Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Mahou Shoujo or Magical Girls as they’re known in the West is a genre that has gone through many stages. In the 80s and 90s they were seen as schoolgirls fighting for justice and saving the world through friendship while balancing normal life and falling in love. In the 2000s and 2010s we started exploring new aspects of the genre. The dark aspect. Where being a magical girl wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows it was painful and traumatizing at times. The world of hentai is also no stranger to magical girls as they’ve used them as a means to explore one’s fetishes just like today’s anime Gushing Over Magical Girls. Based off the manga written by Akihiro Ononaka in 2019 and still continuing to this day, Gushing Over Magical Girls is another one of those: I can’t believe it’s not a hentai. It’s another manga that walks the fine line of the abyss and yet somehow someway it got greenlit into an anime in 2024 by the unknown Asahi Production best known for helping with the production of the hentai, Angel Blade Punish. The anime went unnoticed in 2024 and those who saw it all said it was shit. I’m here today to confirm that theory. Is there something of value here or is it really just a shitty anime? Magical transformation stock footage, this is Gushing Over Magical Girls.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “My Dream Girls” by ACHERRY. The song is catchy, lighthearted and fun to listen to. It sounds like something you would hear in a slice of life school anime and not a magical girl anime.
The ending “Toge Toge Sadistic” by the VAs is the same as the opening. Catchy, slow, lighthearted and sounds like something you would expect to hear and in a slice of life anime.
Episodes 1-4
So the anime begins by introducing us to Haruka, Sayo, and Kaoruki the Tres Magia girls. A group of magical girls who protect their town from the evil Enormita organization. Our main character Hiiragi voiced by Fūka Izumi is a fan of them and dreams of one day becoming a magical girl herself. When on her way to school a creepy mascot character named Venalita appears and hands her a device. Believing she’s been chosen to become a magical girl she accepts the device only to discover that it transforms her into the villain (really? She’s the villain? She’s way too average to be one). Hiiragi doesn’t want to do this and tries to quit but Tres Magia finds her and get ready to eliminate her. This forces Hiiragi to use her powers to summon a plant monster who uses its tentacles to trap the girls (and if you’ve seen hentai you know where this is going). The strange part (or perverted part) is that Hiiragi is getting off on this. That’s right, despite her love for magical girls she is getting off torturing them (Baron: This little pervert) because this is who she really is. She doesn’t love magical girls, she just loves watching them suffer (there’s a fetish name for this but I’m not gonna be the one to say it or research it). After spanking and torturing them, Tres Magia manages to break free through the power of friendship (how does this have anything to do with friendship!?) and defeat the flower (scene here: https://youtu.be/e-C1HBwfu4o?si=s8CgiU04zar7xLU0). Hiiragi would escape and the next day we see our magical girls are still sore from yesterday (Baron: I think they liked it). In the middle of class, they head out to face another monster where they beat it and Hiiragi shows up with mannequin monsters. This time she goes for the tickle torture route and enjoys herself again before the girls manage to free themselves and she’s forced to retreat (scene here: https://youtu.be/VRytDlr6mfw?si=ltTtihczM1xeL74t).
In the first half of episode 2 Hiiragi targets Sayo who works part-time as a shrine maiden. After falling for the old porn magazine trap, Hiiragi gets excited and transforms (only two episodes in and she edges closer and closer to becoming the Jack Bros.). She gets discovered by Sayo who attacks her but Hiiragi blinds her with a fox mask. At first, Hiiragi tries to escape but the thrill of torturing and playing with Sayo is just too good to pass up. So Hiiragi has her fun, takes her leave, and may have awakened something in Sayo she didn’t know she had (scene here: https://youtu.be/RqA4wHBjuTk?si=4kpQ0FS3liSC9zOh, this has got to be the second funniest sexual awakening I have ever seen). In the second half, Kaoruki ventures off by herself and gets caught by Hiiragi who creates a candle and flower monster to have some fun with her, but Kaoruki defeats them showing her true power (oh shit. The quiet one is secretly yan. (Corbin): Yes~!). Hiiragi escapes using waxed candle figures of herself and despite this new discovery she can’t help but be excited (ah~ the thrill of the hunt. Who is the cat and who is the mouse?).
