Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku

For many girls in N-City, playing the popular social role-playing game Magical Girl Raising Project is as close as they could come to being a real magical girl. However, for some rare players, that dream can become a reality. One such girl is Koyuki Himekawa, who receives a notification one night that she has been selected to become a magical girl, her in-game avatar Snow White.

As Koyuki and other chosen players in the city begin helping those in need, they all receive yet another notification: the admins have decided that they want to reduce the number of magical girls. Whoever collects the least amount of Magical Candies—which are awarded for their magical girl activities—in their competition each week will lose their powers. But when a real-world tragedy happens to the first player that drops out, they are shown the repercussions of losing their abilities. As more participants inevitably lose the competition and more twisted rules are added, the girls soon realize that their "contest" is actually a desperate fight for survival.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Himekawa, Koyuki Main

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Sazanami, Kano Main

Numakura, Manami Japanese

Hatoda, Ako Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Sanjou, Nemu Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Murota, Tsubame Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Sakanagi, Ayana Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Kishibe, Souta Supporting

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Inubouzaki, Tama Supporting

Nishi, Asuka Japanese

Mori no Ongakuka Cranberry Supporting

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Ashuu, Shizuku Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Higa, Yuuji Producer

WEST GROUND Producer, Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Arrangement

Kashimura, Emi Producer

Minami, Takeshi Producer

Reviews

Dec 17, 2016

LeaderTGW

Recommended

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku, yet another entry for the "dark and edgy" as well as unnecessarily sophisticated "mature" magical girl genre.

The Magical Girl Raising Project took a creative risk to introduce the completely original and unique concept (*major sarcasm) of the dark side of Mahou Shoujo‘s to audiences. Plot: Girl(s) with ``surprise surprise’’ problems in the real world distract themselves from their problems by playing a free to play (*with micro transactions) magical girl game on their android or IOS devices. But! Get this, in the game The Magical Girl Raising Project, one in tens of thousands of people to get to be a ... real "magical girl” even guys apparently... that’s a spoiler for another day. Besides the unwanted shock at the beginning of the series, the plot of the story was for the magical girls’ to race each other and collect more "magical candies" than their competitors. You know, a sweet and fun game that young girls would probably play… maxing out their parent’s credit cards on the micro transaction, but I digress.

All of this changed however, and the edginess kicked in. Instead of working together to defeat the common evil, the girls instead start killing each other because that is the easiest and most logical solution to solving problems.
The edginess and darkness that the story adds for shock value is simply repulsive. There was too much effort made to try and set this title apart from similar mahou shoujo titles with unique rules stipulations. Often time given out by some sort of creature or deity. I felt that the entire story was supposed to be going for “uniqueness” and there is no doubt that the staff reached their goal however, somewhere along the lines the staff got too involved in trying to recreate the same ``dark & edgy’’ formula seen in titles like Yuuki Yuuna is a hero, and Mahou Shoujo Madoka. So to a certain extent it just feels like watching a knock-off version of YuYu or Madoka.

This approach took away a lot of the good parts and redeeming qualities that the story had to offer. Rather than focusing on a story that branches out more on the game and characters, you’re greeted to a blood fest rumble where the main focus leans on shock value and a darker narrative. The story feels too constricted as well as repetitive with it's choices in storytelling. The most noticeable patterns are plot twist, shocking moments, and of course blood and gore. There are lighter times however; they are kept to a minimal. Only to be used when they need to add a quick plot twist. Because of the lack of freedom in the story, I found it difficult to remain engaged and satisfied with the events taking place in the story.

The animation for Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku is impressive nonetheless! Lerche is a pretty reputable studio putting out hit titles like Assassination classroom, Danganronpa, School-Live (*maybe not so much) and of course Monster Musume. All shows with amazing visuals and special effects. I found myself most intrigued by the battles in rising project, which should be no surprise. The destruction of scenery coupled with the determination and fear on most girls’ faces while fighting were well displayed. I felt like the visual tension between the characters made most fight scenes feel more dramatic too.The best fights where the animation felt clean and fluent had involved Calamity Mary and Cranberry. So I would highly recommend watching them in action. I mean you know a battle is done right when you want to go back and re-watch it.

The soundtrack fits the atmosphere of the battles. The well composed songs create a good amount of tension and exciting during events throughout the anime. While I felt the soundtrack was good, I did feel like it lacked the replay value and lasting effect that puella magi madoka magica soundtrack had. That aside, the voice actors were pretty good. I felt like each actor did an amazing job representing their perspective characters and giving them personality… except that dog girl whose name I cannot remember, and I’m too lazy to go close out of word and Google it. I’ll probably edit this out… or not.

