Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku (Magical Girl Raising Project)

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]

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Episode Videos

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku
Sequel:	Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku: Restart

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Sazanami, Kano

Main

Numakura, Manami
Japanese

Himekawa, Koyuki

Main

Touyama, Nao
Japanese

Hatoda, Ako

Supporting

Hidaka, Rina
Japanese

Sanjou, Nemu

Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri
Japanese

Murota, Tsubame

Supporting

Uchiyama, Yumi
Japanese

Kishibe, Souta

Supporting

Sakura, Ayane
Japanese

Sakanagi, Ayana

Supporting

Minase, Inori
Japanese

Inubouzaki, Tama

Supporting

Nishi, Asuka
Japanese

Mori no Ongakuka Cranberry

Supporting

Ogata, Megumi
Japanese

Ashuu, Shizuku

Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Higa, Yuuji

Producer

WEST GROUND

Producer, Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Arrangement

Kashimura, Emi

Producer

Hashimoto, Hiroyuki

Director

Edit

Opening Theme

"Sakebe (叫べ)" by Manami Numakura

Edit

Ending Theme

"DREAMCATCHER" by nano

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.

Open

Gift

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 ...

Open

Gift

Dec 20, 2016

Chinaz

Not Recommended

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - One more "Mahou Shoujo" to the collection

I realize there are "mahou" animes but I do not understand why they have to be so bad.
Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku is an example of how a "magical" anime manages to be tragic.

The synopsis tells us that there is a social game called "The Magical Girl Raising Project" that allows one of them to be chosen to be a "magic girl" within a group of people (hence the tone "mahou" of the whole anime), which means she will have extraordinary physical abilities as well as magical powers that differentiate from the rest from ... the humans. What happens next is that, in a district where there are 16 girls, the administration thinks it should reduce the number of "magic girls" where each one should consume some "magic candies" but something becomes twisted and then the anime turns out into a giant plotwist for survival.

Since the concepts of "mahou" animation from Cardcaptor Sakura to Madoka Magica, mahou anime were always in a fan idea, yet it is not exactly a genre that can be enjoyed to the fullest because it is not generally interesting, so it is normal to people ignore it. Unlike other anime of the same genre, Ikusei Keikaru is everything but original, this series lives basically and during the episodes, the typical cliché. It's pretty clear that every character who has (or counts or shows) a backstory is pretty much a victim of each episode.

In a certain part of the story, the writers should have decided that the anime alone was not edgy enough, unless the characters passed on their way of life as a form of currency. It's a little hard to understand, but let's just say it's like stepping on legos, it hurts but then it's okay. In terms of art, the anime is horribly bad, not as bad as Dangaronpa for example but it is down the middle. The design of the characters is a disaster and honestly it was the part that I really didn't liked in the series. When I say that art is bad, I am also talking about the characters.The anime starts from the first episode to be defined with the tag good vs bad so it is possibly what "feeds" the series. In fact, no character is able to "save" the series because in general, the characters are very limited.

An "mahou" anime can not have more than four characters as main characters and even then four is already a lot, the ideal is really three for each fight or a goal and better the anime mahou, in general.Now, the problem resides in the Rest of the characters, this rest is all those that appear in two or three episodes and die without having their moment of the series. The more the part of the series that has each person has an arc, half of the episodes neither serves for nothing by that person is dies and is dies, all was in vain.

I had this anime in my plan to watch because I was missing the animes that came through in the old days and that I came to see more recently, but I was not expecting anything like this. This anime is super annoying and I advise no one to see it, unless you are a person that is an undisputed hardcore fan who thinks that all animes are really good but still (Mahou Shoujo) Ikusei Keikaru proves that no.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Tragic, dramatic, dark, edgy post-mahou shoujo similar to Madoka Magica - good and bad magical girl series

by PostMahouShoujo

11 Entries · 1 Restacks

Anime with a Main Cast of Only 2 Females

by iftsistrnn

41 Entries · 63 Restacks

Surprisingly Dark Anime

by Keizakomu

30 Entries · 24 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

'Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku: Restart' Anime Announced

An anime adaptation of the second and third volumes of Asari Endou's Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku (Magical Girl Raising Project) light novel, subtitled Restart, ...read more

Jan 29, 2023 10:45 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (25 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for November Week 1: November 3 - 9 Anime Releases Actors: Songs Connection Complete Collection Blu-ray Dragon...read more

Nov 2, 2020 6:44 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (1 comment)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Dec 17, 2016	341 replies	by Fn76 »» Jan 28, 1:54 PM
Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Nov 5, 2016	254 replies	by minimiau »» Apr 11, 2023 5:11 PM
Restart is getting an anime!! mahoushaojiu - Jan 29, 2023	12 replies	by Timcampy »» Jan 30, 2023 1:22 AM
Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Dec 10, 2016	233 replies	by KillMeDaddyUwU »» Jan 8, 2023 9:19 AM
Poll: Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Dec 3, 2016	204 replies	by KillMeDaddyUwU »» Jan 8, 2023 8:47 AM

Recent Featured Articles

Is Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Anywhere Near as Good as Madoka Magica?

Magical girl shows aren't usually this dark and gory. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica was the first to add some darkness to the usual glittery nature of the genre, and Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku seems to want to try and recreate that formula for success.

by Overcooled

53,113 views

Spoiler

Analysis

The Fall 2016 Anime Season Has Some Actually Good LN Adaptations!

Light Novel adaptations have had something of a poor reputation over the past couple of years in anime. For every actually good one, there are 5-6 terrible highschool harems led by Yuji Everylead the Bland. But this upcoming Fall 2016 anime season looks like it might be the exception....maybe?

by 5camp

27,090 views

First Impression

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Sazanami, Kano

Himekawa, Koyuki

Hatoda, Ako

Sanjou, Nemu

Murota, Tsubame

Kishibe, Souta

Sakanagi, Ayana

Inubouzaki, Tama

Mori no Ongakuka Cranberry

Ashuu, Shizuku

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-