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[Flying Dice]

^ you should really wrap spoiler tags around anything that reveals plot details (especially the surprises) of shows. Most of us have seen it, but keep in mind others who haven't yet seen it so they can experience it the way you did.

~~~

I'm trying to think up another show similar to PMMM now. Probably "Angel Beats" would come the closest in terms of plot twists and action. If you want something similar but different that would be my recommendation. It's also a short show.

The edgy BS in Madoka is due to it being written by the biggest edge-lord in anime: Gen Urobuchi. His stuff can be hit or miss because he always seems to be trying to subvert everything and increase the edginess. If you want to check out another show by him I'd recommend Psycho-Pass.

If you're up for another short show in general, check out Baccano. The best description is like Pulp Fiction but set in the 1930's with gangsters from Chicago and New York battling it out, with a lot of black comedy and some horror elements.

Seconding Baccano! of course, but Angel Beats was more slice of life comedy that suddenly transitioned into "Why can't I hold all these feels!?"

Unless you're reading it as a subversion of typical high-school shows, which I suppose I can see.

[JoshuaFH]

If you want tears just always streaming down your eyes, then sure Angel Beats is a great choice. As is Ano Hana.

[Trapezohedron]

Ano Hana requires you to install a litre of water for your waterworks to work properly.

[IronyOwl]

You say that but the vast majority of animes basically pick a premise first and "trope second" so to speak. As in they think of an interesting set up and then proceed to not explore it at all or do so in superficial ways because what they really wanted to do was something unrelated.

I don't think treating the setting as a backdrop rather than the focus is unique to anime or even a bad idea, though. Look at, say, Star Wars. Setting: A vast insterstellar empire surrounded by the unknown, where people can zip around faster than light and a mystical life-attuned energy permeates the whole galaxy. Original Movies: Some hick learns as much magic as he needs to in order to murder a space slug and help gank an old man. Also teddy bears!

But if you think that was unique I am sure everyone here could supply you with a different anime.

In a fantasy realm young wizards train in order to be fully fledged wizards and are considered members of the aristocracy belittling those below their station. Along with this articles from the real world have been leaking into this one and as they do they obtain a sort of 'magical property' that amplifies their original purpose, so what should happen but during a familiar summoning ceremony the one with the most shattered ego happens to summon a human from the real world, making her believe she has summon a commoner where he now has to explore this elitist world with someone who has yet to learn real confidence in herself. Yet not everything is as it seems because the kingdoms are not at peace as acts of assassination and sabotage threaten the lives and well being of the students... Turns into a harem anime where our horndog protagonist flirts with other girls intentionally in order to get the female lead angry, and her ego was instantly repaired because she learned she was special and didn't have to earn anything for herself... and other stuff happens but honestly it isn't as important.

I don't think anybody thinks Mahouka Nee-Chan isn't relatively unique, yourself included. Zero is the fanfiction thing, so apparently everybody else and their mother agrees that they could do a better job with the setting and characters than the actual thing did.

So what about a less extreme example? Do Conan or Ippo do this, for instance?

Well, I wouldn’t really call myself an “anime person,” so the speak. Despite liking to use anime-related images as avatars, I never really watched any shows, nor did I read any manga. But there has still been one show that has kinda become special to me, if that makes sense. The show I am talking about is Puella Magi Madoka Magica, my first and only anime.

Spoiler: Major Spoilers (click to show/hide)

So, I bet you guys are wondering how I came to this show if I never watched anime before. What happened was I was out with my dad, and we went to the section of the store where they have the DVDs and stuff. Well, there it was: the first volume of PMMM on DVD. Something about it just called out to me, you know? I asked my dad about it, and he said it looked like a girl’s show. Yeah. That’s what he called it. “Girl’s show.” But there was just something about it, I knew I had to check the show out, even if it was on my own.

