Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden

An underappreciated factor when looking at any individual anime series is the nature of its source material, provided it has one. Original anime (like the original Madoka series) are practically guaranteed to have a beginning, middle and end, but when based on a source, there’s certain elements that become byproduct by the source’s nature. When anime are produced based on ongoing manga, one can exact lingering focus on iconic shots and a tendency to go on and on as long as it takes. Light Novel adaptations tend to feature basic protagonists bereft of the thought focused complexity their written works offer. Videogame based anime often have very specific factors emblematic of their origin, and of those adaptations, an increasingly common source of anime recently are gatcha games: free to play games tailored to get people to dump money to gamble for character growth and collection. For the sake of providing business revenue, these work fine, however scummy they are, but what happens when transferring that mentality to a non-interactive medium where quick story is the most important? That‘s the main issue with Magia Record. Despite the admirable effort from the artists and Yūki Kajira, Magia Record’s characters and plot structure are held back very far, likely by how a TV series must accept its mobile game design mentality. Rather than be allowed to freely express like its main series counterpart, it winds up feeling substance-less, focus-less and ironically, far closer to a traditional Magic Girl series. Because of the nature of this show, I’ll judge the series by two angles, one as its own story, and one as a companion to the Madoka franchise it proclaims itself a side story of: As its own story: The first episode seems to establish the plot focus about this girl named Iroha Tamaki, who happens to have Madoka’s color palette. As a magical girl fighting mysterious creatures, she’s trying to find her sister named Ui: supposedly the reason why she became a magical girl in the first place, but whom no one else remembers. It also introduces a girl named Kuroe, seemingly a friend of Iroha’s who already made her wish to become a magical girl, but the circumstances didn’t last. Strong start, but rather than go any further with Kuroe, she is quickly removed from the series to spend the next two episodes on a hastily rushed conflict between two new characters the audience is given no time to care about. This leads to Magia Record’s greatest sin as its own plot: focus. The show has a severe issue with understanding what deserves attention. Rather than having a central drive that every element works towards, the series instead focuses on several smaller stories that are both underdeveloped and have little to no lasting payoff. Top this off with an overabundance of character designs, likely present to convince players of the gatcha game to grind for them, and you have a series with only the thinnest connective tissue. See, Episodes 2-3 start and resolve the conflict of two characters. Episodes 4-5 introduce another character in a place that seems relevant but is quickly forgotten after. Episodes 6-7 focus on yet another character’s conflict to create and resolve. Episodes 8 to about halfway through Episode 10 do the same for another character who becomes irrelevant immediately following. During this time, over 10 other supposedly significant characters are introduced claiming to have a reason for existing and not getting to do anything beyond stating exposition. Episode 11 is purely an excuse to bring characters to a location, while Episode 12 explains the magical girl system of the series. Not showing by example, telling how the magical girl system works. In all this time, there is zero progression on Iroha’s goal to find her sister, which keeps her as a one-note character who has nothing else to define her or drive her drama: a puppet to tour through various disconnected plots without anything interesting learnt about her in the slightest. Heck, we don’t even get to know what her relationship to Ui WAS like in order to flesh her out some. This causes the series as a whole to effectively have a non-plot: with no active villain, clear solution or ticking clock. Suppose you could argue the Wings of Magius fills the villain role, essentially a magical girl Illuminati, but they function more as a recurrent obstacle than an active villainous force, with new members being introduced left and right, a confusing morality position and no real intricate planning. In episode 11, one of its members even cutely panics when questioned. To make matters worse is the effect on the pacing and character interactions this non-urgency has. The arcs don’t have enough time to simmer before the next one immediately follows, and more characters bloat the cast. Even if characters like Sana and Felicia had any interesting character moments or traits during their arcs, they are quickly forgotten by the time their arc ends with no further advancement, which leads to very boring character interactions between Iroha and her friend group separating the arcs. The only recurring character who acts consistently different enough from the rest is Yachiyo as the group’s senior. She has her own conflict regarding a friend that joined the Wings of Magius but it’s forcibly restrained by the show’s lack of focus. I never got the sense that her plot had development or follow-through when it’s scattered in bits and pieces across other soon to be irrelevant plots. Going into the series as its own thing, the first cour presents it as a visually-stylized and musically strong, but basic, segmented, plotless and unfocused series where nothing is given the impact it deserves. Then there’s how it compares to the original show. As a spinoff of Madoka Magica: When it comes to how it compares to the near decade old series it spun off from, it’s even less effective. On a positive note, it does retain a lot of the artistry from the original. The characters all look cute and have colorful outfits with several nice little details. Certain episodes have the occasional cool cinematic shot, Kamihama City is often painted orange by the sunset and while the Witch Realms aren’t as specially themed as those presented in the original, the otherworldly stylization around them is retained, particularly in episodes 5 and 7. Similarly, Yuki Kajira does a competent job with the soundtrack. It again, isn’t nearly as memorable as that of the original series for me, but it did a good job adding epicness to certain combat encounters when the writing can’t. Other than that though, the similarities feel skin deep. While Madoka Magica felt like a harrowing character story told through the lens of the common magical girl setup, Magia Record IS the common magical girl setup with only the occasional lasting dark drama moment. While the original show avoided the chance to make the common Magical Girl squad by creating personal conflict rifts between prospective members that grew and changed, this show forms its core team almost immediately and forms it arc by arc in a similar way to any standard Magical Girl show, but without the standout traits for each member. Light conflicts never affect the ties that bind. Hell, Magia Record’s introduction of Dopples muddies the well-established nature of the Witches, since Iroha’s soul gem goes dark to become one, only to have the process quickly reversed. There are a lot of things you can say about how well the original show pulled off what it did, but one element that can’t be denied was its focus. In its 12-episode run, it was able to properly pace itself so that the storyline and theme evolution moved along at a steady clip. The main cast was kept small; characters only got focus when it was important in the long-term and character action correlated with the show’s themes. When Sayaka’s arc took focus, it had significant focus over several episodes with a resolution that filtere…

