Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story - Reviews

I thought this was going to be a continuation from the original series but the characters that we are introduced to in this series are from the mobile game which seems to have a pretty big following. There is a pretty big and colorful cast and I'll admit that I found it hard at times to keep track of who is who due to some of the characters rather looking alike.

There were a few characters that felt rather important in the bigger scheme of things but didn't get a proper introduction and I'm guessing that's due to those characters being rather important in the mobile game. I guess that the creators were expecting more of the viewers of this show to just be mobile game players.

Our main protagonist is a rather good but rather weak magical girl but manages to push through the arcs through the power of "friendship" and the rest of the girls all start out rather gloomy, understandable since they all had to be in a pretty dark place to even be considered a magical girl, but pick themselves up as the show progresses.

While it nails the surreal nature of the original and the first half is very good the second half let's it down. In contrast to the originals small cast and tight story this feels far too large while expanding not that much on the story while failing to answer the questions it sets up. Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot to like here and maybe a second season would knock it out of the park but as it stands it lacks the gut punch of the originals. I don't know, maybe you have to play the game like it tries to get you.