Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Not So Deep
People who think Madoka is SODEEP are astutely inadequate and should seek immediate enlightenment on story comprehension and analysis to discern between intellectual anime and pretentious drivel.
The next time you come across a Madoka discussion, look at the responses and the asinine enthusiasm that accompany it.
Most of the respondents have blatant misspellings in their posts. Capitalisation and punctuation are omitted, and Youtube-style idiocy is emphasised. There are also excessive usage of emoticons and memes that serve to highlight the paradoxical relationship between the show’s supposedly “mature” themes and the fanbase’s immaturity.
This surmises the low intelligence level of Madoka fans, though it is not entirely their fault.
Madoka is simply a story that was widely perceived as SODEEP and plot-twisty. However, most people have seen this strategy in the forms of books, movies, real life, or some other medium.
The SODEEP and WHAT A TWEEEEEEST anime has been done countless times, and the single death of an over-dramatised character should no longer affect the intellectual in a drastic way.
However, Madoka's target audience consists of the blissfully uninformed who have never experienced forms of higher literature or story. If one were to watch Madoka without having experienced stories with pretentiousness in them, they would use Madoka as the base value for the genre. However, if one were more educated on the aspects of bullshitting and pandering to the audience, one would regard Madoka as a poor attempt to insert symbolism where there should be none.
Once the pretension and twists are removed, the remaining dregs are composed of cute girls and cheaply rendered backgrounds. Essentially, this is what Madoka is to the educated and informed: a simple show which has no appeal whatsoever. However, to the uneducated, Madoka represents a chance to make themselves seem SODEEP.
Although one can regard a new discovery as wonderful, I would advise one to not think that their new discoveries are SODEEP. There is no point fawning over a single anime which ended its broadcast a week ago. I would suggest that, instead of partaking in yet another discussion on Madoka, one should go watch some more anime. Or, better yet, read a book
P.S Credits to my bro Hoshi for hipterising the eyecatch featuring the cast.
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April 26th, 2011 - 00:54
cool story, bro
April 26th, 2011 - 01:15
Praise be our Goddess Madoka!
Remember Her for She died for our sins and gave us Hope in return.
April 26th, 2011 - 01:18
Entropy can’t decrease in the universe
Emotion =/= energy
DEEP THEORETICAL PHYSICS CONCEPTS YOU NEVER HEARD OF
April 26th, 2011 - 01:20
Madoka, deep? Who really thinks it was deep? It was just well-executed, a perfect Shaft show (or as perfect as their shows get). Sure, you’ll find droves of otaku fawning over it and pretending it’s a philosophically blockbuster, but it’s just the usual otaku fan-wank/circlejerk. Let the kids have their fun – they also thought Railgun was thought-provoking because zomg it had stuff about drugs.
April 26th, 2011 - 01:55
>blockbuster
>deep
hahahah
April 26th, 2011 - 01:49
“People who think Madoka is SODEEP are *astutely inadequate.*”
Astutely inadequate? does that even make sense?
“look at the responses and the asinine enthusiasm that accompany it.”
I am seeing your misplaced enthusiasm right now in your post. Can’t say that your enthusiasm bellies intellect, sadly.
“Capitalisation and punctuation are omitted, and Youtube-style idiocy is emphasised.”
A case of the pot calling the kettle black.
“However, Madoka’s target audience consists of the blissfully uninformed who have never experienced forms of higher literature or story.”
Considering that you’ve a website dedicated to (and you’re fan of ) anime, might it be too much of stretch to say that you’re just as ignorant “of higher literature,” as your audience?
“I wish to be the little girl, humiliated, forced into submission and made to sexually service a large group of strong men, being a cumdumpster for them to punish me as they please and use me in ways that hurt.”
ha,ha, ‘educated’…how pathetic.
April 26th, 2011 - 04:00
Yeah? Well that’s just like, your opinion, man.
April 26th, 2011 - 04:43
Shinbo: “Problem?”
April 26th, 2011 - 05:22
No appeal indeed.
We shall see how much appeal it has when the numbers for the sales of the BDs come in.(It should be A LOT).
Admit it, you just don’t like it because it doesn’t have what you like, right?
April 26th, 2011 - 06:25
I thought it has many yuri undertones already.
