Every day, Aya Asagiri thinks about killing herself. She is bullied relentlessly at school, and at home, her older brother Kaname physically abuses her to relieve the academic stress put on him by their father.
One night, as she lies awake wishing for death, a mysterious website called Magical Girl Site appears on her laptop, promising to give her magical powers. At first, she dismisses it as a creepy prank, but when she finds a magical gun in her shoe locker the next day, she doesn't know what to believe. Deciding to take it with her, she soon runs into her bullies once again. But this time, desperate for anything to save her, she uses the gun—and her assailants are transported to a nearby railroad crossing, where they are run over.
Aya's conscience is unable to handle the fact that she murdered two of her classmates with magic, and she desperately tries to understand the situation. However, when she finds herself in trouble again, she is saved by Tsuyuno Yatsumura, a classmate who can use magic to stop time. This duo has a lot to do: not only do they have to fight alongside and against other magical girls, but they also need to uncover the truth behind the website and the apocalyptic event known as "The Tempest" that is soon to occur.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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MozillaFennekin
The term “edgy” gets thrown around as some sort of criticism by people who like to sound smart and mature, because they engage with a medium for people half their age. Personally, I don’t use the word as a criticism, because I often enjoy edge a lot. I think there’s a level of edge that gets enjoyable, because it passes so many levels of believability that I don’t believe it was meant to be taken seriously in the first place. That’s where Mahou Shoujo Site comes in. A more accurate term to describe this anime would be “campy”, but fucking nobody uses that term so I’mnot gonna bother. This anime has knives so therefore it is edgy ha ha ha never saw that joke coming did you.
You may be thinking that this is a matter of “turning your brain off” to enjoy something--ignoring the flaws to indulge in the positives. This is also false. I don’t believe in such a concept. In fact, I present the opposite: you should keep an open mind and keep your brain turned on to understand why a creator would make such a thing in such a way.
“Mahou Site is sooooo edgy!!! It’s just a bunch of shock value!!!”
Wow, it’s almost like that was the fucking point or something. Some people like edgy schlock like this. Why? Who knows. Maybe I’m just some sick fuck looking to get off. Or maybe it’s because I don’t always need a compelling narrative to pick my brain. Look, I’m mentally challenged enough. I don’t need my damn cartoons to enforce that. Sometimes, I like to keep it nice and simple. There are girls in this anime, and they get hurt a lot. It’s not real, so I don’t need to take it seriously. And that’s about it. At no point did I ever get the impression that Mahou Site was supposed to be taken seriously. It wasn’t even trying to take itself seriously half the time, and I can explain this just by looking at the first episode.
Asagiri, the main character, thinks about throwing herself in front of an oncoming train, but hesitates at the last minute. As she sits on the ground in her despair, office men on their way to work mutter to themselves how it’s too early in the day to deal with this kind of bullshit, that they were slightly inconvenienced by her attempted suicide.
This is the best thing that happens to her on this day.
She goes to school and gets thrashed around by some bullies. Then she goes home and gets thrashed around by her brother. Her only salvation is taking care of a stray cat, which the bullies kill on the next day, right before they send in a JoJo character to come rape her.
So, in fifteen minutes, we’ve already covered suicide, bullying, rape, animal murder, and domestic abuse. Some would tell you this is all an act to make you pity the main character, and while you’re free to do that, I don’t feel that any attempt was made at making Asagiri a likable character, and here’s why:
Aya Asagiri is not a character at all.
You see her in an ordinary day, where she lives through incredible amounts of horrifying things, but at no point do you ever get a sense of who this person really is. Her entire character is defined by the things that happen to her. And, at the expense of making my most callous remarks to date, there is simply no logic behind her survival. She hesitates to end her life, but why? She doesn’t have anything to live for. No friends, no dreams, not even a conviction that “it gets better”. Aya Asagiri walks this fictional Earth only to suffer. Anyone who’s depressed, suicidal, victims of bullying, etc. all put up with it for some clear, emotional reason. Aya does not, which is what separates her from being an actual character you are meant to take seriously, as opposed to an avatar for projecting suffering onto.
In regards to the graphic loli suffering plastered on the screen, it’s all there just for you to gawk at. Maybe you have some weird fetish, or this kind of thing is just amusing you. You do you. Personally, I find it funny. Mahou Site is cute. It’s a level of edge that comes around to being endearing, because it passes so many levels of believability. Even disregarding my argument about Asagiri not being a real character, the things that happen to her are so extreme that I can only see the thinnest lines of logic. Knives in her locker, that’s believable. Glue on the chair in the class, that’s believable--the recent season of 3-gatsu kinda covered that. But setting up a rape in the back room and watching it? Look, I’ve already proven that I’m not the greatest person, but this is crossing a few lines of sanity here. Not to mention that the older brother beats the shit out of Asagiri right in her bedroom. What the hell kind of soundproofing did they do to their house to keep the parents from not hearing all of the screaming and gasping and thumping? I just moved into a new basement with a thin roof, so it’s very creaky and I can hear everyone talking and having sex, so I’d like to get in on this.
Shit, I’m already 900 words into this review for a website I don’t even like using and I still haven’t even scratched the surface of how silly this anime is. How about the fact that one of the magical girls is some bizarre fetish idol group that wears dog costumes and calls their fans their “masters”? Or the magical girl that has some weird, old-ass, masochistic butler who praises her existence so much that he lives to be stepped on? How about the scene where the brother… you know what, no. I can’t spoil that episode. It’s too good to be sullied by this review.
All that I’m trying to say is that Mahou Site is wacky. And if you have a problem with that, then that lies with you alone. If you’re disappointed that this author isn’t making high art, that’s fine. And although I can’t speak on behalf of this person, I don’t believe they were trying to make high art in the first place. To dismiss Mahou Site as worthless simply because it is not to your standard is not a weakness of the anime or the creators, it’s a weakness of your own for not being able to accept things outside of your comfort zone. Look, I’m not trying to sound pretentious. I’m not perfect. I dropped Tada-kun after one episode because it bored me to tears. I don’t like anime that have natural characters in a natural setting, and they don’t do anything in particular, but it’s a romance because of course it is. There’s no real reason for that, I just don’t like them. But, I never got the impression that Tada-kun was a bad anime. It was just an anime that wasn’t for me.
If you wanna see something from Spring 2018 that’s super edgy and DOES try taking itself seriously, go look at Devils Line. However, I won't go into detail about that because this is a review for Mahou Shoujo Site and not Devils Line. You can ask me about it if you want. That’s all I have left to say on the matter.
If you're interested in the story itself, it's not much on paper. Girls get magical items called Sticks, and they use them to do things, and they have to prevent some sort of doomsday. Some people, aka dumbasses, will tell you that this is a Madoka ripoff, but it's really not a unique formula to begin with, as many action series, anime or otherwise, have some sort of doomsday plot. Overall, I don't really have anything to say about the story itself because it's not anything special, but the way it's told is very fun, and that's what's most important.
Now, all this being said, does this mean I have no complaints about Mahou Site? Not true at all. It could’ve been better in a lot of ways. As much as I’ve said that the anime shouldn’t be taken seriously, there were admittedly some moments where scenes get heavier and more emotional, and it doesn’t pay off too well as they not only drag on for too long, but the characters aren’t engaging enough to get behind.
I also would’ve preferred more action in this series, since it involves a bunch of magical weapons and abilities. While there are a few big, key fights to be seen, the anime plays more like a drama than an action thriller. I suppose this could be more of a preference, because both elements blended together fairly well, but it should be kept in mind that it’s not super action-heavy.
Moreover, Asagiri develops into a character that’s just annoying and even more non-sensical than when she had no personality. Hearing her try to plead with others to not harm the ones who’ve caused her grief is just strange and unsatisfying. I was hoping she would have some super badass moment where the gloves come off and she unleashes a rage that reciprocates all of the wrong that’s been done to her in the past, but instead she insists on playing the good girl. It’s boring. People don’t like Guts because he had a shit life. People like Guts because his shit life hardened him into a living badass, so you know that when goes into battle, he does NOT fuck around.
Fortunately, the other characters manage to pick up the slack. They’re not amazing, but they’re enjoyable enough to keep the show on its feet. Yatsumura works great as the #2 of the show, and the side characters are about as weird as they come. I already mentioned the fetish idol, but I didn’t mention the girl who felt the need to state that she had big tits like four times in one episode, or the girl whose Magical Girl weapon is a knife that cuts herself to heal others, and that she’s okay with it because she was “already practicing self-harm.” But the real star of the show is the bad boi Onii-chan, whose personality is so off-the-rails that you could tell the author wrote him with a smile on their face. It helps a lot that star actor Nobuhiko Okamoto delivers him with tons of conviction. And I’ll say it again: this character has the greatest scene in recent years.
