Monday, February 21, 2011

Review: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica 7

Staring contest time!

After last week's oddities, I'm not sure what to expect from this show anymore.  It can't seem to decide between action or drama, and that's a major problem at this point in the season.  Either way, I suspect this week will give me more drama and unending Kyubey stares.  Might as well get it over with...


Immediately, we see a rather angry Sayaka telling off Kyubey for lying.  Kyubey responds by stepping on Sayaka's Soul Gem.  Cue excruciating pain.  "True pain", apparently, is created when a fuzzy white demon steps on your soul.  Consequently, we're treated to exposition by Homura, raeg by Sayaka, and a love story that I really don't give a damn about.  All this culminates in Sayaka going batsh*t insane on a Witch.  I'm sorry, what?

 The writing's excellent, as always.  The way that Sayaka was telling off Kyubey didn't feel fake or forced.  And, as always, Madoka's whining is somehow justified by the plot.  Unfortunately, that seems to be all that's good about this episode.

 This show seems to be unable to keep a consistent mood going.  It started as a moderately dark school life series, then it became a cross between Evangelion and magical girl shows.  Now I don't even know what it is, aside from not what I expected.  And, unfortunately, that inconsistency is what's hurting the show. Additionally, it's an issue when 50% of the episode is exposition dump.  8 minutes spent just on Kyouko's backstory. That's 1/3 of the episode right there.  The rest, of course, goes to Homura telling Madoka to give up.  Cue whining, please.

Quite frankly, I've had enough of this show's indecision about what it wants to do.  One episode, it's an action series, the next it's a drama.  Pick a genre and stick with it.  I've even stopped caring about Madoka not being a magical girl.  I do not need this indecision, and will be dropping this series.   I have far better things to spend my time and bandwidth on, like Kore wa Zombie desu ka?.  Don't get me wrong.  The writing in this show is excellent.  But it would be nice to establish a consistent mood for the show.

Madoka Magica 7

Plot Advancement: 2.5/5
Characters: 3/5
Action/Drama: 2.5/5
Episode Plot: 1.5/5
Animation Quality 4/5

Overall: 2.5/5
Status: DROPPED

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