'[Puella Magi Madoka Magica] is about sacrifice and selfishness, despair and hope, love and death, decay and life, and how all of these seeming opposites are really one and the same.' (page 1)
WELCOME TO OCTOBER MAGICA!
Where it, inevitably, comes to an end.
Whether it is a satisfactory, better off, hopeful, or bittersweet end - its breaking conclusion to a entropic hope-and-despair, love-and-death, decay-and-life cycle - or none of the above, is subjective and up to the people reading.
Like the whole of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'; where the fan discussions and debates - originating from the 2011 anime at its inception, its subsequent manga adaptations and spinoffs, and other media - oh, and fanfiction - will continue on, never truly ending.
And that is the truest hope - that people will keep on loving the magical girl series that quickly became a classic; time after time, generation after generation.
'The Very Soil: An Unauthorized Critical Study of Puella Magi Madoka Magica' (2015) by Jed A. Blue is a well written little book, containing his 'Madoka Magica' essays, exploring the themes and ideas of the original twelve-episode anime, three of its manga spinoff titles, and finally, the 'Rebellion' movie. It is full of clever and thought-provoking observations, analyses and critiques.
There are a few confusing typos, and the author doesn't always do a good job of explaining things, but I can forgive these flaws easily for an unauthorised piece of work (and also, every piece of work is flawed, as every person who writes them is flawed and human). It is a work of passion, of the heart as well as the mind.
I don't always agree with Jed A. Blue, but I can understand and respect his views and stances. I'll leave other readers to check out his book, and take away from it whatever they like, and judge for themselves whether his examinations of the work of art that is 'Madoka Magica' - from both a classical literary and pop culture study and standpoint - still hold up after 2015.
It certainly shows its age when it doesn't take streaming platforms and services into account when discussing storytelling and ways to preserve and consume media (page 116).
Thank you Jed A. Blue, also, for enlightening me on the difference between saving someone and helping
someone. Knowing the distinction between the two is realising where true equality, love, care, respect, empathy, and consent lie.
Through all the deconstruction and Faustian talk and Buddhism and karma and cause-and-effect and postmodernism and Havel and depression and feminism and putrefaction and paper theatre and commedia dell'arte and abstraction and Kanon (a bodhisattva) and moe and 'The Nutcracker' and 'Paradise Lost', what is 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' really, ultimately about?
It is about life, the universe, and everything.
Above all, it is about people.
Flawed, desperate, ordinary people, living their life within unfair and unjust systems that do not care for them; that literally do not care whether they live or not. Where people are made ignorant and oblivious, and worse still, disposable, without their informed knowledge and consent, as part of a "greater good" and necessary evil in how their economies work. These villainous, fascistic, authoritarian systems, and their toxic, rotten, exploitative, abusive practices, will only crumble and decay by the people's full awareness, and choice to try to take back their power and autonomy, and break out. It's their choice, their motive, to keep persisting in their selfless, empathic goals again and again, no matter what, exposing the façade of the system's fearmongering power along the way, and revealing the truth. Thus, ensuring its end.
Thus, true freedom from tyranny, oppression, depression and despair is achieved, at last.
Hope does not reach its end. It has always been there, within all of us, within every human who has ever suffered from an evil system. It has always been there to drive us, to do and be better people.
Hope is a cycle. A law of cycles. It will forever have its beginnings, and no lasting ends.
Again and again, the struggle continues, through ups and downs, and highs and lows.
And that makes hope - and life - all the more worthwhile; to keep going, to keep moving forward, to keep trying.
To keep changing.
For the sake of equality, and empathy (not entropy).
To conclude October Magica:
It has been great, revisiting this amazing, revolutionary, cosmic and epic series, that transcends the magical girl genre - even its own deconstruction - and transforms into something much, much more: a new genre, a new story, and a new mythology of its own.
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic and madly overdramatic, it is a work of fiction that manages to transcend fiction, in its bold reflection of humanity, and go beyond time and space (within its own context this makes sense). It is a magical media series that is almost universally beloved, which for a franchise starring, and majorly populated by, female characters, in a patriarchal world and system, is a miracle in of itself.
'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' is a goddess of a series.
Because of series like 'Madoka Magica', 'Revolutionary Girl Utena', 'Princess Tutu', 'Sailor Moon', and the celestial, fairy tale, girl power ilk, I am happy and proud to be a magical girl fan. I feel honoured to be part of the fandom.
Blessed be the power of the feminine to save and help the world.
Blessed be, Madoka Kaname. Aka, Godoka. Aka, Madokami.
Aka, Madokanon.
And Homura Akemi...?
'The projector winds to a stop.' ('The Very Soil', page 74)
for now
'[...] this is a series about entropy and decay, depression and despair, [...] But it's easy to forget that it's about other things, too, and by turning us against ourselves it reminds us of those other things.
This isn't just about Buddhism, or German literature, or the magical girl genre. It isn't just about entropy and suffering, or just about thematic complexity or the possible psychological issues of its implied, gestalt author [Gen Urobuchi]. It isn't even just about characters, blobs of light and color created by animators and voiced by actors. It's also about us, our fears and hopes, our wishes and despair, our capacity for empathy.
In the end, as in the beginning, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a story about people.' (page 136)
(Also, how the cover depicts Mami Tomoe is just too cruel.)
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
A really interesting - if really short - study of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' and its spin-off manga titles and movies.
Separated by linear, themed chapters and parts, 'The Very Soil' is immensely clever throughout. Any 'Madoka' fan can learn more, and start a lot of discussions from what's talked about in its pages.
