http://myanimelist.net/anime/17651/Genei_wo_Kakeru_Taiyou

Also known as Il Sole Penetra Le Illusioni, also known as Daybreak Illusion is an anime that came out earlier this year, and the latest entry in the growing trend of Magical Girl shows being grimdark angst-fests targeted toward otaku men.

Now that alone shouldn't necessarily make it bad. In fact when I started watching it I was really pleased with it. It was pretty open about its dark tone, not trying to play the shock value game. The main characters all got fairly good development, and it didn't seem like the show was just out to make them suffer and die. The action scenes were also pretty impressive and this show did a good job of making me feel for the characters.

So what could be the problem?

Well for one, this show seems to either be scared to break out from under Madoka Magica's shadow, or it wants to appeal to those fans by being loaded with similarities.

Spoiler:

Oh and Eri Kitamura voices the blue one again. And like Sayaka and Cure Berry before her, has a stubborn attitude that causes conflict with the other characters.

And two, I found that the show didn't really do a good job of explaining its setting and plot developments. Throughout much of the show I found myself wondering when they were going to explain certain things, and even by the last episode they never really did.

There are other things, but nothing I can really get into without going into plot relevant spoilers.

So yea, give this show a chance if you're looking for something dark. Maybe you'll have a higher opinion of it by the end than I did.

Oh boy. This show is in the middle of my lost list, but probably because it's being honest with the marketing. (But really.. Luna was 12?! I swear she's 15 or older, please!!!!)

But I admit that I got curious to watch because:

1. You made the post.
2. and that a Animage magazine I have mentions about it.

So I give it a chance, and because at that time it was "on air", so I got a good schedule going on and can still enjoy it.

I do agree that there are answers left unmentioned, and maybe one of the reasons is because the outside material... The NOVELS are not translated (or that it takes heart and time to get them done), and they were inserts of Newtype JP magazines. I am not very happy, but I'm glad it existed.

I like the style... People were complaining about it, but to me I pretend they're walking dolls. Surely we can't complain about limby bodies and huge glassy eyes in almost every shoujo-styled anime? Yea...

I grew to like Seira, but I'm still a Luna person (I have a RP blog for her at Tumblr). Akari, the "Allen Walker" of the cast... I like/dislike her... But I think her questionable qualities are also part of this development, because a family member in the house secretly dislikes her too... So I guess the writers are aware of that?

Her whispy voice can not escape my head... e.e;

To end, there's a bonus episode circulating around anime streaming sites by now, covering the prequel of the anime premire, and somewhat following the alternative routes in the manga adaptation. (Again, I think the manga was done well (and in art style wise) than the anime itself.)

I'm aching for a second season thanks to these gaps. :(

I'm surprised I didn't respond to this topic sooner! (Probably because I didn't know this show's Japanese name, haha.)

I tried watching the first episode sometime last year, after hearing it was similar to PMMM. I really enjoyed PMMM, so the idea of another grimdark magical girl show interested me.

But honestly, I didn't like this show much at all. I think the problem was just the fact that so much was left unexplained. At least with PMMM, I understood what the heck was going on. (Well...I understood what was going on in the show itself...) I'm not good with shows that don't explain everything, because I have a tendency to take everything I read/watch at face value.

Also, I did kind of get the impression that it was trying too hard to be similar to PMMM. Yeah, it was more upfront about its grimdark nature, but I felt like it was trying to shove its darkness in my face all the time... And it was kind of gory, too, so I didn't like that very much at all.