Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – What it Did and What I Thought

Text version and links:

Even More Awesome EDs, ~2011 Edition

More EDs! These ones missed the first list for one or more of these reasons: I forgot about them; I didn’t want to include two from the same show; I counted it as not awesome enough because I was being a lazy dick; I haven’t actually seen the anime it comes from but know the ED by reputation.

TO MAKE THIS LIST, if I can actually think of how the song or video goes, it’s got a good bet.

A Way In Which Madoka Magica Is A Deconstruction of Mahou Shoujo

(Ghostlightning’s been teaching me about literary theory during my stay with him. This post is based on a discussion we had about deconstruction, in which we attempted to see if a show popularly considered a deconstruction actually was one.)

April Anime Review – What Did We Do to Deserve So Much Win? (And a 4-Year Spring Retrospective)

[Part 1 of my plan to totally cover a season for once. This post isn’t going to say much in spite of being so many words, but I’ve taken a liking to these little things that keep my thoughts on the shows intact across the season. I guess I’m learning the appeal of episodic blogging.]

Screenshots from random current shows that I haven't gotten to use.

Spring 2007 was my first season watching anime fresh from its release, and over the years I’ve continued to think of it as the best major season I’ve been around for.

Ai-pon and Spectrums of Cute.

Today I’m gonna talk about this little lady and her characters:

I just want to squeeze her cheeks if that's all right.

Not Dead, Current Season, Watched Umineko, etc.

Holy fuuuck, talk about blinking off the map! It occurred to me that besides the people I talk to through AIM and emails or the occasional comment I left here and there, my internet presence has been non-existent, which is pretty impressively the opposite of what it’s ever been.

Edit: By the way, I never said anything about it, but apparently I made honey-bunny worried, so I’ll take this chance to say that I’ve been on a twitter sabbatical, which is why I haven’t been posting there. (Why I never mentioned this should be obvious lol.)

Art by Ayakashi

So anyway, I’m sure some people (namely the contributors) are concerned about the fate of the Acadime Awards that were supposed to go through this month. I haven’t decided how I’m going to release them yet. Obviously, I hadn’t finished them at the start of the month, and between my becoming violently sick and figuring out how much work the posts would take, I decided to push the whole thing back. Thankfully, the series isn’t really time-sensitive, since it’s not like 2010 is going anywhere, so the posts will all come out at some time. I love the contributions I’ve gotten and will definitely make sure they all get seen (especially those of Taka, who’s managed to put thoughts into words about seiyuu that I’ve always wished I could.)

Which reminds me! Taka, who will be known as Thoughtcannon from now on I guess (aka @denpapopcorn), is now a member of this site! What he’ll post on or whether he’ll post at all is his choice, but he has no site of his own, and the way he looks at anime seems to me very similar to the way I do, so I begged him to join, and hopefully he seizes the opportunity~~

I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT SHIT, MADOKA.

When writing my last post, I didn’t really get why Urobuchi Gen thought now was the time to come out about the lie of Madoka Magica. Of course, that’s because I’m an idiot who hadn’t watched the third episode.

Part of my brain is saying ,”no way, she can’t be dead—she’s in the opening theme, on the promo material…”

But the other half is saying, “SHAFT already trolled us to begin with, they’re known for changing opening themes, and everything makes sense now.”

I’d read that there was a death in this episode, but I could never have expected this. Now I really understand why they bothered with that troll—so that our expectations wouldn’t leave us prepared for this.

Now I’ve got that Shiki 19 feeling of total despair and emptiness.

This show is a masterpiece.

Update: Now that I’ve given it more thought, I really don’t trust that Mami is dead. It seems like there was way too much foreshadowing about her character to end her time in the series. DiGiKerot also pointed out that there’s a chance Madoka could wish her back to life if it’s possible.