Puella Magi Madoka Magika, ep. 01-12

[oyceter]

Kaname Madoka is an ordinary middle-school student, at least until one day, a strange student transfers into her class and warns her to not make any big life changes if she wants to hang on to everything she holds dear. Then she rescues a cute fuzzy animal from aforementioned transfer student, and it offers her the chance to become a magical girl. In exchange for the power to fight witches, she can make one wish.

I first heard about this series when people were talking about it being a deconstruction of the magical girl and a successor to Revolutionary Girl Utena and Princess Tutu. I would say it's closer to Utena in spirit, with none of the fairy tale elements of both series, with a lot of Neon Genesis Evangelion added in. Also, as a warning to people who may think pink-haired protagonists and magical girls can't possibly be serious, this is one of the most depressing things I have seen in a while. I mean, people warned me about this, but it still got much darker than I anticipated.

Also, some of the animation is the creepiest and most surreal thing I have seen in a while.

Spoilers come true, not free

So for me, the deconstruction of the magical girl genre lay mostly in the series' ability to twist everything that is usually a virtue for magical girls into something that not only backfires on them, but is the worst possible thing they could do. It's the nihilism in a lot of the series that gets to me the most, the notion that not only can you not change things for the better, but every attempt to do so will make everything demonstrably worse, until you finally turn into your worst possible nightmare. This was mitigated by the ending, but a lot of the scenes from the middle of the series really make me not want to go to sleep at night.

I was already pretty traumatized when the show killed off Mami, and even more so at the reveal of how the Soul Gems actually work, but the final reveal of the magical girls becoming witches in the very end, the endless cycle of witches, magical girls needed to fight them, and then become them, is SO DEPRESSING. Especially Kyubey's "Let me know whenever you'd like to sacrifice everything to stop entropy in the universe, Madoka. Bye!" attitude. It's all the visceral horror at how Mami dies—EW, and it totally reminded me of how some of the EVAs die in Evangelion—added to the incredibly creepy imagery of the labyrinths and the witches, the thanklessness of the job and how the magical girls are pitted against each other, all that with the additional bonus that it's kind of useless anyway, because any good you managed to do will be undone when you turn into a witch. In retrospect, Mami's death, though disturbing, is probably the best that magical girls have to hope for.

And poor Sayaka. I think, given everything, her wish doesn't turn out nearly as bad as it could have, but as anyone who reads fairy tales knows, "wishes come true, not free." At least her wish doesn't end up destroying Kamijo in the same way Kyoko's rips apart her entire family. Also, I think it says something about the series when I find Kyoko's self sacrifice to bring down witch-Sayaka undepressing.

Then there is Homura, whom I adore. I love we get to see her as the awkward new girl and that her transformation into a magical girl doesn't automatically give her the skills needed to fight witches. Also, I am really amused by a magical girl who basically uses a human arsenal instead of magical guns and swords and what have you. And while I absolutely love her friendship with Madoka, part of me keeps wondering what her life must have been like before for her to basically keep changing the world again and again for someone she only knew at first for a month. And oh, the awful moment when Kyubey finally figures out why Madoka has such immense potential and tells Homura that it's her very efforts to keep Madoka from becoming a magical girl that is drawing Kyubey to her.

But then, amazingly, Madoka finally manages to turn all the qualities that spell downfall for a magical girl—hope, love, compassion—into the strength they usually are in most shoujo series. (This is why I feel like the series isn't just a commentary on the magical girl genre, but also on shoujo in general.) I'm not quite sure what I think of the ending, partly because I have so many feelings about it! I absolutely adore the Madoka-Homura friendship and how there are so many reversals of who is the strong one and the protector and who is the one being protected. I love that Madoka manages to take what seems to be the ultimate despairing moment from Homura by using all the power HOmura has unwittingly given her to rewrite the universe.

Also, um, wow, rewriting universe.

On the other hand, I wonder what other bits of magical girl depressingness have continued, particularly the bit about the Soul Gem and dead bodies. (Also, how do the girls not notice that? I figure when the Soul Gem is nearby, they have a pulse and breathe and etc.) Are their wishes still fated to go tragically wrong? I felt like that was part of the witch curse, but I'm not sure.

