The Anime Only Smart People Can Understand

[@sushii_person]

BAHAHAHA YOU ACTUALLY CHANGED IT OMG I LITERALLY LOVE YOU FOR THAT ITS HILARIOUS

[@Newbicus2]

THATS EXACTLY WHAT I CAME HERE TO SAY 😭😭😭

[@DEMMOPE]

STAN THIS MAN ONE OF THE BEST BIT STICKERS IN EXISTENCE

[@Steel-toad-Jack]

WHY ARE WE YELLING!!!

[@Newbicus2]

@@Steel-toad-Jack BECAUSE YELLING IS COOL

[@Nier-2A]

what did he chaNGE please tell me

[@JB_CY]

Top 5 biggest red flags in an anime fan is someone saying they like Kyubey

[@Strawberry_in_the_microwave]

My online friend says his favorite character in madoka magica is kyubey😞😞

[@ixaix3218]

Right up there next to saying Griffeth is their favorite.

[@march22nd]

i like kyubey 😈🔥🥵🥶🤤👅

[@jaye4773]

I've not watched Madoka, but Kyuubi seems pretty likable to me. You gotta be the light you wanna see in the world, even if that light is a molotov cocktail.

[@darklordgig4885]

To be perfectly fair, Kyubey was trying to save countless trillions upon trillions of worlds from the heat death of the universe.

[@9ine5ive4our]

Name change for ragebait is crazy

[@galahadsoundscape6365]

What was the name before??

[@enigma479]

@@galahadsoundscape6365it was “I watched madoka magica while stoned” or smth

[@reaverburr1664]

@@galahadsoundscape6365 something along the lines of "Watching Madoka Magica but I'm baked"

[@emtheria3494]

Fr lol.

[@localneo-graphic4647]

It's not ragebait, people are bashing the shit out of this vid and he's salty about it.

[@sergeyrogatin9682]

I think one of the things you missed is that revealing the truth about Kyubey to everyone doesn't solve the plot. From Homura's perspective, Mami learning the truth is a giant liability, as shown in one of the timelines. The ideal timeline for Homura would probably be one where no one knows the truth, everyone survives until the end to fight Walpurgis, but Madoka doesn't make the contract, which is a very weird combination. But also probably still not enough to beat Walpurgis, so Homura's efforts to prevent Madoka from making the contract are doomed from the start.

[@tayschannel2695]

Not really, Madoka and Mami did killed Walpurgisnacht few times. It’s not like she’s Gretchen or something, it’s just what Homura is pretty weak. Like she fought for decades but still Mami who max was on a battle field for max 5 years.

[@guilhermecardoso2365]

​@@tayschannel2695Walpurgisnacht gets stronger every time skip as well, since she's one of the main reasons why it keeps happening

[@tayschannel2695]

@ no she’s not, it’s only said about Madoka because Homura tried to save HER. Homu’s goal was to save Madoka and not destroy walpurgisnacht, by that logic KyuBei would’ve been stronger because he also was on the way antagonizing Homura.

[@ScamboliReviews]

Didn't she have a plan from episode 1 to kill Walpurgis all on her own???? She literally says, "I will kill every witch myself" and starts shoving AKs in her locker in anticipation. I don't think this character really gives a shit about protecting mami and the gang until the end, esp since she basically lets them all die.

[@rancorrage5646]

​@@ScamboliReviewsuh, yeah. She fails miserably. That's kinda the point; Homura can't solve the problem on her own, and her attempts to do so only make things worse for everyone.

[@TheOnlyMegafringe]

As someone who absolutely loves Madoka, I still really appreciate your incredibly funny take on it

[@sk0mlin]

based

[@AkarisRamen]

Bro said "I was so geeked I became illiterate"

[@StyxxOfDidymos]

Oof . I hope you get better

[@ClubPuguin]

Being high does that

[@Clooger-]

Someone not crying like a bltch because he doesn't like it? I respect you brodie

[@metroistaken]

Title switch up is crazy 😂

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@metroistaken HE CHANGED IT AGAIN

[@somnologi]

THE SECOND CHANGE CAME WITH A NEW THUMBNAIL LMAO

[@lXDarkSunXl]

I get why you'd be bothered by how short-sighted the characters are, but I always just figured that was intentional. They're just kids and they're from a culture that has normalized the concept of a magical talking animal just freely handing out powers to little girls. I think it's believable that they'd just not question anything. I've also just assumed that Kyubey partly chose them because they were particularly short-sighted or vulnerable enough to where they wouldn't bother doubting what they were getting.

[@samuraijosh1595]

yeah the only excuse you could give the show is them being kids.

[@reggoo12]

It’s also interesting how this was the first magical girl series to actually use the term “magical girl”. Prior to this, they would only be referred to as a unique phenomenon like sailors, precure, etc. and the actual concept of magical girls never existed in-universe. Madoka is unique in how the cast is already disillusioned by the lighthearted image of magical girls, and this is exactly what leads to them being so naive

[@pennplayz]

While I absolutely agree with this take: I think the problem still comes from the execution, you can have short sighted and naive characters _and_ good writing. But when your whole story centers around the characters always being that way, and its the only way to have the story go forward, it becomes a chore to watch; The trope only works if there is actual room for growth and improvement, but they all stay stupid the entire show essentially.

[@netherwarr7081]

iirc kyubey said that little girls are targeted specifically because they are emotional. also keep in mind that the whole purpose of turning girls magical is for them to then become witches and release tons of energy

[@chanukawijesinghe3357]

I agree with this take to a certain degree but I really don't like this defense of people saying "they're just kids" or "they're short sighted and that's the point". I believe you can make short sighted characters or dumb child characters without annoying the reader/watcher. The consumer shouldn't be annoyed and thinking "why would you make that dumb decision". That's just how I view it at least. I personally really don't like when I can see a certain characters short sighted decisions leading to a bit conflict later down the line. It's the same with those cliches in romance stories where a character encounters some kind of a situation that could cause a conflict, and thinks to themselves "there's no need to tell this to my partner", for no justifiable reason at all. And I'm saying that while romance is literally my favourite genre of anime/manga ever

[@ozzi9816]

As someone who likes this show... fair points! To address some criticisms: They do address Homura being weird in some supplemental material (she was on like her hundredth loop or something and had already tried saving everyone and making them as powerful as they could be and still failed) but it definitely could have been shown better in the anime. But I also think getting to see her goal corrupted from "I want to save everyone!" to "I want to save Madoka specifically and everyone else is expendable" is a cool way to show that she's on her way to becoming a witch even by the start of the story. I've never had much of an issue with the dialogue because I actually do think their innocence as 14 year old girls does kind of excuse them being dumb, but I know mileage may vary on that. Regarding the Sayaka confession thing, the whole reason her friend did it was *because* Sayaka has had a crush on him for such a long time and she grew up seeing it, and seeing the fact that she never had the heart to confess for years and wasn't about to put her love on hold for who knows how long, so she issued an ultimatum in the hopes Sayaka would do it, but in the end she still didn't have the courage. The mom letting Madoka leave in the storm was.... yeah I'll give you that one haha

[@johnwin668]

To your last point, I would argue that her mother knew to a certain extent what would happen. It's also significant as a moment where Madoka finally makes a decision herself; I'm pretty sure there's a line of dialogue where her mother asks her if it has to be her, to which Madoka says yes, no one else will do. Exclamation Point did a good video breaking down the dialogue in the sub and dub versions of Madoka, and how it links to her (lack of) agency: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXy0oGSbgMR-jrssi=rLp30v1inAGTIhVT I would also argue that one of the central themes of Madoka is in letting go, so in the scene with Madoka's mother confronting her, that's what's happening.

[@zeroanimation3956]

This is the problem with an excessive time loop: "Oh, this character already died a million times to fix this timeline, nothing can be done," when it is actually simple to fix. Just make the audience follow the loop so they can experience what can and can't be done. Nowadays, the number of loops is like power creep, to be outdone by other series to illustrate how suffering the MC is, to me it just paint the MC as stupid.

[@Manganization]

this "supplemental material" was already implied and shown in the show. The characters not asking too much questions is not stupid writing like Scambolii thinks. These are kids. They're happy to have a fantasy life. Who's going to ask how magic works? Kyube's plan depends on his victims being ignorant. You having some outside knowledge about the series doesn't change this. Kyubey is also great at manipulating people. And timeloop girl is socially inept. And one timeline addressed what happened if they knew the truth before Mami dies. This is Scamboli's "From The New World Digibro review" moment, unfortunately, when you watch a series and gloss over all of its narrative.

[@DarthTellor]

So it's a bit like Higurashi?

[@johnwin668]

@@zeroanimation3956 Scamboli doesn't really cover this, but the sheer number of loops is actually very important to why Madoka ends up as powerful as she does. It's not just for the sake of Homura suffering (though that is certainly a part of it), and like another comment mentioned, it's not just as simple as "if i convince everyone things will be fine" - since it's stated by Kyubey that Madoka becoming a magical girl at the end of all of Homura's time loops is the only way Walpurgisnacht could have been defeated.

[@Mysterious-202]

Just came to see the comments he talked about in his latest video 😅

[@Steel-toad-Jack]

Same here and I'm not disappointed

[@Mono_303]

Same, the “that’s the point” guys and the clown who compared the show to a “Greek tragedy” got me laughing😭

[@argy7526]

me2

[@stuflames4769]

Hoo yeah.

[@unterhau1102]

Bro these clowns got me laughing actually ☠️☠️☠️ instead of reading actual literature they compare ts to Greek tragedies and act like they're some sort of intellectuals and scholars simply because they like a show about lesbian toddlers 😭😭😭

[@st.altair4936]

Being Meguca truly is suffering

[@tayschannel2695]

And gayness.

[@RelyableLerilay]

Do not throw souls

[@virtuosoflux]

lol, meguca in these comments is perfect

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@st.altair4936 best thing to come from the Madoka Magica fandom

[@duncanbug]

Bummed you didn’t enjoy this one too much as it’s a 10/10 for me. I do admit thought that soundtrack and unique design factor HEAVILY into that rating. I’m kinda shocked you didn’t mention the soundtrack for this show. It’s incredible. Even among Kajiura’s extensive catalogue.

[@ScamboliReviews]

The music and art get extremely high praise from me. Very unique aesthetic all around, some things just don’t make it to the script although if I could change one thing about this vid, I’d try harder to work those two things in!

[@jared9914]

The fucking ending track is so good i got it saved on spotify

[@Mom-pl2xb]

Chris Tyson moment

[@KanameMadoka1412]

​@@ScamboliReviews PUELLA MAGI MADOKA★MAGICA awards and nominations 🏆 MyAnimeList 2024 Top Mahou Shoujo Rank-1. Madoka Rebellion 2013 Rank-2. Madoka TV 2011 Rank-3. Madoka Eternal 2012 Rank-4. Madoka Beginnings 2012 France Japan Expo 2012 Best Anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica American Anime Awards 2012 Best Anime TV Puella Magi Madoka Magica German Anime Award 2013 Best Anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica UK Anime Network Awards 2012 Best Anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica Anime News Network Best anime 2011 Puella Magi Madoka Magica 15th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards Grand Prize (rank-1) 16th Animation Kobe Awards Television Award (rank-1) 11th Tokyo Anime Awards - Television Award (rank-1) - Best Director Akiyuki Shinbo (rank-1) - Best Screenplay Gen Urobuchi (rank-1) 2011 Newtype Anime Awards - Grand Prize in Television Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Best Director Akiyuki Shinbo (rank-1) - Best Screenplay Gen Urobuchi (rank-1) - Fictional Character Award in Female Homura Akemi (rank-1) - Fictional Character Award in Female Madoka Kaname (rank-2) - Fictional Character Award in Mascot Kyubey (rank-1) - Actress Award Aoi Yūki (rank-1) - Supporting Actress Award Chiwa Saitō (rank-1) - Supporting Actress Award Eri Kitamura (rank-3) - Supporting Actress Award Emiri Katō (rank-5) - Theme Song Award "Connect" (rank-1) - Accompaniment Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Photography Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Art Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Character Design Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Color Setting Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Sound Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Trailer Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-2) 32nd Nihon SF Taisho Award Grand Prize Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Nominated) 43rd Seiun Award Best Media Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) 11th Sense of Gender Awards Sisterhood Prize Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) 19th Anime & Manga Grand Prix [fr] Best Hope Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) 20th Anime & Manga Grand Prix Japanese Anime of the Year Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) 34th Anime Grand Prix Editors Choice 2011 - Anime of the Year Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Female Character of the Year Homura Akemi (rank-1) 1st Nikkan Sports Anime Competition - Television Award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Award of Queen Madoka Kaname (rank-1) - Guilty Dark Character Award Kyubey (rank-1) - Theme Song Award "Connect" (rank-1) - MIP Female Voice Actor Award Aoi Yūki (rank-1) 6th Seiyu Awards - Actress Award Aoi Yūki (rank-1) - Supporting Actress Award Emiri Katō (rank-1) 2011 Top Buzzword Award [ja] Bronze Prize "Make a contract with me, and become a magical girl." (rank-1) Licensing of the Year 2012 in JAPAN Selection Committee Special Prize award Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) 1st Sugoi Japan Award - Grand Prix Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Best Anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) NHK Nippon Anime 100 [ja] - Best Television in Men's Vote Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-1) - Best Television in Comprehensive Puella Magi Madoka Magica (rank-3) - Best Theme Song "Connect" (rank-11) NHK Selection to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of TV Anime - Favorite Actress Homura Akemi (rank-2) - Favorite Actress Madoka Kaname (rank-7) Heisei Anison Award [ja] Award "Connect" (rank-1) Etc.

