Beating myself unconscious with a moe girl-shaped brick tbh

Over the weekend I binged OG Meguca and Magia Record and while Magia Record was, like... intensely less unique than OG Madoka, I still kinda liked it better? Like it felt more magical girl shaped, the main conflict was solved through hugging it out and heroic sacrifices out of love, with hope prevailing at the end. It was less ambitious, and therefore less grating with its attempts at being the cleverest thing in the world.

IDK how I feel about any of the characters in it, though. Sayaka kicks ass in it, but she was basically a cameo, and the few episodes that focused on the gang did a good job with her. I like that the butterfly effect granted both her and Kyoko the character development they accrued in the movies, and on this watch I finally stopped finding the sexism of Sayaka going crazy for a boy grating and started perceiving the whole thing as more of a self-inflicted hell on her. Like, she was screwed by the ~~writer~~ mechanics of the world. If she had become a magical girl just to be one, she would have been fine. It all feels so contrived, and I'm glad the series does her better now.

Loved Felicia. Hammer representation.

Not sure how I felt about the main conflict with Iroha and Ui, like, honestly I liked it as the layers got peeled away more and more but I'm also just a sucker for profound world-changing love between siblings as a plot point. Iroha herself was kind of just a less interesting Madoka, but I liked her mini-arc with Kuroe and Nanami. I also liked Nanami's dynamics with the various older magical girls. For being so bursting with magical girls, the Kamihama cast all stood really well on their own -- apparently they're from a mobile game so that explains it for the most part.

IDK. Magia Record is probably worse than OG Madoka, but also I liked it better, but I also still think it's kind of just a worse Yuuki Yuuna, which I'm gonna rewatch next. The reality is that Meguca worldbuilding legit just punishes characters for having hope and wishing for better things, that's an undeniable part of the mechanics of the world -- but I like how hard the series tried to minimise that aspect of the magical girl experience, focus on the endless struggle of endless enemies and how to survive when you're constantly fighting. That's a more personally interesting direction for me and it lets things also be sweet and sincere instead of being grim on top of more grim.

It also did nothing for my love-hate relationship with Rebellion, since that one is still the end of the timeline. Alas.