Magical Girl Defense Force Chapter 1 is a comic written & lettered by Skyler Ammons with line art by Alais Legrand and colors by Kellerybird. Magical girls are battling against the forces of Darkness Maw! This is a supernatural fantasy comic with a lot of action, a bit of comedy, and a cast of mostly women. The first prominent magical girl we see is Cutie Shrimp, she’s a member of Cutie Aquatic and she is easily shaken. Commander Suzuki is the woman who runs the organization W.A.N.D., it was formed to assist and protect magical girls. Celtia is a legendary, older, pink-haired magical girl who rides a Pegasus. This story begins with Cutie Aquatic(Angler, Clownfish, Axolotl, Shrimp) battling against Axe-Woman and her support troops. Axe-Woman manages to take down three out of four members of Cutie Aquatic but before Cutie Shrimp can be attacked there is a large cloud of smoke as an unknown magical girl makes her big appearance. This takes place in a world where there are a lot of magical girls, enough for there to be many different teams all around the world. The violence can be brutal and a bit bloody but nothing gruesome or gory. The pacing goes from steady to fast constantly and the tone is like that of an upbeat action anime or something like Miraculous Ladybug. There are some intense moments that are brought about due to danger and violence along with some that lean towards the dramatic. The dialogue here is conversational with mid-battle quips and aggression. There is some occasional narration that informs and gives descriptions. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a magical debut issue that has a large cast full of ladies, an interesting story with a bit of mystery, and destructive action.

            The art here is detailed and lightly cartoonish with a style reminiscent of American-made anime. The color palette has a bit of the brightness expected in this genre but red, black, and dark purple are the most prominent colors. There are a couple shots of water and trees but most this story takes place in a downtown area with many skyscrapers. While most of this takes place in the middle of the street we will see some shots of the W.A.N.D. ship’s control room. The backgrounds are split between showing the actual surroundings and being a gradient color with optional action lines. The expression level here is a bit above-average with looks that change frequently on the same page. Emotions we’ll see here are determination, fear, anger, happiness, shock, confusion, and rage. The faces have a decent to average amount of details and they can get a bit animated so all the looks come across clearly. The weapons seen here are magical wands, blades, firearms, and hands. The violence can be brutal with some strong attacks leading to a little bit of blood but no gore. There is really just one long action scene with short breaks between sequences and it has an overall smooth flow. The girls here dress like the average magical girl, the clothing is not revealing or sexed up.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural fantasy stories starring a whole bunch of magical girls with strong violence and a bit of humor then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Violence, blood.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’ll make sure that’s what’s on your tombstone brat!”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blueturtlecomics/magical-girl-defense-force-volume-1/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 42

Violent Pages: 16, for 38% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 2

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”