[@tulipfamilyfun3751]

He didn't mention it cause he probably couldn't hear any of it due to all the memeing and calls to skip the opening and endings

[@Thumin]

I had so much fun rewatching Madoka with u!! This show is truly a product of its time, and it made a huge impact on me when i first watched it as a teen. The rewatch showed me that my tastes have changed and developed over the years, but i still love how cute Madoka is and the memories it gave me!! Let's watch another shoujo show together soon!!

[@somnologi]

girl blink twice

[@arigatameiwaku]

@@somnologi this guy shit on her favourite show and she took it. I would have left the call the moment they skipped the opening. To not even take 1 minute to watch it 1 time is insane

[@spitfiremase]

I think every part of Madoka still slaps, but it is true that tastes change and develop over the years. Madoka has a lot to say, and i think it's cool that teenage girls have and continue to have it resonate with them.

[@traxluh]

Sorry you had to rewatch a show so impactful to you with an audience only trying to tear it apart, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

[@magnov983]

@@arigatameiwaku Im assuming she wanted to know how far they would go with it

[@lordmalkom1675]

Walpurgisnacht is german. The night of the witches. No clue if there is something in english for that night.

[@baez1301]

He was too stupid too google it, let alone the fact that it sounds SICK when an actual German says it in English.

[@moongoose8768]

Kinda thought it was common knowledge, tbh

[@amonkhet9086]

@@moongoose8768 Im deutschsprachigem Raum vielleicht, sonst nicht

[@KitMikit]

Walpurgis Night who doesn't know that concept?

[@yoshiro-chan4479]

​@@KitMikit tbh, I didn't until I watched the show a year ago😅

[@toko1368]

How dare youtube keep me away from this masterpiece for 20 seconds

[@heilamwether8911]

If I had a nickel for every time someone said this exact same thing today, I would have 2 nickles, which isn’t a lot, but weird that it happened twice :/

[@Deode-d4h]

Oh god, is this the next "First" or "Dude has X views in Y time, he fell off" comment trend.

[@2im36]

masterpiece where

[@aliciadayo]

calling a baked guy making fun of a show for clicks while ignoring 80% of it a masterpiece is a choice for sure

[@hasansyed_]

@@heilamwether8911 S tier phineas and ferb reference

[@flashfreak62]

In defense of Madoka, every complaint you have is also the same complaints I've had about every 14 year old I've ever spoken to.

[@hasansyed_]

nice one bro you really got him. No constructive criticism, just a comment to belittle him. Why not intellectually challenge the points you disagree with? Instead you resort to comparing him to teenagers? I recommend reevaluating your methods of dealing with people you don't agree with as in the real world that happens ALL THE TIME.

[@mrbean9554]

@@hasansyed_gang I think you read the comment wrong

[@lustigername9377]

In case anyone wants to know, "Walpurgisnacht" is a German word and it refers to a specific night every year, when the witches of the land come together, well and all hell breaks loose.

[@marylandlax3]

Having to get baked to choke down an anime series you weren’t interested is the most realistic statement I’ve heard in 2024

[@magnov983]

it felt like he was doing a review assignment for an anime class that he wants to be over

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@marylandlax3 honestly dude just shouldn’t have done the review on this show specifically if he didn’t actually have any interest in it. I completely understand what it’s like to have someone try and force you to consume a piece of media you ultimately aren’t interested in and I just blacklisted said piece of media because I KNEW I’d never be able to look at it in an unbiased manner (for context it was Final Fantasy 7 and the now ex friend (why an ex friend is unrelated but they were super toxic) who was pushing it onto me said it was better than every game in my comfort series which is Dragon Quest despite having barely any experience with it… so if I were to play it I’d probably just be actively looking for things to hate about it or things I could say Dragon Quest games have done better and not be able to properly engage with it)

[@BrendanishLeo]

@@theshinypeliper8813 doing reviews of things you don't like is the definition of trying to reach past your bias to like something you typically don't. It's ok to not like something, it's ok to not partake in shit you don't like, it's stupid to get mad at someone for trying to enjoy something they expected not to. Half of my favorite shit is from genres I typically hate. If he actually ended up liking the show after going in expecting to hate it, y'all would be gushing about how cool he was for being willing to test his preconceived biases. Let the man be lol (I know your comment isn't very hostile, just looking over this comment section is giving me chronic illness, damn)

[@unterhau1102]

​@@theshinypeliper8813 nah that's objectively wrong. Him making reviews on stuff he likes and doesnt like makes him an actual interesting person to listen to. I wouldn't watch him if he glazed every show, or didn't make reviews on shows he didn't like. He's unapologetic about his opinions, and that's why I like him. I don't have to agree with him but each person is entitled to their own opinion. what matters is that you don't get your panties in a twist about it and start projecting your own insecurities, and putting words in his mouth that he never uttered in the first place, like many people in this comment section. He just recently made a great video demolishing all of the rеtаrdеd comments here, you should watch it

[@Cossaint]

I’m sure that madoka is so naive because she already had everything so she didn’t have to worry about anything

[@capdyn735]

I'm going off memory here but I'm fairly certain her or Sayaka say as much early in the show, that maybe Madoka didn't know what to wish for because she wasn't in need of anything.

[@garangkiariga1855]

@@capdyn735 they had a word for word conversation about this that Scamboli completely disregarded Sayaka said how they were privileged. They probably don't even know about starving kids cause they're sheltered and stuff

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@garangkiariga1855 exactly that! This is why you don’t watch an anime that requires your full attention while high… Although something extremely interesting about the whole wish thing was actually something my dad said when I’d given him a rundown of the magical girl system and asked for his opinion on it He’d essentially said that hypothetically if he was the one making the wish, why shouldn’t he chose to be selfish about the wish if he’s the one who has to do all the heavy lifting after it’s been granted. So basically he thought that if this was something that he had to carry the burden of, he had every right to only think of himself. Which I thought was a pretty interesting take on the situation… Sorry for the rambling I just had to share

[@bunchkinboi7781]

I'm gonna name my kid walpurgisnacht.

[@ScamboliReviews]

That username is already taken

[@ben-taobeneton3945]

It's from Germany. Also known as "Saint Walpurga's Eve" - a mini pagan fest. A fewsacrificess and stuff. 🙂

[@TomimokaDiyuu]

limbus

[@SatouKazuma-o7u]

company

[@AB0BA_69]

@@ben-taobeneton3945 Pagans celebrate a Christian saint who destroyed witches? Now that's funny :)

[@jash3881]

I feel like the context of this anime is important, it came out at a time when magical girl shows were really popular, these shows usually had a lighthearted tone, with girls using the power of friendship to defeat evil with the help of cute mascots, but this anime took this basic idea and gave it a dark twist. It assumes you've seen or at least familiar with other magical girl shows, and the sinister undertone will be lost in your familiarity to the genre. Today i feel like this genre went extint it isnt the phenomenon that it was in the 1970-2000s (sailor moon for example). Also many later shows were influenced by madoka magica, so now some of the ideas that were considered original now seem repetitive Edit: ngl i'm a bit sad that my comment avoided being completely shredded to pieces in his response video lol

[@tayschannel2695]

Honestly I never was into magical girls like I love aesthetic but I only watched glitter force and winx in my childhood and that’s all, i watched few episodes like several years ago and had a touch time trying to like it, I tried several times but it never hit. And then this year I got into it and like- I’m so obsessed and annoying 😭 I just see a lot in it. Too much to say in words. So sometimes I draw it. I got to it throw art if we talk exactly (and dumb memes of course) because like try to search up Madoka fanart like…. It’s not just art, it’s interpretation. It’s just bunch of people who try to show what they see in this show throw horror surrealism and love, so so much love, so much love it’s scary. And it defies the themes what Madoka tries to tell so well. Because Madoka is about the time when hope becomes despair and love becomes horror……

[@sdbzfan1]

a lot of shows show their age, but sometimes thats also important kinda like Sword Art Online, it came out at the right time where something like .hack// didnt and while SAO got all the hate its popularity still far out did the hate Same with Akame Ga Kill Sometimes you actually just have to be there, a timeless show only works in the idea that you can accept it was influencial for its time I know a bunch of people wont watch anime pre 2000s simply because they dont like the cell shaded look and prefer digital

[@hellraiser217]

@@sdbzfan1 I was there for Akame Ga Kill. The ending of the anime was a dumpsterfire but the anime community was mostly invested because of Esdeath's... Physical attributes... Anyway and those who actually cared about the story went for the manga.

[@Fr33mx]

It's just a deconstruction of the genre, the same way Evangellion was a deconstruction of the Mecha genre

[@midnitestate]

​@Fr33mx yep, but you actually need to be into said genre or atleast have watched a couple to get what Madoka is doing. I think scamboi watched this as it's own standalone show, but it's really a parody of the magical girl genre, just in a dark and twisted way rather than a more comedic way you see other shows do it.

[@Shadowrose54321]

I think the point everyone missing(including Scamboli) is how many questions do ANY magical girls ask when becoming a magical girl? For ANY Show? They don't assume the person you're making a contract with is also the cause of the evil you're fighting. They just join the fight because they see their friends doing it or it's an already established system so you don't think to question everything. I literally showed this show to literal children and you don't know how FAST they were on board to make a wish like "a card with unlimited money". But as you saw he only asks people who are desperate and don't have much of choice(as seen through through the other magical girls in the past). I think the main issue with it is that it doesn't really drive it home with Madoka and Sayaka. However Mami and Akemi both were in desperate situations when making the wish. One being the end of the world and the other on the verge of death.

[@flowersandcheesecake1710]

In a way Sayaka was in a desperate situation just not as severe as the others her friend just verbally berated her on how she’s causing him pain and hurts himself emotions are high and that’s when Kyubey comes in and be the predatory exploiting douchebag he’ll so politely will be

[@LightningStrike1212]

if the point is that children can be naive then you don't need an edgy show to do that. or if the point is that people in desperate situations can make poor decisions, that's not saying much that people don't already know.

[@Yuki_Seraphim]

@@LightningStrike1212 that isn't the point tho, madoka is more of a faustian tale with strong influences from both Buddhism and nihilism, rather than being an edgy take on "be careful with what you wish for" The point was to explain WHY the girls made the wishes in the first place, some are desperate others are naive and if you take into account that magical girls shows are a thing then it makes sense that a Japanese schoolgirl wouldn't really question the whole setup for the deal, maybe Kyubey took the appearance and speech pattern from those shows to lure in girls into believing that what they're doing is pretty much the same thing.

[@LightningStrike1212]

@@Yuki_Seraphim the fact that teenage girls can be idealistic and easily exploited by someone promising to make their wishes come true, doesn't really need explanation. if i watch magical girl shows, i come in with the expectation that yeah, i have to grant some things and i'm not taking this whole "middle schoolers saving the world through the power of love and friendship" thing seriously. that is not something that needs to be addressed. there would be more merit to the explaining why part if the characters KNEW what the potential consequences were and still made their decision, because otherwise, they simply got scammed by kyuubey, and like, that's just being deceived. there's not a lot of meaning to pull from that. i suppose you could tie the show to buddhism and nihilism but i'm not sure what that adds to the show. I'm just looking at the show by itself and the writing is very barebones.

[@Yuki_Seraphim]

@@LightningStrike1212 You just repeated what I said... Then completely missed the point of the show and what I said. crazy stuff

[@mealsome4450]

I Dislike people calling the girls naive/stupid Because that is the point. Kyubey are predetory, they look for girls that have the potential to become magical girls and then witches. Because witches are born from despair of magical girls. If you contract girls who aren't naive and full of silly little dreams, then you won't get the despair once they realise the horrors that they found themselves in.

[@hypocritical1801]

You do know he talks about this exact thing in the video, right?

[@flappyflap2693]

im sorry but like if they wanted to do that just go to an orphanage im positive it'd be way easier to get something out of that aside from like girls with happy families and slight demeanors

[@ziitania9939]

​@@flappyflap2693 I just want to note that that is exactly what Kyubey does. Madoka is literally the ONLY girl in the show who has a happy family and a good life.

[@Elephanthobo]

@@hypocritical1801 Yes, but I don't think he's really taking the concept seriously. The anime itself runs off of the concept of wish fulfillment and the price of power. Ignore "Hope" and "Despair". Put yourself into Kyuubey's shoes. You've spent millions of years preying upon lifeforms throughout the universe. You've spent thousands of years analyzing and harvesting the most desperate and powerless of humans. You're not dealing with people who know anything. You're dealing with simple animals. An animal could be smart, or even smarter than you - but that doesn't mean they'll escape the slaughterhouse.

