F1RST IMPRESSIONS: Maria†Holic Alive

We continue our look at the newest anime shows for Spring 2011 with Maria†Holic Alive, a sequel to the Maria†Holic anime produced by SHAFT.

Storyline: 3

For those entering the show right in the middle, Maria†Holic covers the story of Kanako Miyamae, a second-year student who transfers to the hallowed halls of Ame-no-Kisaki Academy. While she is enraptured by the thought of falling in love like her parents did at Ame-no-Kisaki, a past incident has left her completely terrified of boys and head-over-heels in the thought of finding true love with another girl. However, in the ironic style that many anime shows embrace, the first person she meets and falls for is Mariya Shidō, a cross-dressing boy who gets sadistic pleasure out of masquerading as a petite and refined girl.

The entrance into the second season, Maria†Holic Alive, doesn't require much knowledge of the first. Just know this much: Kanako has managed to assemble a group of dependable friends, but her secret yuri affection for them makes her heart (and nose) bleed. Mariya, however, sees Kanako as both a danger to his identity and his personal plaything. When Kanako discovers the location of the tree under which her parents met, she's anxious to get under it with her own friends, only to find the tree is housed within the confines of a dangerous dorm filled with challenges. Will she overcome the obstacles to her heart? Will she find true love? Will Mariya actually stay away for an entire episode?

The concept of Maria†Holic Alive was fun to follow in the first season, so the second season could try to get down to business, but it's still a lot of fun to pick on poor Kanako. There's a good chance the show may just fiddle around with the players on the chessboard until the end of these 13 episodes. I'm torn on whether the show should remain comic or delve into drama, but so far the first episode is mindlessly fun.

Animation: 4

There is no doubt in my mind that animation studio SHAFT is the best at what they do, but that's not to say their expertise is in animation, per se. They provide some terrific openings and closing to keep the viewer's attention, and they don't always depend on sharp movement to animate their shows. Much like their productions of Bakemonogatari, Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica, SHAFT provides a sort of artistic animation in Maria†Holic Alive, one where still photography dominates the animation and minor movements are "filmed" at interesting angles. However, SHAFT also stays quite faithful to the original manga with some scenes dictated by Kanako's superdeformed reactions.

Characters: 3

The more I look at the character designs and make that association between SHAFT and Maria†Holic Alive, the more I see a Takarazuka performance that has been invaded by a fanatic stalker. If Kanako was erased from the show like a Garfield Minus Garfield strip, the characters would likely appear normal about 90% of the time. You do have some unique characters stemming from Mariya's sadism and her maid Matsurika's deadpan comic delivery, but this show centers around Kanako's priceless reactions. The other characters are just gravy.

Track: 4

Again, SHAFT's role as the adhesive for this show becomes a central point for the show, including its soundtrack. Composer Tetsuya Nishiwaki is retained from the first season for his services, so we get a good mix of background music and an opening theme that becomes a terrific parody of a live-action sentai song. This also means we should be getting a good ending theme for the show if the songs from the first season are any sort of barometer. The acting is good, but the use of the same voice actresses from past SHAFT shows has to make you wonder if they'll ever stray from the norm.

"Hype": 5

It's directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. It's produced by SHAFT. That alone should make your skin tingle like Kanako being touched by a male, but most of all, it's an Akiyuki Shinbo/SHAFT anime that's actually being streamed overseas.

Legally. That never happens.

Granted, that means you have to get a monthly subscription from The Anime Network to watch it to completion, but it should still excite SHAFT fans.

Overall: 19/25

I was a bit worried that Maria†Holic Alive might devolve into a shôjo version of Sayonara Zetsubô-sensei—the non-sequiturs spill like wine, the animation devices are similar, and just about all of the voice actresses played a female student in SZS—but I like the spin that both SHAFT and the original mangaka Minari Endô have put on yuri comics and Takarazuka theater. We get plenty of odes to the comics produced by the Year 24 Group in Japan, but the comedy surrounding Kanako's fanatic obsessions with romance also lead her to be a likable tragic figure—always the stalker, never the stalked.

It's good to have Maria†Holic back and to have SHAFT finally make their presence felt.

