Two weeks later.
The hot discussion and craze about the magic circle reached its peak in the real sense after the broadcast of the twelfth episode, which symbolizes the end of the whole drama.
At the end of the animation, Homura was unable to prevent Madoka from becoming a magical girl—in the face of the impending destruction of the Witch Night, Madoka calmly persuaded her mother and went to her destiny to become the light.
"Finish flowering!"
"I have never watched a magical girl-themed anime. After watching Madoka Magica, I probably won't watch it in the future either."
"From the first episode to the present, I feel resentful, sadistic, and heartbroken. Sometimes I even want to go to the animation studio to express my condolences to the dog thief... But when I watched the last episode, I suddenly felt relieved. This is true. It is a high-quality animation, thank you Huaying for bringing such a good work. Ps. When will Huaying be open to the public? I can’t wait to see the real dog thief:)”
"I burst into tears when I saw the ending. I got used to the darkness and misery step by step, and I felt particularly moved when I watched the ending. Now looking back at the shameless 'healing theory', I actually feel that the magic circle is really healing. a feeling of……"
At the same time, Magic Circle's overall network score miraculously fixed at a high score of 9.5. The audience's comments also showed an earth-shaking reversal, and the comments under the ratings were basically positive reviews.
Among them, the most nominated by the audience is naturally the scene after Madoka makes a wish in the ending.
At the end of the story, Witch Night is about to destroy the sanctuary. In this animation called "Madoka Magica," the protagonist named Madoka finally signs a contract with Kyubey at the last moment and becomes a magical girl.
"I want to destroy all the witches before they are born, all the witches in the universe, past and future, with my own hands..."
"Student Kame, do you know what a terrible wish that is?" In the space where she couldn't name it, Ba Mami, who should have died, lowered her head and made a cup of tea for her: "In the future, in the past and in all the time, you will I will fight forever. That way, it will definitely make you unable to maintain your individuality, and it is not as simple as death."
"You will be fixed in this universe endlessly as a concept of a witch of destruction."
Madoka who was comforted in this way showed a clear smile, and she said calmly: "If someone told me that it is wrong to hope, I would answer 'not so' countless times, no matter what time Hold on like this."
Not being able to fulfill hope, but being hope itself.
In this way, under Madoka's wish, the principle of the circle was born, and Madoka's wish became a fact at the moment when she made a contract with Kyubey - her soul has traveled back and forth in the long river of history, and in every Magical girls are about to degenerate into witches. Before falling into darkness, absorb the filth from their soul gems and lead them to a higher plane.
So far, magical girls are no longer synonymous with despair in the first eleven episodes. The girls with love and hope are also loyal to themselves in the end, smiling and closing their eyes.
Why is Magic Circle so popular?
In this regard, not long after the end of the magic circle, many well-known comic critics gave certain answers to this. Among them, Shen Tongfang, a well-known film critic and comic critic, gave own analysis and thinking.
"When it comes to the reasons for the fire in the magic circle, many people may mention the U-turn incident of the senior sister in the third episode. Of course, it is undeniable that this extremely impactful plot did become the driving force for many viewers to follow the show at the time, but It is obviously biased to attribute the cause of the magic circle's fire to this anti-routine plot."
After the simple topic was introduced, Shen Tongfang quickly got to the point.
"First of all, it must be pointed out here that the success of the Magic Circle is not only the result of one aspect, but the result of a high-quality combination of various elements, a well-structured story script, a special performance style, and wonderful animations. The soundtrack...it is precisely because the magic circle has reached a very high level in every aspect, and the authenticity of each detail has in turn directed the success of the magic circle."
"Let's talk about the script first—"
"The script of the magic circle is very, very good, please forgive me for using a full three verys here, because in my opinion, only this can barely express the surprise brought by the magic circle script - in this animation , it is difficult for you to find even a single nonsense in it, and for every plot in the later stages of the animation, we can almost find the trap carefully laid by the script writer at the beginning of the animation."
Having said that, he deliberately put a screenshot.
The content of the picture is very simple. It is the discussion about wishes that Mami Tomoe had with Madoka and Sayaka on their way home after the battle. When she learned that Sayaka had the idea of making a wish for others, Ba Mami objected uncharacteristically.
"If you want to realize other people's wishes, you have to figure out your own wishes." The matching text on the picture hits the nail on the head: "Do you want to realize his wishes, or do you want to be a benefactor who fulfills his wishes?"
It is such a sentence that was placed in the third episode of the animation, which was ignored by countless audiences in the early days. When countless people were still ignorant and knew nothing, it simply summed up Sayaka's life.
"There are countless details like this in the whole animation. Friends who are interested can review it in private. I believe that the magic circle will definitely bring you new surprises."
