is a Japanese magical girl manga series written and illustrated by Kentarō Satō. It is a spin-off of ''

Magical Girl Apocalypse ''Magical Girl Apocalypse'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese action- horror magical girl '' shōnen'' manga series written and illustrated by Kentarō Satō. It began publication in July 2012 in the manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Champion'' ...

''. The series is about a severely tormented, abused and suicidal high school student named Aya, who gains the ability to become a magical girl through a mysterious website. She soon finds friends, who are also magical girls like herself, that provide her strength. Aya and her friends also face enemies. The series becomes a climactic race for Aya because she must keep herself and her friends alive. It was serialized on

Akita Shoten is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Teio Akita on 10 August 1948. As of 2020, the company's president is Shigeru Higuchi. Magazines Male-oriented manga magazines ''Shōnen'' magazines * – Bimo ...

's ''Champion Tap!'' website from July 2013 to October 2017 and later in the ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

Weekly Shōnen Champion is a Japanese ''shōnen'' manga magazine published by Akita Shoten. History ''Shōnen Champion'' was first published on July 15, 1969. It has had numerous popular series by manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Shinji Mizushima, Masa ...

'' from October 2017 to August 2019, with its chapters collected in sixteen ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. The manga is licensed for English release in North America by

Seven Seas The "Seven Seas" is a figurative term for all the seas of the known world. The phrase is used in reference to sailors and pirates in the arts and popular culture and can be associated with the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Seven Seas east of Af ...

. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series adaptation produced by production doA aired from April to June 2018.

Plot

Aya Asagiri is a high school girl who has problems both at school with almost lethal bullying and at home from her brother Kaname's physical abuse. One day a suspicious website pops up on her computer screen, showing a creepy-looking person. This person appears to take pity on her and announces that she will grant Aya magical powers. Later at school, Aya finds a gun that mysteriously appears in her locker. She is soon cornered by bullies and with nothing to lose, Aya fires the gun at them. The shot causes the bullies to disappear, but to her horror she finds out that they have somehow been killed by a train nearby. Aya feels as though she had somehow killed them, and is confused to find herself with longer red hair and blood flowing out of her eyes. She later finds out that she is not alone, when a classmate reveals that she is also a magical girl. The classmate, known as Tsuyuno Yatsumura, becomes one of her new friends, while offering to help her get away from "magical hunters" who kill magical girls and only steal their wands. Tsuyuno teaches Aya about the power she has acquired and the physical changes it brings on to her body. However, the two girls do not know the reason for something that resembles a

countdown clock A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

on the website, and they fear it may be something really bad. After meeting a group of other fellow magical girls, all with different powers and abilities of their own, Tsuyuno and Aya attempt to discover what the countdown really means, all while trying to make sure no one knows about their powers.

Media

Manga

''Magical Girl Site'' is written and illustrated by Kentarō Satō. The series ran on

's ''Champion Tap!'' website from July 4, 2013, to October 5, 2017. The series was then transferred to the publisher's '' shōnen'' manga magazine ''

'', where it ran from October 26, 2017, to August 1, 2019. Akita Shoten collected its 139 individual chapters in sixteen ''

'' volumes, released from March 7, 2014, to October 8, 2019. In North America, the series is licensed by

Seven Seas Entertainment Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as w ...

, who announced the acquisition in July 2016. A spin-off series, titled , ran on ''Champion Tap!'' from October 26, 2017, to August 23, 2018.

Volume list

Anime

On September 8, 2017, an anime television adaptation was announced in the seventh volume of the manga. The series premiered on MBS, TBS and BS-TBS on April 7, 2018 and is directed by Tadahito Matsubayashi at production doA, with Takayo Ikami writing the scripts. The series is streaming on Amazon Prime Video worldwide.

Keiji Inai is a Japanese composer, arranger and orchestrator best known for his work in anime and video games. He is affiliated with the music production company Imagine. Biography Inai was born in Hiroshima, Japan. He studied at the Toho Gakuen School o ...

is composing the music. The idol unit i☆Ris performed the opening theme song "Changing point", while

Haruka Yamazaki is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Arts Vision. Yamazaki has had main roles in several anime shows including as Tomoyo Kanzaki in ''When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace'', Lilith Bristol in ''Absolute Duo'', and Mero ...

performed the ending theme song .

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

have licensed the anime and will release it in both digital and home video formats.

Episode list

Reception

The English language version of ''Mahō Shōjo Saito'' (''Magical Girl Site'') has received various reviews from critics. Brittany Vincent from Japanator compared the series to '' Puella Magi Madoka Magica'', calling the former "much darker". Vincent said that ''Magical Girl Site'' takes away everything someone may find dark about Madoka, and slices it "wide open" with its dark plot.

Notes

References

External links

* at ''Champion Tap!'' * - Anime adaptation * {{Animeism 2018 Japanese television series endings Akita Shoten manga Anime series based on manga Animeism Bullying in fiction Child abuse in fiction Dark fantasy anime and manga Domestic violence in fiction Fiction about assassinations Fiction about monsters Magical girl anime and manga Manga adapted into television series Mass murder in fiction NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan School life in anime and manga Sentai Filmworks Seven Seas Entertainment titles Shōnen manga Supernatural anime and manga Works about the Internet