Episode 3 starts with Hiiragi going to Enormita HQ. Once there she meets Kiwi another new recruit who joined just before her. Kiwi saw Hiiragi’s last battle and was not impressed. Unlike Hiiragi who fights Tres Magia to feed her fetish, Kiwi fights them out of anger. She honestly believes she’s the prettiest girl in the world and doesn’t like Tres Magia stealing her attention (you sound like a toxic Twitch user). Kiwi attacks Hiiragi wanting to know why she fights (Corbin: Because she is a very perverted girl) gaining the upper hand. Hiiragi manages to trap her inside a lightbulb and electrocutes her revealing her fetish (and awakening something in Kiwi. These girls are into the freakiest stuff. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/wnLueY0odWo?si=MyHdfdiGyyI9QhP7 and https://youtu.be/N-QMjdTkPdI?si=odqMHfaydu0jhIfk). The next day Kiwi transfers to Hiiragi’s school in order to be close to her. In the second half, Hiiragi and Kiwi go out as friends on a date where they transform and get found by Tres Magia. Haruka (the pink one) and Kaoruki go after Kiwi while Sayo stays behind to fight Hiiragi. Sayo easily allows herself to get captured and tortured (like I said, Hiiragi awakened something in her. She’s a natural at this). After Hiiragi has her fun (scene here: https://youtu.be/ayDrJ83scMQ?si=qQGLf37cRu4G1TjB), she saves Kiwi and escapes to fight another day with Kaoruki getting annoyed.
In episode 4 Hiiragi is failing school. Because of her. . .hobby (I don’t know what else to call it. Do you?), she hasn’t had much time to study and after failing her last test her mom threatens to throw out all her magical girl merchandise if she fails the makeup test. Hiiragi tries to study but Haruka keeps calling her out to fight and Hiiragi engages in her hobbies to great effect (good God, girl. We were all 15, it’s called moderation. Scene here: https://youtu.be/emECKys2HfE?si=XkW0DzrlugjQQgRJ). In the second half, we focus a little on Kaoruki who obviously isn’t into the whole publicity side of being a magical girl. While she’s on the side of justice it’s clear as day that she enjoys the thrill of fighting and beating up villains (https://youtu.be/Wu0lr3YObIg?si=QA1WK15w7nIvbJpP). After finishing a photoshoot with the others, Hiiragi and Kiwi show up to fight where this time they stick around to fight and leave Kaoruki satisfied (scene here: https://youtu.be/Xphx1oCAOcM?si=mcyWuhJHwwHL0rKZ).
Episodes 5-8
Hiiragi and Kiwi get a new teammate in episode 5 named Korisu. At first, they think Vena kidnapped her because she looks so gentle, but nope, she’s here by her own free will (the hiring standards for an evil organization are low. I guess that explains why they always lose). Despite her quiet and childish demeanor, her powers are OP. She’s got an Alice in Wonderland theme attire and she can trap people into her dollhouse and make them do her bidding. The only downside is this power consumes a lot of energy, so she can’t use it for a very long time and gets tired after using it. Nothing much happens in the second half of the episode. We see Korisu lives with her mom who is single (Baron: Get ready to call me daddy. (Nitsuj): The mother or the child? (Baron):. . .yes) and has a love for dolls.
In episode 6 we get to see the past of the Tres Magia (to a degree). Haruka and Sayo were magical girls already and Haruka was the one who recruited Kaoruki to join them after watching her beat up a monster without restraint (so she was always a crazy bitch). Despite Kaoruki seeing Haruka as a ditzy mom-figure she does see her as a friend whose positive personality has won her over many times. In another part of the episode, Haruka gets captured and mothered by Korisu in her dollhouse.
Episode 7 focuses on Sayo. She’s been slacking in their fights and everyone starts to notice it including herself (Corbin: She’s a masochist and it’s all Hiiragi’s fault). Sayo fights Hiiragi one-on-one in the hopes of finally beating her but even her best effort wasn’t enough and she falls victim to Hiiragi’s torture again. Only this time she goes full-blown masochist on us (Corbin: I told ya! Didn’t I tell ya! That girl is more corrupted than a sorority girl on pledge day). Just when it looks like Sayo is about to surrender herself to Hiiragi and go full evil, Hiiragi stops her and reminds her what a magical girl is supposed to be. Hiiragi leaves disgusted and pissed while Sayo wallows in her own shame (scenes here: https://youtu.be/B5yle_ce3Zc?si=2cwRM8UlFjDVuwoa and https://youtu.be/iHUIbo2vUF0?si=6fkMg5dV2YHKglYd).
