English Dub Review: Magical Girl Raising Project “File Not Found”

With names like Swim Swim and Ripple, you’d think this was the swimming anime.

Overview (Spoilers!)

Paralyzed by depression, Snow White doesn’t want to be a magical girl anymore. Ripple and Swim Swim fight in a thunderstorm. FAV explains the selection process to Snow White. He hopes that Ripple and Swim Swim kill each other off because neither one seems like a suitable master. While Ripple is skilled at parrying Swim Swim’s attacks, Swim Swim phases through everything Ripple throws at her. FAV explains that selection exams vary greatly depending on the master—some aren’t bloody at all—but FAV and Cranberry both believed they were becoming too boring, so they devised an exam that would drive magical girls to kill each other. They had to try several times because, in past exams, Cranberry just killed everyone. Furious, Snow White destroys her magical phone and rushes to find Swim Swim and Ripple.

When Ripple throws a shuriken at Swim Swim, the metal attracts lightning, and Swim Swim is struck; Swim Swim stabs Ripple in the eye and slices off her arm. Flinging blood at Swim Swim’s eyes, Ripple is able to blind her for long enough to set off a grenade. Swim Swim is dead. Ripple stabs her body several times before dying as well.

Snow White arrives too late. FAV congratulates her on winning the game, but Snow White refuses to become the new master. She attempts to destroy the master terminal through which FAV speaks to her, but it’s near-indestructible. While FAV laughs at the magical girls who have died, the rabbit’s foot performs a miracle—Ripple is brought back to life. Using Swim Swim’s magical weapon, she destroys the terminal.

Snow White’s friends, now in high school, chat on a bus. The MGRP app no longer exists, but magical girls are still being sighted. Snow White ran away from home six months ago.

Ripple and Snow White meet up. The World of Magic sends Snow White regular messages telling her to act within her own district and not travel so much, but Snow White wants to do good on a grand scale. She vows to always take action, so she’ll have no regrets. At Snow White’s request, Ripple trains her in combat so that she can become stronger.

Our Take 

When it comes to Swim Swim, I want to say good riddance. I want to say, yay, the evil has been defeated! I want to celebrate Ripple’s success. But god, she’s so young. Her death just adds to the overall tragedy of the series. And, at the same time… Swim Swim is the only character we don’t get to see any backstory for. We get a glimpse into her dreams, but that certainly isn’t enough to let us understand how a seven-year-old girl ended up in such a horrifically dark place. FAV says she has a couple of screws loose, but that isn’t much of an explanation at all. I wanted at least some hints to her home life. I haven’t read the light novel this series was based on, so perhaps Swim Swim is better fleshed out there. On-screen, though, she’s a disappointingly flat and somewhat confusing antagonist.

And that’s the thing about this finale—I really enjoyed Magical Girl Raising Project, so I was expecting the final episode to blow me away, to do something the series has never done before. I was expecting a big twist ending or at least some incredible display of magical combat from Snow White. But the protagonist of our show… doesn’t really do anything here. She listens to FAV’s exposition and mourns her fallen friends, but Ripple is the one who kills Swim Swim and gets rid of FAV. The rabbit’s foot, crucial to the climax of the finale, was bought by Alice. The unbeatable weapon “Ruler” was purchased by Tama on Swim Swim’s orders. Up until the very end, Snow White needs other people to protect her, to act in her stead.

So her character development in the last few minutes of the show is refreshing, but it comes too little too late. I needed a big dramatic moment where Snow White was finally motivated to act. I wanted some kind of twist. But FAV’s explanation of the way the game works is all stuff we already know. It’s such an anticlimax. Also, the most crucial moment of the series heavily involves the “master terminal,” which we’ve literally never seen before. It’s the same complaint I had about the Deathly Hallows’ importance in the final book of Harry Potter—it’s really weird when the most important element of a series finale shows up at the last minute after not having been mentioned ever before.

That being said, this is still an episode of Magical Girl Raising Project, so there’s still good animation (I like the detail that Snow White has magical girl manga strewn across her floor as if she flipped through them in a frenzy trying to find any precedent for her situation). There are still entertaining battles and lovable characters. And it’s gratifying, to some extent, how we’ve come full circle—we begin and end with Snow White’s friends, with her passion for making the world a better place. But I need to know more. Was Snow White okay with just leaving her life behind? What specific good is she trying to do out there in the world? What did happen to FAV? Will there be another selection process?

This series really is compelling. I care about nearly every character because they’re all messed-up in wonderful ways. It should be noted that, after reviewing this whole series, I went out and bought the light novel because I was sad to see it end. Heck, I even made my icon on tumblr Magicaloid 44. I just wish the series was a little more surprising, that the plot was as compelling and strange and heartbreaking as the magical girls that live in it. Perhaps the light novel will do a better job of fleshing out the world of N-City—I’ll has to wait and see.