Prepare to die.
Puella Magi Suzune Magica is a Spin-Off Manga of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which began after the Japanese premiere of the Rebellion movie. The manga was made by the pseudonymous GAN.note Its initial release was somewhat unusual; the first four chapters were released in trade paperback/tankobon format before it began serialization with the fifth chapter on November 22, 2013. It ran in the magazine Manga Time Kirara Forward until it ended a year later on November 22, 2014.
THIS PAGE HAS UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR MADOKA MAGICA. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
To everyone else, Suzune Amano appears to be an ordinary middle-school student. Of course, she's not ordinary. At day, she lives in and works at a newspaper delivery office, going about work and school with a smile; and at night, she patrols the city as a magical girl hunting witches and... assassinating magical girls?
Rumors and news reports of a serial killer are brought to the attention of four magical girls: Arisa Narumi, Chisato Shion, Haruka Kanade, and Matsuri Hinata. Recognizing that the culprit could be a witch, they head out to patrol the city... and become Suzune's next target. Can they protect themselves from Suzune? Will they be able to handle the truth that drives her actions?
The series has been licensed by Yen Press. Volume 1 is slated for release in September 2015, volume 2 in December 2015, and volume 3 is currently pending.
Suzune, Arisa and Chisato have been featured as part of the 2017 smartphone game Magia Record.
Tropes in Puella Magi Suzune Magica include:
- Action Prologue: The story starts with Suzune and another magical girl fighting a witch.
- Art Evolution: The art gets much less stiff and the movement gets much more fluid as the series progresses. Just compare the fight scenes in volume 1 to those in volume 3, and you'll see a big difference. The art also gets a rougher look to it; volume 1's art is much cleaner compared to volume 2's and 3's. The fact that volume 2 and 3 underwent serialization beforehand whereas volume 1 didn't may have been a factor.
- Awful Truth: The standard "soul gems contain actual souls" and "magical girls become witches" reveals come into play here, mainly the truth of witches. Both Suzune and Arisa come to detest it, for different reasons; Chisato and Haruka never get a chance to, dying before they can properly learn; Matsuri is initially horrified but manages to accept it and look past it; and Kagari seems to just flat-out not care, though she's willing to use it for her own ends. The soul gem truth is given far less weight in comparison.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Mostly averted. The girls usually make rather selfish wishes and largely avoid the penalties of selfless wishes. The drama really comes from more what the girls do with their powers and status as magical girls rather than the wishes themselves: for example, Arisa comes to heavily regret becoming a magical girl after learning the awful truth, but doesn't think much of the actual wish she made. Haruka plays the trope straight, though, as her wish to erase her sister really comes back to bite her during the story; notably, though, it's a very selfish wish instead of a selfless one.
- Bittersweet Ending: Most of the main cast is dead, with the exception of Matsuri, who herself has lost all her close friends and family. Despite this, she continues to live on and survive despite all she's been through, which Kyubey himself notes is a big deal. The last we see of her is her tying the bell-and-pouch pendant into her hair before heading out to fight witches once again.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Has a lot more blood in it, compared to the anime; it's about the same level as some of the other spin-off manga.
- Call-Back: Suzune slashing Kagari's throat visually calls back to Suzune's killing of Kanami in the first chapter.
- Cassandra Truth: In chapter 3, Suzune informs Haruka that this will be the result if she tries to expose Suzune.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Briefly dips into it when Suzune kills Kanami, before going back to lighthearted territory until Suzune kills Chisato, where it fully settles into dark and dramatic. One can "tell" the different territories by the use of traditional anime expressions on the characters (sweatdrops, face lines, chibi-fied characters, etc.), which only really appear in volume 1, the "lightest" third of the story.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: Most of the characters seen or mentioned in the story die at some point; some don't even get seen without being dead already. By the story's ending, the only named characters alive are Matsuri and Mika. Even Kyubey doesn't escape death, with one of his bodies getting killed.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to the anime, Suzune Magica has quite a lot of blood, explicit themes of abuse and torment, hatred and revenge, and a few instances of explicit mental torture/Mind Rape. The main villain is also portrayed as incredibly sadistic and irredeemably evil, in contrast to Kyubey and some of the other spin-off villains, who fall more into the category of Anti-Hero or Anti-Villain and have morally ambiguous goals at best.
