CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

[SIZE="4"]Wha-?[/SIZE]
Puella Magi Madoka★Magica is a magical girl anime produced by SHAFT. It is the first original anime production that they've done in several years. The story is about an average middle school girl, Kaname Madoka, who suddenly finds herself in a strange encounter that leads to her becoming a magical girl. It is currently airing in the Winter 2011 season.



[SIZE="4"]Who-?[/SIZE]
This project has a lot of huge players involved. Let's take a look at who they are.

The show is being directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, who's made a name for himself over the past few years as the head director of Studio SHAFT. He's notorious for his eccentric direction style and has most recently hit it bigtime with his adaptation of Nisio Isin's Bakemonogatari light novel series. While he usually works on comedies, he's branched out to other genres before. Interestingly enough, he has directed a magical girl anime before: the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

In charge of writing is famed visual novel writer Gen Urobuchi. Urobuchi is most well known for his Lovecraftian and disturbing visual novels with Nitro+, Saya no Uta and Demonbane, as well as the incredibly brutal light novel prequel to Fate/stay night, Fate/Zero (which is getting a TV anime adapted by ufotable this year). He's expressed interest before in writing a heartwarming story and it seems he's taking this as his chance to. Of course, the series still has a touch of his prior writing sensibilities.

Responsible for character designs, we have Ume Aoki, the manga-ka most famous for the widefaces of the slice of life comedy, Hidamari Sketch. Her character designs are pretty cute and the characters' faces remain wide, as expected. Hidamari Sketch is also one of the manga that SHAFT and Shinbo have adapted into anime.

Scoring the series is Yuki Kajiura, most recently famous for scoring the movie series, Kara no Kyoukai, but she's also got a handful of notable scores, including .hack//SIGN and Tsubasa Chronicle. She also has a number of independent projects, such as See-Saw (her collaboration with vocalist Chiaki Ishikawa, who performed songs for .hack//SIGN and Gundam SEED), FictionJunction, and Kalafina. Her music tends to have a much darker tone than typical anime scores. The last time she worked on a project with Shinbo was in Le Portrait de Petit Cossette in 2004.

Performing the OP are ClariS, who also performed irony, the OP for Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. They're internet famous for having covered a bunch of anime and Vocaloid songs on Nico Nico Douga before hitting it big. The OP is titled Connect.

Performing the ED are Kalafina. Kalafina is the group formed by Yuki Kajiura for performing the ED songs for Kara no Kyoukai. They've gained some popularity and have performed for other anime, including Kuroshitsuji and Sora no Woto. The ED is titled Magia and is also used as an insert song.



The girl with pink hair pictured prominently is Kaname Madoka. She's a normal 14 year-old middle school girl who, after a sudden encounter, ends up becoming a magical girl. She is voiced by Aoi Yuuki, who has risen in popularity over the past year and has been doing some fantastic performances, like Murasaki in Kure-nai. She's currently also starring in GOSICK as Victorique.

The cat-thing that's smiling is [S]Mephistopheles[/S] Kyubey, a familiar that forms a contract with Madoka for her to become a magical girl in exchange for granting one of her wishes. He is voiced by Katou Emiri, whose most notable roles are as Lucky Star's Kagami and Bakemonogatari's Mayoi.

The green-haired girl looking at Kyubey puzzlingly is Miki Sayaka, Madoka's good friend who is full of energy. She also becomes a magical girl. She's voiced by Kitamura Eri, who's voiced other similarly energetic characters like Yui from Angel Beats! and Kureha from Sora no Woto. But her best role is still as Toradora's Ami.

The mysterious girl who peers at them from behind the tree is [S]Senjougahara Hitagi[/S] [S]Fate Testarossa[/S] Akemi Homura. She's a transfer student who is bafflingly good at everything. It turns out she's a magical girl and is trying to ward Madoka away from something. She's voiced by Chiwa Saitou, whose performance in Madoka Magica is extremely reminiscent of her performance in Bakemonogatari as Senjougahara Hitagi.

The girl with the twin drills watching from the window is Tomoe Mami and acts as Madoka's and Miki's senior, both at school and as a magical girl. She's voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi, which would immediately associate her with Hidamari Sketch's Miyako, but Mami is a lot classier than Miyako and she definitely sounds a lot classier as well.



[SIZE="4"]Why-?[/SIZE]
There's a lot to like about Madoka Magica so far. It's definitely a show about magical girls, but there seems to be something a bit off from the typical magical girl scenario that we're presented with. Also, the art style is pretty interesting, with a lot of the architectural and background styles very similar to those of Bakemonogatari. But the real interesting stuff is when the show switches into the magical, alternate world, where there's been a lot of analysis and mining for interesting details. It's definitely a show where there's a lot to be found and think about if you scratch a few layers deeper than what's presented.



[SIZE="4"]When-?[/SIZE]
Madoka Magica is currently airing, on Thursday nights at 25:25 JST (Thursdays 11:25 am EST, 8:25 am PST). It is unlicensed.

blkmage wrote:Scoring the series is Yuki Kajiura, most recently famous for scoring the movie series, Kara no Kyoukai, but she's also got a handful of notable scores, including .hack//SIGN and Tsubasa Chronicle.

