Saturday 17 October 2015

ANIME MOVIE REVIEW: PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA MOVIE PART 3 - THE REBELLION

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Movie Part 3 - The Rebellion
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: 12
Running Time: 112 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese DD 5.1 & DD 2.0
Aspect Ratio:16.9
Release Date: Out Now!
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes 

"We pray for hope, embrace curses and protect you from the dark. We're magical girls!"

Synopsis: Back in the first movie, Homura Akemi made a promise with ordinary high school girl, Madoka Kaname, but she could not keep that promise for long, and Madoka has to leave her behind after trying to set all the other magical girls free from their horrible destinies. Though Madoka has done this, they still have no idea whether their own fates will be promising or tragic.

Review:
In anime fate always rests on one character in the series or movie to do the right thing and help out the world from some form of cataclysm, or dire event. Here magical girl, Homura must fight evil the way she has done, with her other magical girl friends, but also come to a solution on how she will save the world now that rebellion is going to happen. Mitakihara City was once a place full of hope, but since the change, the people they once knew aren't who they first thought with the girls feeling as though they are constantly being watched by mysterious people. We wonder what they will get out of spying on them, and might never know why - it just unnerves us that we can see them. As I said, the world rests completely on one magical girl who can do the right thing, which can go horribly wrong if another magical girl tried to take up that mantle, and I think you know which former magical girl I'm thinking of?

Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3 isn't a standard magical girl series, nor have these three movies been standard ones about magical girls. If viewers were expecting the series to be about girls fighting in their best silk gowns complete with frills, lace and jewels, they would be wrong about this franchise as that is only a small part of the world they are in. A magical girl has to have a pure heart, just as a fairy princess has to, and not let any dark thoughts of jealousy mar their minds. As most of us well know, its not easy to resist temptation, or any form of evil to turn us into the people we would least want to be. Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3 might look cutesy, tame or even the sort of anime movie you might cast off as being too cute to view, but believe me when I say there is a lot of darkness in this movie and the past two that make it look less tame as you watch it. 

There is a nice series of twists to the story that viewers will not be expecting from characters I didn't expect to have the ability to turn dark and dangerous to the world Madoka and Homura want to protect. As we saw before, it is easy to turn dark when you think you are doing the right thing for yourself or someone else, but what really matters is in the helping even if it does turn that person dark, the darkness might be able to turn again (that hope lies inside us most of the time) but it never happens in Japanese animations, what we see here is as the Japanese see the world - not through rose-tinted glasses, they know the reality of life and its myriad complications. 

The box and cover art is amazing, it is up to you whether you want to watch the movie in its native Japanese version, or you prefer the English voice acting cast and the animation is second to none with its interesting fight scenes and magical look topped with an air of darkness. It is something you will want to watch as it's different to most anime of this type.
  
Episodes:1 movie
Number of Discs:1
Packaging/Box Quality: If this cover art wasn't beautiful enough, it gathers all the magical girls together for a one-off photo shoot where they are all clad in their favourite dresses with Homura showing off that she is the very best magical girl there is. 

Animation Quality: Very good.
Sound Quality: Very good, can be either viewed in its original Japanese with English subtitles or English dubbing.

Bonus Material:
Monogatari Manners
Textless Opening
Text less Ending
Commercials
Theatrical Trailer
Spoken Languages: English, Japanese, English subtitles, Spanish subtitles

Verdict: As this is the ultimate magical girl series, this is a must for Madoka and Homura fans.