[@Donovarkhallum]

So the cat thing wants witches to exist?why (I never watched the show)

[@iota_4]

among the many points i disagree on in this video il stick to this one you said homura gave up on trying to convince everyone that kyubey was evil on her after her second attempt. but in the show its implied that she has been doing this one month over for hundreds of years. so just because it doesnt show that she tried to convince everyone that kyubey was evil again, i think its a safe to assume that she definetly did try that route again and again probably hundreds of times but the show doesnt have time to show that in a single episode

[@javihermorivas8320]

También sería aburrido que nos mostrarán tantas lines de tiempo que se confirmaron 100🤯 y luego esta la gracia de los mangas🥰😇

[@LightningStrike1212]

there's no good explanation for why it wouldn't work though, given that she can reveal herself to be a magical girl, and precisely because the anime rushes this part just like it rushes everything else, there is no good explanation for how it is seemingly impossible to prevent the tragedies. which is fine by itself, but then you look at how each of the magical girl wishes always turn out for the worse for dumb reasons too, and it reads like an attempt to force magical girls to always meet a bad fate in order to set up madoka being jesus.

[@Yuki_Seraphim]

@@LightningStrike1212 That doesn't make sense, ALL of the girls have their reasons to be skeptical of anything Homura says and even then her just blabbering on about what happened on the other timelines could have a lot of nasty side effects, Mami had a crash out the moment she understood that they indeed become witches and tried to kill her and madoka, and taking into account that mami thinks kyubei saved her life then do you really think she would be willing to hear homura out? Esp taking into account that she's a magical girl that suddenly appeared on her territory (from her POV) blabbering nonsense to destabilize her, Kyoko maybe would be more understanding, but on the final timeline she remained delusional about the possibility of saving Sayaka until she confronted her witch form and sacrificed herself, Sayaka is too stubborn and distrusting of homura to earnestly take what she says into account and Madoka is too easily led by the others so even if she tries to hear homura out the others would surely try to "lead her in the right direction" So it makes sense that Homura lost the strength and interest in trying to make the other 3 "see the light" and she obsessed over keeping Madoka safe

[@LightningStrike1212]

@@Yuki_Seraphim Mami I kind of get, cuz she's already a magical girl when Homura arrives so she wouldn't have been able to do anything about her not becoming a magical girl regardless. For the others, she tried one time with no explanation for why Kyuubei would want to exploit the girls, an explanation that she can easily get from Kyuubei himself through multiple timelines, or just come up with a more convincing argument. She can easily get personal details from the other girls and then use that in another timeline to get their trust, which is how X men days of futures past did it despite prof x not trusting logan. She could've simply asked them to ask Kyuubei about what she was saying and Kyuubei would tell the truth. Point is, we are shown that she made a weak attempt at convincing them ONCE and then decided that she couldn't get though to them. Then she decided to stop by Madoka's room in the dark and give her a confusing bit of advice, as if that was better. I don't see how this justifies her losing the strength and interest to convince them. And overall, my issue with the show is that she is also set up as doomed to fail because magical girls ALWAYS fall to despair anyway once they make their wish, which is contrived.

[@Yuki_Seraphim]

@@LightningStrike1212 it isn't contrived tho, human beings esp hormonal ones are pretty susceptible to mood swings, and if you dedicate a good chunk of your life to destroying monsters that are as vicious and predatory as witches it makes sense that all if not most magical girls would fall into despair eventually. (And you know, the system is rigged from the start to make the magical girls fall into despair and become witches but who really cares about that, no?) And you just said the most cliché thing imaginable, do you really think Homura would get to know them that well? Homura only cares about Madoka, and in the few (shown) timelines the others have realized that they will become witches she almost got killed, and taking into account that two of their strongest members (I.E. Mami and Sayaka) are one of the most volatile and prone to either dying or turning into witches then it makes sense Homura has essentially resigned herself to doing it alone or maybe with the help of Kyoko.

[@goatskin4487]

Blud got so mad at the backlash he had to change the video title

[@CTurtle1106]

What was it originally? I just clicked on it now.

[@johnnybensonitis7853]

@@CTurtle1106 I'd assume that he just strung together a few bits of profanity and racial slurs just to show contempt for the show. Because that's what that does.

[@Manganization]

@@CTurtle1106 If I recall correctly, it was "Watching Madoka Magica while Baked"

[@spencerdancy5789]

He does that like… every time he uploads which is like… twice a year

[@Zaketh_]

Changed the title, and the thumbnail. Might just be A/B Testing to see what gets the algorithm going, pretty much all youtubers do it now.

[@ReijiKidoMot]

Who would have thought watching something baked and with friends trying to one up each other constantly would make you not care about what you are watching.

[@tayschannel2695]

Idk still cried even after sitting with my sis who hated it and joking about Madoka’s dad living in kitchen.

[@n00bzor99]

It is a great way to watch something if all you care about is hanging with the boys. It is a terrible way to watch anything that tries to be serious. Unsurprising that a show he went in expecting to hate is one he didn't like when he set it up to fail like that.

[@Mom-pl2xb]

Are you mad? Theres really nothing more fun than watching a show with friends and being hyper critical about it

[@tayschannel2695]

@ except Madoka isn’t really supposed to be “fun” it’s kind of anime where you need to pause on some moments to just think.

[@ReijiKidoMot]

@@Mom-pl2xb it is indeed fun. Terrible for immersion and making you feel anything other than contempt tho.

[@vsimp2956]

Seeing my favorite show of all time getting this treatment is rough, but i guess you can't please everyone

[@Taaseer]

I mean, watchin in 2024 comparing to all the anime that came after, sure its not good. But I'm sure you know, when it released, it was a shock, just as our boy says at the end XD

[@bug688]

@@Taaseeroh madoka magica absolutely slams every anime in 2024

[@vsimp2956]

@@Taaseer i dont really think it's aged poorly. I watch reactions to it every now and then and it always hits for me, and most reactors do too. It just doesn't resonate with everyone, like any piece of media

[@Toxxicqt]

@@Taaseer i watched madoka magica for the first time this year. I rated the show a 9/10 it definitely still holds up today imo

[@rubyraptor]

one of my best friends hates the show for basically the same reasons scamboli gave. so I was ready for it even though in my eyes it’s still a masterpiece of subversion. that said, this video was hilarious

[@winterx2348]

i think the experience of being a girl coming of age in a world that's actively hostile to you in ways you previously couldn't fathom is why i give a lot of grace for the bad but well-intentioned choices the characters make. their hearts are in the right place but they don't know what they don't know, just like me at their age. i would have definitely gotten tricked into selling my soul for what seemed like a good cause, just like how so many of my friends were tricked into having an eating disorder, and i can't say i wouldn't have done things any different than these characters did at that point in my life. maybe that's why the show feels so cathartic to me as a tragedy. (btw homura didn't just go back 3 or 4 times, she spent roughly 12 years trapped in the same time loop. it's implied she tried every possible way to keep madoka from becoming a magical girl, and not a single one of them worked.)

[@DanielGonzalez-sd3fy]

NGL I feel like the only reasons he didn't like it is cause he couldn't take it seriously with all his friends just making fun of it also this isn't even the end the rebellion makes me go from liking the show to loving it

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

Exactly, he was just high and fishing for laughs and skinner boxed himself and couldn't be arsed. The Anne Frank bit is weird tho, I prefer the movies personally. But also Homura is just best girl easily. The others are so n so.

[@novelle.27]

yeah I enjoyed the video even though I loved Madoka, but this isn’t exactly good faith critique. he came in with the mindset that he was going to hate it so of course he hated it

[@thesnowmiser6728]

Watched it with my friends (who liked it). Show is incredibly mid lmao

[@justincholos.balisang6884]

He probably never takes anything seriously at all and in a sense, it's valid.

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

@@justincholos.balisang6884 Naw he takes the 'I outsmarted you guys!' trope thing to mind, he explains specifically in the video. He just wants every anime to be Code Geass and Death Note. This anime isn't a 'ha smart male' anime, its a tragedy.

[@Yggdrasill299792]

I don’t expect the characters to act like rational, fully formed adults, especially since they are just puberty-driven kids. The evil cat specifically sought them out for their naivety and ease of manipulation, which makes sense in the context of their immaturity. The story operates on a level of dream logic, where things don’t always make perfect sense in a traditional, logical way. This is a crucial element of its structure. In the case of the time loop, the issue isn’t as pressing because we don’t see every version of reality. When asking “Why didn’t she do this?” a reasonable response might be that she did, and it didn’t work. Telling someone, even if the evil cat openly admits its role, isn’t always enough to prevent them from falling into a Faustian bargain, especially when the stakes involve such an overwhelming force as Walpurgisnacht. No matter what the characters do, they can't seem to defeat it, and we know that Mami’s fate leads to either her transformation into a witch or her death. These events play out, despite their efforts, because they are dealing with forces beyond their control. This sense of futility is compounded by the characters' inherent naivety and the dreamlike, abstract nature of the narrative. The logic of the world isn’t meant to adhere strictly to reality, and this adds complexity to the way events unfold. The tension and confusion in their decisions feel rooted in the nature of their circumstances, not just individual character flaws. When it comes to judging whether a story is “good” or “bad,” we can’t only look at how logically everything plays out. A story can still be engaging, emotional, and creative even if it doesn’t follow traditional logic. To judge a story fairly, we need to consider the intention behind it and how it works within its own framework. It’s not about applying outside rules of logic, but about understanding the world the story creates and the themes it explores. I don't like that these KZbin critics view media with such a level of surface analysis, but I mean who cares because you are baked so any critic against you must be overblown. No worry I was baked as well when I wrote this, so you can't critic me either.

[@Pm3m_Dia]

Well written. Thank you.

[@hotcoco7946]

If you're this eloquent while baked I'd love to see what you could write while sober.

[@bingusshlingus1442]

Bro wrote a whole high quality college essay while baked, either your tolerance for that shit is so high you could become a weed crystal and be totally sober or it's cap.

[@briannormant3622]

@@hotcoco7946 It doesn't work like that unfortunatly: There is an perfectly equilibrium state of being just baked enough to let your mind free about every idea but just sober enough to develop and critically analyze those ideas.

[@nek729]

I don't expect the characters to be fully formed adults or not naive. I don't even expect the story to work in the logic of real life. A story can be engaging with incredibly stupid characters and emotional without adhering to any of those conventions. The problem with Madoka Magica is that its not engaging within its own framework. His criticism of the characters not acting logically is not as simple as that. Its that if you have characters that are extremely one note and take everything at face value, a story about fate and inevitably loses a lot of its weight. You're not watching a compelling story, you're watching the Sims. The story gives them a basic, one note character motivation. They play it out to completion based on their circumstances, suffering ensues, the end. There really isn't anything to analyze when it comes to childlike naivety and stupidity other than "they're naive and stupid"... like kids. Its exactly like he said. Its watching the character trope play out. It just happens that this show allows that to get more extreme than others. Watching Madoka Magica reminded me of the Outer Worlds. In that game, it tries to criticize capitalism by creating a fictionalized futuristic culture 1920s where everyone has been kept stupid and incompetent by a constant stream of corporate propaganda. The problem being is that everyone is so incompetent and stupid that it can't really explore any complex ideas or even make any compelling characters. It can only play out the same joke about corporate exploitation over and over again. To judge a story fairly we must understand how the themes it creates interact with the plot. The plot here isn't particularly compelling beyond stupid kids making stupid decisions based on lack of information and then having those decisions backfire. Rinse and repeat. Its recreated the shallow repetition of the thing its deconstructing except with a different structure this time. This in turn highly limits the thematic value of the story as well. I personally hate youtube critics that excuse shallow plots and characters simply because the story has themes that resonate with them.

[@kopjevla]

the only criticism i agreed with here was the part with the mother, that is genuinely insane, to let your daughter leave a shelter in the middle of a hurricane cause she "has to save her friend" is so stupid from the mothers perspective. on the other side i really cant understand the indifference towards characters, but thats probably a personal thing. i also heavily disagree with your sentiments on madoka as a character, although the little skits were hilarious. her character can be compared to a main character like itadori from jjk, the least interesting character in the show, and basically serves as a viewpoint for the viewer. not so much a self-insert, but a type of self-insert character. you should definitely watch the movie as well, even if you dont like the show much, i think it serves to shine a light on some of the series best parts. now if you really want a bad show you should watch the madoka magica mobile game adaptation. tried watching it when i was going through the list of studio shaft anime and it was so ass

[@invaderZX]

Since you've seen both what makes the movie so good while the mobile game adaptation so bad?

[@kopjevla]

@ I can’t exactly say for if the entirety of it is good cause I never finished it but I watched the first half of season 1 and it was a chore to watch

[@Starr_Beam]

why do you make Madoka sound like that one kid from the Ghost stories Dub lmaoooo

[@Querez8504]

I just thought of the meguca video, because it sounded a bit like that too.

[@senhyaku]

Ravioli, you may be my hero, but I will never forgive you for this.

[@ItzzKish]

He should just review Rent-A-Girlfriend

[@2im36]

honestly rare scamboli L, feels like he barely tried to engage w the story and missed a lot of the key points like mami being on death's door and essentially being forced to make her wish + the fact that homura was never going to be able to defeat walpurgis, then the second he gets called out he changes the title to mock people calling it out. very cinemasins, and not in a good way.

