Magical Girl Raising Project(魔法少女育成計画,Mahō Shōjo Ikusei Keikaku) is a Japanese light novel series written by Asari Endō and illustrated by Maruino. Takarajimasha has published nine volumes since 2012 under their Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! Bunko imprint. The series is licensed in English by Yen Press. A manga adaptation with art by Pochi Edoya was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine between September 2014 and October 2015. An anime television series adaptation by Lerche aired in Japan between October and December 2016.
Mahou shoujo ikusei keikaku death predictions magical girl raising project
Plot
A popular social game known as the Magical Girl Raising Project has the ability to grant players a 1-in-10,000 chance of becoming a real-life magical girl. Each of the magical girls possess unique abilities and earn Magical Candies by protecting people and performing good deeds. However, at some point, the administration has decided that sixteen magical girls in a certain city is too many, announcing they will cut the number in half by having the magical girl with the fewest Magical Candies each week lose their powers. As the rules of the game become more twisted, the girls eventually find themselves dragged into a life-or-death battle against each other.
Characters
Snow White (スノーホワイト,Sunō Howaito) / Koyuki Himekawa (姫河 小雪,Himekawa Koyuki)
Voiced by: Nao TōyamaA well-known magical girl within N-City who has always dreamed of becoming a Magical Girl. She doesn't actually care about gathering candies and just wants to help people. She wears a white schoolgirl uniform covered with flowers as her Magical Girl outfit. Her ability allows her to hear the voices of people in danger. She survives the elimination game without killing anyone. However, her ideology is shattered at a result of what she had seen. After Unmarked, she became a prolific crime fighter in the Land of Magic, earning her the nickname of "Magical Girl Hunter". There are a number of people who see her as the ideal magical girl, including Pythie Frederica and Dark Cutie. However, Fal, who knows her the best, worries that she is a broken girl who has lost sight of her ideals, putting up the facade of still believing in what she initially believed in.
Voiced by: Manami NumakuraA high school student living alone. As a result of always having been bullied because of her family troubles, she is an unsocial and aggressive person whom doesn't run from a fight. She wears a ninja-style attire as her magical girl outfit. Her ability allows her to never miss a shot with her shurikens. She lives through the elimination game, though lost both her left eye and arm. She now resolves to become more open to others. In Limited Ripple is in the investigators' team, and is seriously injured by Rain Pou. She is thought missing in action, and Snow White actively tries to find her. Ripple was cared back to health by Pythie Frederica, and placed under a mind-altering magic. She remains brainwashed the entirety of JOKERS through to last chapter of ACES, during which time she does Pythie's bidding, including killing Monoshiri Mi-Chan and Premium Sachiko. At the end of ACES, Pythie releases the mind control, and Ripple loses any memory of what she did while brainwashed. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Nemurin (ねむりん) / Nemu Sanjou (三条 合歓,Sanjō Nemu)
Voiced by: Yumiri HanamoriA 24-year old unemployed lazy girl, who still enjoys helping people. She wears pajamas and has cloud-like creatures coming out of her hair as her magical girl outfit. Her ability allows her to enter other people's dreams, helping to fight off any nightmares, although the Magical Candies she earns in dreams don't count towards her total in the real world. She is the first magical girl to die after placing last in the first ranking.
Voiced by: Yōko HikasaAn adult female office worker of indeterminate age. As a magical girl, she is a self-proclaimed Queen based in an abandoned temple in N-City along with her group of Magical Girl followers. She wears a royal princess-like attire as her magical girl outfit. Her ability allows her to use her scepter to force anyone in front of her to obey her commands. She is the second magical girl to die after being betrayed by Swim Swim and placing last in the second ranking.
La Pucelle (ラ・ピュセル,Ra Pyuseru) / Souta Kishibe (岸辺 颯太,Kishibe Sōta)
Voiced by: Ayane SakuraA close friend and ally of Snow White, revealed to be Koyuki's male childhood friend who also loves magical girls. Despite being a boy, his body becomes that of a girl's while transformed. As a magical girl, La Pucelle wears a Dragon Knight style attire, with draconic motifs in her armor as her outfit. Her ability allows her to change the length and size of her sword at will. La Pucelle is the third magical girl to die after being killed by Cranberry.
Voiced by: Satomi AraiA robotic magical girl, who tends to care more about financial gain than helping others. Her ability allows her to obtain a random futuristic gadget from her backpack once per day, but even she cannot predict what it will be, and at the end of the day, it disappears. She is the fourth magical girl to die, killed by Hardgore Alice upon attempting to kill Snow White.
Voiced by: Satsumi MatsudaOne of the two "Peaky Angels" twins and Minael's sister, allied with Ruler. She wears an angelic-style dress, and has one wing on her left side for her outfit. Her ability allows her to shapeshift into any living being. She is the fifth magical girl to die after she is killed by Winterprison.
Voiced by: Yū KobayashiA powerful N-City magical girl, as well as Sister Nana's lover. She wears a thick winter coat as her Magical Girl outfit. Her ability lets her create walls of any form, depending on the terrain. She is the sixth magical girl to die, dying from blood loss following attacks from the Peaky Angels and Swim Swim.
Calamity Mary (カラミティ・メアリ,Karamiti Meari) / Naoko Yamamoto (山本 奈緒子,Yamamoto Naoko)
Voiced by: Kikuko InoueA magical girl hired by the N-City's criminal underground. She wears a cowboy hat and has a wild-west style attire as her magical girl outfit. Her ability allows her to magically enhance any weapon she uses. She is the seventh magical to die when she shot a piece of glass that Ripple threw at her, causing her to be impaled by the glass shards (in the anime, the shards were a distraction and she was killed by taking a shuriken to the head).
