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Just watched Madoka Magica and the Rebellion movie! Loved the show, while the movie... not so much. - I didn't know anything about the show except that there was a subversive element to it, but I got where it was going from the Doki Doki Literature Club vibes early on. Mami being murdered via decapitation with her twitching corpse filling the screen sure reminded me a lot of the sudden tone shift there, jesus. I also got a lot of Undertale vibes from the show. I imagine this was an inspiration for both. - I thought the art was a negative overall. The real world style and character designs were very generic, and while the labyrinth style was unique, it was also usually kind of grotesque in a way that didn't appeal to me. There were some standout sequences though, particularly during combat. - The early running gag of Hitomi thinking Madoka and Sayaka are ~~~secret lesbians~~~ and running off crying out of jealousy was good. "I guess it's true what they say... two's company but three... three's a crowd!" *sob* - I also enjoyed the few appearances of their embittered teacher early on. I liked that she and Madoka's mom turned out to be drinking buddies. - Extremely down with Sayaka's instinct being to bring a baseball bat on the witch patrols. Although the Marth gimmick really worked for her, I wish she would've been a Bronx bruiser-style magical girl. - "That was a bonafide battle to the death, for reals." - The number of times we're saying the phrase "magical girls" aloud in this series is unfortunate; it really does not roll off the tongue. - I think the twist that Soul Gems are gems made of souls was, uh, not a twist. I mean, there being a limit on how far your gem can be from your body was a surprise, but everybody acting SHOCKED about this didn't work for me. - The end of episode 7 was a major highlight. Just some wild poo poo that was built up well character-wise. - "So, if you ever feel like dying for the sake of the universe, call me!" - "Hey God, if you're there? My life sucked." - I thought the twist with Homura's backstory worked much better. I didn't understand what was happening until the scene where she shoots Kyubey in the park, and I LOVED the execution of episode 10. It reminded me so much of the peaks of Death Note where you're watching this intricate puzzle unfold. - "And if that goes against the laws of this universe, then I'll just rewrite those laws." I want to know the percentage of anime that culminate with killing or becoming God versus the same percentage for all other media. With the exception of JRPGs, it can't be close. - I was going to recommend the movie, Rebellion, but it takes a hard turn in the final 20 minutes. Extra spoiler room for folks who have seen the show but not the movie... OK, I dunno what the gently caress they were thinking with Homura's heel turn. Like... why? Did the creator just decide after the show was done that, in hindsight, it was actually creepy of Homura to try to save Madoka and retconned her into a nutjob with the overall theme being "love is bad?" Or maybe the guy got dumped during the writing process? What a hateful, nihilistic capstone.
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Feb 2, 2021 00:57
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:51 |
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AlternateNu posted:I think a lot of people (somewhat ironically) took at face value that Homura's feelings for Madoka were good and just because they were the main characters and "it can't be wrong to love someone, right?" Except by that point in Homura's cycles, it pretty clearly mutated into an unhealthy obsession. Madoka wasn't a person anymore. She was a goal, and by "sacrificing" herself, Madoka snatched Homura's prize away from her. IMO, Rebellion was a logical extension of those feelings. Without Madoka being there as something she could continue to latch onto, Homura just spiraled into what you see at the end. And fittingly (or not), the time looping that gave Madoka the power to break universal laws to ascend also ensured Homura was able to break them right back. Except, she never actually grew up or healed from her ordeal. It would've been different if she had her memory wiped along with the rest of the universe, but well... Reading this and sitting on it a little more, I think that's a fair and plausible reading of her character in the show, and that it's not insane where the movie went with her. But I don't think it's the only reasonable interpretation, and it wasn't mine. The show ends with her talking about fighting to protect Madoka's dream, seemingly having made peace with what happened. Trying to continue on someone's legacy is a super normal thing to do when you lose someone you love, so it made sense for that to be her reaction. Maybe the writer was forced to add that rather than leave her finale more open-ended since it was the finale, but that's the show we got and it's all I can go off as a viewer as to where her character's headspace was at. I would feel much better about the movie if it wasn't the end of the story, but... apparently it is? So, even if it's a reasonable character beat for Homura, ending the story there is a real downer. Madoka has been pulled from happy godhood and is suffering an epic identity crisis with universes and poo poo appearing, Homura has gone insane and is already talking about Madoka becoming her enemy before possibly committing suicide, Sayaka is also furious about what happened before getting memory-wiped (indicating that she wasn't upset about how her life had turned out before). If this was the launching point for more story, that would be rough but a potentially amazing setup. But that's it. My concern with the show when I started understanding how it was subversive was that it was just going to be misery porn, and I was so thankful that the show was more than that. But that's what the last twist felt like to me.
