How to Suffer Well: Sympathetic Characterization in Madoka and Magical Girl Site 

Madoka Magica is 12 episodes of Kyubey going "Humans are all selfish there's no such thing as true selflessness" and in the last 15 minutes Madoka goes "Hold my beer."

"Hope is necessary for despair to have any impact" ...wait, when did we go from Edgy Magical Girls to Danganronpa?

An interesting thing is, in the Manga? The rape & mutilation didn’t actually happen! Asagiri blew them away with her magic gun stick and they died there. So this means that the producers decided to make it MORE tragic and MORE traumatic. Ew.

“We feel for Sayaka We make MEMES of Sayaka” ... Truly the pinnacle of existence

"If anyone ever tells me it’s a mistake to have hope, well then, I’ll just tell them they’re wrong. And I’ll keep telling them till they believe. No matter how many times it takes.”

That whole scene where you improvised, i didn't understand a fucking word that was said. i loved it anyway tho

Crappy tragedy: Bad things are flung at my protagonist with no reason. Good tragedy: My protagonist's suffering stems largely from their own decisions, and although the environment does factor into them behaving in a certain way, it's ultimately them who call the shots. See: both Sayaka Miki and Anakin Skywalker.

In my opinion, the saddest scene in the entire Madoka Magika series is the first time Sayaka becomes a magical girl in Homura's flashback because it causes Mami and Madoka to do the worst thing those characters can do, kill each other.

I'll do ya one better: Madoka Magica doesn't just HAVE hope in it, it is a story primarily ABOUT hope. And in setting out to tell this story, the writers didn't just make bad stuff happen and then good stuff happen to show "hey, see, it gets better!" Nor did they craft a story that was dark just for the sake of being dark/torture porn. Rather, they created a canvas by crafting a setting where there was not only little hope, but the laws of the universe themselves dictate that despair and hopelessness are inevitable realities in the same vein as gravity and thermodynamics. This setting gave them the perfect backdrop to tell an impactful story about hope, as Madoka's ascension to "hope goddess" was the ultimate climactic resolution to the despair the world was predicated on. It shows us that the best way to tell a story about hope is to tell it in a context where there is none. And most importantly, if these middle school girls can rewrite the literal laws of reality to make the world a better place... what's stopping us from overcoming our own sorrows?

I like the bit where he said "we FEEEL for Sayaka Miki. We make MEEEEMES out of Sayaka Miki"

an interesting thing about madoka is that the suffering is in a large part caused because none of the girls are honest about what they wished for (sayaka wished for her crush's health, when really she wanted to be with him, homura wished for the ability to rewind time but really wanted to save madoka, etc), making them even more relatable in that respect. like, yeah none of us have been in those situations, but i think anyone can understand the choices they made and why

God, Sayakas I'm so stupid line hits me so hard, even when it's him quoting her. so tragic.

I just realized that everything you said could be directly applied to 13 reasons why lmao

I appreciate that acapella version of Decretum far more than I actually should.

Madoka may be lighter than Site in practically every way, but... Asagiri couldn't bring herself to commit suicide? Homura actually does... _at least 3 times,_ in Rebellion. First she shot herself in the head, then she orchestrated her own execution by guillotine, and lastly the classic of jumping of a cliff. Even Sayaka gets in on the juicy Rebellion suicide action by stabbing herself through the heart. Sure they all eventually walked away (we don't know if Homura walked away from the last one, but she's nigh-omnipotent at that point and _has wings_ so it's probably a safe assumption), but I still find it impressive just how much dang suicide imagery they were able to cram into Rebellion in between the _everything else._

