Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part 1: Beginnings

Beginnings opened in Japanese theaters on October 6, 2012. It is a feature film that retells the opening part of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the 2011 TV anime made by Studio Shaft. The team behind the show is known as Magica Quartet. Akiyuki Shinbo directed it, Gen Urobuchi wrote the story, Ume Aoki drew the character designs, and Yuki Kajiura wrote the music. The film takes the events of the first eight TV episodes and puts them into one long movie. The cast recorded their lines again for the film, and some new animation was added. It is the first of two retelling films. The second, Eternal, came out one week later.

The story takes place in Mitakihara, a modern city full of glass towers and clean streets. Madoka Kaname is a kind, ordinary middle school girl. She lives a happy life with her family and spends her days with her best friend, Sayaka Miki. Madoka does not think she is special. She often wishes she could be useful to someone.

That changes when Madoka and Sayaka meet Kyubey, a small white animal that looks a little like a cat. Kyubey can talk, and it makes them an offer. If a girl signs a contract with Kyubey, she can have any one wish come true. In return, she becomes a magical girl. A magical girl is a girl with special powers, a common idea in Japanese anime. Her job is to fight witches. In this story, witches are hidden monsters. They pull people into strange, dreamlike places and push them toward despair.

The girls soon meet others who already made this deal. Mami Tomoe is an older student. She is calm, brave, and kind, and she acts like a big sister to them. Homura Akemi is a quiet new girl in Madoka's class. She seems cold and serious, and for some reason she keeps warning Madoka not to make a contract. Later, a tough and stubborn magical girl named Kyouko Sakura arrives. She has her own ideas about why anyone should fight. Each girl has a different reason for her wish, and these reasons start to clash.

At first the movie looks like a sweet, colorful magical girl tale. Slowly, it becomes darker and more serious. The film asks hard questions. What is a wish really worth? Is it right to give up your future to help someone else? Can you trust a deal when you do not know all the rules? The story treats these questions with care, and it does not give easy answers. This mix of cute style and heavy feelings is the main reason the series became so famous.

The look of the film is also special. The witch worlds are made in a very different art style from the rest of the movie. They look like moving paper collages, with odd shapes, cut-out pictures, and strange writing. These scenes feel unreal and a little scary. Kajiura's music adds to the tension, with soft songs for quiet moments and powerful choir pieces for battles.

Beginnings works well for new viewers who want to see the story in one sitting, and for fans who want to watch it again with fresh voice work. Aniplex of America later released both retelling films on Blu-ray and DVD, and a version with an English dub came out in 2014. The story continues directly in Eternal.