What do you think?
Rate this book
Magical Girl Raising Project Light Novel #13
魔法少女育成計画「黒（ブラック）」
一度ハマれば抜けられないマジカルサスペンスバトルが新章に突入! 市立梅見崎中学校、2年F組。女子ばかり、わずか15人だけで構成された奇妙な学級だが――その実態は「正しい魔法少女」を育成するために作られた「魔法の国」肝煎りの特別クラスだった! 選ばれたエリート魔法少女たちは未来への希望に顔を輝かせるが、その陰には邪悪な意思が蠢いており……。魔法少女スノーホワイトのサーガも、ついに佳境へ。「魔法少女狩り」の新たな獲物とは!? アニメ化でも人気のシリーズです。
- GenresFantasy
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 10, 2019
2 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 12, 2024
Que cosa más aburrida por dios, se me han quitado las ganas de seguir leyendo chinas
December 27, 2023
What is it with Japanese pop culture and setting every possible story in a high school? I’ll never understand. Maybe it’s because a mangaka’s life peaks in high school because that’s the last time they taste freedom before they work themselves to death drawing a volume a week in a coffin apartment.
Whatever, let’s talk about magical girls. At least, in this specific circumstance, the high school setting of Asari Endou’s novel is somewhat justified. After all, magical girls are stereotypically teenagers and if you’re looking for teenage girls, a high school is a good place to start. But as an otaku, I’m sorely disappointed by the lack of sailor fukus in this piece. It’s just an aesthetic thing, like how the protagonist always gets that window seat third from the back.
This is symptomatic of a greater issue, Black’s wasted potential.
But first, some context. As per Raising Project style, this novel focuses on like 17 different teenage girls and their magic powers. There’s political intrigue from the Magical Kingdom (the wizard government/deep state), which forces the magical girls to stop doing happy Showa-era things and start doing edgy deconstruction-era things. There’s sometimes a mascot. There’s typically a Jojo-level of weird powers and strategic battles. Occasionally, there’s yuri.
Apart from the girls love unless you really squint, Black ticks all of these boxes but gets a solid 4/10 anyway, much like your typical high school assignment. Firstly, that’s because like only three of the new magical girls actually have a real personality past Insert-Trope-Here, and of those three, only the Amnesiac and the German one are likable about it. The rest are sort of there in that way high school students are there where they’re secretly (not secretly) the agents of the Magical Kingdom’s assorted warring factions and political departments. Talk about wasted potential. You have a bunch of secret agents and mercenaries and teenage dirtbags clustered together, but actual politicking rarely happens because they’re all angsting over a card game and a stolen knife. Much like real teenage girls, sure, but frankly I grew out of finding them appealing the second I turned 18.
I guess you could compare this book to a slice-of-life but, again, it’s not very lively. The high school setting is barely explored, with the actual school side of the novel being minimal at best and a distraction at worst. What could’ve been an interesting view into how magical girls are trained and indoctrinated is ignored for boring-in-universe lessons about things we already know if we saw the anime or read the first novel. Little could be changed if we set this in an office block.
Simultaneously, the out of school portions of the story are also underutilized and what is there stays underdeveloped.
There’s one good scene where the German has a lightning fight with the fan service character (as in, she’s a bikini-clad reference to a better character) and another scene where the Amnesiac and the Edgy Otaku (3rd magical girl with personality) read manga, which are fun, but frankly they’re a rare highlight in this slog. Much like actual high school, but if I wanted to relive that, I wouldn’t have dropped out.
Compare this to Jojo Part 4, which is better. We have returning main characters in both novels, a wide array of wacky powers and some actually deadly villains here and there. What Diamond is Unbreakable does better though isn’t only everything, it’s that it blends the slice of life with the supernatural far more neatly than Endou does here. And I don’t doubt that Endou can do better either. He did better with the high school chapters in Limited, and did it again with the Episodes series.
Frankly, I suspect it’s because the light novel writing style doesn’t actually lend itself to high school slice of life, despite the ubiquity of the setting. And this isn’t a translation issue either, since I have read different translations of Endou’s work, and different LNs too. Rather, it’s that tell-heavy beige prose only works if the reader is being told about really interesting events. Otherwise, it’s boring, and the writing style can’t save it since the writing style is boring in and of itself. That’s what happens here. Endou underutilizes the setting and characters, and the flaws of the minimalist writing style come to light.
So where do the good bits come in? Mostly at the end. Black is one of the few books I might recommend reading despite the weak middle and opening. That’s because the end saves the entire thing. It’s an extended battle sequence between all the magical girls and clones of the previous books’ villains. Powers are used strategically, personalities actually develop, and the political and personal relationships that have sort of developed so far are exploited for an interesting climax. The characters get to shine and old fights are reviewed in fascinating ways. Reading it, I realized that a lot of the formerly dull stuff Endou had written so far was actually a well-aimed chekov’s gun. Unfortunately, it was still dull the first time, but the battle at the end has real stakes and a neat conclusion to the story at least.
