As we make our way through our tenth anniversary year, I’ll be doing throwback posts each month to some of noteworthy posts. For our first month, we go to Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
When I started this site, I had an the idea of using anime as a device to speak about faith, but I wasn’t clear how I would do that. If you read my initial attempts, some were structured in complex ways; other were clumsy attempts and combining the two topics. It wasn’t until Madoka came along that I found a structure which I would employ over and over again. It was the perfect series for us, one that contained plenty to discuss, which captured the imagination of anime fans and other bloggers, and which was rich with themes that brought to mind the teachings and life of Christ.
Episode 12, released near Easter of 2011, was the culmination of all that was exciting in the series from a spiritual and fan perspective. The piece I wrote about the episode was by no means a great work, but it was significant for the blog—not only did it help funnel us toward a specific style and approach, but it was the most read article we had, and remained so for quite a long time afterward, drawing all sorts of eyes to our page.
So thank you, Madoka, not only for saving the magical girls—but helping us as well.
This year, we continue to focus on Madoka through the game adaptation / spin-off series, Magia Record. Though it won’t be consequential to our side as PMMM was, and is very unlikely to make the sort of impact its predecessor did, I’m excited for its production, and am enjoying digging into that show as well. After all—and for good reason—we are crazy for Madoka around here.
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Featured illustration by 薯子Imoko (artist allows reprints)
[…] am of course talking about Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this season. It was the fifth anime series I ever watched, and the one that led me on the path that […]