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Magical Girl Special Ops Asuka #3
魔法少女特殊戦あすか 3巻
アビゲイルを後一歩の所まで追い詰めた『Ｍ班』とあすかだったが、黒幕と思われる新たな魔法少女の出現により取り逃がしてしまう。幼い頃の夢と現実の間で揺れるあすかだったが、ついに『Ｍ班』への入隊を決意!! 一方、“伝説の五人（マジカル・ファイブ）”のメンバーであるミアとタマラも、それぞれの任務の為日本へ上陸。謎の魔法少女が率いる組織『バベル旅団』、各地に散らばる“伝説の五人”が日本を舞台に動き出す――ッ!!
170 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 25, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 27, 2019
Okay .... This is pretty good ... But what is the obsession with amputations? Seriously, every volume has one!
anyway ... Not for the faint of heart (tw for bloody scenes and tortures).
PS: After Madoka, the magical girls were never the same lol
anyway ... Not for the faint of heart (tw for bloody scenes and tortures).
PS: After Madoka, the magical girls were never the same lol
August 17, 2022
The story has gotten too complex to follow or be fun. New characters are added, new conflicts, more violence and none of them with too much entertainment value. Explosions in black and white always look like crap. A large cast has me running for the woods. All in all, a mediocre series.
August 24, 2020
We start off here by finishing last volume’s throw down, where Abigail fails to make the cut but Asuka definitely does not (sorry), which is abruptly stopped due to the first battle appearance of the mysterious Queen who’s been lurking in the background all this time.
Turns out she’s got several co-conspirators in the wings and, while Asuka and Kurumi deal with all the fallout from the battle, the villainous Babel Brigade (I’m unsure about that name as of yet) has deliberately left a trail that one of the other magical girls, Mia Cyrus (I laugh at the sheer unsubtlety of THAT name every single time), has followed to Japan.
I do want to credit this story this time around with how it handles tone. It takes an utterly preposterous premise (there is no line delivery on planet earth that can save the term ‘girls of mass destruction’) and leans hard into it by playing it completely straight.
Outside of the maid cafe hideout, there’s a clear line between the school where the comedy happens and then the field work where there’s violence galore and stakes aplenty. I legitimately think that this series works at all because of this stance and a more jokey tone would cause it to collapse like a house of cards.
On the other hand, the art continues to be a total mixed bag. I have never seen worse eyebrows than the travesty they give Mia here - it’s like her eye is framed by a lion’s mane of brows and it drives me nuts.
Then you have the action, which is well-defined and easy to follow, but I’m clearly going to have to live with the ridiculous over-development of the teenagers here because it’s not worth mentioning each time out, despite how unnecessary it feels.
And then there’s Asuka’s friend she saved, who gets utterly traumatized by her ordeal and then they sort of magic it away. I think the story mainly wants you to view it as a good thing, when it’s actually pretty horrific.
Yeah, she’s got PTSD for years, but having somebody mess with your head and basically strip out a week of memories doesn’t feel like much of a step up, just a different kind of violation that has a more beneficial outcome. It’s not a negative per se, but I think the story doesn’t give it nearly enough weight as it should, even with the narratively imposed time limit.
There’s no real upsetting the apple cart here, and if there was the apples would probably be shot to ribbons and the cart stuck through somebody’s sternum. This series continues on doing what it’s doing, but, in a way, that kind of consistency and commitment to its goals is kind of laudable.
Turns out she’s got several co-conspirators in the wings and, while Asuka and Kurumi deal with all the fallout from the battle, the villainous Babel Brigade (I’m unsure about that name as of yet) has deliberately left a trail that one of the other magical girls, Mia Cyrus (I laugh at the sheer unsubtlety of THAT name every single time), has followed to Japan.
I do want to credit this story this time around with how it handles tone. It takes an utterly preposterous premise (there is no line delivery on planet earth that can save the term ‘girls of mass destruction’) and leans hard into it by playing it completely straight.
Outside of the maid cafe hideout, there’s a clear line between the school where the comedy happens and then the field work where there’s violence galore and stakes aplenty. I legitimately think that this series works at all because of this stance and a more jokey tone would cause it to collapse like a house of cards.
On the other hand, the art continues to be a total mixed bag. I have never seen worse eyebrows than the travesty they give Mia here - it’s like her eye is framed by a lion’s mane of brows and it drives me nuts.
Then you have the action, which is well-defined and easy to follow, but I’m clearly going to have to live with the ridiculous over-development of the teenagers here because it’s not worth mentioning each time out, despite how unnecessary it feels.
And then there’s Asuka’s friend she saved, who gets utterly traumatized by her ordeal and then they sort of magic it away. I think the story mainly wants you to view it as a good thing, when it’s actually pretty horrific.
Yeah, she’s got PTSD for years, but having somebody mess with your head and basically strip out a week of memories doesn’t feel like much of a step up, just a different kind of violation that has a more beneficial outcome. It’s not a negative per se, but I think the story doesn’t give it nearly enough weight as it should, even with the narratively imposed time limit.
There’s no real upsetting the apple cart here, and if there was the apples would probably be shot to ribbons and the cart stuck through somebody’s sternum. This series continues on doing what it’s doing, but, in a way, that kind of consistency and commitment to its goals is kind of laudable.
May 21, 2021
There's a lot going on in this volume: magical arms deals, international espionage, the idea that one of the original five magical girls has gone rogue, our first glimpse of non-Disas inhabitants of the spirit world...it all makes me a little sad I haven't picked up volume four yet. My one point of contention is that the series is getting dangerously close to "magic can do whatever the plot needs it to do" territory, but it hasn't quite gone that far yet. Each magical girl, herself, seems to still have their own set of rules and abilities to abide by, but it's the magical items that seem like they can do just whatever. We'll see how it all progresses, though. Overall, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is still a solid, well-drawn series about magic and terrorism, and I remain glad I gave it a shot.
August 28, 2024
A Manga that Gets Better Each Volume
Honestly it is such a great manga to begin with that you would not think it has room for improvement, however, the more volumes you read the more you found yourself sucked in wanting to get to know each of the magical girls and they all have a in depth story to tell. Not to mention what "Queen" is up to and the wicked twist her and her squad bring to how the manga develops and the final ending. Trust me stay on this ride! It is full of the ups, scary downs, twists, and turns.
Honestly it is such a great manga to begin with that you would not think it has room for improvement, however, the more volumes you read the more you found yourself sucked in wanting to get to know each of the magical girls and they all have a in depth story to tell. Not to mention what "Queen" is up to and the wicked twist her and her squad bring to how the manga develops and the final ending. Trust me stay on this ride! It is full of the ups, scary downs, twists, and turns.
February 4, 2020
Beginning to see the full story and the face ( or in this case lack of face) of the enemy. The other Magical Girls are starting to get introduced and I can't wait to see more of their personalities. This Manga is starting to grow on me with each volume.
July 31, 2022
Just Cause is the Best. Why? Just cause. Anyway it's a good one to read.
September 7, 2024
I'm still enjoying this although it seems more complicated than it needs to be. The texts in the back help to clarify some things. I have just one more volume, although there are more to the series.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews