About

Gushing over Magical Girls (Jap. 魔法少女にあこがれて. Romaji. Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete) also known as I Admire Magical Girls, And… is a serial manga created by Akihiro Ononaka and published by Takeshobo starting in March of 2019. The manga follows a middle school girl who is a big fan of the magical girl organization Tres Magia, but she is trapped and forced to join the evil organization Enormeeta by its mascot against the Tres Magia. The manga got an anime adaptation in January 2024.

History

On March 29th, 2019, Gushing over Magical Girls was serialized by Takeshobo's magazine, Storia Dash, and has been licensed for an English audience by J-Novel Club. As of January 2024, eleven volumes have been released so far, and it's still ongoing (cover of the first volume shown below).

Plot

An ordinary middle school girl, Utena Hiiragi, is a big fan of the magical girl organization Tres Magia, who fights against the evil organization, Enormeeta. One day, she was recruited by Enormeeta's mascot, named Venalita. At first, Utena thought Venalita is the one of Tres Magia girls' mascot, and Venalita offers Utena magical power. Instead of becoming a magical girl, she is transformed to an evil one, and forced to join Enormeeta.

Anime Adaptation

On August 16th, 2023, the official YouTube^[1] channel KADOKAWAanime uploaded the Gushing over Magical Girls first trailer. The anime is created by Asahi Productions. The first episode anime premiered on January 3rd, 2024 (shown below).

Reception

As of January 2024, the anime adaptation of Gushing over Magical Girls received a score of 7.6 out of 10 on MyAnimeList^[2]. and 8.5 out of 10 on IMDb^[3].

Online Presence

After the premiere of the first episode, fan art, discussion, and memes about the series began growing popular popular. Most of the discussion is about it being borderline between ecchi and hentai, though most of the fan art is wholesome. For example, on January 12th, 2024, Reddit^[4] user ICognito uploaded a clip of episode 1 showing a scene of Utena tickling the magical girls, referencing the tickle fetishism, to the /r/anime subreddit. The post received more than 7,900 upvotes in 12 days (shown below).

On January 14th, 2024, Facebook^[5] user Rizki Maulana uploaded a post discussing the fandom's portrayal of the series in memes, comparing it to the Bocchi the Rock! fandom. The post received 687 reactions and 62 shares in 10 days (shown below, left). On January 22nd, 2024, Reddit^[6] user k_on_reddit uploaded a He Will Never Have a Girlfriend edit to the /r/yurimemes subreddit. The post received more than 2,100 upvotes in two days (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References