[@daanstrik4293]

@@oobynooby1Based quite litterally means to have an unpopular opinion. At least originally. Which means that yes, an opinion can be both based and cringe at the same time. Whether this opinion is cringe I cannot say (I never watched madoka). But I can say that its based, because rarely do people talk negatively of Madoka.

[@anomalousanimates]

mmmmmmm ravioli 🤤

[@TuePhan-z4t]

@@ItzzKishfr😭🙏🏻

[@cyndoherty563]

I really don't think anyone knows how much to take this seriously, and for that reason, I think this just ain't it

[@PaulieMcCoy]

It's the internet, ergo don't take any of it seriously.

[@HannaYuuki]

I feel like most of the comments have covered the issues you brought up on the video: the girls are "stupid" and naive because they're pre-teens. Literally children in my POV. I remember watching this with the exact same age as them and their actions all seemed reasonable to me. 14 years old is the same as having worms in your brain. People that young are easily manipulated (exactly what Kyuubey wanted, that's why he has a cute form to trick them more easily, because girls love cute things) and emotionally driven, logic is a new concept to them; you can even see the contrast between Homura and the rest, she feels way older because homegirl has been looping for YEARS, mentally she's probably 20-ish years old in the anime timeline. It's impossible to imagine the concept of Homura time travelling the same month for 8 fucking years, any person at that point would've ended up insane, but she still pulls through. So I'm not surprised at all she says all cryptic shit, she probably is in autopilot already and tried so many ways to ensure Madoka's safety, she does not care anymore if people understand her or not. Also,. this is a personal opinion, but watching heavy stuff with friends is not the best way to engage with a show like this; we don't actually take it seriously with friends goofing around constantly, I feel like the impact will be way less when a serious cutscene is playing out but your friends just burst out laughing lmao (I get it, because watching with friends is great and fun). I think it ruins the experience. EDIT: regarding all people saying "I wouldn't fall for a talking cat at 14" well, you're furthering proving my point tbh. Kyuubey preys on the people who WOULD fall for his scam - teenagers who are close to dying, teenagers who are miserable/depressed, teenagers who are incredibly naive and trustworthy, like Madoka - if you do not fall into these categories he would most likely ignore you as a target and find an actual good/viable energy source lol. If every teenager fell for the scam, then every single teenager on this show would be a magical girl/boy whatever. Kyuubey is not stupid, he picks easy targets to get the job done. What's the better pick to gather energy: 3 girls who will wish for a Disneyland trip in a blink of an eye or 1 mature girl who will start asking questions? It's not rocket science really.

[@dvargas3553]

I was totally onboard with all you wrote until you said "girls are emotionally driven". That gave out some real Tate energy right there NGL

[@novelle.27]

@@dvargas3553 they didn’t say girls are emotionally driven, they said young teenagers are emotionally driven (which is true, regardless of gender)

[@Belowone]

@@dvargas3553 calm down bro. teenager's are very emotionally driven, and this is coming from there experience.

[@flappyflap2693]

i watched this while i was on summerbreak after freshman year and i thought "these are the most dumb motherfuckers i've seen in my life" gonna be real cause like have u mfs ever heard of stranger danger or what

[@Elephanthobo]

I'd even argue that Homura is how jaded adults act. Just because you learned a little bit of logic doesn't mean you know EVERYTHING. Only relying on yourself and treating others like they're idiots for making mistakes is exactly how you get yourself into deep shit. That hubris is why she makes nonsensical decisions. Why she never works with others. Everyone is stupid. She is infallible.

[@german-americanmapping6766]

I feel really bad for your friend, one of the worst feelings ever is trying to show something meaningful to you to a friend and having them not even try to enjoy it and just rip it apart...

[@hlee5690]

Okay

[@赤青白]

True.

[@imsentinelprime9279]

That’s pretty much the reason why I keep all my interest in entertainment to myself

[@ThatHawksSimp]

Whilst totally zooted too. Guy never had any intentions of watching the show properly. He just wanted to “haha head bitten off, lmao ahahah turn to witch”

[@PasscodeAdvance]

I know, and in such a cruel fashion too. Like bruh I want to make a wish with Kyuubey now ngl

[@PengalihKADYUGI]

i have never felt so much pain watching a goddamn video before until now

[@ologames1185]

Yesterday, I was rewatching a bunch of your videos and thinking"this is one of those few YTers that I will instantly watch when they upload", and here I am...

[@BulletBillBowser]

He pulled me in with his manga recommendations and now I'm stuck here

[@MangoesSuck]

rs

[@sleepyjerie]

@@BulletBillBowser lmaoo same here, after the video ended my face is just... (　´_ﾉ` )

[@purpuleabomination2703]

I mean speaking objectively they do ask him questions its just that Kyubey is a piece of shit and always lies by using half truths When Sayaka asks him "Hey so what are witches anyway" He obviously ignores the real answer and says something they wont likely question It dosent help that they see Witches first and think they are the true evil of this world and Kyubey is the one whos trying to help by making magical girls so they dont have a reason to not trust him And like these are 12-14 year old girls so the way they react to any of this makes sense 😭😭

[@CorralSummer]

Ye there's pretty logical reasons they didn't really question Kyubey's answers. For one, it's not like the were aware they existed within a psychological horror anime. These are japanese kids that likely grew up watching magical girl shows. Their initial reaction to every thing is going to be shaped by this fact. They see the cute magical animal and at that point they have no reason to doubt him. Magical girl mascots in magical girl anime aren't evil or trying to trick you. And "witches are born from curses" isn't any less believable than "magical girls are born from hope" which is actually true pretty much. If you suddenly learn magic is real random dumb shit like that is pretty easy to believe since, I mean fuck it magic is real ig why *wouldn't* witches be born from curses. If you're watching this without the context of what a japanese person would be familiar with then ye, some of what they do does seem pretty dumb. But if u actually consider that, most of what they do makes complete sense or is irrational in a way people of quite frankly any age will be irrational.

[@ravwoofles3858]

​@@CorralSummer Can we also not acknowledge that the character's didn't jump without clear manipulation? Mami was about to die, Kyoko was desperate to help her dad, Homura was longing for a place to fit in and belong, and Sayaka was love sick watching a guy she cared about suffering. Ku chose them for a reason, and always answer with non answers that would be just satisfying enough for most people when they have something to lose or gain. Sayaka and Madoka are the two that are afforded the most time by circumstance and by Mami and Homura protecting them, even if Mami didn't have the right idea about what it exactly was about.

[@ninjaydes]

Madoka Magica is a 10/10 for me. The girls _are_ dumb and naive, but at one point in my life, I was also head-in-the-clouds dreaming about how cool it would be to have magical powers and make the world more pleasant with said powers. It's haunting to see their innocent wishes contort into tragedy after tragedy, only ending with sacrifice. I think the anime made my appreciate my mundane life and what I can more realistically achieve within it.

[@FakeStuff5]

Gotta respect that you went out of your way to have the worst time possible watching this show, and still said that it sucked ass and was 100% serious when you said it

[@adanflores4523]

Cause it does suck ass lol

[@SuspiciouslyConspicuous]

@@adanflores4523dickriding this dude in all your replies bruh😭🙏🏻

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

I don't respect it. Guy never gave it a shot because, transphobia or sexism or something (18:18) now that orangeface won presidency.

[@06j5str2u]

@@adanflores4523 Nah no it doesn't lol

[@06j5str2u]

@@BunPrince Yeah, in fact, exactly 4 million people and probably definitely much more

[@frostnovaomega1152]

Madoka Magica is basically a greek tragedy. It's a story about obviously flawed characters, who find themselves in a story that will use those flaws to annihilate them. You are supposed to see the tragedy coming, and that downfall is absolutely supposed to be self-induced. It's supposed to be a story about these painfully stupid and bright eyed kids who can't really comprehend the concept of evil, being absolutely crushed by a dark and hopeless reality. It's absolutely phenomenal at building up this sheer sense of dread, but all that kinda obviously falls apart when you cynically rip the show apart in a voicecall with your friends. So yeah. Skill issue.

[@n00bzor99]

Yeah, any chance of the show connecting to you emotionally gets obliterated the second you add an audience throwing in marvel movie jokes to any serious scene.

[@FailingDuke64]

It could be, but this is more of a deconstruction story than a greek tragedy. This story preys on your expectations of how the world and structure would go with familiar concepts in order to create a reality you are already familiar with. Part of why its so traumatic to viewers is because it was a lot of peoples first or second anime. Edit: changed subversion into deconstruction. Subversion is rather small scale, while deconstruction is more slow and overarching.

[@Lifesgood598]

i get that but characters being flawed doesn't always justify a dumb decision because by that logic Megumi Fushiguro was justified

[@swiftumbra2748]

The coping is palpable. If a show is well executed then it will immerse the viewer without the viewer having to put themselves into a specific mindset. The jokes are a response to how flimsy the storytelling is while the story also tries to take itself seriously and invest the audience despite it's weak ass writing.

[@cyberneticsquid]

​@@swiftumbra2748The experience you get out of any media is altered by what you put into it. Madoka Magica is a show designed to be deeply-layered and heavy on the symbolism, it demands engagement. It's not a quip-heavy superhero film designed for casual family watching. If you engage with any piece of media with a mindset completely counter to its presentation, of course you'll have a worse time.

[@Keyndoriel]

Man, big L on this video. Of course if you go out of your way to have a terrible time watching something and are primed to hate it, youll hate it. Please stay away from the movie when it comes out.

[@galian1233]

i think he gonna like the movies if he watches them because they're actually good

[@06j5str2u]

​@@galian1233The original anime/show, itself, is actually just as good too. Both are literally actual literal masterpieces.

[@blahblah6661]

jesus bro. just because he doesn’t like the same show you did he can’t talk about the movie? yeah it wasn’t a good review and done in bad faith but this is just corny to say.

[@Keyndoriel]

@@blahblah6661 Don't care, didn't ask.

[@Clooger-]

@@06j5str2u LMAO if you think this 6/10 is a "masterpiece". Cope

[@mangotango8115]

This is like the 3rd thumbnail and title change for this video

[@bahjan8316]

Watching anything with the expectation of trashing from first episode and even getting friends along that keep throwing jokes constantly making you less immersed, will definitely make you not care about the characters or relate to them in any way possible. Madoka is one of the shows that you should preferably watch alone and with no distractions. I also feel bad for your friend, that's gotta be one of the worst things to experience

[@swiftumbra2748]

I mean if the story was actually good then I'm sure he would have been less critical and praised certain aspects of it.

[@06j5str2u]

​@@swiftumbra2748 But, that's the entire point, the story IS actually good, it wouldn't be such a iconic popular revolutionary magical girl anime more or less comparable to Sailor Moon and Evangelion, praised and professionally highly critiqued for it's writing and story among many other things if it wasn't. He was literally just high.

[@swiftumbra2748]

@06j5str2u Saying a story is good is an opinion not a fact. And just because something is popular doesn't mean it has the merits of a "good" show.

[@rimurutempest9733]

​@@swiftumbra2748well it is good dude a lot reviewer's online give reasons is this the only dude you defend with big subs to say this? Lmao the anime is good and it is a fact if it wasn't it wouldn't have so many dang reviews saying how good it is

[@insidiousvictim]

​@swiftumbra2748 They're heated by the fact that someone else isn't meat riding their favorite show like they do. You can't form your own perspective without these people correcting you. It's so frustrating, dude.

[@localneo-graphic4647]

I think you misunderstand the hate you are getting from this vid. Everyone loved your Vtuber vid, so it's not because you are bashing something popular. No, it's because you deviated from your tried and true formula that made you such a popular anituber in the first place. Maybe you don't realize it, but you always bash something, then either admit that you like it in spite of its flaws, or analyze why other people like it and say it just isn't for you. You left that part out on this one, and that is a caveat that even most Madoka haters I've met still acknowledge (unlike say, Eva, where people just hate it entirely).

[@micah4539]

He did that in the time traveling section

[@appleua4807]

I truly want to know what he says his job is to family and friends.

[@SpitsAreTheBest_Mk.IX_61]

As in scramboli? There is no way he makes enough of money from KZbin for a living without patron, he definitely has a real job/is in uni or both. Edit: he does have a patron but it’s so hidden away that there’s no way a lot of people subscribe to it

[@anthonyn9096]

@@SpitsAreTheBest_Mk.IX_61 1 mill sub channel can't make a living?

[@pourfloix948]

probaby uses it as a punchline on gatherings, something like, "yeah i talk shit about shows and get paid for it" then cries internally

[@KezutsuKami]

@@SpitsAreTheBest_Mk.IX_61 He did a little interview with masked man. You can find it if you search it up. There im pretty sure he indirectly says that this is his job and he makes enough full time. I think this is more because he has a large catalogue of videos that people still watch and that all ends up adding up as enough to sustain himself

[@SpitsAreTheBest_Mk.IX_61]

@@KezutsuKami damn, I mean now that I think about it his videos are pretty rewatchable plus reviews never go “out of date”

[@andrewsmith2893]

The video is okay, but I don't really agree with the point - oh, I figured out that Kyubey is evil, which means the show is predictable. This is like if you read Mr Twardowski - an old Polish tale about a guy who made a deal with the devil and said - "oh, this deal won't go well" - yeah, no shit. You didn't figure it out because you are so smart and the tale is predictable, it was because you read a hundred things where a deal with a devil goes wrong, its part of our culture. Similar thing with Madoka - it came out a long time ago and inspired a shit ton of things. Even if you haven't watched this show, I can guarantee that you have watched something inspired by it. A cute magical animal being evil is a trope that was massively popularised by this very anime. Tbh I also disagree with your point about Homura's actions not making sense. She had 1 goal - Madoka must survive and not become a witch. She was quite successful. She didn't care about other girls and assumed that she would be able to defeat Walpurgisnacht herself. Considering the size of her arsenal, not a bad guess. She would just start again if she didn't manage to do it. One thing she didn't predict was that she wouldn't be able to use her power - it was because her hand was stuck which probably didn't happen.

