Puella Magi Madoka Magica

[Daverost]

Best show of the season/year/decade discuss.

This thing is headed by some of the best in the business and it's looking to be pretty great so far. DAT SOUNDTRACK above all else.

[vampko]

Best show of the season/year/decade discuss.

This thing is headed by some of the best in the business and it's looking to be pretty great so far. DAT SOUNDTRACK above all else.

what is it?

[Daverost]

Hard to say. It's an original series, so we don't know much about it yet.

What we know so far is that it's a magical girl original series done by SHAFT and headed up by an all-star team.

Director: Akiyuki Shinbo (Several of SHAFT's successful series like Bakemonogatari, Arakawa, SZS, Hidamari, etc.)
Writer: Gen Urobuchi (Fate/Zero, Saya no Uta)
Original Character Designs: Ume Aoki (Hidamari Sketch)
Character Design Adaption: Takahiro Kishida (Baccano!)
Music: Yuki Kajiura (.hack, Baccano!, Kara no Kyoukai)

The cast is also high-profile.

Madoka Kaname - Aoi Yūki
Homura Akemi - Chiwa Saitō
Sayaka Miki - Eri Kitamura
Mami Tomoe - Kaori Mizuhashi
Kyubey - Emiri Katō

Even the supporting cast consists of the likes of Ryōko Shintani and Yūko Gotō.

The opening theme is performed by ClariS (OreImo OP) and the ending theme is performed by Kalafina (Kara no Kyoukai, Sora no Woto).

It's somewhat of a standard magical girl series at first glance, but the first episode has already proven that it's going to be very different from what people expect out of the genre and the staff has already stated that there is a "grotesque" element to it. (This shouldn't be terribly surprising given the writer.) People are speculating it'll be a deconstruction of the genre.

The first episode has been very promising and it only stands to get better after all of the plot and character setup is out of the way. We're looking at a pretty dark magical girl series in coming weeks.

[vampko]

Interesting. Maybe I'll check it out later on.

[SjSharks182]

Ahh shoot I wanted to make the topic for once :/ Oh well, I've been looking forward to this for a couple weeks now, and after watching the first episode, I can say that this could surpass my initial expectations.

[Daverost]

It already surpassed mine. I'm very impressed with the presentation so far.

[LAMV]

How many episodes is it going to have? I tend to wait until a season is finished before watching it.

[Daverost]

As far as I know, it isn't known yet, but I think it's going to be a one-season show.

[zatrox]

Why do I get the feeling this anime will be filled with Madoka going through horrible things? Of course, aside the whole "NO YOU CAN'T BECOME A MAGICAL GIRL LOOK AT MY FACE I'M ALL SERIOUS BUT I CARE ABOUT YOU LOTS" that's kind of a giveaway.

The animation and artstyles are simply awesome, and the soundtrack is too, however.

[Daverost]

Why do I get the feeling this anime will be filled with Madoka going through horrible things?

Because Gen Urobuchi.

[vampko]

So I saw the first episode. And, I'm not sure what to think. The art quality is kind of really low. And that really distracts me. The premise seems interesting enough, and it has lots of potential, but I'm not getting the same kind of good feeling I got from Gosick from this. And I definitely am not calling it my favorite. When I see another episode, I will be able to form a better opinion. As it stands, Zombie desu ka is my favorite of the season, and Gosick is a close second. With This show, and Dragon Crisis fighting for third (Dragon Crisis is close to winning). And Rio is just a show I like.

[leinaud]

I have to agree with the art. It is okay but the character's head/face seemed a little too stretched to me. Almost like it was drawn in 4:3 then stretched to be broadcast to fit on HDTVs.

[SjSharks182]

I like the art, but I can see your issue with it.

[vampko]

I like the art, but I can see your issue with it.

I like the style, sort of, but I can't get past all the mushy faces and blobby heads that appear so often. Hopefully, this is just a first episode thing, and it will start to smooth out as the series goes on. Because the premise is quite nice.

[Daverost]

That's just Ume Aoki's style. Not everybody likes it.



Stylistic preferences aside, I thought the show's production values were fairly high.