After talking about the overall script, Shen Tongfang praised the details in the animation:
"Not only is there a lot of foreshadowing in the script, but in fact, if we look carefully enough, there are actually many settings and pictures in the magic circle, which are metaphors from the very beginning. For example, Sayaka Witch was named Mermaid Witch, Including the seemingly chaotic text in the Witch's Barrier, they are actually meaningful, and many of the text details on the screen come from the verses of "Faust."
"Speaking of the witch's enchantment, here I have to mention the special expression method of the witch's enchantment in the magic circle. This expression method is equivalent to a collage art. Simply put, it is to paste paper-cuts, ribbons, paints and other items together On a piece of paper or canvas. I have to say that this method of expression is very interesting and complements the core of the magic circle. While retaining the weirdness of the magic circle itself, it also adds a dark fairy tale to the animation as a whole The same breath."
Finally, Shen Tongfang also gave his own evaluation of the promotion of "Annual Healing Animation - Magical Girl Madoka Magica" that is popular on the Internet:
"Is Puella Magi Madoka Magica a healing animation? From the perspective of the animation itself, I think it is."
"In "Magical Girl Madoka Magica", which can be said to redefine magical girls, magical girls have been insulated from hope from the very beginning. How much hope often ends up with how much despair. A girl who has a good fantasy to become a magical girl will inevitably end up killing people in the end."
"Magical girls who kill familiars in order to save people will eventually become witches and kill humans because their magic power is exhausted and their soul gems are completely polluted. Magic girls who only hunt witches, in order to avoid running out of their own magic power, must Let the familiar kill enough humans to kill the witch, and get enough seeds of lament to survive."
"This was supposed to be a desperate endless loop, but the magical girls in the ending embraced hope again because of Madoka's wish. Magical girls will no longer be transformed into witches, and magical girls have finally become true representatives of the world. The magical girl of 'love and hope'."
"Generally speaking, this is indeed a rare and phenomenal work. Here I suggest friends who haven't seen it to make up for it. Friends who have seen it can also make friends around Amway. Don't miss this kind of annual drama. Best healing animation.”
Once Shen Tongfang's comic commentary was published, it immediately aroused widespread reposting and heated discussions on various social forums. The big pit of the circle, that is, under such circumstances, the number of subscriptions of Moyuan's entire network has exceeded 850,000, and it seems that there is already a trend of advancing to one million people.
That's not all.
Due to the particularity of the plot of the magic circle, many viewers have expressed that after watching such a completely anti-routine magic girl theme animation of the magic circle, other animations with the same theme in the same period can't be watched at all—it doesn't matter if the theme is different , When the mind is still full of magic circles, it is strange to watch normal-style magical girl animations and infrequent episodes.
Because of this, as the situation of Magic Circle is booming, and the number of broadcasts and subscriptions on the entire network has soared upwards visible to the naked eye, other magical girl animations in the same period have a downward trend. Even Yunsu's long-planned Magical Girl animation The theme of the game, the recent comments have also changed.
Players who were originally looking forward to the launch of the game have recently changed their opinions and are now making serious suggestions to the officials.
"To be honest, I personally really like this kind of dress-up mobile game, so I am also looking forward to this game, but... can't the planner really consider changing the game background? After watching the magic circle, I am now interested in the magic circle. The girls theme is really..."
"Please change the theme +1. After watching the magic circle, any magical girl I see now thinks it's a drama. I still like the gameplay, but can this kind of main line that cannot be changed really not be changed?"
Fengling Studio, which has been paying attention to game reviews, is also very helpless: "These players have become too fast, right? Last week, they said that they were looking forward to the combination of magical girls + dress-up games. This week, they can't accept magical girls. ?”
"Then what should we do? Are we really going to replace the original mainline?"
"It's too late to change it now." The person in charge also had a headache: "I can only hope that these players are just talking, it's not that they really can't accept this subject..."
"What about the promotion? Will the original promotional animation continue?"
"Continue, let Yunsu Animation make it as usual, and make sure to play it before the game." The person in charge said. Up to now, they actually have no other options to choose - whether it is game production or promotional animation, most of the work has been completed in these days, it can be said that the arrow is on the string and has to be launched.
As for the specific situation after the game's public beta test, they can only leave it to time and facts to prove it.
Of course, the impact of the magic circle on other animations and games is not all negative.
When Magic Circle began to hit the unprecedented 1 million subscriptions, the online subscriptions of "I'm Really Not a Magical Girl" also exceeded the 700,000 mark. Compared with Magic Circle, it is still incomparable, but compared with Blue Star's previous For other animations, this result is not bad. Careful people even discovered that after the popularity of Magic Circle, "I'm Really Not a Magical Girl" not only did not experience a decline in growth, but also increased along with Magic Circle's surge.
Not only that--
Another working day.
On this day, Jiang Yucheng had just stood in front of his company, and before he opened the door to enter, the employee's surprise cheers came from the depths without any concealment, and he put his backpack on his own seat. He asked casually: "What happened, so happy?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Tang Shuchang spontaneously stood in front of him and said excitedly: "How high do you think the number of reservations for our otome game has increased?"
