Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I mentioned earlier this month that I spent a lot of November and December really sick. I was more than sick enough to warrant a run through all of Pride & Prejudice. To my dismay, I finished that along with the first 3 discs of the third season of Avatar: the Last Airbender and had not bounced back. Usually taking a day to just rest is enough to get me back on my feet. Not this time. In fact, I went through all of BBC's Sherlock (twice), Puella Magi Madoka Magica, most of Sword Art Online, finished Durarara!, and a bunch of other stuff. Needless to say, I'm going to have a lot to write about. =P

On the recommendation of a good con-going friend, one of the first series I sat down to watch after Anime USA was Puella Magi Madoka Magica--being sick just moved my plans for what to watch forward a little faster. I had heard that this series was good but dark. Other than that I came to the series with very little idea of what to expect. Okay, so I did know that it was a magical girl series--the title kind of gave that away. Speaking of which, that title is a mouthful. Seriously, try saying it 3 times fast. I can barely get it out right once. XD Anyways, as far as expectations went, yes, the series was good, was dark, and, true to its title, involved magical girls.

One of the first surprises I got with this series was that it was short. It's only 12 episodes. I'm used to series running closer to 26 episodes. I think one reason why the series managed to have such a rich story and be so short was that it clearly understands the genre it belongs to and the conventions that come with that, and it clearly has fun playing with those conventions.

The series revolves primarily around a girl named Madoka (I'm sure that's also obvious from the title), and her friends. Kyubey, the token cute pet thing, singles out girl with the potential to be magical girls. He offers to grant one wish and in return the girl must become a magic girl and fight witches. That's the basic premise of the series; I'm not sure I could say much more without giving away too much.You'll just have to go watch the series. =P It's definitely worth it.