I'm Talking About: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Anime Review)

A magical girl anime, you ask? Allow me to blow your mind. Almost literally.

How do I even begin this one? How can I top what's already been said about this show, making it one of Japan's solid hits of 2011 (earthquake/tsunami and all)? I can't even—you know what, forget it. I should just tell you all to stop reading this and go find Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica on some streaming site and watch it. Just watch it and you will understand just how dumbfounded I am about what to say.

Let's start with the plot (God, I can't even do this without worrying about giving something away). Madoka Kaname is your ordinary eighth grader who wakes up one night from an apocalyptic dream involving a strange dark-haired girl battling the calamity and what looks like a rejected Pokemon named Kyubey. As would be expected from these magical girl shows, Kyubey is the strange little talking creature who gives our main heroine the power to transform into a magical girl—whether she wants to or not. Except that's not the case here. For Madoka and her best friend Sayaka Miki, they have a choice in the matter: Kyubey will grant each of them one wish, anything at all, while in exchange they must form a contract with him and become magical girls, fighting the invisible witches responsible for disaster and suicide amongst innocent people. Encouraged by upperclassman and magical girl Mami Tomoe to go through with the undertaking, the girls are also prevented from forming the contract at every turn by Homura Akemi, the new transfer student and the very girl Madoka witnessed in her dream.

And this is about all I can tell you, honestly. The anime is a mere 12 episodes long—not because it could not afford more, but because that was pretty much all that was needed to tell its story. There is virtually not one moment of filler in the entire series, which is incredibly refreshing for a viewer who has almost come to expect such from even a short anime. You really feel like you are watching one continuously structured plot, very much like a movie, right down to the big reveal near the end of it all. For myself, this is a big plus in a series chock full of high points.

While the animation is not really anything to write home about, the art design is astoundingly beautiful. From the first moment Madoka and Sayaka enter the battlefield of the witches, you can immediately tell where all the budget for this show went. It really feels like world's best acid trip as you watch these crowded conceptional images that both intrigue and terrify dance in front of your eyes, making you want to scream at those little junior high girls to get the hell out of there before they're killed.

The voice work here is constantly ranging somewhere between quietly contemplative and a sobbing meltdown—not that this is necessarily a bad thing, given the circumstances. The Japanese seiyuus (save for the eerily monotonous Kyubey) seem like they are trying their hardest to rip your still-beating heart from your chest, throw it on the ground and grind it into rumble. And they succeed. There is hardly an episode that you don't feel emotionally drained after watching, especially from Madoka's viewpoint as, frequently, a helpless bystander with the constant threat of something bigger than yourself that you cannot control hanging over your head. This series does a masterful job of pulling you hard and fast along this emotional roller coaster, playing with the heart strings like a violin all the way, and I pray for the day we can see an accomplished group of talented young American women tackle the dub. The music soundtrack is nothing short of gripping and really gets its chance to shine in the dramatic battle sequences, particularly towards the series' finale. But from composer Yuki Kajiura (Tsubasa), one really should not expect anything less.

What I must (regrettably) point out as a flaw in the series is the opening. Not the song itself (“Connect” by ClariS), no the song is fine, especially once you realize a certain character is singing these mournful lyrics. I'm talking about the opening as a whole. Apparently when the show first aired on TV in Japan, it was even advertised as your normal magical girl show, all the dark and disturbing elements conveniently absent, and rounding it all off with an intro sequence that is equally misleading. And it really bugs me. This sounds like some diabolical advertising scheme we would do over here in the US, only to dump us into a psychologically scarring escapade that really young girls should not be watching—in fact, I would even put this strictly in the teen/young adult category. Just tell it like it is, or else you're going to have five-year-olds watching this and suffering long-term trauma (I kid you not)! And I swear once the show comes States-side, if DVD stores dump it in the “pink” section, I am going to personally pummel the stock boy. This show is not your typical magical girl show; if anything it pulls apart and challenges the common tropes associated with such anime as Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura. So if you have watched or grown-up with either of those shows, I highly recommend watching this one and witnessing a fresh take on an old concept.

I know this review is vague and I apologize for that, but it only stresses how much I recommend Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. The story is superb, the acting is heartrending, the visuals are stunning, and the suspense grabs you by your attention span and never lets go. For anyone who loves to see a worn-out plot line turned on its head, this unyielding sinister take on “ordinary girl becomes extraordinary” deserves to be recognized.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Produced by Shaft and Aniplex

North American release by Aniplex of America TBA (no word yet on an English Dub)

Rated MA – violence and profanity

4 ½ (is it possible to give 4 ¾?) stars out of 5 

I'm Talking About: Princess Tutu (Anime Review)

Enchantment thrives without the overdose of whimsy we’ve come to expect from Disney, leaving its more sophisticated audience immensely satisfied.

