Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku

For many girls in N-City, playing the popular social role-playing game Magical Girl Raising Project is as close as they could come to being a real magical girl. However, for some rare players, that dream can become a reality. One such girl is Koyuki Himekawa, who receives a notification one night that she has been selected to become a magical girl, her in-game avatar Snow White.

As Koyuki and other chosen players in the city begin helping those in need, they all receive yet another notification: the admins have decided that they want to reduce the number of magical girls. Whoever collects the least amount of Magical Candies—which are awarded for their magical girl activities—in their competition each week will lose their powers. But when a real-world tragedy happens to the first player that drops out, they are shown the repercussions of losing their abilities. As more participants inevitably lose the competition and more twisted rules are added, the girls soon realize that their "contest" is actually a desperate fight for survival.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Himekawa, Koyuki Main

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Sazanami, Kano Main

Numakura, Manami Japanese

Hatoda, Ako Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Sanjou, Nemu Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Murota, Tsubame Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Kishibe, Souta Supporting

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Sakanagi, Ayana Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Inubouzaki, Tama Supporting

Nishi, Asuka Japanese

Mori no Ongakuka Cranberry Supporting

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Ashuu, Shizuku Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Higa, Yuuji Producer

WEST GROUND Producer, Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Composition

Kashimura, Emi Producer

Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Director

Reviews

Apr 11, 2022

PixelB

Recommended

*spoiler free


To preface: I love the survival death game genre. Was Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku enjoyable to me? Yes, since it's the type of show I like. However, even if you don't like it, you might want to give the show at shot. Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku is one of the few survival death games shows where the participants involved actually had enough characterization for the show make me care about some of the characters.

I think that this show had some potential to be as good as something like Puella Madoka. The reason why it doesn't comes down to a few factors: the pacing, art ... style, animation, and execution of a lot of the scenes in the show.

These problems kind of intertwine with each other. The main reason why I liked this show to begin with had to definitely be because of the fact that the prologue to the free-for all death battle was actually really slow paced. The first 4-5 episodes were actually just setup for the actual free-for all battle to come, and that was what made the characters not complete pieces of cardboard when they started battling each other. With the slow pacing in the beginning, it doesn't come off as edgy compared to the shows that just start off with killing each other. Oh boy, well, it does definitely become edgy as hell. However, for the beginning of the show, I think that the various alliances and relationships of all the characters are delineated quite well, and is definitely one of the main factors for the show's success. I mean, it's really hard to have 16 relevant characters, let alone in just a 4-5 episodes. Puella Madoka clearly has an easy time of having good character development because there's only like, 4 characters to worry about in 12 episodes. It's also the main reason why death game shows tend to be more shallow and have way less character depth. It's true. However, despite all odds, this show, given the cards that they were dealt with, manages to make the best use of their time to try introducing so many characters in so little time.

That said, the second half of the show is quite fast paced, and a lot of the battles don't have much impact because they occur at such fast timing. There's not much investigating into a person's powers, and nor is there any scouting out opponents. It's more like, people agree to fight in a specific location, or one party manages to track down the other party with no explanation. That's one of the main reasons why a lot of the times that people die in this show don't have as much impact as they should. Still, when people died or backstabbed one another, it was still pretty intense, and I myself had moments when a character lived or died.

Of course, pacing is way too fast, but the other problem is the execution of all of these battles. See, what Puella Madoka beats in this show tenfold is the atmosphere. When this show has battles to the death, it doesn't feel like it. There doesn't seem to be any tension in a lot of the scenes. This is mainly due to animation costs. The fights and backgrounds, and any character facial movements are so simplistic and low-cost that it actually cheapens the scenes by a large amount. The framing, the backgrounds, the perspective changes, and the pacing of a lot of the serious scenes in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is one of the reasons why these dark scenes stick and are memorable. This show kind of has no such impact and has no memorable scenes. In fact, it's kind of difficult to "just" blame the poor animation, since the damn lighting is so bright. Why is every fight so bright when it's at night? I usually complain that shows use too dark of a color pallete when it comes to horror/gore, but this show has such bright lighting despite almost every single fight occurring at night. It really dampens the mood when the show should be, well, dark. Another thing is voice acting. It's not that good. A lot of the lines that are said that should have been serious turn into more of something that's reminiscent of a comedic skit just because it's so badly delivered sometimes. An example:
"She's going to kill everyone if I don't stop her."
"Seriously?"
The "seriously" line was delivered as if the other party said she was breaking up with her boyfriend or something, not one that entails a battle to the death. Of course, some of this can be due to the ridiculous naming. Calamity Mary, Swim Swim, WinterPrison, Cranberry, and a lot more cringe names are used in serious scenes, and it just makes me laugh instead of thinking that it's serious.

