Magical Girl Raising Project

Episode 6

Well, this episode certainly bumped up the body count! A sudden and violent shift in storytelling almost makes it seem like Magical Girl Raising Project is trying to make up for not killing anyone off last week. La Pucelle accepts Cranberry's challenge to a duel and promptly gets killed, which at least saves the rest of the girls from having to worry about their Candy counts for a while. A private conversation with Fav reveals that Cranberry may have a hand in the origins of the game, and some useful items are offered to the magical girls at a steep price. Magicaloid 44 sets out to kill Snow White in order to cement her alliance with Calamity Mary, but she makes the fatal mistake of underestimating Hardgore Alice's unique power.

I've touched on this point before, but I continue to be impressed by this show's ability to duck and weave around the audience's expectations. While I (and plenty of other folks) wrote La Pucelle off as being doomed to a quick exit as early as the first episode, the outcome of her duel with Cranberry still managed to catch me off guard. Sure, the fight has a few quick shifts in terms of who seems to have the upper hand, but the actual way La Pucelle loses comes as a bit of a shock. The obvious move would have been to have her dive on a figurative grenade in a tragically heroic attempt to protect Snow White, but instead her defeat serves as a refutation of the “enemies become rivals become friends” story arc. It's a symbolic gesture, implying that no one is going to get a chance to play the hero in a traditional sense.

With the protagonists looking like they're on the back foot, it's the villains who steal the show in this episode. Cranberry remains a solid antagonist of the “killing for fun” variety, and her little chat with Fav contains a couple minor bombshells. It doesn't last long, but Fav drops the friendly mascot act for a moment, marked by a change in speech patterns and a willingness to discuss the game more openly. This peek behind the mask is kind of creepy all by itself, and it also hints at the intriguing possibility of the game being designed around Cranberry's search for strong opponents. In the out-of-context scene at the beginning of the first episode, it's clearly Cranberry fighting a monster while surrounded by dead magical girls, so is this whole setup her reward for winning a previous game? I'm just taking a shot in the dark here, but it's a good sign that the show has me trying to think one step ahead. The frequent plot twists are having the long-term effect of getting me invested in the story.

There are some minor missteps in this episode, and some of them are all the more frustrating because they seem easily avoidable. One of the biggest comes in the form of Magicaloid 44 getting killed from behind by Hardgore Alice. It should be a surprising scene, but the show gives it away ahead of time by revealing Alice's ability in the mid-episode title cards. Since we already know that she can recover from major injuries, the scene loses some of its shock value. The sale of the special items also seems kind of gimmicky at the moment, since its only apparent purpose is to test which girls are willing to shorten their lifespans in order to win the game. The items may prove to be significant later on, but they mostly serve as a temporary distraction. The show is also in danger of overplaying its hand with Top Speed's repeated references to wanting to survive for exactly six months. These flaws are hardly deal-breakers, but they are reminders that the series still has room to improve.

One thing is overwhelmingly clear: Magical Girl Raising Project is getting dark and bloody in a hurry. Previous character deaths have been fairly clean in their presentation, and your enjoyment of this episode may depend in part on whether or not the messier approach suits your tastes. I'm not crazy about using violent character deaths for shock value alone, but this series is making enough interesting moves with its themes and narrative that I'm leaning toward seeing it as violence with a purpose. As long as Magical Girl Raising Project doesn't start to revel in killing its characters off, it should be in good shape.

Rating: B+

Magical Girl Raising Project is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Paul Jensen is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow more of his anime-related ramblings on Twitter.