Oh yeah, this thing has a story. Well, it tried to, much like I tried (did not try) in high school.
Meet Kana. She’s the magical girl broken out of prison by best girl (main antagonist) Pythie Frederica. She’s the amnesiac. Because this is a high school slice of life, Kana enrolls in the magical girl class despite actually being 800 years old or whatever. She blunders her way through the lessons and practice, befriends the edgy devil magical girl Mephis Pheles, larps as a sukeban delinquent, and almost dies heroically for her new friends.
Meanwhile, the German Adelheid (dialogue translated with a Southern accent because why not) and the other teenagers half-ass political intrigue on behalf of their way more interesting masters we barely see. The waifu on the cover, Tetty Goodgripp, has like one good scene figuring out who her patrons are before doing jack of note. And, case in point, she’s the class representative.
Overall, do I recommend Black? No. Not unless you’re invested in the Magical Girl Raising Project story already. This book starts with school rules, for hope’s sake.
I admit that the following novels are much better, but only White and Red really demand you know what happens in Black anyway. You can get that info from a wiki summary, and it’ll be more rewarding than giving yourself flashbacks to high school. Do what I should have done and give this class a skip.
Two out of five stars. Makes me want to burn my school tie again.
Whatever, let’s talk about magical girls. At least, in this specific circumstance, the high school setting of Asari Endou’s novel is somewhat justified. After all, magical girls are stereotypically teenagers and if you’re looking for teenage girls, a high school is a good place to start. But as an otaku, I’m sorely disappointed by the lack of sailor fukus in this piece. It’s just an aesthetic thing, like how the protagonist always gets that window seat third from the back.
This is symptomatic of a greater issue, Black’s wasted potential.
But first, some context. As per Raising Project style, this novel focuses on like 17 different teenage girls and their magic powers. There’s political intrigue from the Magical Kingdom (the wizard government/deep state), which forces the magical girls to stop doing happy Showa-era things and start doing edgy deconstruction-era things. There’s sometimes a mascot. There’s typically a Jojo-level of weird powers and strategic battles. Occasionally, there’s yuri.
Apart from the girls love unless you really squint, Black ticks all of these boxes but gets a solid 4/10 anyway, much like your typical high school assignment. Firstly, that’s because like only three of the new magical girls actually have a real personality past Insert-Trope-Here, and of those three, only the Amnesiac and the German one are likable about it. The rest are sort of there in that way high school students are there where they’re secretly (not secretly) the agents of the Magical Kingdom’s assorted warring factions and political departments. Talk about wasted potential. You have a bunch of secret agents and mercenaries and teenage dirtbags clustered together, but actual politicking rarely happens because they’re all angsting over a card game and a stolen knife. Much like real teenage girls, sure, but frankly I grew out of finding them appealing the second I turned 18.
I guess you could compare this book to a slice-of-life but, again, it’s not very lively. The high school setting is barely explored, with the actual school side of the novel being minimal at best and a distraction at worst. What could’ve been an interesting view into how magical girls are trained and indoctrinated is ignored for boring-in-universe lessons about things we already know if we saw the anime or read the first novel. Little could be changed if we set this in an office block.
Simultaneously, the out of school portions of the story are also underutilized and what is there stays underdeveloped.
There’s one good scene where the German has a lightning fight with the fan service character (as in, she’s a bikini-clad reference to a better character) and another scene where the Amnesiac and the Edgy Otaku (3rd magical girl with personality) read manga, which are fun, but frankly they’re a rare highlight in this slog. Much like actual high school, but if I wanted to relive that, I wouldn’t have dropped out.
Compare this to Jojo Part 4, which is better. We have returning main characters in both novels, a wide array of wacky powers and some actually deadly villains here and there. What Diamond is Unbreakable does better though isn’t only everything, it’s that it blends the slice of life with the supernatural far more neatly than Endou does here. And I don’t doubt that Endou can do better either. He did better with the high school chapters in Limited, and did it again with the Episodes series.
Frankly, I suspect it’s because the light novel writing style doesn’t actually lend itself to high school slice of life, despite the ubiquity of the setting. And this isn’t a translation issue either, since I have read different translations of Endou’s work, and different LNs too. Rather, it’s that tell-heavy beige prose only works if the reader is being told about really interesting events. Otherwise, it’s boring, and the writing style can’t save it since the writing style is boring in and of itself. That’s what happens here. Endou underutilizes the setting and characters, and the flaws of the minimalist writing style come to light.