Magia Record is not Madoka 2.0. I feel like that really needs to be said. Despite “side story” written in the title, being a part of the Madoka franchise comes with huge expectations--expectations that Magia Record never attempts to meet. This is not a sequel to Rebellion, nor an attempt at recreating the magic (heh) of Madoka. After all, the original was practically a statement for mahou shoujo and was such a groundbreaking and well-acclaimed series, you only really get one of it per genre. This doesn’t excuse all of Magia Record’s potential faults, but I think a large wave of backlash towards it is largely based on comparisons to the original. It’s not even really clear how MR relates to the original series, it is just a story using premade rules and concepts of the original series, so although it’s not something you should watch without seeing Madoka, it exists as a seemingly separate entity. Stop bullying Magia Record, it did nothing wrong. Just like Kyuubey. Now, as for Puella Magi Magia Magica Mahou Madoka Gaiden Getcha Gacha Godoka Gotcha Record Shoujo (TV) (2019) itself, there are actually lots of problems just on their own. For example, the story jerks you around and doesn’t really stick to one plot thread; while the overarching narrative is Iroha figuring out the mystery of her missing sister, it gets distracted by all of the other character arcs and thematic concepts that it’s easy for you to forget it yourself. Sometimes a reveal happens and you’re like “Oh. Yeah. That was a thing, I guess.” And while I can’t say the story itself is bad, it leaves you in the dark for a long time--so long that it only reveals its cards towards the very end of the season, meaning things won’t really pick up until the inevitable sequel. Not that I’m unfamiliar with stories getting better as they go along, but with the helter-skelter plotline, it could be difficult to invest yourself with what’s going on. What about the characters? Well, they’re… usable. Iroha is rather plain as a main character, but Yachiyo’s maturity along with her development are pretty strong. Tsuruno’s passionate excitement and Felicia’s rowdiness also make for plenty of fun moments, but it’s not necessarily a cast that dazzles. There’s no standout star (because Alina Grey only has one scene 0/10 trash anime), but there wasn’t any character who was particularly bad, or even forgettable. It helps that everyone has a memorable design, whether it’s a good design or not. “U gave it a 7 but complained all the time bruh moment” Yeah, here’s the oddity of Magia Record. There’s not a lot on this base level that really draws me in or is worth celebrating. But, damn, can this show be a blast to watch. Gekidan Inu Curry takes the director’s seat (or, seats, rather), originally just doing design work for the series and other Shaft works when things need to get extra fucky. And damn, does this duo deliver. Every moment of Magia Record has some sort of presence, for lack of a better word. They bring in every Shaftian trick in the book, like backgrounds cluttered with one object copied infinitely, or mysteriously empty, stark environments, and uncanny CG is used liberally. It’s nothing short of odd, and most of the time it’s downright unsettling, even in many casual instances. That’s nothing compared to the abstract visuals of rumors and witches and fantastical scenes of exposition. I don’t even know what to say to pitch them in a succinct way, all I know is that this anime trips you the hell out in so many areas. Characters are framed and positioned, lit and posed in eye-catchingly brilliant ways, or they converse in the Monogatarian manner of “doing what the fuck ever” while they speak. Easily the best thing about Magia Record is how it’s presented, as it promises to engage you with every second. It even comes to a fault, as Gekidan Inu Curry’s lack of anime direction shows with some inconsistencies. These could be basic things like animation errors and cut-corners, which can be very noticable (but also could be blamed on Shaft themselves, which I hear ain’t doin’ so well these days), but sequences and cuts can sometimes be incredibly messy and disorganized. This becomes especially true with action scenes, which devolve from being irregularly captivating like much of the rest of this series, to absolute clusterfucks where it’s borderline impossible to follow along. Still, the ambition of Magia Record’s presentation cannot be overlooked, as it is the true selling point of the anime right now. The soundscapes help bolster these beautifully jarring visuals by mirroring their strangeness, most notably when rumors are described through an erratically pitched voice. The soundtrack might not live up to the incredibly high precedent that Yuki Kajiura set in the original Madoka, but it faithfully recreates the celestial tone it’s best known for. Overall, Magia Record certainly has its share of issues and can be disappointing for not comparing well to its original series. Yet, I can’t help but praise it for how well it was presented. The best parts are that it didn’t screw up a lot--at worst, it was just mediocre. Although gacha games are labeled as “cheap” by many (fair), this adaptation was actually a significant improvement over a largely boring game. The passion presented by Gekidan Inu Curry in this project really shows, and I expect it to be even better when it returns. If anyone is playing the game and wants to add me, my Player ID is cWUz52LU. My supports are pretty decent, and one of them has a cute witch hat but she’s not in the anime so basically what I’m saying is that this anime sucks actually goodbye. Also the game closed so this was completely pointless. Nothing has any meaning and everything is suffering. Die. Story: 6/10 Art: 8/10 Sound: 8/10 Character: 6/10 Enjoyment: 8/10 Gacha: I got Sayaka out of my free 10x roll today so 4*/4* Overall: 7.25/10 (range: 6.0-7.75)

