Unthinkable

[branchandroot]

I never thought I would do this, but here it is:

Watch Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica.

Do not read anything at all about it beforehand. Just watch it.

Grab the files off Nyaa. I can recommend the MahouShoujo+yesy translation; they might even be as good as they think they are. There are three weeks left to run, so you get the best of both worlds.

I will say this: Utena had a love-child with Card Captor Sakura, and it grew up to date Mononoke. And that's all I'll say.

Just watch it.

(And then hit up the wiki for this show, because wow. I mean... wow.)


(Mac users will need the latest VLC to play these. If you have trouble with that, you may actually want to set up Movist; once it's set up you can right-click > open with > Movist individual files and you get a nice, regular app window.)

MOOD SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS

Comments

[shiraume]

Oh yay, finally! Someone else on my Flist who's into Madoka! ♥

How far have you watched? I started when five episodes were out or so? And I was warned upon pain of painful spoilerific death DO NOT READ/WATCH SPOILERS until episode 3. Then episode 3 came and my heart went crunch.

I dug up a copy of Faust just for Madoka. That's LOVE. XD (Though I'm highly disappointed there isn't enough fanservicey moments for Madoka & Homura. Damn those misleading yet highly attractive OP sequences.)

[branchandroot]

I watched 1-9 this weekend, and I'm waiting for my preferred group to bring out 10. And being glad someone else already did the codebreaking! This one is definitely going on the shelf beside Utena, because I don't think I've seen anything else so comprehensively set out to break established tropes. And hearts. Those too.

[opusculus]

I'd actually been tipped over into watching it yesterday. I've rarely been as happy to see a show like this, considering how long I've been hoping someone would do a good magical girl show deconstruction. And there's so many little touches of awesome in this series that I can't help but love it.

[branchandroot]

*thumbs up* For a long time I figured it was just another fluff-and-frills show, and possible echi because there's been a lot of that in the mainstream lately. A review on my dwircle finally caught my eye, though, and you bet I was over there like a shot. I'm so happy to see that there really are good, thought provoking anime being made and appreciated.

[midorigirl]

I've been watching on hidden-anime.com, all 10 episodes released so far. I don't know that I LOVE it but I certainly do appreciate it for what it is. Beyond the freaky and beautiful animation, its got a griping story. And it flips a giant middle finger to the magical girl trope, which I do love.

I did like watching the character progressions in episode 10. Its an interesting break down.

[branchandroot]

Yeah, it's not thrilling action or anything, but I love watching what it does. Well, that and waiting for the next twist.

[taithe]

I've been seeing this anime pop up everywhere and wasn't sure if it'd live up to the hype. Will check it out, thanks.

[branchandroot]

*grins* I think it is. It's definitely... different.

ROTFL

[seagull2eagle]

I sent your recommendation on to a friend of mine who watches more anime than I do because I knew she'd want to try it. Here is her reply to me:

I found the show online and started watching ... just one episode I thought just to see. As the story unfolded -- flipping back and forth in time, surreal landscapes and obfuscating editing -- I totally got sucked in, and really saw the Utena comparison. And saw some Alien Nine in it, too.

I literally felt like I'd seen the first half of a 100 ep series in just one episode -- the first, of all episodes. Characters introduced, changed, died, and history magically repeated over and over.... Wow, how wild and creative and ... weird and confusing and .... cool!

The episode finished, and I opened email to write you about it. I copied the link I'd watched (streamed not downloaded) to paste in:
http://www.animeseason.com/mahou-shoujo-madoka-magika-episode-10/
And I suddenly, finally noticed I was watching episode 10, not 1.


o_o


-_-


Still cool.

^_^ LOL

Re: ROTFL

[branchandroot]

*laughs rather a lot* Oh dear. Well, that's one reveal she won't get to be walloped by, but I'm /sure/ there will be others. This was probably the best ep to watch out of order, actually!

[sabriel]

I started watching this on your rec. I'm only on the 3rd ep, but I'd say that instead of the lovechild of Utena and CCS growing up to date Mononoke, I'd say it was dating Princess Tutu. Or maybe it was dating both at the same time. Hm.

Is there only 10 eps? Because that's an rather odd number to end a series...

[branchandroot]

The art, at least inside the kekkai, struck me as incredibly Mononoke. *considers* And the essential... well, no, that's spoilers. Just keep going.

There are twelve eps, but it's airing this season so the last two are on hold until earthquake damage is under control. They're supposed to air before the end of April. *rueful* That's all we know right now.

[sabriel]

The ending song has been stuck inside my head for the past two days. I'll keep watching then~ it really does have my interest right now.

Ahhh, got it.