Staff, Cast of 'Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku: Restart' Announced

This is a sequel, not a reboot? I thought it was at least a remake, given the word "restart" in the title and the amount of time that had passed since the first season was broadcast.

@RobertBobert It's a sequel. The Restart-arc consists of 2 volumes of the LN, continuing after the 1st volume (which was remain untitled). Continuing after that is the Unlimited-arc, also consisting of 2 volumes. No spoiler here, since all of these arcs are not exactly direct continuations. For example, Restart tells the story of an array of entirely different cast from the 1st volume (untitled), it was just CHRONOLOGICALLY set after the 1st book, not necessarily directly continuing it's story.

As for why these 2 vols arc was named "Restart", you'll have to see when the anime aired. Or better yet, read the LN.

@uncleqrow That is, in the end we will also get a logically integral complete arc with a separate cast?

@RobertBobert Yes, the main line series does : untitled - snow white raising project side story LN (not adapted) - restart - unlimited - joker - aces - queens - black - white LNs. All tell different stories, w/ different sets of charas (some recuring), and even different style of stories. But combined together, they tell a grand saga of MahoIku universe.
(I know this maybe heretical, but consider each of these different arcs as how Silmarilion - The Hobbit - and The Lord of The Rings are related to each other)

If you're interested, there's also the side stories LNs, the F2P manga, and the Breakdown web series LN to compliment the main line series. I higly doubt they'd ever be adapted to anime tho.

@uncleqrow What did you mean by different story styles? Experimentation with genres or just different narratives and storytelling styles?

Talk about unexpected. Can't believe the first season aired in 2016.

@RobertBobert basically, it's both

Can't wait to see Shadow Gale animated.

@uncleqrow What did you mean by different story styles? Experimentation with genres or just different narratives and storytelling styles?

@RobertBobert
Raising Project is kinda like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in the sense that its arcs directly follow each-other but have mostly-new casts of characters each time, and each arc tackles widely differing themes and genres. The first arc, for example, is a battle-royale, the second is an isekai whodunnit, the third is a crime-thriller, the fourth is a sci-fi (and what the Doctor Who fandom would call a "base-under-siege"), etc.
Aside from some returning characters, the magical-girl theme is basically the main thing unifying the arcs, IMO. :)

@Kogasa-Tatara Is only the first arc is the same battle royale? The rest is more classic dark mahou shoujo?

@RobertBobert
Yeah, the first arc (the one that season 1 covers in its entirety, commonly nicknamed "Unmarked" by the MGRP fandom) is the only proper battle-royale story in the series. Restart has elements of a high-stakes game, but it's less "every girl for herself" and more "Sword Art Online meets Among Us", lol. The rest of the arcs barely even touch on any death-game elements.


As for any resemblance to more classic dark mahou shoujo narratives... Well, Yuki Yuna (whose original LN released after MGRP's) borrows a lot of MGRP's elements, I'd say, so they're kinda similar in a sense.


In terms of something like Madoka Magica (which seems to be what most think of when they hear "dark mahou shoujo"), I wouldn't say MGRP ever quite veers into the cosmic-horror aspects or being betrayed by destiny, but the closest arc to Madoka, tonally speaking, would probably be Limited, IMO.



I will say, MGRP doesn't really aim to be a magical girl story, in the traditional sense, more so than it aims to be a supernatural action/survival series where the protagonists happen to (mostly) be magical girls. But, then, I suppose most dark mahou shoujo series are famous for breaking the mold of traditional magical-girl series, so maybe that's to be expected, lol.

There is this one delightfully meta exchange of dialogue from volume 5, where two characters are discussing mahou shoujo anime:
"But there are works that have ‘magical girl’ in the title, right?" - Kuru-Kuru Hime
"That’s just having magical girls as a motif. That doesn’t make it a magical-girl story." - Weddin

@Kogasa-Tatara So you would call this show very mahou shoujo meta, but not a mahou shoujo show in the classical sense?

@Kogasa-Tatara So you would call this show very mahou shoujo meta, but not a mahou shoujo show in the classical sense?

@RobertBobert I'd say that's a fair assessment! A lot of the characters are defined by the own relationships with magical-girl media and how they engage with it. There were Snow White and La Pucelle in the first arc, who were both fans of magical girl anime, for example. And later arcs have characters like Magical Daisy, Weddin, Dark Cutie, Glassianne, Sally Raven and Dreamy Chelsea whose defining traits revolve around their opinions on and relationship to the mahou shoujo genre!



The most "classical"-feeling arc would probably be Black, IMO, since it's almost a school slice-of-life story, and its cast only transform into magical girls when they need to.

The one casted there isn't the first Lapis Lazuline, but the second one, and saying she isn't the only Lapis Lazuline is actually a spoiler.

@Ionliosite2 my bad, was just following where db put aoi yuuki in back when I was writing it. (and I see that eventually they changed it later without my knowledge)

fixed it

@Kogasa-Tatara To be honest, this sounds more like some kind of mahou shoujo version of Fate or Raildex than JoJo. In the sense that you essentially have one big universe where a whole bunch of different stories happen.

@RobertBobert raildex is a good parallel but it's still different, raildex is always someone needs saving every arc, there's no subplot that changes each arc

index arcs goes like someone running from someone, Touma goes in to save the day, rinse and repeat
railgun arcs goes like this, insert experiment, Misaka comes in to stop it, rinse and repeat

Mahoiku arcs retains the survival plot each time but the subplot is different each time

arc 1 survival + battle royale
arc 2 survival + different subplot
arc 3 survival + different subplot

11 arcs and counting and each subplot are different each time (except for the most recent three in the main LN coz it's a trilogy arc)

"@Nyan-chan"
Methinks Moca News hasn't read Restart...


On a less sarcastic note, I'm not surprised Yoshioka's back as the screenwriter. Considering Endou went on to name a pretty significant character after them in QUEENS, an' all... XD


Anyhow, I'm 17 volumes into the series and I've got the 18th ordered, and Restart is still my favorite arc. Super excited to see second-to-best girl Pfle kicking ass on the small screen!
(Tama's still my fave, though. Sorry, not sorry)

@Haunt88 But every arc still contains a death game?

@Haunt88 But every arc still contains a death game?

@Kogasa-Tatara korraaa~!!!!! use spoiler tag pls!!!! Not everyone here are LN readers.... wwwwwww