madoka is completely useless and boring to the extent that she admits to it repeatedly

and then we're supposed to just accept that she decided to become some sort of [radio edit]ed up space goddess? how exactly she had the capacity to become a goddess was vague enough, (fate got wrapped around her :EEEE) but her friends even warn her how infinitely strenuous a task it would be and she's just like NP IT WILL BE EASY

does nobody else think that she'd see the first magical girl get killed and just collapse and say some variation of HIDOIIIIIIIIIII

My first thought, and it didn't exactly go away, was that it was basically Haruhi meets Lost. Had the same spunky girl ordering people on crazy hijinks, mysterious quiet emotionless girl with amazing powers, semi-unwilling snarky protag, possibly gay sidekick, etc.
But, the series did comedy very well -- everything surrounding faking Angel's tests was fantastic, as well as the high-tension episode.
Drama I felt was a little hit or miss, they seemed to go too suddenly into what was supposed to be a really feels moment without sufficient buildup.
I was talking with my brother about this, and Miral seems to share the same opinion -- the series should've been longer. Rather than trying to put a character's whole emotional conflict into one episode, it should've been strung out over a longer span, and interwoven the plots instead of "Okay, this character this week." And pretty much the whole secondary cast doesn't get any development, and not even a chance to say goodbye -- they all disappear offscreen fighting shadows. <_<
I felt the series was the strongest maybe between episodes 7-11. Yui's episode made me cry at the end because FEELS, and seeing everyone sign their organs away in the tunnel was pretty powerful.
And I loooove how they picked that up at the end for that particular twist -- that Angel had received protag's heart, and that was what was keeping her in the world. And I'm very very glad that she didn't go along with protag's stupid request to stay there forever. It's like, "you KNOW she wants to move on, you asshole, don't be a dick, you promised you'd help her transcend." So maybe that scene didn't affect me as much as it should've, since I was agreeing with Angel the whole time. >_>
Maybe I'm just skeptical of >meet someone for a month or whatever >say you want to spend eternity with them.
Overall though, good series that was a bit too rushed, and reminded me too much of some other really successful things that they tried to mash together.
Like I said though, better do something too short than too long (see: Lost).
Also TK is the best thing.

Overall I'd probably say 7/10.

What bothered me was that the show didn't adequately explain how Angel ended up in purgatory waaaaay before Otonashi if that's indeed his organ inside her.

Maybe she had bene in a coma or something, or her heart was failing, for long before he died and had his heart given up

I thought the point of heart replacement surgery was to actually save their life, like Angel said it did, and it happened after Otonashi died. Then she says that she "became lost" before winding up in purgatory. No matter how we look at it, she manages to live longer than Otonashi and supposedly dies at a later time, but it is Angel who ends up in purgatory months, perhaps years before he arrives.

I'm only complaining because the show bothers to explain world mechanics and this discrepancy is kind of on the important side of explaining how the world of purgatory works.

Couldn't we assume that Otonashi also got lost on his way to Purgatory? It doesn't really explain the huge discrepancy of time, but I suppose it is possible that he was lost the whole time between him dying and him winding up there.

So you're saying that the world plucks high school kids out of their miserable lives, puts them in refrigerators, and thaws them out in Purgatory at whenever for shits and giggles?

Wait, I thought the whole point of Key drama was to put sad girls in refrigerators. THIS MAKES SENSE. JUN MAEDA IS THE LITERAL GOD OF THE ANGEL BEATS UNIVERSE.

I [radio edit]ing know, right? I noticed the same thing and it was bugging the hell out of me. Maybe it means that purgatory exists outside of time, and thus MC buddy could get there later?

Ooooor maybe it means that MC was specifically sent there by some kind of god in order to rope everyone together and get them out of there? Aka, he had gone to heaven, and was sent there. He says himself that he had no reason to go there and no unresolved conflict... he calls it a glitch, but I think it makes more sense if he was sent there, being the only thing that could let Angel move on.