Magical Girl Site (episode)

"Magical Girl Site (episode)"
How NOT to start an anime like this.
Series: Magical Girl Site Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 1 Air Date: April 6, 2018 Writer: Takayo Ikami Director: Tadahito Matsubayashi Previous episode: N/A Next episode: Tempest

Magical Girl Site is the first episode of Magical Girl Site, based on the manga of the same name.

Synopsis

Aya Asagiri is a 14-year-old girl who gets severely bullied at school by three sadistic girls and abused by her cruel brother while her parents and teachers neglect and ignore her. One fateful night, she later contacted by a mysterious site that would help her end the misery, thus leading to some deadly consequences.

Why It’s Un-magical

1. To get the cat out of the box, this episode is notable for being EXTREMELY mean-spirited as a huge amount of bullying, ignorance, beatings, humiliation, abuse, and torture the main protagonist, Aya gets through in this just like the manga. It's also not a good start for the Magical Girl Site, meaning that most of the flaws here are present.
2. Aya Asagiri is still a much weaker main protagonist than in the manga, who's bullied much more at school and beaten by her brother at home.
3. While it might feel that the episode has "horror" in it, it acts like a generic bully story that takes it way too seriously.
4. This episode attempts to paint Aya as if she is the most misfortunate girl in the world, but the problem is it shows that in the most poorly executed way possible.
5. To sadly add salt to the wound, It uses bullying and sibling abuse as something more than a sub-plot device and too exaggerated in an attempt to be realistic that has nothing to do with the Magical Girl Site or its motivations. But it is a lazy attempt to make the audience care about Aya.
   • As for being mean-spirited, it's too uncomfortable, depressing, and outright horrendous as it's trying to imitate the horror anime tropes.
6. The villains in this episode are way too dark, uncharismatic and unconvincing in a magical girl show with the bullies and Aya's cruel brother being the WORST characters as they act like trash-talking psychopaths who have NO REAL REASON to torment Aya, who also has a kind heart to have happiness for ignoring facts and keep monologuing too much of how much they will have "good fun playing" with her in pain.
   • To make it much worse, it also has a bad lesson that should never teach in the real world. Then, it gets insulting that Aya DOES NOT tell her teachers or her parents whatsoever.
7. Sarina is just a generic cliched mean girl who has no reason to torment Aya from the start and things in this episode like putting sharp objects like nails, vandalizing her school seat and chair, drowning her head to water of the toilet, using an older student to assault Aya, and tried to scar Aya from thinking she murdered her friends.
   • Her friends (Erika, Ai, and Shota) are much more mean-spirited than Sarina. When Aya used her teleportation gun from the Magical Girl Site, Erika and Shota laughed because the gun was just a toy, till they teleported to the train on their death.
8. Kaname is a generic abusive sibling who is a cruel, remorseless jerk who tortures Aya (from punching her in the stomach, yanking her hair, kicking her stomach, and then jumps up to choke her for the fun of it) to help him relieve his stress from his father's so-called "expectations" from his grades. Even though it is likely that he and his father had a strained relationship about his studies until later episodes.
9. Besides Aya's tormentors, all Aya wants to be happy. But, Aya's classmates, her male teacher, and her parents neglect her while Kaname and the bullies torment her rather than Aya telling others about her problem.
10. Aya's teacher is nothing more than a lazy person who barely even isn't aware that Aya's desk vandalized, and Aya's parents are mere neglectful ones who care more about Kaname and are ignorant of his juvinile nature.
11. Just like the manga that based on, it is unreasonably mean-spirited to her, with many things below, like trying to show how Aya treated as a harmless punching bag by Aya's brother, Kaname, and her bullying classmates led by Sarina Shizukume.
    • Instead of adapting scene by scene from the manga chapter, it instead added too much filler and changed scene that was unfaithful and never was in the manga. Making the changes being absolutely frustrating and even more mean-spirited with the bullying, and sibling abuse:
      • Ranging from Aya contemplating suicide to a nearby train to being snickered and giggled by Sarina, Erika, and Ai, in her class when some yellow ooze is on her chair and Aya's desk vandalized.
      • Aya, being drowned on the face of the toilet by Sarina and her friends, hears that Erika is enlisting Shota to assault her.
      • With often physically and verbally punched, yanked from her hair, and kicked to the stomach, along with getting choked to the neck by her brother, Kaname, to help him relieve his stress from their father's "expectations."
      • Aya nearly assaulted an older student named Shota Arai by said bullies as they snickered, kicked her, and watched in pleasure. It is too harsh to look at.
      • The mean-spiritedness is taken up to eleven, as Aya realizes that the cat, Mya, died because she was thrown in front of a nearby train to death at the hands of her bullies.
12. This episode is abysmal to watch, most of this boils down to the characters talking, like Sarina and her friends talking about how much Aya has the "guts to go everywhere". Aya's father talks about prodigies bound in colleges with his son, Kaname, who would tell Aya about that, and Shota putting sexual comments to Aya.
13. Major Plothole: Why did Aya her teachers or anyone regarding her bullying? How come Aya accidentally killed Erika and Shota by teleporting them to a nearby train to their death?, She should have teleported them somewhere or called the police. Why didn't Aya tell her parents about Kaname abusing her?
14. Incredibly painful dialogue that are too disturbing, nonsensical, and disgusting to hear. For example:
    1. "You mean 'Stop, please!?'"
    2. "Why won't you contribute and help me relieve my stress?!"
    3. "It's cherry popping time (Itadakimasu)!"
    4. "It was awesome. The guts went everywhere."
    • • • Also, some of the dialogue can be feel rather forced:
        • "Aaaya-kuun."
        • "I have higher expectations with you.”
        • "Everyday, I think about dying."
15. Attempts of trying to be inspiring but executing fail at their mean-spirited nature.
16. Although it's 80 percent faithful enough, with altered scenes that were never in the manga:
    • One of the most notable changes from the manga is that Makoto Hinomoto, Aya's male classmate, does not admit helping Aya in the anime version, only as a silent cameo where he has feels "sadden" about the death of his classmate, Erika, making the plot threads pointless and his scenes removed due to probably time constraints.
    • The first chapter starts with Aya screaming and flashing back to where Aya was preparing to go to school during breakfast. In the anime, it starts flash forward with Aya and Yatsumura finding a frozed Nana in a railroad, and flashing back to Aya contemplating on suicide by running through a nearby train.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Aya petting a cat named Mya was a nice touching scene until her death (but it unfinished by the end of the manga).