Other than that, there's the edginess of this show: it is high. It is sometimes cringe, but mostly, it's edgy. But, hey, it makes sense. Unlike other shows where people are edgy and stupid for no reason, this show has a really good reason. A lot of girls picked with a lot of different backgrounds were deliberately picked. No difference there, but girls were picked in various age groups, so you'll literally be having high school students fighting elementary students, and middle school students fighting mothers. Most of all, a lot of these girls were picked because they were crazy, while others were picked because they fit the role as orthodox magic girls. I enjoy the character variation. Some girls are smarter than others, while some possess different mindsets and resolutions to kill other people. Other girls are just outright insane. Actually, despite not liking the pacing or animation of a lot of the fight scenes, the actual contents of them are well made. It's usually not just a "1 on 1," and there's definitely a lot of different sorts of fights, with a lot of variations depending on which characters are present, and what powers are available to them. You definitely do not get bored from all of the different fights. Usually, most of the girls fight really inefficiently, or just plain stupid, and it's only near the end where fights become more and more between experienced players familiar with their powers. And it makes a lot of sense considering that many of the characters are different ages motivations, and powers.

Lastly, I suppose I'll talk about the main character. While other main characters in shows may piss you off because they're a super generic shounen protagonist whose only trait is that they're "kind to their friends," this show has a main character, in my mind, was deliberately made to piss you off the most. She was definitely created to be hated. While other main characters have plot armor in the form of OP powerups, our MC has powerful plot armor in that she just survives. Without spoiling anything, I can't say anymore, but of course the MC survives. In fact, there's a girl pair that I think is deliberately written to mirror the MC and even her companion, but since they're not the main characters, they die off in a pretty predictable manner. But not for Snow White! She will survive. Snow White really was such a hateable character, but since that's what I think was the point, she's a well written character. She's weak willed, powerless, and our one and only main character. When she survives instead of another character that actually had some motivation, to survive and the powers to back it up, you really wished that she survived instead of Snow White.

Overall, this show only adapts one volume of the quite long Light Novel series. I enjoyed this series so far, so I will give it a read, but I really do wonder what made the novel series rush the beginning so much. If this show was spread into maybe, 24 episodes, it probably would have worked out perfectly, pacing wise. I definitely hope that the rushing of the story gets justified in the plot that follows in volume 2.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 22, 2023

MakeItRayne

Mixed Feelings

Magical Girl Raising Project (2016) Mostly Spoiler Free Review:

I checked this out after suggestions from friends in response to looking for a new death game anime to watch. I have not read the manga or novels.

Ultimately I have mixed feelings. I went into this without high hopes as I usually am pretty eh about the magical girl genre, however this anime deconstructed the genre pretty fast (similar to Madoka in a way but less trippy).

The good: The show managed to have some pretty unpredictable moments. The premise was pretty interesting, starting off as one kind of show before quickly transforming into something very dark ... and disturbing. There were quite a few interesting kills and some of the abilities of the girls and how they were utilized was very cool. There is a trans character (tho they were too cowardly to come right out and say she was, I personally think it's what they had in mind) among other LGBTQ+ representation in their characters. It wrapped up pretty neatly too. It also had a pretty decent dub.

The bad: Most of the characters were extremely one dimensional, this isn't uncommon in anime, especially Death game animes but for a very character focused show, some of the characters who stuck around for longer could have benefited from being fleshed out a bit more. The constant back and forth with flashbacks also made it a bit confusing at times and some of the kills were very predictable based on the show revealing their backstories in the previous episode, tho not always. There were also a fair amount of plot holes. Furthermore I disliked that the "winner" won by pretty much doing nothing the entire game.

