AGP#038 – The Evangelion of Anime (Madoka Magica Review)

What? Huh? What’s a podcast? I’m not even sure anymore. But
luckily David Estrella is here to help re-discover the true
meaning of podcasting in the latest episode of the Ani-Gamers
Podcast. Unfortunately, he doesn’t help me remember to introduce
myself. Whoops!


In this episode, we talk about crying anime girls, genre
deconstructions, and spurious voice acting performances as we
tackle the hugely popular magical girl anime Puella Magi Madoka
Magica. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen the show — we’ve
separated our spoiler talk into a separate section of the podcast
after the outro song. Everything in the main section is free of
Madoka spoilers (though we might slip in some spoilers for older
series on occasion).


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(Runtime: 1 hour, 36 minutes)



[0:00:00] Intro: “Kill Me” by Lame
Drivers


[0:00:17] Podcast-related news and
introductions! (Host Evan Minto forgot to introduce himself,
like an idiot.) We also talk about iDOLM@STER for a
bit since David reviewed it on the site.


[0:05:14] Madoka review starts. We
decide on not spoiling the series until the end of the show
(separated into a post-outro section).


[0:09:58] The fan culture around Madoka
is incredibly important to an understanding of the show, so we
take a good look at the zeitgeist.


[0:19:52] There’s a lot of suffering and
sadness in Madoka. Which parts worked, and which ones didn’t?


[0:23:53] The English dub has some
spectacular hits and embarrassing misses. We also describe the
fictional life story of Christina Vee.


[0:32:35] Madoka is undoubtedly a
deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but what does that
mean? Does it help or hurt the show? Evan says the word
“deconstruction” over and over without really explaining what
he’s talking about, so, uh… sorry about that. In this case he’s
basically talking about examining and taking apart a genre by
looking at the consequences of the fantasies inherent therein.


[0:43:04] Shaft and Akiyuki Shinbo are
known for their quirky art style. Is it appropriate for
Madoka’s ambitious narrative?


[1:02:44] We lay down some final thoughts
on Puella Magi Madoka Magica.


[1:05:35] Leave us a comment! Review us
on iTunes! Follow us on Twitter
(@AniGamers, @VamptVo, @QX_20XX)!


[1:09:38] Outro: “Kill Me” by Lame
Drivers


[1:09:59] David and Evan spoil the heck
out of Madoka Magica as they continue their
discussion of the series. Don’t listen past the end of the
outro song unless you’ve already seen Madoka or are OK with
having major plot twists spoiled. Also, uh, we kinda spoil some
stuff from Gurren Lagann and Serial Experiments Lain.
Sorry!