Saturday, December 7, 2013

劇場版 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ 叛逆の物語 Magical Girl Madoka Magica: Rebellion Movie Review

Hi to all! Like I said, I'll be posting the anime movie, Madoka Movie 3: rebellion review. But, before that, a little intro to this awesome anime that was shown in 2011 if I am not wrong!

 Featuring the casts from left to right: Sakura Kyoko, Miki Sayaka, Kaname Madoka with Kyubey, Tomoe Mami and Akemi Homura(standing)
This anime, Magical Girl Madoka Magica is as the title said, a magical girl show. Before you think that all magical girl shows are like precure, fighting villians and saving the day with a good ending, think again; cos this anime is going to give you a different perspective of the life of a magical girl!
What we normally see in a magical girl show is of girls either being chosen or choose to become a magical girl. These girls will then have the ability to transform into their magical girl forms in which the forms give them inhuman strength, defense and abilities such as jumping so high that they can almost touch the sky or flying. Likewise, this anime does grant the girls these abilities. However, what differs this magical girl anime from other similar types is the horrible truth of what the girls sacrificed in becoming magical girls and the dangers that come along with it... In a way, it makes sense that a price is needed to pay for one to be granted inhuman abilities and that's not all. The girl become a magical girl after she is granted a wish. At this point, you'll think that this is TOO GOOD a deal; First, you get a wish of yours to be granted and next, you become a magical girl after having your wish granted!- How cool is that?

Like I said before, sacrifices are made and these sacrifices are pretty much too cruel and let alone to befall a girl... To add up the cruelty, the one that grants the girls wishes is a little cute but creepy (sort of) animal. Audience who watch the beginning would never believe that animal is an evil being since our mindsets are set that cute beings are harmless creatures. Well, you'll be proved wrong in this show.
To sum up, this anime is an angst genre story but reassure the ending isn't very bad though I wouldn't say it is a happy one...     

Movie Poster
 I think I have rambled too much on the anime itself so I'll move onto the review itself now. Before that, I like to say that the movie I watched was sort of a cam rip by someone so the quality isn't the best but okay enough to watch and understand the gist of the story! I like to give a big thank you to that person! If not for him/her, I would have to wait for around another 3 to 4 months or so to watch it! If you want to watch, you can go to this LINK! If you've not watch the first 2, you're recommended to watch unless you've already watched the anime since the first two pretty much sum up the 12 episodes. The first 2 movies can be found in the same website given in the link. (Just search under movies/OVA) The slight difference in the sum-up 2 movies and the 12 episodes, is the new opening sang by Claris, called luminous in the 2 movies. Here's the video:
And here is the opening for movie 3: rebellion. Similarly, it is sang by Claris, called Colourful- It is a nice song that I recommended Jpop lovers to download! The video is of bad quality since this is a cam rip version... The HD version will only be out with subs in like 3 to 4 months from now unless you live in western countries that have movie screening of this movie...

With that, I'll start my review! First of all, this movie was much anticipated by many Madoka Fan since this movie continues from the anime storyline. A large number of fans was hoping a happy ending especially for the couple(?), Homura and Madoka aka HomuMado for short. The storywriter, Gen Urobuchi, was going to give the fans a happy ending for this couple and sort of end this anime once and for all. However, in the end, there was a twist and the ending sent many of the fans speechless, even me too...

I wouldn't say I like the ending very much yet I can't say I dislike it completely; partly it does give room for a sequel-I am hoping for one if there is! Another reason is that the ending, if one watch it without thinking a bit, it would be seen as bad but after having thought over it and reading a fanfic speculating how this ending will turn out in the future of Madoka's world, it isn't that bad. To be fair, there is no decision that one can deem as the perfect good end yet the opposite holds true too; no decision is completely bad...

In addition, audience also think that this ending has many plot holes since there was a drastic change in one of the character and she was my favorite character but to change until like that... I'm speechless. The change may be drastic but I think there was much foreshadowing in the movie that led to this conclusion.

