First Impressions / Mahou Shoujo Site / Series Introduction

OP Sequence

OP: 「Changing point」by i☆Ris

「魔法少女サイト」 (Mahou Shoujo Saito)
“Magical Girl Site”

You know one trope which will never get old? Breaking the cutie. There’s something about this premise which never fails to entertain, whether for the shock and horror it induces or the outright humour generated from the attempt. It’s why grimdark magical girl shows will continue to remain a thing, and why Mahou Shoujo Site is gracing our presence this season. This one as highlighted by our ever useful RC Preview was always going to be over the top, with the only question being how crazy it would get. Well, I dare say we found out pretty quickly. After all, we got sperm in the ED.

For a Madoka-esque magical girl show MSS is fairly straightforward. We have a protagonist in Asagiri Aya (Oono Yuuko) who has a trait perfect for a magical girl (i.e. suffering for the sake of suffering), a mysterious magical girl recruitment program with an obvious ulterior motive, and the guarantee of magical girl fights breaking out before too long. It’s the tried and true cutie breaking formula practiced by the likes of Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku (both series in fact feature a similar way of magical girl recruitment), although MSS dispenses with convention pretty quickly. How so? Just ask Aya. In just the first 15 minutes we had the disgusting slaughter of lovable animals, attempted rape, abusive beatings, and quite a few imaginative and vulgar means of bullying. It’s not hard to see MSS will likely minimize the usual slow-paced psychological torment in favour of quick physical abuse, although you have to wonder just how far it can get on this alone, particularly if kept serious. Sure kitten killing will never stop being rage-inducing (especially if a pet owner, my feels) for example, but combine stuff like Kaname’s, erm, unique form of brotherly love with those glorious meme faces? It’s hard not to laugh a little at some of the absurdity. MSS is undeniably aiming for shock value and sympathy with such scenes (and it does work in quite a few spots), but you have to wonder if it’s not being played up a little too heavily at times.

Such craziness though likely factors into the mechanics of MSS’s story which so far (of course) is a big black box. As aforementioned it’s easy to guess the Mahou Shoujo Site and those who operate it have some nefarious purpose behind handing out weapons of mass murder to tormented girls (at least if Aya is any indication), although what it is will likely be a midseason reveal, you know, because suspense. All we have so far is that big heart stick-gun thing gives Aya the blood crying crazy eyes and makes bullies find sudden interest in the front ends of speeding trains. Downsides to the power? Limitations? True purpose for Aya’s ability beyond death by teleportation? Superfluous miscellanea to figure out at a later date, particularly once our second magical girl Homura Yatsumura Tsuyumo (Akaneya Himika) finishes with the general magical girl overview. Don’t deny, you know that spiel is coming next. This episode more or less functioned as teaser material by showing the torture porn shenanigans to expect going forward, and in that regard it didn’t disappoint. Bloody magical girls with a heaping side of agony is the name of the game here, and we’re only guaranteed more of it in the near future—Kaname (hint hint) guarantees it.

While I don’t know yet whether I’ll continue blogging this one further (too many damn good shows this season), if MSS keeps up what we saw this week and plays out how I expect it to, I’m going to be incredibly hard pressed turning it down. There’s a lot of room for some seriously ridiculous drama here, and with minimal censoring (hallelujah!) on all the juicy bits it’s going to be a blast to watch. If you like your magical girls suffering stick around for more, MSS is just what the doctor ordered.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「ぜんぜん ともだち」 (Zenzen Tomodachi) by Haruka Yamazaki

Preview

62 Comments

    1. “Hai domo birtual YouTuber Kizuna Ai des! I want you to make a contract with me and be a Magical Girl”

      Oh Kami-Madoka save us from this abomination that is the nth coming of Kyuubei

      Henrietta Brix
      Reply

  4. I sometimes find it difficult to work out if I am supposed to laugh or cry at horror shows. “Another” was easy, that was pure comedy almost from the outset, but this one? I don’t know. We have the Jigoku Shoujo-esque website, and even the seifuku are virtually identical to Enma Ai’s, but then there are several other dark mahou shoujo show references, not least the time-stopping girl. And on top of all that, the sickening abuse, not least from Aya’s own brother who, it seems, may have previously inflicted internal injuries on her.

