Why Is Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka an Interesting Magical Girl Show?

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I’m going to be honest, besides Sailor Moon (which I watched when I was a kid) I haven’t probably watched any more magical girls shows. Oh, wait! I lie! I’ve watched Kampfer first season which was… Hmmm, bad (?) and I watched Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? which is a comedic Anime. So, basically, I haven’t really watched much magical girl shows which are… Well, just magical girl shows.

However, the idea I have is that these shows are normally targeted at younger girls. Because of that, things tend to be soft and even though the girls are fighting bad guys, not much violence is seen. This way, despite all the problems Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka (Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka) presented, I was actually pretty surprised!

Although I have to say the girls have the worst fight motto in history! “Who laughs last, laughs best!” What the freaking hell… With so many phrases, why would someone pick this one? It’s just not the best first impression a show can give you. It immediately made me think this was not the show for me, but I was wrong!

Why Is Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka Interesting?

First, it’s actually nice to see a magical girl show which shows the gore! It’s true, magical girls are cute, but they are fighters and will kill the bad guys. To do that, blood needs to be spilled. So, I was surprised to see a magical girl show showing that gore! There are arms going around, people being cut to pieces, and all that jazz. It is not glorifying violence for the sake of the views though. It just makes sense! If Asuka, our main character is using a sharp object to kill villains, they will get cut… Also, we need to remember she is used to fighting monsters, not humans, so it’s normal she goes for the overkill.

Which brings me to the second point of why this Anime is interesting. The story starts after our Magical Girls saved the world. Meaning, we are not seeing the girls actually fighting the monsters, but the life after being at a horrible war. In this episode, we are able to see that some of the surviving girls continue to work for the army, but not Asuka.

After seeing so much death because of her “gift”, she decided to stop fighting when the war ended. So, what we get is a girl who is suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Although she is not fighting anymore she just can’t stop being alert… Since her thoughts are always troubling her, she reads to shut up her troubling memories. It’s actually well done!

It’s going to be fun to watch how this character develops. Especially when she knows that evil will never end and she continues to be needed to save the world. And, although the show overall is probably around the average note, I’m actually hooked by this premise!