Forum - View topicShelf Life - QB of the Year
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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I'm glad we can agree with each other on the Madoka recap movies. I've seen Madoka about 6 times all up (2 times sub, 4 times dub) and no matter how many times I watch it my 10/10 score just does not budge.
I enjoy the stuff Key put out (And KyoAni's anime adaptations) for giving me such emotionally rewarding experiences and shows like Mawaru Penguindrum for kicking my brain around like a football. But what makes Madoka so special is that it somehow manages to combine complex, thought provoking themes (Some of which are rarely addressed in fiction let alone anime) with a lot of emotional depth and do it even better than many shows that focus solely on getting one specific reaction from the audience. I also really enjoyed Rebellion (Possibly even more than the series) but in the case of the recap movies I didn't like them quite as much. I liked them overall for the sole fact that it was Madoka but I still scratch my head every time someone calls it an improvement over the series. The pacing is the root of pretty much all the movie's problems. In the first movie most of its 2 hour runtime is spent building up to the events in the second movie and covers many of the slower, less action heavy scenes in the show. Then you get to the second movie and suddenly EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING AT ONCE leaving you almost no time to think about what's going on throughout most of the entire two hour run time. The first movie feels too empty, the second movie feels too bloated and neither one of them feel like complete movies. Just one awkwardly paced overlong movie split down the middle. Granted the new animation is absolutely gorgeous (As a big mahou shoujo fan I absolutely adored the new transformation sequences) and Kajiura somehow manages to one up herself with an even better soundtrack than the series. But even that's not enough to make up for its shortcomings. Granted, it's still the same Madoka I know and love (Even if it is notably inferior in a lot of ways) so I still enjoyed it immensely (Certainly a lot more than that godawful Chuunibyou recap movie) but its got problems. However I will be buying it when it comes out in Australia for the English Dub. Also, just for the record, as someone who has actual experience with magical girl anime Madoka is definitely not a deconstruction. It just borrows a few basic tropes from the genre and then runs off and does its own thing. It's kind of hard to even compare Madoka with most other Magical Girl shows anyway since they might as well be in completely different genres. Watching Cardcaptor Sakura and a whole bunch of Precure seasons has done literally nothing to change my opinion of Madoka and vice versa. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4380 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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which is saying a lot unfortunately cause they both have the same bitter sweet ending for makoda which is why in a sense if you have already seen the series,the movie unfortunately wont make a difference if your looking for a different ending from the tv series. at least AOT got the shelf worthy tab and rightfully so. hopefully season 2 as well as the no regrets OVA will come soon unless something very unfortunate happens. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2247 |
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I knew an extremely intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful man who flat-out HATED Madoka. Why? His berserk button were shows that centered on the suffering of children. (Higurashi was another big no-no for him.) And while he admitted a lot of the show was well done (except for the Maxwell's demon thing about the spoiler[death of the universe]; as a Physics major, it bugged the living daylights out of him), he just couldn't get over how he felt about the concept as a whole.
On a unrelated note, wasn't Nozaki-kun licensed by Sentai recently? I hope that goes through; I'd love to own this series. My favorite episode was definitely the one that centered on dating sims. XDDD |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4089 |
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{Rolling up my sleeves} I saw Madoka once and that was enough for me. Should we talk about artistic merits of its animation {there are other shows equally worthy if not better} or its "mature" themes of an immature theme {Only magical girl series that utterly fails as a coming of age story by its sheer plot mechanics; Imagine that. It's not a "deconstruction", it's something else, a cosmic horror story using young girls instead of the usual Lovecraft hero} or its use of shock value in place of character development {hmm, back to Lovecraft?}? Why start there when there's a bigger issue? The series: Revelation, revelation,... you know it, repeat it {literally...this series makes derision so easy}... decision. I've heard the movie was the "author's saving throw" when he looked back at his own story and saw a few things, well, I can't come out and say wrong with it {wink} because then I'd be the subject of a witch hunt {"Burn the heretic!"} but I can't even say that as it was the third movie... the second sequel to a compilation movie... no, the third movie was the main sequel to the series proper... Not that I'd ever know it cause I'd have to take a loan out just to buy the damn thing... sorry, they're not the problem here... Madoka, right. I would need a number of posts, some time and a whole lot of "give a damns" but I just don't care enough about the series either way. It's there, it's not very entertaining, there are other shows out there than actually are intelligent rather than just seem intelligent {oh, the writer knows the word "entropy" though he can't fully explain how spoiler[wish granting aliens] can't do something about it on their own. There's an "upper" problem there, see if you can figure it out...} so why waste my time on something old? So. Did I pass the audition? And I fully love Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun and I'm ok with Attack on Titan though I've never been at all interested in that series enough to: 1) Follow when it was first streamed. 2) Preorder either volume 3) Watch either volume 4) Marathon the episodes but I'm amused that's a menu option. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
Posts: 1391 |
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Because your write up is kind of a confusing mess and seems to be based on a very big misunderstanding of what the show's intentions are. I mean, It sure as hell doesn't do anything to challenge my beliefs.
