Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden

Rumor has it that if a young girl strikes a bargain with a white fairy, it will grant any wish her heart desires. However, in exchange, she will become a magical girl and must put her life on the line to slay fearsome and ferocious witches.

Iroha Tamaki, a kind-hearted middle schooler from Takarazaki City, is living proof that these rumors are true. Armed with a magical crossbow and the ability to heal injuries, Iroha seeks out the labyrinths where witches hide and defeats them before they can prey on humans. Yet Iroha has no memory of her wish, and even Kyuubey, the white fairy himself, seems to have no idea what Iroha requested of him.

One day, Iroha hears rumors of a city where "magical girls can be saved," and finds herself on a sunset train to Kamihama City. Unfortunately, she discovers that the witches in Kamihama are far more powerful than usual. After veteran magical girl Yachiyo Nanami is forced to save her, Iroha vows to never return. But when a chance encounter with a tiny Kyuubey seems to trigger distant memories, Iroha is compelled to investigate the mysterious city despite the danger.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nanami, Yachiyo Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Tamaki, Iroha Main

Asakura, Momo Japanese

Yui, Tsuruno Main

Natsukawa, Shiina Japanese

Futaba, Sana Main

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Mitsuki, Felicia Main

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Sakura, Kyouko Supporting

Nonaka, Ai Japanese

Miki, Sayaka Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Tomoe, Mami Supporting

Mizuhashi, Kaori Japanese

Kyuubey Supporting

Katou, Emiri Japanese

Gray, Alina Supporting

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Kubota, Mitsutoshi Producer

Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Producer

Ishikawa, Tatsuya Producer

Satou, Yoshiki Producer

Reviews

May 8, 2024

NAGISAAAAA583

Recommended

season 1 of magia record was ALOT. there was an entirely new setting, a new cast of characters, a group of magical girls called magius.
based off on the mobile game magia record, the anime tries to write an enitrely new story where this timeline will fail. all of the characters are fucking amazing. they all get their own arcs, yachiyo is gay with iroha. (which is wierd, iroha is only 15)
magia record expands on the world that madoka magica introduced, there's groups of magical girls, an entire city full of them. a god damn boarding house that yachiyo owns to live with her team ... mates. there is alot going, but at the same time it doesn't feel cramped or unfocused. the show really just focuses on the main cast. SNAA, felicia, yachiyo, iroha, and tsuruno. the characters are endearing as fuck, snaa is a cinnamon roll, felicia is basically kyoko, yachiyo is gay as fuck with iroha, and iroha wants to find her sister.

The main goal of magia record is for iroha to find her sister. the great part is that we get attached to ui through flashbacks of ui with touka and nemu. so we as the audience also want iroha to find ui as quickly as possible.


8/10
great start!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 14, 2022

Justykanna

Mixed Feelings

When I first started Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, I wasn't sure why the MAL rating was so low. Everything seemed to be there in the early going and Iroha, our main character, seemed to be going after something that was obtainable. However, unlike its Alternative series, it doesn't answer any questions. I'll be writing this review with the assumption that you've seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica beforehand.

Story: Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Starts us out with Iroha, who is a magical girl from Takarazaki City. She goes about her life fighting witches and seems ... to be fine doing it, on her own. However, something feels very off to her - neither her, nor Kyuubey remember what she wished for. Not only that, but she has no memory of a little sister that she swears she used to have. That sister, Ui, seems to have had her existence completely removed. Iroha does some searching, leading her to Kamihama City, where she hears that magical girls "can be saved" there. Along the way, she meets multiple other magical girls, in part because the witches in Kamihama seem to be much more aggressive than the ones she's used to fighting back home. That's the basis as to why Iroha is going on this journey.