Personal opinion: I always found this surge of “dark magical girl” shows rather confusing cuz I’ve always thought that magical girl shows (the really good ones) always had dark elements to them. We have stories like Princess Tutu where fairy tale characters have to wrestle against their tragic fates made by a manic writer. We have works like Utena, made by people that worked on the Sailor Moon anime, taking their ideas they had for that show and making their own subversion while embracing certain magical girl conventions. Even Sailor Moon has somewhat dark moments, which maybe people don’t think about as much since the protagonist literally saves the day with the power of love each time. The first arc has a scene where Sailor Moon has to fight her love interest, whom she kills and kills herself in the process. Regardless of how it ends, that’s still pretty heavy. Naoko Takeuchi has said that the original ending for Sailor Moon was supposed to be a tragedy, but it changed due to popularity and pressure from editors. Madoka Magica didn’t do much that hasn’t been seen in other magical girl shows. It just took what was known to the genre and expanded on it. But it seems like all that got taken away from Madoka was that it was some sort of new, *edgy* type of magical girl show, and that people could make “dark magical girl” which come off as either torture porn or edgy fantasy dramas wearing a magical girl skin suit. This newer show, Magical Girl Site, looks to be from the same creator as Magical Girl Apocalypse (Mahou Shoujo of the End), and both seem to suffer the same problems as echoed in this video. There is no hope. And yet it’s that hope with the despair and darkness in not just Madoka, but Utena, Tutu, and Sailor Moon that made those stories carry on long after they’ve finished airing.

Sad Girl Hoedown was A+ Please never stop the musical recaps, they're so much better than the actual scenes.

This video sums up something I've been teaching my writing students: If you want to make your reader/viewer sad for your character, you must first give your character something to hope for, and then crush that hope. Without something to hope for, crushing hope isn't sad. The reason that deaths are sad in stories is NOT because of the death itself, but because whether consciously or not, we know that there was so much potential in their future for them to accomplish new things and interact with the other characters in positive ways. We hoped for that potential with the character, and that potential was taken from everyone who hoped for it, permanently. That contrast is what makes it sad.

“And even Kyubey wants to save the damn universe!” ...Maybe.

So basically it's 20 minutes of stomping a bag full of kittens that just won't die and keep crying out in pain? Welp, that's another one to the blacklist of edgy things to avoid.

I'm quite a fan of the dark magical girl genre. So imagine my disappointment when I hear we're getting a new one and it turns out to be nothing but edgy torture porn. I agree with you on near everything said in this video. Though I'll admit the notion that suffering HAS to be the fault of the character to matter seems a bit shaky. I think it's a good thing to keep in mind, but not a golden rule of writing that must be followed. After all, sometimes bad things just happen. That said, everything else was spot on. Not only though was Magical Girl Site happy to throw edge into the mix because that's what angsty teens have decided makes a good story, but sometimes it's just... like take for instance the first time we see her being beaten by her brother. The scene is framed in a titillating manner. The camera angels are revealing and sexy, the underwear she's wearing (the underwear she's ONLY wearing) is purposely cute and provocative. We're supposed to be disgusted and angered by that scene but instead I'm just uncomfortable because I'm watching what appears to be fan service except instead of cute, happy girls in swimsuits I'm getting a tortured child getting beaten so hard she vomits. That's less of a writing problem and more of an art/directing problem though. As far as writing goes, as you explained, it wasn't great. But not only did I find the overwhelming edge terrible, but the characters are flat. They're nothing but plot devices that fit into one of two categories. A) Characters who are there to make the protagonist happier and B) characters to make us wonder why she hasn't just killed herself yet. The only characters who aren't completely boring are Yastumura and Kiyoharu. The former only being a little less flat than everyone else, and with a genuinely sweet and touching relationship with Aya and the latter for being an actually sweet, relatively realistic trans girl. Anime doesn't really do transgendered characters often, and when they do they still aren't actually because the anime brands them as traps or drag queens. (Not to say there's anything wrong with being a trap or a drag queen) but Kiyo is just like any other girl though, only she just so happens to be trans. One of the best parts of the anime imo. I really enjoyed your take on Madoka Magica though. Madoka is one of my favorite anime and it makes me glad to see someone who can really appreciate the writing and characterization that went into it.

your singing cleared my pores, watered my crops, and cured my bronchitis. may the lord Madoka bless you.

As someone that grew up in a dysfunctional family and got bullied in school, I have to say that I don´t care about her. She´s a not well written character. If someone suffers this much, she would have at least some marks from prior suicide attempts, or she would have changed personality wise to adapt to the hostile environment. She didn´t yearn for revenge, she didn´t emotionally shut down, nor go crazy. That´s not how real humans work... Still, I do get why they were fighting: they wanted to go out in a bang and make sure that their enemies won´t harm anyone else.