Wow, that totally makes sense now. I was wondering why the music style was so familiarly awesome. (I haven't seen Kara no Kyoukai, but I have seen the other two).

*ahem*

SUBS EFFING WHERE?

Nate (post: 1452646) wrote:*ahem*

SUBS EFFING WHERE?

http://www.google.com/

I have not seen a legal site that has this, and illegal sites cannot be linked on CAA. Sorry.

I'm in.

Depending on how much time I have, I may be up for this.

The same folks who worked on .hack//sign's music worked on this music? Amazing.

I rewatched the first two episodes today to show them to my roommate and I glanced over a few of the theories spinning around on the internets. There's some pretty wild stuff out there.

Personally, the only theory I'm holding onto at the moment is that Kyubey is evil and that Homura is somehow trying to break the cycle of girls getting trapped into making contracts with him. A time loop situation seems plausible as does the theory that everything is in Madoka's head. Since we're only two episodes in, I'm of the opinion that other theories might be reading into things a bit too hard. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if this series turned out to be so well-crafted that the slightest details hint at major plot developments.

Also, I wonder how/if/when Hitomi, that girl who's friends with Madoka and Sayaka, is going to find out about the whole magical girl thing? Some people think she might become a witch from being jealous that her friends left her out. I can see something like that happening.

Another thing I noticed today that I found interesting:
[SPOILER]In episode one, where Madoka and Sayaka are in the music store, Madoka hears Kyubei calling out to her, but there's no evidence that he called Sayaka. Sayaka notices Madoka acting strangely and just sort of follows her. Then she gets wrapped up in everything. Sure, they can speak to each other telepathically through Kyubey, but I wonder if that difference will affect how the plot goes. Sayaka could be used to make Madoka feel guilty and/or she could break away from Madoka somehow.[/SPOILER]

So I just finished watching the first episode of this. My reaction was pretty much the following:



Torrenting episode two as fast as I can.

Well, I just finished the first two episodes. Really curious to see where this is going!

I'm wishing it was next month already just so I could hear the full version of that song!

I wish gg would translate the lyrics like nutbladder does, they're near epic level awesome. The little that I've heard anyway.

Yuki Kajiura!!!!! That alone makes me wanna watch it! And...I also like magic girl!

Ummm...where can this be watched? Is it on YouTube or Crunchyroll?

AnimeGirl (post: 1452837) wrote:Ummm...where can this be watched? Is it on YouTube or Crunchyroll?

Unfortunately, it cannot be watched outside of Japan on any legal venue yet.

So those messages written in odd runes turned out to be German. I love how much thought has gone into this series, they've really gone all out in building an interesting world.

Yeah, http://www.puella-magi.net is the dumping ground for Madoka speculation, after it's been exhaustively discussed on /a/. Apparently, /a/ is ahead of 2ch on the Madoka speculation and analysis, so that wiki will have the most up-to-date stuff.

I saw those threads on /a/. They're certainly going crazy over there, XD. It'd be cool if some of the speculation turned out to be true.

I need the full-length version of Magia. February 26 cannot arrive fast enough.

Already seeing quite a bit of allusion to Faust, what with the whole "Soul Gem" thing and the "You can have any wish granted" deal. I'm very curious to see what comes of this. Nothing good I'm sure!

Oh, and far be it for me to criticize how magical girls work but...rifles with only one shot in them seem a bit of a waste to me.

Nate (post: 1452856) wrote:I need the full-length version of Magia. February 26 cannot arrive fast enough.

Already seeing quite a bit of allusion to Faust, what with the whole "Soul Gem" thing and the "You can have any wish granted" deal. I'm very curious to see what comes of this. Nothing good I'm sure!

Oh, and far be it for me to criticize how magical girls work but...rifles with only one shot in them seem a bit of a waste to me.

Haven't seen the show, but if they're going to keep on its Germanic/Faustian slant, they might only need one shot.

You haven't seen the show, but what I meant was, the character that uses the rifles, she makes like twenty of them and grabs one and shoots it and then throws it away and then grabs another and shoots it and throws it away and so on.

Like I said, just seems a bit of a waste.

Maybe she's just showing off. Also, things might work differently inside the curses than they do in the real world.

Wow, sounds cool!
Ummm...what's the content like so far? anything to be concerned about?

I'm in with Lynna on that question.

But I'm intruiged by (a) a new magical girl series (b) Yuki Kajiura and (c) the fact that there is a "Lets Watch" thread.

So far there has been a little innuendo between Madoka, Sayaka and their friend about Madoka and one of the girls being "together." It's completely false though, and mostly the result of either misunderstanding humor, or just...there.

It's somewhat violent, and depending on how you interpret the trippiness, creepy or cool. Some of the settings are very surreal, and rather scary as the girls combat the opposing force, Witches.

Magical Girls are born of wishes, and Witches are born from curses -- for "bad religion" content. Witches are said to be behind unsolved murders, suicides, etc. In the second episode a suicide attempt is thwarted.