I guess the Kannazuki no Miko homage in the space wasn’t enough for him.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:06
10,000,000 Madoka fanart and not one Kannazuki no Miko parody. If it existed, I wouldn’t be anywhere near this butthurt!
April 26th, 2011 - 05:44
Comprehension and analysis, intellectual anime, asinine enthusiasm, paradoxical relationship, immaturity?
This post in a nutshell reads: “I’m too S-M-R-T Smart for this anime.”
“Everyone enjoyed Madoka but when you comprehensively analyze the intellectuality behind the paradoxical relationship between the show and the immaturity of its fans you can conclude that the show isn’t that great.” <—-REALLY?
Your ANALYSIS took the deepness, and plot twists of the show that everyone loved about the show, and said its not that great because the show without it isn't that great. Like taking a great tasting meal, taking away the sauce and toppings and saying "ha! see? not so great without it huh?"
Madoka had deepness, it had twists, but that doesn't make it a good anime because twists and deep plots have been done before? So you remove those things to analyze it too?
Anything is worse when you remove things from it, especially its advantages.
I'd use an emoticon to display my emotions, but that might make this post look "immature".
Your "NOT SO DEEP" post is pretentious.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:09
April 26th, 2011 - 05:50
jsut bcus i hv bd spplelng diuuesnt men i stupd1! i hhnve onlyl 2 finrgrs so ij cnnt tyipe 2 fvst
Madoka didn’t insert symbolism itself – you’re saying it’s bad because of the only reason it’s good.
Yeah, that’s right – it was good because it was, really, a pile of nothing, that became amazing through its fanbase. If you look at it from the producer’s view, they just had to go with one plot/timeline, and ten times that became speculah from the fanbase, that only increased its potential. One of the reasons anime is engrossing is through user interaction – people /like/ it when they can say random crap and try to predict what happens next episode; it gives them a feeling of /power/. When something is like any other anime that can be easily predicted, people don’t want to participate in predicting because there’s nothing to predict.
Madoka’s excellence was in making these twists, that, though they may not have been huge twists, engrossed the audience and inflated their standings of the show. Partly through luck (or else, if nobody watched it and said random speculah to begin with, nobody would watch it and say more random speculah to end with), and partly through the first concept (Mami’s early death played a key role in this), Madoka rose from just a normal anime that happened to contain magical girls, to a trope-reversing magical girl story, that happened to be an anime.
tl;dr what the heck am I saying I don’t even
Also, I admit it, I’m participating in the fanbase as well.
Join the Church. http://j.mp/hu7DQU
April 26th, 2011 - 05:50
http://www.tsurupeta.info/content/how-to-write-your-own-blog-post-on-moe-decadence
“Among those, a particularly exclusive group is the bloggers you could call intellectual aestheticians, who unironically judge anime based on its adherence to (their understanding of) the conventional canons of high culture. ”
Madoka wasn’t really moe, but this post describes what you posted to your site.
April 26th, 2011 - 06:20
So I’m a person with a low intellectual level just because I liked it? Shin you are so mean T_T
April 26th, 2011 - 07:04
One more time. WHO IS MADOKA?
If people want it deep, understand this: No one remembers Madoka after her wish unless your name is Akemi Homura.
Sad to say since Shin probably is the Murdoch of the Blog-team but… Shin is the only one that hasn’t gone ga-ga over this show.
Now… more Misha x Koboshi.
April 26th, 2011 - 07:10
Didn’t take long for the “no, YOU’RE pretentious!” crowd to show up, did it? Successful troll is successful?
I think Madoka will have been worthwhile if it gets a few people to read Faust and other classic works. That’s why I’m not as critical about it as other “pretentious” bloggers (ie, ones who dare suggest Madoka is overhyped).
We all know that almost everyone defending Madoka now are mostly just happy they have been able to ride the wave of it’s popularity, and will poke their heads out once in a while to remind the world they were there when it was big.
Everyone’s pretentious about Madoka in some way. I salute you for bravely standing up and saying that Madoka ITSELF was pretentious (it was, but I argue that it had to be or it wouldn’t have been popular).
April 26th, 2011 - 07:12
PS… waitaminute did Shin say… go read a book?!?!?
April 26th, 2011 - 08:33
In a local forum I frequent, there’s a discussion on “How do you like the Madoka ending?”
I gave the show an A.
