Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: December 15, 2015
Price: $13.00
Creator(s): Magica Quartet (story), Hanokage (art)
Format: 192 pgs., B&W, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-3163-0938-7
Age Rating: 16+
ICv2 Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
In my opinion, the original Madoka Magica TV anime had one of the most perfect endings in anime or manga history. It wrapped things up smoothly with a big red bow and left fans satisfied. Sadly though the creators sensed that there was more money to be made and decided that they couldn't leave well enough alone which brings us to the manga adaptation of Madoka Magica: Rebellion.
In this first volume, everything seems to be back to normal after Madoka sacrificed herself in order to save all the magical girls in the world. Madoka and her friends are all fighting nightmares now instead of witches and living happy lives. The thing is, although Homura suspects that something isn't right and so she starts investigating and realizes that everyone's memories aren't quite what they seem or what she suspects they should be.
Let's start with the good points: as with other Madoka Magica manga adaptations, the artwork in this volume can be phenomenal to look at. It's beautiful in its detail and even the simplest of panels can be gorgeous to behold. If you're a fan of great manga artwork, this volume is not going to disappoint you in the least.
What's frustrating about this volume though is that it only contains three chapters worth of story and two of those chapters are spent on the girls going about their new lives fighting nightmares with lots of action sequences thrown in just for kicks. In my opinion this easily could have been cut down to a single chapter so that the story could move along at a slightly faster pace which would've allowed the publisher to include more story and give the audience a bit more incentive to keep going with this story.
Overall, the first volume of Rebellion isn't bad but there isn't a lot here to make fans who haven't already heard all about how the story ends (the movie that this manga is adapting came out at least a couple of years ago) to continue onward. If you're fan of the franchise and really want to know how the main story ends you'll want to keep reading no matter what but if you're only a casual reader who is picking up this book out of idle curiosity there won't be a lot here to make you want to continue onward.
This is really just a book for established hardcore fans of the franchise. Anyone else should be careful about picking this one up.
--L.B. Bryant