MISC. MANGA, *Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka

If Quentin Tarantino did Madoka Magica, then you'd get this manga. Writer Makoto Fukami(who also workded on Berserk and Psycho Pass) and artist Seigo Tokiya managed to put together an exceedingly dark manga.

During a demonic alien invasion of Earth, a group of fairy creatures granted teenagers special powers to become "magical girls". But instead of taking down your standard monster-of-the-week cliches, they are pulled into a war to push the evil Disas aliens. Three years later, Asuka is one of the few survivors trying to get back to a regular life, even though her parents were brutally killed by the Disas during the war, so she manages her PTSD by attending high school. She makes friends with two of her fellow students, but a resurgence of terrorists using the Disas technology is causing alot of old battle scars in Asuka's life. That and reuniting with the rest of her team, the Legendary Magical Five, one of which might be behind this new crimewave.

This is a slightly compelling storyline, although it tends to jump back and forth from various points of view, as well as whats going on in the current time and flashing back to the alien war. You do get how something as traumatic as being involved something as nightmarish as space invader destroying your loved ones has a deep impact on a young person's life. It works as more of a character study in an otherwordly story than your average sugar sweet shojo story.