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Can it be? A Puella Magi Madoka Magica spinoff manga that’s actually worth reading?

It is! Well, kind of.

We start with the familiar setup. Magical girl Mami Tomoe is killing witches and familiars in Mitakihara City, which brings her into conflict with the other magical girls in her area, who think that familiars (who don’t drop the Grief Seeds needed to maintain their power) are a waste of time. Combined with the demanding schedule her hunting creates, she’s feeling lonely and burned out until she meets a newly contracted magical girl named Kyoko Sakura. The two team up and form a close bond until ... a tragedy drives them apart and Mami must learn to cope with solitude again.

Essentially, this comic is an alternate universe that aims to flesh out Mami and Kyoko’s backstories, as well as answering the question “what would have happened if Mami has survived Episode 3?”. The answer, according to Different Story, is that things would still have been pretty sad. Which is, I suppose, pretty in-keeping with the overall tone of the story, but man, this was a pretty depressing one, especially towards the end.

As I said in the intro, this was probably the first of the Madoka Magica spinoffs I’ve read that was actually worth the time to read. It’s not redundant with a (clearer and prettier) TV show like the original is, it’s not as overstuffed with characters as Kazumi Magica, and it’s got better art and more heart than Oriko Magica. Instead, Different Story expands on one of the characters we spent less time with in the original show, allowing us to see that the cool, chill mentor didn’t quite have it as all-together as we thought. And although Kyoko got more time in the spotlight during the show, I will never complain about seeing more of her either, particularly before the horrific events that made her the jaded, cynical young woman we will eventually meet. By the time that the story reaches its inevitable, tragic end, I was genuinely devastated, even though Mami was probably my least favorite of the core 5 in the show.

Still, just because it’s better than its predecessors, that doesn’t make this series perfect. It still suffers from the same confusing blocking and overly-busy page layouts that have plagued the rest of the Madoka Magica spinoffs. Some of that is, of course, due to the difficulties of translating the impossible landscapes of the witches’ barriers to a black-and-white static image, but a problem it remains, just as it remains a problem to determine who is talking at times with the unclear dialogue bubbles.

Most importantly, however, is that as much as I’ve complained about the breakneck speed of previous Madoka spinoffs, this one wound up being too long for its story. The conflict between Mami and Kyoko wound up feeling stretched out with too many conversations that didn’t add much or repeated information from earlier on.

In the end, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story wasn’t a bad read, but also was something I’d only recommend to strong fans of the animated series who can’t wait to see more of Mami and Kyoko. Anyone else will probably just find it tedious.

The second of the numerous spinoff manga of hit anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Oriko Magica follows Kyoko Sakura as she kills yet another witch in Mitakihara City. Only this time, there's a survivor, a young girl named Yuma. Against her better judgement, Kyoko takes Yuma under her wing, but someone is murdering magical girls, and there might be a larger plan than simple serial killing at work. . .

This is probably the best of the Madoka spinoffs up until this point chronologically. The villains has an interesting motivation and some cool powers and it's fun to see a softer side of Kyoko and ... a bit more of Mami. And the ending captured the bittersweet nature of the setting well. Oriko also has much longer chapters than Madoka or Kazumi, allowing each scene more time to grow properly and things to feel less harried.

The great bones of the story, however, have a shaky covering. I almost didn't pick this one up at all after seeing the cover, which gives off mid-2000s "How to Draw Manga" vibes, and while the art inside is somewhat better, it's still far from good. Similarly, while the fight scene choreography that I've complained about in previous Madoka adaptations has improved, it was still confusing enough that I found myself having to read each page a few times to understand what was going on.

Worst, however, is that plot points revealed near the end of the story make the entire thing feel pointless and inevitable, and not in a way that seems to emphasize theme or character. The story, it seems, just doesn't matter.

In the end, while this one is quite enjoyable for fans of Madoka Magica looking to see more of the universe, it's ultimately a forgettable side-story that doesn't add much beyond a few cool magical girl designs and backstories.

Kazumi Magica is the first of many spinoff manga of the hit anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and it's a bit of an odd one, in my opinion.

A young woman wakes up in a suitcase with no memories, carried by a man who seems shocked to see her. She's rescued from this awkward and dangerous situation by two other girls who inform her that she is their best friend, Kazumi, and take her back to their house. But when she is attacked by a monstrous creature, she discovers that she has magical abilities, as do her friends - in fact, they are a part ... of a team of magical girls known as the Pleiades Saints and despite her ongoing memory loss, Kazumi finds herself pulled into their efforts to clear the city of witches and monsters as she begins to realize that her friends are keeping secrets.

Kazumi Magica assumes that the reader knows Madoka Magica well, as much of the tension in early chapters comes from the realization that things don't quite match up with the world the story is ostensibly set in and the story makes little effort to explain many of the worldbuilding conventions. This isn't a critique, per se - it's a spinoff, after all - more of a heads up and a warning that this review may contain spoilers for Madoka Magica.

This manga is a bit of a mess. As the name might suggest, there are seven members of the Pleades Saints and that's way too many major characters for a story of this length. The pacing struggles and the action scenes are very poorly blocked, to the point that I frequently found myself skimming them and relying on the dialogue to tell me what was happening. And while none of it is any more graphic than a Barbie doll, I found the frequent nudity distracting and unnecessary.

Where the story does shine, however, is the characters. Kazumi is a bit more confidant and assertive than Madoka, but no less likable, and while there isn't much time to linger on the personalities of the rest of the Saints, I was intrigued by what I saw. I also enjoyed the look at some potential other reactions to the realities of the magical girl system (and the solutions attempted before Madoka's final wish), as well as the contracts that others might have made.

Puella Magi Kazumi Magica is a story with a lot of potential hampered by poor fight scene choreography and a plot that tries to do far too much with its allotted time. Worth checking out for strong fans of the Madoka universe, but not something that stands on its own merits.