Day 3: Magical Girl Site by Kentaro Sato


 

Many manga fans are familiar with the iconic and uplifting magical girls series like Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon and CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura. Some creators add darker twists into their narratives to give the characters’ struggle to reach the light a heavier weight. Seven Seas Entertainment brings Kentaro Sato’s second grim manga Magical Girl Site to English readers, showing his take on those that obtain the “gift.”

Misery and despair fills Aya Asagiri’s life. Nowhere seems safe for her when her classmates bully her at their middle school and her brother abuses her at home under their parent’s radar. Soon after the cruel school girls take the only comfort she had, a strange window opens on her computer with an odd woman saying that she chose Aya to receive magic. The following day, she finds a strange looking gun in her school locker. She hopes it is just a toy and never needs to use it, but the gun becomes her savior when her female bullies bring an older student to violate her. The shot takes her attacker and one of the girls away from her right into the nearby railway where incoming train takes their lives. Absolutely terrified of her new power, she tries to hide though fails when her classmate, Tsuyuno Yatsumura rescues her from another attack using her magical “wand.” Aya learns the terrible truth about their powers and its ominous source from her new ally but both don’t realize the impending battles they will face are just beyond the horizon.

Some readers may be familiar with Sato’s first work Magical Girl Apocalypse and might notice that the story of Site is on a smaller scale compared to his survival thriller Apocalypse. Site is closer to other magical girl plot lines with protagonists Aya and Tsuyuno gaining abilities and weapons from a mysterious being that transform them. It appears at least in the first volume Sato strays away from the frills and sparkles and gives a small amount of changes to the girls that are unique to other series. Site definitely deserves its “Older Teen” rating because it is not for those faint of heart. There are many tragic and traumatic events of violence so reader discretion is advised before picking this series up. This manga is for those that enjoy the distorted takes on popular genres.

Volume Two will be hitting shelves in May then Three in August. For more information on Magical Girl Site, visit Seven Seas Entertainment’s site. They also have a page for Magical Girl Apocalypse which the publisher will be releasing Volume 12 in July.