Magical Mondays: A Journey Inside the Mind with Madoka Magica and Flip Flappers

Have you ever wondered exactly what’s going on inside your friends’ heads? Of course you have. Have you ever wanted to take a surreal and frightening journey inside the physical manifestation of your friends’ thoughts, feelings, and worries? Maybe? No? Well, in these two series, you can!

(via Wrong Every Time)

Fiction provides us with a unique opportunity to see into the minds of others, in that we get to live out other people’s stories and lives and see the world through their point of view for a time. Fantasy and sci-fi elements that allow us to literally see into and interact with the minds of characters, such as the dream-diving in Paprika and Inception, take this a step further. Through literally venturing into a physical manifestation of another character’s mind, you can learn a lot about them that they may not show you on the surface, such as hidden insecurities and secret memories. And sure, as a writer you could get the same information across in a dream sequence that lets the audience see inside that character’s mind for a scene, but the act of physically entering someone else’s mental landscape is what I want to talk about today. It lets the other characters, rather than solely the audience, learn what’s going on in the subject character’s head, and does so in a way that also moves the plot forward and provides a physical adventure at the same time.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Flip Flappers are two series that, via magic, give their characters the opportunity to explore their co-cast members’ inner worlds, sending them all down a proverbial rabbit hole into surreal, symbolism-heavy, and often frightening landscapes that teach them (and the audience) something about their peers that they couldn’t have known before. The two series use a lot of the same tools, artistically speaking, but the consequences and emotional outcome of their heroes’ journeys into each other’s mindscapes is very different in each case. Heavy spoilers for both shows beyond the jump!

Magical Mondays: Madoka, Magic, and Misery

Anime magical girls and witches seem to fill a similar niche in their respective media. Both are centered around the inherent powers of women—whether they are feared or not because of it–and the idea of gathering power from what one wants is vital in the use of their powers. Though a witch may be more apt to use a love potion or other more unsavory methods in popular media, and magical girls typically want peace and love, the similarities aren’t difficult to see. Moreover, while these character types are stereotypically feminine, their real strength comes from how the magic they’re given only serves to build up the inner strength of the character in a way more easily understood by younger audiences. Sailor Moon doesn’t start caring about her loved ones extra hard because of her magic, it just helps her defend her friends and family in a way she wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Similarly, Marnie in Halloweentown doesn’t seek new challenges just because she found out she’s a witch, but being a witch offers her a whole new set of obstacles she’s excited to test her mettle against. In both cases, the girls are allowed to try and fail and embrace all the feelings that come with that. 

Expanding on the overlap between witches and anime magical girls at some point really only makes sense; however, I will always be disappointed that the most prominent example of this to date is in Madoka. I watched the series a while ago, and while I liked some parts of it, the series as a whole never sat right with me. While, yes, part of it was because of the torture porn-y aspect of all of it, my main problem with it was how eager the series was to deny the safety of this power fantasy and how that tried to enforce a narrative where powerful women and girls are punished for wanting things.

via Anime News Network

Spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Rebellion under the cut. 

Magical Mondays: Purity and the Magical Girl Genre

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most of you, dear readers, have seen a magical girl anime or read a magical girl manga. Or, if you haven’t, you’re at least somewhat familiar with the mechanics: say some words, use some object, then get cute clothes to fight crime with. Though there are some similarities to a portion of Western superheroes (ie: Wonder Woman, Superman) the fact remains that these magical teens are getting their powers, in most cases, from some otherworldly power or tech instead of Bruce Wayne-ing it or taking to the ol’ sewing machine. However, it’s not the costumes that interest me today. Instead, it’s what gives these magical teens their powers in a virtuous sense because, let’s face it, you’re probably not going to see a magical warrior with the powers of burning rage, even though that would be really cool.

Spoilers for Madoka Magica beneath the cut.

Magical Mondays: Really, Do Not Sign That Contract

Although the idea of a contract in real life is ostensibly meant to protect both parties’ interests and hold both parties accountable, this is almost never the case in fiction. When a contract shows up, you know it’s bad news, and if it’s a magical contract, just, like, don’t even read it. Instead of reading it, run.

