Loved the movie, hated the plot and what they did with Homura. Is it wrong if the Opening felt more emotional than the whole movie...?
I think this is an awesome work of art and most probably will buy the Blu Ray but wish it wasn't part of the Madoka Magica franchise.
This is my first review. Hope its up to the standards.
In general Madoka Magica is renowned for how wonderfully it took the elements of a genre that had slowly stalled over the years and turned it all upside down just to reconstruct it in an awe inspiring tragedy.
In Madoka Magica we follow what would be the obvious logical conclusion of little girls fighting against eldritch abominations, the horror and despair at facing the consequences of getting what you wanted (which may not be what you needed) along with exploring themes such as keeping hope in the face of adversity.
We also saw fellow magical girl Homura Akemi taking the role of the Faust from Goethe's bittersweet tale (and my favorite tale, to booth) and striving to give fate the middle finger.
Meanwhile we also got a villain that was compelling and interesting in his use of smarts and honeyed words to achieve his goals rather than brute force or magical might that is so cliché nowadays. Not to mention he was also "one of the good guys" as a necessary evil for the universe to keep going.
While the ending of Madoka Magica was supposed to be bittersweet with a light of hope and the promise of salvation at the end, Rebellion decided to shoot down that hope, then spit and dance over its dead corpse.
In short, SHAFT trolled us HARD starting with a misleading trailer with actively modified scenes that had no resemblance to what was shown in the movie. One glaring example being when Kyoko runs across a normal street in the trailer that was so modified in the movie I actually had trouble recognizing it was the same scene.
Art:
I gave art a 10/10 because SHAFT once again went all out with their baroque and psychedelic scenes. The normal life scenarios are vividly drawn and heavily detailed while the magical scenes keep the beloved paper cut models the original series was famous for.
The battle scenes were nicely drawn and the choreography was awesome, particularly during a magical girl vs magical girl battle and the ending.
Sound:
Once again 10/10 thanks to Kalafina and Yuki Kajiura's excellent performance. The songs are powerful and just like in the original series manage to make even the simplest of scenes pack a methaphorical punch to the gut. Of particular praise is "Your Silver Garden" by Kalafina that just like Magia provided a macabre and sombre undertone to the already creepy end.
"For the next episode" by Yuki Kajiura is also a haunting and sweet melody on par with old masterworks like "Sis Puella Magi" or "Decretum".
But personally the cake to me was the Opening "Colorful" by ClariS that coupled with the scenes shown at the beginning acts as foreshadowing of the things to come. It manages to be dark and depressing, setting the tone of the movie. It also acts like a darker inverse to "Connect" the series OP for those that know what I'm talking about.
Character:
And here's where things start to differ from the show and that's why to me its a 7/10. Magica Quartet said that this would be Homura's movie and it shows. To the detriment of the other characters and sadly even the villain got SHAFTED (pun intended).
We'll start with the main character of this movie: Homura. In the main series we find her going from a meek and depressive girl with glasses and a heart condition to a badass and ruthless magical girl willing to do whatever it takes to reach her goal. While in the series we're shown her endless loyalty to her best friend (and maybe more) and are made to root for her and her tragic quest to set right what once went wrong, in the movie we are shown the darker side to her obsession and made to walk the fine edge between selfish and selfless love as Homura is forced to make a decision. In the end, we reach a rather obvious conclusion that nonetheless felt like a sour pill hard to swallow.
For all her character development though, I had high hopes when the movie was announced that after Homura had been made to move on (rather forcibly by Madoka I must add) we would be able to see a new and interesting side to her beyond her obsession with Madoka. Sadly, that wasn't the case. In the end, it really is all about Madoka...
The second most developed character in this movie is Sayaka, where she's shown in a more mature and interesting role even if she appears a little Mary Sue'ish at times. She appears in several key scenes and actually proves key in moving the plot forward. Its surprising given that Urobuchi said in an interview that he hates her character and I'm led to believe that Shinbo made some meddling to give her a less cruel and more important role, a role that we'll most likely see expanded in sequels.
