Two decades ago, the world as we knew it changed forever.
Aberrations — Horrific monsters borne from shadows poured through a rift in reality over major cities, bringing death and destruction in their wake. Soon, these events began to proliferate worldwide, throwing civilization into chaos.
As the days dragged on, the Earth was pushed to the precipice. Armies were massacred, and cities were razed to the ground. Relics of antiquity were burned to ash. Just when all hope seemed lost, salvation came in the most unexpected way.
Thousands of heroes emerged from beyond the rift to Earth's rescue. Magical girls who embodied human dreams and imagination poured forth and stood firm against the darkness.
When the dust settled after an arduous war, those that remained standing discovered shocking, almost uncanny similarities between the two worlds of Earth and Terra. With Earth and Terra razed and depopulated respectively, the two sides of the rift joined together in harmony to rebuild, and stave off the continued Aberration threat.
As a First Year drifter at the prestigious St. Antonia's Academy on Terra, Ikki never cared much for the battles fought by these magical warriors. His main worry was that he was on scholarship as a Drifter - an immigrant from the decimated Earth. To add to his woes, he'd managed to piss off the children of one of the most powerful men in Terra within his first month.
To him, Aberrations and Chaos Events were merely natural disasters like earthquakes that couldn't be avoided or worth stressing about. He'd experienced them. He'd known the horrors in his childhood, but that was a distant nightmare for him. Magical Girls and their followers were like celebrities and the military - good to know about appreciate, but not something to really pay attention to.
That was, until he found himself in the middle of an Aberration attack fighting for his life.
The beginning might be a bit disorganized and rushed, but trust me, it comes together and turns into something fantastic.
The author starts off with an exhilarating, fast-paced action sequence that instantly grabs your attention. Following that, the story transitions to a more relaxed slice-of-life segment.
Unfortunately, this part of the story was pretty disjointed, but the author was attempting to rush through it. This was due to very vocal complaints and review bombing from people on Royal Road who were sucked in by the action, and subsequently surprised with a long ‘awkward teenager slice of life’ segment.
Regardless, it remains an enjoyable character-driven, school life narrative focused on magical girls. If you hate tropes like bullying, assault, and completely broken authority/justice systems, this story probably isn’t for you. However, everything starts coming together right around chapter 35.
This story is packed with all kinds of cool anime tropes that ultimately tie together to the core ‘theme’ of magical girls. The author was a prolific fanfiction writer for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Worm, and Type-MOON and it seems like they packed in all the powers and systems they loved from those franchises and discarded everything they didn’t.
At this point in the story, we have mechas, zombie hordes with (limited) infectious bites, cyborg supervillain Nazis, urban fantasy mages, far-reaching conspiracies that spread through multiple eras, and even light parallel world travel! It's as if the author decided to include everything they found batsh*t awesome in urban fantasy / sci-fi to pack into a magical girl story, and it absolutely works.
If you find any inconsistencies in the worldbuilding or power systems, just hang on until Chapter 33. Everything will start making sense, revealing that the author had it all planned out from the beginning. The story is very dark and loves to toy with your expectations.
I do have to stress this: Be prepared for some classic awkward teenage moments because they're definitely in there.
The protagonist might not be physically strong, but they're incredibly clever in a subtle way. The action is intense, while the school life portions offer a nice change of pace, allowing you to witness the characters' growth.
In summary, "Origin: How I Became A Magical Girl's Hapless Sidekick In A Craptastic World" offers a refreshing take on the magical girl genre, focusing on a sidekick protagonist and a fantastic blend of action and school life.
It might start off a bit shaky, but it gets better and better as you progress, turning it into a must-read that will have you hooked until the very end.
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The novels are very easy to read, does it let you put yourself in the shoes of a girl? Normal which has a semi-discovered past, in a world where there are magical girls, schools with bullying, monsters and well, abuse as well as healing, I have to say that I like it, but it has its negative points:The first is that it is difficult to identify for a while who is speaking what or the genre of some, secondly the somewhat slow development of the story, finally, a little more action, apart from them I believe that the novel It has a future, as long as it doesn't take the wrong steps.
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