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PaperclipPerfector
1d ago
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Books I've readAnime I've watched, Magical girls update It's less than two weeks until my next digital fast, but I have watched two additional series about magical girls in the meanwhile. As usual, the ratings go from -2 to +2.Gushing over Magical Girls, 0. It's not as edgelordy as Redo of Healer, but the basic idea is the same: make the setting more spicy so you can put some tits in (and yes, they are schoolgirls' tits, so you are on another watchlist now). The actual plot is not bad, but ends up sabotaging itself: the protagonist is a loser who is obsessed with magical girls. Bam, a cliché creepy-cute mascot appears and offers her superpowers. Uh-oh, turns out he's a creepy-cute mascot in charge of the other side and she's not a frilly magical girl, but a magical dominatrix with kinky powers. And she realizes she loves using them on her idols a lot. But not too much, it's no fun if they stop being magical girls, is it?
There's a small plot arc where she obtains equally dysfunctional teammates and is embroiled in a struggle with other evil generals that take their job too seriously for her liking, but that's where the premise starts to hobble itself: the protagonist's nature reconstructs the typical dynamic of a mahou shoujo series through a new lens: the villains are seemingly toying with the protagonists and not pressing their advantage because that's what they are actually trying to do. But this also means that Gilligan is never leaving the island: the plot is seemingly moving forward in each episode, but it's running on a treadmill, as the premise established in the first episode cannot change.
The opening song is disgustingly catchy, though.
Magical Girl Raising Project, +1. This anime is a much more straightforward subversion of the genre and you can tell it must have been inspired by Puella Magi Madoka Magica: the creepy cute mascot is rather obviously nefarious, being a magical girl is a dangerous and often gory affair, and becoming one won't solve whatever issues you might have had as a regular girl.
The plot is quite straightforward: people are recruited into being people-helping and crime-fighting magical girls by playing a phone game and when there's sixteen of them, the mascot announces a gradual downsizing. When the girls realize the losers' termination is terminal in more ways than one, the situation devolves into a battle royale, with everyone forging desperate alliances and trying to survive the longest. Now this is a plot that forces itself to move forward, and I really enjoyed this aspect of the series: by the end of episode 12 almost all of the cast is dead and the plot has reached its conclusion. Like the equipment in Fukasakus' original Battle Royale, the superpowers some of the girls have sound completely useless, and watching the girls find a use for them was a joy. Summoning puppies anywhere, indeed.
One surprising aspect of the series was how... Western the writing felt. The light novel was written in 2012 by a Japanese writer and the anime was released in 2016, but the characters might have been written by a socially progressive Californian. We get to see the characters' mundane lives and backstories, and they come from all social classes, some are disturbingly neurospicy (while some of them might actually be mildly retarded, there's another explanation that I won't spoil), some have gone through some serious shit in their so far very short lives. You don't see this kind of stuff in your run-of-the-mill anime.
Where the series shows its roots is that it isn't a slave to the pyramid of oppression. If your have past trauma, you are not saved from becoming a villain, you are free to do heinous deeds, you don't even get a free path to redemption. If you have had the most miserable life out of all the cast, you don't get to be the final girl. You are judged only by the content of your character as shown by your actions.
All in all, I quite enjoyed the series. The music is meh, though.
Why does the rDrama engine insert paragraph breaks of different sizes? This is really annoying.
Ok can you recommend some good anime for me? With a good dub ideally.
We're not in the 90's anymore; most dubs are good. I still prefer subs, for numerous reasons (faster to release, more faithful to the original dialogue, practice hearing Japanese, etc.) but it no longer makes sense to pick an anime based on its dub.
Really hard to recommend something without knowing your tastes; anime is a medium, not a genre. If you liked The Matrix, try Ghost in the Shell or Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. If you liked Firefly, try Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. If you liked Lord of the Rings, try Princess Mononoke or Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. If you liked The Northman, try Vinland Saga. If you liked Batman: The Animated Series, try Big O. If you liked Starship Troopers, try Blue Gender.
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