Top Speed (トップスピード,Toppu Supīdo) / Tsubame Murota (室田 つばめ,Murota Tsubame)
Voiced by: Yumi UchiyamaA cheerful veteran magical girl who is paired up with Ripple. She wears a classical black witch outfit and a witch hat as her magical girl outfit. Her ability lets her fly at breakneck speeds on her broomstick, Rabbit Swallow. She talks casually with a "ore" male self-referencing pronoun and is actually the pregnant 19 year old housewife of a young politician. She is the eighth magical girl to die after being stabbed in the back by Swim Swim; Her unborn child died with her.
Voiced by: Saori HayamiA veteran N-City Magical Girl and Weiss Winterprison's lover. In real life, she is a sweet girl who lives with Shizuka and has dedicated her career to protecting the city and bringing a message of peace. She wears a nun-like dress as her magical girl outfit. Her ability allows her to enhance a person's physical capabilities. Despite being much stronger than Weiss, Nana often relies on her for protection in order to fulfill her fairytale fantasies; this ultimately proves to be her undoing, as Winterprison's death completely breaks her, since she had gone out looking to cause a confrontation with Swim Swim's group in order to be "saved" by Winterprison. She commits suicide by hanging following Winterprison's death, becoming the ninth magical girl to die.
Hardgore Alice (ハードゴア・アリス,Hādogoa Arisu) / Ako Hatoda (鳩田 亜子,Hatoda Ako)
Voiced by: Rina HidakaA young magical girl, she was recently chosen and became the 16th magical girl of N-City. She wears an Alice in Wonderland-style dress, draped in black as her magical girl Outfit. Her ability lets her regenerate any damage taken, allowing her to survive even beheading or dismemberment. She strongly admires Snow White, who helped her out prior to becoming a magical girl. She is the tenth magical girl to die, killed in her untransformed state by Swim Swim.
Minael (ミナエル,Minaeru) / Mina Amasato (天里 美奈,Amasato Mina)
Voiced by: Risae MatsudaOne of the two "Peaky Angels" twins and Yunael's sister, allied with Ruler. She wears an angelic-style dress, and has one wing on her right side for her outfit. Her ability allows her to shapeshift into any non-living object. She is the eleventh magical girl to die after a failed ambush on Cranberry.
Musician of the Forest, Cranberry (森の音楽家クラムベリー,Mori no Ongakuka Kuramuberī)
Voiced by: Megumi OgataA recluse living within the ruins in the outskirts of N-City. Her outfit is decorated with wildflowers and leaves, and her appearance is that of an elf. Her ability lets her manipulate sound waves, which she can use to enhance her hearing or distract her opponents. It is revealed that Cranberry was once a part of a previous magical girl selection exams, relishing in the thought of killing others and becoming Fav's master, changing the rules of the exam into a lethal one. She is twelfth magical girl to die after being killed by Tama. Cranberry's influence prevails over the entire series, both through her direct diciple Melville in Restart and those merely inspired by her such as Keek and Pythie Frederica.
Voiced by: Asuka NishiA slightly shy and nervous girl, allied with Ruler. She wears a dog costume, complete with large paw gloves as her magical girl outfit. Her ability allows her to create a hole, up to 1m in diameter and 5m in depth, on any surface. While she is less competent than her other teammates in Ruler's team, she was happy just to be able to enter the team. She is the thirteenth magical girl to die, killed by Swim Swim upon discovering her identity.
Swim Swim (スイムスイム,Suimu Suimu) / Ayana Sakanagi (坂凪 綾名,Sakanagi Ayana)
Voiced by: Inori MinaseA rather quiet girl, she is allied with and extremely loyal to Ruler. Eventually though, she becomes disillusioned with Ruler's leadership and launches a scheme to overthrow her, resulting in Ruler's death and Swim Swim taking her place. She wears a white swimsuit with headphones as her magical girl outfit. Her ability lets her transform herself and anything around her into liquid, although this form is weak against light and sound. She is the fourteenth and final magical girl to die in the first volume, killed by Ripple.
Fav (ファヴ,Favu)
Voiced by: Kurumi MamiyaThe mascot character of the Magical Girl Raising Project social game and the familiar spirit who oversees the magical girl project. He orders the magical girls to fight each other claiming that the city's mana supply will be depleted causing the city's destruction if the number of magical girls is not reduced. In actuality, he is an overseer who collaborated with his master, Cranberry, to turn the dull, boring selection exam process for magical girls into a deathmatch. He is finally destroyed after Ripple destroys his terminal.
Sumire (すみれ)
One of Koyuki's friends from school. She has short wavy light brown hair.
Light novels
The first light novel volume was published on June 8, 2012 under Takarajimasha's Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! Bunko imprint. Ten volumes have been published as of December 2016. Yen Press has licensed the series in English and will release the first novel in Summer 2017.
Manga
A manga adaptation illustrated by Pochi Edoya was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine between September 26, 2014 and October 26, 2015. It was collected into two tankōbon volumes released between June 26, 2015 and March 26, 2016. An adaptation of Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart, illustrated by Nori Senbei, began serialization in Comp Ace from June 2016. The first tankōbon volume was released on September 30, 2016. A spin-off manga illustrated by Ryouta Yuzuki, Magical Girl Raising Project FTP, began release on the Kono Light Novel wa Sugoi! WEB service from August 29, 2016.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation by Lerche aired in Japan between October 1, 2016 and December 17, 2016 and is being simulcast by Crunchyroll. The anime will be released across four Blu-ray & DVD volumes containing three episodes each. The opening theme is "Sakebe" (叫べ,Shout) by Manami Numakura, while the ending theme is "Dreamcatcher" by Nano.
