Woe! woe!
Thou hast it destroyed,
The beautiful world,
With powerful fist:
In ruin ’tis hurled,
By the blow of a demigod shattered!
The scattered
Fragments into the Void we carry,
Deploring
The beauty perished beyond restoring.
Mightier
For the children of men,
Brightlier
Build it again,
In thine own bosom build it anew!
Bid the new career
Commence,
With clearer sense,
And the new songs of cheer
Be sung thereto!
[SIZE="4"]Wha-?[/SIZE]
Puella Magi Madoka★Magica is a magical girl anime produced by SHAFT. It is the first original anime production that they've done in several years. The story is about an average middle school girl, Kaname Madoka, who suddenly finds herself in a strange encounter that leads to her becoming a magical girl. It is currently airing in the Winter 2011 season.
[SIZE="4"]Who-?[/SIZE]
This project has a lot of huge players involved. Let's take a look at who they are.
The show is being directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, who's made a name for himself over the past few years as the head director of Studio SHAFT. He's notorious for his eccentric direction style and has most recently hit it bigtime with his adaptation of Nisio Isin's Bakemonogatari light novel series. While he usually works on comedies, he's branched out to other genres before. Interestingly enough, he has directed a magical girl anime before: the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
In charge of writing is famed visual novel writer Gen Urobuchi. Urobuchi is most well known for his Lovecraftian and disturbing visual novels with Nitro+, Saya no Uta and Demonbane, as well as the incredibly brutal light novel prequel to Fate/stay night, Fate/Zero (which is getting a TV anime adapted by ufotable this year). He's expressed interest before in writing a heartwarming story and it seems he's taking this as his chance to. Of course, the series still has a touch of his prior writing sensibilities.
Responsible for character designs, we have Ume Aoki, the manga-ka most famous for the widefaces of the slice of life comedy, Hidamari Sketch. Her character designs are pretty cute and the characters' faces remain wide, as expected. Hidamari Sketch is also one of the manga that SHAFT and Shinbo have adapted into anime.
Scoring the series is Yuki Kajiura, most recently famous for scoring the movie series, Kara no Kyoukai, but she's also got a handful of notable scores, including .hack//SIGN and Tsubasa Chronicle. She also has a number of independent projects, such as See-Saw (her collaboration with vocalist Chiaki Ishikawa, who performed songs for .hack//SIGN and Gundam SEED), FictionJunction, and Kalafina. Her music tends to have a much darker tone than typical anime scores. The last time she worked on a project with Shinbo was in Le Portrait de Petit Cossette in 2004.
Performing the OP are ClariS, who also performed irony, the OP for Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. They're internet famous for having covered a bunch of anime and Vocaloid songs on Nico Nico Douga before hitting it big. The OP is titled Connect.
Performing the ED are Kalafina. Kalafina is the group formed by Yuki Kajiura for performing the ED songs for Kara no Kyoukai. They've gained some popularity and have performed for other anime, including Kuroshitsuji and Sora no Woto. The ED is titled Magia and is also used as an insert song.
The girl with pink hair pictured prominently is Kaname Madoka. She's a normal 14 year-old middle school girl who, after a sudden encounter, ends up becoming a magical girl. She is voiced by Aoi Yuuki, who has risen in popularity over the past year and has been doing some fantastic performances, like Murasaki in Kure-nai. She's currently also starring in GOSICK as Victorique.
The cat-thing that's smiling is [S]Mephistopheles[/S] Kyubey, a familiar that forms a contract with Madoka for her to become a magical girl in exchange for granting one of her wishes. He is voiced by Katou Emiri, whose most notable roles are as Lucky Star's Kagami and Bakemonogatari's Mayoi.
The green-haired girl looking at Kyubey puzzlingly is Miki Sayaka, Madoka's good friend who is full of energy. She also becomes a magical girl. She's voiced by Kitamura Eri, who's voiced other similarly energetic characters like Yui from Angel Beats! and Kureha from Sora no Woto. But her best role is still as Toradora's Ami.
The mysterious girl who peers at them from behind the tree is [S]Senjougahara Hitagi[/S] [S]Fate Testarossa[/S] Akemi Homura. She's a transfer student who is bafflingly good at everything. It turns out she's a magical girl and is trying to ward Madoka away from something. She's voiced by Chiwa Saitou, whose performance in Madoka Magica is extremely reminiscent of her performance in Bakemonogatari as Senjougahara Hitagi.
The girl with the twin drills watching from the window is Tomoe Mami and acts as Madoka's and Miki's senior, both at school and as a magical girl. She's voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi, which would immediately associate her with Hidamari Sketch's Miyako, but Mami is a lot classier than Miyako and she definitely sounds a lot classier as well.
[SIZE="4"]Why-?[/SIZE]
There's a lot to like about Madoka Magica so far. It's definitely a show about magical girls, but there seems to be something a bit off from the typical magical girl scenario that we're presented with. Also, the art style is pretty interesting, with a lot of the architectural and background styles very similar to those of Bakemonogatari. But the real interesting stuff is when the show switches into the magical, alternate world, where there's been a lot of analysis and mining for interesting details. It's definitely a show where there's a lot to be found and think about if you scratch a few layers deeper than what's presented.
[SIZE="4"]When-?[/SIZE]
Madoka Magica is currently airing, on Thursday nights at 25:25 JST (Thursdays 11:25 am EST, 8:25 am PST). It is unlicensed.
「僕と契約して、魔法少女になってほしいんだ！」
