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EP. REVIEW: Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story


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Wtv



Joined: 02 Nov 2014
Posts: 157
PostPosted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:31 pm Reply with quote
vonPeterhof wrote:
Yuvelir wrote:
And both are called exactly the same and only the localization is making a difference. Unless the game really does something like calling them 噂 and ウワサ separately.
Right now we have "rumors", "Rumors" and "Uwasa" and it feels stupid.
I haven't played the game in either Japanese or English, but from what I've managed to gather the Japanese uses all three of 噂, うわさ and ウワサ. Not sure if the distinction is ever actually spelled out, but I've seen speculation by Japanese users that the hiragana spelling refers to the place the unsuspecting people are trapped in, while the katakana refers to the entity that controls it and needs to be defeated (i.e. the distinction between a witch's labyrinth and the witch itself). Judging by the usage on the Japanese Wikipedia page, the kanji is used just for the regular noun literally meaning "rumor".


The hiragana writing is the actual rumor. The "magic" working, we could say.
The katakana writing is the monster protecting the rumor.
The kanji stopped being used early on.
But in the end, the characters are always saying the same word: "Uwasa". The text is just written differently so we know what they're speaking about. Using a different word in English is just weird. I don't think it would hurt understanding calling it all "Rumor" in the anime.
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Shaterri



Joined: 03 Jan 2008
Posts: 173
PostPosted: Sun Feb 23, 2020 6:58 pm Reply with quote
There's a very subtle bit of cleverness in episode eight. During Iroha's flashback, Touka is talking about the odds that the four of them would have met. spoiler[The board behind her with all the calculations, though, appears to be talking about the probability of three people (out of 40 million or so) meeting...]
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 3:39 pm Reply with quote
Shaterri wrote:
There's a very subtle bit of cleverness in episode eight. During Iroha's flashback, Touka is talking about the odds that the four of them would have met. spoiler[The board behind her with all the calculations, though, appears to be talking about the probability of three people (out of 40 million or so) meeting...]


Yeah, those scenes have been pretty interesting as an anime only watcher and I am glad I ran away from the game/manga's spoilers.
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Shaterri



Joined: 03 Jan 2008
Posts: 173
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2020 4:14 pm Reply with quote
I have to say that knowing the rough plot of the mobile game (at least the English version, which is currently at the end of the penultimate chapter of the first storyline; I haven't spoiled myself on the ending yet, but I know roughly what the size of it must be) the pacing is very strange. It's hard to imagine that they really expect to finish even this first core storyline in 13 episodes; I'm really left wondering if they've been planning on having a two-cours series the whole time, and trusting in the Power Of The License to carry them past the first cours.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:40 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Still, if Magia Record cut out the most indulgent of the atmospheric asides this week and allowed the Rumor conflict to fully get started before the credits rolled, I'd wager this episode would be twice as strong, and with only half of the fat.

I strongly disagree.
IMO this is by far the strongest episode in the series so far and that is by no small measure because of how it handles the atmosphere. Starting with a normal tone and getting creepier and more alienating as the episodes advances, Iroha learns about the three rumours, feels increasingly isolated form her class (which admittedly is an empty affair as this had never bothered her character, she's a loner... most mahou shoujo are) and the rumors slowly tie together into one single unsettling occurence. With only Felicia serving as an anchor to reality, which I guess might play a part next week when we fully learn about Sana's disappearence. The music score was anything by subtle: a lot of silence to detach Iroha from reality interweaved with explicitly creepy tracks. And finally the visuals also play their part, with even more uncomfortable angles and framing than usual and the Monogatari-esque presentation of the radio tower increasing the amount of graves, gallows and weeping angels the longer Iroha lingered there (I think this is not supposed to be a labyrinth yet?).

Take that away and the episode crumbles into dust under the generic MotW format. Getting to the point and being concrete might sate curiosity but it doesn't make for a good tale.
Also, I finally managed to connect with Iroha, which so far was little more than a convenient camera, which to a great extent is due to how hard the episode tries to make the viewer empathize with her and her mood.
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Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 2:18 pm Reply with quote
I'm sorry spoiler[ Alina is the main villain]
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 2:50 pm Reply with quote
I was completely invested in this episode.
Then that SAO-tier campy villain completely took me out of it. Sure, some antagonistic force was needed to give a strong motivation for that "the deed must be done now" moment, but did that 'something' really need to be so noisy, annoying and mood-breaking?
Fortunately the episode was so well done that ultimately it managed to get me back in, but Alina Gray was a major crease in an otherwise very smooth episode.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 5:02 pm Reply with quote
someone in my timeline referred to aline as blonde homura and I just can't unsee her as that.
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otakunomike



Joined: 20 Dec 2011
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I'll be honest: I'm not entirely sure what this means for where Magia Record falls within the Madoka Magica timeline, or if Mami's involvement with Magius means that this story must take place in an totally new, alternate universe.