Magical Girl Site is too edgy for me imo, the edgy scenes in episode 1 came out of nowhere and felt more shock value than actually relating to the plot

Holy shit that cipher at the end was quality! Hot damn!

Honestly the only anime thing I've seen pull off the 'Suicide in the beginning' thing was 'A Silent Voice'. But that was a high budget movie based off an amazing manga.

As a huge Puella Magi fan I was gonna mock you for forgetting Hitomi’s name, but I forgot it too. Amazing editing brah

You know what makes magical go site worse (even tho I liked the series)? In the manga the protag forms a romantic relationship with her “friend”. And then it’s revealed that the friend is actually her long lost twin sister. But does that stop them? No.

"a reason to care. a reason to believe the world can get better" >shows pics of ochako VALID!!!!!!!!

nice improvisation of that one madoka scene! the voice acting was on point and the background music was so good 10/10

I have to admit with a magic system where using your power literally takes away your life span it's really crazy the girls aren't more hesitant to use their powers or plan things out more. Yeah, their middle schoolers but still, that one scene where they introduce all the side magical girls and they show off their powers made my mouth drop. "This is probs gonna shave a month off my life, but we're all going to look really cool!"

Site's entire plot revolves around the concept of "The world is going to get destroyed and that's bad, isn't it? We have to stop it I guess". Some girls have actual motivations (revenge), but the rest seem to tag along for the sake of it. Sure, Aya learns resolve and to live up her fallen comrades' desires, and her resolve becomes key in the final conflict, but yeah, I agree their world didn't need saving.

Is it bad that I'm on the verge of tears after that Sayaka scene, even with Bryant's fantastic voice acting?

So in short: 1. too much edge on the back story makes everything falls of the cliff. 2. there must be contrast between edgy and hope. 3. in a world where everything is edgy, no one cares about it and there is no point changing it. 4. if the audience knows that the end will be edgy then the journey to find happiness won't matter. Also, as a side note, Hitomi did nothing wrong. She gave a heads up to Sayaka and she gave her the chance to confess, we can't blame her for not knowing about alien contracts, zombification and shit.

Also think it’s worth mentioning that “I was suicidal but now I have friends” isn’t a great message because the audience at home may be suicidal with _no_ friends, which gives them a feeling of helplessness as the don’t necessarily have any control over that and therefore cannot take any meaningful lesson away from the story other than “how dare nobody be my friend” or “woe is me I have nary a friend to be found I guess I don’t have any reason to live after all”. Sayaka on the other hand DID have friends, but that wasn’t the solution to her problems. Her battle was internal, not external.

Magical Girls then: *The power of friendship surpasses immortality itself* Magical Girls now: *Fear... Fear attracts the fearful...*

For me doesn't look like the author tried to "make Asagiri into a new Madoka and failed", is more like tried to "make Asagiri into a new Guts and failed miserable". Because the Magical Girl Site seems to try bilding a world closer to the Berserk world than the Madoka Magica one.

The way I see it is this: Madoka=the MOTHER series, probably MOTHER 3. Deep, Dark, Dank, but with awesome characterization, fleshed out world, and a bunch of funny bits. Magical Girl Site=(Insert crappypasta with infinite darkness, hyperrealistic blud, and a uber-grotesque monster that tortures it's victims in hilariously overcomplicated and greusome ways)

One of the central themes of Madoka Magica is the balance between hope and despair. For all the hope a magical girl wishes for someone, she herself must suffer an equal amount of despair. This is reflected in the writing. There's a lot of despair, but there's enough hope to balance it out, especially at the end. A lot of dark magical girl shows miss that and go too far on the despair side. They miss the point of what made Madoka great. It's not the darkness. It's the balance between light and dark.

YES. I read the first volume of Magical Girl Site about the time I finished Madoka Magica, and I put a lot of thought into why it is that I don't like Magical Girl Site as much as Madoka, and I came to the conclusion that its because in Madoka Magica, there's hope. Even when it gets really bleak, you have that hope that the characters will win, and even if the end is bittersweet, that it's the best outcome for the most people, and the anime isn't just sad, its really touching. Magical girl site is just too grim, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for these characters, and I can't help but think that any end they have will be nothing but bitter.

Asagiri gains magical powers and doesn't have enough power to stop the parade of horror? What's...the point?

