Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a Japanese anime television series that was produced by Shaft and Aniplex. It was directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and Yukihiro Miyamoto and written by Gen Urobuchi, with original character designs by Ume Aoki, character design adaptation by Takahiro Kishida, and music by Yuki Kajiura.

Plot
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is about a group of female middle school students who gain magical powers and are tasked to fight and defeat witches after they encounter a small creature called "Kyubey". If they complete their task then Kyubey will grant the students any wish they want.

Why It's Magical

 * 1) While many magical girl shows' purpose is to just be cute, Puella Magi Madoka Magica itself is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, then shows the true consequences and how cruel reality can be, even for a magical girl. Making it similar to other dark animes with Berserk, Attack on Titan and Tokyo Ghoul.
 * 2) * It even inspired other cute animes with horror and themes of tragedy like School-Live and Wonder Egg Priority.
 * 3) The show may seem cute in the first 2 episodes, but it had a dark and shocking plot twist in episode 3, making viewers think out loud: "What the heck?!"
 * 4) Awesome animation.
 * 5) Good art style.
 * 6) Cute character designs for the magical girls. Also, their enemies, the witches' designs are drastically creative.
 * 7) Not only the deaths of the magical girls are horrifying, but also lonely and heartbreaking at the same time.
 * 8) Amazing soundtrack.
 * 9) Most characters are very likable, Madoka Kaname is a very relatable character to many viewers.
 * 10) Homura Akemi may be cold and heartless at first, but it was revealed that she was once a timid and shy black-haired girl just like Madoka. Homura had to use time travel to save her friends, but it keeps resulting her friends to die in one of the worst ways possible. Making her as one of the most tragic heroines in the show.
 * 11) * Not to mention, she's also a badass character equipped with firearms.
 * 12) Kyuubey, the anime's most hated character does have believable motivations. Its role is a supposed trickster who turns human girls into magical girls without learning the true consequences as they go on losing their sanity, and become witches in the end.
 * 13) Well-animated fight scenes.
 * 14) Amazing voice acting.
 * 15) The final episode was a very emotive and satisfactory episode, as Madoka defeated all the witches and made the lives of other magical girls happier.
 * 16) It spawned 4 movies, and a spin-off, Magia Record, based on the mobile phone game.
 * 17) * The first 2 movies are just the entire show summarized with improved animation and choreography, while its 3rd (Rebellion) and its upcoming 4th movie takes place after the events of the series.
 * 18) The show also gives some good morals that are very important.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Rebellion movie is good, but its ending can make you feel empty on the inside, and many of the plot points remain unresolved. It is still currently unknown if the story is going to continue, or it is the true finale for the franchise.
 * 2) * It is known that in the future, there would be another movie sequel. However no one knows it's the ending or not, until April 25, 2021, where it was announced that the continuation will be titled Walpurgis no Kaiten.
 * 3) Without doing research, the fonts (witch runes) used for witch scenes can be hard to understand.
 * 4) Since it inspired many dark magical girl series, which some have flaws, except we don't talk about these three atrocities.
 * 5) Madoka Kaname can be seen as flat and annoying to some.
 * 6) The first death of Mami Tomoe could be found disturbing, even though it is kind of the point of the show being dark.

Trivia

 * The witches and their labyrinths were designed by animation studio Gekidan Inu Curry.
 * This show Inspired other Dark Magical Girls shows. Like Yuki Yuna is a Hero. and more.