Surreal visuals, a dark tone and a well-crafted story made 2011’s “Puella Magi Madoka Magica,” a mature take on the cutesy, magical girl anime genre, an instant hit.
Released earlier this year, “Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story” is a worthy follow-up to the original anime.
Based on a mobile game, “Magia Record” has some pretty big shoes to fill as the latest entry in the
“Madoka Magica” series, which includes the anime series and three movies, and it does so with great aplomb.
The series is part of the Winter 2020 anime season and is currently six episodes into its 13-episode run.
As the show’s name implies, “Magia Record” is set in the same universe as “Madoka Magica,” but has a separate plot, taking place before the events of the original anime with a whole new cast.
The story hits the ground running with the assumption that viewers have seen the original series, only sparing a few minutes to explain the concept of how magical girls work in-universe.
In the “Madoka Magica” series, young girls are offered a wish by the cat-like alien Kyubey and in exchange, they are granted supernatural powers and forced to fight against otherworldly enemies known as “Witches.”
In “Madoka Magica,” this concept is slowly revealed as the main character learns about the world of magical girls, but in “Magia Record,” this is the first thing the audience learns.
“Magia Record” seeks to tell its own story and though it has a similar premise, it hits its own narrative beats in ways that are different from the original work.
The cast isn’t just a copy-paste of the original.
Though both shows are helmed by bow-wielding, pink-haired teenagers, they are distinct in
their actions and motivations.
SHAFT animation studio continues to dazzle with its lovingly crafted animations, without a cut corner in sight.
The show is always on-model with an art style that is visually interesting; from mundane conversations and slice-of-life scenes having background visual flourishes reflecting the strangeness of the characters’ lives to the out-and-out surreality of the Witches’ labyrinths.
It isn’t just a first-episode animation bump either, since every episode is consistent in its animation quality.
Arguably, some of the best animation shows up in
later episodes.
The music also captures the spirit of the original show, with only a few tracks directly taken from “Madoka Magica.”
The composer this time around is Takumi Ozawa, who also composed other shows such as “Aria the Scarlet Ammo” and “Divine Gate,” and does a fine job setting the mood with background music that ranges from haunting to joyful.
The pacing of “Magia Record” is faster and more consistent than that of “Madoka Magica.”
The latter went for a slow buildup in the first two episodes, building to a shocking event in the third episode followed by more world and mood building.
“Magia Record” hits story beats pretty quickly, with the central mystery of Iroha’s vanished sister Ui and the rumor of magical girls being saved in Kamihama City, being revealed as early as the first episode.
There aren’t really any shocking swerves in the plot so far, just a mystery that becomes more complex as truths are revealed and characters are developed as they play off one another.
There are also way more characters in “Magia Record.”
“Madoka Magica” had a core cast of about six characters, while “Magia Record” revealed just as many in the first two episodes, with more added in every episode.
So far, the big cast doesn’t harm the quality of the storytelling, likely because of the fact that every episode focuses on a few at a time and not all at once.
The cast also tends to be fully realized characters with their own motivations and are never just accessories in Iroha’s search to unravel the mystery of her missing memories, even as they further the story, directly or indirectly.
Having such a big cast has the intriguing benefit of showing what magical girl culture is like in-universe, with territorial disputes and pacts of mutual benefit shown in ways only alluded to in “Madoka Magica.”
So far, the show is a must-watch for fans of the original but is good enough to stand on its own.
While it will attract fans who watched “Madoka Magica,” if it keeps its quality up, it might make some new fans of its own.
