Once again, we begin today’s review with me standing in an Animate in Japan. There I was, staring at the piles of manga and magazines. (“Piles” is not a metaphor. This week’s releases are stacked in piles in the front of the store.)

And I see a, well, probably a clearfile, but it’s shrinkwrapped to a magazine, of Devil Homura and I think “Okay, I’ll get that when I come back down.”  I don’t have a single use for a clearfile, but I like the picture. QED.

The clearfile was attached to a  magazine that kind of made my head spin. I’ve seen Gundam magazine and a few issues of an Evangelion magazine, but had no idea there was an entire magazine devoted to Puella Magi  Madoka Magica, called Mangatime Kirara Magica. As it happens, I purchased Volume 16, which is still available. Volume 17 is the current issue.

The magazine is surprisingly enjoyable, for a derivative of a work created by committee for the sole purpose of taking as much of my money out of my pocket as possible in the form of every consumer good in the world.

I actually laughed at some of the 4-panel gag comics, enjoyed a few of the longer form stories  – and it made an awesome prop at a high school talk I did yesterday on panel structure, genre and storytelling because of the sheer variety of the of genre types in the magazine.

Just when you think that every single drop that can be wrung out on Madoka has been, you find you are so very, very wrong.

Ratings:

Variable, but actually worth my money beyond even that clearfile. ^_^ Let’s say a strong 8