Mahou Shoujo Oriko★Magica
Puella Magi Oriko★Magica

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Like any fan of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica would be, I was excited when I looked on ANN and found out about the creation of this spin off, and although Oriko's story isn't on the same level as Madoka's, I wasn't disapointed.

Warning: As this is a spin off series, there will be spoilers of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, also refered to as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, in here.

Unfortunetly, the plot is easily the weakest point. Taking place in one of the different time zones. There, instead of witches, Kyouko and Mami are having to fight against a Black Magical Girl, a magical girl who ... has more or less switched sides.

Although this is an interesting premise, it isn't properly developed until several chapters into this seven chapter story resulting in it not being as developed as it could have been. Even so, once we learn of this, it does add a nice unexpected element to the mix and adds some new intigue to the story.

The ending as well is good and surprising while fitting the concept quite nicely, but seems a bit sudden and forced and the little epilogue it has seems out of place and unneeded.

The main problem I have with this story though is that at the beginning it didn't seem to know what it wanted to do and winds up switching focus characters and throwing in characters from the original series last second as well as ones who aren't needed for more than one or two scenes, or even LINES, which could have been proformed by other characters or just avoided without it making much difference.

As for the art work, it's very different from what was in Madoka Magica. It has a much rougher, creepier look to it. Although this seemed out of place during the more light hearted beginning, once it got more into the darker elements it really fit nicely.

While the style does result in some odder looking panels, it's effective and was a good choice for the series. All the magical girls the we knew from the original series are back and it gives a nice spin of their character designs. All are distuinguishable and unique with the new characters leaving a strong impresion.

Character wise, all the characters from Madoka Magica who are used here remain in character and are therefore what we expect. The few character who are unique to this, such as Oriko herself, are interesting and unique, but aside from Oriko they seem a bit underdeveloped. We do receive backstory for all these new characters though so I don't really have much room to complain.

This is a fun little escapade that I think anyone who enjoyed Madoka Magica should take a look at at some point. Although it doesn't add anything to the original story, with the exeption of the borrowed character it creates a story all it's own that remains enjoyable throughout and I therefore can't reward this with anything less than an overall score of 8, though it does lean towards a 7 oncein a while.

Oriko magica is a manga that you should only read if your a fan of Madoka Magica, and even then it's barely worth the read. The manga will only explain who the 3 new characters are, and relies on the readers knowledge of the events in the anime. This is all well and good, however whats below is not.

The first thing you'll probably notice when you read this is the bad art style the characters look often awkwardly drawn in. While it could be a lot worse, it could also be a lot better. While the style isn't as bad as the Meguca scenes ... from the anime, it comes a bit close in several instances, like where Sayaka has to duck. The new characters don't look very bad in this style except the small one, but the old characters didn't transition very well.

The story itself itself is alright, and it might keep you reading until the end, but its kind of weak. Oriko's motivations and grand scheme are a tad muddy, and for someone who supposedly has the power of understanding, she kind of sucks at it. Summed up, she's not a very good antagonist. In the end what made me bring the score down to 5 was the ending. No, I don't mean what happened to SPOILER , I mean the cliche afterlife bullshit that came right after it. I would settled for SPOILER, but combined with that? NO. There are almost quite a few things that could have been explained further, like if the antagonists wanted to save the world, why did they brutally involve Madoka's SPOILER in all of it? What took them so long to make their big move? What did Oriko think of her father after SPOILER?

As an extension to what I said below, the characters aren't the best. The old ones act similar enough to how they acted in the anime except maybe Kyouko, but the new characters aren't very good. You got Yuma, a traumatized and slightly sociopathic child who doesn't always have much of a personality.Then you have Kirika, the batshit crazy bipolar girl (or at least she became that way after her became a magical girl) who hated everything but for some half explained reason developed an attachment to the antagonist Oriko, and will do anything for Oriko to stay her friend. Honestly, if it weren't for those things and maybe her wish, she'd be another run of the mill crazy character, and almost is. Then you got the antagonist who often acts like a know-it-all who has a bit of a god complex who I mostly already explained. I'll admit Kirika was sort of likable, and Oriko had a few things going for her. But Yuma? No.

All in all. If you really REALLY like Madoka, I guess give this a read. But you'll probably be disappointed by the time your through reading this.

While finding myself with some extra time on hand, I thought I'd go through reading the various manga adaptations and spin-offs of Madoka Magica, and with this particular one I felt that I wasted my time.

First off, the story wasn't too well constructed, and I found myself reading a few pages here and there to try to grasp what was going on. Perhaps I found a bad translation, but I think it also might just be poor writing. The plot and motives felt a little too forced, and the characters introduced were kind of m'eh to me.

Looking specifically at the characters, overall they struck me ... as a bunch of poorly constructed OCs the author wanted to shove into the spotlight of their fanfiction. What was even the purpose of Yuma? Besides one key moment she was practically useless and added nothing to the story what-so-ever. She could have been easily replaced by any of the other characters. As for the other two, they were a bit more interesting, but the shortness of this spin-off really hindered any kind of character development. I have other gripes with them, but can't say much more without spoilers. Basically, they all came off rather half-baked to me.

Finally, I can't say I cared much for the deviation of the art style. While it was interesting for the newer characters, it just didn't work for me with the older ones, and I found often I couldn't quite make out what was going on during some action scenes. Also, many times characters were posed a little odd, which was rather distracting.

Overall, the plot was thin, the new characters mediocre and a tad cliché, and the art was just too bizarre to look at, especially compared to some of the other spin-offs. If you really want to read it, the end wasn't too bad, but I don't know if the rest of the series compensates for it.