Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku, Mahou Shoujo Site Recommendations
dark magical girl series where the main characters have to fight each others for their lives and that touches deep topics
~ dark environment, dark people, everything is dark..very suffering.
~ the magical girls have to face for their survival.
- Girls are turned into magical girls by a paranormal entity, with different abilities.
- All face for their survival.
- A weak girl makes an alliance with a girl who is willing to defend her.
Both have a dark environment, showing the darkness of people, the history of suffering and despair of our girls in their attempt to be happy.
Both are in the magical girl genre that has a dark theme to it. Along with that, they seem to follow a sort of "last person standing" idea. More characters are revealed in MahouIku as episodes progress as well as their powers and back stories to how they became magical girls.
both anime have the magical girl powers granted by ominous/mysterious "online" entities they engage with (administrators behind a mysterious website vs admins behind a mysterious online "game")
characters don't seem to be able to choose what their magical girl superpowers or weapons are, these seem to be mostly randomly decided for them, with some characters being very overpowered compared to others for no particular reason... although mahou shoujo site has an interesting twist on this doesn't exist in ikusei keikau.
both lack significant plot structure or character development; most characters are defined only by their tragic backstories which are revealed at a pretty frequent and similar pace.
very few of the (surviving) characters have had any character growth by the end of the anime, and the anime is not afraid to kill its characters off for almost any reason. very very few characters have plot armor.
instead of any deep plot there is a lot of scenes of emotional or physical torture and violence that happens very rapidly, sometimes gratuitiously, under the simple guidance of the main premise. both are not afraid to and make a deliberate attempt to show fairly graphic gore, or at least implied heavy suffering.
(this includes themes such as domestic violence, killing innocent animals, attempted rape, obsessive stalking, cutting/self harm and committing suicide. both shows dont share all the above, i'm just trying to give examples from both shows to give the idea of how explicit they are in their depictions of this subject matter)
there is a contrast between sometimes very "cute" scenes and then something very dark happening often, either simultaneously, during a flashback, or immediately after the "cute" scenes.
both have the magical girls being forced into or choosing to kill each other, either because they are manipulated into doing it by several various reasons, or because some of them simply have psychopathic character traits and tendencies.
most of the characters, even the sanest ones, also suffer from some form of mental illness, have pre-existing trauma or develop trauma as a result of being a magical girl, or they fall into or come from a very tragic life circumstance.
in both anime, the "main" or "first" magical girl in the ensemble cast is the weakest at fighting back, shyest, most weak willed etc and it takes a long time for this to change (magical girl site's weak MC actually has more character arc development than MSIK's MC which is...impressive given that neither has much) and both of them team up with another magical girl who they have deep friendship with and who helps them gain some confidence, as well as is stronger and better at being a magical girl, so they rely on this person to protect them.
both shows tend to focus on the other characters just as much as the two "main" ones that are introduced in the first episodes and *some* of these characters are more conceptually interesting than the "main" ones.
as i mentioned though, the majority of characters don't ever develop past their "concept": the ones that survive and have changes in their character by the end are the exceptions, and many characters die before they could even have a chance to have any character arc growth (if these were actually the type of shows to give them that).
a lot of characters are most defined by their own deaths more than anything they did while they were alive, and how their deaths affect the other girls is often the main excuse to move the action forward and make the next shock or twist happen.
additionally, some characters are deeply affected or changed by the deaths of other magical girls, whereas there are some characters who are not affected by the deaths in any way that changes their behavior at all.
i would describe both shows as ensemble cast anime and within the ensemble, when they are not killing, betraying, or using psychological tactics on each other, they are forming strong alliances with each other or suddenly changing whose side of the battle they are on.
both shows have clear themes of those girls trying to "follow the rules" of being a magical girl (no matter how f--ked up those mysterious rules are) vs those trying to "break the rules", or find out what the true mystery behind the dark administrators and bestowers of magical girl power is-- some characters will follow the rules no matter what, while others have a change of heart and thus a change of allies.
some of the alliances make a lot of sense, while others do not make much sense at all and characters who should be enemies end up on the same side. "the enemy of the enemy is my friend" is certainly true but in the case of MSS some of the "alliances with former enemies" require more suspension of belief than in MSIK.
both shows also have very clear but never main focused undertones of yuri/lgbtq, and at least 1 character (MSS has 1, MSIK has 2) that is heavily coded as being either into crossdressing/genderbending, or is meant to be trans or gay/lesbian. the coding remains somehow vague yet assertive in both cases so which of these labels you interpret them as exactly, comes down to the individual viewer.
if you are into seeing these thematic concepts in an anime (which i am) and *IF YOU CAN STILL ENJOY AN ANIME* when if it focuses almost exclusively on showing you these concepts "play out" to tragic consequences, while it (mostly) ignores developing a cohesive, meaningful or original story, and does not have characters with much (or any) depth or development, then i would recommend both shows.
read more
Simmilarities:
1.Both shows feature a cast of girls that get connected to the world of magic by some form of social media (for MSS its a website and for MSIK its a game app).
2.In both, there is a shitty antagonist that forces the cast to get onto each others tails, killing or eliminating them in other ways.
3.In both shows, there is slight yuri
4.There are many attractive styles shown through characters (in MSS there is menhera, in MSIK there is gothic lolita and a lot more)
5.Both shows are really edgy, dark and have intense scenes.
If you are into these things like me then you will enjoy this
for sure!
A few differences :
1.In MSS the girls that become magical girls are all in middle or highschool while in MSIK the girls are from very young age of 6ish to adult females.
2.In MSS the girls don't have special transformations while in MSIK they have
3.In MSS the girls can use each others magical sticks and so their powers, and even people outside of the magical site can use them.But in MSIK only the choosen girls can use their own unique powers that are part of them basically.
4.While in MSS characters have life points and by using their stick they get closer to deah, in MSIK there is no such thing but if one girl fails to collect more candies than the others she gets disqualified, aka dies.Or gets killed.
read more
Both are very dark and depressing magical girl shows.
Both are magical girls but with a dark and gore story and fight against each others.
tragic Magical Girls no one asked for but we needed
Both contain middle school girls who have gone through/or are going through hard times, and are magical girls.
"Is either kill or be killed" summaries both anime rather well. Both are extremely dark and depressing Magical Girl where everyone has to fight for their survival. Both also feature death.
