Puella Magi Madoka Magica: First Impressions
Posted by FoFo on February 10, 2011
First, NO IT ISN’T MAHOU SHOUJO MADOKA MAGICA! Twits. Puella Magi is a Latin bastardization of the phrase magical girl. This does not mean you get to translate it to Mahou Shoujo. It doesn’t matter that they ‘say’ Mahou Shoujo in the series. It doesn’t matter that the phrase Puella Magi is grammatical gibberish (it could mean “Girl, to a greater extent”). The official romanization is Puella Magi, so that’s what it should be called. /rant
There’s a lot of buzz around this show, mostly because its a Magical Girl show, and there are some pretty basic tenants of that genre that Madoka Magica just tosses out the window. The show is dark. Not the pitch black of Gantz or Elfen Lied, but still pretty dark. The series is quick hit you over the head with it’s somewhat bleak outlook on the lives of its protagonists. But I’m not convinced that it is as dark as the bloggers are making it out to be.
The story revolves around a group of special girls who are chosen by the uber-creepy familiar, Kyubey, to become Puella Magi. These Magi are, in theory, defenders of humanity from the plagues of Witches, magical beings who kill through negative emotions. In practice, most Puella Magi seem to have rather extreme ulterior motives that render the Witch Hunt a secondary concern, used only to recharge their magical abilities. Kyubey is empowered to grant each nascent Magi one wish in exchange for her services, but the girls who are already Magi are quick to caution new recruits that the wish might not be worth the price of a life of service.
Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka are two candidates for becoming Puella Magi. They stumble into the magical world by accident and get their butts saved by Tomoe Mami, a veteran Magi. For the next few episodes, the girls weigh the options before them. At the same time, Akemi Homura, another veteran Magi who is out to stop Kyubey from creating any new Puella Magi, confronts Madoka and tries to convince her that there is no wish worth the cost of becoming a slave to the Witch Hunt.
Things get dark rather quickly when Mami is unexpectedly killed by a witch. Madoka and Sayaka are saved by Homura in the nick of time but they both, and Madoka in particular, are shaken by the ultimate fate of most Puella Magi. The dark themes are carried through in the form of the witches killing via suicide, the incredibly aggressive and morally questionable Magi, Sakura Kyoko, who comes to the city to take over Mami’s hunting ground, and the nihilistic Homura who repeatedly berates Madoka (and Mami) for being too kind and soft.
So yes, Madoka Magica has a dark edge to it, but at the same time there is a fundamentally hopeful attitude carried in the show’s through line. While Madoka has yet to become a Magi, her reasons for wanting to become one seem to be pure and honorable. She admires Mami’s somewhat unusual attitude toward saving people and seems to just want to do something good with her time. In the 5th episode, it’s revealed that the nature of the wish that Kyubey grants affects the resulting Puella Magi’s powers. If this is the case, then Madoka’s pure desire to protect and serve could be the catalyst for real power. That sort of theme would fit right into the magical girl genre.
From a technical perspective, Madoka Magica is a superior series. It features strong combat animation, a compelling soundtrack (provided by one of my personal favorites, Kajiura Yuki, and some trademark SHAFT insanity, just to mix things up.
The show has yet to really explain where it’s going, and with only a 12 episode run to spool out the plot, I’m a little worried that it’s going to run out of space, as the title character has yet to really become a protagonist. Still, we should be figuring things out pretty soon!