For one, before Homura went to acknowledge the truth of her being a witch, she met with Madoka. The conversion between the two of them led to Homura to realise that Madoka never liked the decision she made to sacrifice her life to eliminate all witches Next, this is just my opinion but it would seem that Homura herself could not bear to leave Madoka.

Thus, to satisfy both her and what she think Madoka want instead, she become a demon, taking over Madoka's place as a god and rewriting the world where all the magical girls can live peacefully, including Madoka... This is what the rebellion means; Homura rebelling against Madoka...

One could never believe that of all the girls... The one who desperately want to save Madoka, would be the one rebelling against Madoka... To many, she will be the last character people had in mind who would be capable of such a feat...  That's why the twist was so big that some think it is unbelievable and have many plot holes.

One of the plot holes was that given that Madoka is a god, she should have foresaw Homura's rebel yet she was not prepared at all... For this point, I got a theory to support the story than this point. As the people who had watched the movie, they would know that Madoka's memories were like overwritten and she does not remember her identity nor her mission... I think that after the barrier placed around Homura's soul gem was broken and Madoka came to get Homura, Madoka could be slowly remembering the stuff she seen. Since she came to get Homura right after she returned to her god form, she may have not remembered Homura's outcome and thus fell into Homura's trap... Another theory that I thought of while typing is that Kyubey did say that the barrier that it placed, separated Homura's soul gem from Madoka's influence. In that case, maybe whatever outcome Homura's soul gem ended up could not be foreseen by Madoka? Then again this is just my viewpoint and considering in the world of anime, infinite theories can be made that seem impossible in reality but possible in the anime world!

Another plot hole which I think I myself have only a bit of a theory to help justify the movie is how Homura was able to gain the ability to become an akuma... For Madoka's case, audience can understand since it is Kyubey which did it but Homura... There was no one(for now...) and she just simply became an akuma because of her love for Madoka. (happiness for HomuMado fans?) For now, I can only say that maybe there is a third force doing this and this third force may hate Madoka as a god. Bear in mind there could be other gods beside Madoka herself in the world...

I think these are just the questioning plot holes that I find interesting to be pointed out. To sum up, audience said that Madoka's love is considered selfless love while Homura's is considered selfish love... I neither completely agree nor disagree. I can understand and agree that Madoka's love is selfless since she sacrificed her normal life to help make the world a better one but for Homura's case... It is the same as how one see the ending. To me, at first, I thought the ending was bad as Homura just betrayed Madoka and took her place so that Madoka would have a normal life, away from her god's role without ever asking Madoka's opinion... In a way, Homura was forcing her ideas onto Madoka...

Yet again, one should think again that maybe... Just maybe Homura was sacrificing her life for Madoka's happiness even though it is a forced one in making this rebellion. No one ever said that Madoka's decision was the best since it was happy ending for all except herself... People may argue that "no, Homura still has her life as a whole." But this depends one how one sees it. To me, Homura pretty much manipulate the people to suit her needs and wants. In a way, her life could be spent on a false belief... This will not be much of a difference from how Madoka was forgetton in the world she changed; false could be equivalent to nothing... In the nutshell, I could not agree with Homura's love as a selfish one...


In conclusion, this movie was great in my opinion. The opening theme, colourful by claris is a great song that
I can't get enough of listening to it. The ending theme, Kimi no Gin no Niwa, was also great since it was sang by none other than Kalafina! For the visual part... I wouldn't say it was bad but the art the anime adapted, does not appeal to me much. The art was the reason I had my doubts in watching this anime but the story pretty much hooked me up fast. Nonetheless, I believe all artists have their own styles and me disliking the art does not mean others dislike too. To give a overall rating, I will give a high score of 8/10!

I think this is about it then. As I am more passionate about anime, I typed a lot more than the previous movie review... Not being biased or anything but I got more stuff to talk about for this movie than the previous one.

A little update to be made: I'll be posting another post on what to expect in the following week as I got a new 'toy' to play with and experiment on plus the fact that I'll be working on my weaponry project! Look forward to it! Following that, I will only post in the weekends due to some technical problem with my com...

With that, I'll be signing off now! See ya in the next post!

Dark~         

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