Spoilers for Utena, Evangelion, and Sailor Moon

Obviously the imagery here reminds me a lot of Evangelion, and a lot of the series does as well, possibly moreso at times than Utena. It's mostly how PMMM and Evangelions are deconstructing common genres that can be power fantasies for boys and girls, and doing so in the most depressing way possible! There's something about how powerless both Shinji and Madoka feel, especially the more and more they learn about EVAs or magical girls, though Madoka being depressed seems more circumstantial than Shinji's. There's a certain feel of nihilism to both of the series at some point; the idea that anything you do will only make things worse and that the only way through it is to become the thing you hate.

I think PMMM resolves it much better than Evangelion (HI ANNO STILL BURNED), though I was very amused by PMMM's floating figures in outer space talking with each other and general imagery around the transformation to the earth.

I was also thinking about parallels between Shinji having to go after his classmate in the berserk EVA and Kaworu, and especially the imagery parallel with Kaworu in the hand of EVA 001 and Madoka in the hand of witch-Sayaka.

A lot of my reaction to PMMM's ending is also influenced by Utena's ending, and at least here, Madoka has clearly influenced her world and rewritten it to be better, unlike Utena seemingly having no effect at all before we see Anthy at the gate. So I didn't find the ending depressing (at least given that the magical girls' wishes don't go so terribly and hopefully Kyubey and cohort are much less manipulative because there isn't as much to manipulate).

Random notes:

• I love the homage to Sailor Saturn and Sailor Pluto in the form of Homura—how come the purple color-coded character always gets the awesome boots? I was also paralleling Chibi Usa and Hotaru with Madoka and Homura.
• Do all the magical girls have surnames that are usually used as personal names? I'm not sure if it actually signifies anything though.
• I love how in the future of digital blackboards and fancy architecture, people are still using CD players.

I missed all the discussion going on when people were watching this; any links very welcome!

Comments

[gramarye1971]

I don't have any particular links for the discussion, but in chatting with most of my friends who've seen the show we generally concluded that we didn't care for the Madoka ending as much as we did for Utena's. When you've spend the entire series hammering home how much the magical girls sacrifice to become who they are, having it end with Madoka making THE BIGGEST SACRIFICE EVER is kind of a let-down. It plays right into Kyubey's original goal, even if that goal is then altered by Madokami's ability to rewrite the history of magical girls. It's just another variant, albeit a darker one, on the standard magical girl trope that your power comes from your ability to sacrifice yourself for the sake of others -- and isn't that what Homura was trying to prevent Madoka from doing all along?

I suppose that the ending that would have satisfied me most would be for Madoka to never make the contract at all, because, as with most war games, 'the only winning move is not to play'. Instead, with the full knowledge that Homura has built up all this power around her because of the repeated time loops, Madoka would somehow give that power back to Homura in order to fight Walpurgis Night and win before it destroys the city. Even if Homura dies from it, she won't necessarily turn into a witch because she'll die knowing that Madoka will longer be targeted by Kyubey for her magical girl potential. It would still be a downer ending, because witches and Grief Seeds would continue to exist, but Homura would have fulfilled her original promise to Madoka to protect her and keep her from making a contract, and it would break the cycle of sacrifice for at least one possible magical girl/witch. I had the choice to become the most powerful magical girl in the history of the universe and I turned it down would have been a refreshingly trope-shattering ending. (I get that this makes me something of a heretic, but the whole Madokami aspect doesn't quite sit right with me.)

[laceblade]

I haven't been able to get myself to finish this, but then I haven't been able to get myself to rewatch Utena for...years :/

Other than the Utena/Sailor Moon parallels, I also associated this pretty heavily with Evangelion.
Kyubey merchandise is so creepy, ;_;

[oyceter]

That makes a lot of sense to me, and I forgot to note in the entry that while PMMM doesn't read as a "have your cake and eat it too" type of genre deconstruction to me (i.e. deconstruct the genre but then the ending returns to... celebrating the genre conventions), I can see how it would to other people?

(I was also thinking a lot about people's reactions while I was watching, since I already knew that people were pretty divided about the ending.)

I dunno... I think it is "having your cake and eating it too" in some ways, but to be honest, the deconstruction of magical girl tropes by basically saying any sort of goodwill or attempt to change the world for the better ends up not only not doing so, but making everything worse, is so incredibly depressing to me that I was okay with the reinstatement of shoujo values by the end.