[@shnitzel9052]

I think you fail in seeing that Madoka's "Cute thing's deal is evil" is the same as the "deal with the devil" trope of Faust/Twardowski. I would agree with you, but Madoka's trope isn't actually revolutionary like the Faust/Twardowski deal was, it just was a Faustian deal to begin with. You can say "Oh but Madoka really cemented the trope into anime" but the issue doesn't actually attack the fact the trope was ingrained in culture before the anime began, unlike Faust/Twardowski (which you do point out) and therefore the predictable twist isn't a fault of future media but past (which isn't excusable). The whole idea of a wish-granter naturally plays into natural skepticism formed due to the story of the Faustian bargain. It's near impossible to have "hey here's any wish granted" without a good chunk of your audience immediately thinking "hey this wish-granter is probably up to something" and that predates Madoka. The "spin" Madoka puts on the trope is the fact that the bargain is mixed in with Magical Girl-isms of the anime time period. I think within that specific context, the trope IS excusable however. But, as magical girls fell out of fashion, the context has passed and the trope now does fail in being a successful spin (not due to media necessarily influenced by it, mind you, but simply due to changing tastes). This does mean Madoka is more of a product of its time rather than a piece that holds nearly the same artistic strength as it did then (which the original Faust absolutely does) I think the best you can say about Madoka is that it is one of the better Faust stories in anime, which I would agree with personally, but your argument fails to actually defend its predictability.

[@FrontlinerCdV]

@@shnitzel9052 In the intro Scamboli said he "didn't know anything except that it goes dark"(or something to that effect) which means that he's not quite the "First Time Watcher with no real expectations and prior knowledge" but someone who watches the show fully for the first time and who knows KEY components of the story's *artistic direction* from minute 0. Then claiming the show is predictable doesn't really hold water as much even if he "totally called it".

[@shnitzel9052]

@@FrontlinerCdV That's fair for his case, but only if you assume Madoka would only ever be interacted with under the assumption its "just another magical girl story" which is unrealistic assumption to hold especially today. I think I tried to account for this by mentioning when it came out under the guise and height of magical girl stories, it was much harder to sus out Kyubey, which I absolutely agree with. But that does mean, again, it's a product of its time. As magical girls have fallen from the anime zeitgeist, its much more reasonable to assume some suspicion on Kyubey if a viewer, who didn't know anything about both Madoka and magical girls, were to watch it. Especially in modern anime times, where those brought to the forefront of experience is either battle shounen, isekai/light fantasy with often a twist of character depth (take the most popular of the last couple years like Frieren, Mushoku Tensei, Re:Zero) its arguably even easier to sus it out. My two main points are 1, unless you are watching it during the height of magical girls, it wasn't difficult to assume Kyubey was evil from the get-go, even if coming in blind. 2. Madoka didn't really create a new trope in media, but rather introduced the Faustian Bargain into anime during a time it wasn't really prevalent (I'm sure there are Faustian anime that predate madoka) Again, I think Madoka IS good (unlike scamboli) I just think Scamboli has relevant criticisms.

[@T_K7]

@@shnitzel9052 You're right on your main points, but I think andrewsmith2893's point is that it's bad faith to effectively blame a story for using a cliché that it was directly responsible for popularizing into a cliché from what was just a standard trope beforehand. It'd be like reading the Garden of Eden story in the Bible and trashing it for _making Eve dumb enough to eat a literal forbidden fruit_ when the worldwide spread of Christianity is directly responsible for us referring to the cliché as "the forbidden fruit" at all vs. any other non-fruit items/goals that countless cultures have made similar stories about. In Madoka's case, the story pretty clearly tells you that Kyubey and/or Homura is untrustworthy in episode 1, so claiming that "predicting" it ruins the story is a weak argument anyhow. What a story does with its tropes/clichés is far more important than if you can guess what the writers already wanted to show you before they actually do so.

[@batutsu338]

Love that for the argument you had to refrence polskie legendy. It was that serious.

[@Desolane]

A critical analysis normally takes into account the time and circumstances that the work released. It also usually isn't made after experiencing said work while stoned and going into it with the expectation that it will be ridiculous and embarrassing.

[@sunnivamhagatun]

exactly this.

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@Desolane this right here, imo if you plan to go into something clearly wanting to hate it then what’s the point? There’s a reason I just blacklist things that I don’t think I can get into with an unbiased perspective and would probably purposely find things to hate on

[@Emtsche]

@@theshinypeliper8813 He's not hating on it though, he said in a reply to a top comment that he did enjoy the visuals soundtrack and general plot idea, but the characters and its execution failed to deliver for him. Also he said that it just wasnt his cup of tea. Most of the 'hate' was exaggerated to make an entertaining video i think

[@Alreeshid]

Why is everybody upset that he didn't like it?

[@Desolane]

@@Alreeshid I'm not upset that he didn't like it. I'm disappointed that he bothered to make this video even though he himself knows that he never gave it a fair chance in the first place.

[@Peckh]

I feel like a lot of the “the characters are stupid” complaints can be excuses with the fact we are watching a show about a bunch of teenage girls going through puberty Yeah they are stupid I think that’s the point.

[@RoyThomas-c7h]

when has scamboli ever said anything smart? never.

[@PAGAN_YT]

That being said, it's also understandable that that premise and setting is not for everyone. Not everyone can empathize that well with moronic prepubescent schoolgirls, and so it will be an alienating experience. I personally don't like watching anime that centers around stupidity. This being said, he clearly is way off base with his criticisms, as he didn't even properly watch the show for what it was supposed to be.

[@hoangquanle3310]

@RoyThomas-c7h Ngl anitubers like Scamboli, Gigguk, and the Anime Man shouldn't be taken too seriously. You can watch them for entertainment or to find obscure anime but don't base your opinion of a series on their reviews. These guys have slandered series they haven't watched and misinterpreted a series' theme, as shown here.

[@MelodyLuna123]

@@PAGAN_YT fax i dont think madoka is the kind of anime to watch while laughing at dumb jokes

[@RoyThomas-c7h]

@@hoangquanle3310 i think it'd be better if anitube had higher standards

[@luckyisnutty1024]

Coming home from work to find a new Scamboli video brings me more joy than when I beat cancer

[@ScamboliReviews]

Fuck cancer!!!!

[@jenadeep]

❤❤❤

[@babydefenestrator]

bro went into this with 0 intention of enjoying the show and wound up not enjoying it

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@babydefenestrator I actually convinced a friend of mine to watch it when we were in high school and he didn’t think he’d like it but gave it a genuine chance and watched it completely sober… he ended up loving the show from episode one and we still talk about it together to this day. Hell, we plan to see the fourth movie together when it comes out and he’s genuinely excited for it.

[@m7mad182]

Didn't like it Gives 5+ rating??? Are yall stupid!

[@diabolicalfox]

Yeah, because it's stupid af 😂

[@yin.y0]

who would've thought

[@Chillipowww]

@@diabolicalfoxIf you KNOW you aren’t going to like a show, don’t review it. That’s just bullshit, you were never going to like it.

[@Jeff-dm6uj]

Who wants to take bets on how long it will take for Scamboli to change the thumbnail of this video?

[@06j5str2u]

He literally just did, and also the title.

[@lov3lornn]

@@06j5str2uwhat was it originally huh

[@06j5str2u]

@@lov3lornn The title was something like "Watching Madoka Magica High", it's been 3 weeks, I kinda almost forgot, but, I literally 100% remember it was 100% something to do with "Watching Madoka Magica High", so, yeah and the thumbnail was Madoka and the white of her eyes were bloodshot red like someone who's high.

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@Jeff-dm6uj he did it again

[@unterhau1102]

Lol he did it again

[@gizzbeadolls3333]

Seeing thumin was such a nice surprise at the end. I lost when he said “I don’t speak Japanese- Play Radiohead”

[@klar7566]

Yeah it's cool knowing the creators i watch r friends. I sound incredibly parasocial rn

[@RR-zv9gm]

Your videos are usually great and even when you're slamming some of my favorites, I find I can't disagree, but ngl, this one was not the one. A rare miss, but I'll still watch the next one.

[@rimurutempest9733]

Agreed he didn't cook with this one

[@sushitv1041]

A very rare miss. But a miss indeed.

[@-Monad-]

He just didn't enjoy your special show. Not more complicated than that.

[@ReptarKingOfMeat]

Bruh it's an opinion piece, not a research thesis.

[@RR-zv9gm]

@@-Monad- ​ @-Monad- lol "my special show" - bruh, I been watching anime for 30+ years, Madoka ain't that serious. He just didn't watch it with any intention of doing anything but dunking on it. Dude posts exclusively anime commentary, once every 6-8 months typically, has over 1m subs, and he comes in with this? Nah, I'm just calling it how I see it, this was weak af work, for a million obvious reasons already covered in other comments. And he's gonna make his $$$ on both of us, he don't need you to white-knight him, chill. And to the other one below, yeah, it's an opinion - and it's my opinion that it is a BAD opinion, given in BAD faith, on platform with 1m+ ppl, some of whom will take this as a GOOD opinion, when it isn't, and that's his whole job. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[@spitfiremase]

I super disagree with you on basically everything during the criticism bit, but I still liked the video. Like, sure, the dialogue is corny, but I don't think there are any failings in Homura's time loop episode that really cause anything to stick out, or disrupt the versimilitude, and i don't think the girls not asking for the details of the contract really mean much when, as you said, Kyubey specifically preys on the innocent and vulnerable, and in basically every example of a girl turning (even the witches, and you can learn some stuff about them through their labyrinth), preys on them in a particularly vulnerable situation. It's Kyubey's MO. So i think calling these things bad writing doesn't really check out, imo. The Characters all act how these characters would act in the situations they're put in and if they act strangely (characters not named Madoka and Sayaka) it's usually explained sufficiently without stretching the text beyond what's reasonable (not really speculation). So i don't think it's aged poorly either. What takes someone out of a work or makes them dislike it is up to taste though, so, it is what it is. I love Madoka. Another thing that's up to taste that you mentioned, Madoka being boring. I understand that Madoka isn't a particularly active protagonist, and this happens sometimes, but like you said, Homura says "don't change" to her at the start and makes it a point to prevent her from changing. She's caught between Homura and Kyubey until the very end when she figures out her wish. I think this is rad, but super get how that wouldn't work for a good number of people. 10/10, love Madoka, i hope Walpurgisnacht rising slaps.

[@plugshirt1762]

Yeah I find it interesting to have a protagonist who actively takes a back seat in their own story and is caught up in the wills of other people finally learning to make her own choice

[@keeparguing611]

@@plugshirt1762 its not even that the main character is useless and that's why she isn't doing anything, but rather that everything is preventing her from doing anything, i feel like everyone watching would understand that by the time madoka was contemplating becoming a magical girl while talking to kyubey on the bench, before homura shot him. and the kicker is we are only witnessing the loop in which she doesn't do anything. for me the strange story telling made sense when we were shown madoka as a magical girl in the first loop

[@spitfiremase]

@@keeparguing611 yeah she clearly wants to do something even if she doesn't know what it is. The indecision is pivotal to her character arc. And if its a matter of her taking the reins or if its fate, it doesn't seem like she minds either way (the final choice is essentially coerced, just like all the other wishes, which is explored more in Rebellion and probably the 4th movie whenever it comes out) but Madoka doing something is basically Homura's failure state.

[@Ijustusethistocommentstuff]

@@plugshirt1762 And it also does something the series is built on: Playing with expectations. We see Madoka's magical girl form in all the marketing, but in the actual series, she just isn't for most of it. For a reason. It's a subversion of the typical archetypes. Around this time, even, a LOT of the MCs of Magical Girl shows, like Precure, were either tied to Red or Pink. Even some of the earliest, like Poitrine and Cutie Honey, have that main red/pink aesthetic. In fact, a lot of HENSHIN HEROES (Just a general term, which includes Magical Girls, Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, etc.) ARE RED OR PINK IN SOME WAY. So, having the Pink-haired, pink-themed magical girl anime protagonist not just NOT transform for most of the show, but actively be a backseat to it is PART of the subversion. Not just a subversion of expectations, like DDLC, but a complete subversion of the tropes and plots of magical girl shows.

