Magical girls are needed to fight invading monsters (called Disas) because they are the only ones who can break their hexagonal magical shields (similar to A.T. Fields from Evangelion). The military develops magical weapons to fight back as well but those are just "peashooters" according to the enemy. The really annoying thing about this show is the most epic final battle, between the world's strongest group of magical girls and invading Disas, has ALREADY HAPPENED by the start of the series! The show picks up 3 years after this battle and we see the girls carrying on with their lives, occasionally flashing back to the magical war, but I always wondered why they couldn't show this battle? Seems like it'd be the highlight of the show? I dunno, maybe there will be a prequel series eventually.
"Asuka" proudly wears its "dark mahou shoujo" label on its sleeve, and I went back and forth from greatly respecting this anime to hating it. I'm too old for regular magical girl anime now, and it's nice to see a show that isn't afraid to depict murder and harsh violence in its action scenes, with characters even losing limbs and blood aplenty. It's a warzone after all, not all sunshine and rainbows. The show also does a good job handling mature themes such as child soldiers, PTSD, and terrorism. I'll never forget a scene in which a loli magical girl (who is working for the terrorists) is burning soldiers with her magic wand. Her wand gets broken and she immediately starts crying and asking for her mommy. She's so pitiable here, it shows these young girls are just being manipulated by political forces they don't understand.
So it sounds like I really like this show, right? Well, there are moments where "Asuka" is dark in a mature way, and then there's times where "Asuka" is DARK for the sake of BEING DARK! I understand that this show didn't want to shy away from the fact that soldiers sometimes need to torture enemies for information, BUT did there need to be THREE torture scenes!? You see this innocent girl getting her skin burned off with a pair of tongs and you're like "Ok, did you really need to show that though?" At a certain point I feel like you're trying too hard to impress. That same loli I mentioned above is beaten, stripped, and forced to act like a dog, wearing nothing but a dog collar. Why? Why'd we go there? I'll say what I always say: "dark" and "mature" aren't the same thing. "Madoka" was a dark show, but it never went into graphic violence, sexuality, or torture.
The characters were pretty average and forgettable and the story was OK, but nothing to write home about. I'm settling on an average 5/10 for this show. Give it a try for the great action scenes (if you can stomach R-rated violence), but know there is better stuff out there. Madoka Magica and Yuki Yuuna is a Hero should scratch that dark magical girl itch, without being dark for the sake of darkness.