The soundtrack had no notable pieces, but the voice acting was good all-around. I already praised Okamoto, and I’ll do it again because he was great. Newcomer Yuko Ono does a solid job as Asagiri, nailing the despairing moments well along with having a wispy, wimpey voice without sounding like a dying mouse. Yuu Serizawa also delivers with the character of Nijimin, who has some rather severe shifts in tone that happen quickly, and both sides are done well. The OP grew on me a bit--it’s not much more than a standard rock tune with a bit of an edgy streak to it, but it gets the job done. Same with the ED, but less so. Rather, they are carried with their visual presentation--the OP has a cool camera effect that looks like it’s being played through a broken screen or lens. The ED is……… uh, it’s something. Something about two girls doing a live-action dance on a school rooftop while a bunch of sperm cells float around in the background. Yeah, I dunno.
Art and animation--ugh, can I go now? I just wanted to dunk on people who were talking shit about me liking this anime because apparently edgy = bad or some stupid bullshit. Look, I’ll just leave this 7/10 score right here, and that should tell you the art is good but not amazing. Alright?
Alright, kids, what have we learned today? We learned that watching violent cartoons is okay, there’s no such thing as turning your brain off, and that if you have no personality then you should kill yourself. Alright, cool. Leave me alone now.
Story - 8/10
Art - 7/10
Sound - 5/10
Character - 6/10
Enjoyment - 8/10
Edge - 9/10
Overall - 7/10
Favorite episode - 8
Favorite character - ONII-CHAN
Recommendation level - Medium-high
SunlitSonata
Have you ever seen a show so banal, so worthless, so unintelligent, so uselessly defiant, so lazy and so pathetic that you hate it with every fiber of your being the longer it goes on as lazy jump ship of popular trends? For me, the biggest example of that, is the latest edge cancer to pound the anime community known as: Mahou Shoujo Site. It is inevitable that within a community, when some concept does something to “break the mold” in a unique way and becomes a mega hit, there will be a ton of copycats spawning from it, to get a slice of that sweetsweet dough. In Western Animation, films like Shrek, as well as cartoons like Ren & Stimpy and South Park made such big impacts that they inspired a jillion ripoffs continuing to this day, all misunderstanding what made their originals work. In anime, we’ve seen this a lot recently when shows attempt to make money by blatantly taking the template from a successful series. It has come with the success of the high school battle harem genre, the survival game genre, Sword Art Online, and of today’s subject: Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Not the earliest example of moe gone dark (When They Cry beats it by about half a decade), but certainly a modern landmark.
Madoka Magica, a show using the disguise of a typical Mahou Shoujo praised for its artistry, emotional depth and willingness to go to dark places in showing its characters confronting mistakes they wished to undo, was a mega success, and other creators’ response to that was “if we take a Magical Girl show, and add dark elements, it’ll be a hit”. Shows like Yuki Yuna, Selector Infector WIXOSS, Magical Girl Raising Project and today’s subject: Mahou Shoujo Site, are a result of that bandwagoning.
Having seen Yuki Yuna about two years ago, it felt like it went too safe with its content, not being able to properly explore the darker elements the same way Madoka did and not greatly delivering on the lighthearted fun at its front. At the time, I thought maybe if one of these shows would be more willing to handle darker themes, it could have interesting things to say about life and expectations. I was WROOOOOOOOOOOOOONG.
Mahou Shoujo Site might, flat out, be the most thoroughly reprehensible, apathy inducing, tryhard, edgy, unpitiable, lazily produced, tonally deaf, inhumane, DISGUSTING pile of shit that I have ever come across. It sucks ass! It sucks balls! It sucks ASS BALLS!
And it all starts from one of the worst first episodes I have ever seen for ANY series, let alone anime, one that was so bad it encouraged me to see this to the end just to tear it to shreds.
The entire episode was nothing but torture porn, shown with a shy cute girl, to instantly draw sympathy dealing with a list of edge tactics like it was some sort of fucking checklist. These range from her contemplating suicide, to being emotionally/physically tortured by school bullies, to being viciously beaten by her psychopathic brother, having a cute kitten she saved be thrown in front of a train/delivered to her, and being nearly raped by an upperclassman while said bullies just snicker and watch. Eventually through the power of plot convenience, she obtains a magic gun that accidentally kills several of said bullies, only for her to be backed into a corner by another character threatening her with a razor blade. That character then gets stopped by an edgy sociopath girl who could control time.
Using so many edge tactics would be laughable if it wasn’t so thoroughly DISGUSTING to watch. All of this torture throughout the first episode is handled in an overtly methodical way, not representative of genuine human fault but a lazy writer using every edgy thing he discovered as a means of forcing audience sympathy. It doesn’t work, not even in the slightest. Gore, violence and cruelty all have their place in a meaningful narrative when they underlie an interesting story or human drama, but going on episode 1 alone, more care seemed to be placed on the tools of edgelords compared to the basic essentials of story, character, or presentation.
And yet, despite this awful first episode, it never tried to go further in darkness, but remained brain dead, single minded and bizarrely bipolar with edge to the end. The show was too lazy to even go to the same extremes again. People like me who wanted to watch this to see how much more torturous it could get were met with a barely functional Madoka plagiarist trying to wring earnest interactions out of fetishes with no sense of tone, pacing, or comradery.
Everything from Episode 2 onwards is introducing a powerful world ending conflict (the nature of which was blatantly stolen from you know what), while other characters are slowly but surely brought in to put on their edgiest Yandere smile before becoming party members in the inevitable quest.
There are many, many, many problems with the writing of this show but for me, the biggest one is tonal cohesion. It can be seen as a problem in a large amount of anime from Fullmetal Alchemist to The Ancient Magus Bride that there are silly comedy moments in addition to the handling of darker themes. However, shows like those keep their overall presentation at a respectable middle ground where either comedy or drama could work when needed, because they care and understand about character building causes for conflict or human drama. The one thing I wasn’t expecting Magical Girl Site to pull was have so many moments where “comedy” arises, whether through one character taking on an appearance with gag boobs, a reference to “apple butts”, comedy credits stingers with the sister-molesting older brother, XD chibi expressions, a girl who frequently gets off to smacking her old butler on the ass, magical mind control panties, or a Beach Episode.
Yes, you heard that right. A BEACH EPISODE. A show where everything I mentioned in the first episode occurs, where a character cuts herself in order to heal people with blood, and where another character says “God has never abandoned me before” crazy eyed while bleeding from the mouth and nose, has time for a beach episode. The sheer extent of the whiplash is what really takes me out of anything the show attempts. Whatever humor exists here would be horribly unfunny even in a comedy show, but putting it in a show where nearly every girl deals with cold blooded torture and bleeds from some part of their body when using their power makes any attempts at wacky humor feel like incomprehensible tonal homicide. And not intentionally to create false ease like say, Higurashi. The humor mainly exists to fulfill more of the author’s obvious fetishes.
And it’s not just the humor that detracts from the show’s tone, it’s the forced togetherness of the End of the World conflict (pretentiously called The Tempest) that brings it down to the dark depths of anime hell. In a show where crazed maniac girls are commonplace holding death grudges against one another, none of the many relationships feel like they build to comraderies. They just happen because the plot type demands it. Most egregiously with one of the bullies from Episode 1 that remained alive. Said character gets an incredibly disproportionate reason for starting her less than human bullying streak, nearly kills the protagonist at a latter point, and then just because the protagonist doesn’t kill her back, they become buddy buddies to stop the end of the world. WHAT?! Sure, there’s a realization there but that’s barely a redemption arc and it is unforgivable to try and move our sympathies to a girl who gleefully tortured the shy and ineffectual protagonist in Episode 1 because of a ctrlCctrlV broad conflict.
Several other character relationships go the exact same way, with characters at each other’s throats becoming close friends without any sort of proper pacing to get to that point. What could’ve been developed drama of troubled characters finding it within themselves to work together becomes sullied by a forced need to have the “band together against the apocalypse” involving way too many characters who get no time to let conflicts hold. For a show proudly putting its foot down to say “we’re willing to go to DARK depths of what people suffer in life” without time to care about anything, going Team Force Friendship is about the most cliché thing it could possibly do. It’s DiC Sailor Moon putting on the mask of Elfen Lied and Mirai Nikki just to appeal to the edgelord crowd, forgetting that it drove out all likability in only the first episode!
Then there’s the power system and eponymous Magical Girl Site system itself, which like many elements of this show, are also f*cked beyond belief. First off, every weapon used by a girl in this show is called…….a Stick. Yup, a Stick, like a tree branch or something. It’s used here to describe anything from heart guns to necklaces to yo-yos to magic controlling panties. Unless you named the weapons Ding Dongs I don’t think there’s any way the author could’ve put less thought in. Serious scenes where characters call their weapons Sticks come off as more silly than fierce. I could just now imagine one girl picking up a tree branch and attempting to wear it underneath her skirt, insisting that it is called underwear, in a world where magic panties are considered Sticks.
