Thoughts on Magical Girl Raising Project Volume 1

This is the second post I have written with the title ‘Thoughts on Magical Girl Raising Project Volume 1′. This time however, I will be looking at the first volume of the manga adaptation of the original light novel.
The manga adaptation was originally serialised in Kadokawa Shoten’s Comp Ace magazine between September 26, 2014 and October 26, 2015. It was collected into two volumes after that.
The manga is illustrated by Pochi Edoya. The manga is being published in English by Yen Press.
This first volume contains five chapters – or ‘episodes’ as they are labelled here, as well as an extra chapter.

Cover of volume 1 of the manga, featuring Snow White and several other magical girls

Sugar and spice – but not playing nice!
Magical girls like Snow White and La Pucelle have dreamed of the day they’d become one of the lucky few chosen to protect N City. But those dreams quickly turn into a nightmare when the Magical Girl Raising Project management office issues a decree – there are simply too many magical girls! Oops! Time to cull the number by… half? Half sounds good. Don’t worry – retirement just means… you die. Good luck, girls!

I’ll try to keep things spoiler-free as I share my thoughts on the Magical Girl Raising Project manga, though I will be comparing it to both the original light novel and the anime adaptation. Don’t worry; I won’t give away the fates of the characters, and if anything like that does happen to crop up I’ll be vague about it.

The manga begins with some colour pages showing Snow White helping a girl find her door key. Thanks to the light novel, I know exactly what was going through the girl’s mind at the time, but the manga steers clear of that.
After that introduction, the manga actually gets straight into the plot with the first victim already eliminated from the game. There are some flashback scenes that focus on the victim.

As you’d probably expect, the plot follows closely along with the original light novel and anime, so you’ll be in familiar territory if you’ve experienced either of them.
Pochi Edoya’s art is pretty good, though this manga adaptation does feel like the one that has the most fanservice. You can see up Calamity Mary’s skirt on more than one occasion, and Swim Swim has fairly prominent nipples under her one-piece swimsuit. Of course, people will have different views on the fanservice. I feel that it goes with Calamity Mary’s character, whilst with Swim Swim I find it somewhat excessive.
Also, the manga does not shy away from the more violent scenes. The anime would generally position them just off-screen, and often show characters reacting. Here, the bloody violence is on full display.
Actually, Pochi Edoya also does a really good job of capturing the despair the various characters experience as well. Considering the nature of this story, there is more than enough despair to go around.

Unlike the anime, the manga manages to avoid obvious death flags. However, this comes at the cost of not expanding on certain characters’ stories, just like in the original light novel. There are a couple of characters that the reader will get to know a little better, but just don’t expect the same depth the anime went into.

Whilst I enjoyed experiencing Magical Girl Raising Project for the third time, I still maintain that the best way to experience it is to watch the anime. Of course, this is only the first volume; there is one more before the manga concludes its plot. It’s possible that volume two may have something that could change my mind.

This manga is an enjoyable adaptation that gets into the plot right away. Whilst it doesn’t have the same level of characterisation as the anime does, it is still something I would recommend checking – particularly for fans of magical girls, death games or both.