The Horror of Madoka

Slowpoking away, I had a look at the latest talked-of anime show. Right from the offset the team at Shaft have let us know that something is deeply wrong in Madoka-land.

There is no window seat in this classroom.

In fact the transparent classroom setup is an absolute solution to dawdling in corridors, not paying attention, and distributing illicit material on school premises. With appropriate orientation of teachers, an organic 360-degree surveillance network might threaten the very laziness of the pupilhood.

The preternatural cleanliness of the premises start to feel like an imposition on the natural spirit of youth, deconstructing everything we thought we knew about classroom scenes. At least the dialogue and characterisation is all reliably leaden.

Next up…

It is perfectly standard for the visionary studio behind the Ef and Bakemonogatari adaptations to forget to populate what would normally be busy locations with human beings etc. In this show we actually do see the odd passer-by in the shopping mall scenes, but I don’t think we ever see any staff. In this establishing shot, not only are there empty seats, there’s no-one standing at the counter. Where does Madoka’s food come from? It’s so terribly uncanny.

Not that Madoka’s creepy all the way. After the eerie mall scenes we’re let off the hook slightly by a visit to a more relaxingly sombre location. The comforting sight of inappropriately positioned traffic cones lulls us into a sense of security maintained during the subsequent daydream and encounter with Fate.

This, of course, was no preparation for the shock which was yet to come. I went on to the next episode…

What kind of a chair is that? How did I not notice this earlier? Can a chair like that really be for children?