Precisely because it has surpassed my [b]non-existent standard[/b] for magical girl show. (Never a fan of the genre, and never will be)
While Madoka is not the deepest show, it does offer a fresh take on the genre. I particularly pick up watching it because I like to see overly-optimistic loli girls get fooled, mind raped and had their hope crushed. (yes I start when people are screaming about ep3 murder
) Unsurprisingly a lot of fans would be caught off guard this dramatic and violent story.
Also, it is worth mentioning how so many recent anime titles are of soul-crushingly poor writing. It’s very hard for me to find a series that is not flooded with cliches; characters engaging in stupid conversation, behave in a totally idiotic way, etc etc. In this regard, Madoka is above-average because its approach is fresh (for an anime that is!) and its execution tight. Even the soundtrack has a unique charm.
I do feel that anime fans nowadays are quite easy to please. (read = nonjudgmental and have low standard) And I am still in awe as to how the hell do they keep blogging about endless streams of mediocre or even crappy animes like Dog Days and call Nichijou a comedic genius. (They even shed tears for Madoka in the ending, wow)
Not to say they are wrong, of course. To each his own. But I really yearn for more well-written and innovative animes and LESS K-On.
Now back to watching Ano Hana
April 26th, 2011 - 11:20
Never saw Madoka but just wanted to give you a post… there you go!
April 26th, 2011 - 11:33
Post the hipstered up picture minus the text and you’re forgiven.
April 26th, 2011 - 11:39
>P.S Credits to my bro Hoshi for hipterising the eyecatch featuring the cast.
check the last sentence, bro
April 26th, 2011 - 11:37
madoka had a shitty end. everything leading up to 11 was awesome, but then they shat on the ending because “oh my god we’ll hurt peoples feelings.”
April 26th, 2011 - 11:46
A summary of this post and its comments: Trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls (infinite)
April 26th, 2011 - 13:21
At the brighter side, there are people who actually took the bait
April 26th, 2011 - 13:33
Lol didn’t know that this was a troll post XD
April 26th, 2011 - 12:54
Dad, weren’t you begging to return to the Church of Madoka after getting excommunicated by Kurogane?
I can link the Twitter conversation here if you want
http://twitter.com/#!/shinn87/status/62502726629728256
or if you delete your tweets
http://imgur.com/KkdSU
April 30th, 2011 - 18:03
Son, what did I tell you about embarrassing your father in public?
April 30th, 2011 - 19:09
Join me in the Church of Madoka H instead.
April 26th, 2011 - 16:55
It’s all spiral power, man, a spiral of talking and trolling. This is why I try to stay out of any online conversation I have a more than a two sentence opinion on.
April 26th, 2011 - 20:03
All anime watchers have the same, low IQ.
Cool story, bro.
April 26th, 2011 - 20:36
he needs futanari puella magi
April 26th, 2011 - 20:50
This post wasn’t an attempt at trolling.
This was Shin talking down to everyone.
People are saying it was an attempt at trolling so that no one will see that Shin just got choke slammed.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:03
You’re totally right. These assholes saying that I’m trolling are cramping my style here.
April 27th, 2011 - 00:33
I’m actually more interested in knowing what Rinko thought of Madoka since her tastes have been shown to be demonstrably superior based on her choice of husbando.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:02
She doesn’t quite like it as much, but certainly has a better opinion about this show than me. After all, this pales in comparison to her single handed effort of propelling the genre to where it is via her mahou shoujo series in the 90′s. I think you know which one it is!
April 27th, 2011 - 01:49
SODEEP
TWEEEEEEEEEEST
April 27th, 2011 - 04:30
Lol, I like how some people took Shin seriously.
April 27th, 2011 - 06:35
Gosh. I just LOLLED at this post for being so ridiculous.
And I found a few punctuation errors~ : 3
Symbolism is never deep. Most writers are losers who think they can go SODEEP. Why’d you waste your time writing such a silly rant when it is so obvious that you’re overestimating yourself or why waste your time writing a post to troll.
Whichever.
Go and hate on my lack of English skill, I’m not native and I’m terrible with grammar in any language.
Yet, I can get into university in the Netherlands, hurray for my brains.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:05
English isn’t exactly my first language either, but I try!
April 27th, 2011 - 07:50
Madoka is not SODEEP. It’s SOWIDE.