What I would do was I would wait till everyone was asleep and go downstairs. That’s where the computer is. Then I would take my headphones so that nobody could see me and I would just watch the show wherever I could find it. I remember seeing the first episode and just being in awe at how neat it was. Mami was so cool! I remember I got attached so attached to her by the second episode that, come the third, I absolutely FREAKED when she died. I legit cried for so long, and it actually took me a while to get back into the show. It made it a little when Sayaka became a magical girl, and Kyoko was pretty cool too, but then the show started getting REALLY SCARY. I was so stunned when Kyubey was hurting Sayaka or when he was telling Madoka about what he is or when Sayaka turns into a witch or when she and Kyoko die or when we find out about Homura that I was at the edge of my seat for the whole thing.

This entertains me greatly in general, but the fact that a thing which called to you so should bring you such anguish adds a delicious extra layer to it.

...guess I've got the right avatar for this moment.

Spoiler: For Posterity (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: More Spoilers (click to show/hide)

The whole show was just too short. I wish that there could have been more of it, and tbh I didn’t like the ending much. I was hoping that the movie would add to it but noooooooooooooooo! Instead we get this Homura witch bullshit where she’s stuck in her own labyrinth and the whole movie could have been a lot shorter.

I think the issue here is that it wasn't built to be a fun, long-running series, it was built to be a grim, self-contained story. Accordingly, a lot of things about it don't work so well for "hey let's watch Sayaka run around stabbing monsters" like it would for any other magical girl thing.

The other problem, of course, is that trying to change it around is liable to run into differences in fanbase reaction. Some people would be perfectly happy watching Mami's Magical Adventures all day, some people would be disgusted and point out that they can get that shit anywhere. Some people would love watching a different cadre of magical girls suffer and die under the weight of their own shattered psyches, some would say they don't really care about these newbs and have already seen this story before in the original.

Though as mentioned, Urobutcher is an edgelord, so some of it's likely to be shitty just because of that.

The cake song was stupid.

How dare you. Cake song was awesome.

Homura’s actions make no sense.

Urobutcher. Edgelord.

That said, somebody explained how they thought her actions made sense a while ago here. I'm not entirely sure I agree, but the basic idea is that Homura misunderstood Madoka's situation as "alone and scared and far from me," and so became frantic and unreasonable attempting to save her from a fate she didn't want or need to be saved from.

There’s some dumb SayakaxKyoko and HomuraxMadoka yuri bullshit that came out of NOWHERE!

I...

...

I'm not the only one who watched that show and didn't see Lesbians Doing Lesbian Things?

I mean seriously. The whole movie was dumb, and they should really make a REAL ending to the show to do it the justice it deserves.

Well, like what? It's a bit of a grim setting, and a bit of a constrained setting, so I'm not sure what a proper "end" for it would be. Other than everybody dying as was their fate.

I remember one time I was with some “friends” and someone asked what my favorite show was. I said it was PMMM, and he looked it up and saw the image results. He called me a fag. Now I know who my real friends are.

Yeah! Those brutalized corpses you failed to save!

All that said, if you're into manga you might check out Oriko Magica and Kazumi Magica. The former's a neat take on a Madoka side story, the latter's a proper and fascinating spinoff that does some interesting things with the setting while still feeling like it's the same thing.

[Neonivek]

I will admit short anime are something you have to get used to.

Even I feel like 18 or less episodes is just not enough given that even miniseries can sometimes end up having more then equivalent time.

Personally I am a fan of 32-64 episode anime.

Any less or more is not as preferred. Not that I don't have animes I love in the higher and lower reaches (I think Princess tutu is around 20 if you merge the split episodes)

By the by... Everyone really should watch Princess Tutu, I cannot recommend it enough.

[Reelya]

... and Princess Jellyfish is pretty cool too (and guaranteed to be completely different from how you'd picture such a cartoon in your mind).

[Neonivek]

You say that but the vast majority of animes basically pick a premise first and "trope second" so to speak. As in they think of an interesting set up and then proceed to not explore it at all or do so in superficial ways because what they really wanted to do was something unrelated.