Finally, the whole Magical Girl Site concept. “Scary” face papercut people in some weird pocket dimension hack computers to give random girls magical girl powers for what seems like no reason, but eventually is revealed to relate to the completely forced apocalypse. The one who gather the most arbitrary negative energy gets to survive while everyone else dies. No specific idea is handled with the Magical Girl recruiting, since they didn’t even nick Madoka’s “wish for a price hope/despair” routine, just the enemy identity idea stolen in every series ever featuring fights against inhuman monsters, with no time to sink in because of awful pacing. Most of the origin stories for the girls don’t get an exclamation at all for the site being there, like the writer was too lazy to care about why they had their generic or fetish powers. The site itself doesn’t connect to the conflicts of any character even semi-well, with this antagonist force not getting any justification for their appearance, random ass powers or Halloween play paper cutout appearance.
In that sense, the show’s script is emblematic of everything regarding this series. Illogically lazy. Not bothering to commit to any unique ideas, it instead nicks them from a source most people would recognize, but lacks any sort of tonal cohesion, proper pacing, variety, understanding of human drama, effort or passion. It doesn’t even conclude itself properly, giving fuck all to any sort of viewer payoff as well. It’s pure phoned in tripe, creating a torturous 1st episode only to wring further relationships from the foundation of a used toilet paper tower on a raft in the ocean, during a thunderstorm.
Naturally this laziness extends to the animation as well, from the studio’s 2nd ever project. With no effort blasé character designs, bleh grey and black backgrounds (except during the beach episode), and absolutely nothing resembling flow in fight scenes, this is about the lowest effort one can put into a TV anime, sans excessive CGI armies or characters moving like a PowerPoint presentation. Even the few attempts at visual flourish are either “paint everything blue or red”, or sunset scenes. Action, as I mentioned before, has no flow in any capacity, even doing things like using action lines over colored backgrounds that I thought we grew out of in early Pokemon. Fundamental things are done terribly, like crows not bleeding when they are cut in half, or photoshopped meatballs being over characters’ heads in one occurrence. And there’s also the wonderful images of many Yandere faces, a psychotic grown man putting on little girl panties, and the ED having sperm fly everywhere. A show like Hand Shakers looks godawful in its own way but I could at least tell that the staff at Studio GoHands were TRYING to do something unique and inventive, despite it backfiring in every conceivable way. A show like this does about the minimum effort possible to be considered passable in some capacity, and absolutely suffers for poor art design because of it. So it’s a shame for however many Japanese animators spent long days and nights on it.
The sound is also low effort, so low effort that I barely have anything to talk about. Suppose I could mention that the one girl who runs fast does so with an obvious stock sound effect, or the fact that this show’s entire reason for being adapted hinges on promoting the idol group I⭐️ris. You heard that right, even the STUDIO only made this to profit off a contract for a promoting idol group, one whose insert in the series wasn’t even memorable by Idol standards. Because anyone who gave a crap about artistic integrity or creativity stayed as far away from this as possible.
Finally, the characters. What “characters”? This show has none! All it has is inhumane gleefully cruel excuses for the author to jot down his fetishes and edge checklists. These characters all have names and unique hair types, but without any distinguishing character features to them, the “character” element fades in the background. Already Episodes 2-12 are forced to work with Episode 1’s broken foundation, and when it does have to try and “develop” anyone from that episode, it has nothing to work with and leads to nothing properly worthwhile. The pacing’s jank so any chemistry between devices feels tenuous at best and completely unbelievable at worst.
The lack of effort isn’t just present for what the show lacks but for what is present as well. Of the nine girls (eventually ten) that it puts in the “Hero Group” role, six of them have edgy Yandere moments at different points, which is not only lazy but barely distinguishable or built up. Higurashi didn’t make every single girl a Yandere, and for the ones they did, they built up the element, however well. It even uses the “my parents were killed by a psychotic man” backstory twice, one of which gets revenge so fast that we have no reason to care for the endeavor. And when those in the show are not being psycho Yanderes (including the evil for the sake it older brother), they’re either completely cliche or fulfilling a sick fetish for the author with no substance or identifiable goal. Whether it be the gag boobs girl, the apple butted idol who controls people with magic panties, a girl who cuts herself frequently to heal people through the mouth insisting she’s not emo, a girl whose only trait is “runs fast”, or a girl whose main trait is smacking about an innocent old butler. Every Magical Girl bleeds from a different part of their body as well, so anyone with a bleeding fetish can rejoice in knowing that bleeding from body parts will be a continual process that is never confronted as a problem because the show is that lazy!
The ONLY attempt at anything resembling a character arc is protagonist Aya, who learns to get over her shyness, make friends with other characters, rebel against an immediate plan following a character death, and organize a beach visit for everyone! On paper it’s acceptable growth, but in practice, the terrible writing and relationships that aren’t given any time to rest, making many of her choices feel forced. This includes her forgiveness of the bully girl who viscerally tormented her prior and during the series start. It’s a cliché path hampered down by the creator’s laziness as well as awful plot rolling. No one else has anything CLOSE to that attempt, which I should stress was unsuccessful.
Enjoyment and Conclusion
One could easily say “why did you even talk about this show if you knew you were going to hate it from Episode 1”? Simply put, anime tends to inspire me in its ambition. Whether a show is a masterpiece or a dumpster fire, I’m usually enthused by its wide variety across genres, different strengths and screw-ups, passion projects and inventive concepts using animation. I admire the storytelling potential present in an anime series, whether it be from the classics period or the modern age.
The reason I single out a show like this is because it is the antithesis of everything worthwhile in an anime, or any form of art period. Rather than putting effort to make their series high quality, the author did nothing more than rip off popular trends to steal away a direct audience, not having to keep tone so he can throw his sick fetishes into an angsty Yandere-full horribly contrived setup. It’s a show the studio put out, not to share an inventive idea with the world, but to promote an idol group with the bare minimum in every capacity.
This isn’t misguided passion, or even the type of hilarious straight faced terrible idiocy one could find in Ousama Game. This is a product, assembly lined from checklists and trends that shouldn’t persist, forgoing the artistry its inspirations held high, and is impossible to enjoy because it was neither consistently in straightfaced “crawling in my skin” nor smart enough to be a parody of itself. Laziness begets laziness when it comes to this, spitting on the potential of anime storytelling for something less substantial than starring out a smoked window for 4 hours. This fetish fueled, plagiarized, lazily produced tripe isn’t even remarkably bad. It disgusts me in having nothing but contempt for the concept of effort. It’s boringly awful in every way, but complete failure all the same that I could never recommend to anyone.
TakaCode
What is an edgy anime? Edgy anime are the type of series that uses it and themes to make a serious tone however unlike mature shows where they create a permanent tone eddy shows would very often switch it’s dark tone around in favour of having a more lighthearted narrative and tone. A lot of the time these shows would often have a lot serious topics, and themes that ultimately goes nowhere thanks to they awful tone shifts and because of this a lot of theses edgy shows ending up very pretentious as a result. The real problem with theses edgy shows that like with ecchiand harems they have the high chance of seeing well which sadly attracts the lowest common denominator where the audience in that group would only a show because it’s dark themes and violence.
Akame ga Kill is one of the worst examples of this because not only the show itself didn’t function correctly as thanks it’s non-existence worldbuilding, plot holes, cringe-worthy storytelling, embarrassing production values, horrid characters designs that don’t fit with the setting of the show and pathetic characters but the show had no had no idea of what a mature show should be. There are other edgy anime like Future Dairy, Elfen Lied, and that I want to talk about but I will save theses edge feasts for another time. Personally I really despite anime that are edge because not only do these shows would forget to tell a story but they also would go out of the way to shock the audience with the edge and tonal shifts.
So what does this have to with Spring 18 Magical Girl Site you may ask? Well, I will tell you to know. Magical Girl Site is one of the most cringiest edgy anime I have ever seen because not only it’s generally a horrible but it cannot even use it’s edgy/dark content correctly. While Magical Girl Site isn’t the worst anime, I have seen it still an anime that I hate.
Story.
The story follows a middle school girl named Aya Asagirl who has problems with both her school and home life thanks to the aggravated bullying and physical abuse. While browsing online a website pops up on her computer featuring a creepy-looking person. The person appears to take pity on her and announces that she has granted Asagiri magical powers. She clicks yes and on the following day a pink toy looking gun shows up in her school locker and there Aya must learn to deal with her new magical power as well finding the meaning of the countdown clock on the website.
Am just going to say it right now the story for Magical Girl Site is abysmal.
Ride of the bat this anime makes an awful first impression where the audience are awkwardly thrown into heavy and sensitive themes such as child abuse, rape, depression and torture without any reason apart from poorly establish the protagonist for the story.
