One anime series that I find myself enthralled with is Madoka Magica. The magical girl genre is classic, these anime are cute and fun to watch. Madoka Magica is not. We start off with a sweet, lighthearted show that takes a dark turn mid-series. Madoka Magica is the quintessential example of a horror magical girl anime. This series intrigues me because I had never seen anything like Madoka before I had watched it. This series directly lead to the creation of more dark magical girl anime. Madoka Magica was a real pioneer for its genre. This series is captivating. It sees young Homura going back in time over and over again attempting to stop the titular character, Madoka, from becoming a magical girl and throwing her life away in the most literal sense. Becoming a magical girl in this world means placing one's soul into a crystal that cannot be separated from the body without dangerous consequences. It also means fighting evil beings until your sould becomes so corrupt that you become an evil being (referred to as witches in this world) yourself. The strife of the magical girls ends up powering the universe in this anime. The system was created by an alien race known as incubators, who exploit the magical girls in order to keep the world turning. Madoka becomes a goddess and saves all magical girls - past and present- and end the cycle of suffering. Madoka's sacrifice was intense, a testament to her love of her friends and the world she lived within. This anime was wild, different from anything else I had seen at the time, so of course it left a strong impression on me!

One of my absolute favorite games to play with my friends is Super Smash Bros. I have many fond memories playing this goofy fighting game, so Smash has a special place in my heart. I enjoy playing with the plethora of characters that are available in Smash games, and I love battling it out with the squad. Smash truly is one of the most engaging games that Nintendo has ever created. My friends and I did not always play every match we started in a serious manner. When we had free time, we would create matches with no time limits and simply roleplay using the available characters. Sometimes we would go on to do art for the stories we created together. Every once in a while we would have silly matchups where we tried to beat each other using only one move out of the entire moveset our chosen character possessed. These were difficult and time consuming, but very amusing to complete. Other times we goof around with taunts or play with the "Sandbag". There were times where we accidentally sabotaged our own games and hurt our own characters. This would always result in our little group sharing laughs all around. For a very brief period of time, I even attended a Smash Bros club at my high school. This was very fun, though this club did not last long. My many experiences with Smash have strengthened my love for the game, and strengthened my bond with my friends in turn.