「バージョンアップのお知らせ!」 (Baajon Appu no Oshirase!)
“Update Notice!”

Any lingering doubts about last week’s ending were eliminated as Kyuubey 2.0 reveals all.

The Death is Real

Although a slower episode compared to the earlier two, there was no less shock and awe greeting us this week. As expected it did not take long for our remaining magical girls to discover Nemu’s untimely end. While arguably drawn out a little too much here, I doubt anyone’s shocked Fav did not even bother attempting to cover Nemu’s death up. In fact our sadistic little puffball even went so far as to confirm it happened. Probably the bigger surprise, however, is that Cranberry already knew what would happen and refused to tell anyone. The only problem I had with these revelations was their overall impact felt underwhelming. Sister Nana and the group didn’t seem to care regarding Cranberry, and only Koyuki appeared truly affected at the episode’s end. Everyone else just sort of went through the motions (particularly Ruler’s group) without any of the hysteria and shock you would expect from such an announcement. Whether that’s because I’m inured to this type of show already, chopped source material, or just shallow writing I have no idea, but it’s slightly disappointing.

What really has the potential to make up for things, however, is the reveal that this little survival game has built in surprises. The first surprise of course is the administrator announcement that Magical Candy transfer is now possible between the girls (totally coincidental timing of course). And not just voluntary transfers either. As Ruler helpfully described, this means magical girls can basically steal candies from one another. Transfers without the Magical Devices being on also hints towards the possibility of stealing candies from each girl in real life, potentially expanding the competition beyond a simple battle of magical abilities. I thought the death aspect would be enough to get our motley collection here slaughtering one another, but additional incentives can never hurt. All we are really missing now is those Magical Candies bestowing some sort of power on the weekly victor. You know, for science.

Beyond the killing game, one part I’m really digging in this show is the wide array of characters we have. Case in point Ruler and her group. Kano and her ninja introversion will have to move over because Ruler is definitely the true tsundere here. She berates everyone, tries keeping firm control over everything, and yet secretly cares about them all. Hell she went to the trouble to find them all a candy making job after all. Swim Swim surprisingly is Ruler’s main supporter (I definitely pinned her otherwise), whose dead pan expressions and lackadaisical memory are hilarious until the eerie reverence for Ruler comes out. And then there’s Tama who really is everyone’s bitch (literally), resigned to carrying out the dirty tasks unfit for the others. At least the poor puppy dog has something on our Peaky Angel twins who I kind of hope get offed soon, if just to give Tama some reprieve. I think she has deserved it.

Next Time: Let the Battle Commence

Looks like it’s finally time to get the killing game underway as Ruler prepares to take advantage of that candy transferring ability by exterminating Koyuki. Pretty damn clear someone is going to die horribly next week, the only question is who. Although I hope it’s the twins, I can envision Ruler herself being the first casualty from this twisted competition.

Random Tidbits

The girl from last week’s dream sequence could actually be Swim Swim. Both girls look similar and Swim Swim is supposedly infatuated with princesses. Might also explain some of Swim Swim’s demeanour.

Giggled like mad at the Peaky Angels’ aggregator trolling. Amateurish, superficial, and so much like the typical 12 year old Youtube commenter. Also making a promotional video when, you know, no one can actually see or remember them in magical girl form.

 

Preview

25 Comments

  1. Honestly I’m glad they decided to reveal the magical girls dying now instead of like 2 episodes later. Lets get right into that sweet sweet suffering and watch Snow White’s ideal image of a magical girl come crashing down.

    I also love how the anime changes POV’s between other magical girls instead of just focusing on Snow White and La Pucelle.

    xxvan
  2. just as what most have predicted it happened… and yeah, can we consider this anime more dark than madoka now? cause i mean cmon, they are just around teenager age and because they dont want to die, now they gonna go kill their fellow mahou shoujo just to retain their mahou shoujo status and to LIVE? that’s so fck up bro.

    seriously… nav would make QB haters rise up from death again… and interestingly enough, koyuki AKA snow white’s ability of reading people minds isnt really a combat type so i wonder how would she live the battle against much more offensive foes… maybe mindreading her opponents, thus avoiding them? i am pretty sure they dont know snow white’s ability either aside from her male turned female friend. and it seems, there would be a rise of factions. snow white ally would be of course her friend but would she get more? damn.. getting crazy, really getting… CRAZY to the point, i could say, maybe koyuki is the one who mass slaughtered the rest of mahou shoujo in early parts of episode 1 because she got insane probably after la fuce… something dies (yeah. i have said this before… she is raising her death flags everywhere i am pretty sure she will die later)

    Jeffers
    1. no way this is darker than Madoka.
      Madoka was something inevitable, they either died as a Mahou Shoujo or turn into a Witch as their Soul Gems became corrupted.
      This show is more like a Death Game, a fight for survival.
      A Shounen manga but with deaths, Akame ga Kill for example.

