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EP. REVIEW: Magical Girl Raising Project

The show is not "adding darker content for its own sake." Remember the prologue of the first episode that showed the bloody, dead bodies of over a dozen magical girls? This show indicated it would have dark happenings right from the get go. It's cool if you aren't down with that, but don't try and pretend like this wasn't baked into the premise from the very start.

As the show continues to pile one tragedy on top of another, it starts to have a numbing effect on the viewer. Bringing a character arc to a sudden or heartbreaking end can be very effective from a dramatic standpoint, and we've seen this series use character deaths to good effect in the past. As the audience gets used to it though, those sad endings start to lose some of their punch. Once a viewer has learned to expect the worst possible outcome, it's much harder to leave a lasting impression. At some point, the show needs to find a way to make the audience let its guard down a little.

You know, at first I thought favorite only needed 8 candidates to fight against the shadowy things from the beginning, but now I think he just likes seeing magical girls die.

And while Top Speed's inevitable death was tragic (damn you Swim Swim and your dramatic timing), Sister Nana's death was almost overwrought. Sobbing and despair was perfectly understandable, but moving to alcohol, drugs, and hanging herself with Winterprison's scarf in about a week? Did she have no family to cry/rely on? No other reason to live? Rather than making me feel sad I was more surprised that it happened.

At any rate, it seems like Yunael? figured out either Snow White's or Hardgore Alice's identity, so they're definitely not out of the line of fire. Speaking of Alice, it's nice to get a bit of rationale for why she stalks Snow White - respect for her ideals. Hopefully we get to see more of her backstory (death not included).

The show is not "adding darker content for its own sake." Remember the prologue of the first episode that showed the bloody, dead bodies of over a dozen magical girls? This show indicated it would have dark happenings right from the get go. It's cool if you aren't down with that, but don't try and pretend like this wasn't baked into the premise from the very start.

@ Videogamep - actually, I sort of agree with that. I said in the series discussion thread that I wish this story had been spread out over two cours. That would have given proper time to get to know characters and it would have mitigated the meatgrinder dynamic made inevitable by a shorter than needed time frame.

As the show continues to pile one tragedy on top of another, it starts to have a numbing effect on the viewer. Bringing a character arc to a sudden or heartbreaking end can be very effective from a dramatic standpoint, and we've seen this series use character deaths to good effect in the past. As the audience gets used to it though, those sad endings start to lose some of their punch. Once a viewer has learned to expect the worst possible outcome, it's much harder to leave a lasting impression

Adaptations can certainly deviate from the original in a strive to make it better, though. Then again, playing all these "what ifs" is pretty much pointless, as I can about guarantee that in the alternate world where this show got two cours, people will be complaining that it's much too stretched and they should've only done 12 episodes and get everyone killed off already.