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@spitfiremase honestly becomes even more interesting when you see Kyubey as an allegory for manipulative abusers. He gaslights the girls into thinking that everything is ultimately their fault for not asking questions that people their age wouldn’t even consider and when they do ask questions he only gives them half truths in a way that benefits him in the long term. The only reason Madoka is ultimately able to make her decision in the end is because she’s seen everything unfold and now has all the answers allowing her to make an informed decision that Kyubey didn’t account for. Homura also unintentionally created the perfect environment for Madoka to pull off such a feat as well. Imo, Kyubey is one of the most fascinating antagonists I’ve seen (definitely not the best but still one of the most interesting overall)

[@Jimothythe2nd]

Scam the biggest difference is that you knew that the show was gonna get dark. That's why you were able to guess she's from the future or that the cat is evil. It was a lot different if you didn't know.

[@CZeke]

Came to say this. Of _course_ you can spot the clues if you know to look for them.

[@akiraigarashi2874]

Not his fault Madoka fans spoiled it for everyone. Probably wouldn't have gotten as popular without people describing it's main selling point so there's really not much to be done about that

[@PAGAN_YT]

So you're saying that this show is only good if you get rugpulled by it, and that is has no substance beyond shocking the audience with a tonal shift?

[@CZeke]

@@PAGAN_YT OP wasn't anywhere near that broad. He disputed _one_ of Scamboli's criticisms, namely that the twist is too easy to guess.

[@PAGAN_YT]

@@CZeke Both you and the comment below yours, reiterated the same thing, which is why i am asking. You all made it sound like that was the case.

[@nightmareendurer9015]

I dont even like madoka, but holy shit, you make the meguca fans look like geniuses in comparison.

[@caveformations1337]

Nice try, using "meguca" shows you're at least an avid enjoyer and have been around the fan base quite a bit.

[@06j5str2u]

@@caveformations1337 Lmao. "I don't even like madoka" and "meguca" right after was a whiplash of a dead giveaway and just a whiplash in general.

[@Yuki_Seraphim]

being meguca is sufering...

[@kyuokuo]

@@06j5str2u Not being Meguca is suffering, indeed

[@Godfreyjp]

Bro watches a drama show baked out of his mind expecting it to be funny...

[@maledoche]

Dude was trying so hard to make a tragic drama into a comedy and then when it doesn't work he goes "wow this sucks it's not funny" like wow you don't say! I didn't know what Walpurgisnacht meant when I first watched it, figured it was some foreign name, thought it was a little cool when I looked it up afterwards. Spending a solid minute going "WoOw FunNi NaMe ElLeMaYoHhH" in the middle of the episode is such brainless behavior, what a waste of time.

[@arigatameiwaku]

@@maledoche he was high, he uses drugs in his life,that shows a lot about a person

[@plugshirt1762]

@@arigatameiwaku I mean how he wishes to use drugs is up to him especially harmless ones like weed but you can't be expected to be taken seriously when you're baked out of your mind barely engaged with a show and then pretend to gave an actual valuable opinion about it after. I watched Goodfellas completely high and it seemed terrible but I didn't go around telling everyone all the reasons it was bad ffs I rewatched while I was able to think clearly to actually give it a chance

[@MelodyLuna123]

he seriously laughed through the whole watch with his friends and then wonders why the story had no impact

[@InvadeNormandy]

@@arigatameiwaku Look at the amish boy here.

[@dr_nolife9634]

4:03 i didnt know this was a pyrocynical video?

[@ttvttvyah471]

Bro the entire vid was spitting fax 🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@TheInfiniteAmo]

Scamboli is legitimately angry that a bunch of 15 year old girls are morons. Lmfao.

[@Nox.x_ART]

Even better is that Mami Tomoe is the ONLY main character who is 15. The rest are 12-14, aka middle school. So even if he did put the accurate expectations of a 15 year old on the characters it still wouldn’t be accurate because most of them aren’t 15 yet

[@TheInfiniteAmo]

@Nox.x_ART He also misses the point that Madoka being a clueless floormat is an embodiment of what makes all the Magical Girls who they are - unformed, unindividuated people will to just go along with 'whatever' in the hopes of making the world 'better'. That's why Kyubey preys on them in the first place. If they weren't innocent (stupid) the whole plan wouldn't work, and Madoka being the big important Magical Girl isn't a fluke.

[@adanflores4523]

Madoka fans are legitimately angry someone shared their opinion and didn’t like their show 🤣

[@Querez8504]

​@@adanflores4523It's fine to dislike a show. People here probably don't care that he didn't fully enjoy it. What people care about is that the criticisms given were oftentimes based on untruths and misunderstandings, which would of course lead to push-back.

[@flappyflap2693]

yeah poor excuse being 15 doesn't mean u have 0 survival instincts watch made in abyss

[@ThatHawksSimp]

I’ll say it’s not just two tries that Homura did, it’s over and over and over and over again, they just only show snippets from a few of them. Madoka is SO absurdly powerful BECAUSE Homura has gone back in time purely for the purpose of saving Madoka SO many times. Homura is stuck in a roughly month-long loop nearly 100 times, so she’s been trying for more than EIGHT YEARS. There are nearly 100 new timelines that exist purely for Madoka’s sake. She gave up trying to get the other girls to listen because they’re all stubborn children, and every time she goes back in times she is facing the same stubborn children with the same lack of knowledge over and over, and she only has a month tops to convince them. Why would they believe her? She’s an outsider. Kyubey is feeding them lies the whole time, like “Homura probably wants to steal your grief seeds for herself”. Kyubey is a manipulator who gave these girls the biggest wish they ever wanted, and Mami literally owes Kyubey her life. So again, why would they listen to her? Her mum let’s her go out in the storm partly for plot reasons lol, but also because she’s raised Madoka to always make decisions for herself and do what she thinks is right, and so she trusts her judgement As for Mami, well she became a magical girl because her only other choice was to literally die in a car crash alongside her parents otherwise

[@proxnoob6177]

I understand Homura is outsider but could she have not just gone in front of Kyubei and asked her questions? Kyubei can't really lie. They could have explained it like Steins gate but that is what makes one of them Timeless classic while other just a simple Genre changer. Madoka Magica has shown it's age because It does not dabble into questions for too long while Steins gate has become classic because even some of the most trivial questions are explained and the characters feel like actual characters. Concept of time travel is lot harder to explain when your main character does not has a talking cat nearby and Rentaro does that. But Homura fails to do that. Madoka is gullible enough to not ask question to Kyubei but not gullible enough to trust Homura? Her mum's logic makes no sense and you yourself admit that.(Plot reasons do be op ngl.)

[@MCArt25]

yea, but, have you considered completely zonking out and watching this show high as fuck, then complain about plot holes cinema sins style?

[@proxnoob6177]

@@MCArt25 How about you explain these plot holes? explain me why Homura could not just tell Madoka to ask the cat " Are you gonna turn our soul into crystal?"

[@T_K7]

@@proxnoob6177 1. Kyubei can lie, it just prefers not to when possible. In fact, it very often lies by omission. 2. Madoka really isn't deterred by the whole soul gem thing. She's quite willing to put herself in extreme danger to save others. 3. She does ask Kyubei enough questions later in the anime to where Kyubei tells her pretty much everything Homura knows. It does this because it realizes #2 and decides that Madoka knowing makes her more likely to become a magical girl. As for Steins;Gate, I hope you're talking about the VN because the anime cuts a bunch of stuff out and expects you to fill in the blanks as well.

[@proxnoob6177]

@@T_K7 1.Lying by omission ain't really lying more like manipulating. 2. Yea, but at least know terms of condition before putting your life in. 3. Asking more questions later on does not really help when you have fallen in the cage. I am talking about steins gate explaining why Rentaro can't save the dumb black haired girl. It is universal interference with Madoka there is nothing like that. Madoka is just insanely dumb. I don't like the show and I will justify my reasoning for that and you like it so you will try to explain why a reasonable mother will let her 12 year old daughter go save her friend in hurricane. I have tried watching the show and have fallen asleep each time but at least you have the dignity to give your reasoning others just scream in the ears still they start to bleed.

[@EvilLain65]

This video came out the way I expected it too lol and I’m so happy about it. Thank you Scamboli

[@kjyu]

It's meant to be like that, it's a deconstruction of magical girl genre where a lot of what you hated stems from.

[@seg162]

It doesn't deconstruct anything about the genre. Hardly anything about it's premise is typical to the genre. They're even less "magical girl" and more "lich".

[@06j5str2u]

​​​​​​@@seg162No, you're actually wrong, it does deconstruct basically everything in the genre. First of all, one obvious example, Madoka Magica puts and turns the entire genre on it's head, wanting to be and being a Magical Girl in Madoka Magica, in it's deconstruction, is undesirable, being a Magical Girl is a tough, harsh, brutal, lonely, depriving and life ending/destroying life or "job", it isn't fun, it isn't empowering, and isn't just a magic light show with the power of friendship and love and justice with your friends. "Hardly anything..??" Literally EVERYTHING in Madoka Magica is exactly typical to the genre, and it's specifically following it and going on and subverting/deconstructing it, have you ever even seen any magical girl anime? Have you ever even genuinely seen Madoka Magica? Omg. What? That's literally just like saying Evangelion's evas/mechs are "even less" mecha just because their mech's are mecha robots made out of actual flesh. THAT'S also a deconstruction, the cute ornate pretty magical girl transformation item or trinket the cute little magical girl mascot gives to the magical girls isn't JUST a random out of no where feminine cute ornate pretty magical girl item needed for a girl to transform and if something happens, it's nothing, it's fine and nothing happens to it, it's the magical girls' actual literal entire physical soul, which, is obviously, crucial and important and need to be safe 24/7, which, the cute little magical girl mascot, Kyubey, entirely rips out of your or the girls' body entirely without your consent and without you even knowing. I'm also pretty sure "liches" aren't perfectly capable human 14 year old teenage girls who go around transforming using transformation ornate fabrege egg transformation items and fighting in frilly girly pretty magical girl costumes fighting and defeating evil in cities who are literally called "Magical Girls" and "Magical Girl", and is actually unironically literally THE first original magical girl series who actually uses and says "Magical Girls" and "Magical Girl" in universe and in canon while other magical girl series before it went by others for the girls like Sailors, Precure, Pretty Soldier, etc. "They're even less "magical girl" and more "lich"". No. Wrong. They're Magical girls. They're actual literal Magical girls. I don't know what Madoka Magica you were even watching, or, you NEVER even ever watched Madoka Magica.

[@06j5str2u]

@@seg162 My entire reply got shadowbanned, but, just know, you're literally entirely laughably just wrong.

[@06j5str2u]

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​@@seg162No, wrong, it does and it is, in fact, a entire deconstruction of and about the genre. Literally EVERYTHING about it's premise is typical to the genre and it also subverts/deconstructs everything in it about and of it, what?, you never even ever watched Madoka Magica, you don't even know anything, everything you are saying is just a dead giveaway. Don't judge and speak on something you never even seen and watched and literally know nothing about or of. No. Wrong. They're magical girls. Period. Nothing less. Nothing more. In fact, Madoka Magica is actually literally the original and first magical girl anime ever to ever even actually unironically canonically just straight up use the term and name/label and refer to the girls as Magical Girl and Magical Girls in canon and in universe while other "magical girl" anime way before it used and named the girls as Sailors, Pretty Soldiers, Precures, Cardcaptors, etc.

[@seg162]

​​​​​​@@06j5str2u That's a lot of emphatic denial. How about you actually address the fact that the "magical girls" in Madoka Magica are more similar to _Voldemort_ than Sailor Moon? It's a subversion-- it preys on your preconceptions of the genre to then pull the rug out from under you for shock and awe. If it were a deconstruction, it would actually use clichés typical for the genre to then dissect and realistically examine. The magical girls in Madoka being liches, doesn't follow from the typical concept of the magical girl-- it's something almost completely foreign. There's nothing about the magic animal conscripting initially reluctant teenagers to fight some evil figure to save some world, that's reflected in an alien deceiving and bribing enthusiastic teenagers in order to engage in a cycle that eventually makes them the monsters they were fighting, all because that alien seeks to stave off the heat death of the universe. When you say it is a deconstruction, you do so just to say it. There's no way you have so little familiarity with the bare bones of the genre that you're actually unaware of its characteristic premise and tropes.

[@123youbia]

The video was funny, but I don't think it reflects correctly on the show.

[@CTurtle1106]

Watching an anime that demands its audience's attention, while high in a call, only focusing on what joke you want to make, and expecting me to take your opinion seriously lmao. Give stories the respect they deserve by engaging with them fairly my guy, at least lay off the weed before clicking play.

[@sunnivamhagatun]

i couldn’t have said this any better. it really frustrated me that he didn’t even actually try to watch and understand it.

[@LightningStrike1212]

he criticized specific plot points, criticisms which you haven't responded to my guy

[@szlomobronsztajn3115]

@@LightningStrike1212 and his criticism is based on missing the point because he was high and focused on making jokes. We are in no shape or form obligated to engage with bad arguments from stupid people just because they made a video on something they have vague idea about.

[@LightningStrike1212]

@@szlomobronsztajn3115 you haven't established that they're stupid people who are missing the point. if you wanna talk like that then i can very well say i am in no shape or form obligated to take this show seriously when it's written by a man who is known to be an edgelord and who wrote how the characters would die before writing how they get there. hell, I'll say it anyway because this show's writing is absolutely ass and mean spirited

[@capdyn735]

​@@LightningStrike1212whether you think the plot is dumb or not depends on if you relate with the characters. The least explainable plot hole in the story is her mom letting her go out into a hurricane which is pretty much inexplicable within the plot. I liked Madoka when I watched it in 2021, conversely I have tried watching Eva multiple times and I just couldn't relate with Shinji so I ended up hating it and dropping it.

