[ In the morning, there will be a homemade booklet sitting on Anya's desk. The cover features a cutesy illustration of Волшебная девочка Аня (Magical Girl Anya), her black cat, and her colorful cast of friends, who are enthusiastically throwing her up toward the viewer.
Inside is a comic, with the dialogue in very elementary, sometimes awkward Russian. The drawings are a bit rough, clearly done with no time to spare.
The story starts with the titular Anya, a high school girl who lives a normal life with her mother... until one day, a scarfed cat being chased by masked wolves runs into her house. Anya saves the cat by throwing a bone out into traffic, which the wolves chase only to get collectively hit by a bus.
Anya and her mother take the cat in, and they live in peace for a time. But one day, a ghostly little girl wearing the same mask as the wolves' comes and takes away Anya's mother. The black cat reveals to Anya that he can talk, and tells her that they have to go on a journey to retrieve her mother. He bestows her with (unexplained) magical girl powers, and they set off.
The rest of the comic is a series of humorous encounters with oddly familiar characters whose lives are plagued by masked pests. Like an apple farmer who looks a lot like Mikoto, who can't go outside because there's a masked bee constantly sitting on the doorknob leading outside. Or a peasant boy who looks a lot like Yuri, who likes to skate on a frozen lake but can't because aggressive masked penguins won't stop bullying him off the ice. And so on, and so forth.
One by one, Anya solves their problems by transforming into a magical girl. Except she looks exactly the same before and after, and solves the problems with her own ingenuity or a gently confused, very stunted in vocabulary, but somehow undeniably moving pep talk. With each crisis averted, Anya's new friends all help her toward the foreboding castle of the evil masked girl with directions, rumors, and supplies.
When Anya and the black cat finally reach the castle and make their way to the boss room, the masked girl reveals that she only wanted the cat all along. A masked eagle swoops in and grabs the black cat from Anya's shoulder. The cat is delivered to the girl, who puts a mask on him -- which then turns him into a handsome, tragically sparkling young man who also happens to look a lot like Yato. He is her brother, the girl reveals, and she has been very lonely without him.
With the young man unconscious on the floor, the girl thanks Anya and releases Anya's mother. Anya and her mother are free to go, but Anya is still gently confused. Feeling sorry for the masked girl, Anya gives her a warm hug and tells her that it will be okay. Moved, the young girl begins to cry. She thanks Anya again, this time with sparkly sincerity effects, and then moves on to the afterlife. The masks all disappear and the young man turns back into a cat.
Together, Anya, her mother, and the black cat all go back home. The final page is a more detailed sketch of the three of them happily having dinner together, in what appears to be Anya's actual dining room. Finally, there's a message, still written in slightly awkward Russian: ]
You are already a magical girl. ❤
-- Yato
[ Followed by a date, signature, and little drawing of a winking Yato.
Aaand once he's snuck the booklet into her room, Yato steals away to pass out under a big shady tree somewhere. ]
3/6; action; day after russian intensification
Inside is a comic, with the dialogue in very elementary, sometimes awkward Russian. The drawings are a bit rough, clearly done with no time to spare.
The story starts with the titular Anya, a high school girl who lives a normal life with her mother... until one day, a scarfed cat being chased by masked wolves runs into her house. Anya saves the cat by throwing a bone out into traffic, which the wolves chase only to get collectively hit by a bus.
Anya and her mother take the cat in, and they live in peace for a time. But one day, a ghostly little girl wearing the same mask as the wolves' comes and takes away Anya's mother. The black cat reveals to Anya that he can talk, and tells her that they have to go on a journey to retrieve her mother. He bestows her with (unexplained) magical girl powers, and they set off.
The rest of the comic is a series of humorous encounters with oddly familiar characters whose lives are plagued by masked pests. Like an apple farmer who looks a lot like Mikoto, who can't go outside because there's a masked bee constantly sitting on the doorknob leading outside. Or a peasant boy who looks a lot like Yuri, who likes to skate on a frozen lake but can't because aggressive masked penguins won't stop bullying him off the ice. And so on, and so forth.
One by one, Anya solves their problems by transforming into a magical girl. Except she looks exactly the same before and after, and solves the problems with her own ingenuity or a gently confused, very stunted in vocabulary, but somehow undeniably moving pep talk. With each crisis averted, Anya's new friends all help her toward the foreboding castle of the evil masked girl with directions, rumors, and supplies.
When Anya and the black cat finally reach the castle and make their way to the boss room, the masked girl reveals that she only wanted the cat all along. A masked eagle swoops in and grabs the black cat from Anya's shoulder. The cat is delivered to the girl, who puts a mask on him -- which then turns him into a handsome, tragically sparkling young man who also happens to look a lot like Yato. He is her brother, the girl reveals, and she has been very lonely without him.
With the young man unconscious on the floor, the girl thanks Anya and releases Anya's mother. Anya and her mother are free to go, but Anya is still gently confused. Feeling sorry for the masked girl, Anya gives her a warm hug and tells her that it will be okay. Moved, the young girl begins to cry. She thanks Anya again, this time with sparkly sincerity effects, and then moves on to the afterlife. The masks all disappear and the young man turns back into a cat.
Together, Anya, her mother, and the black cat all go back home. The final page is a more detailed sketch of the three of them happily having dinner together, in what appears to be Anya's actual dining room. Finally, there's a message, still written in slightly awkward Russian: ]
You are already a magical girl. ❤
-- Yato
[ Followed by a date, signature, and little drawing of a winking Yato.
Aaand once he's snuck the booklet into her room, Yato steals away to pass out under a big shady tree somewhere. ]