There will be spoilers here so be warned.
My roommate has been a fan of fucked up magical girl media for a long time and finally got me and my partner to sit down to watch Madoka Magicka.
I have…thoughts. She has referred to it as ‘Sad Lesbians the Anime’ and yeah… It was an experience of some kind. I am still processing it to some degree but thought I’d write some of my thoughts on it. It’s helped me find a new appreciation for the genre of magical girl media (I haven’t watched much but now I might watch some more) and a new perspective on some of her works.
The art direction of the show also stood out to me a lot, it is such an interesting mix of old anime artstyle and other techniques with the sharp points and flat colours of so much anime, and then the use of collages and muted, desaturated backgrounds contrasting the characters. I think the art direction alone is going to affect some of my work moving forward, and as for the story…
A girl creating a timeloop trying to save a girl that she loves – if you cannot see the queer love story here you are blind – and the destruction it causes, her own love becoming the force that dooms her love to an unknowable eldritch fate is such a compelling idea. It was the basis of many tropes and stories in darker magical girl anime I have been told and I can see why, the core of it has such emotional potential. Homura is such an interestign character to me, she has become so distant from the girl she loves due to her attempts to save her. She has transformed and destroyed herself in trying to save Madoka and in doing so leads to Madoka’s own destruction at the end of the series. God I love characters that forge their own doom and I think I might use this to make consequences for my players more dire.
In my pathfinder game one character has actively been abrasive to the group, and shunned help and teamwork including a plot hook presented by another character to help him save his brother. All of this I think I am going to use to make the path he is moving down so much MORE painful, I want to use the pain and torment we see Homura experience and witness as inspiration for this characters suffering.
Also Sayaka’s fate of trying to be a hero and destroying herself to become a witch was wonderful and felt like it could be tied to an analogy for burnout as well as.. you know just being a corrupted hateful soul piloting a corpse (which is what I feel like in burnout!). But her fate… I am metaphorically staring at the champion in my Pathfinder game and steepling my fingers with evil intent. She is going to suffer so much and it will be wonderful.
I know today’s post is short but I’m writing it before work whilst kinda sick so eh give me some slack.
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