The quick answer to this is its in either an alternate universe, or one of the early timeperiods that Homura resets. The game actually has Homura (in her glasses and braids form) and Madoka join Iroha during this arc as they look for Mami who Alina taunts them about feeding to a Witch (so her joining them in the anime is weird) making all of the original girls having appeared at some point.
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Everlasting Coconut



Joined: 22 Jul 2019
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 11:02 pm Reply with quote
This show has way more characters than it knows what to do with and mysteries that are convoluted and frustrating rather than intriguing. Its only strong point is the Madoka Magica aesthetic, but with only 3 episodes left, no amount of visual spectacle will save this fundamentally boring story.

Last edited by Everlasting Coconut on Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 2:01 am Reply with quote
It says a lot when it feels like the big main plot is getting in the way of the small side story. It's just so dull and convoluted.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2858
PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:44 am Reply with quote
Quote:
t I'll be sad to see things fall apart when the story takes its inevitable turn. That's got to happen sooner or later, right? This is still Madoka Magica after all,


Well, going by what other spinoffs have done, they don't get as dark as the original madoka, though the turns were still interesting, like the one having a team of strong magical girls forcing weakre girl to become fodder magical by having them choose between making a contract with qb or getting killed; which works onders for qb because he is not the one forcing them.

I for one find it fresh that the witch thing has still not become too important since ir seemed very central to most of the spinoffs but the one wiht the super weird artstyle.

otakunomike wrote:
Quote:
I'll be honest: I'm not entirely sure what this means for where Magia Record falls within the Madoka Magica timeline, or if Mami's involvement with Magius means that this story must take place in an totally new, alternate universe.


The quick answer to this is its in either an alternate universe, or one of the early timeperiods that Homura resets. The game actually has Homura (in her glasses and braids form) and Madoka join Iroha during this arc as they look for Mami who Alina taunts them about feeding to a Witch (so her joining them in the anime is weird) making all of the original girls having appeared at some point.

I remember reading in release materials previous to the anime, that they were going to turn that plot point on it's head, as things ahve developed that looks very convincing as it feels liek a good way to add a cliffhanger to this season.

spoiler[ In the articles, they mention that parallel to iroha loking for ui, madoka is searching for homura, so I guess they can end the season with madoka's introduction.
]
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Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:54 pm Reply with quote
Yes, James, this is two cours, which also happens to be a split-cour that will likely air a season or two seasons (Shaft is also producing Assault Lily in July) later.

But I heard from my friends that the story has changed a lot from the Original mobile game, so the plot progression and pacing becomes unpredictable even for mobile game players.
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Yuvelir



Joined: 06 Jan 2015
Posts: 1529
PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 1:16 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Then there's the fact that she has a job as a fashion model and goes to school separately from the other girls – a college perhaps?

Yes. "Daigakou" Yachiyo explicitly says. The subs just didn't bother using the correct term.
It has been more than hinted at - Yachiyo has been managing that house for years, her goal together with Mifuyu was to reach adulthood, the way she dresses is distinctly adult (as well as her general demeanor) and the ending is riddled with hints, including a birthday cake with 18 candles. All of which make her mahou shoujo ring look more like a wedding ring if I might say.
I don't know why the series decided to be kinda subtle for this decidedly important detail but that's how it is.
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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2377
PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 7:56 pm Reply with quote
Engineering Nerd wrote:
But I heard from my friends that the story has changed a lot from the Original mobile game, so the plot progression and pacing becomes unpredictable even for mobile game players.


It follows the main plot in order, going from chapter to chapter, so it's definitely possible to predict that this season will end at the end of the game's chapter 6 or 7. It's the smaller details that have been rearranged or changed, like Mami revealing herself to align with the bad guys (which was revealed a bit later) and stuff.

Honestly, I find the game's story mode to be much better written than the anime in regards to these first several chapters. The game just has more details and moments to learn about the characters, giving them a bit more depth. The anime, on the other hand, seems pressed for time. Arc 1 is 10 chapters long and this first cour seems to be splitting up the series disproportionately so that the second cour can tackle the most exciting parts of the story with more detail. Another possibility is tha't they'll actually start arc 2 in the anime's second cour, ending on a cliffhanger. Personally, I'm hoping for the former, not the latter. Chapter 6 ends with no new details and chapter 7 ends with more questions than answers, so don't expect too much yet.
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