Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka

In all honesty though, I really had a bit of a special reservation of Abigail, goddamn is she that hatable and I'm considering her to be a Complete Monster if not for her loyalty to her boss... But eh, she's intended to be hated so...

@Lovecraftian @Lyendith Inb 4, Sachuu is the real villain of the show haha

Anyways, Episode 5:

Man, I still think that Abby needs to die in a painful death because of her sadism in the fight against Kurumi but in the meantime, Asuka manages to defeat the Russian magic user. But honestly, I feel bad for Nozomi due to her PTSD after being tortured by Abigail. But in the meantime, Kurumi saves her from trouble but getting her memory from 1-week prior getting erased as a result. It's better that way I think. And in the meantime, seems that The Queen shows up and then saved Abigail from trouble. I have a feeling that The Queen is someone Asuka know so yea...

At the moment, especially given the timing of the flashback, my money is on Francince.

Considering the timing of the flashback and Asuka saying she recognizes the Queen, I have no doubt it's Francine.

@Knight @Lovecraft Yeah... My two cents would definitely be on Francine which reminds me of an antagonist in Karakuri Circus haha

6. Ah, so Asuka is getting the harem protagonist treatment. Sure, why not. Also Mia dealing with some terrorist who I'm not sure if we're supposed to feel for. Hopefully not, because I felt nothing.

Colombians do not look like that! And they don't have shamans either!

Ahem.

This time on Asuka's Miserable Adventure...

Is Kurumi acting obsessive supposed to be funny or endearing? The show seems to be playing it as such sometimes, but it only makes me dislike her more... I do sort of ship Asuka and Sayako, though. They're cute together. (Oh, gods, that probably means she's the one who's gonna suffer next, isn't she...)

Yeah, getting a new character to enter the fray felt like the next logical step. Good job on whoever the voice actress was for actually sounding like a foreigner in Japan, instead of just going for broken engrish as always. At least until she reveals herself as an enemy and starts speaking proper japanese, and then turns into a plot device. Oh well. Oh, and number 3 of the Magical Five joins the story properly as well, and the reason for her joining thus far seems to be Just Cause. Heh. Oh, and we get another clue that the Queen is Francine. I wonder if the show thinks it's being coy or if this is intentional misdirection.

"That doesn't make it okay for you to be a terrorist" is my new favorite line in this show. All the nuance and careful writing of a jackhammer, I see. As with "Don't try for a deathbed redemption. You're just a terrorist, like the one who killed my mom and dad with a bomb", a line I don't like as much, but that shows how little planning went into this episode. That's your standard, edgy, gritty, recycled drama backstory right there, with all the depth of a puddle on a bathroom floor.

This week at least handles it's tone better, if nothing else, but the writing and the animation kinda suffer for it. The first half of the episode flies well as a breather from the last two episodes, but the second half is a really weak introduction segment.

I'll be honest, I'm getting kind of bored with the show right now. I'll give it another week or two, but out of my current watchlist, this is the weakest show I've got right now.

So did Nozomi not question why she's missing a week of her life?

Nobody seems to have. Sayako certainly didn't mention anything.

I wonder how that worked out for Nozomi. "Oh, man, that was a really long nap I took."

I forgot to post

Episode 6:

The current episode? Is about Asuka and co. go to festival together and time for Mia Cyrus to shine. Kurumi truly has a crush towards Asuka and not only that, the latter also met with a mysterious foreign woman who entertain Asuka at first. But at the end, she was revealed to be a Colombian Terrorist named Sandino who ended up getting killed by Mia because why not? And yeah @The Lovecraftian I think I will agree that the Queen is actually Francine due to several hints and speaking of Francine... Man the murder of one of the terrorist is fucking brutal and I have a feeling Abigail is behind this so yeah...

I honestly thought the Columbian Woman was just an American tourist at first.

I thought that too.

But then again, there are terrorist that can disguise their appearance and manage to blend in to the crowd so eh...

Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Feb 19th 2019 at 12:47:33 AM

It's worth noting that anything to do with the Colombian terrorist was anime original, which is why the writing felt so weak their. The festival also happens in the manga, but much later, Nozomi and Sayako also weren't introduced to the M Squad at this point in the manga.

There's a slight bit of Character Exaggeration here. Manga Kurumi does have yandere moments played for laughs, but not to the extent that anime plays it up to. She does still act like a Clingy Jealous Girl whenever Asuka gets chummy with Sayako, but that was mostly in an omake chapter.

Anyway; Armenian Nico and Russian MG finally make their debuts this week!

7. Somewhat interesting stuff was happening this episode, but the only noteworthy part was Asuka freezing up on the battlefield. Someone invest in therapy for her. Also, why does their magical girl squad have no budget? I don't know if this is a serious complaint, but the amount of standing around and talking going on when they should just concentrate on shooting more bugs me more than it usually does.

You know it's a good episode when it opens with two minutes and a half of badly-put together recaps.