I'll give you a C- for effort but this isn't really any different to the same arguments I've heard a million times over already. |
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ChocoBar1
Posts: 49 |
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This is why I never take people who praise AoT seriously because so many of them don't seem to know what they're talking about and are just riding on the trails of popularity rather than thinking for yourself. Series for the most part was poorly animated and paced largely due to the troubled production even the staff acknowledged this and if you weren't a blind fanboy you would see this but I guess AoT is the new Naruto in a ways since they both have largely insufferable people who would defend it to death. Even the Madoka fans are acting the same way in regards to their series as well in this very way, it's impossible for anytone to have a negative opinion towards it. 
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Juno016
 Posts: 2394 |
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@Animegomaniac: I mean no direct offense, but you haven't shown me that your arguments are any stronger than any of the arguments I've come across thus far. I'll gladly talk about it (here or in PMs, respect for dissenting opinion intact) if you care enough to, but I'll warn you now that I'm already well-prepared to counter the argument you seem to be going with here. :/
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Maokun
Posts: 53 |
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I initially thought it was a deconstruction but after some digestion time, I have to agree with you. it's just another genre... psychological horror? Sci-fi? I just cannot tell, but it is its own thing with all the Mahou-Shoujo trappings. The manga Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is a similar thing, a seinen with all the trappings of a generic shounen that all of a sudden punches your heart into your brain and you can't help to love it the more because you realise what it is actually doing. Writing this I start to believe that stories like these are straight out sci-fi. They may lack the sci-fi dressing, but they deal with what is the ultimate intent of the genre: asking "What if?" - "What if a Magical Girl anime wasn't about righteousness embodied by an innocent being, bestowed with power enough to battle evil, but rather about spoiler[self-perpetuating misery in the name of profit for a third party]?" |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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So happy to see Nozaki-kun get such a good review on here. Hope it will get more people to check out the series.
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1243 |
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Can't really agree with the evaluation of the Madoka movies. Granted I haven't seen the series in a long while, but when I watch the movies, I don't feel like I'm missing much, and the ending is just as strong for me. Definity worthy of my shelf.
As for Nozaki-kun, I didn't read the review, because I haven't seen the show, but the buzz that's been building for this one has definitely put it on my radar. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
Posts: 1391 |
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@maokun
Yeah, that's the thing. I tend to find that people calling it a deconstruction don't seem to have too much knowledge of the genre, what the term actually means, or just really badly misinterpreted what the show was going for. If part of the show's message was 'don't trust fairy mascots' or something stupid along those lines it would have failed because most of those characters already have fleshed backstories of their own explaining their cause which should well and truly prove that they don't have ulterior motives. Just because Kyubey does it shouldn't change the way you think about those sorts of characters. I even saw someone go as far as saying that watching other magical girl anime beforehand was a necessity when going into Madoka. I can say from experience that statement is just ridiculous. If you don't like Madoka in the first place I doubt watching a completely unrelated series is going to change your opinion spoiler[but everyone should watch Cardcaptor Sakura anyway because it's amazing]. Finding out later on that same person with such a warped view of the series strongly disliked Rebellion was far less shocking.
Also being all passive aggressive and spamming that eyeroll emoticon doesn't make you look smart. Just saying. |
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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PMMM was my first magical girl series and nothing else I've seen presents itself in a way that Madoka could deconstruct to get its plot; instead, most of the darkness comes from twists on the existing tropes(come to think of it, I can't think of another series that gives its characters much of a choice in the matter - hell, I can't even remember a series that actually offered them a reward for their service, except maybe after they've been at it a while).
@ vanfanel : I'd have to agree that they did a good job of stitching the bits they kept together with the new animation. The major exception is the episode ten material, but then that episode is such a major break that making it fit smoothly would be a task fit for the gods. @ ChocoBar1: How does pointing out they recycled animation prove anything? Each instance you point out has redone coloring and slots into the show the same way new animation would've. Even if we were talking about time-filling transformation sequences*, that's still would say nothing about quality. *I couldn't find the full version on YouTube. |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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Whatever you want to call Madoka, I suppose it doesn't matter that much. You can call it whatever you want to. The main strength of the series remains the same though - Kyubey and Homura, both of whom play directly to certain key magical girl tropes and both of whom turn those tropes on their heads.
If Kyubey wasn't a mascot character, he loses most of his impact on the show. Switch him out with some common faustian humanoid villain, and Madoka loses like half of it's charm. We've seen such villains in numerous other shows. The main thing that made it so great here was because Kyubey was a reversal of the usual mascot character who is supposed to protect and guide the magical girls. Likewise, Homura stands for the theme of friendship between girls conquers all. This is played somewhat straight in the series (although we see some foreshadowing of the darker side of Homura's "friendship" during the series and the ending doesn't entirely hold true to this concept) and the third movie blows this up completely. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Nozaki-kun was very good.
 I would like to see another season.
A mascot that turns out to be evil is not that original either. I remember something similar in Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne. There is also Bokurano, which is not a magical girl, but there is an evil mascot there. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18212 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Completely agree with everything Bamboo said about Nozaki-kun, but I'd also add additional emphasis on how tremendously funny it is. There are only a handful of anime series I've ever seen which have had as many laugh-out-loud moments in a dozen episodes as this one did, and hardly any episode went by without a few such moments. It had the second-highest average rating of any new series in our Preview Guide for the Summer 2014 season, and it more than lived up to that expectation.
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