The second volume of Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Sadness Prayer brings in a few new magical girls, which naturally leads only to conflict.
There are six chapters in this volume, which starts with chapter eight and finishes with chapter thirteen.
My thoughts on the first volume of Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Sadness Prayer can be found by clicking here.
[New Testament]
Oriko sees her use of Kirika as an attack dog against other magical girls as a justifiable means to achieving a greater purpose – protecting the world from the destructive force of Walpurgis Nacht. However, their arrangement has piqued the interest of another magical girl, one who has her own reasons for wanting Oriko and Kirika on her side – and under her control!Volume 2 kicks off with chapter 8, ‘I Feel Like I’ve Been Reborn’, which shows a loner magical girl – Sasa Yuuki – fighting against three others. She pulls some trickery and is able to escape from them.
Elsewhere, Kirika declares her undying loyalty to Oriko, and this comes just before Oriko has a vision of the previously mentioned magical girls. As such, Oriko tells Kirika she has some orders for her to carry out.
One of the magical girls from earlier, Mio, manages to track down Sasa and fights her. That is until Kirika interrupts bringing the fight to a swift end. Oriko then appears with a proposition.
Mio’s fellow magical girls, Lina Hitomi, Miyako Saki, and Mai Akane discuss the murders in Mitakihara in chapter 9, ‘The World’s End, Over and Over’. They suspect Sasa of being responsible.
Turns out that Oriko’s offer was to help Sasa eliminate those three and she decided to accept. Kirika going on about the depths of Oriko’s love freaks Sasa out.
Oriko herself has the same recurring premonition, only this time she pushes herself to see who it is that’s protecting the one who will ultimately be responsible for the end of the world.
Sasa and Kirika follow Kyubey in chapter 10, ‘Was It Really That Time’ in order to determine where Kazamino magical girls (Lina, Miyako and Mai) are based. Oriko has a plan in place for taking on the magical girls.
There’s a moment where Kirika tries to recall the first time she met Oriko, but something doesn’t seem quite right.
As the Kazamino magical girls discuss their enemy, Kirika drops in to launch a surprise attack – something that Oriko intends to take advantage of.
Elsewhere, another of Oriko’s plans starts taking shape as a particular girl finds herself in a witch’s ward.
Sasa fights Lina in chapter 11, ‘I Was Doing My Best To Be A Good Girl’, whilst Kirika goes after Mai. That leaves Oriko free to approach Miyako, though she has no intent of fighting. Oriko simply wants to talk to her.
Kirika’s fight against Mai doesn’t go as well as she hoped, which ultimately leads to Sasa being outnumbered two-to-one. Sasa surrenders, but before anything can happen Oriko and Miyako arrive. After their little chat, Miyako blames Lina for everything that has happened, which becomes too much for her to bear.
Having witnessed what they just did, Sasa and Mai are pretty keen to air their grievances with Kyubey in chapter 12, ‘You Don’t Really Wanna Know’, but they have a bigger problem to focus on first. After that threat is eliminated, Kirika reappears to finish what she started.
Sasa then turns on Oriko, and then focuses on the girl who got caught up in the ward earlier on. That’s when the girl’s protector arrives.
Thanks to that, Oriko was able to confirm how the protector operates and thus can start the next step of her plan.
This chapter ends with Kyouko and Yuma finding somewhere to sit and eat.
Oriko and Kirika make their way to Kazamino in chapter 13, ‘She is Fated to a Tragic End’. Thanks to obtaining a large collection of grief seeds, Oriko is confident that both can go into battle with their maximum power. They happen to see Yuma being scolded an adult for some reason, and when they approach she runs for it.
Yuma finds her way back to Kyouko, and offers her what she presumably stole. Kyouko scolds her for running off on her own, and they head off together. Kyubey follows them, having been told by Oriko about a girl with strong potential to become a magical girl…
Volume 2 ends there, stating that the next volume will the ‘Kazamino Arc’.
We get some fairly interesting stuff in this volume, particularly from the Kazamino magical girls. Actually, they have also previously appeared in Puella Magia Oriko Magica: Extra Story, and they didn’t really fare too well there, either…
Still, there are some interesting powers on display, particularly with Sasa. Admittedly most of the girls aren’t really around long enough to show them fully utilising their powers, and Sasa is even stated to not be at her best. Whilst their powers may be interesting, it’s hard to think of them as anything other than fodder.
I do like how some familiar faces – Kyouko, and two certain other characters – are worked into the plot.
Perhaps some more time should have been spent establishing the Kazamino magical girls, because I really felt no connection to them whatsoever. They showed up for this volume, done what needed to be done and then will very likely have very little impact on the rest of the plot.
Ultimately, a large collection of grief seeds was the pay-off of events in this volume – perhaps this means that there will be big old battle or something in a future battle. If not, that will make most of this volume just feel like filler.
I did appreciate the action scenes, but they feel kind of pointless with where the plot is now. Perhaps volume 3 will vindicate this second volume, but for now, it just introduces characters who disappear almost as quickly as they show up.
