FreddyCrab

Story: I really love magical girl anime, its one of my favourite genres, so I thought I'd absolutely LOVE this anime- I had always wanted a more mature mahou shoujo to watch, then Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika came along. But I finally got round to watching it, and my hopes were simply too high. 

The story wasn't AWFUL- it just failed to fully attract and maintain my attention, with the exception of about 5 scattered episodes. The story in the first 7 or 8 episodes wasn't really about Madoka at all- it was about her friend Sayaka who becomes a Puella Magi, only for it to all go wrong. Whilst this was interesting in the last few episodes of Sayaka's story, I was getting a little frustrated. Madoka just sat there idely every episode, watching her friends fighting, watching them grow depressed and suicidal, and she just...sat there. It made her, as the protagonist, in Tim Rice-Oxley's words, ''completely fucking boring''.

However episode 10 was a big improvement. The last 3 episodes focussed on Homura instead, another Puella Magi and her relation to Madoka. But, once again, Madoka was still not even a magical girl. She was sitting there, being told she had all this potential and she was still just SITTING there, weeping all the time. Then the last episode came- and it was...weird. The last few episodes had upped my rating of this show barely to four stars, then the last episode appeared and back down to 3 stars it goes, I just found the ending...odd. It was an acquired taste. Someone is erased from everyones memories, and one girl who has known her  A MONTH remembers her- but oh no, her own mother and father don't! I just find that...too unbelievable. Homura's affection for Madoka what she gathered up within just a month? How can you grow so incredibly all-loving of a person in just a mere month? It was too short a timeframe for it to be even mildly believable for me.

Animation: At first I thought the animation of characters could look rather plain and perhaps tacky- but I gradually warmed up to it, the characters just naturally do seem rather plain to the eye. The character designs weren't particularly inspiring- the typical colour coordination, pink-haired protagonist and the darker character wearing black. But the witches made up for it, the animation during battles and of the other realms was amazing, bright and lively. 

Sound: It set the mood well when the characters were depressed. There was a lot of silence without music too. But none of the music really reached out to me and grabbed me, without a few rare exceptions.

Characters: Meh. The protagonist did absolutely nothing for about 11 episodes out of twelve. Literally every single character except for Homura was barely developed, or their past wasn't brought up, except for maybe Sayaka. Other characters such as Mami or the red-haired Puella Magi seemed just to be there to demonstrate how many different coloured magical girls they could have. 

Kyubey really irritated me. I've never been a huge fan of the magical girl familiars, but Kyubey was plain detestable. His species' inability to have emotion could make him very frustrating to watch, and all he ever did was try to CONSTANTLY turn Madoka into a Puella Magi for his own personal gain. If her friend had died? ''Oh care not Madoka, if you become a Puella Magi...'' If she was worried about witches taking over? ''Madoka, you'll be strong if you become a Pueklla Magi...'' If shes eating some canned brocolli and watching Doctor Who? ''Madoka, come become a Puella Magi...'' he just pushed it too hard. 

Overall:  Meh. It IS darker than other magical girl shows, but I wouldn't say that makes it any better. I am very relieved it was only 12 episodes long. Its definitely different from other mahou shoujo's and is worth a watch even if you don't like the genre...but its a acquired taste. And I think perhaps slightly overrated.