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This series was adorable, and had way too few reviews for me to not add one!

The premise is simple - Aoi, a magical girl otaku, stumbles upon Sumire, a burgeoning magical girl who knows nothing of what being a magical girl entails. He takes it upon himself to teach her the ways and techniques of being one.

Rather than being a direct parody of magical girl series, it is actually a loving tribute to them. You get the transformation sequences, the power of friendship, the cute aesthetics, all with load of humor and heart. The dynamic between the two main characters is very sweet, and ... I laughed a lot while reading it. Too much magical girl media these days is in pursuit of deconstructing the genre, so I appreciated this for taking the homage approach. The art is gorgeous, and all the characters are very likable.

Volume 2 was a bit weaker than volume 1, and the plot moves very quickly, but that didn't deter from my enjoyment. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who is a magical girl fan, and it's something I could see myself rereading as a pick-me-up.

I never feel compelled to write a review on here, but I feel so deeply affected by this work, it would be almost cruel to myself to not write something.

I didn't know what to expect out of this one-shot; a surprise 200-pages dropping by Fujimoto is anyone's guess as to what could happen. What I received enthralled me, moved me, and solidified him in my mind as one of the most unique, creative, and interesting mangaka working today.

Simply put, this is a story about loss and it is a story about grief. It is a story about seeking connection and it is a ... story about creating art. It is about nostalgia, it is about family, it is about love, it is about memory. It's about movies. And it's about storytelling.

I'm always drawn to works that attempt to push the boundaries of their own medium, and this does that beautifully with its replication of camera motion. I'm also drawn to works that speak on subjects of mortality, creation, and selfhood, so this sunk its metaphorical fangs in me from the get-go. It asserts all we have is memory, and honoring someone with memory is the greatest way to keep them living, but it also cheapens their existence. We will never really know the true perspective of this story, just like we will never know the true perspective of the lives anyone else around us may be living. Despite that, we are still inspired to give our best effort to show someone in the light we wish they were, and in their best moments, actually may be. Creation, and then filling in the gaps, is the best way we can achieve closure and progress for any kind of grief, as well as connection with our fellow man.

Obviously film is not a new motif for Fujimoto to explore, but I love the way that the entire manga is paneled like a storyboard, allowing yourself to get sucked into the flow and truly experience it as a film Yuta was creating all along. It reminded me especially of my favorite parts of Fire Punch, and I see a lot of the same discussion of art (particularly movies) affecting our lives, creation being an act of pain as much as an act of celebration, and immortality via characterization in both works.

I know this isn’t much of a review, and more of a ramble of thoughts and ideas this one-shot stirred up in me, but it really connected with me emotionally and I can easily see myself rereading it time and time again. It’s the definition of an “instant favorite”. I don’t think it’ll affect everyone the same, but I think the ideas presented are very strong and thought-provoking, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone that thinks they would enjoy it even a little. This is Fujimoto at his peak, and the work of his own to beat. (And I’d like to think we haven’t seen anything yet.)

As Roger Ebert said, “see you at the movies.”