Archive for the Puella Magi Magica Madoka Category


Puella Magi Madoka Magica Manga, Volume 2 (English)

October 3rd, 2012

The other day, I found myself discussing the Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime with Okazu Superhero and good friend Bruce. We agreed that, for us, the sign of excellence in a series could be boiled down to one quality – the ability to withstand continuing critical review. No matter what angle you take, Revolutionary Girl Utena can withstand critical review – it has a lot of material to discuss, to analyze, to critique and criticize. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, as much as I adore it…really doesn’t hold up well under critical review. The repeated footage is not meant symbolically or ironically – it was just a money saver. The Monsters of the Day are not clever social commentary. Yes, the Senshi themselves are archetypes, but that’s about as far as one can take a discussion of Sailor Moon, before one has to invoke its effect on increasing the market for shoujo manga, or rely on discussion of shoujo tropes. By this standard then, both Bruce and I felt that the Madoka anime was excellent. It holds up under critical review of plot, character or visuals.

One of the key visual elements of the anime was Kyuubey’s unchanging face. It was that – and solely that – that was the first screaming red siren for me. He’s cute, carefully crafted to have an honest, open, trustworthy face. Everything about Kyuubey screamed “RUN!” at me. Which is why I wrote this helpful guide What You Need to Know To Become a Magical Girl, which so many people completely failed to understand.

Which of course, is the very basic premise of Madoka. We need to learn to think critically. Not cynically, not paranoically…critically.  We need to learn to ask good questions to get good answers – and we need to learn to understand the answers we receive.

In Volume 2 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sayaka becomes the second sacrifice to lack of critical thinking skills. What questions might she have asked if she was older, more experienced or wiser? What might she have heard – both said and unsaid –  in the answers she received? But we cannot blame Sayaka, really, or Madoka. They are children, being manipulated by a creature with the balance of power and information on his side. And this brings me to the only comment I have about this book. The art ruined it. The whole point of Kyuubey is that we never know what he is thinking, that we only ever see that trustworthy face. By giving him an “evil” face at the end of the volume, the manga artist has crushed one of the key visual elements of the story, rendering it a comic for children, not for adults. Volume 3 will play out as we already know it must, but I no longer trust the manga to tell the tale well enough to hold up under critical review.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 6, but only because the art has positioned itself as an enemy to the plot
Characters – 6
Yuri – 1
Service – 2

Overall – 5

Many, many thanks to Okazu Superhero Andreas L for giving me the chance to look at this manga critically. ^_^





Puella Magi Madoka Magica Manga, Volume 1 (English)

September 20th, 2012

The trend in anime, right now, is to draw from Light Novels or Games. But there has always been a steady subset of entertainment properties created specifically to be “saturation series.” Some series graduate to the position of what I’m calling a “saturation” series – take Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was a popular anime, that lingered long after its initial popularity faded in the unlikely form of pachinko machines, until it went through a renaissance and burst back on to the scene with anime movies, manga, new games and related goods.

But of all the saturation series I have experienced in my time as a fan, Madoka is different. Released as anime, manga, light novels and games simultaneously, it exploded like a nova on the Japanese market, related goods everywhere, in every form possible. It was like all the Evangelion lessons of the years had been absorbed and BAM! Madoka radiated beams of media tie-in goods to every single consumer outlet in Japan.

That might have happened here in the west as well, but for three things – Yen and Aniplex didn’t coordinate even a little, so Yen’s printed matter couldn’t use the anime as a funnel for interest and there is, still, pretty much no organized consumer goods distribution in the US for anime-related goods. So, sure, at a con you could find eight thousand Kyuubey-related thingamabobbers, but there wasn’t the high water mark of saturation that those games, figurines, more figurines, even more figurines, extraordinary amounts of clothing, bags, random household goods of varying utility and other toys achieved in Japan.

So, Yen published the Puella Magi Madoka Magica manga and, like, no one noticed. Okay, yes, you can pull up a few reviews if you search for the title and “manga” and “review,” but compare those results to the  paeans of joy and screams of outrage about the anime….

Part of the problem is the above issue of release timing, lack of promotional tie-in, etc and partially, the manga just doesn’t have the impact the anime did. It’s the same story, of course, truncated from the time it takes to watch 12 episodes full of distracting visual imagery to the time it takes to read not quite 200 pages of a comic with somewhat less compelling visuals.

I almost never complain about the art in a manga. I can’t draw, so even the worst art is better than I can do. And really, the art here isn’t awful, it’s just inconsistent in a way that is obvious even to me, and frequently weirdly out of proportion – and not in a cool way. The art has all the hallmarks of a person who learned to draw manga by copying manga, but who never took any life drawing classes.

Other than that, the only true difference is the issue of pacing. I can’t watch a 22-minute episode faster than in 22 minutes. The pacing of the story is not for me to chose. I read insanely fast and as a result, the pacing of this manga was at full speed as I zammed through the volume. It wasn’t compelling enough for me to slow down. This is not to say this manga is, in any way, bad. I just never felt like I wanted to spend extra time with it.

