Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is among the slew of dark, or “anti” magical girl series licensed by Seven Seas recently. At this point, there could honestly be more “subversive” magical girl stories currently licensed in the US market than traditional stories of fluffy girls who save the world.
Asuka did save the world from the apocalypse at one point. But now that life has gotten back to normal, she’s still traumatized and withdrawn from losing her friends, her family, and any kind of security that her life previously had. Asuka would love to stay out of the world of crime-fighting and danger if she could but of course — this is the beginning of a series after all — she’s dragged back in quickly to rescue old and new friends and it looks like fighting as a magical girl is about to become part of her daily routine again.
While it’s normal to have the initial installment in a series not explain everything about the plot and setting, I was left disappointed with how much Magical Girl Spec-Ops left unsaid. I expect that some details are forthcoming, like how “very wicked magical girls” exist and if it was a deliberate design choice to make the monsters and the mascots look so similar or if it’s because of a lack of artistic ability. I did think however that the story needed more fleshing out than we received in the first volume; I’m particularly curious why the number of magical girls has gone up from 10 at the apocalypse (5 really since the other 5 are heavily implied to have died in the fight) to over 100, that feels like an oversight. Plus, Asuka is a really dull character at this point. Without any details about her backstory, the world around her, or any trace of personality (beyond “probably has untreated PTSD”) it’s hard to root for her. Nothing in this story made me want to actively engage in it since there simply wasn’t anything to engage with.
And when I say anything I mean anything. Even the art was dull! The incorporation of military paraphernalia into the magical girl costumes felt more like a fetishistic detail than a valid artistic choice, and, even outside of that choice detail, the art felt flat and like it was lacking something interesting to keep the reader’s attention. I found it terribly ironic that in the creator’s notes at the end of this volume the writer asks if “Not that I really care, but could we have Pretty Cure be the end of the ‘magical girl trope’?” since the Precure franchise is a proven success with moments of real artistic flair and emotional writing.
So, like Unmagical Girl before it (which also had disparaging things to say about Precure in its author’s notes) I do not plan to continue reading this story any further. After all, with as many “subversive” magical series that Seven Seas has licensed recently, surely one of them is bound to be more interesting than these two?