Besides of all the dark edgy shit that goes on in the story this is just your typical magical girl where characters in the show will have mini characters arcs as well being a boring survival type of show where only one magical girl can survive. This is the least of my issues with the show. The real issue of this show that ended up killing the anime was its portrayal of heavy and sensitive themes. This is by far the most disusing anime I have seen because it too all of the sensitive and heavy themes such as rape, child abuse, depression, torture, and bullying and doesn’t treat them with respect as the show constantly went over the top and edgy about them. I liked shows where they address and tackle sensitive and heavy themes but this show clearly did not have a clue to present its sensitive themes and because of this me and majority of anime fans literally got sick while watching. After watching the first three episodes I was physically being ill thanks to this show physically abusing the poor little girl. What makes this worse is how Aya the protagonist doesn't do a damm thing about it because honestly, this show could have gone for a different direction if the writers simply allow Aya to move into the foster care home away from her school and school after episode 1 as soon she gets the pink toy gun and the plot could have moved along a bit differently but no we can’t have nice thing thanks to this show stupidity.
The pacing of the show is pretty inconstant overall as either go way too fast or way too slow. While it’s not as bad as Record of the Garncrest War it’s still a big issue that kills the flow of the series as well as all the events that happen in the show.
What really pissed me off about the show that the show had the balls to have a poorly directed beach episode aka episode 8. Not only that episode killed the tone of the series up to that point where it’s very dark, but the show at no point had a piece of dialogue that stated the girls are going to the beach to have some cool time. I understand the show was trying to throw the audience of its sudden tone shift, but this was the worst way to do as it feels so lazy and forced.
Speaking of Episode 8 this was the same episode that features the worst man to man confrontation I have ever seen in anime as not only it was all over the top but the direction/writing was horrible.
Episode 9 is even worse as the show decides to takes all of its physics and logic and ultimately throws out the window in favor of shock value.
(Spoilers ahead)
The way that Nijimi died in the show was horrible because not only it featured horrible directing but the way Nijimi was able to live for that along to even able to stab Kaname in the throat with an edge of a glass bottle after being cut by Ringa sword which Kaname our comically evil villain was using. It's was bad enough that she didn't get decapitated immediately from the way that was cut by Ringa sword but the way the show didn't even bother showing us the amount of blood that Nijimi while she was on the floor. What makes this episode baffling compared to any other episodes in the series is her death could have been easily avoided if Nijimi actually controlled her temper like in the earlier episodes in the series where despite having temper issues she still smart enough to not allow her temper to take over. Ridiculous...
(End of spoilers)
Overall the story for Magical Girl Site was beyond awful and sickening.
1/10
Characters.
The characters in Magical Girl Site are all one-dimensional edgelords as they are all tropey as hell as well being very unlikeable fools.
The main protagonist Aya is your shitty damsel in distress type character who everyone treats like trash for no reason other than to give her a sad backstory.
Tsuyuno is the boring ass monitor with dark past
Nijimi is a cute but tempered idol who would stop at nothing to kill the person who killed her best friend.
Sarina is the loud mouth bitch who refuses to listen to people even if it important.
Rina is a very intelligent girl who is very clumsy.
Kosame is the stoic edgelord who has the edgiest power ever where she gets to heal someone by cutting her own skin.
The other characters aren't much better at in fact some of them are even worst.
Kaname is probably one of the most contrived villains I have ever seen in my life. Not only he such a disgraceful human being where he actively liked beats her own sister up Aya for stress relief but the way he literally became one of the main villains in the second half of the show was retarded!!!
Overall like with the story itself the characters are utter shit.
1/10
Visuals.
The visuals are okay, but it doesn’t matter when you have absolutely no substance to back up your visuals.
The character designs for the main characters are pretty good overall and recognizable however the character designs for the side characters just were just awful and unappealing to look at
The animation is okay for the most part, but there were times where the show had fair of still frames and choppy movement for some fights.
5/10
Sound.
Thankfully the soundtrack for Magical Girl Site is the best part about this the series as it does a good job at capturing the dark nature of the series.
The opening and endings theme on the other are just forgetful and the voice acting overall is alright for what it was.
Overall the soundtrack is decent overall.
6/10
Final Thoughts.
So that's is Magical Girl Site. A broken edgy mess of a show that doesn't even respect its audience.
The story is horrendously written that is filled with horrible pacing and directing. The characters are all unsympathetic idiots who are edgy for the sake of being edgy. The only decent things about this show are the visuals and music other than that this show is a broken mess that barely functions.
Easily the worst anime from spring 18 season by far and I strongly recommend you to avoid this edge feast as possible.
Final Score 1.5/10
Sakurai_Aoi
[Free of Major or Specific Spoilers] In my opinion, Mahou Shoujo Site is basically the King's Game of this season. It's an "edgy" anime with a low score. But this anime's been called edgy countless times and it's used as a reason to show why it's bad. I don't really agree with this. Ok, so, the story of Mahou Shoujo Site revolves around Aya and her miserable life and a website that can turn people into magical girls. It had the potential for some good psychological depth...but that potential was kinda wasted. I feel bad for a lot characters, especially Aya, but I wish more depth could'vegone into them. And in the last episode, there's a scene that's confusing. Aya was unable to perform a certain action before but then she suddenly can. Yes, I get that it sucks when an anime's potential is wasted. Yes, it sucks that some things are inconsistent. But a show can still be enjoyable despite that. Mahou Shoujo Site is interesting and keeps us watching to see how it'll end. Not everything was wrapped up...and it could've ended better...but it was still enjoyable to watch because of the tension-heavy scenes, fights, and the want to know more about the Tempest and everything else.
As for the characters...I believe Tsuyuno was a relatively good one. I found myself liking her and she at least changed. She went from living for the sake of revenge to living for someone else. Aya and Tsuyuno basically lived for each other and I like how the anime showed this. Our main character went from a shy doormat to a person who speaks more freely and is determined to keep her friends safe. Rina and Sarina both changed as well as so there's that. I honestly thought Sarina would remain a bully with a dumb sense of logic but she didn't. I'm glad. Rina went from freaking psycho to just a little crazy (yet caring) in a way. Nijimin was likable to some extent but I think her backstory could've been timed better. The others weren't there for long so they didn't get much development which sucks because I actually liked Sayuki and Kiyoharu a bit.
The art was nice, especially the parts when the magical girls used their powers. The animation itself wasn't too bad either. It was good enough to not distract me from watching it and instantly make me think "Oh wait, it just looked really weird right there".
The sound was good too. Not a single moment felt weird because of any out of place music. Each one is timed well. It definitely added to the sadder parts of the show. The opening was good and really fits the magical girl genre in my opinion. The ending song didn't sound bad but I have to admit that the visuals were weird (and not because it was a live action).
Story: 8
Art: 9
Sound: 10
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 10
Overall, Mahou Shoujo Site did some things wrong...but it also did some things good. Because of this, the show was enjoyable despite the flaws it had. Overall, I give it a 9.
Stark700
Just about anyone could have made Mahou Shoujo Site. I say this with an open mind because it really comes down to a bunch of grimy ideas mixed together at once. Before I get to the who, what, how, where, and why, you really need to be aware of what’s ahead. As someone who have read the manga, I say with regret that Mahou Shoujo Site (Magical Girl Site) ended up being one of the worst shows of Spring 2018. It’s actually a bit demoralizing considering that there aren't many big magical girl hitters this year and it already set the bar very low. Forgetthe happy moments you’ll find in some magical girl series, there’s little to none in Mahou Shoujo Site. What you will find is a misfortunate girl named Aya Asagiri who has been bullied throughout her life. The thought of suicide often come across her mind and it doesn’t help that she has a dysfunctional family. Her life does change in the most peculiar way possible after acquiring a magical power from a mysterious website. Thus, Aya’s life as a magical girl begins.
Alright, I’ll be honest here. Watching Mahou Shoujo Site at first felt like a guilty pleasure. I’m a sucker for dark, grimy series that tries to deconstruct the magical girl theme. At first glance, the show seems to explore the worst traits of humanity. The pilot episode features merciless bullying, family abuse, and even an animal killed off-screen. If we take a closer glance at Aya’s life, you can see that positivity is nonexistent. The first episode also establishes that Aya feels helpless because of her fragile personality and living conditions. It’s almost if the world is fighting against her and there’s always that thought of ending suffering by suicide. Indeed, this series deals with some sensitive issues that can be relatable in the real world so be aware of that. There’s no easier way to say it but bullies can cause emotional distress so distasteful that certain individuals just wants to end it all. However in Aya’s case, it’s just the beginning. After becoming a magical girl, she uses her powers to take revenge against Sarina Shizukume, the leader of a trio of bullies that has been tormenting her life. So what does this really mean for the show’s purpose? It basically means that humans have way too many flaws. Revenge is a common theme in dark magical girl shows so this isn’t something new. However, Mahou Shoujo Site’s execution of this formula fell flat because it feels unbelievable. A kind girl like Aya actually comitting a sin? That’s about as edgy as it can get. In fact, Mahou Shoujo Site loves to capitalize on every moment in attempt to make them unique. What ends up happening is the same formulatic execution over and over. Characters committing sin and trying to get even with someone is almost a norm in this anime. If that’s not your cup of tea, then this will be a very grueling experience.
