#asari endou

[judedeluca]

My latest magical girl article over on Wicked Horror discusses the long running light novel franchise Magical Girl Raising Project and how, honestly, it deserves the top spot as the dark magical girl series instead of Madoka Magica.

Thank God it’s finally getting an anime adaption of its second arc.

Spoilers for the first, second, and third arcs.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Fun Book Excerpts!

“CHAT #3 Fav: Well, time for another exciting chat, pon! Fav: Uh… but no one seems to be here, pon Fav: Three weeks in and we’re down to two. That’s kind of a problem, pon Fav: Well, no matter, pon. Everyone looks at the logs anyway Fav: Cranberry, thank you for always attending, pon Fav: No one else is here, so it’s fine if you play your music Fav: Well, there are three announcements today, pon Fav: Two pieces of good news, and one piece of bad news Fav: Let’s go with the good news first, pon Fav: The magical phones have received another update, pon Fav: You can now download useful items, pon Fav: There are five in total! Fav: They’re all on a first-come, first-served basis, so remember, the early bird gets the worm, pon! Fav: Now for the bad news, pon Fav: La Pucelle has died in an accident, pon. This is very sad, pon. Heartbreaking, pon Fav: But everyone, do your best not to let this sacrifice be in vain, pon Fav: And the last piece of good news: Fav: Because La Pucelle is dead, no one is getting cut this week Fav: So, see you next week! Fav: Oh, and the top earner hates having her results announced, so that is canceled, pon Fav: Thank you for your understanding”

Excerpt From Magical Girl Raising Project, Vol. 1 Asari Endou and Marui-no This material may be protected by copyright.

oh dear

[animemakeblog]

“Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku: Restart” The Anime Announced

At the Mori, no Ongaku-ka Cranberry Gaiden: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Unripe Duet Recitation Drama, an anime adaptation of the second and third volumes of Asari Endou's Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku (Magical Girl Raising Project) light novel, with the working title Restart, was revealed.

[incurable-peppermint]

Fandom: 魔法少女育成計画 - 遠藤浅蜊 | Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku | Magical Girl Raising Project Series - Endou Asari Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Summary:

Swim Swim has been filling her head with all the good and noble thoughts that Ruler offers. She's figured out something very inportant: Ruler wants her to be a princess.

[popcultureoverdosed]

Magical Girl Raising Project Volume 1 Review : Dare to be Magical

Magical girls sure have it rough these days. It seems like gory death battles and agonizing despair is all they ever find themselves in. That's what schoolgirl Koyuki Himekawa learns after her favorite app game turns her into a real magical girl.

The concept of magical girls in a death game was something that immediately hooked me because it involved two genres I love. There are not enough dark Mahou shojo stories in the world and it's incredibly rare to have one as a light novel. The greatest strength of mgrp is the fact it's written from multiple perspectives. This allows readers to see how each girl copes with their grim reality and feel suspense as alliances and betrayals are born. Cranberry became my favorite character due to her sadistic lust for battle and expert use of her sound manipulation magic. La Pucelle is a close second due to his heroic bravery.

It would be impossible to talk about the characters without mentioning their stunning designs and creative abilities. Artist Maruino brought out her A game with her eye-catching costume designs. Ripple has a weird ninja/swimsuit fusion going on and Hardgore Alice looks like a gothic doll. Their abilities are also unique compared to the usual superpowers you see in fiction. Weiss' ability to conjure walls anywhere stood out for being surprisingly more useful than you'd expect.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel despite already watching the anime twice. The prose is written in a concise style that made reading a brisk experience free of filler. This brisk writing style leads to the story's main weakness of the fights being far too short. The battles often end as soon as they begin while the characters get killed off before readers get to know them. One fight happened entirely offscreen which I found to be sloppy writing. Later novels in the series thankfully rectify this by adding more details and characterization.

I definitely recommend this series for any reader in a battle royale or magical girl.

Verdict- Recommended. Stay magical.

[lobocomicsandtoys]

MAGICAL GIRL RAISING PROJECT VOL 02 RESTART 1 LIGHT NOVEL

The hit social network game 'The Magical Girl Raising Project' selects one out of every tens of thousands of players to become a real life magical girl. The lucky chosen girls gain magic powers as well as incredibly good fortune, and spend their days blissfully. But one day, an absolute announcement declares that the number of magical girls has risen too high and must be cut down to half. Sixteen young maidens are thrust into a merciless, deadly contest to survive...but how many will come out the other side?