Also part of my reaction is probably due to finding the magical girl/witch dynamic really nihilistic (I don't think it has to be, but the way the show posits it, it feels that way to me) and hating that point of view, whereas I am annoyed at all the self-sacrifice in shoujo, especially by girls and women, and how it's so gendered, but I don't think self sacrifice in and of itself is a terrible thing?

This is also really colored by me realizing that apparently one of my nightmares is becoming the exact thing you are trying to fight against. Thanks show! I didn't know that before, and now I have extra nightmare fodder!

I think I want a deconstructive magical girl series that takes on the bits about sacrifice and love/compassion/shinjite not always saving the day, but in a way in which the girls make it work still.

[oyceter]

CB pulled up pictures of Kyubey plushies and showed me, and I was just "OMG why would anyone ever want that next to them?!?!?!"

Glad to know I am not the only person seeing the Evangelion parallels!

How far did you end up getting? I am not sure I will ever rewatch this, because holy shit it is still making me scared to go to bed...

[oracne]

Sounds fascinating, but I don't think I'd be able to tolerate the depressing aspects. Thanks for the detailed review!

[laceblade]

According to my log, I got through 9 episodes, although it's been at least a year, I think.

[oyceter]

Ahaha, I think you got past the worst bits, but omg. SO DEPRESSING.

[oyceter]

I would definitely recommend that you avoid it! I was warned it was depressing, and it was still MORE DEPRESSING than I had anticipated. In fact, I think it is one of the most depressing things I have seen in a really long time T_T.

[yeloson]

Here's what I wrote about it last year when I saw it:

http://yeloson.dreamwidth.org/934758.html

One thing I did really like is that it really paralleled the casual cruelty of resource extraction: "Oh, yeah, we totally build our society on your misery, and you get this small kick back that really ain't shit. Have fun."

[skygiants]

Here were my comments at the time! Which were pretty ambivalent, and I think I've grown less enamored of the series as time goes on rather than more. I don't find the ending particularly hopeful or transformative ("let's change the world by euthanizing all the magical girls before they can become witches, yay!") and I think if you're going to stomp nihilistically all over the shoujo tropes that (problematic as they sometimes can be) do also provide a lot of messages about the values of kindness and compassion and sacrifice, and an important way for girls to imagine themselves as powerful, then you need to do actually recostruct something at the end. Or it's just kind of pointless destruction of something valuable, you know?

But damn is it a stylistically impressive show, though. And I will always love Homura!

[troisroyaumes]

Well, you know my feelings on the series!

I found the ending incredibly depressing for basically the same reasons that other people list above, even though I think the creators intended it to be happy. Or maybe they didn't? Either way, it was not a happy ending for me, and it was such a depressing show that even though it had so many elements I liked, I can't bring myself to be fannish about it. T_T

[oyceter]

I think if you're going to stomp nihilistically all over the shoujo tropes that (problematic as they sometimes can be) do also provide a lot of messages about the values of kindness and compassion and sacrifice, and an important way for girls to imagine themselves as powerful, then you need to do actually recostruct something at the end. Or it's just kind of pointless destruction of something valuable, you know?

Ha, yes, I think that is my overall issue with the show. I feel like it basically took all those messages and smashed them to bits, and then tried to put them together at the end, which... didn't really work? I am okay with Madoka breaking the magical girl/witch cycle; it is a sacrifice that I did feel at least restored some agency (also I kind of find the witch thing to be a fate worse than death for me, and seemingly for most of the girls?), but just... not enough or something.

I think what I wanted was a view of the magical girls being able to team up and help each other, sans witch stuff, which, ironically, is basically Homura's original timeline.

[oyceter]

Thanks for the link!

Ha, I totally laughed at Kyubey's cow speech. Clearly it has not heard of the sustainable food movement ;).

[oyceter]

*nods* I think the creators meant it to be happy?

I think I found it nominally happy, largely because I thought the middle was SO DEPRESSING. I think the Sayaka arc is like my worst nightmare. It's kind of sad when the happy message I get from the ending is basically: "Death! Better than becoming a monster and hurting everyone around you!"

I feel kind of like that was the happiest possible ending I could see for that world, but I find that world so depressing to begin with that I want to get it analyzed and out of my mind as fast as possible.

