I sort of wish there was more to this book than its shallow messages and plot, but I also understand that it wasn't meant to be super duper deep. This is mainly a translation thing, but the simple and straightforward prose also help kept me grounded, and not to take what it was saying too seriously.

Regardless, the climate it's set against in a metatextual sense (i.e., written by a Korean woman post-lockdown in a world that is becoming increasingly hostile towards minorities) makes it something that aligns very well with the history of the magical girl genre, fitting it squarely alongside its contemporaries, though not in a way that makes it stand out.

The translator's note also rang poignant to me: "Magical girls exist because justice does not."

Perhaps in a world where magical girls do not exist, standing up for what is right is a superpower in of itself.