Neil Moynihan is not the Ordinary High-School Student he appears to be. Thanks to a Secret Legacy from his Japanese immigrant mother Noriko, Neil transforms into an Oni-fighting Magical Girl Warrior. It turns out he's the latest generation in a long line descended from the original magical girl, a Shinto priestess who was granted Magical Girl powers to protect her village, and neither the oni nor those powers particularly care that Noriko's only child is not a girl. Needless to say Neil is not especially thrilled by this, especially since he's a bit of a misanthrope. He doesn't even like people, why would he want to save them?
Underscoring Neil's unconventional nature his primary power consists of his ability to headbutt monsters into submission. If that doesn't work he can summon a variety of household appliances which he uses as bludgeons or projectiles as the situation requires. He's also not to particularly thrilled by his transformation sequence, which seems determined to modify (as in girlify) his costume in different ways to suit each battleground, like a bathing suit for the beach. Throw in an irritating Stealth Mentor and an even more annoying Mentor Mascot and Neil's life pretty much sucks. Fortunately, he's got a solid support system in his parents, his best friend and a passel of girl cousins looking out for him.
Magical Girl Neil
is a webcomic by Satelite Nine that usually updated weekly. The last update was in December 2017 and in April 2018 the author announced that the comic would go on indefinite hiatus citing personal growth as a writer and illustrator in the five-year life of the work and a desire to work on other projects. They did however state their intent to return to the comic at an unspecified future date.
A full mirror of the comic exists here.
Tropes include:
- Always Identical Twins: Neil's cousins Prudence and Penelope. Also Polar Opposite Twins personality-wise.
- Cool Big Sis: Neil's cousin Josephine, who acts as a cool big sis for Neil as well as her actual sisters.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: Inverted: Neil's Stealth mentor is somehow always completely obscured by shadow, even under a bright sun in the middle of a beach.
- Combat Stilettos: Parodied: the latest iteration of Noriko's costume (which she doesn't like) has high-heeled boots, which she doesn't like either.Noriko: "Hey, do you know how hard it is to run in heels?"
- Dangerous 16th Birthday: Neil started transforming on his sixteenth birthday.
- Explosive Overclocking: A Magical girl's powers continue to grow as she ages. Unfortunately, the magical girl body she transforms into does not, ultimately leading to a situation where any use of her powers invites explosive self-destruction.
- Heroic Sacrifice: practically built into the magical girl powerset thanks to explosive overclocking. It's implied that many, if not most, of Neil's magical girl ancestors sacrificed themselves as Neil's mother did when their offspring's power's emerged.
- Lampshade Hanging: Aaron's primary role, apparently.Aaron: "It all sounds like something from a bad comic book."
- Literal Metaphor: Neil takes the phrase "Hard Headed" to its logical extreme. And it works.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his general grumpiness and oft-expressed misanthropy Neil will not stand idly by and allow innocent bystanders to be hurt under any circumstances—particularly women or children.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The seven Mikhailovich siblings, Neil's paternal cousins and primary support system.
- Mentor Mascot: Neil has what would be an ordinary rabbit if it weren't possessed by the spirit of someone he cannot ignore.
- Missing Mom: Played with: Thanks to the whole Explosive Overclocking issue, Neil's mom sacrificed herself to protect him from the Oni that attacked as soon as he emerged. Or she would have if she hadn't figured out how to Take a Third Option at the last minute. So Neil still has his Mom (sort of) even though as far as everyone else is concerned she's still missing.
- Noodle Incident: the "Koshien Incident" which Neil's mother was supposedly involved in.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Neil, albeit an introverted and misanthropic one.
- Refusal of the Call: Neil stayed awake for days trying to avoid the dream that would grant him his full powers. Much as Neil would love to refuse the call, he has no choice in the matter as his body transforms automatically in the presence of Oni regardless of his opinions in the matter.
- Running Gag: Neil is constantly getting hit on the head.
- Secret-Keeper: Neil's role as a Magical girl is not secret from his family or his best friend.
- Stealth Mentor: Neil finds the shadowy dude really annoying. He's not even entertainingly cryptic.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Neil looks enough like his mother (especially in magical girl form) that it isn't hard for anyone researching the mysterious magical girl "BlueBelle" to draw the connection.
- The Mikhailovich girls, even the ones who aren't identical twins.
- Super Hero School: Subverted. Neil is afraid he'll be sent to one if word of his powers ever gets to officialdom, but his cousin Jo assures him that the school for the gifted is not a "super hero school" that teaches kids how to use their powers, it's a school that teaches normal school things to kids who just happen to have powers.
- Super Registration Act: Played with. As the "Antibody Defense" allows any citizen to act against a supernatural threat, Neil does not have to register as a superhero if he sticks to fighting Oni instead of crime. Neil's mother was registered in her time.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: An oni attacks Neil after his first transformation, despite him living an ocean away from their usual stomping grounds.
- Take a Third Option: Neil's mom Noriko manages to figure out a way to survive her heroic sacrifice at the last minute.
- Transformation Comic: boy to magical girl, woman to rabbit
- Your Days Are Numbered: Magical Girl powers keep growing until their bodies are unable to contain them. This means each magical girl must stop transforming after a certain point if they want to escape a spectacular death by Explosive Overclocking. However since not transforming is a purely voluntary affair Heroic Sacrifice is practically baked into their power set.