If you haven’t figured out the show is depressing to watch by this point, then maybe this could end up being a different experience for you. For me, this didn’t change especially after meeting the other characters. It seems that every magical girl in the show suffers from some sort of tragic past. The real question though is if we should feel sorry for them? Honestly, there’s two side of the coin to this. On one side, it’s easy to pity them because the magical girls chosen by the Magical Girl Site suffered so much in their lives. However, most of these magical girls show their personal flaws as they would do anything to escape their personal hell. This includes using their powers to torture, manipulate, or even kill. Characters such as Tsuyuno, Rina, and Nijimi have proven that they would do anything to achieve their goals. In essence, hardly any character in the series ends up being likable because of their flaws. The worst of all is Aya’s demented brother, Kaname. He abuses his own sister in any way possible for the pure joy of being in control. Throughout the series, Kaname shows a disturbing God-like complex that seems to be his own personal way of relieving stress in the family. It brings out the worst of this series whenever he appears on screen. Hiding behind his fake mask is a demon that is anything but acceptable in society. At some point of the show, I stopped taking him seriously because how fake the character is presented. He became more of a meme that exposes the worst of humanity. In fact, this anime presents men in disgraceful ways. Kaname’s father and the bully that nearly rapes Aya in the beginning of the series are two other examples. I’m not sure if that was the show’s intention in the first place but still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
With 12 episodes, are there any reasons to watch this anime? Well to be fair, the anime is actually faithful to the series’ central themes despite omitting certain plot points and characters. Also, the administrators of the Magical Girl Site may pique the curiosity of the viewers. It may cause viewers to wander what their true intentions and how it ties to the overall story. Aya also does mature more as a character as she becomes more confident through her friendship with others, in particular Yatsumura. There’s even some minor shoujo-ai elements although don’t expect anything too serious. Sadly, none of these really saves this abomination.
I’ll give some credit to Production doA for making the bold attempt to animate this series. It isn’t easy with how grim and dark is. The magical girls are designed with noticeable characteristics especially with their exotic-looking eyes and feminine features. Furthermore, every magical stick the characters uses are distinctive despite how ridiculous some of them are. However as a series with magical elements, it fell short in making a favorable impression of battle choreography. The camera angles is all over the place on some fighting scenes. The only noticeable part is how characters react which is extremely predictable. To no one’s surprise, the anime also contains fan service such as with a beach episode. However, most of it is overshadowed by the cruelty of character behaviors. I honestly felt uncomfortable watching some of the early episodes. You’ll probably get used to it once you make it through half the series. The character voices tries to carry some episodes but usually feels forced and unrealistic. Kaname is a good example that becomes a recurring joke of a bad villain. The only character that seems believable is Aya because of her fragile voice. The theme songs contains fast tempo with dark eerie lyrics and dark metal tunes. It works for the series but doesn’t really make a favorable impression in the end. That ED theme song with the live action dancing is a thing of beauty though.
I tried. I really tried to enjoy Mahou Shoujo Site but it just ended up being a trashy horror bomb. It tried way too hard to make itself looking cool by using ideas of graphic abuse and sexual assault. What ends up happening is a series with one dimensional characters and unnerving story. There are good magical girl shows out there but Mahou Shoujo Site is nowhere near that category. Stay away from this series and burn it with fire.
Bajar
Mahou Shoujo Site is absurd but its also an argument against absurdity. If that sounds like I made a contradiction that's because it was intentional. The absurdity within the show is also intentional. The show uses contradictions as a tool to highlight absurdity. It uses contradictory imagery and the main character also acts in seemingly contradictory ways. Although the show contains absurdity it also rallies against absurdity by having its characters fight for meaning in a meaningless and cruel world. Despite being absurd, Mahou Shoujo Site has strong morals and a positive message. Mahou Shoujo Site uses contradictory imagery masterfully to juxtapose negative and edgy conceptswith positive and hopeful ideals. Take the main character for example, she is shown in the opening theme song aiming a gun at her head and then disappearing into thin air after pulling the trigger. This imagery suggests suicide, however upon further inspection we find that the gun is shaped like a heart and instead of causing death it causes the person getting shot at to teleport to a different location. The main character is capable of using this as a weapon but she instead chooses to use it as a tool to assist her comrades. Another character cuts her own wrists with a box cutter knife, however she uses the blood from her cuts to heal her friends. This turns the symbolism of wrist cutting from selfish and masturbatory to selfless and sacrificial. Using imagery that turn suicide and self-harm into positive things is a tremendously absurd contradiction. Showing traditionally bad things in a positive way like this highlights the goodness of the characters despite their cruel and unusual circumstances.
The imagery is great but the characters also act in seemingly contradictory ways. All of the magical girl characters are shown or implied to have been gifted their powers due to intense suffering they have faced. The logical course of action for most of these girls then, is to carry out acts of revenge. This is most clearly seen in the main character's best friend, Tsuyuno. Tsuyuno doesn't understand why our main character, Aya, refuses to carry out similar acts of revenge. Aya's refusal is the core contradiction of her character and is what leads to her success as a magical girl. Aya not only refuses to carry out revenge but she actually forgives and co-operates with her former bullies. Willingness to co-operate, even with those who wronged you or who have the ability to betray you, takes a lot of trust. Aya's trust may seem naive however it is continuously positively reinforced by the events that happen in the show thus cementing Aya's trusting and co-operative actions as a positive message.
Aya's actions also teach a positive message relating to free will. The villains want Aya to accept her fate as an unfortunate soul and use that negative viewpoint to spread more negativity. The bullying that lead to Aya being gifted her powers was senseless and cruel. She would be completely justified in reciprocating these actions. However, Aya believes that doing so will be an acceptance of her unfortunate fate. Aya rejects this fate and uses her own free will to shape her destiny. She does this by setting her own moral rules such as not killing or taking revenge.
While Aya is rejecting her unfortunate fate, Tsuyuno is so dedicated to revenge that she struggles to find any meaning in life beyond her own personal acts of vengeance. Tsuyuno is still shown to be a good person despite her negative outlook. Tsuyuno acts cold, calculating and pragmatic which is a foil to Aya's more naive and idealistic outlook. However, Tsuyuno has a strong moral framework and her hatred of bullying is what lead her to save Aya in the first place. Tsuyuno's conflict is compelling because she is a good person who is simply morally confused about how to find meaning in her life beyond her senseless and cruel suffering.
If the other characters are struggling with how to cope with their senseless and cruel suffering, then Aya's brother, Kaname, is the personification of that senselessness and cruelty. Kaname faces pressure from his father and from society to succeed academically. Instead of taking on the burden of this pressure himself, he vents his frustrations by abusing Aya. After Aya gains her magical abilities, Kaname loses the outlet for his angst. Kaname uses manipulation to gain power and control that he lacks in his own life by tricking one of the magical girls into giving him her power to command people. He uses his new power in insanely cruel ways. It's honestly quite difficult to understand Kaname's motivation as a character because he is just so absurd. Kaname's presence is a reminder that no matter what outlook you have on life that senselessness and cruelty will always still exist and that they need to be stamped out wherever they may be.
Using absurd imagery and storytelling to teach an overall positive message is a good thing. However at times the absurdity of this show can go too far. Some of the character's backstories are just so unbelievably absurd that they can border on becoming comedic. I could argue that being so absurd is actually an accomplishment but having a character's suffering be so ridiculous that it causes me to roll my eyes or laugh just does not give me a positive reinforcement as a viewer. The show also has some fetishistic imagery which limits its accessibility to more casual fans (assuming the edgy imagery didn't already do that). Some of the magical girls have man-slaves and Kaname is shown wearing women's underwear in one particularly absurd scene.
Overall, Mahou Shoujo Site has a very clear and simple message: be a good person and fight against evil. It also teaches to not let your suffering control your life and to use your free will to do good. These aren't unusual messages for a magical girl anime to have but the absurd way of delivering these messages is what sets Mahou Shoujo Site apart. Although Mahou Shoujo Site pushed the envelope as far as possible for the cruelty in the character's suffering and absurdity of some of the story events, they never diverted from the strong positive message at the foundation of the show. I really appreciate the decision to stick to a positive message because with such an absurd premise and events they could have easily went for a more nihilistic route in which case the show would just be edgy for the sake of edge.
In conclusion, contradictory imagery and seemingly contradictory character actions show that people can be good even in an absurd world, Tsuyuno's struggle to find meaning in life beyond avenging her own suffering is a great moral conflict, and Kaname's unbelievable cruelty is a reminder that evil will always persist and is worth fighting against. All of these aspects highlight a strong moral message however the show is also quite absurd. Lots of edgy and fetishistic imagery is used throughout the series and can be very off-putting for a lot of people. If you are put off by such images you should not watch this series. For everyone else, Mahou Shoujo Site presents an interesting and fun absurd story that has a strong, magical girl-based moral backing.