That freaking ho-down, oh my god, you've killed me, dude.

I always found shows like Madoka deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy. Basically, that by suffering through an endless number of lives you eventually grow strong enough to escape the mortal world and ascend. That theme is pretty obvious in Homura's journey and in Madoka's final wish. Maybe a bit less so in Rebellion.

everyday all I can think about is dyyyyyyyyeeeeiiiiiinnng

There's a reason TV Tropes has a page for Darkness Induced Audience Apathy. A series that cannot establish the value of the setting and characters, and the _possibility_ of a good ending, is one that has failed to give audiences a reason to care. Why should they care? If the setting is full of assholes and cardboard protagonists with no agency in their suffering, the audience will WANT the whole place wiped clean by Armageddon. It would be the only satisfying conclusion, and only marginally so.

Back when it was just the tv series (and maybe first 2 movies) where everyone hated Sayaka or was at least the least liked, and I would be in that small crowd that loved her. She was my favourite character and thus my favorite magical girl in any anime (maybe in competition with La Pucelle from Magical Girl Raising Project but EH). What was satisfying to see was how powerful and skilled she became in Rebellion and that she had a bigger role. Also that she got to live a happier afterlife, like a second chance from all her mistakes in the series QvQ And then everyone started appreciating her flaws and skills more while I admittedly felt like that OG hipster all like: "bich I liked her before it was cool"

LISTEN. BOTH THE ASAGIRI HOEDOWN AND THE IMPROVISED DECRETUM WERE AMAZING

This is a trap that a lot of edgy stories often fall into. I have a friend that wrote a story that it's core reminded me of how this is going, and what you said is accurate: if we don't care about the world or the people and what happens if you fail, why do we care about anything? People, even if they're taking time to read/watch something, have to basically be convinced to care about characters beyond the fact that they're sinking time to interact with the story. If you start out a series with so many awful and painful story beats, and the story itself shows that it's not likely to abandon that heavy/dark atmosphere, you WILL fail to create a story most people will enjoy. "If it's this bad at the start, how much worse is it going to get later?" Even if you're watching a series with the premise of it being horrific, dark, etc. ultimately, the viewer/reader wants the potential for a good ending. It's just how we are most of the time. The idea of an edgy, dark, painful story might appeal to a goth, depressed, self-depreciating person, but good luck with the other 99% of your potential readers/viewers

*Looks at my OC with a tragic backstory whom I've been trying and failing to make realistic for the past 2 months* Sooo....Should I start writing notes after or before watching the video.

The acapella version of Decretum was so beautiful

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who watched Magical girl site and saw the main character suffering and didnt feel not a single drop of sympathy. Silent voice does a better job at making you feel sorry because the person that gets bullied is really nice but it also shows that they have a breaking point. They arent just this perfect nice person they actually feel human. And in Silent voice the bullying isnt as severe as Magical girl site. In silent voice they pick on her because shes diffrent and when they do pick on her it isnt always physical sometimes its mental bullying.

I feel like all of these hyper dark shows can be summed up by two major problems: First, as mentioned in this video, is that you need lighter moments to give darker points meaning. If it's all grimdark all the time then it's just boring because we need highs and lows to give eachother context and make the story work. Second, though, is probably just as big of a problem of it's fine to have a character that's not likable, but there should be some traits in your main characters that people actually like to see. Even if you don't root for Light, you can admire his ability to plan things out and his determination towards this goal. Even if you don't care about Sayaka's relationship, you can appreciate that she wants to help someone else because it's an admirable trait. Even if you're not a fan of seeing Gutts get hurt, you can get behind him trying to do the right thing by defeating these monsters. There are direct reasons to care and things to enjoy from these people to keep the audience invested. And then you look at this and it's like (note I haven't actually watched this series) "This character wants to kill herself, feel bad for her" without really giving people any reason to really want to get behind them as much as just seeing them try to not get more hurt. It's about the same result as showing the audience a puppy and just kicking it. You feel bad for the puppy, but you don't exactly want to root for it, you just want to see it avoid pain, and character-wise that's a HUGE world of difference on how invested people are going to be.

As an aspiring magical girl, watching these really helps with characterization, Thanks for the new perspective!