This is an anthology series set in the Madoka universe. Okay> > But believe me, I wanted this to be another impeccable entry in Madoka Magica’s ever-expanding library of consistently high quality spinoff titles (except for Suzune). I wanted this to be a bonafide 10/10 for me. Sadly, as you might see in many reviews, this series suffers from pacing issues that unfortunately buries any of the genuine Madoka-esque greatness that is there to people who aren't as passionate for the brand. While this story isn’t nearly as bad pacing-wise as the original Oriko Magica, nor does its narrative and characters stoop to be as collectively shallow as Suzune Magica’s, there are undeniable flaws in the first half of this series’ guaranteed 25-ish episodes that I’d be remiss to ignore. And yet, I could say the same for those so blinded by dissatisfaction that they look away from what Magia Record does right. Because it does do quite a bit right - it does many elements of a higher quality than most. Let’s break it down by the element, with the final entitled “STORYTELLING/PACING” preceding my overview and going more into detail about the aforementioned problems. However, if you wish to know why, despite these flaws, I still rate this a strong 8/10, I implore you to read my full review leading up to the final overview. CHARACTERS: The biggest draw of any Madoka spinoff, especially those involving the OG girls, are the characters: who they are, what their outfit says about their self-perception, how their magic and weapon relates to their wish, what their wish says about them, what their Witch form says about them, what they believe in and prioritize, all of it. These aspects have always lent a big hand in giving even the original girls the depth and nuance that hardcore fans love them for. Thankfully, I feel this aspect of the storytelling is one of the strongest points in Magia Record’s favor. I don’t know about you, but my favorite part of the original Madoka was what the characters left unsaid, and how that characterized them. For example, Mami’s nice but lonely apartment spoke of her accommodating nature and desire to provide a comfortable space in the sadly-unlikely event of guests spending time with her. Kyoko’s astonishment at having forgotten why she became a magical girl in the first place - that being the belief that she herself can make miracles happen - says much about how seldom introspective she became as a defense mechanism, until Sayaka crashed into her life and reminded her of the same beautiful, naive optimism she long-since stuffed down. In much the same way, Magia Record uses these subtle cues to characterize its massive cast of girls. The main heroine, Iroha, comes off as polite and dainty in the first episode, as well as compassionate in the way she prioritizes saving a cat. But in that same episode you realize how docile she is around her magical girl partner, as well as her classmates. You realize that isolates her from her peers, how she’s used to being servile because her parents seem to always be away, leaving her to care for a sickly little sister who, until she was forgotten by everything, was Iroha’s only purpose for living. Her boldness in later scuffles characterizes Iroha as not only desperate to attain this familiarity again, but to achieve a semblance of autonomy and spirit to make up for being so weak—a facet brought up in virtually every fight where, despite boasting an impressive machine-gun-crossbow, her painfully weak yet persistent attacks speaks of Iroha’s feeble, distancing behavior, as does her docile-seeming priestess attire: a follower, not a leader to be sure, one who used her only wish to heal her reason for being: Ui Tamaki. The main five girls (and you can tell who they would be by their numerous focus shots in the opening) are all given this treatment. Some are stronger than others, while Tsuruno - a gutsy yet chipper girl with delusions of grandeur - spends the majority of this first cour being an extra body in fights with only two brief moments of hidden pain in her debut episode (#4) that isn’t hinted at again before the finale. This sort of characterization is a necessity, as this story boasts a hulking cast of at least 20 named characters, including the OG five. Half of them are just villainous mooks as of right now, though still characterized by what’s around them and how they act, what they verbally prioritize. Others like the mysterious Coordinator, Mitama, are hardly shown and when she is we only ever learn that she has strange taste in food, and that’s disappointing. Not every character needs to be rich in depth, however, especially characters like her and Momoko—a big-sister-type to two, stronger-written girls. These ancillary characters serve their role as needed by the narrative, while having just enough to them that they don’t feel like plot devices, but people with their own stories and self interests that just aren’t important to Iroha’s story. After all, it’s important and preferable for minor characters to feel more like real people instead of plot devices, so any characterization is good characterization. I would have a problem if we were given Momoko's backstory despite how little time we actually spend with her. Speaking of which, while some might feel the inclusion of the original five girls is unnecessary fan service, as of now only three had any real involvement, and all of them feel necessary for the story and logical for their characters. In this sense, I think they are used well in a story where their absence would honestly feel more jarring, given the stakes looming in the background. Not only do they feel like active players swapping information behind the scenes (as their dialogue implies), but their roles stand as testament to the spinoff’s overarching theme (which has its own section below). SETTING: The story takes place in Kamihama - a large city that only recently has been luring witches from all over, with copies of them cropping up everywhere inexplicably (though surely intentionally). It’s explained in the first episode that Kamihama witches are, for whatever reason, stronger than normal, and more abundant. This status quo requires the girls to fight in teams—a fact that, for some, may suck the tension out of ultimately pointless fights, but for me these random scuffles serve in displaying the girls’ powers, their motivation, or some other characterizing element, all while being a constant reminder of what being a magic girl in Kamihama is like. Plus it pays to show us these details instead of leaving it to exposition. As it stands, Kamihama is a more interesting setting than Mitakihara from the old series, which was indeed little more than a city. Here, Kamihama encourages consideration of its setup: you have Mitama in the center of it all, something of a healer, a safe zone and a bounty hunting board in one, and the city is split into wards run by different magical girls living in the area. There are unspoken rules and codes of conduct when it comes to witch hunting. These all serve to make the setting dynamic and rich with character without actually showing any. However, you see this in action with an evident abundance of magical girls making background or verbal cameos from the game this is based on. They aren’t obtrusive and are brief, serving to lend weight to Kamihama as a setting more than anything. The first episode makes it clear visually just how full Kamihama is of magical girls, by displaying a spectrum of wishes plastered all over the town in what’s obviously meant to be surreal imagery and not something literal. One of which desires for the destruction of Kamihama, making me wonder if that specific wish was the cause behind everything going on, if not the reason behind these stronger witches. ANIMATION/MUSIC: As discussed in my section on characters, the animation does a good job of bringing them and the witches to life. Visually, t…

This review of Magia Record contains spoilers to both Magia Record and some plot points of the original Madoka Magica!! For anyone who has not seen Magia Record, there will be a spoiler free TLDR at the end of this review. Let me preface this review with a disclaimer as well. I will be comparing and contrasting some aspects of Magia Record with the original Madoka Magica, which I know is a point of contention among some viewers (though I will not compare it to Rebellion, because I feel it’s unfair to compare a TV anime with an anime movie because of the scheduling constraints TV anime usually have). While this is NOT a comparative essay, I believe it's fair to compare the two to a certain extent, as they take place in the same universe and because you would have to have seen Madoka Magica to fully understand its spin-off. You can’t judge Magia Record on its own merits, simply because to understand its world, you would have had to have seen the original. To expect people to judge these two anime like they are separate entities is quite frivolous, in my opinion. Anyway, on with the review! I think like most people who ended up watching Magia Record, I’m a big fan of the original anime and, if not more so, the Rebellion movie. While I didn’t necessarily expect much from a spin-off based off a mobile gatcha game, I can’t deny that I DID expect a lot more out of this anime than I maybe should have, primarily due to the fact that the franchise is such a huge and well-respected intellectual property within the anime community and due to the fact that animated installments of the franchise are far and few between. With how talented the staff over at Shaft is, I at least expected Magia Record to just be a dumb fun experience, if anything. But then I saw how little of the original staff had worked on this spin-off and I started to worry a little. My main concern was with how Gen Urobuchi and Akiyuki Shinbou (and to an extent, Yuki Kajiura) were barely involved with Magia Record and how the responsibilities of directing and series composition was instead given to the quite inexperienced Inu Curry, who originally only concerned themselves with things such as background art, character design, etc. From how this anime turned out, I suppose my concerns were justified, at least for me. Firstly, I’d like to discuss some of the things I did like about Magia Record and some things I believe it deserves some genuine praise for. Starting off with the animation. While it had flaws, which I will elaborate on later in this review, the animation of Magia Record was usually very consistent, even more so than the blu-ray version of the original. There were no weird faces or off-model proportions as far as I noticed and, generally, the presentation of this anime was very stylish and sleek. I would especially like to praise the scenes that introduce the individual uwasa. Very reminiscent of the pop-up book art style of the witches, these scenes are interesting and great alternatives to characters simply exposition dumping to Iroha about what they’re going to fight next. The way the Endless Solitude uwasa was introduced in episode nine is a great example of this. Besides that, Magia Record occasionally had its subtleties. Things such as in episode ten, where Mami recalled “the girls I guided”, these girls being Madoka and Sayaka, Madoka’s face was obscured as a somewhat subtle reference to the fact that in the timeline of the original, Madoka doesn’t exist anymore. Or how Iroha owned a plush that seemed to be modeled to look like the witch called Candy, who appeared in episode four. Magia Record had quite a few scenes and references like these and occasionally alluded to the original and to the gatcha game it was based off. Though this clearly doesn’t affect the anime narratively very much, I still appreciate it rewarding attentive viewers for paying attention to the direction and presentation. Anyway, that is about it for the positives, now onto some of my grievances. A common complaint targeted at Magia Record is that the cast feels bloated and I can’t help but agree. Because of its source material as a gatcha game, where the whole point is to have a large cast of characters to collect, it’s only natural this problem would arise. The first arc revolving around Rena and Kaede (and arguably Momoko, though she’s more involved by proxy rather than actually having something to do with the conflict) was especially emblematic of this. After the first episode introduced the main character, Iroha, a throw-away side character called Kuroe, and Yachiyo, whose introduction felt quite awkward and forced, three separate characters were introduced at the same time, these being Rena, Kaede and Momoko. Now, I have no problem with them quickly setting up and introducing side characters to use later on in the anime, similarly to Hitomi in the original Madoka Magica whose involvement in the story had actual impact later on Sayaka’s character arc, I find that these characters are issued in way too quickly and leave very little narrative impact. Instead of being given the time to develop and to care about these character, as a viewer, I didn’t find myself becoming invested in them or their conflicts. This is exacerbated by the extremely fast pacing in the first few episodes of the anime and even after the story slows down after the first arc, the pacing still remains an issue during the entirety of the runtime with how inconsistent it is. In the case of Rena and Kaede specifically, when I watched them fight about eight minutes later into the same episode they were introduced, I couldn’t help but feel like it was melodramatic and forced. But due to its cast size (I assume), Magia Record doesn’t have enough time for the viewer to become really invested and even if it could, its script isn’t nearly as charming or interesting enough to really carry its relatively tight episode to character ratio. None of the characters had an impact on me, even characters that were more developed such as Yachiyo or characters that the audience got to spend a lot of time with such as Iroha. Never mind that, to me, both of these characters ended up feeling like hollow shells of Homura (Yachiyo being Homura, of course) and Madoka. In the end, I found Sana to be the only remotely memorable character in this anime and that was due to the fact that she had clear motives, an interesting story and the anime took its time to introduce her to the audience by showing her back story and her relationship to her family and to Ai. Even then, all of these characters felt rather shallow and it didn't help that Magia Record didn’t seem to have a message or clear themes like the original Madoka or the Rebellion movie. Magia Record didn’t elaborate on the original themes, didn’t even seem to touch the same themes of hope, despair, selfishness, selflessness, martyrdom, etc and didn't have any themes that could have been specific to its story. Magia Record ended up adding very frivolous details to the canon of the universe, but generally felt like it had no other reason to exist other than to capitalize on the success of the original. Yes, I acknowledge this anime was based off a mobile game that was probably made purely to make money, however, this doesn’t mean that I’m just going to let Magia Record off the hook. From the little I have played of the game, the anime didn’t follow the exact same story and many things were tweaked, presumably to fix some of the more awkward and convoluted scenes that pad out the games story mode, so I feel like with someone experienced or simply very competent in series composition and/or script writing, I feel like these issues could have been avoided. Magia Record is clearly not restricted in trying to be a faithful adaptation. Going back to Rena and Kaede’s “arc” in the first few episodes, another issue I have with Magia Record presents itself; its needless tendency to spell things out for the audi…

