General Anime Discussion: Area 11

[Closet_Skeleton]

Of course the characters still look the same because its still an adaption of existing source material and all the character designs were done by Takeuchi Takashi.

Two studios interpretation of the same designs can be differant.

The only people who found Madoka to have mood whiplash were people who were uninformed about the show, intentionally misled about the show, or weren't paying attention.

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Sure it seems kind of obvious and full of death flags in retrospect,

That depends on the individual viewer. Some will see those at the time, some in retrospect. I saw them when I watched it but I first watched it last week, long after the hype had died down.

The list of characters that could have died early.

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Madoka - can't die yet because she hasn't done anything yet and is the protagonist.
Her family - Could have easily been killed off, but just weren't given the same kind of emotional focus as the other characters.
Homura (? the dark haired one, not good with names in this yet) - hasn't stopped being mysterious, so obviously isn't going to die yet.
The blue haired friend - could have been killed off, but they introduce her subplot with another character so you know she's not going to die until that subplot is either resolved or will create more drama by not being resolved.

Then Mami has:
No unresolved subplots with other characters except possibly Homura.
Is more powerful than every other character (at least appears to be before Homura actually starts fighting). Has a cooler fighting style and more unique character design that what we see of Madoka in the opening (I still have no idea what she'll be like when she gets magical powers. I even joked with my friends that she never will and that the show's title is a complete misnomer since there isn't a Madoka Magica).

I would have been surprised about it happening so early if I hadn't heard people keep saying "stuff happens in episode 3/4" (which I found wrong, not much surprising happens in episode 4) but as someone who looks for this things (which isn't always the best idea) I could see it.

As far as good stories with grimdark endings, Saya no Uta definitely comes to mind.

That's a horror story and not the kind that makes me want to experiance it. Also a visual novel with differant endings. No one stops after seeing their protagonist's hand disintegrate in Baldur's Gate 2 and decides that that's the true ending to the game. Okay they might if the game just frustates them but that's not my point.

I quite like Saishu heiki kanojo but don't find the ending to that 'grimdark' despite the fact that

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everyone but the protagonist dies and he's left to starve to death in an earth that's been reduced to wasteland

due to the tone of the ending. Kind of like how I don't find people dying at the end of Grave of the Fireflies that sad because that's not the worst thing that's happened to those people and nothing worse is going to happen after it.