“Flavor Girls #2”: Magical Girl Boot Camp [Review]

In Flavor Girls #2, Sara finds out that the road to becoming a good magical girl starts with boot camp. Which is a big problem for someone who has apparently up until that point lived more or less as a couch potato.

Flavor Girls #2: Details

Flavor Girls #2 is the second issue (you can read a review of issue #1 here) of this science fantasy magical girl comic book series. Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky (Persephone) is both the writer and artist, with Eros de Santiago as the colorist. Locatelli-Kournwsky is also the cover artist, as you can see above. Lastly, BOOM! Studios is still the publisher of this comic book series, as they were for the previous issue.

Flavor Girls #2 went on sale on August 17, 2022 for a retail price of $7.99. You can purchase it from your local comic book shop. If you don’t feel like walking outside though, then you can purchase it from Previews World. Strangely enough, the BOOM! Studios webstore has none of the issues of this comic book series, even though they’re the company publishing it. Perhaps they’ll have an explanation for that later.

Warning: spoilers for Flavor Girls #2 below. If you want to read about Sara’s training arc (or her attempts at it) for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve recovered from what should be a light workout. For a marathon runner, that is.

Flavor Girls #2: Plot Summary

Flavor Girls #2 picks up where we last left off, with Sara beginning her training arc. She… could’ve done better. To be fair though, she seems to have lived a mostly indoor life as a civilian, and thus has the physique of the average couch potato. Thus, we can also forgive Sara for basically failing every training exercise they have. From simple jogging to lily pad hopping to martial arts practice with Naoko, Sara is distinctly underwhelming in all of them.

Fortunately, Sara did accomplish things in her failure. She ended up getting to know her new comrades Naoko, Camille, and V better over the course of her training. She even gets to know Matilda: a friend of V, and someone who’s perfectly suited for training Sara given her love of outdoor activities and her previous occupation as a marathon runner and coach. Aside from her training though, Sara also manages to learn some of the magical girls’ secrets, courtesy of Camille, who finally gets around to showing her around their home.

Ancient Lore Inbound

As it turns out, their home temple is in a separate plane of existence, and is only connected to Earth via a network of supernatural roots extending through the planet. These roots are the roots of a magical world tree named Mamrea, which the aliens apparently want to destroy. Why? Apparently, because the aliens want to kill all life on Earth for some bizarre reason? Well, it’s a good enough reason to defend the tree. Especially since the creepy relics the tree is protecting are the key to keeping their home temple hidden.

Which means that when the tree alerts them to the fact that the aliens are attacking one of these relics, they have to respond to it. It’s pretty handy then that the tree’s roots lets them use it as as Stargate to travel across the planet in an instant. Unfortunately, when they get there, the aliens are already in the middle of hauling the relic (which looks like a giant severed arm) away. Worse, the whole operation is being directed by one of the aliens’ four generals. How will the girls stop the aliens? Well, we’ll just have to find out in Flavor Girls #3.

Flavor Girls #2: The Good

As with the previous issue, the story is the best part of Flavor Girls #2. There’s a really well-developed lore being built up here, as well as an appropriate amount of mystery. For instance: why do the aliens want to kill all life on Earth? Don’t they have better things to do than that? What’s up with that astronaut woman appearing in that first issue? And why do the relics look suspiciously like severed body parts? I suspect we’ll find out later in the story.

Of course, what’s a good story without good characters to populate it? Fortunately, Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky has given us a set of unique and very likable main characters in the form of Sara, Naoko, Camille, and V. Sara in particular is a rather adorable main character, with her everyman (or rather, every-couch potato) qualities enhancing that cuteness. It’ll be interesting to see how she develops out of that.

Last but not least, Locatelli-Kournwsky has given us more great artwork for Flavor Girls #2. There’s definitely a very strong manga influence on this comic book series. The sweat drops of nervousness/embarrassment are a dead giveaway of that. As a manga fan, I love that influence. Plus, the chibi art when the characters are being silly is just adorable.

Flavor Girls #2: The Bad

To be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a comic as much as I have Flavor Girls. That’s why I gave a 100% score for the previous issue, and it’s why I’m doing the same for this issue. My only complaint is that this comic book isn’t longer so that I could enjoy more of it.

Source: BOOM! Studios