I absolutly love this show! At first, I was like, the cover looks super cute and I wanted to watch something cute after watching a bunch of horror movies. After episode 3 and a little before that, I was like, okay, never mind, still love it though.
Basically, it's an amazing show, and it was also something new in the Magical Girl genre because it was so dark and depressing, and for all of those haters who said it was a "disgrace to the Magical Girl Genre," the online dictionary called the internet, clearly states, that the Magical Girl Genre was basically "a subgenre of Japanese fantasy light novels, manga, anime, and video games which features girls who use magic or possess magical powers." NOT, and I repeat, NOT! a genre that is cute, fluffy, and about girls with magic powers, okay? So saying that PMMM (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) shouldn't be part of the magical girl genre and/or is a disgrace is incorrect. Also, no matter how great Sailor Moon is (and not that I'm saying that Sailor Moon was bad, it was actually really good) you should not compare it to PMMM or other magical girls, Sailor Moon is only one fish in the big sea, so not all Magical Girl anime will be the same, it just so happened that Sailor Moon set the mood and the beginning of lots of Magical girl anime/manga/light novels being published. If PMMM came out before Sailor Moon (and this is just my assumption) I think that there would be many more Magical Girl animes that have a heavier or darker mood, and all of those people who keep on saying that PMMM is a disgrace wouldn't be saying that!