Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka
Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is a Japanese magical girl/military manga series written by Makoto Fukami and illustrated by Seigo Tokiya. Naoya Tamura is the series' military advisor. It was serialized in Square Enix's seinen manga magazine Monthly Big Gangan from June 2015 to February 2021, with its chapters collected in fourteen tankōbon volumes. The series is published in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment.
An anime television series adaptation by Liden Films aired from January to March 2019; the anime series is licensed in North America under Crunchyroll-Funimation partnership.
Plot
When a dangerous race of beasts known as the Disas attacked, spirits from another world formed an alliance with Earth and granted certain girls the power to become magical girls to fight against them. Three years after the war against the Disas, one of the magical girls, Asuka Otori, is trying to return to living a normal life. However, Disas Bears reappear from an unknown source, leading Asuka to come out of retirement and join a squadron of magical girls to fight this new threat.Characters
Magical Five
;Asuka Otori Rapture Asuka;Kurumi Mugen War Nurse Kurumi
;Mia Cyrus Just Cause Mia
;Tamara Volkova Phoenix Tamara
;Lau Peipei Shantoulon Peipei
;Sacchuu
;Chevalier Francine
Babel Brigade
;Brigadier;Abigail / Pick Scissors Abby
;Giess
Other characters
;Yoshiaki Iizuka;Sayako Hata
;Nozomi Makino
;Akinori Makino
;Sena Miura
;Kim Kanth
;Nazani
;Chisato Yonamine / Whiplash Chisato
Disas
Throughout the series various types of disas appear. While they usually have characteristics of stuffed animals stronger ones resemble slasher movie icons. Their danger classes pay homage to many horror villains like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers.Media
Manga
Makoto Fukami and Seigo Tokiya began publishing the series in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan in February 2015. The series was licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment in January 2017.Fourteen tankōbon volumes have been released as of 2021 in Japan. Ten volumes have been released in English so far.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced on July 20, 2018. The anime series is directed by Hideyo Yamamoto and animated by Liden Films, with Makoto Fukami and Norimitsu Kaihō writing the scripts, Yoko Suzuki designing the characters and R.O.N composing the music. It aired from January 12 to March 30, 2019 on MBS and TBS before airing later on BS-TBS, AT-X, CBC. The opening theme is "Kodo" by Nonoc and the ending theme is "Rebel Flag" by Garnidelia. Crunchyroll streamed the series, while Funimation produced an English dub. In Australia and New Zealand, the series is simulcasting on AnimeLab.| No. | Title | Written by | Original air date |
Reception
The first volume was reviewed by an overall positive review by Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network. With an overall grade of B−, Silverman stated “The dark magical girl story may not be new, but Magical Girl Special Ops Asuka shows that it's still a genre with potential. Alternately relying on and eschewing genre tropes, Asuka's struggle with her violent past and magical girl identity stands to be both exciting and psychologically interesting.” She was most critical concerning the relying on tropes without fully committing to the unique characteristics of the storyline and the inconsistency in the artwork. This inconsistency was mostly with the characteristics of the main heroine which contributes to overtly sexualizing the character.Gadget Tsūshin listed "magical spanking", a phrase from the anime's eighth episode, in their 2019 anime buzzwords list.