Of the rest of the cast, sadly they are in the movie mostly as background characters for Homura to interact with and provide very little to the story. They may as well not be there or just be an illusion and the movie would have worked.
Mami Tomoe and her new pet mascot are there mostly to provide a battle and a little of talk but that's it, they are left out of the loop for the whole movie.
Kyoko appears at the beginning mostly to serve as fanservice for the KyoSaya fans, then she learns a piece of the plot but instead of investigating on her own or at least providing assistance to Homura, she sort of fades into the background and doesn't appear again until the finale.
Madoka appears at a key moment to talk but given the nature of the movie she's forced to go back from the brave and resolute Madoka at the end of the series to the meek one that doesn't know what's really happening. I was quite disappointed as she makes several stupid decisions that lead to the ending we see and is jarring to see the girl that said she would break the laws that stopped a happy ending going against the development she had previously established.
The most glaring violation though is with Nagisa AKA Bebe that was even advertised as really important to the movie. In the end she only appears in two scenes and has no special purpose besides pandering to Mamilotte fans with fanservice. As a matter of fact I found her annoying when she appeared with her loud pokemon speak. The movie could have been perfectly fine without her.
Kyubey was interesting in that he's once again given a large role but only after past half the movie, the first part is spent doing pokespeak. He too seems dumber than in the series as instead of using his wit to deceive and mislead he takes more direct action with experiments that ultimately fail and revealing all his cards without setting countermeasures. Something basic the writters took the care to add in the series, like when he prevented Madoka from wishing him to dissappear before Madoka could attempt to simply by giving a reasonable and logical purpose to his gruesome activities. Why not do it in the movie? Especially when he holds all the cards?
He really needs to read The Evil Overlord handbook because his actions here were more cliché and far from the smart and manipulative Kyubey of the series, shown as he is always one step behind what are supposed to be fourteen years old girls and by his line when everything inevitably blows up in his face.
While many have argued that the movie simply didn't have enough time to portray the characters and have them develop, the counter I have is the first and second Madoka movies, a retelling of the series that managed to cram the development and still work. Either they could have put less fanservice or less characters and the movie would have still worked.
Story:
An 8/10 due to how contrived the story was. While in the series everything was neatly wrapped, each character had a moment to shine and there was a sense of urgency and importance to everything that was said and done, here the story starts with half an hour of fanservice that honestly dragged far too long and instead of putting me on edge or setting the atmosphere, had me looking at the clock and waiting for the shoe to drop. The mistery was too easy to solve and I was between Gretchen or Homura as the culprits after watching the first minutes so I felt exasperated as they dragged the pandering on and on.
The second part was interesting and almost redeemed the first but once again it failed short of my expectations by having the big bad reveal all his cards and acting like a cliché villain while everyone else was who knows where. Knowing the "heros" could have solved the mistery and avoided the ending just by sitting and talking also doesn't sit well with me, neither does the lack of planning and countermeasures on the Incubator's part, especially when going against potentially omnipotent beings.
Then there's the fact they felt the need for trolling and leaving an open end to continue the franchise while wasting all previous themes and resetting the characters. I for one expected to see what Madokami's world was like and the wraiths but alas no such thing.
There was so much potential that was discarded by the reset, as if the writters had no idea how to continue this and said "screw that! Lets start anew!".
What's worse, they even wasted the nightmares.
Enjoyment:
A 9/10 because despite its flaws the movie was interesting and beautifully animated, the sound was exceptional. Still, it fell short from what its predecessor had accomplished and left a sour taste in the mouth. More tiring was the cyclical nature of the retconn, as if we're going in circles and the characters regressed to what was basically the beginning of the series. Feels like wasted potential but they achieved their goal of dividing the fanbase and has a high rewatch value.
Overall:
A 8/10 because it was a masterpiece but still not on the level of Madoka Magica. The characters and story suffered the most and sometimes I found my suspension of disbelief shattering by their actions. Overall it was okay but it just wasn't as good as the first two movies.
SPOILERS BELOW
This is my first review. Hope its up to the standards.