Proof: http://www.atalude.net/2011/01/14/puella-magi-madoka-magica-02-quite-the-stretch/
April 27th, 2011 - 09:39
I lol’ed SOHARD.
….Ok mine didn’t sound funny.
April 27th, 2011 - 14:32
I think you mean SOFUNNY
April 27th, 2011 - 19:13
your sohard sounds… ero
April 30th, 2011 - 13:09
I’m SODEEP into Madoka (*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ (*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ
Now THAT sounds ero (ﾟヮﾟ)
April 30th, 2011 - 17:45
See Shin’s twit: I want to Tiro Finale inside Mami http://twitgoo.com/28nwc8
April 27th, 2011 - 09:42
Misguided sheep, The loving Madokami loves you all the same! Come! Embrace her love and be surrounded by it! Repent! Repent!
P.S.: I lol’ed so hard at all the “Madoka is SRSBSNSS” and “UMAD” responses lol
April 27th, 2011 - 21:23
People obviously didn’t look at the tags for this post XD Maybe they’re new to Atalude.net, otherwise they probably would’ve had suspicions on the actual seriousness of this post.
April 28th, 2011 - 12:16
I DEMAND MORE LOLI POSTS!
and a sandwich.
But yeah, getting down to business, I didn’t think people thought it was particularly deep or even plot twisting. Most of it was predictable from several episodes out, and anyone who was remotely familiar with Urobuchi’s style knew it wasn’t going to be a happy story from the get go.
About the only twist I saw in it was being surprised that Urobuchi ended a story on a (comparatively to his other works) happy note.
Anyone who thought it was particularly “deep” or super awe-inspiring is operating on pretty flawed logic or at least lacks experience, but as for the show itself I found it to be simply an enjoyable A-/B+ list series.
…..
Disregard that, just noticed the tags, oh lol….
April 28th, 2011 - 18:35
I didn’t even watch this series and I agree with you.
April 29th, 2011 - 21:20
madoka is sodeep, just like im sodeep.
April 30th, 2011 - 17:12
Madoka was deep… before Madoka Decided to become god.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:11
Let’s put it this way, if you like this show you are either a) pretentious or b) a paedophile. Since most people would not admit to the latter, then they are certainly watching this for the wrong reasons
April 30th, 2011 - 19:07
I like Astarotte no Omocha becuase it’s deeper and there Kugyukarin. FFS… everyone who watches anime is a lolicon/shotacon. Just a matter of whether you are open or in the closet about it.
April 30th, 2011 - 18:14
@Di Gi Kazune – DiGi why aren’t you on Twitter?
April 30th, 2011 - 19:04
BECAUSE…. BECAUSE… BECAUSE…
Because I have a choice not to?
May 3rd, 2011 - 09:39
“There are also excessive usage of emoticons and memes that serve to highlight the paradoxical relationship between the show’s supposedly “mature” themes and the fanbase’s immaturity.”
—>
“There is also excessive usage of emoticons and memes that serve to highlight the paradoxical relationship between the show’s supposedly “mature” themes and the fanbase’s immaturity.”
;)
May 15th, 2011 - 06:48
A re-read of this article.
It’s actually hilarious haha!
SODEEP ~ Imma use that for other stuff .
The show goes pretty deep, but my philosphy exam will go deeper.
OMG – that reminds me of Utena’s elevator scenes.
GO DEEPER. DEEPERRRRR.
:3 yeah lol’d.
But I still stay with the fact that symbolism never goes very deep ~ it just refers to other stuff.
Philosophy in Madoka. Meh. lolz.
Now back to Al Farabi~
August 22nd, 2011 - 16:30
Idiot, just saying.
August 27th, 2011 - 03:27
Why so hateful? D:
Puella Magi is probably the most influential and brilliant anime since Neon Genesis Evangelion, do some research to find what people like Mamoru Oshii and others have to say about it.
October 24th, 2011 - 23:36
The next time you come across a Madoka discussion, look at the responses and the asinine arrogance that accompany it.
Most of the respondents employ blatant thesaurus abuse. A genuinely good argument is omitted, and intellectual arrogance emphasised. There is also excessive usage of hollow arguments that serve to highlight the paradoxical relationship between the writer’s supposedly “mature” discussion and the childlike use of both capitalisation and implied superiority over others discussing the show.