This review contains spoilers.

This review was originally written on Jun 23, 2018; rewritten on Dec 3, 2022.

I have a love-and-hate relationship with edgy anime. Sometimes, in spite of their varying quality, they can be fun. While on other occasions, they are nothing short of abysmal.

While many deem the word "edgy" to be nothing more than a buzzword that is used as a substitute for concrete arguments, it cannot be denied that there are countless examples of shows that could be labelled as such. Sure, the definition and what classifies a series as edgy may differ from person to person. However, it is undeniable that Mahou Shojo Site embodies the "trying way too hard to be cool that it comes off as cringe-worthy" definition in every sense of the word. The show combines the edginess with a complete lack of creativity, care, wit and passion, which qualified it to become a product that is unbelievably disgusting, hilariously cretinous and undeserving of even an ounce of respect.

Mahou Shojo Site's narrative has but one goal in mind: being as over-the-top, shocking, controversial and off-putting as humanly possible. This approach is more than apparent in the very first episode. Through its twenty-something minutes' runtime, we are forced to endure witnessing comically excessive and exaggerated bullying, domestic abuse and even sexual assault inflicted on Aya Asagiri, the protagonist, by the people around her. In case you, the viewer, were not already taken aback by the extremeness of its corniness, the show continues displaying such images in a painfully consistent manner. The entire world she inhabits seems to be filled to the brim with moustache-twirling villains who, in their free time, tie damsels in distress to rail tracks for their sick amusement. The school bullies and her abusive, psychotic brother grin with utmost glee when they have the chance to harm the protagonist, both physically and mentally.

However, everything changes when Asagiri discovers the eponymous Magical Girl site. She obtains a magical item, meets and befriends other girls, and the show tries to push its actual plot forward. Yet, any plot point or development does not amount to anything. Characters interact with each other, exchange dialogue between themselves and perform certain actions, but this does not bear any significance. It is comparable to observing paint dry; it does nothing for you. At this point, it is merely pointless. The facade fell off, and the true intentions revealed themselves. The anime never cared about its narrative or characters, as there is no clear direction for most of the anime's duration. What truly matters is the shock factor, the "cute" high school girls acting like psychopaths and trying to make the viewer as uncomfortable as possible.

As for the characters, I am in never-ceasing bewilderment. Putting aside the bullies and Asagiri's brother, we are greeted by a whole horde of cardboard cutouts that are devoid of any personality, goals, creativity and humanity. Despite her absurdly cruel environment, Aya fails to be a character worth rooting for. She is one of the laziest depictions of an abused and depressed person in fiction, and the show does not care about her. She is cannon fodder and a punching bag used to generate shock, nothing more and nothing less. The people she becomes friends with are even worse. They are all psychopaths who abused and even killed someone at one point, yet the show never questions their actions. As long as you are an awful person for someone other than the protagonist, it is all dandy. It is impossible to care about these ridiculously one-note personages who feel like horrid caricatures pulled straight from a fanfiction piece written by an edgy teenager.

I would forgive the show for all of its sins if it managed to be ironically funny. It takes itself so seriously that I was more than willing to sit back and enjoy the absurdity and the shallowness. However, Mahou Shoujo Site fails to do that much. It not even once managed to make me laugh; it is just that monotonous and tiring. Not even a generous amount of alcohol within my blood would make this travesty anything worthwhile.

The production values are merely lifeless and bare-bones. The art style is plainly ugly, as the colours, the backgrounds and the character design are detestable, unpolished and hollow. The fact the art style is hyperfocused on the psycho, crazy faces everyone has to display at least once does not help. The animation is junky, inconsistent and rigid, but at the very least, it is present. None of the insert songs was passable enough for my brain to remember. The same thing applies to the opening as well. The sole highlight of the audiovisuals is the ending, which combines 2D and live-action with sperm flying in the background. I wish I was joking right now.

I could have gone into much greater detail in this write-up, yet I deem it unnecessary. It may not be my bête noire, but MHS does not deserve any investment or attention. In each and every episode, it unquestionably demonstrates how horrendous, vile, tryhard, shallow, shock-factor-fulled and disgraceful it is at the core. It is torture to watch, and that is all there is to it.