Madoka Magica

• The storytelling is not entirely sound, and in the same way that much of anime is. Whether for stylistic or economic reasons, a lot of anime suffers from tell-don't-show syndrome, and there are some unbearably long speeches and infodumps in MM. I appreciate that they want to flesh out backstory and introduce philosophical themes, but certain scenes that can take up five minutes at a time of just talking really kill the show dead for me. I'd prefer that someone demonstrate their values with their actions rather than monologue it for me.
• I'm sincerely intrigued by the setting, and I don't mean the supernatural elements. The mundane human world is a truly weird mix of the opulent and the familiar; school and Madoka's home are futuristic and luxurious to a ludicrous degree. I'm not sure what vibe they were going for, but the humongous, sterile environments the schoolgirls inhabit are genuinely memorable and eye catching. Could this be a common idiom for magical girl anime in general? It strikes me that way, but this is the only anime of that genre I've seen.
• Though the plot isn't terribly innovative on the whole, it does contain some interestingly mature decisions at points. The most impressive decision in that sense was to resist ever giving us a no holds barred show of Madoka's potential. When the show started out, I thought it would do the thing where it coyly tells us how wondrous Madoka's powers are going to end up being and then slowly build up to our scene of awesomeness. Instead, due to the turns the narrative takes we never actually witness Madoka turn into a magical girl, and only peripherally glimpse what her fighting style would even look like. This type of restraint ensures that the show can't be construed as kiddie fare.
• Overall I would say it feels relatively padded. I'm aware that there is a re-edited version of the entire show as two 2-hour movies which speeds up the pace somewhat. That's fine and probably as short as they can reasonably get it as long as they're only taking scissors to the existing material. On the other hand, if they were to reboot it or recreate MM, I would prefer to see it trimmed down to the length of a single movie or so. The story they're trying to tell doesn't have enough character development or layers to support a serial television show, so as long as they were going the story-driven route, they should have either made a movie or planned more content.

2/4