Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Shaft weaves its magic Maho Shoujo style

“It’s over when you give up. But you can change your destiny…”

Shaft + magical girls = Puella Magi Magica Madoka

Shaft proves that it can still rock even with its often unorthodox visual take on the mahou shoujo genre. Puella Magi Madoka Magica has good potential and definitely shouldn’t be judged by its cutesy and innocent cover.

Crazy f*cked up world

Plot summary from AniDB: Having a loving family, close friends, experiencing times of joy and times of sadness. These are the things that make up an ordinary life. Kaname Madoka is a normal 2nd year middle-schoolgirl who lives such an ordinary life. Until, that is, a strange encounter occurs. She does not know if this encounter is coincidence, or the vagaries of fate, but two things are certain…
This is the moment when her destiny changes…
This is the start of a new magical girl story!

Starting off in typical Shaft fashion

I have generally enjoyed Shaft’s work in the past few years, namely Bakemonogatari, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and the 2 seasons of Arakawa Under The Bridge (however Dance in The Vampire Bund sucked). I was initially hesitant  to watch this show, but I was pleasantly surprised with the effort put into this production.

Awesome classrooms are awesome

Animation work is definitely typical of Shaft, with strong emphasis on style. In fact the very first seconds of PMMM were rather reminiscent of SZS, with the curtains opening and the use of paper cut-outs etc. I’m hoping Shaft doesn’t over-extend its budget here and starts adding close-ups and pointless stills all over the place like it did with Vampire Bund.

Lookiez it’s an pokemanz!

One of the great things here is definitely the soundtrack and voicework. Saitou Chiwa aka Senjougahara Hitagi returns to weave her magic as the cool Akemi. Also interesting to note that another seiyuu involved in Bakemonogatari, Katou Emiri (Mayoi Snail) is also here, voicing Kyubee, a reject from Pokemon Black/White (lol, I kid). Kajiura Yuki (of See-Saw and Kalafina fame) is also the composer for PMMM and she’s done a good job in the premier episode, with that great thundering tune in the first few minutes.

The babies - they gonna eat us all!

PMMM has had me surprisingly pleased and entertained even though I’m no fan of the maho shoujo genre. Even though there are some pretty cringe-worthy moments, this show should be great for those who can see beyond the innocent facade.

OP: looks nice but pretty generic ideas overall. Ok tune.

Likkle pokimanz hauntz u