In Alina's defense, there is one easy-to-miss detail that hints she wasn't completely herself, if you pay attention to her eyes, normally Alina, even in Holy form, would have normal eyes, but when she appeared in chapter 10, you can clearly see her eyes are partially dulled out, hinting that she had started to lose control to the Uwasa

I was staring at the two pictures and going back and forth between them because the colors were the exact same shade, before I finally saw that Holy Alina has two sets of sparkles in her eyes while Paint Blood Alina only has one. Props to you for noticing that because I didn't.

Minor personal gripes aside, so much for Alina not being completely deranged.

The exact path might be overboard, but it makes sense for something like this to happen: Alina always called Eve her "best artwork" and never did express much interest in any other aspect of it.

Yeah I think it's a case of dashed optimism for me. It's a bit similar to the shock from Rebellion, where I thought they could all get their perfect happy ending but nope. After seeing her help Nemu/Touka/Ui, I was starting to think "Alina can be redeemed too". But nope, that is just how she is. Not like she had any personal attachment to Ui, so doesn't make sense for her to change from her reveal. At least Yachiyo put in a good word for her to state she probably thought she had good intentions.

last edited at Jun 23, 2020 1:07PM

Has the "two lesbians literally have no idea how to do it" trope ever happened in real life?

Through sheer probability it has to have have. And if you're talking about a general level of not knowing how to do it, then yes. Until every society, school, community, family, etc. everywhere somehow manages to provide explicit education on how any individual can have sex, there will always be people unsure of how to do things like that.

This is really cute.

In 10-4-1, I don't get why they translated Rika and Ren's lines towards Hinano differently, when they both call her "Miyako-senpai". They've also never bothered to translate honorifics before, so it's strange they suddenly use "senpai".

Minor personal gripes aside, so much for Alina not being completely deranged. I'm not even going to bother trying to go into that mess with the Fur God Uwasa right now because I haven't figured out why they felt it was necessary to include. Stuck on 10-4-2, so going to revisit that fight tomorrow.

it doesn't make using rumors to lure in muggles or attacking and trying to kill fellow magical girls okay just because they want to "save" them by using the Doppel system- which of course only extends to Kamihama and not the rest of the world meaning any magical girl outside the city is still screwed since no doppels and no hope for salvation from an external force (Ultimate Madoka).

Quick note on this, that's the exact plot point all of the Magius's promises lie on. The purpose of all this energy they were trying to get from Eve eating Walpurgisnacht was to expand Kamihama's force field to the entire world. That's why in chapter 9, when Iroha and the rest are fighting the remaining Feathers left in Fendt Hope, some of the Feathers counter-argued Iroha by saying they or the people they cared about are outside of Kamihama. As things were then, salvation wouldn't apply to them. But the Magius promised the doppel system would be expanded worldwide, so that doppel salvation could be for everyone.

With the anniversary, I'd so been hoping they would release IroYachi and Madokami at the same time. I wanted to get the duo unit for sure before trying to roll for Madokami. Now though I'll have to hope I get lucky with Madokami. And no way I'm 4s-ing either of them. Might not even have enough rolls left to try for a 2s. Guess it is more time to save for IroYachi though.

Edit: Since it hasn't been said yet, the new bgm is badass and pleasant to listen to. Matches the tone of whatever's going on well.

Having just read through the entire page of Nemu/Touka comments, I'm just happy the Madoka series has continued to deliver on morally grey characters and scenarios.

last edited at Jun 23, 2020 3:28AM

Ugh this jumped into sex abruptly. And I was hoping there'd be more follow-through with the first few pages highlighting Claudine's loneliness. But it was this author's first published manga so they've got room to grow. Art wasn't bad.

the latter comes from her starting to talk about how sleepiness is caused by proteins in the brain, and then falling asleep mid-sentence while asking for her teddy... she is that mix of "crazy super genius" and "actually an 11 year old" and will flip between the two in the same line of thought at times...

That's adorable. I'm glad we get to see more nuance to the Magius now.

So the stupid book still exist. Based on the way you talked about it, I thought you were implying that it was just a way Touka remembered gaining knowledge about magical girls after Ui was erased, but no, it was actually a thing, which honestly, could easily be removed from the story and it would not made any difference.

Hmm this is just speculation again, but I'm pretty sure the book is and will be important, given the one thing I'm 95% confident part 2 is about. It clearly implies there are normal people aware of the existence of magical girls, something that was assumed to be impossible. And maybe the book really did say Kyuubey is a network intelligence. We don't know everything Touka reads in the book. I liked the introduction of that fact actually, since it further solidifies Kyuubey's collective consciousness thing as being like a computer's.

