Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Manga

Cover of the first volume.

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story (マギアレコード魔法少女まどか☆マギカ外伝, Magia Record Mahou Shojo Madoka Magika Gaiden, lit. Magia Record Magical Girl Madoka Magica Side Story) is a manga adaption of the mobile game Magia Record illustrated by Fujino Fuji. It began serialization in the October 2018 issue of Manga Time Kirara Forward on August 24th, 2018. It currently has 9 volumes published in Japanese, with only the first 7 currently published in English.

Blurb

Volume 1

A chance encounter between girls weaves a new tale...

Recurring dreams of an unfamiliar girl draw Iroha Tamaki to Kamihama City, the last place she visited before the dreams began. Her only clue is a tiny Kyubey, which she aims to catch in the hope it will provide answers about the dreams and the heartache she feels each time they fade. Still, even as an experienced magical girl, the Witches in this city are far more powerful than anything she's encountered back home. Can Iroha survive in Kamihama long enough to uncover the secrets within? A new story unfolds in this manga adaptation of the mobile game!

Volume 2

Their wishes will change their fates.

When a rift forms among the magical girls of Kamihama City, Iroha puts the search for her sister on hold to help the team reconcile. Normally, they're quick to patch things up, but the "Breakup Rule" rumor that's been going around has Rena worried. It could be just another urban legend, but what if it isn't? An apology could spell the end of their friendship—if not her best friend's very life!

Volume 3

For these girls, sorrow transforms into inner strength.

Unsurprisingly, the rumor of a shrine where parted friends and family can be reunited piques the interest of Iroha, who remains no closer to figuring out what happened to her sister, Ui. Though Yachiyo is reluctant to partner with another magical girl, she shares Iroha's desire to see a loved one and agrees to face the Séance Shrine together. They are not the first to be lured by the rumor's promise—will they be the last?

Volume 4

The girls’ prayers open a door to the unknown.

After accepting refreshing water samples from a sidewalk stall, three thirsty magical girls from three different cities find they have fallen victim to the same fate! The Rumor of the Misery Water promises to doom its victims to despair—and will surely do so unless Iroha and her new comrades, Kyouko and Felicia, can find it first! As the literal countdown ticks away, the girls’ progress is interrupted by a group of hooded magical girls...who want to protect the Rumor?!

Volume 5

The girl's hopes conjure up a warped dream.

Iroha and Felicia have taken up Yachiyo's invitation to live with her, and things are looking livelier than ever. The magical girl's next target is the rumor of the Radio Girl, whose forlorn voice is said to be emitting from the Central District's radio tower. Making their way to the top, Iroha and the others run into a member of the Wings of Magius, but she's not the only unexpected face. Could a moment of peril signal the arrival of Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi!?

Volume 6

The girls’ pasts connect to a cruel reality.

The passion of the artist has been enflamed, and even Sana ’s formidable shield buckles under the weight of Alina’s fury. Just as Iroha and Sana begin to despair, rescue arrives from an unexpected quarter as Mifuyu steps in to subdue her teammate. Mifuyu maintains that her only goal is to save the magical girls of Kamihama, holding out her friendship with Yachiyo as proof of her good intentions—but can Iroha and her allies truly trust one of the Wings of Magius?!

Volume 7

One girl’s convictions will free another from her binds.

At the Memory Museum, the past is on full display…and Iroha and the others are confronted with the undeniable truth about their soul gems and eventual fate. The Wings of Magius maintains that its only goal is to save magical girls—except the ones who disagree with its methods. With her newfound knowledge, will Iroha accept the Wings’s offer to join the cause, or will she be forced to fight?!

Volume 8

TBA

Characters

See: Magia Record Characters

Differences from the Game

Volume 4

Kamihama City University Affiliated School is incorrectly stated as "Mizuna Municipal University's Affiliated Middle School".