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Feb 2, 2021 02:27
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I don't know if Kill la Kill counts as magical girl anime, but there are transformation sequences so I feel like it does at least a little bit. Anyway, the recommendation thread told me not to bother watching it and they were right to do so, it's very ehhhh compared to the classics I've been churning through otherwise. But it does have one killer feature: Madoka's voice actor absolutely crushing a very strange role. It's maybe the only redeeming feature of the show in my opinion, but it's been enough to pull me through five episodes.
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Feb 13, 2021 22:20
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Oh, sorry, this is awkward; I was referring to the English dub voice actor, Christine Marie Cabanos. I thought that Madoka was kind of a blank-slate character, but hearing the same voice actor play someone with a Looney Tunes level of zaniness like Mako Mankanshoku has been a delight.
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Feb 13, 2021 23:14
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Gotta say that I'm just delighted by running into so much of the Madoka Magica crew all over Kill la Kill. I think the only main cast member who isn't in there is Lauren Landa (Kyoko).
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Feb 19, 2021 00:38
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Got the Funimation streaming app to watch the latest season of My Hero Academia and realized that it had Magia Record. I watched Madoka Magica last winter and was always curious about this; I'm about 10 episodes in now. Madoka Magica was a masterpiece in my opinion; this is definitely not. But it's fine and I'm intrigued by the occasional appearance of Madoka Magica characters in the show, so I'm sticking with it. Am I right that this is an alternate universe of some kind? The timeline of Mami Tamoe in this can't really line up with the original show, as far as I can tell. edit: also, I just rewatched the third episode of Madoka Magica to remind myself about Mami's story, and this new show really is a step down. surf rock fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Dec 5, 2021 |
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Dec 5, 2021 16:34
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EVERY TIME GOING posted:I couldn't care less if the spinoff was based on Homer's Odyssey. There's a definite problem in the continuation of the narrative when the first series tragic deuteragonist is forced to play eternal dodgeball with flying skyscrapers in an unwinnable battle for love, while their second series counterpart just gets to turn into some kind of grotesque version of a water pokemon on the reg. I want to see Homura and Yachiyo being cool at each other.  I also want to know what the Coordinator's deal is. I also want to know WTF was happening to Mami in those last couple of episodes. I also want to know how overpowered the original cast was, given how much trouble Yachiyo and Iroha had even with their special powers against Mami (whereas Sayaka almost solo'd her). But I mostly want to know when the dub of season two will be released. I like the voice cast too much to switch to subs.
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Dec 6, 2021 15:49
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 21:51 |
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I've been in the archives reading through the original Madoka Magica thread, and it wasn't until after the eighth episode that someone guessed what was going on with Homura correctly. I think they might've caught on a little sooner, but the use of (multiple sets of) unofficial subtitles at the time probably hurt their chances. Also, I forgot that Kyoko pulls a Vegeta sacrifice, but it actually worked. Nice! edit: Also, I retract some of my previous complaints about Rebellion. I found the direction of Homura's character very upsetting in that the first time I saw it, and I'm happy there's going to be another movie because I find the resolution of Rebellion too sad to like, but episodes 10-12 in my rewatch have made it clear that it's not actually a direction change. The final scene of the series foreshadows what's to come extremely directly. surf rock fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Dec 8, 2021 |
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Dec 8, 2021 01:30
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