Shin Honkaku Mahō Shōjo Risuka, also known as Magical Girl Risuka, is a Japanese light novel series written by Japanese novelistNisio Isin, and illustrated by Kinu Nishimura. It was published in Faust magazine, running from December 2003 to August 2008, and was serialized into three light novel volumes published by Kodansha Limited from 2004 to 2007, with one chapter unreleased. A short story version was also featured in the English anthology of Faust magazine. The light novels follow Risuka Mizukura, a fifth grader with magic powers, and Mizutaka Kugi, a genius class representative with lofty ambitions, as they go on a "magic hunt" around Saga Prefecture in search of Risuka's father, Shingo Mizukura. They encounter Mages and battles along the way.
Plot
The novels take place in the Kyushu island region. Nagasaki Prefecture, in the early twentieth century, was a magical kingdom whose imminent power prompted the Americans to drop the atomic bomb on them in World War II. In current times, Nagasaki is full of magicians and is called the Land of Magic, but has isolated itself within a walled city. The magicians on the outside must keep their abilities a secret, and are limited in that they cannot cross the ocean. Mizukura Risuka, a ten-year-old girl living in nearby Saga Prefecture, is the daughter of one of the most powerful wizards. When she is not attending school, she searches for her father. Her magical ability allows her to transform her physical age; when she is about to die, she can transform to her prime physical age of 27. She teams up with Kugi Kizutaka, a ten-year-old class representative, who is a genius and a sociopath with desires to rule people, treating everyone he meets as pawns. Kugi is termed a "Mage User", although he has no intrinsic magical abilities. The light novels are framed with quotes from H.P. Lovecraft's works, and also use terminology from Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.
Mahō Shōjo Risuka began as a series of light novels written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Kinu Nishimura from Capcom. The chapters were published in the Japanese magazine Faust, running from December 2003 to August 2008. They were later serialized into three light novels published by Kodansha Limited from 2004 to 2007. The August 2008 chapter was not published by Kodansha. In 2006, Kodansha announced a fourth light novel,, but it has not been published. The series resumed serialization in another magazine, Mephisto, released on April 8, 2020. Chapters 1 and 10 were republished in the Mephisto Vol. 3 2019. The fourth and final volume of the series is scheduled to be released in December 2020 with a newly written story for it. 13 chapters are expected to complete the series. Magical Girl Risuka was a featured short story in the English anthology, Faust Volume 2, which was released on June 23, 2009 by Del Rey Manga.
Reception
Andrew Cunningham, the English translator for Faust Magazine, notes "the author's clear intent to explode everything dark about magical girls without any of the nauseating sugar that usually coats them make it alternately horrifying and gripping." Ken Haley of Manga Recon found Kizutaka "incredibly snotty and unlikable. Unfortunately, this really hurts the story’s enjoyability as Kizutaka is our POV character." He also found the end of the short story "very unsatisfying and confusing".