We finally meet the founding members of Enormita in episode 8. Loco, Leberblume, Sister Gigant, and their leader Enorme. These guys have been out hunting and killing magical girls in other cities and want to move on to world domination but Vena says it’s not the right time yet (yeah you guys are going by Venture Bros. logic. You want to rule the world but at the same time don’t want to). They decide to defect (even though they’re keeping the name and everything) and attack our three rookie villains. Hiiragi and the others manage to escape with Hiiragi suffering some injuries (these ladies aren’t playing around). Later on, Loco goes after them and fights Kiwi and Korisu where we see her powers is her voice. She wants to conquer the world and be the number one idol even though she sucks at singing. Once again Kiwi and Korisu have no choice but to retreat.
Episodes 9-13
Hiiragi has fully recovered in episode 9 and she’s out for revenge. In a rather surprising moment she and the others manage to beat Loco and Leberblume (not in the typical shonen sense but more of: I outsmarted you and now I’m going to humiliate you in a perverted way). They trap Leberblume in Korisu’s playhouse and force Loco to sing while naked (is it wrong to say she sings better when she’s naked?). They accept defeat and not wanting to face the wrath of Enorme, decide to switch sides.
In episode 10 Hiiragi accepts Loco and Leberblume into their rankings but not before punishing them (it’s been a while since she indulged her kink). She forces them to do a softcore lesbian scene with each other because she can tell the two secretly had feelings for each other (no, you just wanted to indulge your kinky habit some more). After this, the group gets attacked by Sister Gigant who has the power to turn into a giant (Corbin: She’s not the only thing that’s growing). While Hiiragi goes to face Enorme, the others stay behind to fight where Kiwi unleashes her full power that she’s been hiding all this time.
We get the fight between Hiiragi and Enorme in episode 11. At first, Enorme dominates, but then Hiiragi imagines her as a kusogaki in need of punishment and turns the tables around. After spanking Enorme into submission, Hiiragi wins. Enorme tries to escape only to get stopped by Vena and Sister Gigant who’s been secretly working for Vena this whole time. Enorme supposedly gets destroyed by Vena (man, he’s like Kyubey from Madoka. His looks hide a very sadistic being) and he makes Hiiragi the new leader of Enormita (I mean at this point who’s going to oppose her?).
Nothing much happens in episode 12. Korisu forces Haruka to fight a giant toy dinosaur and everyone fights on Haruka’s large body.
In the final episode everyone hits the beach (how fitting for a final episode) where Hiiragi and Saya have their rematch. Saya reveals her new powerful form which seems to be a match for Hiiragi (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ey2DkO8b3GM?si=zgcz3A0Bmg988QZ9). On the surface, Saya has a stone cold look of determination but behind it is a masochist who’s enjoying all of the abuse and wants to feel more pain from Hiiragi (how can these two be so perverted at such a young age? (Baron): The nurses asked that question many times when me and Corbin were born). Saya is able to beat Hiiragi and Enormita retreats.
Final Thoughts
This series is bizarre, crazy, perverted, and funny. Oh don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t call this a good anime but I’m not gonna sit here and call it shit when it gets a good laugh out of me for how crazy it is. Hiiragi loves magical girls but is the villain. In a normal story she would become a magical girl who starts off doubting but through her battles and the power of friendship she manages to overcome her struggles and save the world. Instead, she’s a villain who doesn’t want to kill magical girls but instead torture them because it’s what she’s into. I like how she starts off denying this but as the anime goes on she starts to embrace it and uses this pervertedness to climb to the top of her organization. The magical girls are also pretty funny. Haruka is like the token magical girl. She has a good heart and wants to help out others. While Saya awakens to become a masochist and Kaoruki just goes: to hell with these magical girl tropes. Let me beat people up and act however I want. It’s funny and you can’t help but laugh at how committed they are to this bit and the scenarios they create. The animation and music are alright but it’s pretty forgetful. If you were hoping to see some good fights you can forget that as well as these fights are only meant for fanservice and character engaging in their perverted hobbies.
Final Score
Gushing Over Magical Girls earns a 4/10. There are better animes to watch besides this, but if you’re looking for a good laugh and fanservice this anime is for you. I’ve a second season is in the works and I’m all for it. This is an ecchi anime done right and for the fun of it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.