In general Madoka Magica is renowned for how wonderfully it took the elements of a genre that had slowly stalled over the years and turned it all upside down just to reconstruct it in an awe inspiring tragedy.
In Madoka Magica we follow what would be the obvious logical conclusion of little girls fighting against eldritch abominations, the horror and despair at facing the consequences of getting what you wanted (which may not be what you needed) along with exploring themes such as keeping hope in the face of adversity.
We also saw fellow magical girl Homura Akemi taking the role of the Faust from Goethe's bittersweet tale (and my favorite tale, to booth) and striving to give fate the middle finger.
Meanwhile we also got a villain that was compelling and interesting in his use of smarts and honeyed words to achieve his goals rather than brute force or magical might that is so cliché nowadays. Not to mention he was also "one of the good guys" as a necessary evil for the universe to keep going.
While the ending of Madoka Magica was supposed to be bittersweet with a light of hope and the promise of salvation at the end, Rebellion decided to shoot down that hope, then spit and dance over its dead corpse.
In short, SHAFT trolled us HARD starting with a misleading trailer with actively modified scenes that had no resemblance to what was shown in the movie. One glaring example being when Kyoko runs across a normal street in the trailer that was so modified in the movie I actually had trouble recognizing it was the same scene.
Art:
I gave art a 10/10 because SHAFT once again went all out with their baroque and psychedelic scenes. The normal life scenarios are vividly drawn and heavily detailed while the magical scenes keep the beloved paper cut models the original series was famous for.
The battle scenes were nicely drawn and the choreography was awesome, particularly during a magical girl vs magical girl battle and the ending.
Sound:
Once again 10/10 thanks to Kalafina and Yuki Kajiura's excellent performance. The songs are powerful and just like in the original series manage to make even the simplest of scenes pack a methaphorical punch to the gut. Of particular praise is "Your Silver Garden" by Kalafina that just like Magia provided a macabre and sombre undertone to the already creepy end.
"For the next episode" by Yuki Kajiura is also a haunting and sweet melody on par with old masterworks like "Sis Puella Magi" or "Decretum".
But personally the cake to me was the Opening "Colorful" by ClariS that coupled with the scenes shown at the beginning acts as foreshadowing of the things to come. It manages to be dark and depressing, setting the tone of the movie. It also acts like a darker inverse to "Connect" the series OP for those that know what I'm talking about.
Character:
And here's where things start to differ from the show and that's why to me its a 7/10. Magica Quartet said that this would be Homura's movie and it shows. To the detriment of the other characters and sadly even the villain got SHAFTED (pun intended).
We'll start with the main character of this movie: Homura. In the main series we find her going from a meek and depressive girl with glasses and a heart condition to a badass and ruthless magical girl willing to do whatever it takes to reach her goal. While in the series we're shown her endless loyalty to her best friend (and maybe more) and are made to root for her and her tragic quest to set right what once went wrong, in the movie we are shown the darker side to her obsession and made to walk the fine edge between selfish and selfless love as Homura is forced to make a decision. In the end, we reach a rather obvious conclusion that nonetheless felt like a sour pill hard to swallow.
For all her character development though, I had high hopes when the movie was announced that after Homura had been made to move on (rather forcibly by Madoka I must add) we would be able to see a new and interesting side to her beyond her obsession with Madoka. Sadly, that wasn't the case. In the end, it really is all about Madoka...
The second most developed character in this movie is Sayaka, where she's shown in a more mature and interesting role even if she appears a little Mary Sue'ish at times. She appears in several key scenes and actually proves key in moving the plot forward. Its surprising given that Urobuchi said in an interview that he hates her character and I'm led to believe that Shinbo made some meddling to give her a less cruel and more important role, a role that we'll most likely see expanded in sequels.
Of the rest of the cast, sadly they are in the movie mostly as background characters for Homura to interact with and provide very little to the story. They may as well not be there or just be an illusion and the movie would have worked.
Mami Tomoe and her new pet mascot are there mostly to provide a battle and a little of talk but that's it, they are left out of the loop for the whole movie.