The enjoyment of the series would have to be the fighting. I would’ve said drama however, Magical girl rising project is the kind of show where the drama tends to drag on. It goes on to the point where you’ll probably lose interest and skip forward a little.

Overall the show isn’t “bad” as in “the worst thing ever.” It’s just full of too many cliché’s and predictable moments depending on how experienced you are when it comes to watching anime. If there were any changes that needed to be made for the shows second season, if green lit. I would hope that they use an approach that isn’t so… one-sided. I want to see more than just violence and drama. I would like to see more into the characters daily lives and happier moments that last longer than 6 minutes (in screen-time.)

I gave Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku a 7/10 because I felt like despite all of the problems the show presents, it still manages to captivate audiences with its intense fights, drama, and unique cast of characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 17, 2016

3xTripple

Mixed Feelings

This anime in 8 words: “Anticlimactic Magical Girl Death Game With Wasted Potential ”

Yes, this is just another magical girl dark twist anime. Unfortunately, it's not that great of one either and here's why:

This is what a series looks like when it tries to have emotional shock factor, but fails because it's only 12 episodes long and has too many characters. When characters die, most of the times you won't even care because there are too many of them and you don't ever know their backstory until the episode of their death. This series has a damsel in distress, innocent, naive main protagonist. There ... are no moral messages to be gained from this anime and no overarching reasons for the events that happen. It’s, simply put, excessive “just because” death-game violence. However, I believe it's still worth watching if you like seeing violence and/or the death of magical girls.

I want to note that I actually did enjoy watching the series for the most part, but this is from my unbiased perspective as a person who has seen a lot of anime. It will probably be a lot better to the people that haven't seen as many anime.

This being a thriller, you should go into series expecting there to be intense, edgy battles and deaths. Most of the characters could have been expanded upon, but weren't, and that largely took away from the potential of the series. I honestly believed that it started off with the potential to be outstanding, but it quickly went downhill once the death game began. The great characters started dying off too quickly without me building any attachment to them. The main protagonist “Snow White” was excessively naive and innocent throughout the whole anime. Consequently, I did not enjoy almost any time she got screentime after the first few episodes because every side-character was significantly more interesting than her.

Story: 4/10
The basic premise of the story is that ordinary people were selected to become magical girls while playing a magical girl phone game. They are then forced into a death game where the magical girl with the least amount of "candies" at the end of the week dies. They initially gained these candies by performing acts of goodness, but Fav (the Kyubey knockoff) continuously adds in new elements that push some of the magical girls to kill each other instead. This is definitely not a "psychological" series; you can tell as it presents itself in the cliche, archetypal, non-unique characters. Taking that into consideration, I feel that the writers tried, but failed, to portray powerful concepts like friendship, desperation, loss, and psychological twists. This is largely because they introduced these archetype characters with amazing potential, but then got rid of them just as fast. Unfortunately, the fast pacing and the anticlimactic ending left me with feelings of wasted potential as I finished.

Art: 7/10
The art was nothing outstanding, but pretty good. There wasn’t anything particularly unique about it. I enjoyed the battle scenes and the fluidity of the animation. The characters were a bit too colorful and cute for me personally, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The brightness of the characters in combination with the dark background made the series feel less dark and more lighthearted.

Sound: 6/10
Non-unique, average, unmemorable ost. Although, the ending theme was relatively nice. Both the opening and the ending didn’t really suit the anime. Music was a bit too lighthearted for what was happening.

Characters:4/10
As I mentioned before, most of the characters die soon after they’re introduced. I liked most of them because of their diverse personalities, but I don't think you will be getting any new favorite characters out of this anime. If this anime was a real magical girl series with the same characters and similar deaths, I feel that it would have been significantly better. Most of the characters had great potential for development, but I could not form any attachments to any of them because of their short screen time and lack of backstories until the moment before their death. It was such a waste… *shakes head*


Enjoyment: 6.5/10
All things considered, it was alright. Never watching it again, but I don’t regret watching it at all. The fighting and characters were enjoyable enough for me to continue watching it this season. I looked forward to seeing what would happen in each new episode, but the end of the series made me feel that it’s just anticlimactic overall with nothing to be gained from the resolution (not even satisfaction). I would watch a season two to see where they go from here because it's still entertaining nonetheless.

Overall: 6/10
I can't give this series any higher than a 7 because it wasn't really that good and no less than a 5 because it certainly wasn't below average overall.

Bottom line: Would I recommend this to you?
If all you want is the gore/killing, then absolutely.
If you want a great story, then no it’s just wasted potential.
If you want both, then try Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero (anything but Ilya from the "Fate/" Series), Akame Ga Kill, or Mirai Nikki.
If you want a similar concept that’s better imo, then try Madoka Magica, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha, or Btoom.