-Note: English is not my native language, I apologize for possible mistakes. (This review does not contain spoilers) This was one of the most anticipated releases this year, the love I have for Madoka is enormous, so my expectation for this spin-off was perhaps too exaggerated for something that ultimately turned out to be nothing more than a long commercial or advertising for the game with the same name. I'll start with the good things of Magia Record. As always, SHAFT studio work is just from another planet, beautiful shots and scenes, continuously well-kept visual work, along with beautiful OST at all times, characters have nice design, series felt really refreshing at first, as a way to expand the world of magical girls and present a different story. However, that's the best I can say about the show, I'm not going to lie the first episode catches you completely, SHAFT knew how to sell quickly with its first episode, but the series was declining rapidly until presenting a very badly developed plot, presenting a lot of drama, but without any suspense. The narrative is very slow to the point of quickly becoming tedious, the series abuses to present characters at all times, which turn out to be mostly generic characters and with which you don't end up sympathizing or when you start to know them, they are left aside to present another new character while you still try to process who these people are. That's right, the series did not end its presentation, the plot did not feel like it was moving forward in any moment and never did it feel like something important happened, new mysteries appeared chapter after chapter, apart from references or easter eggs that would only capture the attention of people who know the game. The series stagnated and ended up drinking from nostalgia, being that its best moments were the participation and small cameos of the protagonists of the original series, but that the series does not take off and that presents a slow rhythm is enough to bore your audience. Having potential to explore with its characters, the series chose to continue presenting more and more magical girls as if it were a Battle Royal, decided to move away from the original mystery and continued to introduce new subplots and characters that ended up feeling like a mostly boring filler. The plot ends up being unattractive, confusing and where nothing happens that makes it interesting. Anyone reading this poorly written review at the moment would think that I'm only a fan of Madoka Magica who detest this spin-off for being different from the original, and it's that Madoka Magica and Magia Record are incredibly different despite being from the same universe, while Madoka played deeper themes and followed a main thread, Magia Record is a more peaceful anime, more of the day to day that tries to show the ties and friendship between the characters despite their past, but sadly ends up doing it in a dry way. For start, the story is not written by Gen Urobuchi, even the composition of the music is composed by another group, with that and the show is based on a game it was obvious to expect something very different, I'm not surprised to find a fans who enjoyed this series despite all the mistakes, even if they do not know anything about the game, for my part I'll learn to no longer feel great expectations for any adaptation that comes from a game. In conclusion, apart from the OST, the art and the characters with “pretty” designs, there is nothing that stands out from this series, hopefully with the 2nd Season confirmed, it can improve as a whole, for now it's just another show "magical girls that fight", while they play house.

Allow me to preface this by stating - Madoka Magica is one of my favorite anime of all time. Even so, I went into this with tempered expectations, knowing it was tied into a gacha game. Even so, I was still disappointed. Story: 1 Seeming like something out of a fanfiction at the best of times, and the ramblings out of a middle schooler's first creative writing project at the worst of times. Art: 7 The art is decent most of the time. All of Curry's art is still absolutely wonderful to behold. But an over-reliance on blatant 3D as well as several animation errors easily pull you out of the show. Sound: 6 Nothing is particular out of place. And all of the original show's soundtrack is used well, if over-relied upon. Characters: 1 One of Madoka Magica's greatest strength was keeping its main cast very small. Concise, well developed, and fleshed out. Magia Record does the opposite of this. Characters introduced in the first five episodes are brushed aside, and only get token appearances afterwards while new characters struggle to take their place. In the end, I struggled to even remember their names. Enjoyment: 1 Shallow, and a waste of a great IP that could have been used to tell far more original stories. Every episode simply left me disappointed. Overall: 1 It would merely be mediocre, if the ending to the season didn't threaten to tie this story in with the main series' in some large fashion. Keeping it self contained was clearly not good enough, but they couldn't be bothered to tie it into Madoka Magica in a meaningful way. And ending your show on sequel bait is just bad practice. --- Madoka Magica's core strengths can be boiled down to three key points in my mind. 1.The show's story is told very tightly, and concisely. With twelve episodes, they waste none of your time. Almost every scene is dedicated either to setting up later plot points, developing character, or moving the story right along at a strong pace. 2.The number of named characters could be counted on two hands easily. Their arcs are well defined, their character fleshed out, and each one has a satisfying, if sometimes untimely conclusion. 3.The story itself, one of loyalty and dedication, transcends the Magical Girl genre and could easily be told just as it were in a Science Fiction, Fantasy, or a number of other genres. Making it easily relatable. To this end, Magia Record fails not only to capture the core strengths of the original show, but goes so far as to fail spectacularly at every single one of these points. The story meanders and is unfocused, the initial drive for the main character is never resolved - partly due to the cliffhanger ending the season stops on. The number of characters the show introduces is an order of magnitude larger than the original's. Many of them not appearing more than once or twice before disappearing inexplicably. And the main crux of the story is based purely around them being magical girls, with no room for anything else. Magia Record tries to peddle some lofty ideas while failing to capture the pure simplicity that made Madoka Magica so strong. At the end of the day, it's just a shameless little tie-in to a gacha game with very little soul. Hardly any of the staff from the original show is involved, so really I'm not surprised. And yet, still, my disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

