THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE EXCEPT FOR THE SECTIONS CLEARLY LABELLED OTHERWISE Magical Girl Site is a manga thay youve probably seen without even knowing it. If you plan on reading it just because of that fact please consider at least skimming through this review and ask yourself: do I really want to read this? In case you dont know what I mean heres the most famous panel from the entire manga: 1000https://i.ur.com/HWn3r2d.png STORY Magical Girl Site is as stated by the description for the manga here on AniList about middle school girl Asagiri Aya who is severely bullied at school and violently abused only physically. However one day a website appears on her computer containing a creepy figure appears granting her magical powers. Now its difficult to elaborate anymore on the story without spoiling it. At times the story is surprisingly good. The plot remains interesting as it develops with lots of ideas and questions being presented over the course of just a few chapters. That being said do be warned that towards the end of the series there is a big reliance on plot twists which isnt necessarily bad but it hurts rereadability. The pacing is... fine I guess. It would be decent if it were not for a sudden story arc at the halfway mark of the manga. Minor spoilers regarding the arc: Additionally the ending of the story is a little confusing if you havent read Magical Girl Apocalypsehttps://anilist.co/manga/70175/MagicalGirlApocalypse/. I didnt read it and it was a little jarring when events that never occured within Magical Girl Site were shown and characters never introduced were given a brief spotlight. Naturally they did absolutely nothing and their cameo provided no value other than to confuse the reader. 1000https://i.ur.com/6CFwuiK.png Characters Now within Magical Girl Site almost every character is fucking batshit insane. Just to list a few examples: Brother viciously beating his sister everyday for the sake of letting off stress? Why not? A 14 year old girl regularly torturing a guy? Yup. Another different 14 year old girl who casually murders people because she was told to? Of course. The most popular idol in Japan absolutely oozing homicidal tendencies? Couldnt live without it. YET ANOTHER 14 year old girl that may as well be roleplaying as Light Yagami? Got it. The only character that does not seem to suffer from being a psycho is the main character Asagiri Aya. Her character likely stands out because of how much she contrasts her peers. She suffers from the standard I dont want anyone to be hurt anymore cliche but it just works within the context of Magical Girl Site. She is portrayed as a very real 14 year old girl who as expected does not want to go around killing people. Her realistic portrayal is one of the things that keeps this series grounded. Additionally the fact she felt like she could be a real person was the reason I was able to empathize with her and the reason I wanted her to find happiness. My second favourite character within the story is Yatsumura Tsuyuno a girl who starts off as enigmatic but comes to be Ayas best friend. Yatsumura is a fairly interesting character who primarily shines in her relationship with Aya. I cannot elaborate whatsoever without spoiling but Yatsumura despite having some screws loose managed to warm my heart and made me feel the only real emotions other than disgust I experienced while reading this manga. Finally the last character Ill name is a side character: Suirenji Kiyoharu. Kiyoharu is a transgender girl who is not introduced until later in the manga. However her emotions are probably some of the most real feeling within the entire series and it sucks that she got such little time in the spotlight but I got attached to her nonetheless. Theres a huge list of characters Im not naming that have prominent roles within the manga but I feel they are either terrible people or are just not interesting. 1000https://i.ur.com/qwjDuni.png ART The series has some pretty extraordinary art. Quite frequently there are scenes that look like theyre straight out of an anime. A lot of the settings are very pretty and detailed as well despite the fact theyre just the background. I cant really say it gets better as it gets on as the art seems to maintain its quality for the entire read. Heres some panels I picked out while skimming through the manga: 1000https://i.ur.com/G6S6E1M.png 400https://i.ur.com/naau3h5.png 1000https://i.ur.com/ScEe9ak.png 800https://i.ur.com/F1dP6tS.png PROBLEMATIC CONTENT Now... the biggest problem in Magical Girl Site is the nature of a good chunk of its content. The following section will have mentions of rape and transphobia so do be warned. Starting with the former this manga is plagued with threats of rape and in a few cases just straight up implied rape. I cannot fathom how the author can take such a topic so lightly for him to constantly throw it around. It does not get any less repulsive the more it is used as a threat in the manga. Not only that but the author even tries to redeem a fucking rapist. Minor spoilers ahead: Regarding the aforementioned character Kiyoharu there is a significant amount of transphobia when she is present. Even the characters meant to be her friend will refer to her as a he or as a boy. Hell even the AUTHOR refers to her as a he under a description of her character despite. Ironically in the same description the author writes that she think shes a girl paraphrasing obviously. She is also brutally bullied at school for her gender identity. Im not personally transgender but nonetheless it rubs me the wrong way. Now for an issue that some may not find to be that bad but because of laws in a number of countries: its bad. The issue is the authors depiction of underage characters as nude. Now thankfully the author does not show genitalia but does show censored naked male characters and shows topless underage girls with... unfortunately... some features drawn God why must I write that sentence?. Its pretty selfexplanatory. If its something youre... I guess fine with then so be it. However youve been warned if youre not OK with something like that. CONCLUSION Magical Girl Site is a manga that has everything going for it: good characters great power system a plethora of plot points that would allow for an amazing story and superb artwork. Unfortunately it suffers from the authors sick imagination and idea of what stakes should be in a story. Given some better writing and the omission of the disgusting perversions the author shows off it honestly could be one of my favourite mangas. Instead it ended up as something just... good. If youre just interested in the dark magical girl subgenre I highly suggest rewatching Puella Magi Madoka Magicahttps://anilist.co/anime/9756/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica/ or even reading ithttps://anilist.co/manga/54457/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica/ instead. If any part of this review irked you then theres a good chance youll enjoy it less than me. That being said: make your own decisions. Have fun. 400https://i.ur.com/bPajd5q.png Quick final note I wanted to make. This was actually my first review I suffered immensely writing this as I procrastinated studying for physics but who cares about that? If you have any feedback please leave a message on my profile