I’ll be delving into a new magical girl manga, and it is one that is shrink-wrapped and comes with a warning for explicit content on the front cover. That manga is Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon, which is written by Kenji Saito and illustrated by Shouji Sato. Some of you may be familiar with Shouji Sato’s work; he also illustrated the High School of the Dead manga. That should pretty much give you an idea of what you can expect to see should you read this manga.
The English release has been licensed by Yen Press. This first volume contains chapters one through to four.
Front cover of the first volume of Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon, featuring God Shining Moonlight Howling Moon
During a field trip with their middle school classmates, childhood friends Kaguya and Himawari are abducted by the secret society Millennium. The evil organisation is notorious for the havoc it’s wreaked, but is it possible they’re… not the bad guys? After Kaguya gets a glimpse behind the curtain, everything starts to change, and she becomes privy to the truth underneath the world she lives in. Now that she’s bestowed with the power to transform into a magical girl, what path will she choose?
Picking up a new manga like this one tends to come with a risk, as I could find very little information about it online – so I had no idea what to expect when I started reading it. I am pleased to say, however, that it turns out picking up Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon was quite a good idea, because I found myself enjoying it quite a bit.
What I particularly like is that in this case, the monsters one might typically expect a magical girl to fight are actually the good guys. That is not how society at large sees them, though; as far as they are concerned, Millennium are pure evil and need to be wiped out.
The protagonist of this story, Kaguya Terui, winds up discovering the truth behind Millennium.
She is granted magical girl powers, and able to transform into God Shining Moonlight Howling Moon. It seems that all the magical girls in this series possess grandiose names like that one.
As Howling Moon, she opposes Chaos Six – or, as they are known to the general public, the international defence agency, Six. However, her childhood friend, Himawari, ends up working with Six, which leads to the two clashing.
Kaguya bares the burden of the truth of the world, and soon discovers that the battle between Millennium and Six has the fate of the entire universe resting upon it. This series goes from nought to ten real quick.
As for the explicit content, I was wondering why the warning was necessary as I read the first few chapters; it was pretty typical ecchi stuff. Then chapter four happened, which involved quite a bit of nudity, and I understood.
Besides Kaguya gaining powers and fighting against God Flame Heavenly Maiden Flaming Star, this volume also introduces the antagonists: the Chaos Six. Their goal is made pretty clear: complete and total annihilation. You know, pretty typical evil stuff. Oh, and that evil stuff includes social media; or rather, the immediate need for social approval. Didn’t expect an ecchi magical girl series to have that kind of commentary, but there you go.
Kaguya and Himawari have quite a close friendship, too. They definitely have chemistry, so perhaps they could work their way to being more than friends – you know, after they settle their differences as Howling Moon and Flaming Star.
I took a chance with Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon, and I am glad I did. It is a magical girl story, but it is the monsters who are on the side of good. It’s a pretty interesting way to change up the status quo. If you’re fine with ecchi, then Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howing Moon is a magical girl manga that I would recommend.
Rory Muses 