Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica: second viewing

Saturday I met up with thomasyan and after some insufficiently filling Bluefin restaurant sushi, went to his place to marathon Madoka.
1) He and his girlfriend liked it. He and I were both crying at the end; she wasn't, which prompted discussion.
2) If you want to watch people speculate, you probably *shouldn't* marathon it; you need a day or more between episodes, not minutes, to let the creative and pattern-finding juices work.
3) We watched the Chihiro sub, which had some differences with whatever the commonly used streaming site offered, I think to the slight disadvantage of Chihiro.
4) The other subs I downloaded turned out to be Italian. Curse shoddy labeling!
5) Lots of early stuff is either hilarious or poignant the second time around.

Thoughts after a second watching:
( Which are totally massive spoilers so if you haven't watched it go away and do so )

Conclusion: still an awesome series. Has minor blemishes from perfection.