What I don't understand is why as soon as Ui gained the power, she started collecting them unconsciously. Other Magius clearly had 100% control over their power and didn't use it unwillingly, so I don't understand why Ui is the only exception.

I wondered about that too. If it's later confirmed that Ui's power is passive while the other two magius's are active, that would explain that. It's also possible she had less control over her powers from the start. This would be like how Touka and Nemu instantly were at "100% understanding" with the magical girl stuff while Ui was only at 70% at first and needed another repetition before getting it. Maybe her power was the same.

Also not as much plot hole, but you really wonder just how much Ui was in control of small Kyuubey, because she was supposed to lay dormant, but it seemed like she decided when to give memories and also the fact she stuck to Iroha would imply she was recognizing her as her sister. After all after they stripped Kyuubey of his power, what was left was supposed to be empty shell without any will of its own.

Ui definitely didn't have full control or consciousness, since she clearly says at the end of 10-3 that everything that'd happened seemed like a bad nightmare. Also if she were fully in control she would have tried to do a lot more to help Iroha whenever Iroha was in danger. At most her spirit provided the empty Kyuubey some basic instincts. As such, I don't think she was actively providing memories but rather direct contact with her spirit restored Iroha's memories.

I have to admit though, I really liked idea of twist being either Ui made some kind of wish to save magical girls or she was permanently fused with Rumor, which in both cases erased her existence and turned her into kinda lesser Madokami, so it's a shame it's another red herring.

Same. I thought that's what it might end up being too.

In fact it even explains why Alina was portrayed the way she was, because her personality was also twisted, so she actually isn't a complete psycho and while she usually don't care about others, it doesn't mean she isn't capable of genuinely bonding with other people.

One of my favorite parts of 10-3 definitely had to be seeing Alina actually caring about people. I was so shocked when she immediately jumped in with her barrier to help Ui.

last edited at Jun 21, 2020 3:48PM

Cute story with great action scenes. I particularly like how they showed Remilia and Flan here as caring siblings to each other. It's a shame Hatate and Momiji didn't do more as the characters closest to Aya.

last edited at Jun 21, 2020 2:16PM

They always feel ever present to me because there was a collab with the Madoka mobile game that made them into in-game characters.

Oh no I agree. I also played it while knowing all the girls, so I really appreciated it and saw it strengths. I simply also acknowledge that not everyone will share that experience.

Yeah it's definitely a strength if you know the story. I was so happy seeing Felicia meet up with Nanaka's group since I'd just finished her MSS at the time. When I have all of the relevant girls or the ones I care about at least I think I'll reread the chapter. It's definitely going to take a while though since I'm hoping to read all of their stories organically.

Well there goes a ton of magia stones for nothing other than a Sayaka spook. I just wasted a bunch of them and got NO Touka for my efforts. :( I'm thinking about quitting or shelfing the game for a while.

Now I don't have enough for the YachiIro final battle version...

Ah yeah that is a sucky feeling. I've always been F2P and one of the things I learned from my first gacha game (Kingdom Hearts X lol) is that if there's a unit you want got to save up for it and resist pulling too much. Unless you get really lucky there's not much room for chance to favor you in getting multiple showcased banner characters in a row and sometimes when unlucky even getting one doesn't happen. If you still want YachiIro and plan to stick around for that long, wouldn't hurt to pull at that point since they're limited anyway.

I've finally been making some progress on increasing my team's power. Pulled my first copy of Mito - After the Rain from the support points gacha a few days ago and I'm up to three doppels now instead of just one. Now that Iroha is uncapped, she's fun to use in PVE teams since she's the only 4s character I have and her heal connect + revive magia is satisfying.

which would be a serious problem if I wasn't taking her out that quickly or if she could attack more than once per turn.

It's an absolute blessing she can't attack more than once per turn. I found that makes Iroha / healing very useful.

The Magius boss fight was fun too, in that I had to try multiple times and think somewhat. Alina's stuns and Nemu's continuous charm doppels really made me wish I had Madokami for the status ailment resistance. In the end raw strength was still more than enough and a support 4s Ashley blast combo-ed everything.

last edited at Jun 20, 2020 6:12PM

That and I'm a little confused as to where Alina came from. Was she only a magius because of complete coincidence?

Alina's presence is the main blemish and problem I have with 10-3, you see, her personal story...

My reason for calling this a blemish, is that you only know this if you have Alina or have otherwise seen her personal story, meaning a fairly important context to the main story is locked behind a 4-star, while the main story itself only gives the footnotes version, I only have Alina because she randomly came home when we were getting anime release rolls a few months back.