Available at Lobo Comics & Toys this coming Wednesday, 11/22/2017

visit us on facebook, google+, blogspot, our eBay store, and our website

[stacks-reviews]

Tuesday Releases 6/20/17

Happy New Release Day! There’s a lot going on in books but not much (at least that I’m interested in) on DVD.

In Books

–Dorohedoro volume 21 by Q. Hayashida If you have never heard of it before Dorohedoro consists of a world made up of Sorcerers; who live in a separate world/dimension, and the humans who live in a place called The Hole. Every so often Sorcerers will travel to The Hole using their magic called Smoke to open a door there. Once there they experiment on humans to improve their magical abilities. Caiman was experimented on by Sorcerers and had his head turned into a lizard head. And as result he lost his memories of everything leading up to the transformation. Now he spends his days with the help of his friend Naikaido hunting down Sorcerers trying to find the one who transformed his head in order to fix it and hopefully regain his memories. I really like this series. It’s dark, it’s gory, and I enjoy the art style. The art style is similar to comic books than manga but it does have it’s problems. They did print some issues in color for a few pages at the beginning of different chapters but it usually comes out a little blurry. But I’ve heard that it isn’t a problem in the digital volumes. I often have to go back and reread the previous volume to help remember what will be going on in the new one. Sometimes even having to go back two or three volumes to understand it. But it has gotten better in the later volumes cause I think I’ve finally figured out what is going on so I’m a little less confused. It is a complex story line but I enjoy it. There is some nudity in the series so just be aware of that if that is something you don’t like to see when you read manga or comics.

–Erased omnibus volume 2 by Kei Sanbe The manga that the hit anime of the same name is based on. But if you are unfamiliar with either of them: Twenty-nine-year-old Satoru has a unique ability that he calls ‘Revival’ that allows him to travel back in time; sometimes against his will, to when he was eleven. When he was eleven there was a series of child-kidnapping in his hometown which resulted in the death of a girl named Kayo Hinazuki. By traveling back in time he hopes to be able to prevent the murder of Kayo and to prevent a tragedy that happens before he travels back in time. It’s a poor summary but the anime was very good and one of the hits of its season. The culprit was kinda predictable but the real charm of this series is watching as Satoru tries to save Kayo in more ways than one. I do have the first volume but I haven’t had time to read it yet. I did flip through it a little bit and from what I saw the anime seems to follow it pretty well. 

–Magical Girl Raising Project volume 1 by Asari Endou Another manga that inspire an anime of the same name. There is a game that exists that creates Magical Girls but one day the game decides that there are too many magical girls. Their numbers must be cut in half. So begins a deadly contest between them. I haven’t had the time to try out the anime yet but it is on my queue. I’ve heard good things about and would like to try out the light novels as well as the show. If you like dark magical girls I would give it the show or the light novels a shot.

–Management Style of the Supreme Being by Tom Holt The Supreme Being and his son decide that they no longer wish to be supreme. So they decide to sell. Our new owners; the Venturi Brothers, have a few ideas how the world should really run. They don’t care for Good and Evil and decide to rid the world of right and wrong. But one of the old gods didn’t want to move out and he needs to know if you’ve been naughty or nice. I was first drawn to the title and I like the idea behind it. That our universe is more or less run like a company and can be sold. Not really sure how Santa will play into or why. Especially considering that this comes out in June. Unless this is for the paperback edition. Which I forgot to check when I looked this book up. But it still sounds good.

–Motor Crush volume 1 by Brenden Fletcher “By day, Domino Swift competes for fame and fortune in a worldwide motorcycle racing league. By night, she cracks heads of rival gangs in brutal bike wars to gain possession of a rare, valuable contraband: an engine boosting machine narcotic known as Crush.” I haven’t heard much about this series but it sounds good. I wanna give it a try.

–Princess Jellyfish omnibus volume 5 by Akiko Higashimura In the bustling city of Tokyo there resides a place called Amamizukan, a safe haven for girl geeks (otakus of trains, jellyfish, Japanese dolls, and more) who are terrified of ‘stylish’ people. One such girl is Tsukimi who loves jellyfish. One night she meets a stylish lady who helps her save the life of a jellyfish at a pet shop. This chance encounter will result in an odd friendship (at first anyway) between the two and the rest of the residents at Amamizukan. But this stylish girl is actually a boy. It’s super cute shojo series that was made into an anime a while back. As well as a live-action film that according to one of my friends is very well done.  Though do note: Rightstuf has it noted as a release for today but it looks like B&N will not be getting it till 7/18/17, according to their website.

–Spell on Wheels volume 1 by Kate Leth, illustrator Megan Levens, and colorist Marissa Louise Three witches who head out on a road trip to retrieve their belongings that were stolen from them before whoever stole them does any damage to the items. I don’t know too much about this series but I enjoy magical stories. And I like the looks of the art style.

