Gushing over Magical Girls

Gushing over Magical Girls (Japanese: 魔法少女にあこがれて, Hepburn: Mahō Shōjo ni Akogarete), also known as I Admire Magical Girls, and…, is a Japanese magical girl manga series written and illustrated by Akihiro Ononaka. It began serialization on Takeshobo’s Storia Dash website in March 2019. Eleven tankōbon volumes have been released as of January 2024. It is licensed in English by J-Novel Club. An anime television series adaptation produced by Asahi Production aired from January to March 2024. It is licensed outside of Japan by Sentai Filmworks for streaming and home video. A second season has been announced.

Plot

Utena Hiiragi is a normal, introverted girl with a strong admiration for magical girls, especially the beautiful trio that protect her town, Tres Magia. One day, a mascot named Venalita approaches Utena and gives her magical powers, but rather than becoming the magical girl of justice she always wanted to be, she instead becomes an evil general of the Enormita organization. Despite the misfortune in being forced to fight against the magical girls she admires, Utena soon discovers that she has a hidden sadistic side, and revels in torturing her former idols with her newfound obsession.

Characters

Due to magical powers, the true identity of Tres Magia’s members when transformed is unknown to Enormita’s members and vice versa.

Enormita / Evil Magical Girls

Utena Hiiragi (柊 うてな, Hiiragi Utena) / Magia Baiser (マジアベーゼ, Majia Bēze)

Voiced by: Fūka Izumi

A shy and introverted school girl who admires magical girls, but also loves them in a twisted sense. She was forced into joining Enormita against her will, but soon comes to revel in her sadistic side, eventually becoming a perverted villain. As Magia Baiser, she wears a succubus/dominatrix motif, and is able to use her crop to transform inanimate objects and animals into sadistic monsters. After defeating Lord, she develops a much stronger form. She has an interest in sewing, and her grades have been affected by her interest in Enormita. She later becomes Enormita’s new leader following Lord’s defeat.

Venalita (ヴェナリータ, Venarīta)

Voiced by: Misato Fukuen

A black mascot character who tricked Utena into joining Enormita, blackmailing her into staying through sharing a video of her on social media. Its motive is unknown and it seems to be very manipulative, but nevertheless supportive of Utena and her friends.

Kiwi Araga (阿良河 キウィ, Araga Kiwi) / Leoparde (レオパルト, Reoparuto)

Voiced by: Aoi Koga

A member of Enormita who is in love with Utena, to the point she even decides to transfer to her school. As a civilian, she is an Internet celebrity, but grows to hate Tres Magia and magical girls in general for stealing her fans. As Leoparde, she wears a military motif and attacks using various explosives and guns. During her fight against Sister, she reveals a more powerful form.

Korisu Morino (杜乃 こりす, Morino Korisu) / Nero Alice (ネロアリス, Nero Arisu)

Voiced by: Shiori Sugiura

A member of Enormita, a quiet girl in elementary school who does not speak much but loves playing with toys. As Nero Alice, she wears an Alice motif, able to manipulate toys in various ways, such as trapping victims in doll houses, influencing a person’s mind, or making stuffed toys giant.

Roboko (ロボ子)

A robot girl given life by Utena and Korisu’s combined powers. Originally a doll that was given to Korisu by her mother and fixed up by Utena, and a plastic model given to her by Kiwi, she is sworn to protect Korisu.

Matama Akoya (阿古屋 真珠, Akoya Matama) / Loco Musica (ロコムジカ, Roko Mujika)

Voiced by: Yūka Aisaka

A member of Enormita and former member of the Lord Squad who aspires to be an idol, but is terrible at singing. As Loco Musica, she wears a sailor motif and uses sound waves to attack her enemies.

Nemo Anemo (姉母 ネモ, Anemo Nemo) / Leberblume (ルベルブルーメ, Ruberuburūme)

Voiced by: Minami Tsuda

A member of Enormita and former member of the Lord Squad who cares for Matama. As Leberblume, she wears an assassin motif and is able to transform herself into a shadow and manipulate others.

Holy Tengeiji (天花寺 ホリィ, Tengeiji Holy) / Sister Gigant (シスタギガント, Shisuta Giganto)

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue

A member of Enormita and The Lord Squad who wears a nun motif and has the ability to change her size to become gigantic or tiny. Following Lord’s defeat, she goes into hiding to continue serving Venalita behind Utena’s back.

Heroic Magical Girls

Tres Magia

Haruka Hanabishi (花菱 はるか, Hanabishi Haruka) / Magia Magenta (マジアマゼンタ, Majia Mazenta)

Voiced by: Kaori Maeda

Utena’s classmate. A naïve, kind, pure-hearted girl. Wielding a spear, she starts out with no unique ability, but eventually gains the power to heal others. Following an incident in which Baiser’s magic went out of control and manipulated her, she ends up obtaining a Dark La Veritas form, Fallen Nurse, which enhances her healing abilities in perverted ways.

