What are your thoughts on your favourie anime?

[L Lawliet]

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF MADOKA MAGICA.

 

 

I don't have too many thoughts on Death Note, other than it's [bad wurd alurd] awesome, but I've got some stuff to say about Madoka Magica. Most of it deals with the psychological element of it. Let me elaborate.

Madoka Magica's plot is this, sourced from Wikipedia on its page here. If you just want to read the plot, here it is. This is not my own work. This is copied from the Wikipedia page that is linked here.

In the fictional city of Mitakihara, Japan, a middle school student named Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a small, cat-like creature named Kyubey. It offers a contract in which a girl may have any wish granted in exchange for obtaining magical powers and being tasked with fighting witches. Meanwhile, a transfer student and magical girl named Homura Akemi tries to stop Madoka from making the contract with Kyubey. Madoka and Sayaka then meet Mami Tomoe, an upperclassman at the same school who is also a magical girl. Noticing their indecisiveness on whether to become a magical girl, Mami offers to take Madoka and Sayaka along on her witch hunts so they may learn of the responsibilities that come with being a magical girl.^[4]

However, after witnessing Mami's death at the hands of a witch, Madoka realizes the life of a magical girl is filled with danger, anguish, and suffering.^[5] This is further enforced by the appearance of Kyoko Sakura, a veteran magical girl whose wish indirectly caused the death of her family. Madoka also discovers magical girls give up their souls to form their Soul Gems, the source of their magic, and that when Soul Gems become too tainted with despair, magical girls change into witches.

Sayaka decides to become a magical girl after learning that doing so would allow her to heal a young musician who she admires. However, her classmate Hitomi Shizuki confesses to him first, causing Sayaka to become disillusioned and fall into an inescapable despair that turns her into a witch.^[6] Kyubey reveals to Madoka that he is of an alien race that has been harvesting the emotions of magical girls for centuries to use as energy to counteract the spread of entropy, and thus stave off the heat death of the universe. Madoka also learns that Homura is a magical girl from a different timeline who has repeated the same month countless times to try to save Madoka from a grisly fate.

Madoka and Kyoko attempt to reverse Sayaka's transformation, but the plan fails and Kyoko is forced to sacrifice herself to allow Madoka to escape, leaving Homura as the only remaining magical girl. Following this, an extremely powerful witch known as Walpurgisnacht approaches the city. Homura attempts to stop it, but is defeated. She prepares to rewind time to repeat the month again, but Madoka stops her. With the past month's events in mind, Madoka decides to become a magical girl and makes a wish to stop the creation of all witches in the past, present, and future. The scope of this wish rewrites history and the laws of the universe, and her existence as a human is erased from time. She transcends into a cosmic phenomenon called "The Law of Cycles", which appears to all magical girls at the moment before they become witches and rescues them by taking them to a heavenly paradise. A new reality, in which Homura is the only one who remembers Madoka, is formed.^[7] Homura vows to continue fighting in honor of Madoka.

 

It seems like a cute anime at first, right? A young girl wants to fight witches with another girl to... save the world? Something like that. So where's the psychological elemet?

Well, let's quote something here. Again, this is from the Wikipedia article.'

Quote

However, after witnessing Mami's death at the hands of a witch, Madoka realizes the life of a magical girl is filled with danger, anguish, and suffering.^[5] This is further enforced by the appearance of Kyoko Sakura, a veteran magical girl whose wish indirectly caused the death of her family. Madoka also discovers magical girls give up their souls to form their Soul Gems, the source of their magic, and that when Soul Gems become too tainted with despair, magical girls change into witches.

Sayaka decides to become a magical girl after learning that doing so would allow her to heal a young musician who she admires. However, her classmate Hitomi Shizuki confesses to him first, causing Sayaka to become disillusioned and fall into an inescapable despair that turns her into a witch.

"Madoka realises the life of a magical girl is filled with danger, anguish, and suffering". Now, I haven't watched this in a while, but I can tell you that throughout Madoka's journey... it is. Witches are relentless and whatnot. But along with that, there's Homura. The secondary protagonist.

Until near the end of the anime, we don't really know too much about Homura. Though, as Madoka Magica slowly began to end, we saw more of Homura.

We kept seeing... visions or alternate dimensions, I believe, of Homura constantly seeing Madoka, spoilers, dying.

Well, that's all I've got since I don't know too much about it since I haven't watched this in a while.

AGAIN, THE PLOT IS COPIED FROM THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE. IT IS NOT MINE.

 

Anyways, what are your thoughts on your favourite anime?