    But now she has a gun that can kill people in a sort of “let the punishment fit the crime” way, so I’m going to keep watching because I can’t wait to see how onii-chan will die.

    Angelus
    Reply

    2. It’s definitely going for shock value, but it’s not clear yet if that’s all there will be to it. We’ll know once the plot is revealed, but I imagine MSS has something beyond simple torture porn at play, you can only get so far with that alone after all.

      Pancakes
      Reply

    1. Not really the same as those IMO, MSS has horror elements but it’s not a horror/survival series. Better relation is Gantz or Deadman Wonderland. Also remains to be seen if it’ll be B-grade, because so far at least it makes Ousama Game look worse than it was—and that’s saying something 😛

      Pancakes
      Reply

    1. Author’s previous manga was even more over the top. There are dark mahou shoujo stories, which give the genre an interesting twist, and then are this guy manga’s which cater all types of sadism and violence into the genre to turn it into an edgy show, which I never understood why is that a thing.

      The mahou shoujo genre has the most wicked fandom. When is not this, it’s all the tentacle and raping hentai doujinshis in Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura.

      cvb
      Reply

  9. I’m surprised they didn’t choose to adapt Magical Girl Apocalypse, the earlier work of Site’s creator. That one ended last October 2017, so at least they’d have a whole series to adapt to the end. Site’s still ongoing, so unless something else is planned this will have a “read the manga” ending…

    zztop
    Reply

    2. Might be down to the premise. Magical Girl Apocalypse is basically zombies in magical girl form, whereas MSS is more similar to Madoka and Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku. Wouldn’t be the first time a more “experimental” story was passed over in favour of the tried and true.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. You might do yourself a service here by continuing to read passed the first 3 books worth in Mahou Shoujo of the End. AT FIRST it starts off as a zombie apocalypse but BOY does it change quickly, for the better.

        If you think MSotD is just a zombie apocalypse you should read more. All may not be what it seems. Plot is a lot stronger than Ikusei Keikaku.

        Mogar
        Reply

  10. Everything feels so over the top it’s like it’s knowingly stylized that way. I actually find that pretty entertaining. It makes the grim parts too crazy to fully take seriously and thus not too heavy, but still gives me a vindictive catharsis when the bad people get their just deserts. Can’t say I expect this to be a classic but it’s weird enough to stay interesting and I was never bored watching it.

    Puffles
    Reply

    1. Agreed, it’s over the top just enough to be ridiculous, but never takes itself seriously enough that devolves into cheesy territory like Ousama Game. Of course this can change depending on what happens later on, but so far at least MSS is properly playing to it’s strengths. Won’t be to everyone’s taste, but I’ll be damned if I not finding it entertaining lol.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  12. I know I shouldn’t take this anime seriously, but with one peak after another in terms of horror and shock value and absolutely no valley at all (maybe just the cat, even if its only purpose is to die horribly later on, so really just another peak), it’s hard for the peaks to be hard hitting. But then the woes Aya goes through courtesy of her classmates and brother are so horrific it’s also hard for me to laugh at them. Which is awkward, but then the payback is still satisfying in a sadistic kind of way. With all that being said, this is as popcorn as dark mahou shoujo anime can get.

    yoloalchemist
    Reply

  14. I felt pissed after watching this…not because of the series itself, but because of people not only showing just how little they paid attention to the episode, but just how little they (bother to) understand people that suffer from bullying and/or with depression.

    I cannot count the number of comments on sites talking about the episode that I’ve seen that simply ask, “Why doesn’t Aya just tell her parents or a teacher about it?”

    First of all, seriously?! Did you see how Aya’s parents were? Maybe not abusive or anything, but they clearly overlook her presence in favor of her brother most of the time. Do you honestly think that her parents would believe her if she told them that the smart, good-looking, kind, etc. older brother they fawn over so much was actually sexually abusing her (toned down in the anime, of course)? And a teacher? If her homeroom teacher is any indication…yeah…I wouldn’t expect much on that front either.

    Second of all, as someone who went through being bullied in school and takes medication for anxiety and depression, it is NEVER that easy to just tell someone about your problems. It’s a combination of not feeling worth being helped and not wanting to cause trouble for anyone, so you feel that the best action is to simply be silent, endure it, and hope that things eventually stop. Unfortunately, keeping everything bottled up inside only ends up eating away at you until you feel that it might just be better for everyone if you were no longer around.

