Why did I start reading it? Finally, I can get answers!! (Missed my review of the first two volumes? You can have them here: Volume 1, Volume 2)
What is it? Magical Girl Raising Project is a series based on the idea of magical girl battle royals. This particular volume is the second half of a two-part death game. It's going to be very hard to avoid spoilers, read at your own discretion!
What are the characters like? Same interesting group from last time minus a few due to death.
Anyone particularly cool? I can see why Lapis Lazuline became a fan favourite. She was the perfect magical girl all the way through. She threw out dramatic poses and cheesy dialogue like it was going out of style. She acted like an air head but her instincts and skills were nothing to shake a stick at. There's a particular battle with her I loved because it described the action then would stop every so often to tell the reader 'two seconds had passed' and it really got across the speed and skills of the girls fighting. Pechka also had her moment. I was annoyed at her during the first half. She was weak. Sure, she was understandably scared when she found out there was a risk of death in a game she was now trapped in but other non-combat magical girls like Nokko and Detec Bell still did their fair share while she hid behind her teammates. In this book, I started to see that 'weakness' differently. Rather than seeing her inferior to the others, I started to see her as human I almost started to relate to the scared girl. A lot of books, mine included, take for granted just how much courage it takes to throw yourself into danger and Pechka's struggle through the book really showed that. I was proud when she got her moment and found her bravery.
What's the bad news? This volume starts a bit slow. The first half of the book is mainly dedicated to the girls finding their way to the end of the game which is somewhat interesting but for the most part, nothing of note really happens. The girls are at peace during that time which, as much as it is nice isn't why I'm reading. I was itching to get some answers to the mysteries of the first volume and as much as the book kept up with the paranoia it was still a bit boring for a bit.
And the good news? When things started moving near the middle of the book I couldn't put it down. I literally put off things in real life because I needed time to read and find out what happened. We start finding out just why these girls had been targeted, who killed the girls from the first book and what exactly they need to do to win the game and escape. Some of the things were what I expected but just how they were added in, why certain people did what they did was interesting. All the mysteries had satisfying conclusions! It was a great read.
Would you recommend? Yes!
Magical Girl Raising Project has been one of my top light novel series so far! You can find this volume on Amazon.
Another light novel I've really enjoyed is Akaoni: Contract with a vampire. You can read my review here.