Is it just me, or does she really look like The Creepy Girl from "Frankenweenie"?
Anyway, this entry's focus is another new book that I just picked up at the bookstore today: "Magical Girl Apocalypse". The title itself is a perfect example of mood whiplash, and the cover, if I recall correctly, prominently features our little friend here. (So right away we know it's gonna be good.)
Like Light Yagami, Takao Kasuga and Kyon before him, protagonist Kii soon learns to be careful what he wishes for when he complains that his world is boring. All of a sudden, he and his classmates are sent into a Bizzarro World alternate version of Deadman Wonderland where nearly everyone is massacred by the titular Magical Girl.
(Mind you, the girl herself is never given a name. I only call her that because it is not only eponymous, but the only thing we ever hear her say is "magical".)
What follows is a bizarre cross between a zombie movie and an alien invasion, like an episode of Puella Magi Madoka Magica gone horribly, horribly wrong. Not only do the people killed by the magical girl come back as psychotic zombies with her body and mannerisms but their own faces, but...she isn't the only one! From a magical circle floating in the sky above town, hundreds of other zombie-like magical girl creatures fall to Earth and begin killing and infecting every human in sight.
Kii survives with an ever-dwindling cast of classmates who are gradually picked off one by one. Early on in the story, he declines to save the adorable Tsukune from their high school bullies, only to find himself ironically traveling with all three girls as the situation deteriorates. This serves to add heart to the story, a la Cage of Eden and Deadman Wonderland.
The concept is certainly unique, as are the different varieties of the deadly magical girls. The action sequences where our heroes club to death (?) or run over the zombie hordes are simplistic and easy to follow, so I don't have to find myself mentally telegraphing how a certain move was pulled off, so that's a plus.
With Attack on Titan, we don't know what the Titans are or where they came from-all we know is that they want to eat humans. The magical girls are similar, but different in the fact that we don't even know what they want. That gives them a creepy mystery feel, without the unexplained aspect/feeling that we get from the Titans. Their more human appearance also works in this regard.
My brother has followed the series chapter by chapter online, and he says that even up to then, he has no idea where exactly the writers are going. But I'm feeling like I'll take my chances!
(Let's just hope it doesn't get all political and talky like Attack on Titan did.)
Pick up a copy today!