(Maria†Holic Alive is simulcast on The Anime Network every Sunday at 11 PM EDT.)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Episodes 4 - 6)

(For a review of Episodes 1 - 3, click here. Some spoilers may be lurking.)

As fantastic a spin Shaft and director Akiyuki Shinbô can put on the sheer artistry of animation, their shows have had the plot of a manga to follow. No matter how creative and exotic the style of the show may be, there was always knowledge of the general direction. Twists in plot and in-jokes would be seen coming from a general distance, even if it was lovely to watch.

I'm hardly saying this is a downfall or criticism of the Shinbô/Shaft paradigm. I'm merely indicating that there's a pattern to the madness. If you followed the manga to a T, you had an inkling of what to expect. Perhaps that is part of the success we saw in Evangelion; without an end to pursue, the means has weight.

This idea of the "blind finish-line"—that split second before someone charges through a door without knowing if there would be a wall or salvation—is giving their current series Puella Magi Madoka Magica some hefty expectations. However, that lack of a clear-cut denouement is making the series so much more palatable.

To say that the spirit of the show is different in the second three episodes than the first is an understatement. The initial excitement that Madoka and Sayaka had about discovering the "magical girls" has faded (for obvious reasons), as the tone of the series has taken a much darker turn. However, while Madoka continues to be afraid of the responsibilities of being a magical girl, Sayaka seizes the moment—when Madoka finds herself tormented by a witch, she is rescued by Sayaka, who has used her wish to help the injured Kyôsuke play the violin again.

The sudden chaos surrounding territory becomes the focal point of this miniature arc. While Homura continues to warn the others about the dangerous role of the magical girl, and Madoka still requires cryptic advice from her career-striving mother, Sayaka's new position brings both relief to her relationship with Kyôsuke and a new challenge for her survival in the form of a new magical girl who wants the turf. Kyôko Sakura, voiced appropriately by a sassy Ai Nonaka (Kafuka, Sayonara Zetsubô-sensei), challenges Sayaka for the spot left by Mami.

The resulting battle between Kyôko and Sayaka is one that never finishes and never starts a second time. During a lapse of judgment when Madoka tries to separate Sayaka from her Soul Gem, the group is shocked to learn that the Soul Gem is a source of life for magical girls—being 100 meters away from it leaves Sayaka prone and lifeless.

The curve ball thrown by Shinbô and Shaft is reflected not only in the drastic change in tone that the series takes, but primarily in the sudden use of plot to drive the story. The use of cut-out animation is still fascinating yet suppressed, as the studio uses more background art to strike visual awe. However, there is a lot more focus on the tension between the magical girls and the uncertainty reflected in Madoka's character. While the other girls debate the role of the magical girl through conflict, Madoka is caught between her mother's reason and Kyubey's candy-like offerings of wishes.

Actually, it's quite surprising to find that Madoka is the last to consider becoming a magical girl, the one thing I wasn't expecting from this story. Unlike many shows that thrust the role of the magical girl onto the main character, the consequences are presented to Madoka for her to make her decision. While her choice is likely fated, wouldn't it be a sultry smack-in-the-face to fandom if the title character of a magical-girl series...never becomes a magical girl at all?

Madoka Magica is a terrific show to follow, but a torturous show to second-guess. With so many traps laid by witches and catches untold by Kyubey, it's hard to tell just who is the villain so far: the moppet who seemingly means well or the actual runic witches driving people to despair. If the show continues a magnetic pull on darkness, the similarities in character design between Madoka Magica and Hidamari Sketch will be trivial, and the show will distance itself from other magical-girl tropes. With the show just about half-over, one can only wish for more.

(Did someone say "wish"? ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼ )

Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Episode 1 - 3)

In the first season of Magical Princess Minky Momo (1982), Momo dies in Episode 46 when she's hit by a truck, twelve episodes before the actual end of the series.

I did intend to spoil the series without actually warning you, but this bizarre twist of fate in a "magical-girl" series is not only well-known by elder otaku out there, but it is a notorious example of the genre embracing darker emotions. Yes, the likes of Pretty Cure and Tokyo Myu Myu did deal with forces of evil and darkness, but it has been a while since a magical-girl show has brought a sincerely dim and apocalyptic point-of-view, let alone even deal with death. The last vivid example off the top of my head may be the deaths of Sailor Senshi in the Sailor Moon shows, but much like Minky Momo the dead were merely revived in future episodes.