Kyoko appears at the beginning mostly to serve as fanservice for the KyoSaya fans, then she learns a piece of the plot but instead of investigating on her own or at least providing assistance to Homura, she sort of fades into the background and doesn't appear again until the finale.
Madoka appears at a key moment to talk but given the nature of the movie she's forced to go back from the brave and resolute Madoka at the end of the series to the meek one that doesn't know what's really happening. I was quite disappointed as she makes several stupid decisions that lead to the ending we see and is jarring to see the girl that said she would break the laws that stopped a happy ending going against the development she had previously established.
The most glaring violation though is with Nagisa AKA Bebe that was even advertised as really important to the movie. In the end she only appears in two scenes and has no special purpose besides pandering to Mamilotte fans with fanservice. As a matter of fact I found her annoying when she appeared with her loud pokemon speak. The movie could have been perfectly fine without her.
Kyubey was interesting in that he's once again given a large role but only after past half the movie, the first part is spent doing pokespeak. He too seems dumber than in the series as instead of using his wit to deceive and mislead he takes more direct action with experiments that ultimately fail and revealing all his cards without setting countermeasures. Something basic the writters took the care to add in the series, like when he prevented Madoka from wishing him to dissappear before Madoka could attempt to simply by giving a reasonable and logical purpose to his gruesome activities. Why not do it in the movie? Especially when he holds all the cards?
He really needs to read The Evil Overlord handbook because his actions here were more cliché and far from the smart and manipulative Kyubey of the series, shown as he is always one step behind what are supposed to be fourteen years old girls and by his line when everything inevitably blows up in his face.
While many have argued that the movie simply didn't have enough time to portray the characters and have them develop, the counter I have is the first and second Madoka movies, a retelling of the series that managed to cram the development and still work. Either they could have put less fanservice or less characters and the movie would have still worked.
Story:
An 8/10 due to how contrived the story was. While in the series everything was neatly wrapped, each character had a moment to shine and there was a sense of urgency and importance to everything that was said and done, here the story starts with half an hour of fanservice that honestly dragged far too long and instead of putting me on edge or setting the atmosphere, had me looking at the clock and waiting for the shoe to drop. The mistery was too easy to solve and I was between Gretchen or Homura as the culprits after watching the first minutes so I felt exasperated as they dragged the pandering on and on.
The second part was interesting and almost redeemed the first but once again it failed short of my expectations by having the big bad reveal all his cards and acting like a cliché villain while everyone else was who knows where. Knowing the "heros" could have solved the mistery and avoided the ending just by sitting and talking also doesn't sit well with me, neither does the lack of planning and countermeasures on the Incubator's part, especially when going against potentially omnipotent beings.
Then there's the fact they felt the need for trolling and leaving an open end to continue the franchise while wasting all previous themes and resetting the characters. I for one expected to see what Madokami's world was like and the wraiths but alas no such thing.
There was so much potential that was discarded by the reset, as if the writters had no idea how to continue this and said "screw that! Lets start anew!".
What's worse, they even wasted the nightmares.
Enjoyment:
A 9/10 because despite its flaws the movie was interesting and beautifully animated, the sound was exceptional. Still, it fell short from what its predecessor had accomplished and left a sour taste in the mouth. More tiring was the cyclical nature of the retconn, as if we're going in circles and the characters regressed to what was basically the beginning of the series. Feels like wasted potential but they achieved their goal of dividing the fanbase and has a high rewatch value.
Overall:
A 8/10 because it was a masterpiece but still not on the level of Madoka Magica. The characters and story suffered the most and sometimes I found my suspension of disbelief shattering by their actions. Overall it was okay but it just wasn't as good as the first two movies.
SPOILERS BELOW
The beginning was kinda annoying and felt they overextended it too much. I found Charlotte and Kyubey's pokemon speak loud and annoying at times and found myself waiting for them to advance the plot during the first half an hour while looking at the clock.