–Strange Attractors by Charles Soule and illustrated by Greg Scott Dr. Spencer Drownfield claims to have saved New York City from itself in 1978. Ever since he has been tinkering with the people of New York to keep the city afloat. A young mathematician is chosen as his successor. Is there truth to Dr. Spencer’s claims about how the Butterfly Affect and his complexity math applies to the city’s patterns. Or is it simply the raving of a broken man as he tries to make sense of the world around him. I like the idea of a person secretly ‘tinkering’ with people in order to save his city. And at first I thought it would be done on a real power but now I am not so sure. It may end up being more on a reflection of how we interact with the world and try to understand our place in it. Either way, the story sounds good.

–Tokyo Ghoul volume 13 by Sui Ishida In case you haven’t heard of this series yet. Tokyo Ghoul is about a world infested with human eating ghouls. One day Ken Kaneki goes on a date with a cute lady who turns out to be a ghoul and tries to eat him. Due to a strange incident the ghoul is killed and Kaneki is rushed to a hospital. Where they transplant the ghouls organs (who they don’t know is a ghoul) into Kaneki to save his life. Turning him into a half-ghoul.  I really like this series. There’s lots of action and it has an interesting story. It is an exploration of what really makes a person human (one of my favorite story types, especially if it involves robots; GitS). If you have seen the anime but haven’t read the series yet, you should. The anime started to deviate away from the manga around volume 5 or 6. But both are worth reading/watching. There is just one volume left after this before the first series is over. Tokyo Ghoul Jack will be released digitally only, but in full color if I remember right. Tokyo Ghoul: re volume 1 will be out in October. 

In Movies and Television

–The Big O Complete Collection Forty years ago the citizens of Paradigm City all lost their memories. Negotiator Roger Smith does his best to find resolutions for any troubles that Paradigm City finds itself in. With the help of his butler Norman, his android assistant Dorothy, and his giant robot (also called a megadeus) Big O. The classic anime is back and for the first time on blu-ray. I love this show. It has been a long time since I last saw it, back when it was still on Toonami. It’s a great film noir series with mecha’s. What’s not to love. Seriously though. It has been a long time since I last saw the full series. I don’t think I could explain it well enough to do it justice. I really recommend it. If I remember right the first season is more episodic while the second season has a more on-going story. Like GitS S.A.C. and 2nd gig. I do have the full series on dvd from Bandai but I would like to retire it someday for the blu-ray. Once you watch it, you too will start shouting out, “Big O! Showtime!”

–Sailor Moon S P2 The second part of Sailor Moon S, episodes 109-127. There is a gwp version on Rightstuf’s website that includes art cards.  Really excited to see part 2 out. Mine actually arrived in the mail yesterday. And now that I have both parts of S, I can finally watch them. I like to wait till I have both part of the Sailor Moon seasons before I watch them.

[bunnymajo]

Went to bed early because I was feeling sick but my body wasn’t having any of that nonsense so at 2 in the morning I finished the MGRP book I’ve been in the middle of for months - I’ve decided that I’m glad that they stopped animating this series because the way Asari Endou writes some of these deaths is gross and I don’t want the visual to be real.

[girlsincapes]

REVIEW: Magical Girl Raising Project, Vol. 1

REVIEW: Magical Girl Raising Project, Vol. 1

The mobile game Magical Girl Raising Project has taken Japan by storm, and in N City, sixteen people have been chosen for the game’s special mode: as real magical girls on a mission to help people in real life. Some of the chosen treat it as an extension of the game, but for the magical girl called Snow White, it’s a dream come true. Until the overabundance of magical girls starts to drain on the…

[this-mess-of-a-man]

Books that I really enjoyed (that I’ve read in the last like year or two)

The Garden Of Eve

Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See

Magical Girl Raising Project by Asari Endou

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Drowning Anna by Sue Mayfield

Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

And now I’m gonna say the best part(s) about each book

The Garden Of Eve-I honestly dont remember the book very well because I finished it like two years ago but I remember really relating to the characters

Snow Flower And The Secret Fan-I’m not sure but it’s historical fiction and I’m a slut for historical fiction oh also parts of that book Gave me literal chills

Magical Girl Raising Project-I Just loved every part of that book and It was basically the only thing that I talked about for like three months after I finished it

Before I Fall-the characters kind of feel like you know them but at the same time you know nothing about them and at least for me it made me feel almost detached from everything everytime I finished reading but almost in a good way

Drowning Anna-I love how it has different points of view and also the ending is kind of vague I guess and I love that

Cats cradle-honestly the best part of it is that a lot of the chapters aren’t all that long and that made it a lot easier for me to read it

If you have any book recommendations then maybe reblog this and do something similar to what I did here?

