Let me get this off my chest: I love Madoka Magica. I didn’t when I first watched it. I thought it was
mediocre and didn’t deserve the praise it was getting at the time. I still don’t
think it deserves the praise it got at the time, nor does it deserve the praise
it’s getting now, but I’ll get into that. What I love about this series is that
it was able to take such a generically happy-go-lucky genre into something
darker. Magical girls are humans given magic in exchange for a wish, and that
wish will eventually turn them to despair and turn the human into a witch.
Usually, in magical girl shows, the magical girl just fights against an outside
enemy that’s making witches or specters or wraiths or whatever. But in Madoka Magica, the magical girls are
fighting against former magical girls. And you don’t know this for sure until
near the very end because Kyubey is a little jerk who only tells you what you
need to know.
I am also continually stunned by the acting in this. The
English dub goes above and beyond the call of duty here. I daresay it is one of
the best dubs ever produced; most definitely worthy of the consideration at the
very least. Cassandra Lee is absolutely brilliant as the cute, yet creepy,
Kyubey and conveys that perfectly in her voice. Christina Vee portrays Homura’s
badass fighting side just as well as she portrays Homura’s shyer and less sure
side. Christina Marie Cabanos is also able to portray Madoka as the unsure, yet
often strangely cocky and confident, girl that she is. What she did that
underwhelmed me in her portrayal of Azusa in K-ON! is clearly gone (that or Alex Von David knew exactly what to
do to bring out her very best performance; though I doubt this since Tony
Oliver is a great voice actor and voice director in his own right). Alex Von
David brought together a nigh on perfect cast of English voice actors to do
justice to this dub. I can say that Funimation produces some of the most consistently
good dubs nowadays, but every so often, a dub out of LA will blast you in the
face and remind you that they’ve produced some of the best dubs out there (they
did do Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Samurai Champloo, and Hellsing
after all).
What I didn’t so much enjoy was the ending. All the build-up
was really, really good, but the ending just kind of let you down. They claim
that the earthquake in 2011 in Japan didn’t affect the ending of Madoka Magica, but there will always be
speculation. But the fact that Madoka literally became a god seemed like a cop
out on the part of the writers. This show was about how hope turned into
despair and how, after all your trying, you can only make it a little better.
If Homura went back and it just faded to her trying to save the world again, it
might have been a better option (I know that’s not the best option out there,
but there’s got to be something better than what they did).
But several shows leave you wanting more out of the ending.
This is no different. I wasn’t any more or less disappointed with the Lost ending or the Buffy ending (both of which were lackluster to me). So take that as
you will. All in all, I definitely suggest this series to people new to anime
and looking for something besides the standard starter shows like Bebop, Champloo, and Trigun.
Stick with it through four episodes and you’ll probably grow to like it.
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