Mahou Shoujo Ai, which Originated a Famous Meme, Will Return After 19 Years

After years and years in limbo, Mahou Shoujo Ai is making a comeback! It has been announced that a 4th game in the adult visual novel series will be released next year after the disaster that was the 3rd game.

But first, let’s understand what Mahou Shoujo Ai is.

Mahou Shoujo Ai is a series of adult visual novels developed by the company Colors. The first game was released in 2001 and achieved good success, even receiving OVA anime adaptations.

Just one year later, in 2002, the sequel Mahou Shoujo Ai 2 was released, which also had a positive reception. However, everything changed with the release of the third game in 2008.

Mahou Shoujo Ai tells the story of bizarre murders that frequently occur in a city. One day, a mysterious girl appears before the protagonist. She is a magical girl named Ai, who fights against supernatural forces, and he ends up getting involved in this conflict.

Throughout the story, the work became known for its extreme adult content and heavy themes, such as being caught by tentacles.

New Mahou Shoujo Ai Game Announced!

The GameSpark website reported that a new game in the series is in development, with a planned release in 2027, tentatively titled Mahou Shoujo Ai Shin.

The outlet also highlights that the series is remembered for being one of the works responsible for popularizing the subgenre of “magical girls in defeat situations” within eroge games.

Writer Hiroki Kuroi will be in charge of the new project and stated that he intends to dedicate all his experience as a screenwriter to this game.

What Happened with Mahou Shoujo Ai 3 and What Meme Is This?

In 2008, Colors released what would be Mahou Shoujo Ai 3. However, the game was extremely poorly received by the community.

Players criticized the title for several reasons:

• It had very few CGs (around 14)
• There were almost no adult scenes for an eroge
• The overall quality was inferior to the first two games
• It was considered a major drop in quality for the franchise

The situation reached a point where some Japanese stores refused to accept copies of the game for resale due to its low reputation.

On the back cover of the game, which you can see above, notice a white text near the few adult scenes that says: “ごらんの有様だよ”

This expression can be translated as:

• “Look at what this has become!”
• “See this state!”
• “What a disaster…”
• “Look at this situation…”

In the original context, the phrase was a kind of ironic comment about the situation shown in the packaging image itself.

However, players began using this phrase to refer to the game itself, as a joke about the disappointing result of Mahou Shoujo Ai 3.

Over time, the expression spread across the Japanese internet and became a meme used to describe any situation that went very wrong or turned into a “disaster.”

In summary, Mahou Shoujo Ai 3 ended up being so controversial that it not only negatively marked the franchise, but also created a meme that is still recognized on the Japanese internet today.

We hope the new game is good.