[gucciguccigarbage]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: 魔法少女育成計画 - 遠藤浅蜊 | Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku | Magical Girl Raising Project Series - Endou Asari, 魔法少女育成計画 | Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku | Magical Girl Raising Project (Anime) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Characters: Pythie Frederica | Yoshioka, Snow White | Himekawa Koyuki, Fal (Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku), Stanczyka (Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku), Original Characters, Pfle | Hitokouji Kanoe Additional Tags: Fanarc, Trans Character, Implied/Referenced Abuse Summary:

Minako Tomoi always thought that she was normal. Plain, and boring, and even when she became a magical girl, she thought her powers were useless.

Until she discovered that she was considered one of the strongest up-and-coming magical girls and found herself recruited by the Inspection Department. Working with girls from other departments, she's now been sent on an assignment to investigate the strange happenings in Emerald City.

It should have been a routine investigation for everybody involved, but when the mysterious magical girl Stanczyka joins their team, it becomes clear that if they aren't careful... An 'Emerald City Incident' may join the recent history of magical girls.

[brigcher]

It's like watching a horror movie, but instead of horror, it's just sadness.

It’s like watching a horror movie, but instead of horror, it’s just sadness.

PSA:  As with every entry, this post assumes that you have either read/watched the material or that you do not care about having major plot points revealed.

In a suddenly recent reignition of my love of magical girls, I picked up a copy of the first volume of Magical Girl Raising Project, by Asari Endou.  A friend of mine showed me a couple of episodes of the anime a couple of years ago, and it…

[ceoofgaystuff]

i wrote my first fic in over a year

no spoilers, but i’d recommend finishing jokers before reading this

[yenpress]

4/24 NEW RELEASE

Magical Girl Raising Project, Vol. 2 (manga)

By Asari Endou, Pochi Edoya

Sugar and spice-but not playing nice!

What started as a beautiful dream has become a bloody nightmare. Seven magical girls have been struck down so far-and it only gets worse from here! Wracked with grief over the deaths of her closest friends, Snow White has vowed to quit being a magical girl. But if the fairest maiden of all gives up, who will keep the dream alive? Is all hope lost for N City...?

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen’s Rambling: The Advantage of Literature (MGRP: Restart)

So I just wrapped up reading Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart a few days ago, took a bit of time to get my thoughts together on, and reread my older Rambling on the series as a whole. In that Rambling I had said that the book, while good, paled in comparison to all the improvements and tweaks the anime had done. The anime had added more background information for characters, made a lot of the action scenes pop more thanks to the use of the animation media, took advantage of side content that was made after the original light novel to flesh out characters, and so on. Mind you, the anime had started by the time this series was about 4 or 5 books in the series, plus a few side novels to help flesh out characters. I ended that Rambling by saying the book series did improve in quality, and now that I have an official translation of the second arc of the story, I can say with confidence that this is true. 

The one thing I didn’t do in that Rambling was mention or link the fan translations that had been circulating around to prove my point about the improvements made in the light novel series. This was for more personal reasons if anything. To keep this brief, my opinion of fan translations are the same as fansubs, I’d rather have a team that was paid to accurately translate a series and maintain or improve that quality of translation in a semi-timely fashion than wait for a bunch of volunteer groups that have multiple translations and debates on spelling/pronunciation. I swear to Christ if I have to read “Clamberry” one more time I’m gonna’ stab someone. The only exception I make to this is in terms of music and lyric translations, but I’ll end my opinion there. If you do want a translation of the this series a bit faster than the Yen Press is translating it then I recommend looking into the MGRP Translation blog here on tumblr, as they are doing the latest novel as of me typing this, Breakdown. I have personally stayed away from fan translations because of the previously mentioned reasons, but I recommend this blog all the same and I’ve read up to JOKERS using this site just to be transparent.

But enough tangents, let’s talk about this book.

The plot is pretty simple, 16 magical girls are teleported to an RPG-esque fantasy/RPG cyber world called Magical Girl Raising Project. There, a digital fairy called Fal explains to them that every three days they’ll be sent to this world in order to play a game that will lead them to an Evil King meant to be defeated, the one dealing the final blow earns a hefty 10 billion yen as a prize and those participating gaining nice cash prize as well. The girls accept, though some are reluctant at first, and the plot takes off from there. Later, several murders happen, there turns out to be a traitor among them, and it just gets wilder from their. Originally I had called the original MGRP a magical girl version of the Dangan Ronpa series. I was incorrect, this is Magical Girl Dangan Ronpa. 

