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cypsiman2Puella Magi Madoka Magica, or PMMM, is definitely a very interesting and well done show with plenty to say and an emotionally satisfying resolution. It is most decidedly a very dark and disturbing show that is not easy to watch and so challenges the viewer. But while PMMM may deconstruct a few tropes here and there, it is not a deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre as a whole. Before I go any further with that, I'm going to define my terms.
For a trope to be deconstructed, you have to take that trope and follow through with it without glossing over the implications of the trope that you don't want to deal with. For example, in any given Super Sentai episode there is giant robot battle in the middle of the city, yet by the start of the next episode any and all damage to the city has been undone and no one thinks anything of it, so a deconstruction of the trope would force the heroes to have to deal with the consequences one way or another; they could either have to do repair work, be hated and resented by the people they're defending, or strive to try and make sure the giant monster doesn't get into the city in the first place, things like that. What would not be a deconstruction would be adding a darker, edgier twist onto the trope; following my earlier example, making it so that every time a building gets destroyed it contributes towards the breaking of the seal on the big bad is not a deconstruction because this is not implicit to giant robot battles in the middle of a city in general. For a genre to be deconstructed, one would have to deconstruct at least half of the foundational tropes of that genre in the manner outlined above, which necessitates that those tropes be present in some form; if the tropes aren't there, then no deconstruction can take place. Finally, when I refer to the Magical Girl genre, I'm specifically referring to those stories where the magical girls are warriors fighting evil monsters preying on humanity; shows in the vein of Bewitched or the like are not a part of this discussion.
First, there are several tropes prevalent to the Magical Girl genre that are simply not present in PMMM; for example, the quirky miniboss squad that serves the big bad and pesters the heroines and creates the monsters of the week. PMMM also does not exhibit the Monster of the Week (MotW) structure common to the Magical Girl genre, in which the heroines befriend someone, that someone has their doubts and insecurities exploited to create the MotW, the heroines defeat it and resolve that persons problems at the same time, and with rare exception we never hear from that person again. In fact, PMMM has no external enemies at all, the Witches are all former Magical Girls or were spawned from other witches, which is a significant deviation from the Magical Girl formula and thus PMMM can't deconstruct it.
Next, there are tropes which PMMM adds a Dark twist to but does not deconstruct. For example, the Transformation Trinket, AKA the Soul Gem which is literally the Magical Girl's soul torn out from their body to give them their power; this does not deconstruct the trope because it is just as arbitrary as any other explanation for why the Transformation Trinket works. Also, Kyubey is not a deconstruction of the Mentor Mascot; if it had just stuck with the idea of Kyubey being alien and unconcerned with the harm it was doing to the Magical Girl then that would have worked, but then they added the part where Kyube is immortal and has lots of bodies, which is a level of power and durability that is not the norm for the Mentor Mascot and thus fundamentally changes the power relationship between it and the Magical Girls, which makes it so that it doesn't critique the genre norm.
That said, there are areas where PMMM does deconstruct; while Kyube doesn't deconstruct the Mentor Mascot, he does deconstruct the Mysterious Mentor who keeps his intentions hidden but assures us that what he does is for the best. Also, the Secret Identity aspect of the Magical Girl genre gets deconstructed as Sayaka and Madoka's inability to talk to anyone else about their situation contributes significantly to their despair.
Thus, my conclusion; PMMM deviates from the norms of the Magical Girl genre, whether by removing those norms or adding elements that significantly alter the narrative structure, such that it does not act as a deconstruction to the genre as a whole. Of course, I haven't been watching and reading Magical Girl stories for very long so I could easily be off base on all this. So if you disagree please let me know.
For a trope to be deconstructed, you have to take that trope and follow through with it without glossing over the implications of the trope that you don't want to deal with. For example, in any given Super Sentai episode there is giant robot battle in the middle of the city, yet by the start of the next episode any and all damage to the city has been undone and no one thinks anything of it, so a deconstruction of the trope would force the heroes to have to deal with the consequences one way or another; they could either have to do repair work, be hated and resented by the people they're defending, or strive to try and make sure the giant monster doesn't get into the city in the first place, things like that. What would not be a deconstruction would be adding a darker, edgier twist onto the trope; following my earlier example, making it so that every time a building gets destroyed it contributes towards the breaking of the seal on the big bad is not a deconstruction because this is not implicit to giant robot battles in the middle of a city in general. For a genre to be deconstructed, one would have to deconstruct at least half of the foundational tropes of that genre in the manner outlined above, which necessitates that those tropes be present in some form; if the tropes aren't there, then no deconstruction can take place. Finally, when I refer to the Magical Girl genre, I'm specifically referring to those stories where the magical girls are warriors fighting evil monsters preying on humanity; shows in the vein of Bewitched or the like are not a part of this discussion.
First, there are several tropes prevalent to the Magical Girl genre that are simply not present in PMMM; for example, the quirky miniboss squad that serves the big bad and pesters the heroines and creates the monsters of the week. PMMM also does not exhibit the Monster of the Week (MotW) structure common to the Magical Girl genre, in which the heroines befriend someone, that someone has their doubts and insecurities exploited to create the MotW, the heroines defeat it and resolve that persons problems at the same time, and with rare exception we never hear from that person again. In fact, PMMM has no external enemies at all, the Witches are all former Magical Girls or were spawned from other witches, which is a significant deviation from the Magical Girl formula and thus PMMM can't deconstruct it.
Next, there are tropes which PMMM adds a Dark twist to but does not deconstruct. For example, the Transformation Trinket, AKA the Soul Gem which is literally the Magical Girl's soul torn out from their body to give them their power; this does not deconstruct the trope because it is just as arbitrary as any other explanation for why the Transformation Trinket works. Also, Kyubey is not a deconstruction of the Mentor Mascot; if it had just stuck with the idea of Kyubey being alien and unconcerned with the harm it was doing to the Magical Girl then that would have worked, but then they added the part where Kyube is immortal and has lots of bodies, which is a level of power and durability that is not the norm for the Mentor Mascot and thus fundamentally changes the power relationship between it and the Magical Girls, which makes it so that it doesn't critique the genre norm.
That said, there are areas where PMMM does deconstruct; while Kyube doesn't deconstruct the Mentor Mascot, he does deconstruct the Mysterious Mentor who keeps his intentions hidden but assures us that what he does is for the best. Also, the Secret Identity aspect of the Magical Girl genre gets deconstructed as Sayaka and Madoka's inability to talk to anyone else about their situation contributes significantly to their despair.
Thus, my conclusion; PMMM deviates from the norms of the Magical Girl genre, whether by removing those norms or adding elements that significantly alter the narrative structure, such that it does not act as a deconstruction to the genre as a whole. Of course, I haven't been watching and reading Magical Girl stories for very long so I could easily be off base on all this. So if you disagree please let me know.