    Sorry to sound like a downer, but had to vent that out.

    HalfDemonInuyasha
    Reply

      4. @Worldwidedepp I often hear from online comments how some teachers are so negligent of students’ personal troubles in real life, so the teacher here being negligent of Aya isn’t so off the mark actually. When I said maybe that’s the message here, I meant that this mind set in Japan is something that can be incredibly damaging to people’s psychological well being.

        yoloalchemist
        Reply

    2. That pretty much is the reason why I never talked about the bullying of Aya. For better or worse MSS isn’t going to provide any meaningful insight into the bullying and hazing of others, these moments exist solely for the shock value and grimdark edginess—and that’s before touching on the up front nature of the bullying seemingly ignored by everyone with a front row view of it (ex. the homeroom teacher). There’s a lot about this setup which is highly implausible from a critical standpoint.

      Pancakes
      Reply

      1. Yeah, I’m not expecting the series to actually address such issues. I’m just watching to see the edge, lol.

        Like I said, it’s not a problem with the series itself, just the ignorance of a chunk of the audience.

        HalfDemonInuyasha
        Reply

    3. Thank you for saying this. I saw a lot of comments like that on the MAL forums, specifically. “Wow the MC is such a doormat. Why doesn’t she stand up for herself?!” It was pretty ridiculous. And sad.

      Sure, a lot of the content in this episode was exaggerated almost to the point of torture porn, but people get bullied in the real world – sometimes to a shockingly harsh degree. More often than not, it’s like there’s nothing you can do about it when being bullied. It feels like hopelessness. And abuse is a whole other complicated subject – also with no easy answer.

      Just saying, it’s a lot more complicated than “JUST STAND UP FOR YOURSELF!”

      Mormegil
      Reply

  15. So in a 16 minute span the main girl gets stabbed, glued to a seat, beaten, drowned, beaten, beaten, choked, beaten, almost raped, might as well have been rape, and beaten in that order. Did I miss anything? I’ll be looking to see how deep this rabbit hole goes

    Arche
    Reply

  16. Dark for darkness sake is no longer interesting. It’s just pandering and lazy writing.

    It’s also incidentally, the reason why “The Pacific” wasn’t even a quarter of the show “Band of Brothers” was.

    Making everyone assholes, and the world unrelentingly dark doesn’t even qualify as anything of value anymore. It’s just the attempt of cynical wastes of space trying to get attention by turning up the volume on art.

    Rathje
    Reply

    1. IMO it shows why you need more than one quirk in your story to make it good. Cynical, grimdark violence can be great at times and will garner attention, but it must be leavened with something else to keep things fresh and interesting. Madoka had this down perfectly for example, and even the widely lauded Game of Thrones kept its nihilism in check with smart character development. No idea yet if MSS will go a similar route after getting the shock out of its system, but we have some time yet before that choice must be made.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  17. I’ve heard of some bad anime, but this one takes the cake. The protagonist’s life is a literal Hell, from abusive classmates and teachers that don’t care to near-rape by her brother on a near daily basis. It’s not Break the Cutie – it’s cause for suicide.

    You can tell when art degenerates into garbage when there’s a problem with the society, and this is an empty elevator drop down to the sub-basement. Where’s the senior female teachers at the school? The gym coach doubling as the disciplinarian for the boys? You don’t let bullies, male or female, take over a school like this. The home situation is even worse. The eldest son feeling so much academic pressure from the parents that he takes it out on the younger sister. The protagonist girl literally has no sanctuary, from school to home, and that means psychopathy sooner or later. Nihilism at a minimum.

    So now we follow the “dark magical girl” troupe that developed just a few years ago, with the girls finding ways to kill or maim each other for no reason at all. We’re seeing Deadman Wonderland without the overt governmental control.

    I’m not going to be watching this anime, other than waiting for it to end and hitting the highlights to see if the protagonist makes it to the finish.

    jhpace1
    Reply

    1. The excessive bullying and lack of response from the school teachers is sadly not that unrealistic. There _is_ a reason why students kill themselves in the real world. As another poster said, having it be a bit exaggerated makes it somewhat easier to take.

