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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.

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==
Characters
Magical Five :Originally, a squadron of 11 magical girls which took part in the war with the Disas. The Legendary Five represents the survivors of that war. The squad's motto was: "Who laughs last, laughs best..." ; : : The former leader of the magical girls who fought against the Disas three years ago. She tries to live a normal life to get over her trauma of the war, including her parents' death at the hands of the Disas, but is dragged back into the fray by the new threat. Her magical device is a karambit which can be extended to a sword that can cut through any magical defense at the cost of a lot of magic power. ; : : A massive cyborg who was formerly a Somali child soldier who was severely injured in battle. He was rescued by Brigadier and Abigail and augmented with a cybernetic body, made to kill Magical Girls. He is responsible for giving Chisato her new leg and turning her into a Magical Girl. He was killed by Asuka during the battle at the 6th Naha. Other characters ; : :A colonel of the JGSDF who heads up the Magical Girl Operations Development Unit; M-Squad for short. The M-Squad is an anti–magic task force which poses as a Maid Café. He is Asuka's legal guardian. ; : :Asuka's civilian classmate who is close friends with Nozomi. She was nearly shot by Kim Kanth, which prompted Asuka to return to being a Magical Girl to save her. She is kidnapped by the Babel Brigade and transformed into a new illegal magical girl, under the name Sehkmet. She died after being separated from the Ring of Ouroboros, which was holding her magic power in check, causing her body to turn to ash. At the end of the manga, however, she is revived by Asuka’s hidden revival magic. In the anime, Sayako remains alive and well, and is never converted into an illegal magical girl unlike the manga. ; : :Asuka's bubbly and cheerful civilian classmate and Sayako's friend. Her father works for the Public Safety branch of the police. ; : :Nozomi's father who works for the Public Safety intelligence office and will interrogate - torture - suspects for information. ; : :The firm and cold Commissioner of Public Safety, a woman with wavy brown-red hair and brown eyes. When Nozomi was kidnapped, her superiors refused to mobilize her people as they weren't equipped to handle a magical threat and would not request assistance from JSDF's M-Squad as they believed Nozomi's death could be used politically to secure additional funding without indebting themselves to the armed forces. Working around this, she unofficially partners with Colonel Iizuka since they both know that the Magical Girls are the loophole to this political mess. ; : :The leader of the East Asia United Front terrorist group that orchestrated a massacre in Iidabashi. ; : : A young Armenian witch hired by a Russian mafia as protection while they illegally traded for magical items. She has a magical item that lets her throw fireballs. She was defeated by Asuka and later interrogated and tortured by Kurumi, who starts treating her like a dog. She and Chisato are recruited to be traded to Commissioner Miura for her newly-created magical response force and are given magical collars that prevent betrayal. ; / : :An Okinawan girl who used to be a karate student before losing her leg in an accident that also killed her divorced mother. Her biological father tried to offer her to the sex industry for money by revenge. She eventually becomes a Magical Girl for Babel Brigade and is given a new prosthetic leg. Her magical device is a bracelet that turns into a whip or bandage around her hand to increase the strength of her blows. It is later revealed Babel was behind the car accident as they could sense her magical potential and wanted to stress her enough to make her into a Magical Girl that would join them. She is captured by Kurumi and eventually joins Miura's new squad along with Nazani and are given magical collars that prevent betrayal. 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==
Media
Manga Makoto Fukami and Seigo Tokiya began publishing the series in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan in February 2015. Fourteen tankōbon volumes have been released 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. ==Reception==
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. ==References==
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