~

Once upon a time, there was a man who died…

Huh, not exactly the way you would expect an anime called Princess Tutu to start out, but nowhere can first impressions be more misleading than with this particular series.  My anime dealer, who shall remain nameless, highly recommended it to me by title, and I wondered if she was sniffing glue at first.  How can I possibly take an anime called Princess Tutu seriously?  After pondering this, I recalled once feeling skeptical about a musical just because of its title, but after giving it a chance it became one of my personal favorites.  Being an anime newbie, I was in no position to pass this up, so I breezed through all 26 episodes during my spring break.

            The man in question is Herr Drosselmeyer, the eccentric author who died before his story “The Prince and the Raven” could be completed, just as the hero cut out his own heart to seal away the monstrous Raven.  Consequently, his story is at a stand still and its characters are wandering aimlessly through a German storybook town (cool, my first anime that doesn’t take place in Japan!).  It is here that we first meet the little duckling that Drosselmeyer—from his, er, clock gears-type purgatory—assigns the role of Princess Tutu to.  According to his story, Princess Tutu was responsible for finding the pieces of the Prince’s literally shattered heart and restoring them back to him so that he might defeat the Raven once and for all.  The catch?  Tutu is deeply in love with the Prince, and the moment she confesses her love, she will turn into a speck of light and vanish completely.  This does not seem to faze the duck in the slightest at first, so Drosselmeyer gives her a red amulet to wear around her neck, which transforms the duck into a 13-year-old girl whose name…also happens to be…”Duck.”  Okay guys, quit laughing and go with it.

            Duck attends a ballet boarding school with several other students, some of whom are animals with human qualities, some of whom provide somewhat feeble comic relief as Duck’s two lackey-type friends, and some of whom are...the Prince!  Yes the Prince from the story, now named Mytho, is a student at the ballet school with Duck.  The girl dreamily vows to herself to use her powers as Princess Tutu to restore his heart to him so that the Prince may smile once again.  But like any fairy tale, there are those who wish to prevent her from saving him and have their own reasons for doing so.  ‘Cause hey, why have two main protagonists when you can have FOUR?  Mytho’s possessive girlfriend Rue and his equally controlling best friend Fakir are two characters who we aren’t quite sure whether they are good or evil at first, but we gradually find out that there are definite grey areas with all four of them as the stakes get higher.

            The series starts out with a formulaic approach: Tutu finds a shard of Mytho’s heart within the soul of a typical one-episode character, she dances away their troubles (okay seriously guys, do you have to SNORT?), and returns the shard, which represents a specific emotion, to her Prince.  Rinse and repeat (yes, I said it).  This anime takes a little while to get the actual plot started, and doesn’t really start getting good until around episode 10 (well, we can’t ALL begin our animes with notebooks falling from the sky now can we?).  In fact, the entirety of episodes 1 through 13 I would generally describe with words like “cute” and “endearing” with exciting sequences thrown in towards the end of the first season just to keep us on the edges of our seats.

            The vast contrast in tone, style, story, and emotion that is the second season however is almost like watching a different anime altogether.  The tale takes a dark and ominous path in its second half as “The Prince and the Raven” moves forward and weaves in and out of the perspectives of the four principal characters, all individually having one identity crisis after another.  The discovery that they are merely pawns in the twisted Drosselmeyer’s puppet game and helpless to stop their tragic fates from happening does not bode well with them as they work to bring the story to a satisfying end—and it is done so in such a way that makes this magical girl anime OVER 9000 times better than Sailor Moon (there, I said it).

            The factors that make Princess Tutu such a joy to watch is not only in the beautiful animation you would expect from a series about ballet, but rather all of the elements combined—and there is hardly a weak link in the bunch.  The English Dub is a powerhouse of emotional performances, particularly the phenomenal Luci Christian and Chris Patton as Duck and Fakir respectfully.  Pretty much all of the anime’s score are classic pieces from ballet or opera, including The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Carmen, and countless others that truly enhance the depth and feelings of the characters through their joys and sorrows (Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet featured in the penultimate episode brought your stone-hearted reviewer to tears, believe it or not).  It is one of, if not the strongest element the series has to offer and its worth it just for your listening pleasure.

            I humbly lay this series before you now while it currently reigns #2 on my list of favorite anime.  Save for the few episodes of dull repetition that keep me from awarding it a perfect score, Princess Tutu is delightful, family friendly, and ultimately one of the most gripping and heartfelt series I have ever had the pleasure of watching.  While you may or may not want to use this series as a way to kill your spring break, this college-age reviewer is not ashamed to give it high praise.

Princess Tutu

Rated TV-14 for action violence and brief nudity

4 ½ stars out of 5

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Hi folks!  If you are one of the probably 5 people who will read this blog, you're in for a treat.  I'm a big fan of analyzing various aspects of media: movies, theater, and most recently Anime.  I'll be putting up my reviews as well as a couple of silly abridged scripts I've written, so basically we're all here to have fun.  Enjoy your stay!