Gekijō-ban Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magica Shinpen: Hangyaku no Monogatari

Title:Gekijō-ban Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magica Shinpen: Hangyaku no Monogatari
Magic Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion
Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3: Rebellion
劇場版 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ[新編]叛逆の物語
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Shaft
R1 License - Aniplex of America
Madoka Kaname used to be a normal girl living happy days of her life. This all ended when she sacrificed herself in order to save other magical girls from the utterly cruel fate that awaited them. Unable to let her memories of Madoka die, Homura Akemi continues to fight alone in the world that Madoka left behind for humanity in order to see her smile once more.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


116-minute movie released on October 26, 2013.
Animated by Shaft.
Licensed by Aniplex of America.
[edit] The ↗Puella Magi Madoka Magica franchise:

TV Series Movies
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Unevaluated Stretch [series:3052#628]
OK, I guess my problem is that I never fully understood the solution that Madoka devised in the TV series for the problem of Magical Girls falling into despair. If I remember correctly, Magical Girls who have the slightest chance of sinking into despair shouldn't even be born anymore. But Magical Girls still exist, they just fight 'Nightmares' rather than Witches, which somehow provides the cosmic energy that Kyubey needs to prevent 'entropy' from taking hold. But this is a worthwhile battle, which, while demanding and dangerous, won't cause them to despair. I'm pretty sure I got this much right, but there are all sorts of details which I don't understand. What this movie needed to do first of all was clarify exactly where things stand, so that even a viewer who hadn't watched the TV series (or movies 1 and 2) would be able to make some sense of it. What role do 'Soul Gems' play now? Is there any need for them at all? Do new Magical Girls still get a 'miracle' as reward for enlisting? What exactly did Madoka 'sacrificing' herself entail? In the first part of this film the five main characters team up to take down a Nightmare, a process which involves expressive dancing and something about a cake, presumably to give us an idea of how things work in this post-Witch era. But I quickly sensed that this movie wasn't 'grabbing' my attention--I would much rather a new, intriguing conflict be revealed to us than we watch a routine mission which apparently played no part in the long term plot. Was it already over after the Nightmare was dispatched? I sort of hoped it was. But no, the main story had just begun. Homura gets the feeling that something is wrong with this Mitakihara city in which they live, and launches an investigation. For a while I felt I had gotten a grip on what was going on and was fairly interested. But then things slipped away as we got into the technicalities of just what had happened and why. I couldn't make much sense of it since, again, I hadn't fully understood the conclusion of the TV series. Something about 'The Law of the Cycle' getting screwed up. Mami has a strange mascot called Bebe who was missing from the original series and therefore must have something to do with all the weird crap taking place here. Homura and Mami definitely seemed eager to kill each other in a battle scene, which didn't make sense. What were supposed to be shocking revelations come about, but I had become too confused and frustrated to see why I should be surprised. What was clear was that more and more of the maddening animation that expresses the doings of Witches and Nightmares was being flung at me. As the movie dragged on and on, I started fast-forwarding to get an idea of how much was still to go. Eventually I just gave up. 'God, what a waste!' I said to myself. I think the Madoka franchise would have been better off if this movie hadn't been made at all. Let it end in a manner which makes at least partial sense rather than confuse the hell out of us and leave us with a bad taste in our mouths.

Last updated Sunday, March 13 2022. Created Sunday, March 13 2022.
Watch 9 9 8 8 5 Ggultra2764 [series:3052#1552]
To say this film is pointless would be a complete understatement. Serving as the third film of the Madoka Magica film trilogy, Rebellion's existence within the franchise is a rather controversial one among fans as it depicts a "what if" scenario that takes place revolving around Madoka's power she gained in the finale of the TV series and second movie of the trilogy. Digging into the major things that the movie attempts to twist around with the TV series ending would be major spoilers for what is revealed during the later parts of the movie. All I will say is that the attempts to implement the film's infamous twist ending revolve around a rather dragged-out infodump monologue from a certain amoral character and another major character going completely out of character in how they choose to mess with Madoka's power. In other words, the movie attempts to mess with viewer perceptions with its plot and theme like the TV series yet lacks the effective cohesion and slow pacing that made the plot twists of the TV anime and first two movies effective at surprising the franchise's fans. The movie also needlessly wastes time for a decent chunk of its first half to pander to the audience when the main five girls of the series are shown going through things like a typical magical girl title with the five having dragged-out transformation scenes, teaming up to battle evil demons and having cute, cuddly animal mascots around a la Sailor Moon. Plus for all the hype given to her character, the addition of Nagisa Momoe's existence to the Madoka Magica franchise was utterly pointless as she only exists as a reference to a certain shocking event that took place with Mami in the series.

Presentation-wise, Rebellion retains the surreal visual animation style it employed with earlier installments of the Madoka Magica franchise as the world in which Madoka and her friends inhabit being depicted with a diverse number of bizarre animation styles to depict its abnormal nature much in the same vain that the worlds of the witches were in the TV anime. With the higher animation budget, Rebellion sports more cleaner details with its surreal visuals and more fluid movement coming from the characters, particularly in action scenes. Madoka Magica's penchant for haunting and dramatic musical pieces with its soundtrack are retained as well for this movie and are as memorable and effective in conveying the twisted nature found within the Madoka Magica franchise.

Overall, Madoka Magica: Rebellion really has no reason to exist within the series mythos as it adds nothing new to the franchise as what it attempts to create with its plot results in a messy narrative that wastes time and the resulting plot twist ending being poorly implemented. This is easily the weakest entry within the Madoka Magica franchise to date (assuming Shaft plans to milk it to death) and you shouldn't really go out of your way to give into the hype it has received just because of Madoka Magica's large following with fans.

Last updated Tuesday, June 23 2015. Created Tuesday, June 23 2015.

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