I don't think treating the setting as a backdrop rather than the focus is unique to anime or even a bad idea, though. Look at, say, Star Wars. Setting: A vast insterstellar empire surrounded by the unknown, where people can zip around faster than light and a mystical life-attuned energy permeates the whole galaxy. Original Movies: Some hick learns as much magic as he needs to in order to murder a space slug and help gank an old man. Also teddy bears!

Naw Starwars still remains consistent building and exploring its own setting from the very start to the very end. It doesn't set up issues only to ignore them later.

[miauw62]

I finished FMA:B. Huh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why did the finale take 14 episodes. Also the turnabout transmutation circle didn't seem to actually do anything??

[JoshuaFH]

I watched "The Place Promised in our Early Days", and while it was a really slow movie with a plot that raises more questions than answers, it was really touching and I liked it. The ending credits song is just stellar as well, it's a knockout homerun slamdunk touchdown hole-in-one quality song that just demands to be admired over and over.

[Neonivek]

... and Princess Jellyfish is pretty cool too (and guaranteed to be completely different from how you'd picture such a cartoon in your mind).

Yeah

Everyone watch Princess Jellyfish AND Princess Tutu

They aren't what you are expecting.

[i2amroy]

I finished FMA:B. Huh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why did the finale take 14 episodes. Also the turnabout transmutation circle didn't seem to actually do anything??

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Are you talking about the alkahestry one done by scar and the Ishvalans? The goal of that one was simple, it was there to basically cut off the layer of energy that Father had placed between the earth and the alchemists. This prevented him from simply pulling the "no alchemy for any of you" type thing that he pulled when they tried to fight him the very first time that they met. Without him doing this the Elric brothers and everybody except for the Xingese would have been not much more than living paperweights.

Then there was the Hoenheim reversal, which was what returned all of the souls back to their bodies, and utilized the shadow of the moon on the earth combined with the various souls from his philosopher's stone to form the circle.

[Puzzlemaker]

I finished FMA:B. Huh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why did the finale take 14 episodes. Also the turnabout transmutation circle didn't seem to actually do anything??

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Are you talking about the alkahestry one done by scar and the Ishvalans? The goal of that one was simple, it was there to basically cut off the layer of energy that Father had placed between the earth and the alchemists. This prevented him from simply pulling the "no alchemy for any of you" type thing that he pulled when they tried to fight him the very first time that they met. Without him doing this the Elric brothers and everybody except for the Xingese would have been not much more than living paperweights.

Then there was the Hoenheim reversal, which was what returned all of the souls back to their bodies, and utilized the shadow of the moon on the earth combined with the various souls from his philosopher's stone to form the circle.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah, it took me a second to realize it too, but after the ishvalans did it, all the alchemists opened fire in a big way.  A lot of teamwork went into stopping jar dude.

[Arcvasti]

I finished FMA:B. Huh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why did the finale take 14 episodes. Also the turnabout transmutation circle didn't seem to actually do anything??

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Are you talking about the alkahestry one done by scar and the Ishvalans? The goal of that one was simple, it was there to basically cut off the layer of energy that Father had placed between the earth and the alchemists. This prevented him from simply pulling the "no alchemy for any of you" type thing that he pulled when they tried to fight him the very first time that they met. Without him doing this the Elric brothers and everybody except for the Xingese would have been not much more than living paperweights.

Then there was the Hoenheim reversal, which was what returned all of the souls back to their bodies, and utilized the shadow of the moon on the earth combined with the various souls from his philosopher's stone to form the circle.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

OH, I didn't realize that was what Scar and co were doing. That makes sense now and makes me happy that that makes sense.

[Neonivek]

When I think of the differences between what makes an appealing character in both America and Japan the character I think is the best example of two countries having two different ideas is...

Amy Rose from Sonic.

She is just about the worst sonic character ever... but she is fairly typical of the genre.

But I BET she is beloved in Japan.

Goodness I just realized... Anime has perfected the Annoying tagalong female character... While Western Cartoons have perfected the annoying tagalong child character.

[Furtuka]

Er I don't think it's a very good example if half of it is based entirely on a unconfirmed guess...