Mahou Shoujo JihenMagical Girl Incident Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links   68q3m

A sincere and sweet approach to merging the magical girl and office worker genres, it offers a nice balance to fans of both. Whether you grew up with shows like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, or you like office worker slice-of-life works like Wotakoi, it's a sweet balance that indulges both. Despite the somewhat parody/subversion nature, it never feels like the manga is mocking either genre; instead leaning into the strengths of both. Unfortunately, the work didn't have the chance to draw out a lot of its potential because of its cancellation, but it did focus on the more important plot beats and wrap them ... up neatly, in my opinion.

Magical Girl Incident was a nice motivational read. This short story sends a beautiful message to the reader: even in dark times, a small light of hope can be found. A great example is the protagonist. Ever since he was a child, Hiromi Sakura dreamed of becoming a hero or someone that inspires others. However, he became a salaryman that works in a black corporate company. Sakura’s boss always did power harassment and often gave overtime to his subordinates. While our main character thought all hope for change was lost, an unexpected event would completely turn his life around. He gained a new opportunity to ... live his childhood dream, to become a hero. Receiving a new chance in life is an important theme in the story, and it extends to other characters too. I find that Magical Girl Incident’s best aspect is the moral lessons we learn as a reader.

The plot itself is simple: magical beings defeat nightmares. The magical beings are average people that can turn into magical heroes, while nightmares can be simplified as the manifestation of a person’s dark thoughts. Most of the fights are comical but there serious moments too.

The author also drops a lot of important information about the magical worldbuilding, which was very interesting. Some gave answers, while others left more questions that weren’t there at the first place. By the end of the manga a lot of those questions are left unanswered. While I liked the manga, for that exact reason it felt like the first arc of a franchise and not a standalone story.

On the positive side, Magical Girl Incident caught my eye in the first place because of the really pretty covers. Luckily, you can judge it by its cover. The art style is very nice to look at and fits its magical aspect. The character designs are neat and some pretty, the nightmares sound like their name while still having the simple art style. The ing was slightly more focused on the dialogue but it’s made in a way that isn’t boring. Although what really stood out was the occasional big s. Those s all had dynamic posing and very good composition.

Overall, this manga was pretty enjoyable. It’s comforting to read and short, so it’s easy to give it a chance. The characters are mostly relatable or likable, with the exception of the protagonist’s boss but he’s a foil so it’s expected. The art is also definitely worth checking. For the magical worldbuilding: it’s not bad but could work in some aspects.

Fortunately, unlike the cover, this book is Not a minor romance, but an action-comedy gender-bender magical girl genre.

=Some Spoilers ahead=

<b><u>Short review:</u></b>
A middle aged man turns into a superhero teen girl that can shoot heart beams, but chooses to be responsibleTM about it by continuing to go to work at day while fighting inky monsters at night. By using talk-no-jutsu, the power of friendship, (and some violence), he makes many more cosplay-crossdressers friends.

Come the whacky adventure of Sakura as he juggles the crushing life of a Japanese salaryman, an anime crime-fighting cosplayer heart-throb, all the while convincing the readers that there is hope in fellow ... humans, friendship, and tomorrow.

<b><u>Long review</u></b>
This is a story of Hiromi Sakura, a normal salaryman who tolerates his boring job as a way to feed himself amidst the buried dreams of being a hero. One day, while saving a little girl from a monster, he was transformed into a magical girl, a Henshin Japanese troupe of superpowered heroine. He is then thrusted into a zany world of crime-fighting magical crossdressers, secret magic police, and evil-company conspiracies. As Sakura grows as a magical girl, his unconditional love to his coworkers and strangers warms them into his friends and family.

This story is a refreshing take on the magical girls genre that uses the relatable day-in-day-out worklife to relate with growing adults while keeping the inner child satisfied with its upbeat and cartoonish, yet mature, tone of the original magical girls genre to the likes of Sailor Moon.

What keeps you reading is the extremely fun and relatable characters you’ll get to know. For example, the protagonist (MC) is your typical everydayman trope, but has a kind and caring attitude with the wisdom only attained by his age that could quickly turn strangers and foes alike into allies. In addition, he has a realistic understanding of the absurdity of the situation of him, a middle aged man, transforming into a magical girl, leading to many hilarious misunderstandings (which thankfully all gets eventual resolution).

Every interaction is a colorful spark of chemistry as the quirky characters bounce off each other very well; one scene can make you laugh your guts out while another makes you sniff rivers of tears. The author amazingly nailed the magical girl’s core of connection into an adult salary life setting. My favorite is the MC and his sidekick’s friendship, which was very wholesome and fun to watch as it evolves from coworkers to allies-in-combat to best of friends (mixing and meshing in no particular order). Relationships are so important to the story that it drives the plot midway forward, such as when <spoiler> MC, as an experienced salaryman, adopts a trainee, and that trainee later becomes a major character that will motivate MC to continue crime-fighting </ spoiler>.

The artstyle is clean and easy to read, enhancing the designs that are fantastical and zany, typical of the magical girls genre. As an action-comedy, some s scream badxss anime-potential while others are meme-worthy gold, especially the multitude of faces by MC and their sidekick. Though a certain character’s design is inconsistent throughout, all character’s wardrobe has a meaning and there is a sense of satisfaction as you get to watch the artwork improve through each issue, with the 3rd volume holding the most banger of fight scenes, even talk-no-jutsu ones.

As you might have noticed, the tone is silly but mature, with the plot often containing broken Gen Z humor where random things happen cuz-why-not, and actions escalate real fast. But it’s all good since every detail is plot relevant, with one of the biggest foreshadowing hidden in plain sight since the first transformation chapter.

Note that there are 2 major tone-shifts: midway when the stakes grow from a villain-of-the-day to the major antagonist, to switching up another final antagonist. The setting also changed accordingly, from MC’s workplace to a school to a battlefield. This change is done quite smoothly since at this point we mostly care about the characters & their dynamics, but it could throw some people off if they miss the work setting, barely mentioned again until the extra side story-comic (omake) at the end.

The biggest con would be that previously mentioned story quality suddenly dropped in the early part of that 3rd volume: the story felt rushed, like it had to say more but had to cut-off, so it washed down a character, introduced a temporary questionable minor romance relationship (emphasis on temporary because of age-regression magic) that would be immediately glossed over afterwards and leaned too heavily on flashbacks back-to-back. Nevertheless, 3rd volume boasts the bangers of fight scenes and serious moments are still there. So, I would still recommend hanging on to the end. Afterall, this is the few series that could end and ends well with few loose ends, wrapping up in a very heart-warming, satisfying, happy conclusion.