
“From the moment I finished watching Madoka, it owned my brain like nothing had since Evangelion.”
With these words, we begin a journey deep into one of the best anime of the past decade. Madoka is a dark de- construction of magical girls, but it is also so much more: it is a celebration of post-modernism and a line in the sand against nihilism. It is the heartwarming story of how a depressed writer overcame his inability to make happy endings. It is a morality tale. It is Faust and a subversion of Faust. Finally, it’s a bunch of middle-school girls kicking the butts of freaky monsters. Add some bizarre and beau- tiful artwork and one of the best soundtracks in years, and one panel almost isn’t enough.