Hail Mary,
Where do I even start? I've watched a lot of anime which are world renowned and critically acclaimed and which I myself enjoy a lot. Clannad, Higurashi no naku koro ni, Haruhi Suzumiya and of course, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Elfen Lied and Rurouni Kenshin. I'm a fan of dark and heartwarming stories and all of these anime are like in my top favorites, especially the latter 3.However, after watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I concluded that it has to be the greatest anime I have ever seen in my entire life.
Everything is perfect: the characters are perfect, the pacing is perfect, the narrative is perfect, the animation, atmosphere and impact it leaves all give out a great experience. It may not have done something new as a deconstruction but a deconstruction doesn't necessarily need to have such an instant impact like Watchmen did to comic books. In fact, if Madoka was aired in 1995 instead of Evangelion, it'd have had the same impact on Japanese culture and have become a great cash cow like Evangelion is today. What Evangelion is to the super robot genre, Madoka is to the magical girl genre and I saw many similarities between the shows. Both have well fleshed out characters (even though Evangelion had the advantage of having more episodes, I still cared and cried for the characters), both contain healthy levels of mind screw (although Madoka DOESN'T need additional material to understand the PLOT) and both contain a lot of sad moments although in Madoka's case, the ending is more bittersweet than Evangelions downright depressing downer ending and you don't feel like the efforts of our characters were all for nothing. I was seriously scared not out of the freaky imagery but because I genuinely scared for what was going to happen to the characters next.
Either way, even though Evangelion is still my favorite anime, Madoka is in my opinion the most well written and impactful one and is a DEFINITE must watch for any anime fan. It is sad on the level of Elfen Lied, nightmarish on Evangelion levels, heartwarming on Clannad levels and all around as well written as all of them combined.
Greatest anime I have ever seen.
Hail Mary, Where do I even start? I've watched a lot of anime which are world renowned and critically acclaimed and which I myself enjoy a lot. Clannad, Higurashi no naku koro ni, Haruhi Suzumiya and of course, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Elfen Lied and Rurouni Kenshin. I'm a fan of dark and heartwarming stories and all of these anime are like in my top favorites, especially the latter 3.However, after watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I concluded that it has to be the greatest anime I have ever seen in my entire life. Everything is perfect: the characters are perfect, the pacing is perfect, the narrative is perfect, the animation, atmosphere and impact it leaves all give out a great experience. It may not have done something new as a deconstruction but a deconstruction doesn't necessarily need to have such an instant impact like Watchmen did to comic books. In fact, if Madoka was aired in 1995 instead of Evangelion, it'd have had the same impact on Japanese culture and have become a great cash cow like Evangelion is today. What Evangelion is to the super robot genre, Madoka is to the magical girl genre and I saw many similarities between the shows. Both have well fleshed out characters (even though Evangelion had the advantage of having more episodes, I still cared and cried for the characters), both contain healthy levels of mind screw (although Madoka DOESN'T need additional material to understand the PLOT) and both contain a lot of sad moments although in Madoka's case, the ending is more bittersweet than Evangelions downright depressing downer ending and you don't feel like the efforts of our characters were all for nothing. I was seriously scared not out of the freaky imagery but because I genuinely scared for what was going to happen to the characters next. Either way, even though Evangelion is still my favorite anime, Madoka is in my opinion the most well written and impactful one and is a DEFINITE must watch for any anime fan. It is sad on the level of Elfen Lied, nightmarish on Evangelion levels, heartwarming on Clannad levels and all around as well written as all of them combined.