User Reviews

As the title suggests this is a side story to the 2011 series 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'; these comments assume you have seen that series but won't include any spoilers for it. This series is centred on Iroha Tamaki, a girl who has somehow forgotten the wish she made before becoming a magical girl. After meeting a small Kyubey she recalls that she healed her sister Ui... who is now missing. Hoping to find her she heads to Kamihama City where she meets many other magical girls. They are congregating there as they have heard a rumour that magical girls may be released from their duties there. Inevitably they find themselves battling several witches.

I wouldn't say this is a bad series but it doesn't stand up to the original. There are no major surprises and the sense of danger was somewhat lower. The characters are decent but there are too many of them. At times I was confused as to what was happening; something that never happened during the original. On the plus side it does look good with impressive backgrounds and character designs that were distinctive and in the same style as the original. Overall I'd still recommend this to fans of the original; just don't expect it to be in the same league.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

First off, I'll mention what I thought when going into this anime. I was expecting this side story to be exciting and at least somewhat near the level of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. However, unfortunately it did not come close to reaching that level for me. I felt that the plot was quite random, and the central idea of the actual anime wasn't captivating and didn't make much sense. Throughout the anime there is barely any character development in any of the characters except in the last episode. Furthermore, there were so many new characters being introduced, in addition to some of the original ones, that I couldn't remember all of their names! This aspect was a little exhausting, especially because most of them didn't stay throughout the whole story and disappeared for some episodes and came back. The ending was also quite confusing for me as I didn't end up understanding it.

On the other hand, I enjoyed that the side story stayed true to the art style and made connections to the actual anime, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The idea of witches still maintains throughout the whole anime and the soundtracks, particularly in the fights, were pretty good!

However, despite these positive aspects, I don't think they are able to make up for the lack of planning and plot of the side story, hence why I gave this 6 stars. Finally, I would recommend this anime if you really truly loved the original anime and would watch just about anything related to it, but if you aren't a superfan I would not encourage you to spend your time watching this side story.

Review of Season 1: Since the original Madoka Magica became such a success there were a slew of imitators that tried to do what it did but there can only be one as it often is. Despite being apart of the official franchise, Magia Record feels like one of those poor imitators often with a meandering first season of no thrills, no stakes, no suspense, no intrigue, nothing that made the original series so great in the first place.

The first major issue this show has is the bulky cast. Besides our main girl, Iroha we have so many other characters that come into play and the plot seems to just forget about most of them anyway. With so many characters to quickly introduce and quickly dump. None of the characters are interesting and all feel like the same stock characters in many shows. The good one, the stoic one, the hot head and the cheerful one. The rest are just uh?

The show is just as visually trippy as the original, with just as many odd designs and creative uses of Gekidan Inu Curry's art. But that's also to this show's detriment as the art just seems to be all over the place with no design purpose other than to look cool. This show follows Rebellion's act by constantly bleeding the unreal of the witches into the real so often it's hard to track what is what in this world. What is the world of magic that these girls are intended to fight (which this show surprisingly has very little of) and what is these girls ordinary lives.

The character art is still just as good with unique designs for all main girls, enough design variety that gives them all a place to be in this series. We're even treated to one full magical girl transformation sequence which was fun.

In the absence of Yuki Kajiura this show surprisingly still pulls out some good music by Takumi Ozawa and my hat goes off to them for that.

I'm extremely disappointed thus far with Magia Record. I had my doubts already going in and was already disappointed that the producers decided to adapt a side story based on a mobile game instead of the sequel to Rebellion they had been teasing these last few years. Poor choices have really dragged the first season with dull story telling and dull characters robbing the show of the excellent razor sharp tension set from the original.

Will season 2 be better? I don't know but my interest had dwindled as watching this was a chore. Too much emphasis on making crazy art and not enough on storytelling and that's a real shame.

In 2011, there was an anime called "Puella Magic Madoka Magica". I have never heard of it because I was about 10 to 11 years old, until I saw it on Netflix. After watching the whole series, it was pretty great. The characters, the action, the drama, the story, all of it was amazing. But now, after a new decade hits, the spin-off series is here... "Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story" it features new characters who are desendents from the five main characters from the original show. I will be counting to watch more episodes of this glorious spin-off. I give this one a 9.5/10