Popular genres always reach that moment when they get oversaturated. Popularity brings more authors to try to get their works noticed by using tried and true tropes without much thought behind them. That's exactly what happened to the magical girl — or mahou shoujo — genre.
Most of the tropes of this genre, where cute girls fight other cute girls, or maybe not so cute villains, with magic, were introduced in 1992 by Sailor Moon, though it can hardly be called the first mahou shoujo work. The history goes deeper, nearing the mid-century times, but Sailor Moon was one of the works that revolutionized the genre, and 20 years later Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica did the same.
It's the original anime created by studio SHAFT. It was conjured up by director Shinbo Akiyuki when he was working on anime adaptations of Bakemonogatari and Hidamari Sketch. He was not the only one who created Madoca Magica: the team consisted of writer Urobuchi Gen, character designer Aoki Ume, and producer Iwakami Atsuhiro. And they were very smart about it.
The marketing campaign never hinted at anything specific that would transpire in the plot and presented the show as yet another magical girl adventure, carefree and light-hearted. That was one of the most misleading campaigns in anime history.
Because it purposefully missed the despair and the darkness that filled the show. Episode three of Madoka Magica showed that there is something to keep the viewers engaged in the trope-filled genre, and gave them a whiplash. This deliberate deconstruction of the genre took every single cliché that magical girl stories are based upon and distorted it, showing the mutilated version of the tropes that were still clinging to reality. The plot twists exist not just for the shock value: they truly have an impact on the story, the characters, and the viewer. The short length allowed the show to be perfectly paced, with all the plot lines finished gracefully with no rush and no fillers.
The show's cohesive writing and exploration of darker themes under the layer of regular candy-colored magical girl exterior changed the game and broadened the audience for this type of show: the demographic that Madoka Magica was targeted for is not shoujo, but seinen, meaning it was made for an older male audience.
Characters with gray morals, selfish and egoistic, ready not just to fight but to kill to follow their own sense of right and wrong, and ultimately clashing with their own struggles and not necessarily winning — this is what just a part of Madoka Magica is. And this is what changed the mahou shoujo genre. Then again, some authors upon seeing Madoka Magica decided to adopt only the general gritty vibe instead of diving deeper into the pillars of the genre. So now deconstruction is also becoming too cliché.
Time for someone to break the mold once again.
A perfect case of purposeful delusion.
Popular genres always reach that moment when they get oversaturated. Popularity brings more authors to try to get their works noticed by using tried and true tropes without much thought behind them. That's exactly what happened to the magical girl — or mahou shoujo — genre.
Most of the tropes of this genre, where cute girls fight other cute girls, or maybe not so cute villains, with magic, were introduced in 1992 by Sailor Moon, though it can hardly be called the first mahou shoujo work. The history goes deeper, nearing the mid-century times, but Sailor Moon was one of the works that revolutionized the genre, and 20 years later Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica did the same.
It's the original anime created by studio SHAFT. It was conjured up by director Shinbo Akiyuki when he was working on anime adaptations of Bakemonogatari and Hidamari Sketch. He was not the only one who created Madoca Magica: the team consisted of writer Urobuchi Gen, character designer Aoki Ume, and producer Iwakami Atsuhiro. And they were very smart about it.
The marketing campaign never hinted at anything specific that would transpire in the plot and presented the show as yet another magical girl adventure, carefree and light-hearted. That was one of the most misleading campaigns in anime history.
Because it purposefully missed the despair and the darkness that filled the show. Episode three of Madoka Magica showed that there is something to keep the viewers engaged in the trope-filled genre, and gave them a whiplash. This deliberate deconstruction of the genre took every single cliché that magical girl stories are based upon and distorted it, showing the mutilated version of the tropes that were still clinging to reality. The plot twists exist not just for the shock value: they truly have an impact on the story, the characters, and the viewer. The short length allowed the show to be perfectly paced, with all the plot lines finished gracefully with no rush and no fillers.
The show's cohesive writing and exploration of darker themes under the layer of regular candy-colored magical girl exterior changed the game and broadened the audience for this type of show: the demographic that Madoka Magica was targeted for is not shoujo, but seinen, meaning it was made for an older male audience.
Characters with gray morals, selfish and egoistic, ready not just to fight but to kill to follow their own sense of right and wrong, and ultimately clashing with their own struggles and not necessarily winning — this is what just a part of Madoka Magica is. And this is what changed the mahou shoujo genre. Then again, some authors upon seeing Madoka Magica decided to adopt only the general gritty vibe instead of diving deeper into the pillars of the genre. So now deconstruction is also becoming too cliché.