      Gray.
  3. Mahou Shojo’s anime setting is based on the town of Joetsu in Japan’s Niigata prefecture – also the hometown of Mahou’s LN author. Although never specified in the novels, the publishers confirmed the author wrote the story using Joetsu as its basis.
    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2016-10-12/magical-girl-raising-project-creator-hometown-spotted-as-inspiration-for-anime-locales/.107476

    In the LNs, the POV switches between multiple characters, similar to Game of Thrones. Koyuki gets a bit more MC-like focus here.

    zztop
  4. thats why you ask questions BEFORE pressing “YES” button.
    if anyone had bothered to ask, “how long do I get to be a Magical Girl, how can I retire, what are possible dangers of becoming one?”
    I think it is perfectly possible that bastard-pon will have his dirty work cut for him by girls themselves fighting amongst each other…

    ewok40k
  5. I’m with you, pancakes, I want those twins gone. Sooo annoying. I have a bad feeling that Tama is next and ruler will blame Snow White (bad stuff ensues even more).

    And are we ever going to get this Snow White/Ripple action or what?! It’s hinted strongly as hell, yet they have literally only spoken two words to each other in 3 episodes!

    Jollygolightly
    1. I don’t know about Kano, I think that hinted conflict was only meant to distract away from the true evil here (not to mention Kano just seems the natural brooder). I could see Kano/Top Speed and Koyuki actually becoming allies eventually considering how things are going.

  6. Swim Swim is definitely the one Nemurin met imo, looks like Swim Swim admire Ruler so much that Ruler appear in her dream. I just wonder how Snow White is going to survive the rest of the series, I mean her skill is the most useless in battle(hearing the voice of people in need iirc) so far.

    raxar
    1. there might be interesting dynamic at work here, as Nemurin mentioned to the girl in dream “why not become princess yourself?”
      I can see SwimSwim taking over the gang if Ruler bites the dust, or even maybe backstab her using her own Sith-style teachings…

      ewok40k
    2. “Hearing the voices of people in need” could actually be really strong, depending on how broadly that description should be taken. For instace, would “magical girl desperately needing candy to avoid death” count as “person in need”. Her power is essentially limited mindreading as far as it’s been shown thus far.

      Erimaki
      1. she also gets most candies cause she can easily locate people in need of help the most. while others are pretty much patrolling on foot…
        if I would be a magical girl any other type than her, closest thing to that ability would be having police/emergency services radio scanner?

        ewok40k
  7. Am I the I the only one that wants Ruler to be the next one to die? I know she cares about her teammates but there’s something about her I just can’t stand

    Also did Sou raise his own deathflag?

    Wraith
  8. I suppose I would say, in some way, this show is darker than Madoka, if only I had any emotional investment in the show at all.

    I find it …. watchable… thus far, but there are too many girls introduced too quickly and we’re given no reason to remember them except the ones who are victim/monster of the week variety. The plot is not subtle in the slightest and there’s nothing deft, skillful, or clever happening here. Example: the mascot is obviously the deathlove child of QB and Monokuma but lacks all intrigue and humor those two had.

    There was nothing funny, scary, or eyebrow raising in this episode. Well, I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyeballs a few times but that isn’t saying much. In fact, there was a depressing amount of standing around and talking. Thus far, this show is just all dialogue and it’s not smart dialogue. I’ll watch the next ep but I’m sure hoping the series has more to it than glittery set-up followed by blunt, boring slaughter (and yes, somehow anime kill-off shows have rendered mass cast killing BORING).

    Plz deliver something more subtle. Leave some questions unanswered. Surprise us. Anything other than “minor girl in eye-catch is next to die” obviousness and”Surprise! oh you totally all saw that coming” deaths. Plz lead us astray then wham us from behind. Keep us off-balance. Something… anything of interest other than just a “be pretty and die predictably in turn” show.

    If not, well, at least other shows this season are surpassing expectations. Darkness, smarkness, this show has nothing on Madoka so far.

    danny
  9. Maybe it Japanese conform to the system thing. I would see American girls going ok Fav lets see what happens when you die first after all we can not trust anything you say now, then going to hunt some admin down, draping in on news media and the authorities, on the darker side hiring street gangs, doing everything but conforming with the death game. In fact only way Fav leaving that room is porting out fast, or having some defend him not like anyone going to trust him.

    RedRocket
    1. Fav is probbaly only an remotely-controlled projection for whoever is pulling the strings. And he is probably bulletproof anyway. Still it would be nice to see him completely destroyed-pon!

      ewok40k
  10. Really like the twins. Great voice acting and interesting personalities. I bet their real form is quite old too. (maybe HS or college students?)

    I’m so done with the typical cute, charming airhead twins in any other animes. A bitchy twins for once is indeed very welcome.

    Henrietta
  11. so now we have madoka 3.0 huh sigh this is why the new mahou shoujo will never be as good as the older ones because while most of them were about saving the world they had their own unique themes and concepts. ccs had cards, corrector yui had computers, wedding peach had a wedding theme, saint tail was a thief, pretear had snow white, mermaid melody had mermaids, princess tutu had ballet, Tokyo new mew had animal fusing, and mai hime had gaint insects. the newer stuff is doing what’s popular right now having death despair, and destruction as apposed to doing its onw thing which would make it more susceptible to audiences.

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