The murder mystery nature is strong here. From the first death onward you’re trying to figure out who killed who along with half of the characters. And to increase the Dangan Ronpa parallels we have an actual magical girl detective  trying to solve these murder cases. And even better, I think this is where the author really starts hit their stride as a writer, as a lot of things that are in this arc really take advantage of the fact that this is a story made through writing. More specifically, the author, Asari Endou, really starts to take advantage of the fact they’re using literature as a media. Where animation and comics are best for showing off visual things like action and character designs, literature is best at showing the more, unseen and subtle things. A character’s thought process, their small little quirks and tics, along with being able to get away with explaining exposition without killing the pacing too much. I think this is best done with the character Shadow Gale. 

I’ll try not to spoil things too much, but just for example, Shadow Gale is one of the main characters in this book. In real life, she’s Mamori Totoyama, a high school student that helps/serves a girl named Kanoe Hitokouji, who is also a magical girl that goes by Pfle. Shadow Gale’s family has served under Kanoe’s for generations, and while Shadow Gale does like Pfle and is very loyal to her, she also fights the urge to punch Pfle in her smug, arrogant face every time she opens her mouth. I’m serious, the novel has a few good sections that cover how irritating and unpleasant a person Shadow Gale finds Pfle. It’s not even that Pfle is a bad person, but a lot of her little mannerisms and way of speaking like an old man just get on Shadow Gale’s nerves so much some days that she’s fighting back the need to smack her friend/boss upside the head ever other day. Half of Shadow Gale’s conversations with Pfle is her just being a sarcastic asshole and trying very hard to express how much she wants to smack Pfle without directly saying it. To quote the book:

“About five times a month, Mamori found herself wondering how good it would feel to punch Kanoe.”

This is my favorite line in the whole arc, and maybe the whole series.

It’s such a human reaction that it honestly brought me back to some of my issues with a few of my own friends’ hangups that can irk me at times. I don’t think a manga or anime could capture that kind of relationship, not easily anyway and not without killing the pacing by going in depth about it.

Speaking of pacing, the book does this very well. I didn’t feel like any part really dragged on save for some exposition stuff toward the end explaining certain character motives. I’d go into further detail, but that’s some heavy spoiler territory, so I’ll save it for later when the book’s had some time to be read. Really, the only slow part of this series was waiting for the second part to get translated. That’s... something I personally have an issue with, as this first book of this arc really ended on a cliffhanger and picked right back up from from their in the second book, as if the book didn’t just split off. It makes me wish the localization team just translated both parts at  once and sold the larger version for a higher price. I personally wouldn’t mind a more expensive Omnibus-esque version of Restart that took longer to translate if it meant reading the full arc at my leisure.

In the end, as far as my recommendations goes, I say if you like mystery novels, you like cute girls, and you like decently written stories with some cute illustrations, then please pick this series up. You don’t need to read part one or watch the original anime of Magical Girl Raising Project to understand what goes on in Restart. You’ll miss out on some references and a few character appearances, but it’s nothing too big. I’d even argue the same for the next book in the series, Limited, but I’ll talk about that one when it gets an official translation. 

And in typical fashion when I do Ramblings about specific series, I think that Best Girl was definitely Shadow Gale. I found her to be the most relatable out everyone with her internal sarcastic monologues and how her thought process worked in general. Masked Wonder and Lapis Lazuline were a close second though. I like their boisterous personalities a lot.

Anyway, that’s it for me. I think next I’m gonna’ work on that Rambling on Twin Star Exorcists next since I finished volume 11 recently... there’s a lot I want to go into with that series.

[justusrstone]

Review of the light novel Magical Girl Raising Project Volume 2 (Restart Part 1) by Asari Endou

The series about Magical Girls killing Magical Girls returns!

LIGHT NOVEL INFORMATION

TITLE: Magical Girl Raising Project

AKA: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku, 魔法少女育成計画

AUTHOR: Asari Endou

ILLUSTRATOR: Marui-no

PUBLISHER (English): Yen On

RELEASE DATE (English): November 14, 2017

PURCHASE (Amazon.com): http://amzn.to/2BjrHv7

PURCHASE (Book Depository): http://bit.ly/2pbDtGb

PUBLISHER (Japan): Takarajimasha

RELEASE DATE (Japan): November 9, 2012

VOLUMES RELEASED (Japan to Date): 11 (most recent released December 10, 2016)

ANIME SERIES: 12 episodes covering volume 1