I think that's pretty much it though. I don't remember there being a ton of swearing, though being only two episodes in is really not enough to give an overall feel of the content.

Let me know if I missed anything people...

I'll throw in that there's...sort of nudity during the opening credit sequence? It's a trope that magical girls are naked when they transform, so this is just following that trope. You don't really see much, though.

See the thing is that Madoka hasn't transformed yet...so it's difficult to say if the nudity will actually be part of the transformation, or if it's just stylized for the opening. For the first two episodes at least though, you can skip the opening credits and you'll miss it.

Episode 3.

I watched a live stream of the broadcast.

No words.

OH GOD WHAT

WHAT

WHAT IS GOING ON

I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE.

Okay so with that out of the way...my best guess.
[spoiler]Madoka or Sayaka will wish Mami back to life. Xanatos Gambit on Kyubey/Mami's part perhaps? It doesn't seem impossible for Mami to purposely sacrifice herself in an attempt to force them to make a contract. Or alternatively, Mami had no part in it, but Kyubey was hoping for this to happen because there's something special about Madoka and he wants that Soul Gem...he did seem pretty eager to talk Madoka up in this episode.[/spoiler]
Also possible crazy theory. Mami made a speech about "Do you want the person's dream to come true? Or do you want them to thank you for their dream coming true?" I feel if Sayaka wished for hospital dude to get better, it would probably result in him becoming super famous and ignoring her or forgetting about her, she gets upset...Soul Gem turns into Grief Seed, Puella Magi becomes a Witch? WILL SAYAKA BE FINAL BOSS?

THAT ENDING. I want the full version. Also LOTS of symbolism in that ending sequence. And that creepy mask.

[SPOILER]That's the last time I take Urobuchi Gen's word on whether or not he's going to write something horrific being done to his characters. In hindsight, it's pretty funny because it was only a few days ago that he was on twitter saying how there wasn't even any bloodshed and that we were being mean for being suspicious of Kyubey.

I mean, we've been joking about terrible things in store for the cast, but I don't think I actually expected it to happen. Now I'm back to taking this in as a good old Butch Gen story and expect more terrible things and no happiness for everyone by the end of this thing.

Consequentially, if Mami does get wished back to life I expect it to go horribly wrong.[/SPOILER]
Oh yeah, I think it goes without saying that I can't wait for Magia to come out (Feb 16) because I am a huge Kalafina fan.

blkmage wrote:[SPOILER]That's the last time I take Urobuchi Gen's word on whether or not he's going to write something horrific being done to his characters. In hindsight, it's pretty funny because it was only a few days ago that he was on twitter saying how there wasn't even any bloodshed and that we were being mean for being suspicious of Kyubey.[/SPOILER]

From what I read on /a/ before the episode aired he said something on his Twitter like "Curl up on the couch and get ready for a fun heartwarming episode!" and then...y'know. THAT happened.

Someone also put out a theory that I think kind of makes sense.
[SPOILER]I think everyone sort of assumed (myself included) that Mami's wish was that she didn't want to die in that accident. However, someone on /a/ said that they think Mami's wish is she didn't want to die alone, which would have kept her alive in that situation. Then Madoka said "I'm here for you we're friends and partners!" So Kyubey killed her off to fulfill her wish. Pretty twisted if true.

ALSO HOLY CRAP SOMEONE POSTED A GIF OF AFTER THE MONSTER BLOWS UP HIGHLIGHTING THE SQUISHY GROSS REMAINS OF MAMI PLOPPING ONTO THE TABLE AFTER HOMURA LANDS.[/SPOILER]
Also, though I don't know if it'll be important to the series (and I forgot to mention it after episode 2) since Madoka specifically asked Homura what her wish was, I'm gonna take a guess. I think Homura probably wished that she could be the best at everything she does, which would explain why she's super smart and athletic.

...come to think of it, that may be why Homura is so against Madoka become a Puella Magi. If Madoka's potential is as great as Kyubey says, she may no longer be able to be the best at everything she does, and that might have some sort of repercussions...or, it would mean Madoka would have to die to prevent her from outdoing Homura, which would mean Homura really IS protecting Madoka.

Argh I just don't know. But I do feel that my guess for Homura's wish is accurate. I probably wouldn't have guessed at it if the show hadn't specifically made mention of it.

Speaking of which, I do wonder...who did Homura make a contract with? They haven't hinted at any past interaction between Homura and Kyubey...at least, they don't act like they used to know each other but are now bitter rivals or anything. Did she just make a contract with him but she realized the contract was a bad thing so she's after him, and they didn't know each other that well? Or did she make a contract with another creature who was a bit more trustworthy than Kyubey is?

In case you can't tell, I am really, REALLY liking this show.

*stunned*

I didn't see that coming.

I should have.

But I didn't.

Man.

Edit: I kinda like nutbladders translation of Magia more than gg's. It reads better.

...wow...I think I need to go watch something happy and perky. Wow.

However, with Sayaka and hospital dude, I echo Nate's theory. I was greatly wondering about that, he would become famous and forget about Sayaka...

I don't think it was what happened that shocked me, but how it happened. It was a pretty good reminder of who's writing this show.