I will start by saying that I think any kind of art review should be able to first and foremost consider the piece of art in question on its own. It would be simple to just compare this series to the original Madoka Magica, which was the original work upon which this series spins off. However, that would not be fair nor, in my opinion, helpful to people who are reading reviews. Magia Record is better than most anime out there in every way. The art and sound, as virtually everything created by Shaft, is of the highest quality. It's creative and elicits strong emotions in the viewer. The use of lighting and backgrounds and action sequences are used effectively to provide something that is visually stunning and satisfying. The story and characters are also strong, but they suffer a little due to the fact that this series is adapted from a mobile gacha game. As the reader is probably aware, gacha games are based on the idea that the player will collect as many characters as possible and develop them for play and story. This means that there are more named characters than are really appropriate for a story like this, and it means that none of them really gets developed as fully as one would hope, since most of them get their own arcs. That being said, each of the characters are still better developed and more interesting than the majority of anime characters out there. Additionally, this story, as opposed to the original Madoka Magica, has more potential to be an ongoing series, rather than having a beginning-middle-end all in one season. This means that what was started here will likely grow into something even more interesting as more is released. Ultimately, if you enjoy the Madoka Magica universe, you will enjoy this.

For a mobile gacha game, Magia Record’s story is serviceable. It’s the perfect breather in between gameplay, and it’s constructed in a way that allows many characters to coexist. Overall, it keeps the player coming back thanks to the pull of the mystery, as well as the ever-growing roster of magical girls to collect. As the first anime installment in the Madoka Magica franchise since the Rebellion movie, Magia Record needed to be more than serviceable. The original twelve episode series, as well as its movie, are extremely well-regarded thanks to their iconic characters, intriguing plot, and immaculate pacing. It’s been a long seven years since then, and as such, Magia Record had a lot to live up to. In order for this adaptation to work well, some smart changes needed to be made to make it fit the anime medium. However, Magia Record suffers because, ironically, it is too faithful to the source material. The biggest issue that viewers seem to have with this show is its pacing, and I would have to agree. Too many characters are introduced far too quickly, and the show does not have enough time to develop them and the plot at the same time. The story tends to race past moments that deserve attention and linger on moments of meandering. With the plot constantly shifting between these two extremes, it can be difficult to grasp who these characters are beyond their initial traits, making them seem like caricatures. All of this makes it difficult to feel invested in anything or anyone in the story. It isn’t all bad, though. The art and aesthetics of Magia Record are frequently gorgeous. Even in dull moments, there is enough eye-candy on the screen to keep your attention. Furthermore, though the music had little chance of matching Yuki Kaijura’s original masterpiece of a score, it has some interesting and memorable tracks. The direction is hit and miss; though action scenes are frequently confusing, messy, and poorly animated, the quieter scenes are often much more engaging. Overall, Magia Record, as an anime, fails to live up to its predecessors’ standard of quality. Its story and characters are mediocre, but its pleasing presentation will delight those who value visuals over everything else. In my opinion, this show is best enjoyed by not taking it too seriously and by having fun with its messier moments. This is how I will be approaching the second season of Magia Record when it airs, as I continue to wait patiently for a sequel to Rebellion worthy of the Madoka Magica title.

I feel like there's a lot of people who said this show was "fine" or "average" because it's not as groundbreaking as the original Madoka, which I think is kind of unfair. Why would you expect the same kind of mindblowing revelations from this show that Madoka had, when it literally says its a spin-off set in the same world? Too much drama in the same vein as Madoka would make it feel cheap, in my opinion. Personally, I enjoyed this show because it introduces so many characters (which I admit can get annoying to follow for some people), giving the viewer insight towards the lives of most magical girls who are not the Holy Quintet. The art and animation are amazing, thanks to Shaft, and the ost is really good for setting the tone of specific scenes as well. The story, which is the most debated part of this show, is not as confusing as all the negative reviews say. The plot is straightforward. Basically, our pink-haired protagonist Iroha Tamaki comes to Kamihama City to search for her sister who no one remembers exists, and meets a bunch of other quirky magical girls along the way, who help her search for her sister while uncovering a conspiracy. (I would say more but that's spoiling) There's also a s2 in production, which sheds light on why the story's pacing can seem weird at times. I think this show just suffers from being compared to Madoka too much, even though the kind of story it's trying to tell is very different.

This will be my first actual written review. I went into this anime EXCITED and HOPEFUL because I loved the Madoka Magica anime. I was like ok completely new characters, it is fine since it isn't some crappy re-continuation. But god,,, please this anime disappointed to no end. The whole time watching I was expecting more of the anime and waiting for something to happen. I know know, it shouldn't be a carbon copy of the original Madoka Magica, but it didn't try anything to divert your expectations AT ALL. This anime feels like pure magical girl fan service and new magical girl "waifus" for an original manga/show that should not have an anime like this and ruins the original. Not to mention, the characters in this anime are very dull, like VERY DULL. In the original Madoka Magica, they took the time to carefully develop the characters and you cared for them but with this anime it felt like they just made up a bunch of new "waifu" characters and barely took the time to develop them. They prioritized character design look over personality and character. It felt like every episode was just them introducing every now and then a new girl for people with different tastes. I know that the writer is a different person and that this is based off a mobile game, but come on! Just because it was a mobile game doesn't give it the excuse to be this overly bad in character development and story. It felt like I was just watching a below average magical girl anime that somehow got the budget and art style of Madoka Magica. Watching this anime in full MADE ME WANT TO CLEANSE MYSELF by rewatching the original Madoka Magica and I gave this anime an optimistic chance and usually am not the type to be like "ThE OrigInaL Is BetteR" elitist type beat.

Let me make this clear. Despite being apart of the same universe and franchise, MagiReco is not a Madoka sequel nor does it offer the same type of story and deconstruction of the genre like its predecesor. MagiReco is very much its own story, driven by character interactions and development rather than shock value and fear like Madoka. That doesn’t mean it’s not as good, it’s just a different type of story. Do not come into this expecting people to lose their heads. Despite the differences, I enjoyed this more than the original. MagiReco and FGO both aired during the same time and provided very different examples of how to adapt mobile games. FGO’s amazing story and fight scenes earned it a lot of attention, whereas MagiReco flew very much under the radar, which is really a shame. Despite being based on the mobile game, there’s no need to have played it or have any exposure to the story before coming into the anime. The anime does a pretty good job of adapting the story and adding in anime original scenes to flesh out or give context to certain events. Again, I emphasise that this is very much a character driven story. There’s quite a bit of slice of life moments that are done in an effort to characterise the girls. I enjoyed this a lot and found it to be the main thing that separates the series from the original. However, these may not be for everyone. Technically, you know what to expect from SHAFT. Great visuals, direction, OST and when needed, good fight scenes. MagiReco follows through on all of those expectations. I will add a slight critique to the animation in fights, which at times, I found to be a bit lacking. A minor complaint really. Overall, I really enjoyed MagiReco and found it to be a nice mix of the themes we saw in Madoka and more typical Mahou Shoujo series. The characters all were well developed and added to the story in one way or another. They all felt important and I appreciated that. Combined with the story, which is well written and the direction, and you’ve got a solid show that I enjoyed more than the original. If you’re into Madoka or Mahou Shoujo in general, give this a watch. MagiReco gets 9 grief seeds out of 10 from me.

