Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka maybe look like your typical "dark magical girl" that Madoka Magica has still in 2019 has a lingering presences with it's imitators however Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka feels like it fully embraces it's own thing, yes "edgy dark" but still.
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka looks at Asuka Otorii voiced by Aya Suzaki, a veteran magicla girl who fought in a massive war to defeat the Disas, magical plushies demons out for humanity and with the five that remained at the end, she along with the 4 others were branded as the Magical Five that saved humanity. Now she's a typical high schooler, trying normalize her life and hoping her bloody and torturous war days are over...however with another war gone and done, another rises from the ashes to cause more nihilistic chaos and with the rise of magical warfare, she struggles to juggle her school life and the new looming terror.
Character-wise, we have the narrative focus of Asuka herself and she's seen as pretty much the ace of the cast yet with a huge amount of baggage to say the least what with her own history as a magical girl and because of this, she isn't exactly seen as a Mary Sue as she's a total badass as a magical girl but has problems trying to "be normal" and of course her want to protect those close to her as she did not want happened during the previous Disas war. Kurumi Mugen voiced by Akira Sekine is an interesting character as deep down she's a COMPLETE YANDERE towards Asuka yet holds a facade of being the "shy girl", but she's one of the yandere that seen as both in a comedic light AND in a more serious light, comedic as she at first was seen as the comedic ditzy shy character but not taken too seriously, yet she's a crazy yandere when in comes to her love for Asuka that extends to borderline psychopathic (and everyone BUT Asuka knows about this). Mia Cyrus voiced by Eriko Matsui, the gun magical girl and she's been in the battlefield and never left, if anything she's the voice of reason as brash as she was LA's favorite character. Tamara Volkova voiced by M.A.O, a Russian magical girl the "Pheonix" who similarly to Mia never left the battlefield yet always butt heads with Mia, finally Lau Peipei voiced by Yoko Hikasa the Chinese magical girl, however Tamara and Lau rarely got much screentime especially Lau thus LA really didn't have much to say about both of them. In terms of development, Asuka is a reactionary character yet also develops with her resolve in coming back into the battlefield as well as all the backstory the plot feeds through giving us why she became how she is now and coping with the new war arising. Kurumi gets a bit of character development but only to show her true devotion and how she met Asuka.
Now as much as Asuka gets the spotlight in her own anime, Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka likes to look it's villains as well, instead of making them look "evil for evil sakes", in this case Chisato Yonamine voiced by Ayana Taketatsu and her entire plot threads reminds LA of what would happen if Tsuyuno Yatsumura from Mahou Shoujo Site was seen as the villain than a protagonist, sure her circumstances is telling we want to sympathize with her and the people she now associated with are evil and putting her in the wrong path but Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka puts it in a moral gray area. Now Abigail voiced by Ayahi Takagaki on the other hand throws the "evil for evil sakes" out the window she's she's nothing but that plus psychotic to boot and is nothing but the dragon to the true villain to the entire anime and the person who personally waged war and aligned with the Disas in the first place.
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka is if anything a character study of being at ends of a spectrum of bloodshed and "slice of life" and the eventual collision between the two, the realization that teenagers are technically killing people and how traumatizing that becomes for the magical girl and heck trying to protect those lcose to you yet due to your link in being a magical girl means they are the closest ones to be tortured and the such. Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka is by all means edgy as hell and man the torture scenes are graphic and uncensored as hell but in execution Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka does a solid job in what it's like for a magical girl to be mercenaries and all the trials and tribulations they go through.
In terms of animation, well it's LIDENFILMS and the animation is decent and detailed AND consistent to say the least. Since Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka is a pretty bloody and gory anime, well it's to expected that there is ALOT of it and not to mention some fo the visceral torture scenes and because of that it is censored because broadcast and whatnot. The battles are decent and the only striking thing being the crazy ballastic fight scenes and the exotic character designs, making ever magical girl pop in differing ways. LIDENFILMS has a mark about them that just makes their bloody and dark anime that much more pronounced and it's shows itself here too.
In terms of voice acting, well for the most part there are alot of "playing against the type" roles here, from Aya Suzaki now voicing a shy, complex total badass character as Asuka (also Eriko Matsui and M.A.O are the same) to Ayana Taketatsu voicing a straight up complex villain as Chisato. Nonetheless the voice cast for Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka was actually great with major props to Aya Suzaki and Ayana Taketatsu.
Speaking back to the visceral torture scenes, LA will say the only time it got actually squeamish and intentional so are those torture scenes and Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka definitely took it too far, censors be damned, making it's development of it's characters be undermined by shock factor of those torture scenes.
Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka does a solid job in a "what if" concept of "what if magical girls turned mercenaries and all their trials and tribulations both psychologically and physically were tested" and did a solid job in executing it, sure torture scenes aside but considering the setting this anime is in, LA can somewhat forgive it. Mahou Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka is NO Mahou Shoujo Site in it's edginess nor is it trying to imitate Madoka Magica, it's tried to be it's own thing in a somewhat realistic setting and it did just that.