This softening and shifting of the "magical-girl" genre in recent years may have been a reason I wasn't convinced by the announcement of Puella Magi Madoka Magica as being anything different. Not to shoot down the industry, but it feels like the "magical-girl" trope has been embraced less by its actual target audience—young girls—and more by the adult fans. Call me an old codger when it comes to these sorts of shows, but I sense the genre has lost its way in trying to appeal to everyone.

The announcement of Madoka Magica was also surprising in two different senses. First of all, the show would be accompanied by manga instead of based off of one, meaning that the production crew would be providing an untested story for the public. Second of all, the show would be chiefly produced by Akiyuki Shinbô, who has produced many of his cleverly-animated shows with SHAFT, the animation studio in charge. This was surprising more from the fact that Shinbô produced the first Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series, which has been one of those shows that seems to have a distinctly adult following.

Madoka Magica actually starts in a rather disturbing fashion with the main character, middle-school student Madoka Kaname, waking up from a dreary nightmare where she witnessed a dark-haired magical girl fighting off an unidentified force of darkness. Dismissing it as a bad dream, Madoka is startled to find that same girl, Homura Akemi, transferred to her class, and the uneasiness doubles when Homura vaguely warns Madoka about the future.

It isn't until Madoka and her friend Sayaka rescue a small white creature called Kyubey (whose unmoving mouth and vacant eyes will disturb me in my own dreams) that we realize that Homura's warning was not to be taken lightly. During a struggle to defend Kyubey from Homura herself, Madoka and Sayaka suddenly find themselves trapped in a dimensional void full of butterfly-winged monsters and shapeless witches. Their own rescuer, Mami Tomoe, is a capable magical girl who can defeat these ghouls with oversized Flintlock rifles, and Madoka and Sayaka are presented with their own opportunity to become magical girls like Homura and Mami, as long as they have a wish they would like granted first.

There is no doubt that Shinbô and SHAFT have done this sort of presentation before, as their trademarks are splashed all over the show. The architectural styles of Madoka's school and home are as angular and monochrome as those in Bakemonogatari, while the characters themselves, complete with pastel hair colors and boxy faces, are patterned after character designs from Ume Aoki, the mangaka for Hidamari Sketch (another SHAFT-spun anime). There's not that much to that seems to scream individuality from the story itself, as the "nightmare-scenario" depiction of the future has the traits of a Sailor Moon S episode. Seems like it's all been done before, eh?

However, when Mami leads Madoka and Sayaka on witch hunts to seek out "Grief Seeds", Shinbô is finally able to open a Pandora's box of surrealism that he likely didn't have the freedom to explore in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. If you have ever seen the opening sequences to the Zan: Sayonara Zetsubô-Sensei series, you've come across Shinbô's use of two-dimensional paper collages to shock the senses. By themselves, the images of random oversized doughnuts, Lego pieces, and puffy dandelions sporting handlebar mustaches seem obtuse and incoherent, but scattered about the fights between magical girls and witches, they become an eclectic wonderland that Alice herself never imagined. Combine these flights of visual fancy with the grandiose musical works of Yuki Kajiura (.hack//SIGN, Tsubasa Chronicle), and you have chaotic perfection.

I also remind the viewer that this isn't some cream-puff Magical DoReMi for the kids. This story, despite the characters and faceless villains involved, is darker than first imagined. It's as if Shinbô knew that adults would be drawn to the show like moths to flame and intentionally threw a curveball so wild that it may rival the non-sequitur truck accident that claimed Minky Momo's life. Let's just say that the first lessons taught by Mami to Madoka and Sayaka about witch hunts in Episode 3 end up disastrous.

It's this unspoiled disaster that makes the next three episodes so much more fun to anticipate. Puella Magi Madoka Magica could be the one show that saves the winter anime season from uncertainty and "magical-girl" fandom from itself.

UPDATE (9:38 PM): An additional link from @kransomwastaken providing an excellent read at Ani no Miyako on the "cut-out style animation" used in some of Shinbô and SHAFT's other shows (Sayonara Zetsubô-sensei, Maria Holic). Thanks!