[@janisen07]

none of these "flaws" are valid all of them just come from you expecting literal kids to act like adults

[@ScamboliReviews]

Asking satan where he gets is powers and why he wants to offer you magic is not an adult trait....

[@janisen07]

@@ScamboliReviews hey i mean if Satan looked like how Kyubey does i probably wouldn't have questioned it as a kid

[@toxpov3612]

@@janisen07 at 14? how did you make it to adulthood

[@goatskin4487]

@@toxpov3612 it's a magical cute animal fulfilling your wishes and giving you cool power making you special that's helping you fight demons why would you assume it's a bad guy?

[@ares395]

Probably because they have an intelligence of maybe a 5yo instead of 14 yo. You ever talked to any teenager? Not to mention that one girl did time travel for what is implied years and years. She should be a lot smarter, but she acts just like every other character. In US 16yo can drive. By that logic y'all letting kids drive. Really, someone asks you if you wanna sell your soul for any wish and you think 14yo would not ask any questions or be suspicious? If that's true then there would be a lot more *white van* cases. 'Yeah, just hop in, we'll get you anything you wish.' People will say 14yo is absolute mindless child and at the same time the same people will give them hands off access to the internet because these 14yo are smart enough to control what they see on the internet.

[@teaandbrandy]

I mean you don’t have to like it obviously but the video at gives the impression y’all didn’t even try to engage with it. Could’ve at least watched it sober… I for one would’ve liked to hear your take on the major influence it had on anime and even on the community. The magical girl genre is pretty much dead and this show is THE reason why. At least some of your takes are actually pretty funny

[@gw840]

11:22 LIMBUS COMPANY REFERENCE 😱😱😱🔥🔥🔥

[@user-ot8wl7oh9s]

Shame they were clueless about it they gon missed out on a lot of limited stuff 😥

[@lucianael158]

I absolutely think the show is flawed, but for how much good shit it does and for how imaginative it is, I find a 4/10 to be a bit harsh. Sure, there are many problems, but for all of them, it is still one of the most unique anime in story but mainly style. Due to this, I wouldn't call it dated at all, because no aspect of this show, apart from everyone having copied the magical girl twist, has in any way changed over the years. Even to this day, Madoka Magica is a beautifully flawed show that offers more creativity in a single episode than most shows do in 20.

[@Utsure_gin]

Madoka doesn't really have any problems Everything in the story is logical and follows the logic and thinking of the characters

[@lucianael158]

@@Utsure_gin I think that's kind of the wrong approach to judging art, as an uncompromised simple vision that sets out to do nothing is still not worth more than a wildly ambitious one that has a few flaws. Just because there aren't any clear problems, doesn't mean that it can't still be deeply flawed. Even still, I disagree, to me, Madoka most definitely has problems. To use an example from the video, I find his critique of Homura and her explanation, why she can't just talk about Kyuubey and what she knows to be completely correct. The show did not do a proper job at framing why she can't just talk it out; it shows one example that goes badly, and then she just stops trying. All in all, it's still a fantastic anime, but it does have a rare few flaws.

[@Blue-ux4sk]

@lucianael158 You say yourself that Homura does talk about kyubey and nobody believes her? Also the show has a limited run time of course they're only going to give one example. Homura is implied to have looped many many times, who's to say that she *didn't* try again? The show goes out of its way to address these points and the dude who made this video just wasn't paying enough attention to answer his own questions

[@lucianael158]

@@Blue-ux4sk No, I think that point was rather valid, this was a pretty important point, so the runtime argument doesn't work. They need to address this, because it is a pretty big plot hole the way it is now. Apart from that, no matter the runtime, no matter the arguments or excuses, a plot hole still remains. Does it kill the show? No, but it is a small and maybe even ultimately insignificant flaw, but it is still very much there. Madoka Magica, as magical as it is, is still flawed, as are most things.

[@Normaldudelike-youguys73499]

@@Utsure_ginWhat in the glaze.

[@moongoose8768]

Scram, I love you but I think the light fading from her eyes might have been the realization that her funny friend was an idiot.

[@DrinzenDrawz]

Yea and also one of the worst feelings ever is sharing something you like with a friend just for them to shit on it the whole time

[@sdbzfan1]

@@DrinzenDrawz yea it was probably less she liked the show less and more constantly being reminded about things she let slide were actually bad takes away the magic of just enjoying something

[@BunPrince]

yeah id feel bad too with how much she loves the show, hearing actual audio of the live watch makes me feel so bad for their friend. This can't have been a good time to watch your friends dunk on their fave show

[@seg162]

"Scram"? Who's "Scram"? And you don't you think he'd know better about the friend-- who he had to have been talking to before, during, or after the viewing-- than you?

[@machy4266]

@@seg162It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to intuit that the friend who wanted Scram to watch the show was probably hurt about the constant riffing he was doing WHILE watching with her. Note the fact that the only thing he includes from her in the video is her being a little upset that he skipped the opening presumably near the beginning of their watch-through. That was the ONLY commentary he included from her, someone who wanted to watch one of her favorite shows with him. Yeah, that sounds like he hurt her feelings.

[@aliciadayo]

kinda pathetic lol, this is cinemasins tier of ignoring absolutely everything and just saying uhhh durrr this shouldn't have happened no shit it shouldn't have then, if it was all sunshine rainbows and 100% correct choices it wouldn't be a drama anime

[@V1_Ultrakiller]

You can't seriously think walking out in a hurricane is a sane person's choice

[@Ygjol5]

​@@V1_UltrakillerThis is literally the only correct criticism in the entire video.

[@virtuosoflux]

Most of your videos are good, but I did not like this one. I'm not a Madoka white knight, but the whole video just felt very mean spirited. You expected flaw before episode 1, and you spent all your time looking for those flaws. Duh you wouldn't get invested in the characters. You set yourself up to hate the show. This whole video is just a waste of time lol. Sorry! I do still like your content.

[@goatskin4487]

you dont need to get baked to watch this show it's really good

[@D3rr0r]

idk I watched it and didn't find it very interesting. I wouldn't say that it was bad, but I wouldn't call it good

[@goatskin4487]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@D3rr0rIt does a good job of portraying a dark twist on magical girl genre. The fights which witches are intresting blend of storybook artwork and traditional anime which I like a lot. If you don’t like the premise at face value it might just not be for you.

[@D3rr0r]

​@@goatskin4487oh I enjoyed the fights and the visual in general, but I really don't understand why people gass it up this much. Is it really just because it was the first to do a dark magical girl story? I don't that's a great reason to say that the show is good

[@Blue-ux4sk]

@@D3rr0r Its because its a good show and has an insane amount of depth to it. Its the kind of show that only gets better upon rewatching

[@BrolaireThebright]

@@D3rr0r did you actually just watch the show? or just played it on background and only tuned in when you heard battle music?

[@Pudding404]

Bro was so baked when watching this that he belongs in Charlotte's labyrinth. Lmao. I can respect peoples' opinions if they don't like Madoka, it certainly didn't age the best. So. . . Guess no movie or magia record review, lol.

[@Misves]

I'm a 22 year old man, and if the magic satan cat thing came to me and told me I can become a girl, i would take the deal, no questions asked

[@PaulieMcCoy]

that's weird but I guess having the ability to grow life and live life on an easier difficulty makes sense. i imagine if the series was made today kyubi would be telling these girls to start OF accounts

[@xanderbrooks427]

Gay

[@PaulieMcCoy]

@@xanderbrooks427 Yeah, that too. Very 🏳‍🌈

[@fauxplants]

egg moment 👀

[@SugeryGold]

A 22 year old man with an anime girl pfp*

[@u32_nekomata]

@10:45 I am so sorry you had to realize that, and also I hate you because I also never noticed.

[@Murisame]

Great review.🎉 another banger. Thanks for another hilarious summary😂

[@autarch6376]

Holy first time ive seen a 4/10 on madoka. Here im still 2 years after still listening to the soundtrack. To me madoka felt gr8 storywise, I loved how naive they were since i dont really watch shows with naive characters. And the symbolism especially in the movies blows my mind, cant think of a show that does symbolism as good, maybe monotagari, but that show felt to slow. 9/10 for me. Favorite show is still LotGH for me.

[@rond6135]

As someone who also just watched this show earlier this year, I argue that it very clearly does hold up. This story is tragic and the characters plights are self-made but that doesn’t mean that they’re idiots. When looking at Kyubey’s victims they’re all preyed upon during extremely emotional moments for them. It’s also a show that has inherent rewatch value because knowing motivations in retrospect really helps understand why they do what they do. It is not a show that you can find comedy in because it’s not a comedy and it’s not bad enough to be funny on that front. For the people who might be turned away from watching it or rethinking their opinion of it, it’s a show you need to watch on your own for the best experience and you need to be paying enough attention to who these people are.

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@rond6135 my best friend didn’t think he’d like it, watched the show, giving it an honest shot and ended up loving it and still thinks highly of it to this day. We plan to see the fourth movie together too. This dude didn’t even do that

[@kyuokuo]

@@theshinypeliper8813 This dude didn't even START to try. He watched the show at 2x speed, while baked AND while distracted by joking around with friends who held the exact same opinion as him, except for the girl who recommended the anime and basically kept quiet for the whole thing...

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@kyuokuo yeah, and I find that revolting

[@animagamer2]

This is like... THE WORST SHOW to just watch while memeing with friends. "Hey, you know this mysterious and thought-provoking show about love and what it means to be human...? Poop butt. LOLOLOLOL" It's like showing up to Oppenheimer with a group of meme lords and the entire time you're not paying attention to the screen, complaining about the lack of "action" and loudly making jokes about "When's Japan going to get nuked" whilst surrounded by Asians. But hey man, if that's your vibe.

[@kyuokuo]

He on that John Somali pipeline

[@myb701]

It's like watching Oppenheimer drunk with friends, and saying "My le bomb killed le people!!??? no...." in tHiS vOiCe every time something disheartening happens lmao

[@HandjobHandsome]

well oppenheimer sucks and is cringe bro

[@loganhardison2477]

the madoka to oppenheimer comparison is a little outrageous

[@ghost-lj8zs]

@@loganhardison2477 madoka is a deeper piece of media imo

[@flowersandcheesecake1710]

Changing the title to mockery because people didn’t agree with your take when you were blazed pretty immature

[@crusixblade2852]

Nice title change. A real Mother's Basement in the making.

[@kyuokuo]

Full on "NUH-UH!!! IT WAS ALWAYS LIKE THIS AND YOU GUYS ARE JUST DUMB!!"

[@theshinypeliper8813]

@@crusixblade2852 he changed it again

[@unterhau1102]

Oh my god what a sigma, I'm totally intelligent and mature for liking an objectively overrated dogshit show 🤓👆

[@localneo-graphic4647]

I understand why some people don't like this show, I like the show in spite of its flaws, not because of them. The problem with this video, however, is that you literally do not say a single positive thing about it at all, not one, at best you backhand compliment the concept, but not the actual product. This is a stark deviation from your entire formula, where you crap all over something and expose its flaws, then either admit why you like it in spite of those flaws, or analyze why other people like it and what value it has, even if it's not for you. It's not even your criticisms that are the problem, a few are wrong (like Kyubei not being able to lie), but many of them are valid criticisms that I largely agree with. No, it's that you don't acknowledge a single positive thing about this show. There is legit emotional weight and humanistic insight through the characters, especially during Sayaka's arc. I totally understand if that's not enough to like it, but surely you aren't daft enough to believe it's just not there. Also this is just a terrible show to watch with the bros over Discord bants, that kind of levity with even the smallest of hint of masculine bravado is going to detract from actually getting engaged with the characters.

[@piny_ryx46]

There are no flaws in the presentation as everything has been explained

[@pricetopay5152]

Kyubey actually never lies he's correct at that point

[@localneo-graphic4647]

@@pricetopay5152 He led Kyouko to believe it might be possible to save Sayaka, then admitted to Homura that it was impossible, and that he intentionally did it to get her killed. If that's not a lie, that is as close as you can possibly get, he tells the truth in the same way a monkey's paw grants wishes. Point is, Homura can't just infodump the other characters and then use Kyubei to prove herself, which is what he suggested.

[@pricetopay5152]

@localneo-graphic4647 leading someone to believe vs outright telling someone somthing is different. No one said the thing was not manipulative I think that's clear in the video, when he showed the part where the kyubei said, you didn't ask. The point still stands kyubei doesn't lie. Just get it to tell the truth in detail and there is no story

[@xveracross5674]

The show is peak when you realize that Anne Frank was a magical girl.

[@realchiknuggets]

based…

[@sal_vulcano_maybe6873]

Damn, I’m a big fan of your channel but you missed the shit out of the mark on this one. Not by not liking a show, that’s your right, but by giving it zero credit out the gate and forming your whole opinion based off of a viewing experience diluted by memeing and literal chemical inebriation. This show was never a comedy, I don’t know why you treated it like Superbad.

