To obtain powers is something wished by many, but that comes with the responsibility of using them properly — or not? Why not use them for one's own benefit after all? Why should a magical girl serve the common good and not rather realize her own dreams? This decision does not come nobly land on the recipient of said powers, as we see often see it in most works: it depends of everybody's character. That is this crude reality that works on showing us 『 Mahou Shoujo Isekai Keikaku 』 (『 Mahouik 』 for short) — and if it gets through a large number of points, it lacks in doing so for some elements that are unfortunately central for it.
A variety of characters
Something very peculiar about Magical Girl Raising Project is the variety of depicted profiles.
A normal highschool girl, a recently fired executive, an old alcoholic mother, … the show is close to the level of a Durarara!! in terms of variety. Age, social status, job, story, reason for playing the game (even gender!); no character looks like another on these basic criteria. That being said, more than the half of them share a deeper particular feature: they are "failed" people, having a sad or little blooming life, like Tama who is just a good-for-nothing. Their life condition is sometimes due to their particularly dark story — and in this point, one has to admit that 『 Mahouik 』 proposes darker stories than its peers (amongst which the famous Madoka Magica): school harassment, sexual touching, suicide are within the most disturbing themes shown by the work.
### Because of these differences of personal story whose psychological impact is deep, each character has different "motivations" to be a magical girl: noble motivations as Snow White's, or psychopathic like Cranberry's. In my view, two particularly interesting characters concerning these motivations are Hardgore Alice who fundamentally just wants to find a place in a world that has given her none, and Swim Swim whose ambition ends up, for varied reasons, to isolate her completely.
The two final manifestations of this variety are the powers and the charadesigns. As for the powers, each magical girl possesses a different power sometimes very peculiar, like for instance to dig instantly a big hole — here again something original in comparaison to other pieces of work about magical girls. As for the charadesigns, each character owns a unique appearance that goes so far as differentiating the eyes themselves (even though we shall regret the use of melon-boobs).
Unfortunately, this variety of characters comes at the expense of a very weak development; and that is a real shame, on the one hand because their dark (or happy) stories would be interesting to show in details, on the other hand for it is crucial for a piece of work where characters kill each other that the audience ties a bond with them. In the end, due to this lack of development, 『 Mahouik 』 shows more a variety of different stories than a variety of a different characters — which is not a bad thing in reality, as long as the story-telling is not lacking…
A handful of bad main points
And there's the rub: for this variety of characters does not rule out very bothering bad sides, notably for they are present throughout the whole work.
There is an attempt of universe in which we learn that there were other magical girls selections in the past who were looking diffferent, that's true; but this explanation increases even more the lack of understanding: why did the inhabitants of the Magic World accept to change the rules? By sheer sadism? Come on…
Speaking of sadism, another negative point is Fav, that is the overused mascot. The cute thingy that adds onomatopoeia at the end of its sentences and that in fact is omniscient and Machiavellian in line with — would you believe! — its black and white colors akin to some Two-Face… It looks like a poor combination of Kyubey from 『 Madoka Magica 』 and Monokuma from 『 Danganronpa 』.
### In addition, the common thread is lame: inhabitants from another world come on Earth to choose new magical girls? Why? They possess a very powerful magic allowing them to make the magical girls almost invisible, but at the end they settle for sending emails? A magical weapon can break the "transmetteur-maître", but not the magical girls themselves who are magical too? The worst is the disappointing end: Snow White, whom it is said literally has not done anything to win, is the only "real" survivor and chooses to fight to be a strong magical girl… just like she has always wished it. The sole character development is that she now is now (almost) alone to fight — that is, a pitiful clichéd end.
Finally, the question central to the anime "why become a magical girl" is a question so interesting that is unfortunately not enough looked deeper into. Yet the variety of profiles offers a huge amount of possibilities of answers, each one having one's proper vision of the thing; but since the characters either are not developed or die too soon, the general answer given the most clichéd: to help others.
A good technical direction
Except for those bad points though, 『 Mahouik 』 shows a technical direction surprisingly very good.
There are very good shots from many angles; for instance, there is a beautiful high-angle shot from a distance when Snow White and Hardogre Alice are introduced to each other in a warehouse.
### Another nice shot is in the 12th episode: while Ripple is stumbling and her eye is seriously damaged, we have a shot through her bloody vision which puts ourselves in her place — not a very nice feeling, honestly.
### There are also very nice animations sometimes, like when Snow White looks up the purchasable items in the 6th episode and that we see in the reflection of her pupil the movement of her gaze.
### Overall, the facial expressions forward very well the emotions (notably the dark ones by the way): sadness, disgust, death… Through them, 『 Mahouik 』 succeeds a lot in delivering the emotions felt by its characters to the audience and in creating a certain empathy for them.
### There is even sometimes good directing, like in the 6th episode when the music stops at once while Calamity Mary says « I want that you kill someone ».
Conclusion
Overall, 『 Mahouik 』 is a big wasted potential.
The characters's profiles so different and their stories sometimes sordid really make this work stand out from the other magical girls. On the contrary, a lot of scenaristic elements make 『 Mahouik 』 closer to its peers, elements sometimes too clichéd that overhang the whole work and give it a shade of nanar. Fortunately, its technical direction surprisingly well-made (even sometimes impressive) make the piece of work very nice to watch, putting it for that above your average anime. It is thus a bittersweet taste that 『 Mahouik 』 leaves — a frustration that does not conceal its good sides at all but that does not manage to mask its bad ones. A definitely interesting experience, in the light of the Magical Girl Raising Project: maybe it will pull through better during the next selection.
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