Lastly, there is actually more Yuri in the manga series than there was in (at least my memory of) the anime. Madoka’s friend Hitomi keeps insisting that Madoka and Sayaka are in a relationship. Sayaka doesn’t help by playing the butch to Madoka’s femme – something I do remember from the beginning of the anime. Homura is…Homura, in this first book. Nothing indicative of what will or might come in the second volume. Mami is the perfect sempai, ripe for admiration, until she’s not. So, not like loads of Yuri, but more than I remember from the first half of the anime.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 7
Characters – 6 They almost seem synopses of themselves
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 6

It really wasn’t a bad manga, but when compared with the anime and the novels, it comes out on bottom. My very sincere thanks to Okazu hero Andreas L for his very kind sponsorship of today’s review!





Puella Magi Madoka Magica Novel, Volume 1 (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ)

May 23rd, 2012

Last summer at Comiket, the folks who brought us Puella Magi Madoka Magica put together a two-volume novel series for the franchise through Nitroplus books. Okazu Superhero Zyl sent me those books, and after a lot o’reading, I’ve finally made my way through the first of them. I was in Kinokuniya this past week and I got a chance to look at Puella Magi Madoka Magica – The Beginning Story, (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ　The Beginning Story) and it does appear to be the exact same story, so you can buy it now in Japanese, or in English when Yen Press releases it.

The novel follows the anime pretty closely and I honestly didn’t expect anything different. It picks up the day Akemi Homura transfers into Madoka’s class at school.

So…why bother reading it?

Obviously, if you thought Madoka was the most amazing thing you’d ever seen, this will be a great way to enjoy again it in a different format. But I think it’s worth taking a look at anyway, even if you didn’t think that. (If you hated the series, then, no, don’t bother. ^_^)

I find that I have enough distance from the anime that I don’t remember certain things happening, or things that I do remember have not, but I imagine that the inconsistency lies with my imperfect memory.

More interestingly, since the book is told from Madoka’s point of view, we’re getting more information about her state of mind, and less about the other characters, which skews the perspective slightly from that of the anime. In fact, the book corrects something I feel strongly detracts from my enjoyment of many books – the lack of existence outside the confines of the story.

So often when I pick up a book these days, the characters are presented as if they never existed before the story began and as if they will all disappear after the story ends. They have no childhood, no memories at all that exist before the beginning of the story. There’s a lack of depth that is resoundingly obvious in writing like this. An author may never have cause to mention the protagonist’s favorite color, but ought, in my opinion, to know it. If the character is real, he or she has memories, stories, existence beyond just the confines of the story. How did Yuriko spend her fourth birthday? Sulking, because her mother bought her a pretty dress and she had gone outside to play in it, got it dirty and was yelled at. It doesn’t matter, that will never ever come up in the story, but I know it, because Yuriko is a character whose existence is not defined solely by the boundaries of the stories about her.

Madoka has memories of childhood. She can remember when she met Sayaka, and therefore, what Sayaka means to her. She has dreams that make her question reality, she has opinions about her mother’s career and life, and she loves – and likes – her little brother. She is very close to being three dimensional, even in a story that doesn’t need her to be.  For this reason alone, I’d recommend reading the novel.

(The more I acquaint myself with Madoka, the more I am reminded of Nanoha, another magical girl for guys series, in which the characters are remarkably well thought out and given depth.)

As a stand alone book, it’s surprisingly well-written. Unlike some light novels based on games or anime and which really are meant for the already existing audience, this one could very well stand on its own. I’d even go so far as to consider it a good YA book, except for that thing that happens, you know the one. (Oh god, please don’t go and spoil it in the comments, I won’t abide that. It’s tedious in any case and not at *all* clever.) But with YA books these days being all about “dark” and all, and since I don’t have kids and if I did, yes, I’d let them read this, I say it’s a pretty good YA book.  ^_^

Ratings: Overall – 8

Many, many thanks to Zyl for the hours of reading pleasure!

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Mahou Shoujo Madoka ☆ Magika Anime (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ)

July 3rd, 2011

Any wish bound by logic can be twisted….

A few months ago, I wrote a preliminary discussion of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (魔法少女まどか☆マギカ) and I noted that, at the time, almost no one seemed to understand my point. ^_^ I’m going to try again, this time without being clever about it.

The reason for magical girls is very simple. Teenagers desperately want to be grown-ups – to have people rely on them and to be mature and reliable. Unfortunately for most teenagers, they have neither the critical decision-making skills nor the life experience to make mature decisions. Young adults often mistake the trappings of adulthood (drinking, driving, sex) for real maturity (the strength to say “no,” for instance.) Magical girls are needed, Kyuubey understands, because magical middle-aged women would look at him and say, “You know, I have no reason to believe that you’re telling me all or even part of the truth. It’s in your best interests to keep this cycle going by your own admission, so why on earth would I take your advice?”

Kyuubey, like all good Lucifers, speaks mostly truth, and in some cases, the exact truth. Innocents are too innocent to parse the one from the other, or what the significance of that truth really is to them.

Any wish bound by logic can be twisted….

Well, duh, then…right? The answer is obvious.