Wuprrr
When I was but a wee lad, I was cursed with the misfortune of being the ill-begotten carrier of illness. That is to say, I found myself falling sick quite frequently due to my underdeveloped immune system. I distinctly remember one of those days where I was forced to trap myself in the bathroom for hours on end obeying the tyrannical dictate of my unruly stomach. I suffered an attack of explosive diarrhea. Multiple attacks, actually. It was more of a skirmish to be fair. When I thought that I had finally overcome myself and reigned sovereign over my body once again, the unfortunate realitywas that the worst had yet to come. I felt a sickening fullness coursing my torso. I hurried to the sink. Before, clean and spotless; now covered in the half-digested contents of a hearty, delicious breakfast. Vomiting relentlessly, I began to instinctively apply internal pressure to my system to force the rest to come out. And, well....let's say it did certainly come out, from the other end.
As harrowing as this tale is, none of what I described is sufficient material to complete this comparison. Mahou Shoujo Site is one of the most vile, repulsive, putrid, horrendous, disgusting, stomach-queasingly, jaw-droppingly awful pieces of garbage I've ever had the displeasure of laying my eyes upon.
To start, none of these characters are remotely likable. The writing is insufferable. The plot is deranged. The only reason you would want to watch this show is to see people suffer, and hey if that's exactly what you're looking for in your media then more power to you, but there's nothing of substance to even evaluate from this show beyond that. Nevertheless, since I went through the self-inflicted tragedy of watching this show beyond the first episode, I will continue trying to understand and put to words the atrocities that I've witnessed.
Our hero is a complete outcast, at school and at home. Well, "home" doesn't really work as a concept here. There is no place for her to call home. Everywhere she goes she is subject to constant dehumanization. She is made to feel inferior by all. Bullied at school, abused at the house she lives in. So, to further elaborate on what I said earlier and maybe rectify it a little, Aya is not just a complete outcast to her peers and family but is someone who's treated as if they aren't even human. Actually, not even animals are treated this cruelly. She's no different from a toy, less than a living being. Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with this setup. I mean, a lot of people genuinely do live through these types of experiences. I was curious to find out how the show would take this and transform it into something bigger. Perhaps it'd be as a platform to express an empowering message of hope against all odds. Or, I could see it becoming a more of a revenge plot focused on bringing justice to those whose purpose serves only to spread suffering, but I'd be disappointed if this were the case as revenge plots tend to be repetitive, disjointed, uninteresting, and generally just suffer from a severe dearth in quality writing. How about instead of following those traditional paths, we pave something genre-defining that moves the hearts of many in a way never-before-seen, something that defies expectations, crafts characters with real human motives and personalities, and/or ignites a fervor of discussion merely around the splendid presentation of its themes?
Well, as you've already surmised, had this show done any of that I would likely consider it worthy of recommending to a few. However, this show has no powerful message or meaning that extends beyond itself. This show has no "satisfying" revenge plot. There are no endearing personalities. And, really, what themes did this show try to present beyond "look at these characters suffering! depression, anxiety, torture, you relate to that, right?". WHY DOES THIS SHOW HAVE A BEACH EPISODE?? What is it even trying to say at this point? I left to go on a desperate search for a reason to all the chaos and died from dehydration while looking for the slightest clue.
Anyways, I've said a lot and I've said nothing at the same time. I hope you enjoyed reading this! More than I enjoyed watching this show at least...
StopShot
(No specific spoilers are mentioned in this review, however the overall direction of the anime will be mentioned through vague descriptions and thematic comparisons to Madoka Magica which I presume everyone here has at least watched since this is yet another grim-dark magical girl anime.) You may have stumbled upon this review wanting to check if anyone would have given the likes of Mahou Shoujo Site a perfect score of 10 and whether a review like this was written on the premise of satire. This will be my first review, so satire is completely unintended. The grim-dark magical girl genre is nothing new, but for as copy-pasteas most people normally give it Mahou Shoujo Site is the much needed exception that would be highly praised if it were any other anime.
I can sum up this genre easily, the main character is a cute morally-good girl who becomes a magical girl, becoming a magical girl comes at a sinister price, beloved characters die pitiful deaths, the once happy-go-lucky world turns into death and despair, cue nitty-gritty to the teeth style climax that resolves in borderline happy/unhappy resolution. This is the culture-shock style formula that propelled the likes of Madoka Magica to be a major hit along with the typical wave of criticism of proposed copy-cat titles that try to ride the same "hype train." This isn't the case here, because Mahou Shoujo Site itself makes its own spin-off of the spin-off genre by playing around the formula and putting its own stake in the medium.
Before watching Mahou Shoujo Site my prior experience with Dark Magical Girl anime consisted of Madoka Magica, Magical Girl Raising Project, and Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero, and while I can admit each one has it's strengths the genre itself isn't something I could ever call myself a fan of, rather I'd prefer my magical girls to be on the bright and happy side of the spectrum. If you're like me you may find this anime much more pleasant than the first few episodes may have you believe from the start. For myself I started Mahou Shoujo Site thinking I was about to be put on another distressful roller-coaster ride only for it to end with me feeling like I had fallen in love, because despite how edgy, obnoxious, and cliché this anime wants to appear on the outside the inside carried a lot of the same passion and love I'd find elsewhere.
I can understand why most other people would review this anime negatively, but I can't really agree with them either. To me saying the edginess of this anime is what ruins it would be the equivalent of saying the fact Madoka Magica has cute magical girls in it is what ruins it. Yes, both factors are equally prevalent in both anime, but those aspects aren't the key features of either anime, rather their only purpose is to specifically lure the audience into a false sense of the true nature of that anime's setting, plot, and characters. It's just in Mahou Shoujo Site's case instead of using cute magical girl designs along with a cute anime style as way to deceive the audience in believing the anime is cute and happy before turning dark and morbid it does the opposite by first painting a world that's so morally dark and volatile that the viewer can't help but doubt any kind of positive outcome to come out of any conflict or personal motive of the anime's characters. That's not to say Mahou Shoujo Site is a bunch of fluffy bunnies and rainbows under the surface, but it puts a lot more care and faith into it's characters and conflicts much more than you'd find in any other dark magical girl anime that carelessly kills off and tosses away its characters as if they were last week's garbage for shock value. That's the point most viewers have failed to noticed here, that the edginess is a deliberate factor meant to hijack their expectations from the reality of the anime's actual content.
Despite comparing Mahou Shoujo Site to Madoka Magica I wouldn't say it should rival it in greatness as it's own classic, rather I used it as a reference like all other reviews that try to compare it to any other dark magical girl anime. That said my review score reflects my personal enjoyment of this anime and I'd recommend it to anyone who is able to stomach gore and blood and can keep an open enough mind to look past the edgy exterior as a design choice rather than a reflection of it's core. If you're looking for something similar to a small bright candle that refuses to be snuffed out in a big dark and damp cave, something that can be happy or positive despite the odds and circumstances trying to suffocate it, something that's 𝐧𝐨𝐭 meant to be taken as a serious train-wreck that tears at your heart-strings screaming tragedy over your dead waifu then this might be the anime for you if and only if you can keep an open enough mind for the first few episodes that paint a picture of anything but.
Lastly Aya Asagari and Tsuyuno Yatsumura will forever be one of my favorite character pairings of all time.
KHC_Murdz
You say edgy, I say real and relatable. As someone who's touched unimaginable depths of suffering in life, I found Mahou Shoujo Site thoroughly relatable and moving. It was truly a treat for me and I'd imagine it'd be a treat for anyone like me too. Those that say MSS is edgy for the sake of being edgy have got this anime all wrong. Sometimes truly horrible things happen to at the hands of people who aren't so great and that's just reality for some us. And if you're one of those people I 100% recommend this anime to you.
pluvia33
Magical Girl Site is what you get when you take Madoka Magica and mix it with Higurashi, but then remove all of the interesting story elements. It is a grim-dark, edge-lord misery porn revenge fantasy with no real substance to back it up. Oh, also while we’re making this comparison, get rid of any interesting character development from Madoka and any well executed moments of levity from Higurashi. Because you know, it doesn’t really matter if you actually care about any of the characters that are having horrible stuff happen to them and you totally don’t need any nice moments to break up the misery,right?
So this series is bad. Really bad. While I’m not going to go into any particular details, people should know what they might be getting into. This series tries so hard to be as dark and messed up as possible that it contains severe and extremely violent bullying at school, heavy physical abuse at home, the murder of a pet, and an attempted rape that comes very close to actually happening. And this is all in the first episode, all to the same girl. Sorry to be a bad, lazy reviewer and continuing to compare this to other anime, but it’s basically like taking all of the bad things that happened to three of the main girls in Elfen Lied (Lucy, Nana, and Mayu). Make all of that stuff happen to one person and instead of spreading it out over multiple episodes, cram it all into one episode; the FIRST episode!