   The animation (despite being low-budget) and voice acting is decent.

2. Despite an interesting plot, the episode fails to handle it well.
3. Despite coming off as mean-spirited, it's depressing to see Aya used as a punching bag, which nobody wants to see her like this.
4. Aya's teacher and classmates are not as mean or cruel as Sarina and her friends.
5. The deaths of Shota and Erika are very satisfying as they got what they deserve, despite this.
6. Kaname punching Aya angrily outside of the house was thankfully omitted to tone down the manga's nature.
7. At the end of the episode, Yatsumura gives an interesting and satisfying introduction as she saves Aya from Sarina.
8. It does get better in the next episode, where Aya and Yatsumura get some character bondings, but not much.

Reception

It had received a 2.8 score on Anime News Network.

The episode received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and Madoka fans for its mean-spirited nature. The main subject of criticism is the depiction of school bullying besides sibling abuse. Another criticism is that Aya's teachers, classmates, and parents didn't blame themselves or care about Aya Asagiri's problems.

Trivia

• Kaname's strained relationship with his father and his "high expectations" that he told Aya was hinted at until the 4th episode.
• Makoto Hinomoto, Aya's classmate, made a small cameo, and his role reduced silently.
• Erika drops Mya's collar to reveal that she killed the cat, in the manga, Sarina was the one who dropped the collar to reveal that Erika murdered the cat in a gym basement.

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