- Slight Spoilers for the set-up of some of the cases -
It's a story of one girl clashing against an unfair system and a seemingly deranged society.
Yuuri Masago is a Magical Lawyer who fights to save other Magical Girls from an abusive system in the court of Magical Girl law. Working as the defense counsel she seeks to save the girls from punishments all girls who've been Defeated must suffer.
From the first page we are told that the Magical Girl society is driven by a clear ideology that they hold above all else.
Magical Girls must fight monsters for the sake of others as only they are capable, they must strive to be a shining beacon of hope and most important of all they must never ever suffer Defeat.
Those who fall in battle are taken to the court of the Defeat Trial where the true nature of their defeat is brought to light with horrible punishment set to follow should they be proven guilty.
The entire affair is led by the Magical Girls themselves, the Judge, a magical girl possessing a power to show a vision of anything that has happened in the past, presides over the court and delivers the final judgment. On the side of the Prosecution is Tatemaki Lemon, a magical girl who seeks to prove the accusations set against accused Magical Girls.
To be found in the Defeat Trial is to be put in a hopeless situation, we are told the majority of cases end in a guilty verdict where the girls suffer a terrible punishment.
The society at large is morally in question, the way they act when a Magical Girl is defeated along with the reactions of the High Society in the peanut gallery show this. Whenever a girls fault or misfortune is revealed they jump at the chance to jeer and ridicule. This seemingly ties into H-manga tropes were society is to some degree degenerate in a moral sense. The author has decided to play the H-manga tropes straight leading to grave sense dread as the punishments are both horrible and humiliating.
Why would the magical girls even participate in this system that abuses them so?
So far, it seems few of the girls wanted to become Magical Girls and instead become one due their unfortunate circumstances.
- Aoi was transformed into a Magical girl even though he didn't want to do so initially, but was pressured into doing so by a Magical Mascot that had ulterior motives. They were naive and driven by a childhood dream to become a hero.
- Miko seemingly did so out of obligation. Coming from a long line of Exorcists, the original monster exterminator, it could be that she was merely doing what was expected of her.
- Yahiro does her work for the sake of her family and little brother, being the only one who can provide for them due to the fact that her parents are unable.
The court seeks to protect the Ideology placed on the Magical Girls and not the Girls themselves. Any attempt to validate the reasoning that the girls are subject to inhuman expectations is met with resistance from the court. What Yuuri does through her defense of the Defeated is to show not that the Defeat did not in fact occur, but to prove in some way that the girl in question did not intend to go against the Belief System of the Magical Girls. This is why her arguments can at times sound non-sensical, and why at times Tatemaki directly places criticism on the Girls character in addition to explaining that the Defeat was their fault alone.
Defeat equals Blasphemy, a Magical Girl cannot lose in the same way that Good must always triumph over Evil. To fail to uphold this idea is to bring great shame on all Magical Girls and in turn the Court seeks to inflict upon the accused a shame and humiliation it sees equal in measure.
Each and every punishment is carefully chosen by the prosecution. In most cases being something the girls either fear most or would detest happening to them.
- Aoi having become a magical girl upon making the choice to accept the unicorns offer was permanently changed into a girl. Experiencing a from of body dysphoria from their sudden change the prosecution laches onto this and demands execution of a sentence that would see Aoi forcibly be made to bear a child. Something the court sees as light punishment.
- Miko also being quite self conscious of her appearance, specifically the size of her chest, is in turn given the Milking Punishment by which she would be forced to provide magical energy until her due for her Defeat is repaid.
- Yahiro who in truth rather than being a hero wanted most to experience familial happiness by becoming a bride, this inherent desire manifesting in her form as Magical Girl wearing an outfit resembling a Wedding Dress, would be punished by being forced to marry the monsters she fought in a distorted mockery of her secret wish in life.
All these punishments leave life altering consequences for the accused with some ending in a fate worse than death. Yuuri fights to save the girls from these punishments by any means necessary being gifted with a unique magical power to discern truth from lies using it to find the truth in what caused the girls' defeat.
At this time the central mystery to the story are the nature of the court itself along with Yuuri's own motivations for wanting to save every Magical Girl from the fate of being judged guilty and her relationship with her sister, the strongest magical girl alive.
Another character of note is Aoi the stand in for the audience. Having recently become a (magical) girl we see the court and lives of these magical girls through her experiences first hand and learn new things in the same time she does.
The closest point of comparison with another series is Ace Attorney, but outside of the court shenanigans holds little in common. The story takes more time to showcase the pure insanity on display and to present the reader with a morally abhorrent setting rather than focus on the nature of the (magical) law and it's application (Though the nature of Magical Girls and their powers is explored throughout the cases themselves).
The main draw of the series lies in the shocking setting currently as we have yet to explore the rest of the setting in earnest. You root for Yuuri to succeed and save the girls while being held on the edge of your seat by the unhinged insanity of the system this society created.
With every case the reader is held in suspense as we wait out the proceedings waiting for the prosecution to outline one revelation after another regarding the Defendant and their circumstances.
It's here that Yuuri's character shines with her unwavering belief in the victims and their innocence.
Certainly, not for the faint of heart.
(-59)