Take Madoka, and remove (almost) everything that made it so good. Now you have Magia Record. The Original Madoka had a small, but memorable cast of characters and a pretty simple, but powerful story. The characters in this show are just cliches and tropes, and even after 13 episodes I didn't care about any of them. In fact I barely even remember them, which makes sense considering there's so many characters that there's simply not enough time to flesh them out. The story is a mess and I didn't understand much of it, but it seems to negate or at least conflict with what happens in the finale of the original Madoka which is a terrible thing to do. At least the cool SHAFT visuals and the nice OST are still there, but that's everything good I can say about this unfortunately. Maybe the only way to enjoy this would be to play the mobile game, but since I have the Audacity to live in Europe that won't happen because it's not available in our App Store here.

This was one of the most bafflingly disappointing shows I’ve seen in a long time. The original Madoka Magica was a show well-known for its contribution to the magical girl genre. Its unique visual presentation, memorable characters, and compelling narrative are what made it as engaging as it was. When I heard there was going to be a spin-off series, I was ecstatic and had high hopes going into this. Unfortunately what I was left with was a disappointing hollow shell of what could have been something more. The more I watched, the more I came to realize that the story would not be going anywhere meaningful. Since Magia Record is based on a game, a lot of details get omitted which made this jarring to watch. Even if I had treated the anime as a standalone, it does not hold up well. Three things pop into my head that held it back the most and that would be boring exposition dumps, bland characters, and terrible pacing. Sure you could say that there were nice visuals and dark and twisted things were happening to the characters but so what? If I can’t meaningfully care about what’s happening on screen then no amount of artsy colors or dark imagery can salvage your show. The characters are about as one dimensional as any I’ve ever seen. None of them are all that interesting or memorable which means that any time they get put in the spotlight in some scenario, I can’t find myself sympathizing with them. This is only heightened by the atrocious writing. Every episode is seemingly episodic or at least that was the impression I got from watching this with each new story arc centering around something dark and mysterious happening to the town and its people. The way in which this is presented for the most part however are characters standing around talking for half the episode discussing the plot of the story which makes it really boring and painful to watch. There is nothing I hate more than mindless exposition dumps and I found myself constantly losing focus throughout each episode. To make matters worse, there would be sudden transitions to janky fight scenes that seem so out of place. These occurred quite frequently and would be at random. The “mystery” element of the show is not all that compelling either. Typically arcs end with a big fight scene of some kind with crazy explosions and girls running around screaming. Yeah we get it. Witches are bad, destroy them! I am honestly lost for words how massively uninteresting every episode’s progression and resolution were. This stays constant throughout. If you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all. Negatives aside I will say that this show is fairly nice to look at sometimes. The art and animation are well done in some of the fights and I am a fan of some of the character designs. This of course was meant to draw you in to get you to keep watching in hopes for something interesting to look at. If not for this reason alone, I probably wouldn’t have been able to watch all of it. I also enjoyed the soundtrack which at the very least engaged me for the few moments that it was running. It’s truly a shame that this spin-off was so lackluster for me and possibly for many others. I was a fan of the original and really wanted to like this one too. The character designs were really interesting and the prospect of a side story was more than what I could have asked for. There was definitely some effort put into making it as dark and as mysterious as the original but the way in which it was presented was poorly done. The show doesn’t add anything that hasn’t already been established in Madoka, has a worse narrative structure, and less interesting characters. This is not to say that none of the story arcs had interesting things to say nor is it implied that they didn’t put the characters under intense scenarios. But in all honesty, do yourself a favor and avoid this entry. It can only lead to disappointment. It almost seems to me that in order to fully grasp the show, one would need to play the game that this was based on which is already a huge turn-off.

I have never felt so disappointed in my life. Madoka Magica was an absolute blast of a show that shocked the world with its rather *dark* themes, drawing the attention of many anime viewers, and resulting in a trend of dark magical girl shows. However, Magia Record is nothing like that. In fact, ironically the show's themes are less dark than many of the other dark magical girl series inspired by the original Madoka. At the end of the day, after waiting so long for a sequel, I just want to bang my head against the wall in utter despair and shock. Story: 3 Oh god, what happened here? Episodes 1-10 are literally character introductions. CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS. I don't understand why the creators thought to have 13 magical girls, as well as attempting to connect the show with watered-down older characters sound like a good idea. Nothing of value happened in these episodes, and the last two were literally just revamped knowledge of already known information told in the original series, but with a twist of a cult of magical girls (that I don't care about) attempting to find a solution towards not killing witches. As a result, the story was insultingly bland, and putting it anywhere near the original Madoka makes me noxious. Art: 9 I have to give compliments to the show where its due. The animation team really carried through with this one, and the animation feels original, and interesting, with Shaft's distinctive art style. Felt like some people really cared about this show's appearance. Too bad that didn't carry over to the others working on this project. Sound: 5 There really was nothing wrong with the sound design. Some of the songs paid nice homage to the original series, and the OP and ED were ok. It didn't really try anything exciting, but the sound design got the job done. Character: 2 This hurts to think about. I never have seen a group of characters with such terrible chemistry before. This is worse than listening to fingernails on chalkboard, this is like finding the highest frequency of possible on a piccolo, recording it, and amplifying the sound by 100, and then listening to it on 100 volume with the loudest headphones on the market. Hertz my ears and my eyes if you ask me. The characters are absolutely terrible, and each is defined by 1-2 character qualities, and a singular issue apiece. Except for that one magical girl in episode 1 that was NEVER TALKED ABOUT AGAIN. Don't get me started on how they absolutely wrecked the original characters. Why is Sayaka alive? Why is Mami mentally broken AGAIN? What's Kyoko's role in all of this? None of these questions were ever answered, and the Mami-Sayaka duel at the end was just deplorable fanservice. I grew to distaste every single character of this show as the episodes went on, and by episode 11 when the plot finally HAPPENED, I already didn't care about any of these characters. It makes me want to just cry at the corner of my room. Enjoyment: 1 As a fan of the original Madoka series and movies, this was the equivalent of giving me a Lambo, allowing me to drive it, but removing the brake system, resulting in me crashing into god knows what at 350 km/h. Heck, I'd argue that this show is just the crash in slow motion. An absolutely dreadful disappointment, I can't give this show anything higher than a 1. Overall: 4 The only reason why this isn't lower is because the art style was actually really exceptional. Even then, however, this was just insulting to me. As a wise person once said: "No anime is better than bad anime." (someone, I don't know when). Overall, this was painful to watch in every regard, with only the art style and mediocre sound choices drawing me in. However, I am hoping against all odds that the second season manages to be SOMETHING. But then again, that's just wishful thinking, isn't it?

