I really liked the ending, and episode 10 did resolve some of my problems (them shooting each other = yes please). I wanted Walpurgisnacht to be Madoka's final form, which would have tied up the design a bit better.
Honestly, I think it could have been a fantastic show but they picked the wrong viewpoint character. Take Homura the whole time through, make her super-grizzled, make us feel it's a sham from the very beginning without too much reveal. The problem is that the majority of the real character development happens behind the scenes... Madoka's character changes quite a bit through her iterations, but it's largely static throughout the current time frame.
Things were so guessable anyway that they might as well have given us more data to begin with.
And now, let us never mention that show again. 
Sorry Reelya, but nope!
I... kinda spent the last evening/morning binging on Madoka. Like, the whole thing, start to finish. I was expecting to watch an episode or two when I was laying down to bed, to get an idea for what it was. But I just sort of kept watching the next one. And the next one after that. My schedule is open today so I have no regrets, and perhaps it's needless to say, but I rather liked it. I'd have liked to see what Madoka's soul gem and Magical Girl power would have been, if she'd just caved to Mami and wished for that magnificent cake. Why couldn't you just have taken us to that timeline, Homura. An inconsequential wish like that could have solved all the problems! Sort of!
More serious-facedly, I didn't go into Madoka with any expectations, since I hadn't heard of it until very recently. I was expecting the same old Magical Girl stuff, but was pleasantly surprised time and again. I really dig the whole "Goethe meets Magical Girl Anime" vibe. I also love how tragic it was at times. I mean, Madoka's catch phrase was basically "That's horrible!" followed by one or more young girls sobbing. At some points, I didn't want to watch any more, but pressed on just in hope that things would get better. The show was kind of abusive with the tragedy... characters just keep suffering and sacrificing, yet get denied the simple things they want, and when they do there are Monkey's Paws everywhere. Which is fine, but it was hard to watch with my guard let down, and my feels rendered all vulnerable.
Also, where I didn't really dig the use of mixed media in Gankutsuou, I absolutely loved it in Madoka. By deviating from the usual clean animation, that scrapbooky cartoonishness drove home a feeling of otherworldiness within the Labyrinths, and built this sense of childish wonder twisted into something horrible... perfect for the theme. Dandelions with silly waxed mustaches should not be so terrifying. And that goofy cartoon-looking witch with the crazy eyes? The one who kills that one character? Greatest set up I've seen for a reality check in a while. And I loved the fact that, after that happened, the cheerful, colorful outro one expects from the genre was replaced by the dark, grungy, and slightly messed-up one. It's as if to say "actually, small girls fighting horrible monster-things would be tragic and traumatizing."
I admit, I don't have a good handle on the Maho Shojo tropes (a few seasons of Sailor Moon, and an episode or two of Cardcaptor Sakura are all I've seen), but I appreciated what subversions I picked up on. Taking the adorable animal sidekick, and making it a sociopathic alien that drives young girls on a path to madness and despair? Yes please. Making the heroine a very normal and unmagical girl for most of the series, yet having her still act in as brave and heroic a capacity as a young girl reasonably could in those situations? That was pretty cool. Rendering their magical resistance to damage as a side effect of selling their soul for power, and their body being rendered a magically-altered husk? God damned horrifying- and please stop hacking at the dead witch and talking about how it really doesn't hurt anymore please Sayaka, you're scaring me. Killing off all the characters, just as we start to sympathize with them? Sure that's.... wait, what?
No, screw you, show! Mami was so confident and awesome on the exterior, but she was really just lonely and broken and needed a friend. And then she found one, and... and you killed her! Whatever, at least I still have Sayaka. Wait, what do you mean she's having a self-destructive psychotic break? But she was the one I related to! Why you gotta twist her bad habits of internalization and self-sacrifice, into a spiral of self-destruction, huh? And now you're going to follow that by offing good old loose-cannon Kyoko, right after she made the transition from rival to begrudging ally? Way to teach me what happens when I allow myself to have feels! :I
After the reveal about the nature of Witches hit, it was interesting to try and pick apart the symbolism of them and their respective labyrinths, and guess at what they might represent. I like the symbolism of the Labyrinths themselves too; the whole idea of being trapped within your own trauma and grief, cutting yourself off from the rest of the world. Poignant. It did deal with some fairly mature emotional themes as well, which surprised me. Poor Sayaka... that self-destructive spiral was hearbreaking, and a bit close to the bone.
The ending did leave a bit to be desired... but I can't really think of a way I'd have done it differently. It struck me as a Messianic tale, actually; Madoka was always this wise and caring sacrificial lamb character. I expected Walpurgisnacht to be Madoka too, and once that theory was bust was kinda hoping it would be Homura sent back in the timeline from her inevitable future failure. But the existing Time Shennanigins were cool enough. Also, I can get how it might have been better to ditch the twists and use Homura as the viewpoint character for the sake of deconstruction... but I think they were mainly aiming to tell a subverted Magical Girl story from an outside perspective; someone who isn't blasting all the shadow-monsters with laserhearts and sparkles and shit, but someone who is watching and emotionally invested in what's happening, but powerless to affect things. She's basically the story's Everywoman, and we're supposed to project ourselves onto her.
All in all, good show with decent characters, great music and visuals, and surprising depth from a coming-of-age-style story I didn't expect much from. I'd give it a 9.6, would watch again and/or recommend it to my friends.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3078079 times)