Jiang Yucheng looked at the two fingers in Tang Shuchang's hand, and nodded with satisfaction: "200,000? There are not many popular otome games on the market at present, and the specific audience is not obvious, and Thorn Interactive Entertainment has not started formal promotion pv, it is quite good to have 200,000 reservations.”
"It's not 200,000!" Tang Shuchang suppressed the excitement in his heart, and corrected: "Now the number of reservations has exceeded 1.2 million!"
For a love mobile game that occupies a very small market share and has an uncertain future, this number of reservations is no longer a simple accident - it is not an exaggeration to say it is a miracle.
"Are you serious?" Jiang Yucheng asked subconsciously.
As he spoke, his body started to move subconsciously. Without turning on the computer, Jiang Yucheng directly used his mobile phone to open the reservation list on the game platform without scrolling down. The game at the top of the reservation list at the moment was surprisingly the upcoming game of his company. The love mobile game "Orange Soda" produced by
Number of appointments, 120,0000+
Jiang Yucheng was really stunned.
According to his previous expectations, since Jingji Interactive Entertainment has not yet charged the author for publicity fees, the game can attract 200,000 players to pre-register based on its quality, which is already considered a pretty good result.
So, where did the extra million come from?
Thinking of this, Jiang Yucheng clicked on the game review section in the mobile app——
"I saw a voice of a dog thief running at the speed of light, so what is the approximate plot of this game?"
"I'm a male with normal sexual orientation. Just a question. I heard that Dog Thief is one of the voice actors? Can I pick him up in the game and then climb the wall to have sex with him? (Friendly smile)"
"??? Upstairs, are you a devil? Everyone calm down, and if you have something to say, don't be impulsive. If it doesn't work, we can collectively fund a knife shop for dog thieves. Why don't you want to use games to vent? Paper People are innocent!"
"I have been depressed for almost a week after watching The Magic Circle. Now I have finally found a new goal. Don't stop me. I'm going to conquer the dog thief and then abandon him! I want him to know what it feels like to lose the one you love! (Rough words.) )"
Jiang Yucheng:…………Is this even possible?
During his sluggish time, Tang Shuchang also saw all kinds of comments in the comment area, and tsk-tsk regretted while reading: "The idea is good, but it's a pity that they will be disappointed in the follow-up."
Jiang Yucheng knew what Tang Shuchang meant.
In fact, at the very beginning, the characters voiced by Mu Su Xing were indeed hidden characters that can be captured, but there is always an accident in everything—for example, the actual person in charge of Thorn Interactive Entertainment, the executive president of Next Door Tengkong Entertainment After reading the script book, I calmly made a suggestion:
"If the production team hopes that this character can leave an indelible plan for players in the main line as much as possible, then I suggest that it is best not to list this character as a hidden and attackable character."
"This character itself is the ultimate villain BOSS. Anyway, the damage this character does to the character controlled by the player has become a fact. There is basically no possibility of a happy ending. In contrast, it is better to treat it as a tragic line from the beginning. , but the Raiders are not open.”
He summed up calmly: "After all, what you can't get is always the best."
Little does he know that his fantasy of revenge has been forcibly aborted before it even started. When the fans pouring in from the Magic Circle generally begin to look forward to the open beta of the game, Mu Xing, who knows nothing about the turmoil behind the scenes, Already focusing on the next stage of Huaying’s tasks——
"Mainly comics?"
"Yes." Dai Yuyan explained while looking down at the information in her hand: "The quality of the manuscripts we have received so far is generally good, but it may be difficult to rely on them to support the sales of comic magazines. If you want If "Huaying Comics" can be successfully released, it is best to have a high-quality masterpiece."
"Continue to collect manuscripts from outside, and recruit a few more professional editors," Mu Suxing said, noticing the other party's hesitant expression, he pondered: "You don't have to worry about the main comics, I have already done this. It has been decided - it should be a reasoning comic, written by me myself."
"Eh?!"
Without any extra explanation, Mu Xiuxing smiled gently, took out a few drafts from the drawer of his desk, and pushed them in front of Dai Yuyan.
"This is……"
It can be seen that what Shepherd Star drew were a few simple sketches of the characters.
The man in the picture is leaning his head up on the back of the sofa chair, as if he is thinking about something, with a pair of long legs resting casually on the floor, forcibly setting off the not-so-small space to create a small illusion.
The environment in the second picture has not changed, it is still the ordinary sofa drawn by hand, the difference is that the man has already sat upright, holding a dark brown heather pipe in one hand, and gently pressing the other hand The brim of a bowler hat reveals a pair of indifferent gray eyes, and the corners of the mouth are curved into a smile or not.
Cold, withdrawn... and arrogant.
His eyes fell on the final version of his character design that he had edited and edited several times, and Shepherd showed a faint smile: "His name is Sherlock Holmes."