I suppose I didn't enjoy the first part because it was exposition for those that didn't know the series, but the transformations, the cake song and all that felt campy. I like them, but wished they gave more time to develop all the characters instead of shooting fanservice left and right.
Loved the first part of the nightmare fight, it was awesome and enjoyed the Puella Magi working in tandem.
Also loved the Kiritsugu-like monologues that Homura gave out when trying to solve the mystery although also felt it was too easy to solve. After all, the only one that knows about Madoka is Homura herself. I was between Homura or Gretchen the whole time and felt kinda exasperated. I expected Homura to interrogate Madoka first too given that she was the most obvious anomaly in the new world.
That or check on Kyubey because he was always such a manipulative bastard that nonetheless is willing to give useful information if asked, why leave him for last?
Kyoko was okay but sort of faded into the background after traveling to Kazamino, I thought she would make research on her own or at least support Homura in her investigation but nothing. She only accepted it and went with the flow to reappear at the end.
Mami vs Homura is one of the coolest things I've seen. Gun kata at its best!
Bebe felt sort of unnecessary in the movie. She was mostly for fanservice and Sayaka could have told Mami the truth no problem, which would have been better IMO. Besides her pokespeak was loud and annoying...
BTW Sayaka was really cool in this movie and for once didn't get the short end of the stick. Loved her battles, the confession and the talk with Homura. Not so much Oktavia, I always felt the witches were a representation of grief and finding them working like personas sort of weirded me out.
But on a second thought: why didn't she just talk to Homura about what happened instead of going all cryptic? She had a mission to accomplish but instead let Homura do her thing, causing unnecessary distress and leading to what is the end of Rebellion. The second part of the movie would have been avoided simply if they had a talk and then planned how to free Homura.
Loved how everything burned down as Homura learned the truth, the parallels with her being in hell were awesome and can understand why this is treated like Paradise Lost. The Fake City was amazing, and so were the familiars, especially the Clara Dolls which are my favorite.
The Kyubey manages to imprison Homura felt too sci-fi to me as he practically controlled a phenomenon he himself couldn't measure. Kinda broke my suspension of disbelief. So did the Madoka lend the memories to the others, kinda dumb if you're an omnipotent being you should know memory loss and power supression are one of the worst things you can do. Or maybe Madoka's just that dense?
And if you aren't omnipotent, then at least plan and don't give your memory away. She could have helped Sayaka and Bebe to find a way out, in the end it was as simple as blowing up the barrier, so why not do it with her power? Instead they let it drag on and caused Homura unnecessary suffering, including the fact Homura had to learn everything on her own. Nice job heros!
Mami vs Homura is one of the coolest things I've seen. Gun kata at its best!
Bebe felt sort of unnecessary in the movie. She was mostly for fanservice and Sayaka could have told Mami the truth no problem, which would have been better IMO. Besides her pokespeak was loud and annoying...
BTW Sayaka was really cool in this movie and for once didn't get the short end of the stick. Loved her battles, the confession and the talk with Homura. Not so much Oktavia, I always felt the witches were a representation of grief and finding them working like personas sort of weirded me out.
But on a second thought: why didn't she just talk to Homura about what happened instead of going all cryptic? She had a mission to accomplish but instead let Homura do her thing, causing unnecessary distress and leading to what is the end of Rebellion. The second part of the movie would have been avoided simply if they had a talk and then planned how to free Homura.
Loved how everything burned down as Homura learned the truth, the parallels with her being in hell were awesome and can understand why this is treated like Paradise Lost. The Fake City was amazing, and so were the familiars, especially the Clara Dolls which are my favorite.
The Kyubey manages to imprison Homura felt too sci-fi to me as he practically controlled a phenomenon he himself couldn't measure. Kinda broke my suspension of disbelief. So did the Madoka lend the memories to the others, kinda dumb if you're an omnipotent being you should know memory loss and power supression are one of the worst things you can do. Or maybe Madoka's just that dense?
And if you aren't omnipotent, then at least plan and don't give your memory away. She could have helped Sayaka and Bebe to find a way out, in the end it was as simple as blowing up the barrier, so why not do it with her power? Instead they let it drag on and caused Homura unnecessary suffering, including the fact Homura had to learn everything on her own. Nice job heros!
