# Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011)

> A cheerful eighth grader is offered a wish that could change her destiny, and she learns that magical girls fight a hidden war with grim costs.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/36039

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, fantasy, drama
- Network: MBS
- Cast: Aoi Yuuki, Chiwa Saito, Eri Kitamura, Ai Nonaka, Emiri Kato, Tetsuya Iwanaga, Yuko Goto, Ryoko Shintani
- TMDB rating: 8.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1773185/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, surreal, eerie, tense, haunting

## What critics say

Viewers broadly acclaim the series as a dark, subversive take on the magical girl genre with a sharp script and striking visuals.

## Synopsis

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011) is a Japanese anime series produced by SHAFT and Aniplex for MBS, a twelve-episode serialized dark fantasy with a cheerful surface. Eighth grader Madoka Kaname (voiced by Aoi Yuuki) lives an ordinary life in Mitakihara, until a mysterious creature named Kyubey (Emiri Kato) offers her a wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl. Her closest friend Homura Akemi (Chiwa Saito) and fellow fighters Sayaka Miki (Eri Kitamura) and Kyoko Sakura (Ai Nonaka) form the core of the team battling witches that feed on despair. Each episode builds the sense that every wish carries a price, and the bright pastel visuals keep sliding into unsettling, surreal imagery. The show shifts between warm school-life scenes and sudden moments of cosmic dread, and it leans on subverted genre expectations, foreshadowing and a tightly constructed mythology. Fans of Serial Experiments Lain and Neon Genesis Evangelion will find resonance in its bleak existential mood and surreal style. Its tone is haunting, melancholic and tense, and it rewards close attention across its single season.

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