The ultimate failing of this series is its story structure. It constantly leads Iroha from point A, to B, to C, chasing after rumour after rumour, in order to find out as much as she can about this sister that she doesn't have any concrete memories of. It almost feels like they made it in way that she meets a few new magical girls for a few episodes, helps with their problems, and then repeats... for the entire series. It starts out on a pretty solid premise, but doesn't make any progress on it by the time we're done. It's not all for nothing because we see some pretty significant events happen to the story, but it feels like they try and show two different stories at once. Not only that, but we really don't feel any tension as the events unfold in front of us. Whenever we feel that tension meter rise, the series stops it in its tracks, which was very evident near the start of episode 10. The last two episodes reveal quite a few of details about our characters and even with those being solid, doesn't make up for the poor middle episodes. They just try and be too fancy with introducing way too many characters that mostly feel irrelevant and don't address Iroha's problem at all. (5/10)

Characters: Iroha is a fine character, reminding audiences of Madoka at multiple key points. She passionately chases after rumours, but doesn't seem to have much thought about why she's doing what she's doing. She meets Yachiyo after going to Kamihama City, and she will remind audiences of Homura when the series is done. The copying of our two main characters from the base story isn't bad in itself because they change enough that I didn't mind it, but the story structure did them no favours. The interactions between them had a lot of different feelings, between tense, fun and peaceful. It's solid!

Many of the other magical girls that Iroha meets along the way have different motivations to fight witches and on their own, they have decent backstories, but there's just so many of them that it dilutes what could have been some solid ones - specifically, Felicia, Rena and Kaede. Some of Yachiyo's past magical girl friends also make appearances and sort of make up this secondary storyline that I mentioned about. And while their stories are pretty impactful, squeezing those into Iroha's storyline feels messy at best. Fans of the previous series will see sprinkling of our main cast from the base story, with Mami making the most significant appearance. With it being an alternative storyline, I'm guessing the events from that storyline haven't really happened and the character's are mostly there for fun. They're fine inclusions, with Sayaka's fight near the end being one of my favourites.

The cast in general is fine, and the series very much wants you to be emotionally attached to all of them. However, quality over quantity would have won out here because while they have some really good moments, there's just too many of them. I hope for the sequels that they refocus their efforts on Iroha's goal, while using our characters surrounding her, to get to that goal. That sounds like a decent fix to this very problematic story and character structure. (6/10)

Art: The art mostly looked nice, though fights are so brief that you don't get to see much of that flash and flair. The last two episodes showcase some of the better scenes though so we know they're capable of doing it. It's honestly the same as the base story and should receive praise, just like them. Witches still feel menacing and the labyrinths still give us a sense of dread. The OP got some minor adjustments as Iroha meets new friends and I love when series do that. (8/10)

Sound: While not at the same level and Yuki Kajira, the OST here was really solid. Many of the tracks gave me that JRPG feel and I really enjoyed them. The OP and ED were both solid as well. The feel of the aforementioned aren't on the "creepiness" scale that the main story had, but it probably shouldn't anyway because both these series tackle different issues. The voice cast were very strong with Kira Buckland (Iroha) performing her part really well. (8/10)

OVerall Enjoyment: The messy, messy story structure makes it really difficult to recommend Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, especially if you were a fan of the base story. It's not nearly as moving and there are way too many unnecessary characters. It leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger, and season 2 has aired, but taking a stab to see if they address their story issues feels like a 50/50 to me. (6/10)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 13, 2022

Topknot

Not Recommended

I was really excited for this when it was first announced. I then watched it weekly, to completion. And then at some point forgot that I'd completed it and watched the whole second back half again, picking up on the last memorable episode, and wondering, "Have I seen this?" It was only on the second time watching the last episode that I could be sure I'd seen the whole show already.

The original Puella Magi Madoka Magica is special to me, as I know it is to a lot of anime fans. For me when I think back on the show, what sticks best in ... my mind was the powerful music and the jaw dropping mixed media elements of the show. I LOVED seeing that combination of master craft juxtaposed with weirdly proportioned character designs and often goofy looking animation of the Magical Girls [which is, I know, it's own kind of master craft but one found more often in anime then the sprawling audio visual delights of the Witch's labyrinths]. I was excited to see more of that. However, the flat looking, mostly 3D rendered appearance of the few looks we get at labyrinths are simply not up to par with the "I grabbed a stack of old magazines and crafted every element of the background and villain" look that the first show had. And by nature of there needing to be so many freaking characters because Magica Record was based on a gacha game I feel like the way the show was written made it impossible to care about the girls as much as I care about the original 5 girls.

In Summary: There was an opportunity for this show to be really good. It had some interesting ideas on how to expand on one of my favorite anime, however, it was so utterly forgettable that I literally forgot that I had had already watched the whole thing and ended up watching the second half a second time before realizing this. The show is unfortunately visually dull, lacked character depth, and was literally forgettable.

Overall: 4/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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