So, Madoka Magica was very interesting to me. I very much loved the art used in the witch’s realities, and very much didn’t like the design of the people. If this series had character designs as beautifully done as the witches art and the buildings, most of the fans who loved it wouldn’t have given it the time of day, but, oh how gorgeous it might have been!

The ending was…what was the ending? Was it the expected ambiguity or was it writers that don’t know how to write a or are uncomfortable with a happy ending? Was it, in fact, a happy ending?

Here’s what I think – I think “end of the world” scenarios, like “Good” and “Evil,” are too much for human brains to really grasp. We assign funky art to represent Evil, because it’s easier than really establishing a new normality. We make terrible things the purview of Evil, because we can’t grasp that the selfishness of self-preservation is really what creates terrible things that other people have to live with.

Any wish bound by logic can be twisted….

The answer to that is, obviously, that one has to make a wish not bound by logic. Madoka did that.

In the world of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, it is established that this Good/Evil, Hope/Despair dichotomy runs the universe. Girls sacrifice themselves to stop this cycle, but only end up repeating it over and over. Until one girl wishes to stop the cycle before it ever begins. And you know…her wish comes true. But, it doesn’t stop the fact that the tension between Hope and Despair still powers the universe. So…did it work? Is Madoka a God, or is she still fairly limited in her ability to think outside the box?

What would you have wished? I know what I would have wished, but I’m not going to tell you. Wishes should be made in secret and not in front of Incubators. ^_^

And Yuri. Yes, Homura is clearly in love with her ideal of Madoka. An ideal, I can’t help but point out, who fails to live up to her expectations eternally. And yet she goes back again and again. Sounds like a lesbian to me. Madoka loves Homura like the Virgin Mary is supposed to love you.  An utterly unsatisfying situation to me, but I was never the target audience for this anime. The target audience for this anime are boys who think magical girls are a good idea.

Ratings:

Art – 5/9 for character designs and “witches” worlds respectively
Story – 8 It’s not standing ovation-worthy, but it’s good for a conversation
Characters – 7 pretty much types, rather than fully-fleshed out personalities, but in 12 episodes of angst, there’s not that much time to bother
Yuri – 5
Service – This series is, by default, created for otaku. For the amount of time we stare at the girl’s legs – the zettai ryouki, specifically – 10

Overall – 8

I had initially wanted to watch the final episodes on Walpurgisnacht (April 30,)  but life kept me from doing so. I’m almost glad I didn’t because, for an utter destruction of everything, this was a little disappointing, honestly.





Yuri Network News – January 15, 2011

January 15th, 2011

Yuri Manga

From the Yuricon Mailing List, BlackSkaven shares the news that Haru, Natsu, Aki, Fuyu (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) by Zaou Taishi and Eiki Eiki has been released in Germany by EMA as Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter this week. However, German readers should be warned that the release comes with no color pages or undercover artwork.

There’s a pile o’releases from Ichijinsha this week: Wildrose Remix: Disk-B; Ibara no Namida; Musou Honey; Yuru Yuri, Volume 4; Futarism; Himawari-san; and the newly renamed Girl’s Love (nee’ Yuri Hime Wildrose.)

Choir, Volume 3 is slated to hit the shelves this month, too.

If you’re looking for something more grown up, the 2nd Volume of Ohana Holoholo might be just the ticket.

And it looks like Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi, which apparently wrapped up at the end of the last chapter (happily every after, of course,) will be continued for at least a few more chapters. So, one couple’s all nice and resolved…will the other kiss and make up…do ya think? ~_^

Also hitting the streets in the next few weeks are a couple of Tsubomi collections: Tandem Lover; and Kuroyome.

And in case you were left on pins and needles, as I was, the second volume of Blue Friend comes out next month.

Shitsurakuen, Volume 5 is also on sale next month.

The final chapter of Octave will run in the February issue of Afternoon magazine.

And some interesting news about Nakamura Ching-sensei. According to her blog, she’s created a GL story for Davinci magazine (the same magazine that ran Honey and Honey by Takeuchi Sachiko.) Nakamura-sensei also has a story in the Februrary issue of Elegance Eve, from Kadokawa Shoten.

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Yuri Anime

Okay, so, Heartcatch PreCure was a big hit for me. Next up will be the all-pink, all the time, Suite PreCure. I’m already prepared to hate it, after an exec said that they went with all pink for the first time, because girls like pink. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

All the Japanese Yuri lists are telling me that Mahou Magica Madoka has Yuri in it.

They also insist that Rio Rainbow Gate has some Yuri in it. I’m not holding my breath.

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Other News

As you all know, I’m following the Bill 156 situation in Japan closely. The anime/manga community has already expressed concern and planned a boycott and a competing event to the Tokyo Anime Fair. This week, a Twitter post by BL scholar Mizoguchi Akiko pointed me to an event being held this very weekend in Japan – a LGBTQ community protest of Ishihara’s public homophobic comments. I sent them an email expressing that I and many others stand in solidarity with them. They accept English emails, so go ahead and send your support.

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That’s a wrap for this week.

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