Magical Girl Restart.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Asari Endo and Marui-no
Translation/Adaptation: Alexander Keller-Nelson and Jennifer Ward
What They Say
Once again, sixteen magical girls have been assembled for a high-stakes challenge. Every three days, their magical phones pull them into an RPG-like simulation where they have to work together to fight enemies, solve puzzles, and earn magical candy to advance. A staggering ten billion yen reward awaits them at the end – but only for the player who lands the finishing blow. With such a tantalizing prize on the line, it’s only a matter of time before the girls turn on each other – and if their hit points drop to zero, a game over will be the least of their worries…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Coming off of my mixed review of the first novel in the Magical Girl Raising Project, Volume 2 “Restart” is like a breath of fresh air for the series. Whereas the first novel was not able to do justice in comparison to its anime version – even though the book came first – this second novel has no anime adaptation to compare to, for better or for worse.
Restart is a smart way to move the overall plot forward after the conclusive first novel that encompassed an entire “game” of magical girls fighting to the death. While a similar premise, in the long run, the key differences go a long way to making this feel like its own extension of the original storyline.
In fact, the whole “death game” premise doesn’t exist or is even encouraged in the traditional sense in this novel, though, there is certainly a lot of dying magical girls so don’t worry on that front. Instead of taking place in the real world, 16 magical girls are taken to a video game world and participate in a game that tasks them with being the first to win the game.
This leads to the 16 girls being divided up into four teams of four. This creates an interesting dynamic as each team is working towards winning in different ways. Though it isn’t required and it doesn’t seem like it would be super violent or crazy like the original, this sequel quickly surpasses the first volume in every single way.
Part of this is caused by the focus on all 16 girls almost equally. There isn’t exactly a clear-cut heroine protagonist at the start like was in the case of Snow White. This gives all four teams and their members equal attention. More importantly, it allows for some of the craziest and well-executed twists that the series has seen thus far.
Even the one or two characters that are seemingly heroic are handled in such ways that I dare not spoil. Anyone and I mean anyone, is on the table to be killed and the story doesn’t hold back in the slightest. You will truly never know what someone’s intentions are or who will make it to the end. Surprises are around every corner and nothing is as it seems.
My biggest gripe about the volume is that it even attempts to deal with Snow White at all. I wasn’t against her involvement in this book as I certainly want to know what she’s up to, but it’s handled in a pretty half-executed way. She barely shows up and the few moments she has felt unfinished and left me hanging. It would have been better to go all in on her story since the first volume or for her to just not show up at all. Hopefully, the next volume rectifies that. Regardless, it does little to bring down what is a true successor to the amazing first book in the series.
In Summary:
With just as strong – if not stronger – characters and equal attention given to all of the 16 girls almost equally, Magical Girl Raising Project Volume 2 exceeded my expectations by expanding upon what made the original great. Don’t let the video game premise fool you, this story holds nothing back in who lives, dies, betrays, and more. There are some truly insane twists that no one will see coming and will keep you on your toes. The characters are just as interesting and varied as the original, with plenty of fan favorites to be found. I just wish we could see this book in anime form.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: November 14th, 2017
MSRP: $14.00
