As many of you know, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Magical Girl genre. I mean, how could you not, after my ravings during the Spellbooks and Horoscopes collab with Aria? However, it’s been a while since i’ve found a magical girl show that really recaptures the magic of those first few I watched (Sailor Moon, Shugo Chara, Tokyo Mew Mew, Madoka Magica). With this new show airing this season, however, will that change?
I’m gonna have to say… well, i’m not sure. It really doesn’t have the same draw as some other shows… but that’s not to downgrade it from what it is. Where most Magical Girl shows show a girl gaining a power, and growing with it through the course of the series, Spec-Ops Asuka depicts a magical girl after the horrors of war. She simply wants to live a normal life, but is haunted by PTSD and the ghosts of her past self, and the many she witnessed die along the way.
It’s an interesting concept that I haven’t really seen done before, and I’m intrigued to see where it can go from here. It looks nice, the soundtrack is pretty good, and overall the production quality seems pretty good. That’s not to say everything is rose petals and strawberry jam, though…
I have some serious complaints about the pacing. We start out with an infodump and a flashback, followed by a while of Asuka enjoying life as a high-schooler, with a commitment to put the life of battle behind her and live a normal life. She states this repeatedly throughout the episode… and yet immediately breaks that promise at the first sign of trouble. It felt really rushed, and I would have preferred some more time to get to know the character, to empathize with her decision to not fight anymore, and some extra emotional turmoil over ultimately rejoining the action.
Well, i’ll stick with it for a while, I hope the intro is the only part that kind of stands on shaky foundations. I really need a magical girl show in my life!! What do you guys think of the show so far? Loving it? Hating it? Or more of a neutrally hopeful stance like me? Let me know down in the comments!! Thank you all so much for reading, and I’ll see you guys in the next post!
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I’m really enjoying Asuka so far. Mostly I’m just interested in whether they intend to seriously look at the psychological impact of trauma or whether this is just an early hook and they plan to become a generic kind of action anime but the first couple of episodes have been pretty interesting so this is one of my favourites so far for the season.
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Yeah, I agree. I’d really like to see more of the trauma aspect of it, since it’s something that hasn’t really been done before, and it did make for a pretty good plot hook.
It’s a pretty good show overall despite some of my nitpicks, and I really hope it turns out well.
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