"Madoka Magica" review

Just got done watching "MadoKa Magica" on Hulu.
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Slightly Yuri in nature, which is fine, this anime is a bout "magical girls". It's a actually really dark in my opinion and not something i would reccomend for children or even young adults, because the way it's laid out conveys ideals such as human worth, selfishness, death, and the consequences of naivete in a way that is very jarring.

I think it's an anime that is better suited to a mature individual who is aware that negative things happen in the world without getting depressed about it or needing to sugar coat it.

I'd reccomend it for watching as long as people arn't fooled by the intial premise of the magical girl genre. it's very deep thematicly.

I found the character of Kyubey very intriguing since he's set up like this "angel" like being going around granting wishes and giving out super powers, when he's actually serving the purposes of his own culture and knowingly withholding information in order to recruit magical girls in order for them to become "corrupted" and become the very enemies(witches) they were recruited to fight causing a vicious cycle of futility and pain for those girls.
Kyubey is doing those things for the higher purpose of perserving the universe, but the question then becomes one of "Is your purpose better then anyone elses?"
While pursuing his own agenda of saving the universe he only reveals certain facts to the magical girls after thing have happened in a way that they can figure things out on their own.
~For example it isn't until after Sayaka's soul gem(created during the magical girl creation process and the focus of their magical power) is thrown away by main character Madoka that it is revealed that Soul Gems are actual souls. That what the girls had always known as their bodies had become shells that simply responded to their "minds" hidden away in their soul gems.
 ~Another occurs when Kyoko witnesses Sayaka become a witch. It is only then that Kyubey reveals that his purpose of saving the universe and that the change from magical girls to witch is the actual purpose of creating magical girls in the first place, since the energy released at that moment is the one being used to save the universe. This can also be viewed as Kyubey not caring about granting wishes or fighting witches, but caring only about recruiting girls and standing by (perhaps even gleefully) watching and waiting for the monet when they actual destroy themselves, becom the thing they''ve been fighting against.

The anime in a round about way explores this issue as well as, "Is selflessness actually selfish?" The girls in the anime have to wish for something in order to become magical girls and kyubye then grants their wish.
~Mami wishes to survive after an accident which may have killed her, but after surviving and becoming a magical girl she risks her life during every battle and is cut off from the world around her before eventually being killed. So her selfish wish results in a simple delay of the eventual, and causes her suffering.
~Sayaka selflessly wishes for her crush to be healed so he can return to playing the violin, because his injury no longer allows for that and the lose is causing him to mental instability. However upon regaining his health one of her friends confesses to liking him and having become a magical girl with a soul seperated from her body she no longer feels like she's even human and is thus unworthy of being with her crush in any significant way. She then has a breakdown and turns into a witch, turning on her friends when they attempt trying to return her to her previous state, and eventually needing to be "put down"at the cost of another magical girls life.
~Kyoko again wishes selflessly that people will listen to her father who is an excomunicated priest preaching a new religion. when this wish is granted and people again return to her father conrigation when he learns its the result of "magic" he goes crazy and kill the rest of her family and then himself. She develops a selfish attitude but after seeing someone else follow her same path of selfless wishing(Sayaka) and learning that magical girls become witches she tries to help sayaka before sacrificeing herself to destroy what the magical girl had become. In a way selflessly stopping a threat, but also selfishly avoiding the same fate.

The Main Character is thought to be Madoka for most of the episodes until it is revealed that this is actually Homura's story. Homura, a shy girl who is saved and befriended by Madoka. Homura who becomes a magical girl after watching Madoka die fighting a very powerful witch. Homura whos wish is to be strong enough to protect her dear friend Madoka and gains the ability to stop and go back in time. Homura who has tried and tried to stop Madoka from dying, first through trying to help her in the "final battle", then trying to complete the final battle herself, then trying to prevent Madoka from becoming a magical girl at all. Repeating the month over and over again and never being able to stop Madokas death, in one instance killing her herself in order to prevent her becoming a witch. In fact her repeatitive changing of the timestream results in Madoka becoming more and more likely to be recruited as a magical girl.

Madoka herself in what can be thought of as the timeline for most of the series, is forced to mature very quickly and in the end eventually becomes a magical girl, using her enourmous potential(which got that way because of Homura) to prevent any witches from existing or having existed, ever. She become a law of the universe having recreated it with her wish, giving up her humanity and any memory of herself on earth. However magical girls still are created and still die fighting "being directly from the darkness" in order to gether a different form of energy for Kyubey's people.

Interesting themes to cover and that's not the half of it.

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