed roles of Madoka's parents, and the surrealistic near future landscape of the general city environment. I also remember the scenes with the witches having a good deal of 1960's era psychedelic images included in them, which is a bit unusual for Japanese animation I think.