In day to day life, dealing with the fine print of agreements ranges from irrelevant to frustrating—maybe the paid membership you signed up for auto-renews and you didn’t realize it, or you agreed to an EULA that said you promised not to use that software to create nuclear weapons. Generally a bummer, but nothing life-altering. This mild sort of badness isn’t always the worst case, and plenty of historical examples of people passing off misleading or unfair contract terms exist. History is full of corporations and other people (#zing) who use their power to manipulate. That’s why we have laws about things like monopolies, and Native Americans are still fighting to make the U.S. honor its agreements regarding tribal lands.

Stories based on contract-signings or otherwise magically binding agreements are often reflective of power differences and discrimination in real life. In fiction, people who write contracts are evil, and want you to sign off on that shitty contract they wrote without ever reading the fine print. Then later, when you protest that you didn’t sign up for this, they can pull it out and say yes, you literally signed up for exactly this. The contract’s author is usually a wealthy villain—whether that wealth is financial or some other sort (magical ability, political power) is irrelevant. The point is, they have ultimate control over an ability or commodity, and they can dictate the terms by which that commodity is distributed. And since these contracts have magic behind them, breaking them isn’t as easy as just going back on your word.

Is Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story About Admitting Your True Feelings?

Rebellion is one of my favorite films. The animation is stunning, and the soundtrack continues to impress me, but what it’s most famous for is the ending. There’s a lot of debate as to what the ending meant to the audience, and what the ending should have been. I won’t spoil it now, but it’s very clear that the story was left open to continue the franchise.

The Puella Magi Madoka Magica series started as a twelve-episode anime which was adapted into two films in 2012. The anime (and first two films) follow a young girl named Madoka Kaname. One day after school, she comes across a magical girl named Homura Akemi, who’s trying to kill a seemingly innocent creature named Kyubey. Kyubey tries to get Madoka to become a magical girl through a contract, but details about the repercussions of being a magical girl are left a mystery. Homura tries to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl, despite her friends becoming ones themselves. The main purpose of a magical girl is to fight witches, who create labyrinths that attract humans and eventually kill them. The anime shows what serious side effects there are to being a magical girl, and the dire consequences of overusing your magic.

Rebellion was the third movie released, continuing the plot where the series left off. In Rebellion, we get to see how much Homura is willing to sacrifice, and how far she’s willing to go to get what she wants, for Madoka’s sake. She is arguably one of the only characters who is truly honest about her feelings and motivations, even if they have severe consequences.

Spoilers after the jump!

Oh, My Pop Culture God Tier: The Price of Godlike Powers

With great power comes great responsibility, right? Well, godlike power also tends to come at a steep price, no matter what the situation. Fiction is full of situations where characters in need have acquired phenomenal cosmic powers, but only at a tremendous cost to themselves. For this post I’m gonna focus on the good guys, but there are plenty of bad guys that fall into this scenario as well.

Spoilers for Madoka, Homestuck, Doctor Who below the cut.

Anime Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

So I missed Madoka fever when Madoka fever was all the rage. (That is, last summer.) But seeing as I’ll be at Otakon in a week, and basically every industry guest at Otakon is there because of their role in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Japanese or English cast/production staff, I figured I’d give it a look-see. It is only twelve episodes, after all.

The plot of Madoka revolves around the character of Kyubey.  Kyubey is an extraterrestrial creature called an Incubator, who will grant you one wish—any wish—if you agree to let him turn you into a magical girl (mahou shoujo, a la Sailor Moon) and fight witches the rest of your life.

The deal is, quite obviously, rigged in Kyubey’s favor. The life of a magical girl is a twisted pyramid-scheme-slash-vicious-cycle that ultimately ends in despair and violent death.

Kaname Madoka (the cute pink-haired one below) is one of the girls Kyubey has chosen to take up the magical girl mantle, and the story of the anime follows her as she sees the effects of magical-girl life and makes her decision.

A friend once referred to Madoka as ‘the most fucked-up anime’ he’s ever seen. I wouldn’t go so far. I think Madoka is a pretty standard horror anime, and really a lightweight one at that, since the show ends on a happy note. The real horror of this show comes from the juxtaposition of the magical girl genre into an anime that is clearly horror. Everything about the peppy opening theme by ClariS, the bright and happy promotional art, and the cutesy character designs screams that this will be an adorable moe escapade, which is why it is all the more harsh and gruesome when the truths of magical girl life are one by one revealed.

This isn’t the be-all end-all of mindfuck anime. But it is actually really good (albeit depressing and horrific at times), and it’s so short that there’s really no reason to not watch it. Check it out!