Suddenly, Kyuubei isn’t looking so adorable anymore.

The manga definitely shows the bonding between Kyouko and Sayaka far better than the anime – but this was probably due to time constraints per episode. But within manga, one panel can hold what an entire episode of the anime can hold just with facial expressions and body positions alone. Kyouko’s story was a little less bloody than the anime, which was a shame, but there are things you can do in animation you can’t do in manga. Two sides of the same coin shown here with both Kyouko and Sayaka’s relationship and Kyouko’s backstory/wish when she became a magical girl.

The pentultimate chapter of this second volume’s title pretty much sums up Sayaka thus far within the story: “hontou no kimochi wo mukiaemasuka? (will you confront your true feelings?)”. She was pretty rash about becoming a magical girl, and now she has to pay for her wish that she must fight for, or die. And the scene where she finally just breaks down during her battle with one of the Witches is just as shocking and memorable as what was aired on television. If anything, the few panels used in the manga just enhanced the feeling of Sayaka’s descent into rage and madness.

On the shallow side of things: oh man, the magical girl transformations are so much cooler in the manga. WOW. I love Kyouko’s the most out of the four I’ve seen so far (Mami, Kyouko, Sayaka, Homura).

And oh god, Kyuubei eating his own corpse as he so casually explains how and why the universe needs Witches and magical girls…that’s still high-octane nightmare fuel (if anything, worse than the animated version). I’m going to be seeing that in my nightmares for the next few weeks alone.

And of course, we end just as Sayaka plunges into the deep end of her madness and Kyouko watches her. Ugh I can’t wait until the final book – waiting is torture!

(crossposted to goodreads and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com) ( )