【まどマギ】なんでまどマギの魔女ってこういうデザインなの？

All the Witches in Madoka Magica seem to be photoshopped, made of real photos that have been reshaped into, well... these. It's a really cool detail to me, and you can even see it in their labyrinths. All Witches have this in common, save for The Dessert Witch and Walpurgisnacht.But I always wondered why the animators did this. Is it a stylistic choice? Is it some sort of symbolism? Is there a reason the aformentioned exceptions aren't designed like this??

Gekidan Inu Curry were basically told to go hog wild with the designs. Urobuchi's original script is incredibly vague on what any given Witch might look like, to give them room to do what they felt would look cool or distinctive.

Ohhhhh, yeah, that makes sense-- thank you!!

To make them otherworldly and to mess with the viewers mind

I believe it's an artistic choice that makes it easy for the viewer to identify the labyrinth, and gives the feeling that the characters are in a strange and dangerous world. Plus, this collage style in animation is quite original, I love it ❤️

>a stylistic choice
Likely

aka "rule of cool" trope. The look of the witches and their labs including the minions and familiars is also meant to hint the respective magical girl's past in an encrypted way.

A possible role model might be Nehelenia from Sailor Moon: The reasons for the look and behavior of herself and her Dead Moon Circus including her "staff" are eventually revealed during her "witch mutation".

To echo most of the comments here, the style is incredibly effective at communicating the surreal nature of the witches and their realms. When a piece of cosmic horror tries to give form to a creature by describing a constitution that utterly violates our sense of dimension, I imagine those same feelings of being confronted with something truly divorced-from-the-laws-that-bind-humans that weakens the shield on the parts of our nervous systems that define our sensory experience and how we make sense of the world is how the Magical Girls were interpreting what to us resembled animated collages. Just one of the things that makes me adore the show all the more.

I think it's to show us they lost their minds and they're not magical girls anymore

patricia (the spider-looking one in the black sailor fuku) also stays as accurate to the original madoka artstyle, but that can also be chalked up as her wanting to be normal

Makes them more alien and unknowable. They really feel like they don't belong to the same reality as the rest of the show. Also it makes for great environmental storytelling since each witch has plenty of elements about her personality and fate that can be guessed from the shape she takes or what her labyrinth looks like.

EVERYONE SHUT UP, THIS IS THE BEST ANSWER. HOW DO I PIN THIS.

I mean, I always thought it was juat a symbolic representation of them loosing their humanity.

I love the witches designs so much they make the anime just so unique!!! they inspired my whole art style essentially

Always assumed it was just the most straightforward and yet creative way to make seem alien/imposing by using an entirely different art style from the rest of the show.

Witches take form of surrealistic beings that represents the magical girls personality, likes, dislikes, red flags, and such, and as for the stop motion like animation.. well the comments say their answers, also it's gekidans art style and animation style so, there

It's due to it being made my Gekidan InuCurry, I am in love with their style, if I'm not mistaken its Russian and Czech animation style inspired. They also worked with zetsubou sensei, i love coming across their work in random anime or music videos

I always interpreted the witches as a style choice, very abstract designs.

Looks cool

Because they are formed from the previous memories of the Magical Girl in question. :3

I think Charlotte and Walpurgisnacht were designed the most... legebly for the lack of a better term is because they're the most important to Madoka's journey of becoming Madokami. Charlotte opened her eyes to the truth and Walpurgisnacht was the unavoidable catalyst that forced her to make a wish.

They're references to classical abstract art.

It's definitely a choice to look abstract and that's one of the things that I love about this series. They just look so epic. I bet they take a long time to animate them

Because it's cool af??

I love the paper cut-out, South Park-esque design. It really gives an extra-dimensional vibe in a very physical way that separates the witches from the rest of the human world. I kinda wish they had maintained that vibe for Madokami.

its referred to as 'photobashing' and was likely stylistic choice that also made them seem otherworldly and incredibly unsettling or creepy. Its also kind of building on the style they used for Hidamari Sketch which mixed animation with real life photos (likely due to a mix of style and budget reasons) which also gave that show an eerie feeling.

To represent their eldritch magical nature