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Spoiler-Free Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Spoiler-Free Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Madoka and a group of Magical Girls work to fight supernatural creatures known as Witches.
Madoka and a group of Magical Girls work to fight supernatural creatures known as Witches.
By Luis M.
Released in 2011, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, often shortened to Madoka Magica, was a television series in the popular magical girl genre. Developed and released by the artist collaboration known as the Magica Quartet, with Director Akiyuki Shinbo leading the project and production. The series instantly became a hit with people, known for the way it twists the magical girl genre. Madoka Magica was created with the intent of making people question the genre. Producer and Magica Quartet member Atsuhiro Iwakami specifically asked Writer Gen Urobuchi to make the story “heavy”, with Director Shinbo asking for a lot of blood, as well as asking for several of the Magical Girl characters to be killed off. Urubuchi was just fine with this, because he used to write gruesome stories.
The show sparked some level of controversy. The magical girl shows on air at the time were known for the cute and lighter stories they had, just with magical girls fighting evil, and nothing dark was popular because of the genres association with younger audiences, think 14 and under. The Magica Quartet wanted to make something accessible to people outside of the usual age range, so they went with cute characters, but a much darker story and undertone, not suitable for children. Though the show is labeled with “psychological horror” and “dark fantasy”, the issue came with the marketing. Since a darker story and character deaths were near unheard of in this genre, nobody really acknowledged the warnings. All of the marketing and advertising for the show was cute and lighthearted, with zero signs of the gruesome story about to come. With the pretty animation, young main characters, even the font the show was in was pink and cute. They went so far as to make the first two episodes overall pretty cute, and sending a nice message about friendship and being there for people. All of the signs pointed towards a nice, feel-good story. Besides, the main cast of characters, including both protagonists, were eighth graders, all 14 years old. No way a story with characters this age could be dark, and there isn’t any way they would kill someone off. Right?
Protagonist Madoka Kaname and her best friend Sayaka Miki encounter a cat-like creature after school named Kyubey. Small, white and pink in appearance, he offers the girls a contract. He says that he can grant them any wish or miracle they want with no limit. All they have to do in return is fight creatures called witches, the physical form taken out of humans negative emotions. Known to kill people in supernatural and unusual ways, they’re a danger to society since only magical girls can see and fight them. They hide inside places called labyrinths, where they rest at the very center. Despite being only 14, he explains that they have potential as magical girls and presses the topic. Madoka and Sayaka consider it, but are quickly shut down by the mysterious new transfer student, Homura Akemi who somehow knows about Kyubey and magical girls. Her goal is to prevent the girls, especially Madoka, from making a contract. The two girls soon after meet a veteran magical girl named Mami Tomoe, who is the only magical girl protecting their city. She offers to take them on witch hunts, so they can ponder on if they want to make a contract or not.
To me, the show is very well handled considering how ambitious the project was. The plot, pacing, visuals and music were all handled with a lot more care than most shows being produced at the time. Though I love the show, I’m not really sure if it was healthy for the genre. Several other shows popped up trying to replicate it, and really bogged down the genre for a bit. Every other show felt like it had to be hellish and angsty, when the core of the genre was still just magical girls defeating evil. It redefined the genre, but in the wrong way. Madoka Magica is definitely worth a watch if you’re okay with death and other topics, this show is a lot different from your typical magical girl series. It’s available on Netflix and runs for 12 episodes, so if you have a spare 4 or so hours it’s very easy to binge in one night.
A Collection of Icons:
Pink Floyd’s portfolio of cover art.
Photo Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock (https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-album-covers/)
Pink Floyd: Where To Start?
Pink Floyd: Where To Start?
A list of the best Pink Floyd albums to start with!
A list of the best Pink Floyd albums to start with!
By Matthew Hornyak
Pink Floyd is a band that’s been in the spotlight for many, many years. The band is cited as one of the most influential and greatest bands of all time (https://chartmasters.org/2017/06/cspc-pink-floyd-popularity-analysis/19/), with each album they’ve ever put out selling over one million copies. Many people may find this staggering, and their 15 album discography is nothing to sneeze at, especially to someone looking to get into the band. They do have a lot of easier to listen to albums that are also their best though, and here are the top 6 to get started on their giant discography.
6th Best: Animals
The least known of the golden age of Pink Floyd, Animals is also the strangest. Five songs, two being an intro and outro, and the other three being over ten minutes long. Each song represents a different aspect of society, “Dogs” being soldiers of war, “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” being politicians, and “Sheep” being the citizens and public. This of course is very inspired by the George Orwell novella “Animal Farm”. The album features some of the coolest song structures of any Floyd record, and some of the most progressive elements until the follow up “The Wall”. The album as described before is essentially a concept album and it’s bookended by the thought provoking duo of “Pigs on The Wing” which introduce the album and outro the album perfectly. The only problem is, some of the songs can feel kind of meandering, even if each has amazing moments, and the album is definitely not as accessible as the others I mention.