Also Kyubey was kinda stupid in the movie. Unlike the series where he was extremely manipulative and set safelocks beforehand in case the girls rebelled (like warning Madoka of the consequences of wishing the Incubators never came to earth...), here he lets the plan unfold and doesn't care to monitor the barrier to check what the others were doing. He has unlimited bodies for Madokami's sake! Just send one to keep an eye on the rest of the inhabitants.
And if you're playing with sentient cosmic forces, why not have a weapon at hand to neutralize her along with a convincing argument to turn her to your side as your first move? If you have tech as advanced that you can interfere with her actions surely you try to at least have a weapon to contain, neutralize or if necessary vaporize that entity in case she decides to turn against you.
The simplest thing he could have done is to put an explosive and blow Homura's Soul Gem in case she tried to turn against him, or even use that as leverage to force Madoka to do what he wanted. He had no qualms about experimenting on Homura, he surely could have tried to affect Madoka while she was powerless in the barrier.
But no, instead go and reveal your master plan to Homura, the one that can thwart your efforts. On second thought, he should have tried to perform the experiment on a dumber and weaker Mahou Shoujo, its basic scientific procedure to not experiment with the only specimen you have that has the information you need. Seriously...
Kyubey should have really read the Evil Overlord List before attempting cliché villany.
And if you're playing with sentient cosmic forces, why not have a weapon at hand to neutralize her along with a convincing argument to turn her to your side as your first move? If you have tech as advanced that you can interfere with her actions surely you try to at least have a weapon to contain, neutralize or if necessary vaporize that entity in case she decides to turn against you.
The simplest thing he could have done is to put an explosive and blow Homura's Soul Gem in case she tried to turn against him, or even use that as leverage to force Madoka to do what he wanted. He had no qualms about experimenting on Homura, he surely could have tried to affect Madoka while she was powerless in the barrier.
But no, instead go and reveal your master plan to Homura, the one that can thwart your efforts. On second thought, he should have tried to perform the experiment on a dumber and weaker Mahou Shoujo, its basic scientific procedure to not experiment with the only specimen you have that has the information you need. Seriously...
Kyubey should have really read the Evil Overlord List before attempting cliché villany.
The final battle was okay, very mindtrippy and fun although the cake cannon felt campy too. I just don't understand how Mami could summon it if she isn't a god tier, has no control over the barrier and didn't even seem to suffer Soul Gem depletion.
The final part was my biggest complaint. I understand that the power of love is used in many series as a last power up. But I don't get how Homura could use it in the movie while in the show it was shown love and friendship didn't work at all. Why couldn't Kyoko bring back Sayaka in episode 9 for example, or why Puella Magi don't get infected by other emotions? It also gave me Green Lantern vibes which I didn't enjoy, next we'll have a Puella Magi infected with hope? Rage? Happiness?
Even then, Homura beat Madoka? How can an omnipotent and omnipresent God let herself be taken over? Is Madoka really that powerless? The fact it wasn't explained angered me more.
This part is considered no longer applicable and instead we go for the Zero Approval gambit, still I leave this here because it was an interesting counterargument that is no longer valid and a personal opinion:
And a more personal complaint is that Rebellion turned my favorite female character into a Fanfiction writing Yandere. Its as if Rebellion was made to troll people using the Eva recipe: most people that paired MamixCharlotte jumped ship after they revealed Nagisa is a middleschooler while those that paired MadoHomu jumped ship due to Homura's behavior. I couldn't even enjoy episode 10 of Madoka which was my favorite afterwards because everything just screamed creepy stalker yandere. Guess this was intentional so its only a personal complaint and I know many that actually loved the pairing more after Rebellion.
Although other alternatives point to zero aproval gambit...
I had this romanticized idea of Homura fighting until the end of the world against the wraiths and being the last Mahou Shoujo left after which she finally got her reward. So watching her losing hope that quickly when she had lasted so long and being outlived by Mami and Kyoko that in the series were shown to break faster than Homura felt underwhelming to me.
