THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE TV SERIES PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA AND BY EXTENSION MOVIES 1 AND 2

I need to preface this by saying I have never seen the appeal of magical girls. School girls running around in frilly clothes saving the day and positivity spewing out of their fucking eyeballs. That is the general impression I get from the very idea of this genre, and from my understanding, that's what the majority of these things are.

Note that I said the majority.

PLOT Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica follows a group of magical girls as they encounter strife after strife due to their very choice to become said magical girls, alongside the titular character Madoka Kaname. Madoka is approached by Kyubey, a cat-like entity belonging to the Incubator race and the one who draws out the power of magical girls. Being the center of "karmic destiny" and the reason many timelines are null and void, the potential Madoka holds is enough to dramatically alter the universe itself. Despite this power, one seeks to see that it never awakens. A magical girl wielding the ability to repeat time over and over stands in the way of the Incubator from putting Madoka through the curse of the magical girl. This is the tragedy of Homura Akemi.EXECUTION I first want to bring up the opening and ending animations. Not the songs, the animations. It's this bright, happy, cheerful sequence. Possibly of a timeline before the events of the show. If you're going into this show uneducated, it could be a sign of "So this is where we're going with this zzzzzz". This is even further exemplified by the EDs for Episodes 1 and 2. Despite the warnings in the dialogue of the show, these along with the general fact that nothing goes awry until the end of Episode 3 really sell the idea that this isn't gonna be the dark and depressing shit people make it out-- Oh....Oh no...

Okay so after the whole wholesome act gets dropped (along with Mami), the show gets good. Showing the fate that Mami and many other magical girls have or are currently running towards to the audience front and center makes the threat and dread much more apparent than simply being told. At least in my experience, the debate on whether or not the whole magical girl deal is worth it is just as real with the audience as it is with the characters is the story. This feeling is shared the entire time with the reveal of new information such as the fate of magical girls that survive their fights eventually turning into witches. Another way the question is enrichened is by showing the turmoil of other magical girls in a girl whose life is torn apart by her wish and one struggling to come to terms with what she's become. It's a great way to immerse the audience in a delightfully depressing story such as this.

Even early on, the character of Akemi Homura is prominently displayed as a driving force in the story. The first scene of the anime is of Homura fighting the Walpurgisnacht on her own in the timeline proceeding the one that houses the events we see unfold throughout the show. This first time, the audience is made aware of none of what is going through her head or out of her mouth. Was she screaming for help? For Madoka to run? The mystery of Homura persists throughout the entire show and ends with the biggest pay-off in the entire 12 episode run. The crumbs are there for you to put together long before the confirmation, and that, my friend, is how to handle a mystery in your story.

FINALE

Now, I'm conflicted on the ending. It's also the reason I call this the Tragedy of Akemi Homura. For all of the effort she pours into saving Madoka Kaname from the fate of a magical girl, the final result is still her failure in that regard. And while one can say that she ended up making Madoka so powerful that she would not succumb to the fate so many others have come to, it also came at the cost of her now eternal existence becoming disconnected from everyone she held near and dear. There is no clear-cut answer on which is a better fate. Despite all of what happens with the resolution of Homura's initial journey, however, her battle carries on. Her duty as a magical girl continues all the same. Akemi Homura, eternally damned to fight even after all is said and done. She may not rest. She may not weaver. Girl can't catch a fucking break, huh?

That is the Tragedy of Akemi Homura.