So where do the good bits come in? Mostly at the end. Black is one of the few books I might recommend reading despite the weak middle and opening. That’s because the end saves the entire thing. It’s an extended battle sequence between all the magical girls and clones of the previous books’ villains. Powers are used strategically, personalities actually develop, and the political and personal relationships that have sort of developed so far are exploited for an interesting climax. The characters get to shine and old fights are reviewed in fascinating ways. Reading it, I realized that a lot of the formerly dull stuff Endou had written so far was actually a well-aimed chekov’s gun. Unfortunately, it was still dull the first time, but the battle at the end has real stakes and a neat conclusion to the story at least.
Oh yeah, this thing has a story. Well, it tried to, much like I tried (did not try) in high school.
Meet Kana. She’s the magical girl broken out of prison by best girl (main antagonist) Pythie Frederica. She’s the amnesiac. Because this is a high school slice of life, Kana enrolls in the magical girl class despite actually being 800 years old or whatever. She blunders her way through the lessons and practice, befriends the edgy devil magical girl Mephis Pheles, larps as a sukeban delinquent, and almost dies heroically for her new friends.
Meanwhile, the German Adelheid (dialogue translated with a Southern accent because why not) and the other teenagers half-ass political intrigue on behalf of their way more interesting masters we barely see. The waifu on the cover, Tetty Goodgripp, has like one good scene figuring out who her patrons are before doing jack of note. And, case in point, she’s the class representative.
Overall, do I recommend Black? No. Not unless you’re invested in the Magical Girl Raising Project story already. This book starts with school rules, for hope’s sake.
I admit that the following novels are much better, but only White and Red really demand you know what happens in Black anyway. You can get that info from a wiki summary, and it’ll be more rewarding than giving yourself flashbacks to high school. Do what I should have done and give this class a skip.
Two out of five stars. Makes me want to burn my school tie again.
September 2, 2022
(5 out of 10)
I wish I could give this book a higher score, since it has so few ratings that mine will probably make a significant impact on its aggregates, but this story is essentially a slice-of-life tale with some intrigue, more of a primer for future books than a story that stands well on its own. I like several of the characters, but many other POV characters are rather bland or superfluous, and the climactic fight feels like it lacks stakes given the survival of all the characters. I'm excited to see where this arc of the story goes, but I feel like a lot of what's here could have been cut and rolled into the next novel to create a better experience.
As a side note, I'm not entirely fond of the official translation for this one. Many of the character name choices seem random (Calkoro instead of Calcolo, Rappy Taype instead of Wrappy Tip), there are several typographical errors, and the dialogue doesn't pop out as much as it did in the unofficial translation I read previously.
I wish I could give this book a higher score, since it has so few ratings that mine will probably make a significant impact on its aggregates, but this story is essentially a slice-of-life tale with some intrigue, more of a primer for future books than a story that stands well on its own. I like several of the characters, but many other POV characters are rather bland or superfluous, and the climactic fight feels like it lacks stakes given the survival of all the characters. I'm excited to see where this arc of the story goes, but I feel like a lot of what's here could have been cut and rolled into the next novel to create a better experience.
As a side note, I'm not entirely fond of the official translation for this one. Many of the character name choices seem random (Calkoro instead of Calcolo, Rappy Taype instead of Wrappy Tip), there are several typographical errors, and the dialogue doesn't pop out as much as it did in the unofficial translation I read previously.
December 25, 2022
According to Asari Endou in the afterword, "what happened to all the death?"...
Definitely a weird change of pace, considering this series' bloody past. I'm all for a new direction, but it just caught me off guard, and to be honest, it is almost like a retraction of my expectations from what the series used to be. However, I don't remember where it was said, but death is cheap. I enjoyed this series for what it was, but I would agree that it needs to find its footing.
A lot of setup in this one, and actually attempting character development for once. I didn't mind, but I think I'll enjoy the next one once we actually know what some of these people are trying to accomplish for ONCE
Definitely a weird change of pace, considering this series' bloody past. I'm all for a new direction, but it just caught me off guard, and to be honest, it is almost like a retraction of my expectations from what the series used to be. However, I don't remember where it was said, but death is cheap. I enjoyed this series for what it was, but I would agree that it needs to find its footing.
A lot of setup in this one, and actually attempting character development for once. I didn't mind, but I think I'll enjoy the next one once we actually know what some of these people are trying to accomplish for ONCE
May 30, 2022
quick and easy read! loved the callbacks made to cranberry and pukin, as they’re some of my favorites. excited for the next volume!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2024
"Just this once, everybody lives!"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2023
The initial set up of the school setting (felt more like a veneer than a believable situation) and the more confusing cast of characters made the beginning/middle much harder to get into then previous volumes. I’m sure the translation to English made this worse BUT by the end I was really impressed with the climax and fight scenes.
The humor was good in most places had me laughing lol. I’m excited to see the mysteries addressed in the next volume. Overall, still a solid read that I devoured very quickly.
The humor was good in most places had me laughing lol. I’m excited to see the mysteries addressed in the next volume. Overall, still a solid read that I devoured very quickly.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews