Interest

Madoka Magica Fans Get Ready for Anime Series Finale

After being pre-empted out of "self-restraint" in the aftermath of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster, the final episodes of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica magical girl anime are airing on Friday morning in Tokyo's Kanto area and Osaka's Kansai area.

• A full-page ad was placed in the Thursday morning editions of the Yomiuri Shimbun paper in the Kanto and Kansai areas. Yomiuri reports that its morning editions had circulation runs of 6,602,375 in Tokyo and 2,512,377 in Osaka in March, according to an April 18 report by the Japan Audit Bureau of Circulations. Yomiuri also has an online calculator for figuring out how much it would cost to buy an ad that large in those two major areas.

• J-Cast News reported that fans had trouble buying this morning's newspaper as copies were snapped up at convenience stores and train station stands. Other people were able to buy one or even more copies of the newspaper, only to discover that the ad did not run in their local area since the anime is not airing there this week.

• Busou Shōten, a store in Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district that specializes in fictional weapons, announced that it will open late at noon on Friday "because of the final Madoka Magica episode." The sign on the store front (pictured at right) demonstrates the store management's enthusiasm for Madoka Magica.

• A magnitude-6.1 earthquake 64 kilometers (39 miles) from Tokyo just hours before airing did not faze many of the fans.

[Via Yaraon! (link 2)]

Image © Magica Quartet/Aniplex, Madoka Partners, MBS