Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I know what you are all thinking. Okay, well I can't know what everyone is thinking, but I probably know what a lot of you are thinking. Something a long the lines of, what yet another Magical Girl Anime? What's so special about that? There are literally tons of them and they are all littered either overtly or covertly with yuri, so why bother even watching them? Its always the same story just told in a slightly different way right? Wrong?! That may have been true for other shows, but not Madoka!

Okay, okay, I'll admit that, on the surface, Madoka happens to look just like any other Magical Girl Anime. In fact it has an overly cute and moe style with an adorable pink-haired, twin-tailed young lead. Hell it even has a mascot, but that doesn't mean Madoka is anything like other magical girl anime. It might start out that way, but it quickly becomes apparent that this is not your usual pick of moe and kawaii!

A Much Darker Fruit
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, often shortened to Madoka Magica or just Madoka, has a much darker story-line than any Magical Girl Anime I've seen, and I've seen a lot!

In the past, I used to love this type of anime simply because of the cute scenes and the transformation sequences and the lone girl or group of girls overcoming incredible odds together. This was enough at the time, but now I look for more depth and more story in my anime. Watching the first episode of Madoka, I was not sure It was going to be something I like, but the visuals at the beginning and the cliffhanger ending kept me coming for another few episodes and that was long enough for me to realize, this had the story and depth that I seek these days while maintaining the themes that I had once loved. Fortunately, I haven't gotten very far. This is a completed series and I could simply find a fansub, but Crunchyroll is kindly doing one, so I don't mind waiting week-to-week for new episodes to support the studio. It really is that good, but I won't spoil it for you.

Yuri?
Well, as I said, this type of anime usually has overt or covert yuri themes. Sadly I have not gotten far enough to really tell if Madoka Magica is an exemption in that regards or not. One thing is quite certain though, the fans seem to pick up on at least one possible pairing.

In fact there is a character that seems to be quite protective of our title character. I can't say much more than that, but that alone holds some potential. Even if it happened to be an exception though, I think I could and would still watch it just because it is so different.