Park Seolyeon’s A Magical Girl Retires, translated by Anton Hur, acknowledges that everyone has a power fantasy. Just like superheroes and shonen battle heroes, magical girls are a kind of escapist method of experiencing great power. While not a full Madoka Magica style deconstruction, Seolyeon crafts a thoughtful and breezy story that asks what a debt-saddled millennial might do with powers. A Magical Girl Retires doesn’t have designs on analyzing the manga that inspires it, but that does leave a lot of room for a heartfelt look at modern life.
A Magical Girl Retires is a millennial anthem
A Magical Girl Retires follows a twenty-nine year old Korean woman who, after hitting rock bottom, is told that she isn’t just a magical girl — she’s the most powerful magical girl. It isn’t long before that set up gets more complex, but summarizing further really gives the entire game away. A Magical Girl Retires is pretty short. Long enough to be published as a full book, but only barely. This means that the book is an easy afternoon read but also there’s not as much time spent on the world of these magical girls.
The story is no filler, so while the title and pitch suggests a look into magical girl training, instead the focus is on the lead’s internal conflicts. That may be disappointing for anyone wanting a detailed take down or fantasy or magical girl stories. World building elements exist to help imagine how this world works, of course. However, Seolyeon is an extremely efficient storyteller, so anything brought up is only here to pay off main narrative.
Even without love, that efficiency is effective. It’s noteworthy that the moments Seolyeon does slow down on are particularly mundane. Much more focus is on the very familar, the things that induce anxiety and stress in the reader’s own life. That has the effect of making the magical girl life even more compelling in spite of the lacking details. Helping with visualizations is wonderful art from Kim Sanho. These pieces open each chapter and Sanho’s style bridges the story to the manga that inspired it.
Magical Girls who feel things
Much of this art involves the protagonist and Roa, the clairvoyant who recruits her. Roa is easily the heart of the story, a true believer who isn’t feeling disillusionment by the reality of things. Her growth from caring about her charge only as a magical girl to something much more intimate is adorable. The relationship is the brightest spot in a dark tale — never is this queer relationship at risk to raise stakes. In this regard, Roa’s love is the trust constant, the real magic the whole time.
It is worth noting the state of the protagonist at the start of the novel. Consider this a trigger warning — the novel opens on a suicide attempt in progress. The tone never fully shifts away from that; these magical girls’ situations are very real and familiar. This is a success with help from Anton Hur’s excellent translation of the text. No meaning is lost in translation while being very accessible for the English audience. This relatability, even across language, is the real strength of A Magical Girl Retires. Not in a light-hearted defeatism, but in acknowledgement of how serious things are.
Commentary on the medium is small but thoughtful
That realism is where the real commentary on magical girls exists. The narrative doesn’t have interest in the specifics, but A Magical Girl Retires does speculate on the medium’s appeal and success. Though not entirely clear, at first. Seolyeon’s analysis might seem cynical, at least to folks who avoid Madoka Magica or Re:Creators, but in reality it is thoughtful and much more even-handed than those contemporaries. Without giving the game away, reaching the” retires” the title mentions is critical to this. Yet, more breathing room would make this case even stronger; as the protagonist never gets to really feel a high of magic before the fall.
Brevity aside, A Magical Girl Retires is a sympathetic millennial tale. Using the magical girl genre as a connection point is inspirational, and hopefully will set a higher standard for manga and anime references in other media. Having this story accessible outside of South Korea with such a quality translation is a real treat. While anime fans might not like seeing a lack of referencing or use of the medium’s tropes, they will be more than satisfied by the tale of a world that tried to work that way.
A Magical Girl Retires is available now.
REVIEW RATING
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A Magical Girl Retires - 8/10
8/10
Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.