- The Dead Have Names: Suzune writes down the names of each of her victims, and stores them in her ponytail-packet. She copied this habit from Tsubaki, who wrote down the names of people she cared about after they died and carried them in her pendant so she'd never forget them and that they'd be together in spirit.
- Decoy Protagonist: Both Suzune and Arisa are set up as the two lead characters— with Suzune being the villain and Arisa the main hero — but by the end it becomes clear that it's really Matsuri who's the main hero and Kagari who is the main villain.
- Demoted to Extra
- Compared to his role in other spin-offs, Kyubey is a rather minor character in Suzune. All he really does is grant the wishes and exposit a little here and there.
- Arisa, come volume 3. The very first chapter of the volume involves her getting written out of the story.
- Dwindling Party: All the main characters slowly drop off one by one over the course of the story. Out of all the main characters, only Matsuri survives to the ending.
- Establishing Character Moment
- After rescuing a magical girl, Kanami, from a witch, Suzune politely introduces herself and asks for Kanami's name. After Kanami introduces herself, Suzune kills her with a surprise attack.
- The following scenes introduce and establish Arisa as the laid-back, lazy schoolgirl; Chisato as the orderly, by-the-book student who doesn't tolerate Arisa's laziness; Matsuri as the sweet, all-loving heroine; and Haruka as the prim and proper senior student.
- Kagari's first few actions post-volume 2 introduction are to knock Matsuri unconscious and then stab Arisa in the back, killing her in one shot, all to get them out of the way so she that can get to and deal with Suzune alone. She does all this without showing so much as a trace of remorse or any emotion other than her sadistic cheerfulness.
- Expy: Arisa, of Asuka: abrasive personality, hairstyle, being neglected in the past, etc..
- Fanservice: Subverted: the girls' magical outfits incorporate various fanservice elements (ex. lots of leg, Haruka's cleavage window, Arisa's emphasized chest) but none of it is explicitly focused on or played for fanservice.
- First-Name Basis: The magical girl team all refer to each other by their first names without any honorifics in the Japanese text.
- Leg Focus: Pretty much all of the magical girls' outfits emphasize their legs. Zettai Ryouiki emphasizing the upper thighs is also rather common.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: The magical girl team does this when hunting witches. Chisato gets killed by Suzune because of it.
- Living with the Villain
- Played straight with Suzune; she and the magical girl team go to the same school.
- Averted with Kagari, who doesn't appear to attend school. She did live with Matsuri prior to becoming a villain, however, but the interim isn't very clear.
- Manipulative Bastard: the whole gimmick with Kagari.
- Mind Rape
- Haruka, when a witch traps her and then forces her to relive her worst memories, when she made her incredibly selfish wish. The mental torture, on top of the emotional turmoil she'd been going through at the time, is enough to make her turn into a witch.
- Kagari mentally tortures Suzune to try and turn her into a witch as a part of her revenge.
- Motherly Side Plait: Tsubaki ("hairstyle of death" side of the trope in full effect).
- Out of Focus: Arisa in the third half of the story, following her death, to make room for Kagari and the new developments she brings with her. Made especially jarring by the fact that Arisa was one of the three main characters up until this point.
- Polar Opposite Twins: The Hinata twins. Matsuri has a green colour scheme and light-themed magic, which contrasts with Kagari's purple colour scheme and "dark"-themed magic (notably, green and purple are contrasting colours). Matsuri is kind, friendly, and forgiving, and wants everyone to get along and be friends; Kagari is vengeful, sadistic, and quick to anger in comparison. Matsuri used to be blind, whereas Kagari always had sight; but then Matsuri gained sight through her wish, whereas Kagari became blinded by her need for revenge. Matsuri also likes Suzune and wants to become/is friends with her, whereas Kagari hates her and wants to kill her.
- Scary Jack-in-the-Box: At one point, we see a Jack-in-the-box witch. It has eyes all over it’s body and a large serpentine body with more eyes comes out of it.
- The Reveal: Kagari turned Suzune into a magical girl assassin via memory altering.
- Theme Naming
- Both the Kanade sisters have names that can be read as "distant".
- Tsubaki and both Hinata twins are named after flowers — Tsubaki after the camellia (tsubaki), Matsuri after the jasmine (marika), and Kagari after the cyclamen (kagaribibana).
- Urban Legend: The "Ripper Girl" rumor, based off Suzune.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist
- Suzune's reason for killing magical girls is so that they won't become witches.
- Arisa, when she decides to kill Suzune in order to stop her killing.