      I remember when I was bullied at school I got everything from people stealing my jacket and clothing after gym class to one upper class guy lifting me up over his head and threatening to throw me through a glass window in the school library, as well as being ambushed on school grounds and beaten up on the way home on a regular basis. Teachers were useless and did nothing until I ended up missing school after my leg was in a cast. (Oddly enough, a public transit accident also helped end the situation, though it actually was because the bully’s dad ran over someone with a bus he was driving and the resulting stress and investigation presumably gave the bully something else to worry about.)

      XPOTTLE
      Reply

      1. Sadly this is all too true. My bullying wasn’t nearly as bad as yours, but it still drains away your soul. Teachers would much rather look the other way rather then actually do something about it. *sigh*

        CR
        Reply

      2. Whoa. Well, in this anime what does our bullied girl get from the website? A gun.
        https://randomc.net/image/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Site/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Site%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2018.jpg

        Not a cute talking animal-pet, not a magical wand (although the gun is called a wand), a cute outfit, etc, but a magical gun. As if the anti-gun nuts wouldn’t be triggered by such an appearance (and use!) like this already.

        So our magical girl can “shoot” her bullies/enemies into nearby fatal accidents.

        jhpace1
        Reply

  18. The anime is a bit over the top, but as expected from that manga creator. Having one or two of these every few seasons is good to keep things stirred up (nice boat!)

    It was amusing how the Anime News Network reviewers are (as they are wont to do) predictably collectively curling up in shock and denouncing it as the most terrible awfullest anime ever…

    XPOTTLE
    Reply

    1. To be fair I can see why a lot of people would detest this, it’s basically vicious torture for the sake of torture. Treating it seriously will lead to a bad time, you really have to see it as popcorn entertainment to get the most enjoyment out of something like this.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  19. I can’t remember much about the plot of this manga but I did read some chapters and was interested enough. I really enjoy Mahou Shoujo of the End and I’m surprised they decided to adapt this one instead though.

    South
    Reply

    1. I imagine it’s either because of the amount of gore early on or possibly testing the waters with this to see if they have an audience for this style as it gets way darker than something like Magoka or Ikusei Keikaku.

      Mogar
      Reply

  20. cruelty to the magical girls?
    the first time it has been done it was interesting and original – Madoka was definitely new take on the genre
    now it is just heaping torture for the torture sake

    ewok40k
    Reply

  21. I don’t know. This was difficult to watch, even though I obviously knew it would be. To the point of torture porn. I think there’s only a certain degree of “edge” you need to have when making a dark magical girl series, and, to compare to another series, Magical Girl Raising Project is pretty much as far as you should go. This one goes off the deep end. Doesn’t seem like there’s any hope at all here.

    People would always complain about Made in Abyss being nothing but torture porn, but this series is certainly the definition of it.

    Mormegil
    Reply

  23. Not many seem to have mentioned it but everyone should go ahead and read Mahou Shoujo of the End/Magical Girl Apocalypse that this is a spin-off of. I haven’t read too far into Site so I don’t know just how much connection there is but there are a few elements that are from Of the End.

    I can’t say much for this but if it’s anything like Of the End I suggest trying to stick with it. What you may think is the main plot device may or may not drastically change much like it’s origin manga.

    And for those that only read far enough to still think Of the End is about a zombie apocalypse, it’s very VERY different. It’s hard to say much else or compare it to anything without spoiling it but it’s got a, personally, way better plot/story than Ikusei Keikaku.

    Hope it gets adapted but there are a ton of gore early on so hard to say without them pulling a Terra Formars

    Mogar
    Reply

  24. this show is pathetic that it has to go to this extreme to get an audience. do you know what made sailor moon, saint tail, nurse angel ririka, and pretear so good when it came to story structure? they didn’t start off dark and miserable they slide into the darkness by building up the threat that was coming instead of throwing everything at you. OF COURSE the other person has to be another girl right because why not? it’s not like she could’ve meet a boy who is genuine sympathetic and caring towards her or anything.

    minxy
    Reply

  25. I really don’t understand why people enjoy torture porn like this. I read as much of the manga as I could stomach, which was a lot so don’t accuse me of stopping on chapter 2, and it’s far from being enjoyable. Unless your a sick fuck.

    Jollygolightly
    Reply

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