And I can hold back no longer.
I fucking hate this show. Jesus I hate this show so much. I've watched all eight insufferable episodes of it so far because people keep telling me that I just don't get it and let me assure you, yes, I GET IT. I get exactly what this show is about. I get what it's trying to say. I get what it's doing. Fuck, I predicted the SHOCKING PLOT TWIST in episode 8 by the time that I had finished the third episode so yes, let me assure you, I GET THIS SHOW.
I also think that it's a pile of ass.
First, I hate the way that this show acts like it is the FIRST EVER "clever" deconstruction of the magical girl genre. I hate the way that this show is consistently praised as being a totes original deconstruction of the magical girl genre.
Utena. Magic Knight Rayearth. Princess Tutu. Pig Girl Tonde Boorin. Puni Puni Poemi. Angel Hunt. Alien9. Sugar Sugar Rune. Uta Kata.
All of the above were deliberate deconstructions of the magical girl genre, and they did it first and did it better than Madoka Magica did. The only thing new* that Madoka Magica has brought to the table is upping the gore and violence factor, which as anyone who reads Western comics and is sick of grimdarkviolent storylines being mistaken for being "more grown-up" content can tell you, is not the way to make you cartoon show more mature.
*"New" in the sense of being new to shows that are deconstructions of the magical girl genre, not "new" to anime in general. The pairing of adorable little girls + excessive grimdarkviolent storylines is once again neither clever nor original. Heck, that was already an hold hat trick by the time that Gunslinger Girl and Higurashi were doing it.
I have a lot of issues with Madoka Magica, number two being that it somehow has convinced a lot of people that it is terribly clever and original while being almost insufferably unoriginal in everything that it does. Number one being that it is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre but coming from a very icky place, as magical girl in and of itself is a deconstruction. Magical girl shows are about female empowerment in a society in which little girls IRL have little power or agency; deconstructing the idea of female empowerment in the shallow and poorly-thought-out way that Madoka Magica does only ends up casting the entire idea of female empowerment as this dangerous, evil thing. That's not a fucking deconstruction. That's the status quo. That's the status quo masquerading as a clever deconstruction while dressed in all of this moe trapping so that fanboys can have their cake (moe girls acting moe and vulnerable) and eat it too (fool themselves into thinking that they're watching something terribly clever and intellectual that has Important Things to Say about an entire genre of anime when it really has nothing deep or original to say at all).
Okay, rant finished. I'm sorry, but I just had to get that off my chest.
ETA: Continued here.
I fucking hate this show. Jesus I hate this show so much. I've watched all eight insufferable episodes of it so far because people keep telling me that I just don't get it and let me assure you, yes, I GET IT. I get exactly what this show is about. I get what it's trying to say. I get what it's doing. Fuck, I predicted the SHOCKING PLOT TWIST in episode 8 by the time that I had finished the third episode so yes, let me assure you, I GET THIS SHOW.
I also think that it's a pile of ass.
First, I hate the way that this show acts like it is the FIRST EVER "clever" deconstruction of the magical girl genre. I hate the way that this show is consistently praised as being a totes original deconstruction of the magical girl genre.
Utena. Magic Knight Rayearth. Princess Tutu. Pig Girl Tonde Boorin. Puni Puni Poemi. Angel Hunt. Alien9. Sugar Sugar Rune. Uta Kata.
All of the above were deliberate deconstructions of the magical girl genre, and they did it first and did it better than Madoka Magica did. The only thing new* that Madoka Magica has brought to the table is upping the gore and violence factor, which as anyone who reads Western comics and is sick of grimdarkviolent storylines being mistaken for being "more grown-up" content can tell you, is not the way to make you cartoon show more mature.
*"New" in the sense of being new to shows that are deconstructions of the magical girl genre, not "new" to anime in general. The pairing of adorable little girls + excessive grimdarkviolent storylines is once again neither clever nor original. Heck, that was already an hold hat trick by the time that Gunslinger Girl and Higurashi were doing it.
I have a lot of issues with Madoka Magica, number two being that it somehow has convinced a lot of people that it is terribly clever and original while being almost insufferably unoriginal in everything that it does. Number one being that it is a deconstruction of the magical girl genre but coming from a very icky place, as magical girl in and of itself is a deconstruction. Magical girl shows are about female empowerment in a society in which little girls IRL have little power or agency; deconstructing the idea of female empowerment in the shallow and poorly-thought-out way that Madoka Magica does only ends up casting the entire idea of female empowerment as this dangerous, evil thing. That's not a fucking deconstruction. That's the status quo. That's the status quo masquerading as a clever deconstruction while dressed in all of this moe trapping so that fanboys can have their cake (moe girls acting moe and vulnerable) and eat it too (fool themselves into thinking that they're watching something terribly clever and intellectual that has Important Things to Say about an entire genre of anime when it really has nothing deep or original to say at all).
Okay, rant finished. I'm sorry, but I just had to get that off my chest.
ETA: Continued here.