The ugly: Snow White, who was the closest thing we had to a main character, was UNBEARABLE, and had literally no character development throughout the entire show. The kills were also heavily censored, this isn't surprising but it's always super annoying.

6 out of 10 stars. I'd recommend it if you're running low on things to watch and really enjoy the death game genre. For what it's worth I enjoyed more than I didn't.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 7, 2024

OtherFritz

Not Recommended

There is a certain genre of Magical Girl anime with darker themes that arose in the wake of Puella Magi Madoka Magica's success; a genre that has developed a reputation for being shallow, derivative, overly edgy and generally lacking in quality. Magical Girl Raising Project is one such anime and it must be said that it very much lives up to the genre's less-than-favourable reputation. The anime has a fairly simple premise, centred on a death game which (as the title suggests) features a cast of magical girls. Unfortunately, the creators evidently failed to understand the appeal of either genre, resulting in a joyless unfocused ... meander of an anime that fails to take advantage of its own ideas and presenting its audience with disappointment after disappointment.

One of Raising Project's biggest issues is its extensive cast. With more than sixteen characters to keep track of over the course of only twelve episodes, the anime spreads what little time it has for character development extremely thin. As a result, most of the cast have little in the way of proper motivation or characterisation, with maybe a smattering of largely irrelevant backstory at most. What's worse is that the show makes poor use of the characters it does have. Generally, the more likeable or potentially interesting a character is, the sooner you can expect them to be killed off, meaning that the last third of the anime consists largely of unengaging fights between glorified extras, only occasionally stopping to check in on Koyuki "Snow White" Himekawa, the requisite do-nothing pacifist protagonist who can be summed up as a shallow Madoka Kaname expy with all the character's depth left out.

In terms of plot and themes, Magical Girl Raising Project is a messy directionless trudge through a valley of exposition and action scenes, punctuated by the occasional flashback or character moment that serves no greater purpose than cueing up the audience to feel sad when the character in question dies. While a good Death Game anime would use its premise to raise questions about the ethics of survival by pitting good people against each other, this is impossible in Raising Project, as half of the cast consists of cold-blooded remorseless murderers. Yes, literally half of the cast; that wasn't hyperbole. This makes it all the more galling when the anime attempts to generate sympathy for one of the underdeveloped murderous psychopaths just as they're about to die.

Another common direction for both Magical Girl and Death Game anime is the clash of ideals, in which the protagonist's idealism and refusal to make moral compromises is tested against both the harshness of the scenario they find themselves in and the cynical self-serving attitudes of the antagonists. Naturally, due to Raising Project's shallow characters and constant use of a meandering "and then" style of storytelling, this angle is also squandered, with Snow White surviving as long as she does due to her irrelevance to the events of the story, as well as the occasional rescue, rather than any virtue or ability that she possesses. Even the show's moment-to-moment storytelling is poor, fraught with poorly established and inconsistent rules, characters that just stand around or forget about their abilities when the plot requires it and other such contrivances occur even in plot-critical moments.

To conclude, Magical Girl Raising Project is as lacking as one would expect. Too derivative and blatant in its intent to be subversive, too clumsily constructed to tell a compelling story and too overstuffed with with half-baked characters to get the audience invested; Raising Project is a resounding failure in every regard and in no way can I recommend it. There are plenty of Magical Girl anime and Death Game anime better than this one, so there's effectively no reason to waste your time on it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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An anime adaptation of the second and third volumes of Asari Endou's Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku (Magical Girl Raising Project) light novel, subtitled Restart, ...read more

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	Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Dec 17, 2016	341 replies	by Fn76 »» Jan 28, 1:54 PM
	Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Nov 5, 2016	254 replies	by minimiau »» Apr 11, 2023 5:11 PM
	Restart is getting an anime!! mahoushaojiu - Jan 29, 2023	12 replies	by Timcampy »» Jan 30, 2023 1:22 AM
	Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Dec 10, 2016	233 replies	by KillMeDaddyUwU »» Jan 8, 2023 9:19 AM
	Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Dec 3, 2016	204 replies	by KillMeDaddyUwU »» Jan 8, 2023 8:47 AM

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