You may be thinking, “Well, that almost sounds so horrible that it could be amusing!” You know, the whole “so bad it’s good” thing. That was honestly what I was hoping for after the first episode. However, then the second episode came and it was just kind of.... boring. The ridiculous levels of stupid overly-edgy crap dropped off quick. Episode 2 brings in hints of the actual overarching “plot” of the series and it’s very underwhelming. Those behind the mysterious website that gives the girls their magical powers are coming and you better be ready! The “plot” gets more convoluted as the series goes on to an almost laughable degree. And while all of this “stuff” happens, we just continue to have no reason to care at all about the characters.
If you’re not already convinced that you shouldn’t waste your time on this series, here are my category breakouts:
-----Story - 1 out of 10-----
Again, one of the worst things about this series is its total lack of any interesting story. The plot that develops is so meandering and nonsensical that it’s nearly impossible to ever legitimately enjoy any of it. The twists are uninspired and (again) make no real sense whatsoever with no foreshadowing to support the reveals. The pacing is all over the place with spans of episodes having no real development and then just full-on info dumps in other episodes. It’s all around bad.
-----Art - 3 out of 10-----
While not completely abysmal, the art isn’t good either. This anime could have been shown to people 10 years ago and they still wouldn’t have been impressed. I guess you could laugh at the stupid facial expressions and the total edge-lord imagery; like, “OMG! The main magical girl bleeds from her eyes when she uses her powers!” But in the end, it’s just flat and uninspiring. Some could say that the stupid facial expressions and the general art/animation quality in the first season Higuarshi was worse than this. However, Higurashi is over 10 years old at this point. The art and animation also had very good direction despite its shortcomings and had life to it. Higurashi also wasn’t just empty shock visuals in most cases because the characters actually had the ability to get people invested.
-----Sound - 3 out of 10-----
I suppose this is as good a place as any to mention the opening and ending sequences this anime. God, they are some of the worst credit sequences I’ve ever seen in all of anime. The opening is mostly just an over-filtered mess of crap. The ending, however, really takes the cake. It has a bizarre sperm-going-to-egg thing which I guess is meant to be artsy (and the motif does show up in the series proper), but it totally doesn’t work. Then it has the absolute worst integration of live-action sequences in anime ever, period. So bad. And then there is a special one-time ending sequence based on the idol magical girl character which is one of the cringiest things I’ve ever seen, as a live action version of the character performed a bad idol song. The opening and endings aside, the sound is mostly just passable, like the art. While the score isn’t good, it’s also not distractingly bad. The voice acting is also mostly passable although it is legitimately bad at times.
-----Characters - 2 out of 10-----
Now, I could really overlook a bad story and poor production. But characters, I just cannot get into a show without connecting with or being interested in its characters. Magical Girl Site has complete crap for characters. They’re flat, seem to have no real point in life, and have no way of pulling sympathy from the audience. They’re just there as a vehicle for having bad stuff happen to them. As mentioned before, they do nothing to try to actually develop these characters so that you actually care about them or what happens. Maybe they’re banking on people automatically feeling bad for the characters because what happens to them legitimately sucks? It all just comes off as extremely lazy.
-----Enjoyment - 2 out of 10-----
I was really hoping for something that would at least be crazy, stupid fun. But in the end, this just ended up being stupid. The first episode had some stuff that made me laugh more than I ever should at this kind of content. Then from there it gets so bogged down by its bad story and worse characters that I couldn’t even enjoy it ironically. I just ended up being bored and rolling my eyes or raising an eyebrow at every twist. From about the midpoint onward, I did get a few more big inappropriate laughs: a very dumb, edgy phrase said when a magical girl with a box cutter magic item explained its power; a situation with a guy wearing panties; and one of the final scenes in the series involving two guys…. Really though, if it wasn’t for my morbid curiosity and the fact that I was watching this week-to-week as part of the 2018 Anime Watching Challenge, I would have dropped this by the third episode.
-----Overall - 2 out of 10 (Conclusion)-----
I would say that this is the worst “proper” anime that I’ve ever finished (the only “anime” I’ve ever given a 1-score to is Forest Fairy Five, but I refuse to call that a “proper” anime). I’ve probably watched plenty of stuff that many would consider to be objectively worse than this, but most of those things are so short that the quick burst of weird badness is far more interesting to me and easier to swallow than this load of crap. This is just a contrived mess with no real point to it. All that saved this show from getting a 1 from me were those moments of unintentional comedy and WTF moments that were so out of left field that I couldn’t do anything but find them to be interesting. But this is just my opinion.
Do I think some people can enjoy this? Maybe. What kind of people would enjoy Magical Girl Site? Honestly, that’s a hard question for me to answer without potentially offending fans of this series. This could be a good thing to watch if you really want to explore how to not develop a story, its world, or the characters within it. Or if you are just so absolutely sick of cute school girls that you want to “destroy something beautiful” then maybe this can be a breath of fresh air. And some people may actually connect with these characters somehow and just automatically feel bad for them because the viewer went through similar situations. But for anyone else? You really don’t need to waste your time. If you want to see some stupid over the top edge-lord crap just to laugh at, watch the first episode then drop this crap. For anyone else or if you have completionist syndrome and wouldn’t be able to drop it, do yourself a favor and just don’t. Stay far, far away.
Mirai_Hunter
This anime was good enough for me. It was a heck load of edge and I was invested in seeing what Aya Asagiri will do next with the lurks that are out to get her,I was a bit annoyed that we didn't get to see what happened when the tempest arrived as I think it could have been pulled off very well, I was screeching when her brother got tortured and was keen to see what was going to happen next in the manga. The voice acting was on point, fight scenes were great and I thought the characters were decent.
G10RDAN0
The anime is self aware of its sick universe, and that's why Mahou Shoujo Site is full of contrasts. Even in a world full of hatred , perversity and chaos , we still get some moments of comedy (these moments are so weird that you dont know if you should laugh or feel uncomfortable), friendship, happiness and , most of all , true love. And thats why I like the main protagonist Aya Asagiri : she loves everything inconditionally , she is just a good girl who is tired of being pushed around , searching for a place to fit in ... whatcould be more relatable ?
The other characters are good too. in some of them, it is possible to perceive the influence of their tragic past in traces of their personalities. Yatsumura, for example, has a good trajectory and the development of her personality is very cool and captivating.
Overall , I like the atmosphere of it , with a dark mood and some happy and heart-warming moments.
One of the best Mahou Shoujo animes (in my opinion).
Waiting for the second season !!!
The_Walker
The "Horror" genre of anime comes with an extremely bizarre and inexplicable phenomena, in where people who absolutely hate this genre will watch it anyways expecting it to be something else and then lambast it for in fact being exactly what the show originally claimed to be. This is then followed by multiple Dunning-Kruger inspired reviews that vary in intellectual quality but are all easily spotted by their superfluous use of the word "edgy". Why horror is the only genre "haunted" ( dohohohoho I make joke ) by this oddity is anyones' guess. But anyways, on to the anime in question itself:Mahou Shoujo Site. Some people will immediately compare this show to Madoka in the trendy line of "Dark" magical girl series. However, this is somewhat of a mistake. Madoka was a Thriller that intended to rewrite the rules of what a mahou shoujo could be. Mahou Shoujo Site is a Horror that never really cared about those rules to begin with. Aside from including magical girls and having a plot that isn't about spreading love n' peace, the two shows have little in common. In some ways MHS can't even be considered a magical girl anime, or at the very least has a very different take on what makes someone "magical". The magical sticks the girls are given function more like weapons in that technically anyone can use them. This makes for a unique plot device in that the sticks are often stolen, sometimes by people who aren't even "magical girls" and used for various effects. The girls themselves do not gain any magical power that is unique to them as an individual. This further drives the point that MHS should not be directly compared to other mahou shoujo series.
What we are seeing here is more or less a blood and shock show that just happens to include the premise of magical girls rather than the other way around. In truth it makes far more sense to compare this show to things like "Another" or even Danganronpa, as those would give you a much better idea for the atmosphere and tone that MHS is going for.
Mahou Shoujo Site is indeed very dark. Almost comically so, with an unusually high number of characters being completely insane for no apparent reason with the only real exception being the main character. This drives home the first point that needs to be understood to enjoy this anime: you can't take it too seriously, because it isn't trying to be serious. What the show is trying to accomplish is more or less placing an innocent character in a hopeless situation and then exploring the more twisted underbelly of human psyche from there. Characters in this show die. Characters have their bodies torn up with their blood and guts strewed all over the place. This show includes almost every possible bad thing you can imagine happening to the MC, but what makes it watchable is that very little of it is particularly unrealistic in the sense that "this never happens to anyone ever".
Overall, the quality of Mahou Shoujo Site is there. The plot has decent flow albeit some logical flaws, the animation is good, and the voice acting is actually some of the best of the season. However this only holds value as long as you don't hate this type of anime. If you do not care for some edgelording, then do yourself a very big favor and do not watch this show. If you either enjoy this genre or are indifferent to it, then you will likely find that it is quite underrated and overly criticized for being exactly what it was trying to be. The biggest downside to the show has more to do with the length than anything, in that it is a single cour show of an ongoing manga and thus doesn't really conclude on a closing note.