Hope this helps you make your decision! If so, let me know by clicking helpful! If not, let me know why you disagree~

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 22, 2016

Nishmo

Not Recommended

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku is a Hunger Game-esque anime at its core that attempts to bring in an array of "characters" with varying magical talents in an attempt to show an edgier side of the Magical Girl genre. Through a mobile app game, girls are chosen by the magical entity Fav for unknown reasons, but they accidentally selected too many girls to become magical girls, and so now they all need to compete in a competition of either gaining the most candies or killing each other (someone will die by the end of the week regardless) in order for them to survive.

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Story: 3/10
Story-wise, Ikusei Keikaku ... is filled to the brim with nothing but terrible cliches. It became clear that any character whose backstory was shown was very likely to be among the victims of that episode, and if that wasn't enough, they made sure to try to employ every type of sympathy-tool for the casual audience as they possibly could.

Character death not sad enough? Oh, well, they were pregnant. Also a housewife. Or they helped the homeless. Maybe they were bullied in school. They had found love. Their friend witnessed their death. Or maybe all of the above because this anime really has no dignity in its story. Death means nothing in this show, but I will explore that later on.

At some point in the series, the writers must have decided that the show just wasn't edgy enough unless the characters spent their life force (measured in years of their life) as a form of currency. I don't particularly count this as a spoiler because it hardly has any actual relevancy in the anime. It's just that they needed something to increase the variety of action in the show, so they added new items and they needed to make it "dark" for their teenage audience who thinks they're dark lords, so they made them use 'years of their life' as currency.

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Art: 5/10
At first it doesn't really look bad to me, but the more I look at it, the more I'm slightly repulsed by it. I mean, the combat is kind of okay, but the proportions on the characters are pretty bad and the designs themselves are fairly unimaginative. The combat scenes can be alright, they're nothing special or worth noting, but they at least can have a moment of something at least looking decent.

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Sound: 6/10
Probably the best part about the show is its sound. Not even so much the music, which relies on a set few soundtracks to play on repeat through every single episode. It's mostly the magical sound effects that give life to the series. If not for those, this anime likely wouldn't be heralded by much of anyone. My rating for this might actually be more of a case of, "It's good by comparison to everything else" rather than it being good as a standalone entity, but I'll stick by my rating of its sound quality for now.

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Character: 2/10
For the most part, the characters in Ikusei Keikaku are defined by their abilities and where they fall on the good vs. evil spectrum, with barely anyone at all falling in the middle. Either they're hardcore good or hardcore evil. Even characters that are super evil and have been killing off characters for the duration of the series are given backgrounds that try to "redeem" them and try to make the audience have sympathy for them, which really shouldn't work for anyone who isn't just watching for mindless entertainment.

Characters will either be "I will defend the ones I love!" or "I will protect myself by killing those who stand in my way." This is pretty much the case for absolutely everyone with maybe one or two exceptions.

This anime falls drastically to the curse of having too many characters. That might not always be a problem, there are plenty of anime out there that have a wide cast array but still manage to make them feel like more than plot devices. For Ikusei Keikaku, it's more that each character is a cameo appearance until they have their own arc. How do you know its their arc? The episode will introduce their backstory and say "hey, maybe there's an actual character here" moments before killing the character off and stopping any hope of feeling any legitimate attachment to the characters.

If you feel anything for the characters, I feel like I can definitively say you don't actually like the characters, you just like the atmosphere and the fact that the anime is forcefully telling you to care for them. It's not a natural "I care for these characters because they're good," it's a "I feel obligated to like this character in order to enjoy the series."

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Enjoyment: 2/10
I originally saw this anime and was really anticipating it probably more than anything else in the season. And as it started, I detracted on that position almost immediately. After the exhaustively obvious formula of who is going to die next was figured out, it wasn't really worth caring for any of the characters. Not in that it was a defense mechanism for me not to care, but because the anime didn't give me a reason to care. The anime just kills characters and hopes that you're sad at the concept of meaningless death as long as they toss in some crying friend or sappy flashbacks at the moment of death.

The most enjoyment I got out of it was laughing at how abrupt or sudden a death was. There's no actual reason to care for any of the characters because they never provided a reason to care, so attachment was out the window from the get-go. It was hard for me to look at this anime and even see the worldbuilding aspect of it because you can just see that the writer just wanted to showcase magical fights in a "dark setting where hope is hard to find."

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Overall: 3/10
Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku is desperate for reaction. It tries everything it can to force reactions from the audience rather than letting the audience feel things by themselves, and in doing so, comes across as petty and undignified. It's nothing more than a disappointing cash-grab that has nothing to offer anyone in any form.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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