All in all, the music was awesome, especially the flute and violin parts like when Homura is reminiscing of the witches and the old world or Kalafina's chant when Homura fights Mami. Your Silver Garden was awesome but my favorite by far is Colorful which I loved.
The Nutcracker and Paradise Lost are my favorite fantasy works after Faust so having all three of them in one work was a delight. If I could change one thing would be the pacing, either putting less minutes of fanservice or making this two movies.
It would have been amazing if the first one ended when Homura learned she is a witch and have another one about the rescue and taking over as the devil. Her motivations at the end seemed more like Diabolus Ex Machina and left me wanting to savour her tears...I mean, more development on her fall and motivations, XD.
Like in Death Note, where Light starts good or at least neutral and starts doing more and more morally questionable choices. It would have given this more emotional impact than just having her jump "Boo I'm evil!" IMO. The talk between Homura and Madoka felt as if it was put just to give a reason to support Homura's decision, given that Madoka had perfect understanding and had agreed to make the sacrifice in the series while swearing to never lose hope, only to see her rejecting her previous ideas in this movie and only in a single scene. It was just too convenient...
Even then, Homura beat Madoka? How can an omnipotent and omnipresent God let herself be taken over? Is Madoka really that powerless? The fact it wasn't explained angered me more.
This part is considered no longer applicable and instead we go for the Zero Approval gambit, still I leave this here because it was an interesting counterargument that is no longer valid and a personal opinion:
And a more personal complaint is that Rebellion turned my favorite female character into a Fanfiction writing Yandere. Its as if Rebellion was made to troll people using the Eva recipe: most people that paired MamixCharlotte jumped ship after they revealed Nagisa is a middleschooler while those that paired MadoHomu jumped ship due to Homura's behavior. I couldn't even enjoy episode 10 of Madoka which was my favorite afterwards because everything just screamed creepy stalker yandere. Guess this was intentional so its only a personal complaint and I know many that actually loved the pairing more after Rebellion.
Although other alternatives point to zero aproval gambit...
I had this romanticized idea of Homura fighting until the end of the world against the wraiths and being the last Mahou Shoujo left after which she finally got her reward. So watching her losing hope that quickly when she had lasted so long and being outlived by Mami and Kyoko that in the series were shown to break faster than Homura felt underwhelming to me.
All in all, the music was awesome, especially the flute and violin parts like when Homura is reminiscing of the witches and the old world or Kalafina's chant when Homura fights Mami. Your Silver Garden was awesome but my favorite by far is Colorful which I loved.
The Nutcracker and Paradise Lost are my favorite fantasy works after Faust so having all three of them in one work was a delight. If I could change one thing would be the pacing, either putting less minutes of fanservice or making this two movies.
It would have been amazing if the first one ended when Homura learned she is a witch and have another one about the rescue and taking over as the devil. Her motivations at the end seemed more like Diabolus Ex Machina and left me wanting to savour her tears...I mean, more development on her fall and motivations, XD.
Like in Death Note, where Light starts good or at least neutral and starts doing more and more morally questionable choices. It would have given this more emotional impact than just having her jump "Boo I'm evil!" IMO. The talk between Homura and Madoka felt as if it was put just to give a reason to support Homura's decision, given that Madoka had perfect understanding and had agreed to make the sacrifice in the series while swearing to never lose hope, only to see her rejecting her previous ideas in this movie and only in a single scene. It was just too convenient...
I wanted to see how Homura adapted to a world without Madoka and what were the wraiths like first. It could have been an interesting movie before Rebellion and give more space for Homura to express her motivations and/or break her if they decided to take the Paradise Lost route.
Them being enemies I like, just not how it was handled. We're back to square one, we got to learn nothing about the Wraiths which feels like a wasted opportunity to me as I wanted to know more about Madokami's world and there was plenty of potential despair there.