7.5/10
Wotakunai
Why you should watch Mahou Shoujo Site? The story is Outstanding (10). I was was never a fan of the Magical Girl genre since I was young, although I've watched a good amount of Card Captor Sakura and Sailor moon since I don't have a choice back in the Television era. But there is something with Magical Girls and a dark and morbid story that really tingles my weird taste in anime. Mahou Shoujo Site is another anime that I did not expect much to blow me away in the Spring Anime 2018 lineup together with Hinamatsuri. I just thought that this is a mixture oftotally contrasting genres and since I love opposing genre mashups I would give this a try. And after watching the very first episode, it swept me away like a tempest at the end of days! I could not get enough of it that I have started reading its manga and the other work of Kentarou Satou Mahou Shoujo of the End (You should read this). This meant a lot for me since I am the type of person that is really picky when it comes to story and Mahou Shoujo Site did not disappoint... well I've never really set a huge expectation to it, to begin with.
The anime does not adapt the manga on a 1:1 ratio. It omits some parts and rearranges the story to fit the 12 episodes seasonal format. Surprisingly, I did not feel that it was badly adapted; moreover, I felt that the anime developed an identity of itself that it can stand toe to toe with its manga counterpart. I am glad that it did not have the adaptation disease that Tokyo Ghoul had.
Outstanding Story of bullied, abused, mistreated unfortunate girls who receive special items to help redeem their lost life and happiness.
Art is Great (9). The art felt magically eerie and I absolutely love it! The way that it mashes cutesie magical girly stuff with grunge darkness surprisingly works well. And I should not forget to mention how they combine live-action, 3D CG, traditional hand-drawn animation at the ending of the episode that makes me cringe for a bit then appreciate it after watching it. It is well represented in this aspect.
Sound is Outstanding (10). "Changing point" by i☆Ris is one of the best opening songs for the Spring Anime 2018 lineup. It perfectly hypes me up to watch the episode and goes well with the dark theme of the story.
"Zenzen Tomodachi" by Haruka Yamazaki tremendously adds to the eerie cringe of the ending animation. I couldn't even skip the ending song even if I want to. It is what I can describe as a satisfying cringe.
"...Watashi dake Mitete♡ (...私だけ見てて♡)" by Nijimi Anazawa (Yuu Serizawa) the ending song for the 3rd episode is another surprise for me. It is not as a cringe-fest as the main ending theme but it felt out of place at the beginning after it was over it felt "Yeah it was a perfect ending theme for this episode"
The overall sound and song choices for Mahou Shoujo site scarily fit the theme of the story well.
Characters are Great (8). As for the characters in the story, the main protagonist of Aya and Yatsumura-san is one of the best yuri team-ups that I have ever seen and I was not even aware of it at the beginning. Both of their backstories fleshes out their characters more which in turn makes them endearing and easy to relate to characters.
I also want to give a special mention to Sarina's character in the story. I strongly believed that she is just a one-off character that would eventually die at some point earlier in the story, but I got surprised by how she developed into one of my favorite characters in the whole Mahou Shoujo Site story.
The supporting characters are good, but not great enough to hold their ground. They are more developed in the manga compared to the anime.
Overall, this anime is not for everyone's liking and I know that. But if you are into the eerie, bizarre, and good cringes, I would definitely recommend this anime to you in a heartbeat! One of the best Spring Animes of 2018.
I would give Mahou Shoujo Site 9 magical sticks out of 10.
GrimmTales
This show was a challenge to watch because it brings little to nothing to the table and what it can manage is hyperbolic and pandering to specific fetish types and exhausted tropes. The show cannot figure what it wants to say with constant tone shifts, a illogical and lackluster story driven by very cliché characters. Numerous scenes with numerous characters i skipped through them because by that point in the show i knew they had nothing to say that mattered or the character had the personality of a bowl of glass shard cereal. They act abruptly and without any real backstory to explain why. They story had potentialthat was ultimately wasted , poorly written and even worse in execution, which honestly is what upset me most about the ending was just how little anything was answered or even given attention too. Full of unanswered questions the story instead opted to fill in plots of childish ecchi and bdsm shock porn.
Characters are stock with some social-political statements being the only reason we even meet them.
I did at times start to like some yet we never learned anything about them to build any attachment.
This show is clearly a cash grab built off tropes and shock value, its lazy and half assed.
horridd
Mahou Shoujo Site is one of the best pieces of art i have ever had the pleasure of watching, definitely recommend if you like dark & cute animes, the plot is amazing and all of the characters are wonderful, a beautiful anime. The story was very unique and unlike anything else I've watched, I don't think I will ever be able to find the pleasure I got out of watching Mahou Shoujo Site in any future anime. The art style is very fitting and cute, the character design was very well fitting for the themes and plots of the characters. I enjoyed how each character hada backstory even if they were a smaller character. Other than that you will simply just have to watch it, I don't have a single negative thing to say about it.
mrachna
It's a Puella Magi Madoka Magica wannabe parody that can't do anything right, the plot is all over the place, the villains are all badly stupidly written with nothing to go for, companions' background is not properly developed, and for some godawful reason, they had to add a beach episode Its worst sin, it deviates a lot from the manga's story but not for the better, were it a faithful but incomplete manga adaptation I would have been slightly generous with my rating, but only slightly If someone wants to know the anime/manga differences, here they are below: Chapters 01-17 - there are differences. Chapters 18-31 -major differences.
Chapters 32-42 - almost coincide with episodes 8-9.
Chapters 43-45 - there are differences with the first half of episode 10.
Chapters 46-55 - terminal difference in plot.
Chapters 56+ - not filmed.
Andreikun
Will contain very minor spoilers. I started this show with high hopes and watched it every week although I rarely watch an airing show (hate cliffhangers) and was one of the guys that liked episode 1. Thought that it was necessary to move the show forward. On all levels this has been a disappointment. Characters act in ways that are not believable, they try to kill each other one moment, the next they're best friends because of plot, plot which get forgotten in the end. Not anything psychological here. The art and hence the fights are boring. I have the feeling the art quality dropsfrom episode 6, in episode 8 or 9 the facial features are not there, the characters look like cardboard cutouts. The fights are boring and some not even animated or not there to be considered a fight. Apart from one in the early episodes (where the dialogue consists mainly of Japanese profanity courtesy of Haruka Yamazaki). The backgrounds are generic with no special art to them.
The plot is confusing, they set a goal, the goal is never expanded upon nor does it have a conclusion. The apocalypse theme doesn't have either, seems to be forgotten by the end of the show. Characters behave erratically sometimes violent, sometimes non violent, mostly to shock the viewer rather than drive the plot forward.
Sound is boring, nothing special during the boring fights either. Voice actresses are mostly newbies, also a good indication of the low budget for this one. As a side note, one of the administrators in episode 10 I think is voiced by Aoi Yuuki, a great performance and an interesting voice change from her part - I guess it's a promotional role to showcase the voice.
And if the show is disturbing for you, if the animal violence in episode one is disturbing for you then the implied male rape scene in the end credits is the cherry on the rotten cake MGS is.
Was really disappointing, was not really expecting Madoka here, or Yuuki Yuna, but at least I was expecting this to be on par with Ikusei Keikaku. Not the case here unfortunately.
Symphogear S1 had bad art, bad plot, but characters were okish in their beliefs and the way they acted. MGS I think is overrated at 6.6 on Mal, 5 something would be fitting. I choose a 4, there was nothing memorable for me here but I will forever remember the sperm ending credits scene. Why?
LessCringeName
**CONTAINS SPOILERS** An anime that stands out in his own way, with its own originality, with its own glorious moments, that's what you should call Mahou Shoujo. The anime is based on a magical site that gives super-powers to the girls that had unfortunate lives. This "site" is led by some "administrators" that are also unfortunate girls that died and "stored" a lot of negative energy into their stick.(the stick being their magical weapon) Story : 8 You don't always find anime with an original story like Mahou Shoujo's.Though the immense amount of gore existing in the first episode is ridiculous and may want you to to "drop" thisanime.The story was pretty original but it had it's own common scenes that you'll going to see pretty much everywhere.
Art/Sound : 10
The art is original and enjoyable to your heart's content (but a bit "horror-ish").The sound is made in a way that it can bring chills down your spine and can also make you feel like you're there with the characters.
Character : 10
Nothing to say,kawaii girls(ignoring asagiri) in a "apocalypse"
Enjoyment : 7
I'm not a big horror/gore fan so don't relate that much on this part of the review.
I didn't enjoy all the gore and the parts where she is beaten up,I only enjoyed the moments where they were happy(like the part where they are at the beach),even though those moments were rather rare than usual or common in this anime.
Overall : 9
I would've give a 8.5 if possible but that's not the case right now.
I recommend this anime if your not going to vomit half through an episode or rather cry thinking "Some people like her actually exist even in real life".
Go give this anime a try you won't regret it,or,you might regret it more than anything,even though 70% of the people that watched it DO NOT recommend watching it for your own sake.