[qian]

I'm really intrigued now, having read your review! Want to watch it, but ... scared of the depressingness. D:

[oyceter]

I am not sure if this is a rec? I found it really interesting and riveting but I am not sure if I am glad I watched it and definitely do not want to think about it, much less rewatch it, again.

[gramarye1971]

There's something difficult to accept in the way narrative presents the everyone else vs. Madoka wish-choice dynamic. Mami's wish was pure selfishness (she wishes to not die). Sayaka, Kyouko, and Homura all focus their wishes on one person and are seemingly punished for it by the story. Madoka, by contrast, uses her wish on everyone (all the magical girls at least, and I suppose by extension anyone who might be caught up in the magical girl/witch fallout), and gets the ultimate payout. We don't really have anyone else for comparison, but it does suggest that a magical girl's contractual self-sacrifice is worthless or at least doomed to fail unless it manages to save everyone. And that's the message I would have liked Madoka to reject in the end.

All that aside, though, Yuki Kajiura does amazing things with the score, and I'm more than a little peeved at this recent trend of not releasing separate CD soundtracks for the series (but instead bundling them with the DVD release). I don't want to own the series, but I do want the music!

[lovepeaceohana]

I really liked this show. Almost loved, because it gave me so many things to think about and mull over - but then, like with Evangelion, I'm not familiar enough with the tropes it is deconstructing to be getting the full impact of the series. So the ending worked, for me, although reading through this commentary I can absolutely see why it didn't work for others, because y'all are right about the way in which the show worked so hard to subvert or avert all these Power of Friendship tropes only to try and bring them all right back together at the end.

Although I'm still pretty sure this ending beats Evangelion's, because JEEZBUS that was horrifying to me as a teenager.

[oyceter]

Hrm... I think I saw Madoka's wish as a type of rule-breaking wish that was also only made possible by Homura's wish and Homura's endless efforts to change something, so I read the message more as "If you expend every last bit of your being into your wish, it can be good."

Which doesn't really have the best subtext either, since I think instead of rewarding or punishing the scope of the wish, I think the show is more rewarding or punishing how much you are willing to give up of yourself in the wish. Which also goes back to your point re: "Yay self sacrifice!"

Noodling around with this more, it basically seems like the only two choices are to give up everything willingly for your wish, or to give up maybe a little for you wish and then have the universe take the rest of it away since you didn't give it up yourself. Yay? ><;;

[coffeeandink]

You stopped right before the best episode!

I'm not sure you should continue, but Episode 10 really did shift me from "That's interesting" to "OMG♥LOVE♥".

The love didn't last long enough for me to get DVDs, but it was there.

[coffeeandink]

Kyubey is SO CREEPY. I did not really think the fact that he was evil was a spoiler.

Links!

[coffeeandink]

http://canis-m.livejournal.com/403288.html
http://nenena.livejournal.com/tag/anime%2Fmanga%3A%20madoka%20magica
http://branchandroot.dreamwidth.org/tag/anime-manga:+mahou+shoujo+madoka+magica
http://sub-divided.dreamwidth.org/10495.html
http://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/1109211.html (nothing in post, but some conversation in comments)
http://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/1109723.html


Madoka wiki

[shati]

One of my other problems with PMMM was that the end was kind of...a happy mass murder? On first watch my reaction to the end was: huh? But on rewatch I end I was just like, Madoka, if you are rewriting the rules of reality maybe you could aim a LITTLE HIGHER.

I like parts of it a lot, and the witch dimensions really stayed with me, but I don't think it hangs together all that well. And I think the shoujo deconstruction, where it works, would work better for me in a show that could be funny without breaking the mood. Like, "The cute animal companion is a heartless alien harvesting your souls" isn't exactly a pessimistic but logical extrapolation.

[thomasyan]

I very much want to legally own DVDs (or maybe even Blu-Ray), but not at their current ridiculously-high prices.

I do love this AMV, which reliably makes me tear up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ8JRfsurt4

[owlectomy]

PMMM means a whole lot to me because at the time I watched it, I really needed to hear what it was telling me, which was:

When you fail, remember what you love, and what you care about, and do it again. And again. And again. And again. Until the sheer power of not giving up makes you so strong that you are unstoppable.

2011 was maybe not the best year for me, hah.