All in all felt the movie was less depressing than the series with less character and relationships development. Kyoko and Mami faded in the middle, Sayaka appeared in several key parts and Madoka only during the talk and the end. The most emotional parts to me were the flashbacks as Homura passes the portraits and remembers the old world (Walpurgis cameo FTW!) and when she is turning into Homulily. But all in all it wasn't as soul crushing depressing or catching as the series to me...there weren't even deaths!
I felt like the movie detracted from the character development of the series. Like the posters said, Homura had already gone over Madoka and was willing to move on and cherish her memory.
Here in the movie we learn that her promise and resolve shattered in what? Six months? (judging by Tatsuya still being the same as the series, it might be even less time) Then she goes all obsessive stalker. I know its part of her character to be obsessed but she was finally developing in the end. Now we learn that in the end, she's all about Madoka...
Also trust the Madoka that lived in your Barrier and that you weren't even sure was the real deal over the Madoka's that sacrificed themselves. Sure that one knows better, even if she could have been brainwashed or not know anything about the real world. Felt like a cheap excuse to negate Madoka's wish and hypocricy when she said that she wouldn't tolerate anyone that mocked Madoka's sacrifice.
Madoka too had finally found her reason to fight and now she's back to square one, or worse as she has essentially become Moemura 2.0. The whole point of the 12 episodes in the original series was to give Madoka the chance to develop and choose her destiny while showing to her all the consequences of failing, now they scrap that development that had so much potential. Its as if the didn't know where to go from the series end and said "screw that! Lets start anew!". Like in DC where every time they don't like the way the stories are going, they reset things...anticlimatic.
So all in all, good concept not so good execution. Still better than most high budget films but the story wasn't in the same level as the original series. I would have preferred two movies or at least better plot to showcase her fall from grace.
I'll hope for a Rebuild of Madoka in the far off future...
Them being enemies I like, just not how it was handled. We're back to square one, we got to learn nothing about the Wraiths which feels like a wasted opportunity to me as I wanted to know more about Madokami's world and there was plenty of potential despair there.
All in all felt the movie was less depressing than the series with less character and relationships development. Kyoko and Mami faded in the middle, Sayaka appeared in several key parts and Madoka only during the talk and the end. The most emotional parts to me were the flashbacks as Homura passes the portraits and remembers the old world (Walpurgis cameo FTW!) and when she is turning into Homulily. But all in all it wasn't as soul crushing depressing or catching as the series to me...there weren't even deaths!
I felt like the movie detracted from the character development of the series. Like the posters said, Homura had already gone over Madoka and was willing to move on and cherish her memory.
Here in the movie we learn that her promise and resolve shattered in what? Six months? (judging by Tatsuya still being the same as the series, it might be even less time) Then she goes all obsessive stalker. I know its part of her character to be obsessed but she was finally developing in the end. Now we learn that in the end, she's all about Madoka...
Also trust the Madoka that lived in your Barrier and that you weren't even sure was the real deal over the Madoka's that sacrificed themselves. Sure that one knows better, even if she could have been brainwashed or not know anything about the real world. Felt like a cheap excuse to negate Madoka's wish and hypocricy when she said that she wouldn't tolerate anyone that mocked Madoka's sacrifice.
Madoka too had finally found her reason to fight and now she's back to square one, or worse as she has essentially become Moemura 2.0. The whole point of the 12 episodes in the original series was to give Madoka the chance to develop and choose her destiny while showing to her all the consequences of failing, now they scrap that development that had so much potential. Its as if the didn't know where to go from the series end and said "screw that! Lets start anew!". Like in DC where every time they don't like the way the stories are going, they reset things...anticlimatic.
So all in all, good concept not so good execution. Still better than most high budget films but the story wasn't in the same level as the original series. I would have preferred two movies or at least better plot to showcase her fall from grace.
I'll hope for a Rebuild of Madoka in the far off future...
On an unrelated and more like crack thought, wish I could see a version of Rebellion or Madoka written by Alan Moore. Just to imagine Sayaka going Rorschach on evil while Kyubey does things 35 minutes ago...that would be fantastic. Not like it will happen but its valid to dream :P