Basically, as well as a feminist analysis and a confident critique on what roles the characters play in the stories, the little book interprets 'Madoka Magica' as ultimately being about depression; from the series' signs focusing on what it humanly means to lose hope as well as to have it. Are there such things as selflessness, selfless love and a perfect world, for example. 'The Very Soil' goes on to connect the anime's dark themes to how life can be born from despair, death and decay, and how life has no meaning, yet still bears fruit (and cheese). But fundamentally it's about people - the characters within the revolutionary magical girl franchise, and the people in its fandom and in everyday living.
Living in whatever (if any) fixed systems of the universe.
'The Very Soil' also makes comparisons to other magical girl shows such as 'Cardcaptor Sakura', 'Sailor Moon' and 'Revolutionary Girl Utena'; and the ways 'Madoka' mirrors, parodies and subverts their elements.
Though 'The Very Soil' could have been organised and packaged better, even for something independently published and unauthorised. Plus it is rather personal and subjectively written. But the author, Jed A. Blue, is a blogger, and I appreciate his efforts. I think each of his critical essays in 'The Very Soil' are worth good marks for any academic course.
Final Score: 4/5
Through all the deconstruction and Faustian talk and Buddhism and karma and cause-and-effect and postmodernism and Havel and depression and feminism and putrefaction and paper theatre and commedia dell'arte and abstraction and Kanon (a bodhisattva) and moe and 'The Nutcracker' and 'Paradise Lost', what is 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' really, ultimately about?
It is about life, the universe, and everything.
Above all, it is about people.
Flawed, desperate, ordinary people, living their life within unfair and unjust systems that do not care for them; that literally do not care whether they live or not. Where people are made ignorant and oblivious, and worse still, disposable, without their informed knowledge and consent, as part of a "greater good" and necessary evil in how their economies work. These villainous, fascistic, authoritarian systems, and their toxic, rotten, exploitative, abusive practices, will only crumble and decay by the people's full awareness, and choice to try to take back their power and autonomy, and break out. It's their choice, their motive, to keep persisting in their selfless, empathic goals again and again, no matter what, exposing the façade of the system's fearmongering power along the way, and revealing the truth. Thus, ensuring its end.
Thus, true freedom from tyranny, oppression, depression and despair is achieved, at last.
Hope does not reach its end. It has always been there, within all of us, within every human who has ever suffered from an evil system. It has always been there to drive us, to do and be better people.
Hope is a cycle. A law of cycles. It will forever have its beginnings, and no lasting ends.
Again and again, the struggle continues, through ups and downs, and highs and lows.
And that makes hope - and life - all the more worthwhile; to keep going, to keep moving forward, to keep trying.
To keep changing.
For the sake of equality, and empathy (not entropy).
To conclude October Magica:
It has been great, revisiting this amazing, revolutionary, cosmic and epic series, that transcends the magical girl genre - even its own deconstruction - and transforms into something much, much more: a new genre, a new story, and a new mythology of its own.
At the risk of sounding hyperbolic and madly overdramatic, it is a work of fiction that manages to transcend fiction, in its bold reflection of humanity, and go beyond time and space (within its own context this makes sense). It is a magical media series that is almost universally beloved, which for a franchise starring, and majorly populated by, female characters, in a patriarchal world and system, is a miracle in of itself.
'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' is a goddess of a series.
Because of series like 'Madoka Magica', 'Revolutionary Girl Utena', 'Princess Tutu', 'Sailor Moon', and the celestial, fairy tale, girl power ilk, I am happy and proud to be a magical girl fan. I feel honoured to be part of the fandom.
Blessed be the power of the feminine to save and help the world.
Blessed be, Madoka Kaname. Aka, Godoka. Aka, Madokami.
Aka, Madokanon.
And Homura Akemi...?
'The projector winds to a stop.' ('The Very Soil', page 74)
'[...] this is a series about entropy and decay, depression and despair, [...] But it's easy to forget that it's about other things, too, and by turning us against ourselves it reminds us of those other things.
This isn't just about Buddhism, or German literature, or the magical girl genre. It isn't just about entropy and suffering, or just about thematic complexity or the possible psychological issues of its implied, gestalt author [Gen Urobuchi]. It isn't even just about characters, blobs of light and color created by animators and voiced by actors. It's also about us, our fears and hopes, our wishes and despair, our capacity for empathy.
In the end, as in the beginning, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a story about people.' (page 136)
(Also, how the cover depicts Mami Tomoe is just too cruel.)
Final Score: 4/5
Original Review:
A really interesting - if really short - study of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' and its spin-off manga titles and movies.
Separated by linear, themed chapters and parts, 'The Very Soil' is immensely clever throughout. Any 'Madoka' fan can learn more, and start a lot of discussions from what's talked about in its pages.
Basically, as well as a feminist analysis and a confident critique on what roles the characters play in the stories, the little book interprets 'Madoka Magica' as ultimately being about depression; from the series' signs focusing on what it humanly means to lose hope as well as to have it. Are there such things as selflessness, selfless love and a perfect world, for example. 'The Very Soil' goes on to connect the anime's dark themes to how life can be born from despair, death and decay, and how life has no meaning, yet still bears fruit (and cheese). But fundamentally it's about people - the characters within the revolutionary magical girl franchise, and the people in its fandom and in everyday living.
Living in whatever (if any) fixed systems of the universe.
'The Very Soil' also makes comparisons to other magical girl shows such as 'Cardcaptor Sakura', 'Sailor Moon' and 'Revolutionary Girl Utena'; and the ways 'Madoka' mirrors, parodies and subverts their elements.
Though 'The Very Soil' could have been organised and packaged better, even for something independently published and unauthorised. Plus it is rather personal and subjectively written. But the author, Jed A. Blue, is a blogger, and I appreciate his efforts. I think each of his critical essays in 'The Very Soil' are worth good marks for any academic course.
Final Score: 4/5
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