I was really excited for this when it was first announced. I then watched it weekly, to completion. And then at some point forgot that I'd completed it and watched the whole second back half again, picking up on the last memorable episode, and wondering, "Have I seen this?" It was only on the second time watching the last episode that I could be sure I'd seen the whole show already. The original Puella Magi Madoka Magica is special to me, as I know it is to a lot of anime fans. For me when I think back on the show, what sticks best in my mind was the powerful music and the jaw dropping mixed media elements of the show. I LOVED seeing that combination of master craft juxtaposed with weirdly proportioned character designs and often goofy looking animation of the Magical Girls [which is, I know, it's own kind of master craft but one found more often in anime then the sprawling audio visual delights of the Witch's labyrinths]. I was excited to see more of that. However, the flat looking, mostly 3D rendered appearance of the few looks we get at labyrinths are simply not up to par with the "I grabbed a stack of old magazines and crafted every element of the background and villain" look that the first show had. And by nature of there needing to be so many freaking characters because Magica Record was based on a gacha game I feel like the way the show was written made it impossible to care about the girls as much as I care about the original 5 girls. In Summary: There was an opportunity for this show to be really good. It had some interesting ideas on how to expand on one of my favorite anime, however, it was so utterly forgettable that I literally forgot that I had had already watched the whole thing and ended up watching the second half a second time before realizing this. The show is unfortunately visually dull, lacked character depth, and was literally forgettable. Overall: 4/10

Pray for healing is reasonable. Pray for the healing of others is ordinary. Pray for the healing of others and fight for that hope? How about a hope similar to pray? Rumors about a fox that can grant all wishes have spread throughout Kamihama city. Every hope is filled with tears, endless sacrifice, eternal despair, even missing something. The irony of an event or situation that is contrary to what was expected or supposed to happen, but has become a destiny. Human trust in magic to change destiny into ordinary. Humans are inbecilic creatures, they chase dreams even though it is impossible. Even so, humans are intelligence creature strive for using reason to consider and decide things. To pursue a dream doesn't matter even if that hope contains magic. In the end, humans only desire result. Kindness can bring more even bigger troubles. Magia record is a sequel to Madoka Magica, Tamaki Iroha hope for her sister to recovery, all diseases can be cured it's just the method used to reach the goal still unknown. Of course, all of that is not free, as payment Iroha becomes "Mahou Shoujo", their task as mahou shoujo is not easy, they fight against "majo" to purify their pendants. If the pendants turn into darkness they will become majo. Everyone will find their own storyline, like a butterfly that goes around relying only on rumors. Hearing rumors that he said Madoka and friends' journey still didn't end make me happy, but unlike the previous series of scenes that were originally full of drama, bluffing, mysteries that were difficult to solve, and unexpected possibilities everything felt bland. Magia Record is a bad series when compared to other Madoka series such as; Hajimari Monogatari to Hangyaku Monogatari. The first impression of the Magia Record was good, the first episode which was a synopsis was conveyed well, how Mahou Shoujo is formed, the setting in Kamihama, and the origin of each main character are easy to understand and the methods used are very good and clearly conveyed, but over time, it will feel boring. in each episode of tension and scenes of bluffing, everything feels bland, besides the mystery of each episode is too forced and must be finished in that episode as well, as if the perpetrators were fixed on a third-person perspective. Even though it has a bad story line, with interesting parts like sounds or songs it won't help a lot, so don't expect this to touch the value --8 There is no harm in wishing because it might be accompanied by magic.

Synopsis: In a vacuum where only Madoka Magica exists, it can be argued that Magia Record scores low; though in the context of the genre that the series is placed in, Magia Record is a magical girl show filled with excitement and drama that cannot be found in just any similar show. Plot, World, & Characters: Magia Record continues to deliver unique and memorable designs, our protagonist and deuteragonist have an ongoing story that you will want to follow until the end of the series. All side characters are also well fleshed out, giving the impression that there's a world outside of our just protagonist's view, something that can be lacking in other entries of the verse. Art & Sound: Magia Record has the SHAFT, shaft. The artwork suffers later on as the art budget becomes limited towards the end of the series. Though not noticeable quality drops it's still there; though there's a rebound in the final episode. Conclusion: Magia Record is an outstanding magical girl show, if you'd prefer your magical girls show with just the slightest suspense added this'll be right up your alley. Ride the series out until the very end before judging it. I give this series a 5 out of 5. For having a rock solid story from beginning to end, excellent animation quality, and most importantly being enjoyable over, with characters you grow to deeply care about. To repeat, that's a 5 out of 5.

I just watched this anime for the 3rd time in a week. I was in the hospital and had nothing else to do. I was lightheaded from the morphine, and this was honestly the perfect anime to watch during that period. Why? Because it is gorgeous and confusing. I had to watch it 3 times just to vaguely understand the plot. The plot is so confusing and fastpaced with new characters constantly showing up, you can definitely tell it's a just a big budget ad for a gacha game lol. To both its benefit and detriment, this anime is Studio Shaft at its Shaft-iest. There are so many gorgeous shots and buildings that make absolutely no sense. The visual storytelling is very indirect, and requires a lot of interpretation from the viewer. Because of this, it's really hard to follow what is actually happening in the anime. But it also gives us a bunch of pretty pictures so yay~ Go Shaft! Very enjoyable watch though, because I am longtime Shaft fan. A lot of the art here is very well done. The music and sound are also up to snuff with the rest of the Madoka series. The story is a complete mess tho--but I loved the chaos. It's a fun anime to watch with friends while you make fun of the main characters.

