The first arc of Magical Girl Raising Project is very much a death game story. In it, the various magical girls kill one another to continue being magical girls and keep their memories of their time as one. Of course, as the death count rises, murders start happening for more personal reasons, like, for example, revenge.

Restart, on the other hand, is less a simple death game and more an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery within a death game setting. While their lives are constantly hanging in the balance, the game never makes death an inevitability. Every trick or trap has a workaround for those quick enough or smart enough. However, as the bodies continue to pile up, it becomes apparent there is a murderer among the magical girls—and figuring out who it is may be more important to their survival than anything else.

On top of this is the other looming mystery. Why were these 16 magical girls chosen? They share basically nothing in common—not age, experience, or years active. Some know each other in the real world, but most don't. Some are combat-focused like Cherna Mouse (who can grow to giant size), while others, like Pechka (who can make delicious food out of anything), are most certainly not.

The story itself is told through the viewpoints of five of the sixteen magical girls—along with that of the mastermind and an all-too-brief mini-chapter with Snow White. Through them, we see events from a wide range of angles and get to understand firsthand just how different magical girls can be. Magical Daisy is such a high-profile magical girl that she has a literal anime made about her adventures. Meanwhile, Pechka became a magical girl because she believes she is ugly untransformed and uses her cooking powers to get closer to the boy she likes. Nokko is a bit of an oxymoron, as she struggles with controlling her own emotions under the stressful situation they are in despite her magic being emotional manipulation in nature. Then, in the times when the magical girls are temporarily released from the game, Detec Bell uses her detective powers to try to figure out who the murderer is in the real world. And lastly, we get Shadow Gale, whose unique friendship with Pfle gives us insight into the latter's brilliance—and possible sociopathy.

Beyond the death game and murder mystery, these two novels are also about the fallout of Snow White's actions in the first book. Despite never killing a single person, she not only survived the death game but also brought the conspiracy to light—and then worked to take down those tangentially involved as well. She is considered an ideal magical girl, yet is this really the case?

Through Snow White's interactions with the mastermind, we are invited to consider the line between victims and perpetrators. After all, those like Ripple who won the death games are murderers even if they were forced to kill to survive. The idea behind those death games may have been to forge strong, resilient magical girls, but what they actually created were scores of magical girls who are devious, self-centered, and willing to break any rules to accomplish their goals. And, despite the lack of blood on her hands, this definition could also be applied to Snow White herself.

All in all, Magical Girl Raising Project: Restart is a fantastic follow-up—and one that even surpasses the original. It works well as both a death game and classic murder mystery. The characters are varied and distinct—with Pfle in specific standing out as equal parts brilliant and terrifying. It also continues the overall story from the first novel—focusing on not only its impact on magical girl society but also on Snow White and the other girls who survived the death games. If you enjoyed the first Magical Girl Raising Project novel or its anime adaptation, be sure to pick up these two novels as well.