The first teaser trailer of Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Walpurgisnacht: Rising- has been released online.
Available on Aniplex’s official YouTube channel, the brief promotional video indicates that the new film will continue the series’ signature scary spin on the magical girl genre. It also emphasizes the importance of the story of Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi; The pair are also featured in the new key visual for Walpurgisnacht: Rising-.
As the fourth installment in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica franchise, the new film serves as a direct sequel to 2013’s Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie -Rebellion-. Several members of the production team behind the project project has been revealed, including directors Akiyuki Simbo (Fate/Extra Last Encore) and Yukihiro Miyamoto (Pretty Boy Detective Club) and scriptwriter Gen Urobuchi (Psycho-Pass). Aoi Yūki (Mobile Suit Gun: The Witch From Mercury) and Chiwa Saito (Kuroko’s Basketball) will voice Madoka and Homura, respectively.
Created by Magica Quartet, the original Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime aired for 12 episodes from January to April 2011. Focusing on middle school students, the plot begins in a similar fashion to many girl series magic, with a name that resembles a cat. Kyubey grants children mystical powers to fight surreal enemies known as witches. However, the dark nature of the story is quickly revealed as the horror and psychological thriller elements of the series become known.
The Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime has performed extremely well, receiving numerous awards from notable organizations in the industry. For example, it was the first original series to win the Grand Prize at the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival and has won 12 different categories at the Newtype Anime Awards. The anime also proved to be a huge financial success, with the home video release selling over 50,000 copies in Japan alone. Furthermore, the show launched a hugely successful multimedia series. In addition to the anime and related films, there are several spinoff manga, a novelization of the story, a smartphone game with its own anime adaptation, and two PlayStation games – one available on the PlayStation Portable and one Other games for PlayStation Vita.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Walpurgisnacht: Rising- will be released in Japan early next year and at the time of writing, the film’s international release has not yet been announced. The original anime series, as well as Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, are currently available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube, Anime News Network
