To describe this anime as its finest, I would like to introduce it as "a magical girl show in a modern world where magic does not always have a bright side".
Indeed, here in Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka you get to follow Asuka, a retired magical girl who used to fight - as well as her 4 comrades + 6 deceased - weird creatures named Disas. However, this part of the plot is explained early but gets forgotten after that.
But peace cannot be maintained forever obviously. One day our retired magical girl who started going to high-school as a regular student, has to take back her weapon : a magical karambit granting her powers. If it appears that this is just a girl saving her friends or some random people, the violence has a really important place in this show. To spoil lightly : you will watch a terrorist being extraded by his men, killing multiple policemen and then several bystanders to create chaos. Nothing is censored so this part makes it pretty uncommon for a magical girl show (as well as a torture scene that took place later, on a teenager).
Many people can't appreciate this show for its characters - physicaly / bodily talking - who are indeed well developped (not gonna expand more, this is easy to guess how you make a female character looking attractive). Well, I can't say this is wrong stating this point, but it does not make an argument to dislike the whole anime. I really think it has a more mature taste : to me, magical girls have evolved and aren't the sweet young girls (not to say very young / loli) who use a colorful magic to heal people or save a cat.
Not at all, they are now transfered in a realistic world where monsters (as its purest sense, so unhuman living threats) became fellow humans being. This is actually extremely interesting to see how an unknown former heroine will deal with her past - traumatic, sad - and the current events that just popped up in her new life. Will her inner demons come back to surface ? That is a great question.
To conclude this review, I really encourage anyone who appreciates magical girl genre AND military / raw violence atmosphere to start watching this show. We have only discovered 2.5 (considering one was shown and named but isn't related to the story yet) magical girl plus the mysterious organization behind the recent outbreaks.