I think you hit the nail in the head. I feel bad for Aya, but the dark shit gets so overdone that it starts to feel unrealistic and unrelatable somehow.

I will give anything for a re-write of Mahou Shoujo Site. They could EASILY make her relatable if they removed some things. Make her find her own happiness, remove the random r*pe scene, make her have an environment where everyone else is happy, but she isn't, make her long for something. For example, they could've shown a friend group where everyone was happy, she could've wanted one. Like in danganronpa, despair makes a bigger impact if there's hope to begin with. (Fun fact: Asagiri's bully had NO motives to bully her)

I think the reason why the suffering in magical girl site (mgs from now on) doesn’t work is because she has literally everything going wrong that can possibly wrong al while being able to claim that she made not wrong and not having anything to balance her live out. She: gets bullied at school by clear sociopaths, gets neglected and morally beaten down by her parents, gets physically harmed by her brother, gets psychologically harmed by her brother and gets molested by him and then she gets magical abilities that hurt or torture her. Are you serious. This just can’t all be happening at once without anything being related to something else. Let’s compare her to Timmy turner from fairly odd parents. Timmy gets bullied by 1 kid, has 1 teacher who is more weird and obsessive than anything his parents are incompetent and his baby sitter is sadistic. The reasons why with Timmy it hurts to see him suffer while with mgs it is just melodrama are simple. We see good things happen to him, he has some friends, sometimes his parents have fun or bond with him and of course his fairies. Also most of the bigger problems he runs into are due to wanting an easy solution to his problems and not thinking them through, making then his fault, so that he can learn to deal with those problems. (You know like a real person) Also it never gets so graphic that it becomes uncomfortable, since the show is optimistic in its nature. Which helps it so that the bad things don’t get to big to handle or be taken seriously.

I really respect you as a content maker, reviewer, watcher of anime. But seeing that shot of Albert Camus at 10:15 really made me appreciate how much work you put into your videos that much more.

Even the whole hell hole of Rebellion is actively caused by Homura's own mistake - explaining the witch system to Kyubey

This video’s old as hell but this is actually INSANELY helpful for setting conflict in a story

Oh hey, I guess those goats I sacrificed weren't meaningless

"Same thing, except this time it's a hodown" BRYANT WIJWVDBDKDJ 😂😂😂😂

I think it's a tastament to how well Madoka was made that even this version of Sayaka's last moments still carried a significant amound of feels, even without that fantstic voice acting and even better soundtrack of the original scene.

I just realized Sayaka's clip is the fortissimo symbol, which is a musical dynamic. It is directly related to her wish.

It’s been over 3,000 years..... but on the bright side, this is probably the best editing you’ve done in a video.

I've been keeping up with the manga for magical girl site, and I gotta say, I really want(ed) to see Asagiri flip her shit and start killing people. Granted, it does feel like she's been growing more in the manga than the anime, but Im tired of the "too pure to hate others" thing. I get that her kindness is probably one of the few things she has left and wants to hold on to it so she has something to value herself for, but in such a cruel world, I'd like to see some tough progress.

"so she sits on the ground, and everyone around seems tired of this little emo hussy feeling down" Shit, why did I take that personally lol

Homura in Rebellion: "Du you give more importance to order than desire?" That line hit me really hard. What anime and literature does, is taking your emotional virginity. So, to us, these comcepts are so important. But also, I feel like I cant switch back to the disire part, because of it. I want to show everyone what I felt when I watch this stuff. Because it feels so pure, like a gem. Like even the sad parts in madoka. It reminds me of that one scene from Angel Sanctuary. (Girls always need to be protected, thats the only way they can become beautiful and gentle) ... And thats how I feel about society. Its nothing cute or worth saving anymore. You either Isolate your self or you go hard sex with strangers. All the ilussion that love braught that made you drunk, is now gone in the Information Age. Because now, ppl dont find each other more and are rescured? Now everyone can help themselves. Its weird that I write this.

Hope, despair!!! Did I say hope? HOPE!