Volume 5

The chance of Iroha, Ui, Touka and Nemu all becoming friends is calculated by Touka to be 0.00000003% (3 × 10^-8 %) in the manga. In the game, that value is 0.00000004% (4 × 10^-8 %), while in the anime, it is 0.0000000004% (4 × 10^-10 %).
When the Radio Wave Girl rumor is discussed, at first the captive is shown as a silhouette, but a few pages later it's depicted as AI. This is the first time she's shown in the manga.
The attempt to extract information from Tsukuyo is quite different from both the game and anime versions. Iroha and Yachiyo find her after going to the radio tower to investigate the new voice, and pursue her. They chase Tsukuyo all the way to the top of the tower, but this turns to her advantage as her ability to manipulate sound waves also helps with radio waves. Tsukuyo blasts Iroha off the platform, but Madoka shows up to save her at the last second, accompanied by Homura. Tsukuyo realizes she's outnumbered and flees, but not before declaring that the Radio Wave Girl doesn't want to be rescued. After this, Iroha, Yachiyo, Madoka and Homura meet in a restaurant to talk about Mami and exchange numbers like in the game. However, AI doesn't start sending more messages until later, when Iroha is having dinner with the rest of the Mikazuki Villa. Therefore, the topic of the Radio Wave Girl rumor doesn't come up and the Mitakihara girls don't decide to help with it.
- Since Tsukuyo doesn't reveal Sana's name, Iroha learns it through AI's messages.
During the memory log scenes, Sana doesn't say that she'd trust somebody who'd come looking for her because they need her, she just trails off.
The storyline about needing a password to access the urban legend website is dropped; instead the site gets taken down and Rena finds an archived version later, just as Iroha is about to enter Endless Solitude's barrier.
Right after Iroha meets Sana, a flashback is shown depicting Sana's family life.
No members of the Wings of Magius appear in Endless Solitude. Therefore, AI doesn't tell Alina that the Magius' plan will not work; this line is modified and given to Iroha instead. Rather than saying that the plan doesn’t account for mankind’s evil impulses, she says that they shouldn’t sacrifice people.
Alina shows up after Sana kills AI and destroys the Uwasa's barrier. She attacks the Mikazuki Villa members with her cubes but they're destroyed by Madoka, who just arrived to the scene with Homura.
There's no mention of the website being a trap for the people destroying Uwasas.
Alina summons both her doppel and the many copies of Teresa she was raising in AI's labyrinth. The main part of the volume ends just as Sana decides to join the fight against her.
The last thirty pages are dedicated to two omakes. The first one depicts the second chapter of Iroha's personal side story, in which Felicia laughs at the past accomplishments of Tsuruno's family and hurts her feelings, but soon apologizes. The second omake adapts the second and third sections of Kyoko's and Felicia's training event, but with a slightly changed ending in which they go to Banbanzai instead of eating Mitama's food and don't get adjusted. The start of this chapter is told from Mitama's perspective instead of Kyoko's and Felicia's.
There are some changes that are likely based on the anime version:
- Sana and AI are shown playing a cat-themed videogame together. The chess pieces shown in the anime are also present in the inter-chapter art.
- AI changes her appearance to resemble Sana, though this happens while they're still living together and is merely a change in hairstyle.

General

Characters from the Side Story make cameos during some chapters (eg. Tsuruno, Felicia, Rika and Ren all appear during chapter 1, which corresponds to the beginning of game's chapter 1 whereas in-game chapter 1 features only Iroha, Yachiyo, Kaede, Momoko, Mitama and Ui).
Characters like Iroha's parents or Tsuruno's father who were given faceless Live 2D models in the game are given actual faces and designs, though they remain unnamed.

Localization differences (Yen Press English translation vs NA server)

Characters' mannerisms

Characters use honorifics such as -chan towards each other, rather than simply using each other's given names.
- They also use each others' surnames, if such is presented in the Japanese version, but nevertheless, they use the western naming order (that is, "Madoka Kaname", rather than "Kaname Madoka").
Rena refers to herself exclusively using her own name or using third person pronoun "her", rather than using the first person pronoun "I".
Mifuyu calls Yachiyo "Yacchan" rather than "Yachan".
Alina doesn't use any foreign language words or phrases at all.
- She also generally refers to herself using first person as normal, but she sometimes does simply call herself "Alina" (not "I, Alina" though, unlike NA server's translation)

Uwasa

The term Uwasa is never used. Rather, they are called simply "Rumors", written in a different font.
Rumors as social phenomena are called urban legends.
Uwasa Labyrinths are called Wards, instead.

Volume 5-specific

Endless Solitude is referred to as "Furthest Reaches of Loneliness".
(TBA)

Miscellaneous

All nine Wards of Kamihama City are referred to as "districts".
- Chuo Ward is referred to as "Central District".
Rather than sensing each other's magic, Magical Girls can feel each other's mana.
While NA server used "Wings of the Magius", the manga calls them "The Wings of Magius".
Black and White Feathers are called Black and White Wings, instead.

Mistranslations in the Yen Press version

Mikazuki Villa is explained to be a hostel formerly owned by Yachiyo's mother, as opposed to in the Japanese version which correctly states it was owned by her grandmother.
Although the manga largely keeps the characters referring to each other with the correct given name or family name, as well keeping the honorifics that are used in the Japanese, there are numerous occassions of them messing up and incorrectly using given names, notibly with Yachiyo who incorrectly calls Iroha "Iroha-san" as opposed to "Tamaki-san". There is also an instance of Touka incorrectly referring to Iroha as "Iroha-san" rather than "Onee-sama", even though characters like Ui already call Iroha "Onee-chan" with no issue.

Publishers

Language	Publisher	Country	Release date
Japanese	Houbunsha	Japan	March 22nd, 2019 January 4th, 2020 February 4th, 2020 June 11th, 2021 December 10th, 2021 August 10th, 2022 March 10th, 2023 June 11th, 2024 October 10th, 2024
English	Yen Press	United States	December 31st, 2019 August 18th, 2020 September 28th, 2021 May 17th, 2022 November 22nd, 2022 October 17, 2023
Traditional Chinese	Tong Li Publishing	Taiwan	December 2nd, 2019 August 4th, 2022 April 27th, 2023