When I first started Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, I wasn't sure why the MAL rating was so low. Everything seemed to be there in the early going and Iroha, our main character, seemed to be going after something that was obtainable. However, unlike its Alternative series, it doesn't answer any questions. I'll be writing this review with the assumption that you've seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica beforehand. Story: Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Starts us out with Iroha, who is a magical girl from Takarazaki City. She goes about her life fighting witches and seems to be fine doing it, on her own. However, something feels very off to her - neither her, nor Kyuubey remember what she wished for. Not only that, but she has no memory of a little sister that she swears she used to have. That sister, Ui, seems to have had her existence completely removed. Iroha does some searching, leading her to Kamihama City, where she hears that magical girls "can be saved" there. Along the way, she meets multiple other magical girls, in part because the witches in Kamihama seem to be much more aggressive than the ones she's used to fighting back home. That's the basis as to why Iroha is going on this journey. The ultimate failing of this series is its story structure. It constantly leads Iroha from point A, to B, to C, chasing after rumour after rumour, in order to find out as much as she can about this sister that she doesn't have any concrete memories of. It almost feels like they made it in way that she meets a few new magical girls for a few episodes, helps with their problems, and then repeats... for the entire series. It starts out on a pretty solid premise, but doesn't make any progress on it by the time we're done. It's not all for nothing because we see some pretty significant events happen to the story, but it feels like they try and show two different stories at once. Not only that, but we really don't feel any tension as the events unfold in front of us. Whenever we feel that tension meter rise, the series stops it in its tracks, which was very evident near the start of episode 10. The last two episodes reveal quite a few of details about our characters and even with those being solid, doesn't make up for the poor middle episodes. They just try and be too fancy with introducing way too many characters that mostly feel irrelevant and don't address Iroha's problem at all. (5/10) Characters: Iroha is a fine character, reminding audiences of Madoka at multiple key points. She passionately chases after rumours, but doesn't seem to have much thought about why she's doing what she's doing. She meets Yachiyo after going to Kamihama City, and she will remind audiences of Homura when the series is done. The copying of our two main characters from the base story isn't bad in itself because they change enough that I didn't mind it, but the story structure did them no favours. The interactions between them had a lot of different feelings, between tense, fun and peaceful. It's solid! Many of the other magical girls that Iroha meets along the way have different motivations to fight witches and on their own, they have decent backstories, but there's just so many of them that it dilutes what could have been some solid ones - specifically, Felicia, Rena and Kaede. Some of Yachiyo's past magical girl friends also make appearances and sort of make up this secondary storyline that I mentioned about. And while their stories are pretty impactful, squeezing those into Iroha's storyline feels messy at best. Fans of the previous series will see sprinkling of our main cast from the base story, with Mami making the most significant appearance. With it being an alternative storyline, I'm guessing the events from that storyline haven't really happened and the character's are mostly there for fun. They're fine inclusions, with Sayaka's fight near the end being one of my favourites. The cast in general is fine, and the series very much wants you to be emotionally attached to all of them. However, quality over quantity would have won out here because while they have some really good moments, there's just too many of them. I hope for the sequels that they refocus their efforts on Iroha's goal, while using our characters surrounding her, to get to that goal. That sounds like a decent fix to this very problematic story and character structure. (6/10) Art: The art mostly looked nice, though fights are so brief that you don't get to see much of that flash and flair. The last two episodes showcase some of the better scenes though so we know they're capable of doing it. It's honestly the same as the base story and should receive praise, just like them. Witches still feel menacing and the labyrinths still give us a sense of dread. The OP got some minor adjustments as Iroha meets new friends and I love when series do that. (8/10) Sound: While not at the same level and Yuki Kajira, the OST here was really solid. Many of the tracks gave me that JRPG feel and I really enjoyed them. The OP and ED were both solid as well. The feel of the aforementioned aren't on the "creepiness" scale that the main story had, but it probably shouldn't anyway because both these series tackle different issues. The voice cast were very strong with Kira Buckland (Iroha) performing her part really well. (8/10) OVerall Enjoyment: The messy, messy story structure makes it really difficult to recommend Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, especially if you were a fan of the base story. It's not nearly as moving and there are way too many unnecessary characters. It leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger, and season 2 has aired, but taking a stab to see if they address their story issues feels like a 50/50 to me. (6/10)

Magia Record as a series is, in a word, disappointing. It explores many interesting ideas, and the animation and music live up to the original Madoka, but a jarring story and uninteresting characters undermine it. Judged on its own merits, it's a mediocre work. Judged against the high standard of Madoka Magica, it falls horrendously short. Art and Sound: 10/10 and 8/10 They are, in a word, amazing. Every fight scene is beautifully animated and exciting visually and musically. Both the background art and music throughout Kamihama also does a good job bringing the city to life and making it feel as eerie as it's supposed to. The character designs are cute, and the magical girl transformation scenes are well animated. There's really not anything to criticize. Characters: 3/10 The characters are largely bland. As a protagonist, Iroha is essentially just a bland moe archetype - cute, ditzy, and nice. Her only real distinguishing characteristic is her drive to find her sister - which has little connection to anything that happens in the anime, at least in this season, leaving her as little more than that archetype. The other characters largely suffer from a lack of screentime spent on developing them, leaving them as little more than 1-dimensional character archetypes. They simply introduce far too many characters to properly develop them in a mere 13 episodes. Of course, the mobile game does give the characters a lot more development – but this is a review of the anime, so I have no choice but to ignore all of that in this review. The Wings of Magius, the story's antagonists, are where the character writing is at its worst - they are portrayed as incredibly one-dimensionally evil, frequently making decisions For the Evulz rather than for any actual reason. What makes it all the more jarring is that they're all young girls - it's really hard to believe all these young girls, some of them who look like they might be in elementary school, would act so cartoonishly evil. Story: 1/10 The story follows a fairly episodic formula: In each episode, the cast investigates the latest mystery in the city of Kamihama, culminating in them stumbling into a fight scene. The episodic conflicts are, on their own, often entertaining and interesting. But Magia Record aspires to be a story-driven anime, rather than just an episodic one, and the overarching story is where it falls apart. The story sets itself up as a mystery – why is the city of Kamihama so weird and full of such eldritch, mysterious, and often dangerous magical phenomena? This setup is excellently done, and made me excited to find out the mysteries of Kamihama... But the payoff is undermined. Because as far as the story is concerned, none of that matters. Instead of focusing on the many mysteries of Kamihama, or how the main characters react to uncovering the truth, Magia Record papers over all of that interesting world building and treats it as unimportant. After the introduction, the overall story instead focuses almost exclusively on fighting the Wings of Magius, with the protagonists fighting them solely because of how cartoonishly Evil the Magius are or in self-defense instead of for any more complex or character-driven reasons. In short, the mysteries driving the story don't have a satisfying resolution because the resolution doesn't really matter, as none of the characters seem to care very much about the truth anyway. The only thing that matters to the story is that the Magius are Evil with a capital E and must be stopped. This becomes all the more jarring if you're watching this series after watching the original Madoka Magica, which does explore in great detail why the Wings of Magius might be doing what they're doing, in a way that Magia Record itself does its best to gloss over, and undermines the strict good vs evil framing of Magia Record. The fact that characters from the original Madoka appear in Magia Record only serves to reinforce this problem, making it impossible to judge Magia Record in isolation. In short, the story simply is not satisfying as the strict Good Vs Evil conflict it's framed as, and it certainly doesn't provide a satisfying resolution to all of Kamihama's many mysteries. The story only holds up if you don't think about it too hard – but the whole point of a mystery story is to make the audience think about it. Enjoyment: 6/10 The show is indeed enjoyable, despite its flaws. The fight scenes were genuinely fun to watch, and the character interactions are cute, if formulaic. If you're the sort of person who can turn your brain off and just enjoy without thinking about an anime, it will keep you entertained. Overall: 2/10 The anime does have many redeeming qualities, but the story and characters being so poorly written and bland undermines everything else. Unless you're watching purely for SHAFT's wonderful animation, I wouldn't recommend it, and if you're a fan of the original Madoka anime I'd recommend it even less.