That really does only make sense with context. Damn I really want to see her MSS now. I was wondering what was up with the line about her falling from the roof and Nemu/Touko saving her. Especially because that exposition appeared after Ui had been erased, I wasn't sure what had actually happened and what was the reconfiguration of their memories. I think it's a minor flaw of chapter 8 too, when all the magical girls get dragged into the mess. Their interactions are a bonus for those aware of their backstories and nonsensical to the unaware.

I'm more surprised Reimu's being bumped off from first place. Though that might be because of the most recently released game including Youmu as a PC.

maid x ojou Sama doesn't count btw... Don't link me touhou doujinshi lo/

That Touhou maid x ojou-sama ship is my favorite, so you're tempting an obsessive Touhou fan here.

Being in contact with the author herself, she has expressed her sadness over seeing people pirate the manga (and that includes scanlating it). I don't have any authority to tell you guys what to do/what not to do, but please, if you end up enjoying the novel or manga, consider offering her your support. It's fine if you can't or don't have the means to or you simply just don't want to, but at least keep it in mind if you can!

Thanks for the heads-up.

Not done with 10-3, but just wanted to say I was so thrown for a loop when Kyubey showed up because haven't heard its voice in so long.

Edit: Yeah I've got nothing to say about the story. It wrapped up pretty much everything. I give major props to the writers for honoring the agency and power of each individual and their wish, just as the main series did. Now the only thing I care about is who wrote that book about magical girls and why + how. From the few part 2 spoilers I have, I'd conjecture without much knowledge it has something to do with those. That and I'm a little confused as to where Alina came from. Was she only a magius because of complete coincidence?

last edited at Jun 19, 2020 10:20PM

Wraiths get a lot more fun than that though, on top of there being different types of increasingly powerful wraiths, they also feed on human emotion, memories and magical energy, which allow them to copy personal magia of megucas and even copy the image and behavior of people in those memories, if Iroha exposed herself to Wraiths long enough, it is likely one of them would take Ui's image, as an example, and in Iroha's current emotional state, being killed by Ui('s image) and being taken by the one who left her, may sound far too appealing, t'd be different in some aspects, but the core of the story would likely remain the same.

I did not know that. The copying could be spectacularly brutal, as that one manga page seems to be setting up. Where is that from by the way? Not as familiar with Madoka series manga.

For the general wraiths, it's cool how they lose more and more human form the stronger they get. It's a neat design pattern.

Frankly at this point I am thinking of just how many ways this set up can twist a knife on us, how long we meet Witches named Beatrice, Theresia or Yu Hong, for example...

Yeah one thing MR has definitely expanded on from the original is making it clear that all witches used to be magical girls and what it feels like to kill something that used to be your friend.

you could also interpretate this as happening at the same time as the original series, just a few cities over, plus I don't think that Madokami would change the story that much, Iroha would still have her survivor's guilt and death wish, she would just be seeking death by Wraith instead of death by Witch.

It happening at the same time as the original series makes sense to me, so I'll go with that. Wraiths instead of witches wouldn't change too much, but witches inherently are tied to meanings of greater despair. And if witches didn't exist, Iroha couldn't get her ultra twisted wish of being killed by Yachiyo's witch. I don't think she'd be satisfied with being killed by some random wraiths who all look the same and who ostensibly don't feel and never felt anything. I'm a little disturbed actually at how perfect Iroha's death wish is.

Hmm one thing I'm still confused about is how Iroha plans on being useful to Yachiyo. I'm not quite sure if it's by leading Yachiyo straight to witches after being witch-kissed or by giving Yachiyo a reason to fight and live. Given those two options, probably both with the latter being the deeper reason.

last edited at Jun 18, 2020 2:33PM

Also "Hinano/Emiri" isn't a real thing, Sakura Scarlet was just talking of what they wanted.

I've been trolled again. XD

I personally find it hilarious that she is getting power crept by herself.

I think it doesn't feel quite as galling when a character gets canonically power crept by themselves. Though if it's done too much, just like in a game, it becomes meaningless.

Simple. Play for characters, not for meta.

Luckily those can often coincide for characters I've been interested in at least. The more awesome a character is, the more likely the creators know it and correspondingly make sure it's reflected in game.

I present to everyone, Super Tart

Now that's a unit worth saving for.
She can't compete with Ultimate Momoko though.

For a few seconds, I believed in Ultimate Momoko.