The animation goes to great lengths to make that flashback at the start impossible to take seriously. Not that the dialogue doesn't have it's share of guilt. And then it cuts to a silly welcome party (where, I must remind you, a group of soldiers are welcoming a traumatized, PTSD-riddled girl back into the fray, something which she only did because her friend was kidnapped and tortured).

Oh, gods, I've started riffing on this show, haven't I? That's never a good sign.

I feel the need to point out that, when they're making the introductions, the guys are both condecorated veterans of the army, and the girls... are former athletes. Maybe it's just me being too harsh on the show, but that feels a bit lopsided right there.

Why is the russian Magical Girl meeting her superior with a shirt that's open all the way to her waist and only a tiny, midriff-baring tank top underneath? That seems like it's breaking uniform rules. And then she puts on a beanie like it's all business!

Ok, yeah, I'm about done. This episode is boring me, and quite frankly, the show is doing that as a whole. I quite enjoy the ideas the show put forth when it started, but the last few episodes have devolved into a lot of posturing and cliche talk, with the writing and the direction doing nothing to really impress. I'm not enjoying the show anymore, so I'll drop it here. Good luck to y'all. Hope the show gets a bit better towards the end.

Or that Sacchu dies. Either outcome is favorable.

Huh, they actually animated an omake chapter this episode (Asuka being welcomed and eating military food). Albeit, they cut out the bit about the snake and Sacchu subsequently discovering his new favorite dish. The fight with Armenian Nico was also dragged out a bit. In the manga it's an incredibly brief Curb-Stomp Battle, but the anime added Shima getting a Disney Death and triggering Asuka's PTSD, even making Kurumi struggle a bit with the fire balls. Speaking of Shima, she and Kaede (short haired girl in the M-squad) are totally fuckin'.

I don't like the voice they gave Gies. Makes it too obvious that he's Younger Than He Looks.

Also loves how the next episode preview spoils Kurumi being the torture specialist and interrogator. then again, given how the anime has already played up her yandere aspect, I guess it would've been an obvious either way.

Only one of the guys is an army veteran, the other guy just won a sniping competition. They could've evened things out by making Kaede also a military veteran, but it's "whatever" to me.

Shame you're dropping the show. The manga's more consistent if that's any consolation, but it still has the same sort of Garth Ennis-style of "edgy-yet-comedic" tone and jarring lack of Gorn.

Edited by Rynnec on Feb 23rd 2019 at 4:30:49 AM

Playing an advocate that the expansion was done by the mangaka himself since he’s overseeing the anime.

Much as I love the manga, I'm not liking the anime as much as I thought I would. It adapts the series too faithfully where it doesn't fit an anime and at the same time takes liberties at points that break the flow and tone, which is overall much more consistent in the manga. It's worth noting that the "Magical Girl Trivia" crap in the manga is narration boxes next to the girls doing awesome stuff, so it's not nearly as jarring and action-breaking there. The anime instead feels like they take an omake segment that should be post-credits and dropping it in the middle of the show.

Basically, I'm only watching this right now because I enjoy the source material.

On the other hand, the anime's getting me to finally bite the bullet and order the available volumes instead of just leeching off of scanlators, so I guess it did its job in one respect.

Episode 7:

Well damn the flashbacks is truly dark and Asuka is truly in a depressed state during the final war against Disas. Also, the current episode is about her and Kurumi teaming up together with JSDF to attack the Russian mafia who had an interdimensional smuggling with fantasy creature and the Russian mafia in question? Also had a mage that can wield fire but got one slashed by Asuka. In the meantime, we also got introduced to a character named Tamara who is a special on fire magic or weapons much like the aforementioned mage and it isn't surprising that the Russian Mafia leader is working for the Babylon Brigade that ended up making him getting exploded. I'm really curious what's the content of the briefcase that said Russian Mafia brought.

As someone who hasn't read the manga yet, is the manga really worth to take a shot to read?

It's definitely worth a read. The anime adds some stuff like the flashback at the beginning and rearranges certain events, but also takes out a fair amount too. Asuka and Kurumi have a lot more Ship Tease in the manga, for instance.

I've also noted my grievances with the anime last page. I'm still enjoying it on the whole, but it's not as good as it deserves to be, especially as far as production values go.

Might gonna take a shot of it soon. But seems that it hasn't been translated yet from chapter 14

Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Feb 24th 2019 at 8:52:40 PM

The official releases are farther ahead (currently up to Vol. 5). Though scanlations of chapters 15 and beyond are new and can be found if you look in the right places.

Hmmmm... I'll see what I can do but at a later time

8. I don't know whether to applaud or condemn the show for just completely embracing its trashiness. Like, good for it that it knows what it wants to be, but the result is over the top grim-derp, and not in a sad or funny way. And Kurumi is confirmed to be not very sympathetic, not that we needed much confirmation on that.

And this is the point where the manga grows its beard, and the anime seems to be following suit. Kurumi shows why she's the real waifu of the season, if not the whole year. Does all the dirty work so her friends won't suffer, dreams of killing off scumbags, and is completely loyal to her friends. What an adorable perfect little angel.

Bump