Given that I ended up rather liking the Madoka anime, I left it
quite a while before getting around to watching the movies – and even now have
only seen the first one. Rather disappointingly, the first two movies are mere
recaps of the series, which I could understand with Evangelion, because
after all many years had elapsed since the series and animation standards had
risen considerably, so it made sense. Here, though, there was only about a year
between the series airing in 2011 and the film coming out in 2012, so it all
feels a little redundant to truncate the series for the big screen. Most of it doesn’t
even appear to have been re-animated, with the main changes being better
backgrounds and a new opening. So in that sense, I’m pleased I left it a couple
of years before watching, because I’d forgotten enough of the plot details to
enjoy this again without the feeling of rewatching something I’d just seen.
Madoka was a series that I
didn’t feel got really good until right at the very end, starting with the
tenth episode of the twelve-episode series. Thus a film version covering the
first seven or eight episodes didn’t hold that much appeal for me.
In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the flow of this adaptation. It
works as a single film, pulling off its typical magical girl setup at just the
right pace, Mami losing her head in a stressful situation making for a very
good climactic moment in a feature-length film (albeit rather a long one), and then
the gradual realisation that Kyubey is not what he seems – or at least,
operates with an entirely different moral compass – and the ultimate fate of
magical girls works well for a reveal-style ending. But what really makes this
work is that it becomes Sayaka’s movie: her centre-stage moments are all there
in the series, of course, but because of the way the other characters rise to
prominence, she becomes rather peripheral in the overall view of the series.
Being the centre of attention here, the film essentially following her story
from being introduced to the world of magical girls, grasping somewhat the
meaning of it, debating the importance of wishes with Kyouko and becoming ever
more powerful and ever more lost until the end of the film, she gets a chance
to shine more clearly.
I think this works well even if, ultimately, it’s to the expense of Mami,
who gets even less of a chance to make an impression as a complete person than
in the series, not even getting to talk about her wish.
There’s also a strange dynamic in taking a markedly short series and
turning it into a film trilogy. It’s rather strange how there’s the same amount
of material, yet the impression left is different because the series was
shorter than the usual, whereas a film trilogy is longer than usual. It’s odd
how less material seems to be longer and given more time to breathe because of
this context, but it is palpable how simply being a feature film expands the
sense of scope. It turns out that Madoka suited being a film all along!
Ultimately, I was on board from the beginning. I love how Madoka subverts
the genre, not just by being dark and edgy – that’s no real innovation these
days, and I talked about Nanoha a lot in my review of the series – but by
subverting it early on and then going on to add in more interesting
twists and changes of focus. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the second
film, but looking forward the most to seeing what new developments the final,
original film will bring.
But talking about subversive Magical Girl series that are more
sophisticated than they seem at first, go to dark places and would make great
movies, how about a Princess Tutu movie version, huh? Now there’s a
series that would benefit greatly from reinvention.
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