So during my wonderful week away, I finished Magical Girl Raising Project vol 2.
Why am I reading it? Well, I've read the first one. The one the anime was based on and was interested to see where the series went...I was not disappointed.
What is it? Magical Girl Raising Project is a battle royal kinda series. In this book, 16 magical girls are pulled into a virtual game against their will and enticed into playing along for cash rewards. Eventually, they find out it's not all fun and games and if you die in the game you die in real life. Girls are being mysteriously killed off and it is likely one of their own number.
What are the characters like? We have a much more varied set of magical girls this time around. Due to them breaking up into parties we get time with the girls in small groups, which makes it easier to get familiar with each of the girls. We can get a sense of who they are before they are taken away. Something the last book somewhat lacked. The magical girls we follow for the most part are Pechika, the cover character that I both get annoyed at and feel sorry for, Shadow Gale, a good character so far but a girl in a sad situation, Nokko, a girl I thought would be a lot more sinister but has surprised me and Detec Bell, a character I'm a little annoyed at, for someone trying to be a detective she doesn't do as much detecting as she should be...
Anyone in particular? I want to put detail into this section but it's hard without spoilers. I can't really talk about characters I loved without ranting about how sad or confused I am about their fates in this book so I'm just going to have to skip this section.
What's the bad news? I dont have much to say in terms of bad news on this book. I would say I'm dissapointed that there are next to no pictures in the second half of the book which is a shame because there were some scenes I would have loved to see. ...Honestly, I'm struggling for bad points... Oh! The main one I have isn't really much of a complaint but this story of muder and magical girls is split over two books so now I have to wait when the book ended right in the middle of the action Ahh!
Good news? Oh, this book is great! The first jumped right in with the tone but this one took its time. It's relatively peaceful at the start. You know what to expect, you know most of these girls are going to die but it gives you time to start liking them, to start picking favourites before killing them. Also, we're kept in the dark for most cases on who is responsible for the murders. In the first book, we were witness to most of the kills but this one acts like more of a mystery novel. Characters are getting picked off and distrust is sewn between a group that needs to work together to survive. I couldn't stop reading and my heart was broken every time a girl died (except for one...) I'm dying to find out what happens in the next one
Would you recommend?
Yes! It was great. If you liked the first one you'll love this. I will say though even if it is a new set of magical girls one should still read the first volume or watch the anime before reading this, this book is still dealing with waves from the first book's events. Also, I would wait until the 3rd book is out before picking this one up otherwise you will have to suffer like me who neeeeeeeeeds the next book like right now!
This has been a review of the second volume of Magical Girl Raising Project ebook version. You can buy it in Paperback or ebook here.
Interested in the series? You can read my review of the first volume here: I hate to say the anime was better