I think it's a testament to Madoka's greatness that I can watch that silly reenactment of Sayaka's fall from grace (fantastic work by the way), hear that rendition of the theme and I just immediately get shivers down my spine anyway. Jesus what a fantastic show that was. Also, I will posit a point here. While I agree that what you're talking about makes sense from a very standard literary perspective, I have to wonder how much of it is us injecting our modern, democratic, capitalist values into the stories we consume in search of affirmation. See, a happy ending definitely would be a mismatch between conflict and payoff, and Asagiri overcoming these obstacles while not really changing does sound far-fetched to us. _But why?_ That is a thing that happens in real life, in fact it happens all the time, everywhere. In fact a person overcoming all adversities in their life through sheer force of their will is a rare celestial event. It's a dream. It doesn't happen. Why then are we drawn to moralizing stories that present this journey? Why do we want to see a protagonist succeed against all odds, even if we know, on some level, that if we were in that position, we'd have given up long ago? Shouldn't it be more valuable to craft stories where the protagonist doesn't overcome obstacles, but manages do something such that these simply no longer exist for everyone else? Isn't that vastly more epic? Why do we want the heroes of our media to be so god damned selfish? And isn't it also a bit fucked up to crave stories were heroes are stupid and suffer consequences of their "choices"? Why do we want to see people punished for honest mistakes? Ah, Madoka. What a fantastic show you were.

15:45 I can hear Nagito’s tears hitting his phone right now-

Madoka Magica is dark, but not unreasonably so. It's got the twist into darkness, but also the twist of light at the very end. Also it's no necessary to have a character's suffering be entirely their own fault, but having Passive Characters Kills how impactful what happens to them is.

tl;dr: characters need goals

Exactly. Hell, if I can *FEEL SOMETHING* for Sayaka when she beats down that witch, yet Edge, Edge, and Edgy here just fills me with a sense of "put her out of her misery already", you're doin' it wrong. Hell, I'm planning on binging this anime subbed eventually just to cynically laugh at how *bad* Asagiri's life is in comparison to my own. It's a Depression Anime to laugh at when your life slowly flushes itself down the toilet.

One of the things I love about the magical girl genre is it’s one of the few genres in really any form of media where young girls are given agency and power in their story. They aren’t belittled for being hopeful and wanting to make the world a better place but rather are shown to be capable of making change. Madoka’s sacrifice in pmmm perfectly shows this since she makes an active choice to sacrifice herself using her power to make the world better. Even after this Homura is given agency in rebellion to defy kyubey even if her decision may be considered a bad one. So many new magical series ignore this fundamental aspect of the genre to just make it “how cruel can we be to this 14 year old girl” and it’s just so, so uninteresting. Let them be hopeful!! Let them change the world! Yes the world is bad but let them at least try to fix it! Stop constantly punishing your characters just for existing!

I really hate when media creators use r*pe, torture and animal abuse for exploitation or shock value (sorry English is not my first language). I’m not saying we should ban dark media. But creators should treat such sensitive topic as r*pe with more care. Not just throwing it there for shock value and forgetting about impact that would have on a character next scene. I feel like those creators don’t care about their character and don’t want to portray ACTUAL emotional trauma it causes. I love Madoka because it’s very very dark but it doesn’t throw things into the story for shock value. I love that we start from “awww why would anyone hurt that white rabbit-cat thingy??” to “nuke that f*cker!!” in just few episodes 😂 P.S. best part that in movies Sayaka overcome her obsession with violin boy and fall in love with Kyoko. I was so happy for them 😭❤️

I have a question Magical Girl Site. *WHAT IS SHE FIGHTING FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR* i'm so sorry

i feel like you missed the worst part of Site: it's comedic timing. its at its worst (best?) in episode 1, but it permeates the show as a whole. once you're on board with the premise, it becomes really easy to predict every moment beat for beat. so how do they counter this problem? by subverting expectations? by pulling mary sues out of their ass just to have a different conclusion? no, they crank it up to 12. out of 5. the razorblade shoes really highlight it the most. like. if it was just one or 2, ok fine. that fucking many? like, how do you even do that? you'd have to shred your own hands just to arrange that christmas basket from hell. its a damn parody moment and its actually hilarious. like no actually think about it. the point of the ol blade in your shoe is that you put the shoe on, and then hurt yourself. that abomination? what is even the point? what where the bullies motivation? just to say "hey we don't like you have some sharp things" ? what the actual fuck.

in three words: It's too edgy

And speaking of choices. Magical Girl site chick Asagari DID NOT even have a choice of accepting her powers, it was just dumped on her even when she outrightly disagreed with it, It just felt like another more fantastic way for the shows's world to screw the girl over adding to what it was already doing.

