The Evangelion of Anime

Despite the fact that it aired in Japan in 2011, one series really stands alone in terms of its visible impact in North America, and that's Puella Magi Madoka Magica. If you ask me, 2012 was the year of Madoka in the American scene-- the show's colorful magical girl characters were prime cosplay targets at conventions, Aniplex USA's lavish, almost-actually-worth-it collectors sets drew raves from fans and critics alike, the manga adaptation has appeared regularly on the New York Times bestseller list, and perhaps most tellingly, a series of roadshow screenings of the new Madoka Magica digest movies has enjoyed an almost freakishly high rate of tickets sold per screen-- almost every screening is a sellout or near-sellout, despite the fact that audiences are acutely aware that much of what they'll see isn't new material. I look at a lot of trendy shows with a cynical eye, but I think Madoka (remember, call it “dokes” for short!) is completely deserving of the hype, an artful series that both embraces visual and story archetypes of beloved magical girl stories and smashes them to little itty bitty pieces. Evangelion has influenced mecha shows that came after it to this day-- expect dokes to have a similar effect on magical girl stuff.