[@dudesgothair]

My reaction to this video was just the title without any irony lol

[@fullmetalbleachnote]

BuT wRiTiNg TiTlEs LiKe tHiS mAkEs mE SoUnD sMaRt 😡

[@dankinmcspankin3123]

its a good story they make bad decisions because they are 8

[@ScamboliReviews]

No, their decisions would actually make sense if they were 8

[@FakeStuff5]

​@@ScamboliReviewsYou really refuse to think that there is more of a reasoning to why they make their choices then their age? I mean flawed characters are supposed to be characters you see are flawed, but try to work it out. They were chosen by Kyuube because of who they are. Not every 14 year old is gonna be a detective trying to get to bottom of every little thing they were shown. Its wishful thinking on their part. They look at the good, without understanding the bad

[@OSPQK]

@@FakeStuff5 keep replying to every reply he makes, absolute fan behaviour

[@FakeStuff5]

@CFSGO The ones i see i will reply to. At least depending on the comment or the original. When he says thank you, there isnt anything to add. Mostly i just disagree with him in alot of his opinions here, so i see a reason too

[@OSPQK]

@@FakeStuff5 the ones you "see" being most of his replies LMFAO, its obvious you're looking through all the comments too see where he replied to try and get a rise out of him. you're not even debating him you're just making offhanded comments

[@apple5091]

I want your attention for a second. Its been established in the side story that kyubey would never tell you the truth. He'd always give vague answers. So asking is NOT gonna help like you said The girls in the side story did a whole questionnaire with kyubey but it was only after they researched and did the math that they found out his true intentions. And an average teen girl with them couldn't guess it even after the research. Its in episode one of season 3. I recommend you watch side story too before criticizing the entire show damn. But I do agree that the main cast was more gullible and 'kind' than everyone else in this show.

[@TurnipCakeHead]

I like how the title is supposed to be mocking people who think they’re superior for liking Madoka Magica, but this comment section is filled with people who think they’re superior for disliking Madoka Magica.

[@kyuokuo]

No no no... You see, they feel superior because they aren't making several comments about a show defending their standing on it and saying how their emotions and points are valid !! wait a second...

[@V1_Ultrakiller]

@@kyuokuo Major cope

[@IamHero_1337]

On one hand, you're right. On the other hand, the shit that people said to him has been genuinely disgusting. I agree that his review may not have been the best, but people took it way too far. Ultimately, it's his opinion, and there shouldn't have been this much drama over it.

[@TurnipCakeHead]

@@IamHero_1337 I wholeheartedly agree

[@aceyhyena8907]

actually, it's HEAVILY implied, which I'm not sure how you missed it, but Homura has been through MULTIPLE timelines, not just the ones WE SEE in the anime, hundreds of them even. So she did try, Madoka was her ride or die, she tried everything she thought she could.

[@aceyhyena8907]

Also worth noting, their stupidity is on purpose. These 14 year old girls aren't capable of thinking like we are capable of doing. So while yes it's annoying to watch stupid decisions, it was for me, it's on purpose and it makes sense.

[@plugshirt1762]

I men he obviously missed it because he was high and more focused on making jokes with his friends as he states and shows lol. He didn't actually engage with the anime he watched and expects to have his shallow criticism taken seriously

[@completelyferrouschemist6776]

@@aceyhyena8907 14-year old doesn't realize that muscle-memory resets on every timeloop, whoops!

[@aceyhyena8907]

@completelyferrouschemist6776 genuinely wdym by this

[@magnov983]

@@plugshirt1762 he does not expect it to be taken seriously by everyone, some liked it for the reasons he disliked it

[@kevinn3312]

I loved the music in this show. The soundtrack Sis Puella Magica, really amplified the weight of the reveal scene.

[@galian1233]

scumboli has no taste he likes cuck music(radiohead)

[@RaRa_wildog]

@@galian1233 radiohead is good tho wdym?

[@shakenobu]

Scamboli, bro, hope you read this, cause I pretty much hated this anime similar to how you do, and I also agree with some commenters that watching it with friends cracking jokes is not a good environment for a drama. SOOO I'd like to briefly tell how, from hating this anime, I somehow came to love it: 1. Watched it years ago, loved it 2. Rewatched in company, started hating it because of all the flaws, some of which you mentioned 2.1. I cringed from this anime so hard i wanted to stop rewatching it, but decided to stick through and ended up changing from "i hate this stupid shit" to "its stupid af, but has good moments. its an okay anime" 3. Years later, rewatched again with another person, and THIS TIME IT LANDED HARDD. Despite what others may say, knowing how things will turn out doesn't necessarily take away the tension and emotion. Most crucial is that, being aware of the flaws, this time I tried to fully embrace the "its not trying to be realistic almost at all", the plot shone brightest as a tragedy. and yeah, dub makes the characters 1000x dumber and much harder to sympathize with

[@shakenobu]

discovering the real terms of the contract too late after you impulsively signed it for a wish that didnt even end up benefitting you... the dramatic irony of a person being stuck in a death loop trying to do what she doesnt know is impossible... as you said, there is a very beautiful skeleton underneath a questionbale execution, but i think you are making the bads look way worse, and any good seem barely present, especially factoring in the art+music, this deserved to be higher than 4/10

[@fotare-13]

The claim that the characters in Madoka Magica are "one-dimensional" is a gross oversimplification and seems to be based on a shallow reading of the work. Characters are not merely tools to convey the plot, but are explored in depth within the dramatic framework of the story Madoka represents the internal conflict between her desire to be useful and her fear of making significant decisions. Her development throughout the story showcases her gradual maturation, transitioning from a naive girl into a character who sacrifices herself for the greater good. Can this journey be described as "one-dimensional"? Certainly not. Sayaka represents the contradiction between idealism and harsh reality. Her actions reflect a deep personal tragedy, driven by her sense of justice and sacrifice, leading to decisions that ultimately destroy her. This is not a shallow character, but one burdened with contradictions and psychological challenges. Kyoko begins as a selfish and bitter character, but she reveals layers of pain from her past. Her development demonstrates her capacity for sacrifice when she believes in a greater cause. The criticism that the story is not engaging within its own framework ignores the way Madoka Magica builds its own world. The story is not required to adhere to the rules of realism or even traditional logic, but it follows its internal logic strictly. The plot tackles profound philosophical themes such as fate, free will, and the meaning of sacrifice. Can these themes be addressed through simple characters? No, because the tension created by the characters' decisions and tragedies is deeply connected to the themes of the work. What you fail to recognize is that Madoka Magica does not aim to present "smart" characters per se, but rather characters that reflect the psychological state of humans facing grand tragedies, which is what makes the story impactful. Kyubey is presented in a mysterious and off-putting manner. He is not just an ordinary character that can be easily trusted, but a strange being offering a seemingly tempting "deal" without showing any obvious signs that he's lying. For ordinary teenagers, especially those in an emotionally distressed state, it is difficult to approach him with the skepticism that an informed viewer might expect. The characters who deal with Kyubey are often in a weakened or disturbed psychological state, which affects their ability to think logically. For example, Sayaka is driven by her hope to save someone she loves, making her more susceptible to accepting the offer without stopping to analyze the details deeply. Homura, for instance, is not a social person or skilled in persuasion. Her serious and isolated nature makes her seem odd and untrustworthy. Even if she tried, it would be hard for the other teens to believe her "crazy" story about the future without concrete evidence. Kyubey himself lies and avoids fully revealing the truth, and even if Homura tried to enlist him, there's no guarantee he would provide information in a way that benefits her, especially since he relies on ambiguity to encourage girls to make contracts. Kyubey has a capacity for exploiting language and insinuations, and it's highly likely that any attempt to force him to reveal the truth would be met with evasive answers that increase the others' doubts about Homura, rather than about him. And also telling the truth isn’t necessarily a positive thing for the characters. Homura’s primary goal wasn’t just to expose lies or seek the truth, but to protect Madoka at all costs. Revealing the full extent of Kyubey’s system or guiding Madoka toward understanding it more deeply could have led to a far worse outcome. Madoka, with her emotional and self-sacrificing nature, would likely have made a rash decision, like sacrificing herself, as the story repeatedly shows her prioritizing others over herself It is important to understand that these "wrong" or "naive" decisions are not flaws in writing, but part of the essence of the work. Madoka Magica is not a story about heroes acting with perfect logic, but about human characters who make mistakes due to their psychological and emotional circumstances. If the characters had simply "asked Kyubey" or "believed Homura," the story would lose much of its tragic depth. Part of the appeal of the work is how these decisions lead to devastating outcomes that reflect human weakness. Homura herself is not "super-intelligent." Her repeated experiences have left her emotionally exhausted and detached from others. Madoka Magica does not seek to present "stupid" characters in excess, but rather reflects human frailty and the emotional nature of teenagers facing supernatural circumstances. The "stupidity" of the characters reflects the weakness of an ordinary human when forced to make decisions under immense psychological pressure and a lack of full knowledge. This is the essence of the tragedy: human characters facing forces beyond their comprehension. The claim that the story repeats itself completely ignores the fact that each episode of decisions has different consequences that contribute to the development of the plot and characters. For example, Sayaka is not just a stupid child, but a character who falls victim to excessive idealism and a real moral struggle. Madoka does not make repetitive decisions, but rather develops gradually until she reaches her climactic moment, where she becomes a symbol of ultimate sacrifice. This is not "shallow," but carefully crafted writing that shows how small decisions and personal tragedies affect characters over time. Not every story is obligated to meet your personal standards for dramatic structure. The true power of any work of art lies in its ability to affect emotionally and intellectually, which Madoka Magica has done brilliantly. Your critique reflects a shallow reading of the work, with no attempt to understand the layers of its complexity. Instead of focusing on what the work actually presents, you chose to flatten the characters and plot into a repetitive pattern without realizing that these decisions are central to the tragedy and themes the work addresses. If you consider these characters "stupid kids," you overlook the fact that this apparent stupidity is what makes their tragedies real and relatable. Not every story is obliged to present perfect characters who make smart decisions all the time. This work deals with tragedy in its essence: how we face failure and weakness when the world is against us.

[@adanflores4523]

Chill bro it’s not that serious

[@studmcmuffin8844]

🤓

[@lovelybutterfly4892]

😂 oh my god

[@fotare-13]

​@@adanflores4523It's not my problem that Madoka is Peak fiction

[@Dark_kage]

​@@adanflores4523I enjoy reading stuff like this if it's well written; which this is. He probably wanted to get his thoughts out right. If it's too long for you ignore or at most ask for a summary but that's kinda entitled; so don't be surprised when they refuse.

[@BlueGlassesVIDS]

I swear to dog the Nostalgia Critic's success really killed media literacy.

[@BrolaireThebright]

Dog walker

[@jordannoell4222]

@BlueGlassesVIDS You can count the number of youtubers who can actually form a proper substanstive critique on like one hand. I am serious, I can only think of like five and half of them don't even do reviews/retrospectives anymore.

[@littlejack59]

13:50 "welcome to Florida" i have realized this is hilarious after most sentences.

[@spikey_sama]

Love your videos! Whenever you upload it's an event!!! But I have to say, biggest L take from your side, ever. Should have watched it alone without a bunch of friends constantly making fun of everything on the screen.

[@bmxgu2361]

Not every show is made for every person. Just because "you" can't connect doesn't mean it's intrinsically flawed. Like when I watched Evangelion I was really struggling with my mental health and the series managed to break down my emotions in a way that I never could. Now Madoka magica is about conveying the hardships that can be felt with emotional changes in young women, as well as tackling a variety of psychological themes. While these stories are still entertaining without looking at them through these lenses, you may realise that many criticisms you may have are depictions that are very realistic to the target demographic of these stories and serve only to improve the plot. I appreciate your honestly though and hope this provided a different perspective.

[@Official_Dilly_McBar]

I’ve been struggling with mental health for a while now and not to be an ass but I thought Eva and madoka were some of the most boring shows I’ve watched.

[@TheKrigeron]

I enjoyed the vid but watching it baked while riffing on it with your friends the whole time isn't really giving it a fair shot.

[@cass8163]

Show is garbage, so it doesn't exactly deserve a fair shot, but go off.

[@06j5str2u]

​​@@cass8163Show is actually unironically literally peak, if it was or is "garbage" like you say it is, it wouldn't be so iconic and popular, multi major award winning, revolutionary, revolutionized and changed and pioneered a entire genre and even much more, massively influential, professionally highly critiqued and analyzed and studied and acclaimed, wouldn't have worldwide praise and popularity, wouldn't be a financial, commerical, cultural success and success and phenomena in general, etc, on and on. But, you have your opinion, even if it is entirely wrong, and you never even watched Madoka Magica, but, go off.

[@PAGAN_YT]

@@06j5str2u Brother, you sound fanatically zealous with the way you're trying to defend the anime from people who dislike it. Take a breath, yea?

[@straxx]

@@PAGAN_YT you sound like a contrarian. you're free to dislike the show but saying its garbage is just objectively wrong on every metric.

[@PAGAN_YT]

@@straxx ? I think you're responding to the wrong person.

[@samsonator740]

I guess Scamboli wants that sweet sweet Christmas money.