Well, I've now caught up to 10-2, we had some interesting bits like Alina pointing out the inconsistency with the Magius that she views as supporting Iroha's memories(while Touka and Nemu are still in denial about it) and Homura having a major slip of the tongue about Walpurgis while thinking aloud, but most of it was setting up the direness of the situation.

We also had a few short animated sequences, I took recordings of them to show a friend who isn't caught up to the story but was curious, from 10-2-5, the first one from 10-2-6, and the second one from 10-2-6, I actually really enjoy them for how much it feels they went all in to make the ending feel special...

I'm in love with this chapter. They really went all out. Even before the animations showed up, I was already thinking that this would be awesome to see animated.

It seems cruel to be enjoying their suffering, but the direness of the situation and how it's edging into despair (even if everything will obviously turn out fine in the end) is delectable.

Isn't it relatively easy to wish Ui back alive and healthy? But maybe that's two wishes at once and beyond Iroha's potential. Still a cool take on her. One thing: I'm not quite sure how the universe post-Madokami works, but shouldn't witches no longer exist in every other non-MR world?

What on Earth, how many duo units/units with EX skills are there now? There's at least six now that I'm aware of: Madokami, IroYachi, RikaRen, Amane Sisters, Tart/Riz, and Hinano/Emiri.

The Super Tart image looks so awesome it makes me want to read Tart Magica now. I'm truly curious as to what Riz's wish was that would make Tart into this form.

Going to or being enrolled in scholastic education is a pretty major one.

Being enrolled in scholastic education? Like being in school or college? That's the majority of manga / works geared towards a younger audience though. Well I guess for yuri specifically there is an entire history of school girl lesbians being the only acceptable lesbians which has led to most yuri even now being set in schools. So fair point.

I never understood why does it matter if author is male or female. And honestly I find that kind of obsession and stereotyping pretty harmful. Both can be bad writers or use bad tropes. While I understand where the assumption that male writers are worse at writing lesbian stuff comes from, that doesn't mean any female author will be good at it by default.

For me I'm more interested in whether a female author is not straight. As you've said it's not like a female author (with or without lived experience) will be good at it by default, but I do like when I find an author whose style I enjoy and who is not straight herself. It lends a different type of enjoyment, one where there might be a higher degree of relatableness. Like it makes me happy knowing the mini community of lesbian mangaka with Inui Aya, Morishima Akiko, etc. exists, because there's a real life component to that, knowing people like me exist and are producing something awesome. It is also nice when people pull from their own experiences to add some small detail that really enhances the story's realism, and sometimes being not straight plus a good creator makes it easier to find and express elements like that.

But of course if it comes to enjoying stories in general, I'm pretty much on the same page with that perspective. Male and female artists both have and do create fantastic and not so fantastic yuri works. Empathy and/or research can go a long way towards making a story free of poorly written tropes even without personal experience.

I suspect there's more crotch-to-crotch tribadism in manga and porn than in reality.

I suspect the same. It also makes me roll my eyes when a cookie-cutter porn/nsfw manga uses the cookie-cutter guide for how two females have sex: strip at some point, play with nipples/breasts making the touched party unbelievably aroused, tease clit, have oral sex to make both parties climax, and then through crotch-to-crotch/mutual fingering/etc. have both parties finish at the same time. Don't forget the exaggerated, repeated shouting of "It's so good" or "It feels good right?" plus dramatically announcing "I'm going to cum~!".

The original web novel has been around for years. Well only two years, but it's not completely new.

last edited at Jun 17, 2020 8:44PM

Finally managed to clear a risk 4 with today's map. I guess today's contingencies might have been easier to handle, but still getting the hang of it is encouraging. Also brought Siege's Legacy costume. It'd made more sense to buy the promotion materials that I have no way to reliably make right now, but it looked too badass not to get it.

Lol I would love to see a compilation of more tropes. @rainbow8, those are good ones.

Well, today I mostly focused on clearing the Special Training shop out of its mats, which I've already finished

When you say mats, does that mean all of the books/orbs too? I've realized my shop clearing progress is probably going to be slow because I actually need to grind XP + episode for Iroha and Sana.

Outside of her just being cool/important character, I think it might also be because she's said to be next oldest magical girl in Kamihama after Yachiyo, Kanagi and Mifuyu (oldest in the sense how long she has been one).

She has a rather understated leader side to her, which potentially is due to how long she's been around. She hasn't really been that important to the main plot though.

which while definitely not unheard of, is at least uncommon(we have 7 girls in the entire game that contracted at that age or younger, out of 103 if my count is right).

I'm impressed you know that off the top of your head lol.