Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It wasn't long ago that I shifted my assessment system for anime to a purely critical perspective. No matter how much I liked the series, I would give it the score it deserved. Since then, I've found that Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is the only anime I can honestly give perfect scores across the board (for story, characters, enjoyment, animation, and sound). It currently sits atop the pedastel as my favorite anime, and it doesn't look like that will change very soon. (See comments for my actual review of the series.) Which is why I REALLY wanted to see the series do well in America. Sadly, that will never happen. There is a reason why FUNimation Entertainment and Sentai Filmworks are the biggest licensing companies in North America: They know how to pedal anime. Japan is not the same as the rest of the world: They place a much higher value on their anime. We do not. We are not willing to shell out $500 for a limited collector's edition blu-ray set of our favorite series released in volumes containing only 1-3 episodes. Instead, FUNi and Sentai charge ~$40 for a complete 12-26 episode series on BD--the same content at a fraction of the cost. Aniplex of America apparently hasn't caught onto this fact yet. They're going more the Japanese route: release the series in pieces (4 episodes each), each costing an arm or a leg. (Each piece costs about as much as an entire series from any other company.) This isn't helped at all by one of the WORST, most grossly misrepresentative trailers I've ever witnessed, ensuring anyone not particularly in tune with the anime scene will immediately be turned away from the masterpiece that is Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. Top it off with a subpar (to put it lightly) English dub. The argument that "it's okay if the English dub is bad because you can still watch it in Japanese with subtitles" only works if you choose to ignore the fact that a bad dub means that Aniplex doesn't really care about the quality of the release at all. The voice actresses they use are mostly all new to the scene. Of course, this doesn't automatically make them bad. In fact, some are quite good. For example, Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom featured quite a few inexperienced voice actors--some completely new to the dubbing scene--but they ended up performing phenomenally--especially when one considers how little experience they had under their belts. Sadly, this is not the case here. Acting quality ranges from too much emotion, to not enough emotion, to trying to pronounce names correctly too hard, to trying to employ a voice they clearly aren't comfortable with, to voices completely not suiting the character, to just plain bad. Add it up. Combine a God-awful marketing campaign, with an outlandish pricing scheme, with poor English dub quality, and you've got a recipe for failure. For the same price as 1/3 of the entire Madoka series, you could choose from DOZENS of other options and get the same (or more) amount of material for about the same (or less) cost. Depending on your tastes, what you bought could even be better. Said list includes (if restricted only to more recent series): Casshern Sins [24 episodes], Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom [26 episodes], Angel Beats! [14 episodes], ef - a tale of memories [12 episodes], Clannad [24 episodes] (and After Story [25 episodes]), Claymore [26 episodes], and many others. I already own most of what I listed on BD, and haven't regretted buying a single one. Only a niche group of diehard fans that are already aware of how awesome the series is and are willing to shell out the cash for it will end up buying Madoka. This does not include me. I would definitely have bought the series if the release wasn't so poor. Think about that: A critic like me won't buy his favorite series. That should tell you something. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica took the anime industry by storm during its Winter-Spring 2011 run. It has nearly unanimously been heralded as THE anime of the year 2011. Here is a partial excerpt from the Newtype Anime Awards 2011 (omitting irrelevant entries): Best TV Anime: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Female Character: Akemi Homura Best Mascot Character: Kyuubey Best Leading Actress: Yuki Aoi (Kaname Madoka's voice actress) Best Supporting Actress: Saito Chiwa (Akemi Homura's voice actress) Best Theme Song: "connect" (Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica) Best BGM: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Director: Shinbo Akiyuki Best Scenario: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Character Design: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Filming: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Art: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Color Design: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Best Effect: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The only awards it DIDN'T win were: Best Film (Madoka is not a film), Best Male Character (there is only one male character of much importance), Best Leading Actor (same reason), Best Supporting Actor (same reason), Best Mecha Design (Madoka is not a mecha), and Best TV Ad. With such acclaim, you'd think that the R1 release would be done as tactfully as possible, following a tried and successful pricing model, with a superb marketing campaign, right? You'd think Aniplex of America would want the rest of the world to really be able to see the light of Madoka's awesomeness, right? Right...? It's a shame to see that such a great series will never take off in America. Maybe Aniplex will learn their lesson and re-release it later properly, but I'm not holding my breath.