What can I say so far? It seems to be a very typical magic girl anime, at least from what the first episode has given me. You’ve got the normal change scene, similar other magic anime I’ve seen in the past, like Sailor Moon. You’ve also got the cute contractor, a fairly commonly used trope in Magic girl anime. To explain, for some reason or another, these girls are called upon to save the world, in some form or another. They usually are contacted by some creature, typically some form of cat. This one is no different.
The only thing I’ve noticed thus far is the anime seems to be very self-aware. The first example of this comes when one of the character’s is talking to another about the new girl in class, to which the main character says something very airy and plot-driven, to which another replies, “You’re acting like a character in an anime!”. Later, another brief moment of self awareness is brought to the table when they meet one of the magic girls, dressed in her changed clothes. One of the girls turns around and says, “What’s with that girl? Now she’s attacking people in cosplay!” The mention of both of these proves the show is at the very least aware of its audience, and I’m hoping this shines through more as the series progresses.
In terms of proper artwork, I think the animation style in this one is pretty unique. The girls encounter what they call a “witch”, and the animation style overlaps typical “anime” style animation with drastically different art styles, very abstract and defined. I am curious to see how they play with this. By that I mean, if they are going to use the same type of abstract art or if they will play with various art styles in those scenes.
The characters are fairly concrete, Madoka being innocent but thoughtful, Sayaki being tough and protective, Homura being mysterious and lofty with an agenda yet unknown. I’m interested to see these characters develop.
My only concern for this series is the same of that I had on my original watch of Sailor Moon. I don’t want to watch something that gives the main character something new to fight every episode for the sake of episodes, and lacks deep and thoughtful plot development. (To clarify here, I’m not saying Sailor Moon lacked plot development, just that that was the impression I received from it.)