Sayo Minakami (水神 小夜, Minakami Sayo) / Magia Azure (マジアアズール, Majia Azūru)

Voiced by: Mayuko Kazama

She is a shrine maiden who likes to clean the temple. She loves peace and she prefers cute, modest outfits. She seems to have a secret masochistic side to her, as she likes spending time with Magia Baiser. She has power over water and ice and gathers water around her wand to form a sword. After nearly succumbing to Baiser’s sadism, Azure obtained the La Veritas form Maiden of Hoarfrost, giving her the ability to power herself up by taking on enemy attacks.

Kaoruko Tenkawa (天川 薫子, Tenkawa Kaoruko) / Magia Sulfur (マジアサルファ, Majia Sarufa)

Voiced by: Misaki Ikeda

She is the tough, quick witted, no nonsense team member. While seen as the defensive member of the team, she secretly wields massive knuckledusters for pummeling her enemies. She obtains the La Veritas form Blizengel, which gives her lightning speed and the ability to launch projectile fists.

Vatz (ヴァーツ, Vātsu)

Voiced by: Kana Asumi

Tres Magia’s mascot, who is the same kind of creature as Venalita, but is white instead.

Shio-chans

Michiko Tanaka (田中 みち子, Tanaka Michiko) / Shion Imita (忌田 シオン, Imita Shion) / Imitatio (イミタシオ, Imitashio) / Lord Enorme (ロードエノルメ, Rōdo Enorume)

Voiced by: Yoko Hikasa

Former leader of Enormita who defected to create the Lord Squad in the hopes of ruling the world and is now the leader of the Shio-chans. As Lord Enorme, her magic allows her to create monsters out of black goop. After she is humiliatingly defeated by Utena and ambushed by Sister Gigant, she escapes with heavy injuries and is later nursed back to health by Randa. She uses a stolen magical girl item to become the magical girl Imitatio, using her La Veritas form constantly to masquerade as Shion Imita. As Imitatio, she wields a large sword and can utilise various potions to affect her enemies. Initially driven by revenge against Utena and Enormita, she eventually reforms and becomes a true magical girl in order to protect Randa.

Momo Momomori (桃森 百花, Momomori Momo) / Pantano Pesca (パンタノペスカ, Pantano Pesuka)

A member of the Shio-chans who enjoys indulging in perverted behavior. She is able to manipulate the earth to her liking and create golems.

Randa Tada (多田 蘭朶, Tada Randa) / Berserga (ベルゼルガ, Beruzeruga)

A masochistic member of the Shio-chans. Formerly known as Magia Blanc, she fell in love with Michiko after being spared from her magical girl hunt due to being considered “too weak” to hunt. She can transform her own blood into sharp weapons.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Akihiro Ononaka, Gushing over Magical Girls began serialization on Takeshobo’s Storia Dash website on March 29, 2019. It was also serialized on the company’s Manga Life Storia magazine, until it ceased publication in July 2019. As of January 2024, eleven tankōbon volumes have been published. J-Novel Club licensed the series for English release, and began pre-publishing it in March 2022. Previously, Coolmic licensed the series and published the manga divided in, as of late December 2022, 68 “episodes” consisting of about 10 pages each, on a smartphone-only website, under the title “I Admire Magical Girls, and….”. On March 15, 2024, it was announced the manga would go on hiatus due to Ononaka’s health issues.

Volumes

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced on March 16, 2023. The series was produced by Asahi Production and directed by Masato Suzuki and Atsushi Ōtsuki, with series composition by Noboru Kimura, character designs by Yasuka Otakil, and music composed by Yasuharu Takanashi, Akinari Suzuki, and Johannes Nilsson. It aired from January 3 to March 27, 2024, on AT-X and other networks. The series aired censored on all television networks and partially uncensored with censored audio on AT-X and streaming sites, with the fully uncensored visuals and audio being featured on the home media release. The opening theme song is “My Dream Girls”, performed by Nacherry (a voice unit composed of Chiemi Tanaka and Natsumi Murakami), while the ending theme song is “Togetoge Sadistic” (とげとげサディスティック) performed by Fūka Izumi, Aoi Koga and Shiori Sugiura (with additional vocals by Yūka Aisaka and Minami Tsuda from episode 10 onwards).

Sentai Filmworks licensed the series in North America, Australia and British Isles for streaming on its Hidive platform and home video through Section23 Films, simulcasting the AT-X version as it aired.

A second season was announced during an event for the anime series on October 5, 2024.

Episodes

Reception

In 2020, the manga was among 50 nominees for the 6th Next Manga Awards in the web category.

Notes

References

External links

I admire magical girls, and… at Storia Dash (in Japanese)

Gushing over Magical Girls at J-Novel Club

I Admire Magical Girls, and… at Coolmic (smartphone only)

Official anime website (in Japanese)

Gushing over Magical Girls (manga) at Anime News Network’s encyclopedia