5th Best: Momentary Lapse of Reason
One of the most underrated albums is Momentary Lapse of Reason, Pink Floyd had just seen the departure of bassist and writer Roger Waters, and it left the band in a confusing state. Many people dislike this album, but I argue it’s one of Floyd’s best. It is also the most accessible Pink Floyd album, singles like “Learning to Fly”, “On The Turning Away” and “One Slip” dot the album, and it’s one of the few Pink Floyd albums that maintains a regular song structure for most of the songs. The 2nd half can kinda lose it’s way though. It contains of two instrumentals, one of which has the intro and outro of “A New Machine” which both parts are less than two minutes and consist mostly of spoken word. This album has a specific 80s sound compared to all the other Pink Floyd albums, and that may turn some off. But it makes up for this with songs like “Sorrow” and “Terminal Frost”. The album isn’t perfect but it is a great album, and a great starting point to the discography of Pink Floyd.
4th Best: The Division Bell
The Division Bell is Pink Floyd’s last official studio album, and it fits as one perfectly. It encapsulates exactly what Pink Floyd was, some songs are angry, there’s a few songs about war, and one of the best album closers for a band, being High Hopes. The album front to back is full of masterpieces, and combines so many genres it’s hard to list. All the songs are focused on the central theme of communication and you can tell through many songs like “Coming Back To Life” and aptly titled “Keep Talking”. The album opens with a bang with ambient intro “Cluster One”, and the angriest Pink Floyd could have sounded after Waters era (the previous bassist) with the song “What Do You Want From Me?”. This is a great starting point for anyone, the only problem is that it can run a bit long, with over an hour in runtime.
3rd Best: Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here is an amazing insight into fame and continued Dark Side of The Moon’s theming of mental health/insanity. This is one of the many albums to have five songs on it, with, much like Animals, the first and last songs being two parts of the same song. That song is one of Pink Floyd’s most famous, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which surmises the life of their first singer Syd Barret, who had to leave the band several years earlier due to mental health problems. Most of the songs off the album were hits, though the album didn’t have any real singles. Videos were created for Shine On, and Welcome to the Machine, a song that critiques the music industry along with the third song on the album, Have A Cigar. The album’s fourth track is the iconic title track: Wish You Were Here, a lament on the ones you have lost in your life. All of the songs became live staples, and for good reason.
2nd Best: Pulse
Instead of Dark Side of The Moon I’m putting the live album Pulse, a massive three hour concert that includes DSoTM played in full, plus many other mainstays of Pink Floyd’s career. The album was the last real thing Pink Floyd released (sans The Endless River because that was all outtakes from The Division Bell). I picked this for the list instead of the studio version, partly because of the versions of the songs, and partly because of the pure spectacle of it all. It’s even worth buying a DVD version or watching some of the songs on youtube, because of how cool some of the songs are amazing. One of These Days and Shine On You Crazy Diamond are definitely highlights, with most of Dark Side of The Moon being the best versions of those songs. It also includes some David Gilmour led Pink Floyd songs, being off the Division Bell tour, much of the extra material is off that album, which is a great thing. The live versions are mixed incredibly well, especially if you’re a fan of hearing absolutely everything you can when they play. The solos and performances are a highlight of each artist's career, creating an amazing send off for the band.
1st Best: The Wall
The greatest album that Pink Floyd put out is definitely 1979’s double album The Wall, an immense masterpiece of a concept album, sprawling across 26 amazing songs. The album ditches regular song structure most of the time, giving way to longer songs or shorter songs that always benefit the story of the album or the main themes. The album is one of the darkest things Pink Floyd has put out, tackling a story about war, isolation and pain through fantastic compositions that make use of every member of the band. The album spawned two of Pink Floyd’s most popular and famous songs, Another Brick In The Wall, and Comfortably Numb. The album of course also continues the themes from previous albums of mental health and insanity, but put it in a more general sense, that can be more relatable for many people. It deals with ideas such as losing someone in war, being overprotected and shielded from the world, and being cheated on/having a failing relationship. The album carries motifs through it’s two sides and it has an easy to follow storyline, meaning just focusing on the album should tell you all you need to know, making it one of the most accessible story wise, plus the album is very accessible and is one of the less out there records by Floyd even if they get rid of regular song structure.
Pink Floyd have many great albums that are good jumping off points, but these are the best for firsts and the best of the best at the same time. Any of these can be a great start to a newfound appreciation for this classic rock band, or even a new favorite.
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