Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie -Rebellion- – The Complete Omnibus Edition Review

It’s incredible to think it has now been over ten years since Rebellion first came out as the impactful and controversial sequel to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, one of the most influential magical girl series of the last decade. As the latest project in the franchise, Walpurgisnacht Rising, is set to release sometime this year (albeit delayed from its original winter date), it seems the perfect time to revisit this part of the tale in a different way with this complete manga adaptation.

This tells the story of Rebellion mostly word for word, translating Shaft’s animation from screen to page. For those who have yet to experience this part of the Madoka universe I won’t spoil anything major here, but we return to the city of Mitakihara where instead of hunting witches, magical girls battle against Nightmares, the cutesy yet freaky manifestations of people’s darkest thoughts and fears. Our main magical girl team is already established, with the opening pages showing Madoka, Sayaka, Mami and Kyouko in the heat of battle, while Homura transfers in shortly after, similarly to how she does in the anime series. As the girls continue to battle more Nightmares, however, Homura begins to feel that something is off about the entire setup as it’s not quite as she remembers it. As she begins to investigate and unravel the truth, revelations about this version of Mitakihara will change the course of our magical girls’ fates forever.

As someone who adores this franchise and revisits the movie trilogy every year, I can say it was an absolute joy sitting down to experience it in a different format. The world of Madoka has been artist Hanokage’s main staple since the adaptation of the original series, and her familiarity with it really shows as she lavishly transfers Aoki Ume’s character designs and Gekidan Inu Curry’s vivid, fantastical world to paper. As much as the adaptation sticks to the same story beats, it’s not a one-to-one translation as there’s evidently been some creative freedom allowed with certain sequences looking quite different in style from the film. One of the Nightmare sequences turns things into a chibi art style which works perfectly for that moment, while there’s plenty of neat extra touches throughout, like the grief seed-like symbols in the girls’ transformation sequences. Some parts don’t pull off the same impact as in the film however, for example, the big fight in the middle that acts as the story’s turning point, although this is mainly down to how much certain scenes rely on being presented in a kinetic medium or use music to build atmosphere.

The story itself is well paced through the book, with the omnibus edition combining the three volumes of the original release into a single whole, which works fantastically for a movie adaptation by making it easy to read in a single sitting. However, if you do want to break things up, the volumes are divided very naturally into the film’s beginning, middle and end, offering perfect stopping points if you do need to put the book down.

While series fans will be aware of the overall plot and the heated debate around its ending, for those who have only experienced it through the manga I will say that it is a wild, magical, and turbulent chapter in the franchise that offers an interesting contrast to the original series. The focus on Homura’s perspective really allows you to connect on a deeper level with the character and understand her thoughts and feelings, as it’s really a culmination of all her previous hard work. Her self-doubt and the feeling of “what have I been fighting for?” keenly comes to the fore, and her decisions throughout the story retaliate against those feelings in some beautiful yet weird ways. There’s less focus placed on the rest of the cast as a result, but you do get to see familiar characters in new ways, particularly Sayaka and everyone’s favourite witch, Charlotte (now going by the nickname Bebe).

This omnibus edition comes to us via Yen Press and is translated into English by William Flanagan; it reads well and has no issues to note. The physical book is presented well and has the same standard in print quality as other entries in the franchise, sitting nicely amongst them if, like me, you’ve been maintaining a collection on your shelf. You also get the colour inserts from each volume, preserved here at the front of the book, while each volume also ends with a nice bonus short which puts a more comedic angle on certain scenes.

Overall, this omnibus edition of Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Movie -Rebellion- is a fantastic adaptation of the film, offering the same story just in a different format and showcasing scenes in a different way, but with Hanokage’s expert flourish. If you’ve only been following the Madoka manga releases and haven’t picked up Rebellion yet then this is the perfect way to do so, but I’d also recommend it to any fan who wants to take a fresh look at this part of the story.

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.