Magi Soldat

Magi Soldat
マジ・ソルダット (Maji Sorudatto)
Genre	Magical Girl, Science Fiction, Action
Created by	Lynn Rain

Magi Soldat (Japanese: マジ・ソルダット Hepburn: Maji Sorudatto), also known as Magi Soldat: Magical Girl of Wakkanai, is a sci-fi magical girl comic written by Lynn Rain. The series is intended as a partial deconstruction of the magical girl genre, and is not suitable for young audiences or individuals with content aversions.

Synopsis

Premise

The series focuses on the ad-hoc resolution of an intergalactic crisis with Earth as its central battlefield.

For innumerable generations, the alien race known as the Iadena dedicated their lives to protecting the God Singularity, a physics-defying source of unlimited energy, due to their strong belief that no living being has the right to make use of it. However, one of their own has chosen to commit treason to their paradigm by stealing a fragment of the singularity and absconding with it to the cosmic Podunk called Earth.

Upon researching the planet and its species, Dilalin Niy and her superior learn that Earth's humans, while technologically primitive, possess a latent physics-defying power of their own. If awakened and empowered by even the tiniest fragment of the God Singularity, this power could be weaponized effortlessly.

With this knowledge in hand, Dilalin attempts to recruit her own group of Earth humans to assist with the retrieval mission --to fight fire with fire. With their latent powers awoken and their bodies clad in a high-tech armor attire, these humans become the almighty Magi Soldat, Dilalin's magic soldier mercenaries.

Setting

The main setting of Magi Soldat is Wakkanai, Hokkaido. Secondary settings include Dilalin's ship in orbit around Jupiter, and planet Iaden itself.

Characters

"If this self continues, there is no going back. You are now involved."
This section contains spoilers for material currently in circulation. If you are not caught up, plot points may be spoiled. Read at your own risk!

Protagonists

Itsumi Madoka

A young woman with esteem and anxiety issues and frequent difficulty coping with sudden situational changes. Due to her upbringing, she is constantly at odds with herself over her hobbies and passions. She truly believes they would make her a pariah and cost her her job if made known, yet she continually finds herself unable to abandon them. As a result, she tends to be very secretive and inherently distrusting of other adults, though she seems to have a soft spot for Iwasaki Toyaharu and her roommate Kaemi.

She is recruited by Dilalin and becomes the alchemistic Magi HOPE.

Ienai Kaemi

Itsumi's boisterous roommate who speaks in an unspecified, slang-like dialect and refers to herself exclusively by a pseudonym. She often uses alcohol as a solution to her stress and problems. She is seemingly even more secretive than Itsumi, as apparently nobody knows what she does for a living or even what her real name is. Though she acts rough and stoic, she is actually a very weak-willed coward.

She takes on the role of Magi SHARP, but has yet to figure out how to user her exotic power.

Katou Kumiko

A civil engineer with a flair for creativity. She tends to be highly level-headed in fast-paced environments, but often overthinks her solutions to a point of convolution or impotency. Her life's endeavor is to become one of the most notable engineers in Japan, as well as to fight the precedent of women quitting their careers to become housewives and mothers.

She is recruited as technical and tactical support for the Magi Soldat unit, though she can also sortie as the atmosphere-manipulating Magi JAM.

Setsuna Ayumu

A surely young woman with an unreasonable grudge against everybody. She desires nothing more than to protect her girlfriend and prove to the world that her sexuality does not render her useless or meaningless.

She takes on the role of ferromagnetic Magi NICKEL.

Namiki Maia

A stoic teenager hiding an impossibly deep reservoir of rage. She prefers to remain quiet and simply carry out orders as issued.

She takes on the role of heavy melee specialist Magi BUSTER.

Antagonists

Ressura

A masked terrorist with the exotic ability to create explosive spheres of energy. He claims himself to be The Wrath of God Incarnate.

Vespirone

A mysterious, hooded and masked individual and Ressura's superior. They appear to be orchestrating some manner of experiment.

Tchang

A mysterious, masked individual always by Vespirone's side. He is disinterested in Vespirone's machinations and only desires to fight and kill. He is highly formidable in combat, possessing both martial arts prowess and immense raw physical strength.

His name is an older romanization of the Korean "짱", a slang term meaning "best".

Production

Magi Soldat was initially conceptualized as a short parody series borrowing characters from Rain's then-on-hiatus series Ellipsis. However, a short ways into development, the series began taking on a more serious plot and shifted to a more science-fiction based foundation.

Name

The name Magi Soldat is derived from the Swedish term for magic soldier. The decision to render the name in another language was inspired by the usage of Latin in the title of the anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

The subtitle, Magical Girl of Wakkanai (稚内市の魔法少女 Wakkanai-shi no Mahou Shoujo), was appended simply to lend more context to the nature of the series, as the term Magi Soldat alone did not properly convey what the series was about. However, outside of logos, the subtitle has fallen into disuse.

Tagline

The series possesses a "tagline" that was intended to be included with the series' logo: Magi Soldat: God Falling, Zero Awakes, The Legacy of Your Sins Will Be... (マジ・ソルダッ :: 神落っこちる,零醒ます,お前達の罪の遺産か？Maji Sorudatto :: Kami okkochiru, zero samasu, omaetachi no tsumi no isan ka?, lit. Magi Soldat: God Falling, Zero Waking, Is This The Legacy Of Your Guilt?).

Naming Error

Up through the first two runs of Magi Soldat, the name was erroneously miswritten as マギ・ソルダット (magi sorudatto). This was due to a translation error wherein the name was translated using Hepburn romaji instead of phoneme sound. This issue was corrected in Daishinsouban.

Serialization

Magi Soldat has been serializing online at its official website since late 2012. The series has undergone two separate reboots, resulting in three separate runs.

Prototype Run

In December of 2012, the very first run of Magi Soldat began serializing. This iteration was entirely grayscale and drawn on an unorthodox 900x600 pixel canvas. The run consisted of 89 pages divided into 4 chapters. This run was canceled in mid 2013, due to discontent with artistic consistency and story pacing.

Shinsouban

A second test-type run, Magi Soldat New Release(マジ・ソルダット新装版 Maji Sorudatto Shinsouban), began serializing from the beginning of the story shortly after the prototype run concluded. This version boasted a consistent and improved art style and was drawn on a less unorthodox 560x720 pixel canvas. However, this second run was shelved after only nine pages due to pacing concerns yet again, as well as to shift away from the stagnant grayscale format and improve the lore and world-building.

Daishinsouban

In 2014, the third and current run, informally called Great New Release Magi Soldat (大新装版マジ・ソルダット Daishinsouban Maji Sorudatto), began its serial run. Drawn in full color on a massive 1120x1440 pixel canvas, this version has found modest success as a "proper" telling of the Magi Soldat story.