‘Madoka Magica’ and ‘Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero’ are both dark magical girl animes. Both of them show the downsides of being a magical girl but in different ways and aren’t shows for the light-hearted. This will contain spoilers about both of the animes, and I would recommend watching both.

A Summary of Both Animes

‘Madoka Magica’ is about a girl named Madoka. One day she has a nightmare of a frightening monster and a magical girl fighting it. The next day, the girl from her dream joins her class as a transfer student. Later, Madoka and her friend, Miki are brought into that frightening world from her dream, and they find out how scary the world of magical girls can be. They meet a mysterious creature that tells them to sign a contract to become a magical girl, even if it will cost them their lives.

‘Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero’ is about Yuuna Yuuki, who has a pretty normal life. She belongs in the club called the Brave Hero Club where she and her members try to help their community. The girls are all magical girls and they fight to protect their city. The only downside to that is the more special magic they use, the more permanent injuries they get.

Which One is Better?

All of this is solely my opinion, so you should also watch both to make your own opinions.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve watched ‘Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero’ but I still get a bit emotional at the thought of it. When I first watched it on Netflix I was a new anime fan, I didn’t know that magical girl anime could be this dark. The anime starts off as so sweet but quickly turns around to being dark. I have to admit that it’s more optimistic than ‘Madoka Magica’ and the problem is resolved in the end.

It’s also been a month or two since I watched ‘Madoka Magica’ and I have to say, it went way deeper than ‘Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero’. ‘Madoka Magica’ really doesn’t get as light as ‘Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero’ and I’m sure many people enjoyed that. They created a likable cast of characters and showed their pain causing the viewer to fall in love with the characters. Though that’s true about ‘Madoka Magica’, I still enjoyed ‘Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero’ more. Maybe it’s because of the surprise I got while watching it, or how in the club’s other dreams one of the girls wanting to be a singer were destroyed when she lost her voice due to being a magical girl. I think I enjoyed it so much because of how the show turns around after getting you hooked on the characters and their determination, instead of quickly showing the dark sides like in ‘Madoka Magica’.

I still enjoyed both series and I think they are a must-watch for anyone who enjoys horrifying anime or magical girl anime. Of course, there are more series with dark magical girl storylines but these two series were the first ones I watched to get me hooked onto the magical girl genre as a whole.