I started watching madoka earlier today and suddenly I see this video, looks like i'm gonna have to binge madoka so I can watch this video.

While I agree with your overall point, there is something you mentioned along the middle that I must vehemently disagree with. And that is the idea that suffering must be someone's fault to earn audience sympathy in a respectful manner or for said audience to care. Humanity is capable of basic empathy. We can empathize with someone who catches some disease, who falls, or someone just born with lack of talent even and thus suffers from it. And these are just some examples off the top of my head where it's most obvious that isn't the person's fault in any way. Rather, I would argue that the biggest reason why this overload of despair doesn't work in connecting is more of what you said by the end of the video, the idea that some semblance of hope and contrast is needed to sell the meaning of the suffering, otherwise the world becomes flat and unreal, it becomes a forceful appeal, a desperate appeal of th author for sympathy or obvious indulgence in torture porn. For me personally, while magical girl site still fell on the better end of the mediocrity spectrum, I would say the pretentiousness is really what becomes a problem for me.

I like how he threw Princess Tutu into the frame at like the start of the video and said how these were part of a new wave of magical girl shows to come after Madoka Magica. But Princess Tutu came out like 10 years before Madoka. I know he probably did it more for comedy but I still wanna point it out.

"Being in this together" -> The human centipede

“Took a girl named lachlan and renamed her PedRo” I’m dying

Another great video with another glorious ending gag. Though I'm a little disappointed we got no Danganronpa imagery with all that hope and despair talk.

ok but can we appreciate the accapella decretum

YOUR DUB OF THE SAYAKA SCENE HAD ME LAUGHING SO HARD. ESPECIALLY THE MUSIC, AND THE CRACKING NOISES

Oh wow that rap was actually good and thats amazing. The video was also, gonna keep it around in a playlist to remind myself of this pitfall when I come to write my future projects. Thanks for the entertaining and informative content once again EP!

Why do I get the hilarious feeling that this video is so late purely because you spent months writing and recording that rap?

I feel weird about this one because all throughout I felt like it was overdone and unrealistic but the thing is that I know its NOT unrealistic for one girl to experience, rape, familial abuse, grief, bullying, and suicidal ideation in one lifetime even in the short lifetime of a school girl because I WAS THAT SCHOOLGIRL but then I realised that yes I've had a lot of fucked up stuff happen to me but none of it all happened in the space of TWO DAYS! On my worst day I was beaten by my sibling, bullied, and molested leading to me feeling suicidal and self-harming but that day is the closest to this I have gotten and that was a one off to have them all happen on the same day. If it was over a week or a month then yeah that becomes more realistic and something I definitely relate to but over two days? what? just admit you're a sadist Mr. Mangaka.

I like how you remembered Hitomi's name at about the same time I finished googling to remember

THE TEXTS IN OLD TALES WERE TRUE! YOU FINALLY UPLOADED DURING A WEEKEND!

seriously if karma and reincarnation exist then the main character of magiclal girl site must have been worst then hitler and stailin combine in a past life

He's killing me with those "Fukodane" 🤣🤣

I was sexually abused, lived in a toxic family, get bullied, tried to suicide myself, bla bla bla bla Even so, I couldn't sympathize with Asagiri, even if I find her problem realistic, she's not realistic with her problem. And ACTUALLY I sympathize more with Homura, a person who is obsessed with someone who showed her a little affection, than asagiri, a stupid lesbian that when bad things happen to her she just cries.

HE LIVES

EXPLANATION POINT ME CLICK

My favorite part of the end of a show (or the climax of a show) is to be able to look back at where we started and where we are now in their universe, and *feel sad*.

Tbh I feel like the anime adaptation for Site wasn't very good to begin with, especially since they skipped over moments and essentially changed the entire storyline just so they could fit the story in one season Site definitely gets better as you read the manga, but it should be something you read once a week; not binge. That might be why it feels like an overload of edge.

It's similar to one thing I always say, "Darkness should only ever be the result, never the goal" Also, how would you apply this line of thinking for something like Shiki?