Madoka Magica 2015 Calendar Review - Part I
AKA I have nothing better to do right now
That’s right babes, I’m reviewing a freaking calendar. A calendar that’s 3 years outdated at that. I’ll be judging the individual illustrations on the calendar based on a variety of factors, though it’ll be ordered by month rather than my favourites. Ergo if you want to know my favourites, you’ll have to figure it out for yourself based on what I say. Please keep in mind this is all my opinion, and if you’re mad at me for my opinions on a fucking 3 year old calendar then you’ve got some problems you need to work on. If you just disagree though that’s cool. Split into 2 parts because without doing admittedly very easy exploits, you can’t have more than 10 photos in a text post apparently, and I can’t be bothered doing those exploits.
All that being said, letsago.
Some very nice art of Ultimate Madoka by Takahiro Kishida, who was one of the character desginers for the anime and all three movies, and helped a bit with animation here and there as well. While the functionality as a calendar is somewhat questionable, New Years Day, Coming of Age Day and the first four Sundays are labelled, and all of the numbers are easy enough to find. All in all, a very strong start to the year.
Once again, another beautiful piece. This one is by Hiroki Yamamura, an animation supervisor. I assume you have eyes and I don’t need to tell you how gorgeous this art is, but there are a few things I’d like to point out. First of all, Sayaka doesn’t have her ff hairpins despite this calendar being from 2015, well after those were added to her design in the movies. Second, every number on Sayaka’s side, as well as the word’ Febuary’ which can be seen in the giant 2 in the middle, is upside down, just like she is. This latter fact, combined with the fact that many of the numbers are very light in colour, gives us a calendar that is perhaps not as functional as we’d like. No significant dates are marked either. However, the numbers are still easy-ish to follow, and as soon as you find 1 you can effectively play connect the dots to find the rest. All in all, pretty hecking good.
March is easily the best functioning calendar yet, with the year, month and days all being very clear for us to see. I don’t know what’s so significant abut the 7th, 14th and 28th for them to be blue, but whatever. The art is by Genki Matsumoto, a Shaft animator who did key animations here and there and even some episode direction. The art is very nice with some pleasant colours and a variety of school uniforms, but of note is that this is the first piece to really have any “fanservice”, specifically Homura’s midriff and Mami’s bust being slightly emphasised. This isn’t much at all, but it’s a sign of things to come.
I said you could figure out my favourites list yourself, though I’ll give you a hint - this one is my favourite. And it’s all thanks to the beautiful and adorable art of the legendary Ume Aoki, who I’m sure needs no introduction. If you don’t know though, she’s the character designer for the show, responsible for all our favourite Megucas and Coobies and such. However, while this is definitely my favourite, it’s not without its faults. The numbers are a bit of a mess location wise. Sure, if you find 1, you can find them all, they kinda just snake down, but there’s no denying that it looks hellish. More numbers are randomly coloured and I can’t explain that, but it’s no biggie. This is also the first month to not have 2015 anywhere, but we’re 4 months into the year so I can forgive it.
This piece is by Hideyuki Morioka, who, as far as I can find, isn’t actually involved with Madoka in any way other than being a Shaft animator. Well I mean, he contributed this and was featured in the Tiro Finale Book but as far as the anime’s concerned he’s nothing. Anyway, despite his apparent lack of familiarity with the series, the illustration here actually captures the art style seen in the show better than anything else so far (that’s not an insult to the others by the way, they weren’t going for the show’s art style). And it does look pretty good! Of course, the fanservice trend is continuing here, with midriffs and collarbones and Mami’s breasts and flat loli chests galore. Again, nothing terrible or super erotic, but still a sign of things to come. Numbers are clear and easy to find, so it’s functional enough as a calendar, though not as much as March. Interestingly, despite every single illustration saying “Madoka Movie Project Rebellion” in the bottom right corner, this is the first illustration to have Nagisa, Rebellion’s new girl. Not gonna lie, I’m not really a fan of Nagisa, and if she wasn’t here anywhere I wouldn’t have even noticed.
Okay look this is by far the WORST functioning calendar of the bunch and honest confession right here? I haven’t even found all of the numbers. That’s how bad this is. This is also one of two illustrations with the month not being written in English. Instead, there's a 6 in Mami's Soul Gem to tell you it's June. However, the art’s really good and certainly unique. This art is done by Hajime Ueda, whose greatest connection to Madoka is doing the end card for episode 6, though he’s also done other stuff with Shaft. His art here is crammed with detail, and our 4 non-Homura megucas are contrasted with Homura herself being upside down and apearing twice as both Akuma Homura and good old Moemura. It’s a very nice albeit quite unconventional piece, and I love it a lot.
Part II can be found here.