Has its upsides. Battles are based on strategy more than power levels. There's various different ideas in here. But there's also flaws.

Firstly, I had a complaint with Dragon Ball Z. It started by showing us how insignificant everything was, that the world's mightiest warriors were no more than cannon fodder in the vastness of space. We were also soon introduced Frieza, a monster who, even in his weakest form, was several times more powerful than the Ginyu force, who left the proud Vegeta trembling in fear. And in the same... more>> arc the puny earthlings first broaden their horizons to this massive new world, they beat the strongest guy there.

Point being, don't start introducing someone called the Ultimate Magical Girl and then worf her off the same arc. Sure, it's one thing to say that even the most powerful magical girl could die from being stabbed in the back, but it was also emphasized that Mao Pam was considered the strongest in terms of actual ability rather than some arbitrary measure of firepower, and that she herself saw smarts as being more important than power. Having the most accomplished magical girl dying on the same day she's introduced makes it feel like things like skill and experience are random and fickle at the whims of the author.

I also feel like negative plot armor is just as contrived as normal plot armor. It's like, there's a difference between an RPG where even the most skilled players will lose someone, and an RPG that rolls a d20 every turn to see whether or not someone dies. It's like if you took a random anime and had half the characters die from getting run over by a truck. I've seen other series where character deaths were heartwrenching, rather than making me feel like someone tripped and accidentally impaled herself on an umbrella... again. And it would be one thing if the novels wanted to be realistic, but rather it feels like instead of giving the protagonists plot armor, they give the villains plot armor. Why couldn't Mao Pam kill her opponent when Pukin was killing people left and right despite missing half a face? Did the author write a scene and then go "Huh. Too many people not dying. Maybe I could contrive a way to give Pukin a massive power boost?" And Frederica being able to use Pukin's special ability. I believe the proper term for that is an "ass pull." <<less

This series is a hidden-potential gem. If you love Dark Magical Girls stories like Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru, you will like this series. I'm sure about that.

Plot: 7.5/10. Quite unique. Mahoiku is the first work of the author, so it's still have some hole somewhere, but it's still good. :"> Battle Royale + DanganRonpa + JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure + etc... Not every arc will repeat the same plot so you won't be bored. It's very exciting to read. >w<

Characters + Powers: 7.5/10. Everyone... more>> have their own circumstances, special abilities, and most of them can utilize to the fullest (not count the first 2 Arcs though). Some char can reappear somewhere in the whole story, while someone else left (or died). You can love them, but Death's Aura is crawling everywhere. NSFW. ;;;;;__;;;;;

Battles: 8/10. You can find almost any chapter will be involved with battles between Magical Girls. The only minus is the description of battles is short though (You'll understand me when you read Vol 1 and watch 12 Eps Anime).

Translation: 9/10. The quality is good, and it have some typos, but just on a very small scales, so you won't rage about this (Better much than some LNs/WNs translated on NU I've read so far, and consider that this huge project is a SOLO project).

Overall: 8/10. <<less

Total must read, basically to JP LNs what JoJo is to shounen manga. Huge variety of characters, plots, abilities and settings, author isn't afraid of killing main characters, basically no trope that has overdone to death by other LNs. Only downside is that the first volumes are pretty weak when compared to the rest, but once you reach the "limited" arc, this series becomes what's easily one of the best LNs Japan has given us.

Since nobody else has stepped up for this, I'll toss out my review.

It's not unique to Japan, but a frequent trope of Japanese fiction is to take something lovely, pure, and innocent, and go: "what if we made this really malicious and evil?" (or vice-versa, to be honest). This is how we got Deamons working at Combis and preschoolers performing abortions with scissors. This story follows that later trope. Since I'm not a fan of this genre, I'll leave out the analysis of the story itself for those who are, and get to the technical bits.

The Google Docs format is a pain, and don't expect them to be around long, since Yen Press has licensed this already :P, but the translations are well done and well formatted, which is the most important part. If Madoka was inside your strike zone (literaturely-speaking :) then you'll enjoy this as well. With 7+ books already fully translated, it'll be a wonderful binge. Some characters reappear between books, but the deathcount is high, so don't get too attached to any of them - treat it as a set of related stories. The end of book 1:

I've come to write a review on this novel in hopes that more people will notice it, and that the translators could continue translating the latest volume!

Magical Girl Raising Project is another take on the dark magical girl genre, and while its no genius that Madoka Magica is, it's a guilty pleasure of my own. There's a variety of unique powers and character motivations which make for interesting fights, and there is a lot of material to read thanks to the translator's hard and quality work.

One thing to remember about... more>> this series is that every novel, the characters are frequently changing. This can be a hassle to some who have to learn new names and become constantly invested into new characters. While I don't mind this... the problem is that while reading I don't remember who is who and have to frequently check the character introductions and glossary which ultimately kills the reading flow. New characters are killed off as soon as they are introduced, and the same survival battle royale is used in almost every volume. Some favorite characters become recurring every once in awhile, but not as much as you would hope.

If you want to get into this series, I recommend watching the anime first. If you liked the anime, then start reading from the second volume. <<less

this is a DARK magical girl story, divined into stages by volumes and can end in 1-3 volumes, each stage introducing new character and eventually also connect to the previous one. Notice this series has many battels, death and gore and is shown with Multiple POW. Its a very interesting story and no character is safe so beware. Recommended to those who like series with Multiple protagonist and thin line between good and bad.