「毒りんごとお姫さま」 (Doku ringo to o hime-sama)
“The Princess and the Poison Apple”

You know I’ll be damned if I’m not starting to like how MSS is turning out. The show had its rambunctious (read: over the top) beginnings, but full out provocation and shock has largely taken a step back as mystery and story development assume centre stage. Make no mistake, MSS is far from turning into a conventional cutie breaker anytime soon (if there is even such a thing), but with a focus on discovery now complimenting all those wonderful happy faces, the show seems ready to start showing us what it’s really made of.

The big focus this week of course lay with our new magical girl Anazawa Nijimi and her, well, unique personality. It was pretty damn obvious with Rina last week and Tsuyuno’s flashback this episode that every—and I mean every—girl featured in MSS will be three steps removed from a psychiatric ward (at best), but oh boy does Nijimi raise the bar for crazy going forward. Pseudo submissive BDSM-laced idol role? Rapid changes in personality? Possessor of the magical panties that control your mind and make you like it while bleeding from secretive locations? Oh you just know this one is a keeper. That hilarious/shocking/downright freaky bipolar switch is more than enough reason for Aya and Tsuyuno to dispense with any plans of making use of the little blue Chihuahua (because trembles), but you just know Nijima is going to find a way to worm herself in on a surprisingly budding friendship. Both girls already found out the potency of those magical pantsu for example, and I would not put it past Nijima to start the brainwashing if her new “friends” turn out to be anything but friendly as she sees it. Don’t deny, you know the pain train is coming once Nijimi discovers Rina is alive and (somewhat) well. Where would we be if the magical girl isn’t suffering?

Part of what ensures things are going to get crazy very soon is reveal that Aya’s main bully Shizukume Sarina also happens to be alive. It wasn’t particularly clear if she had died at the hands of Tsuyuno earlier, but the girl is now confirmed breathing, and with some serious hate and new magical girl status to boot. This isn’t really that surprising considering how thick MSS likes to slather on the suffering, especially when it comes to Aya, but it does intensify the question of just what these magical girls are meant for. All we know thus far is these girls have the power to combat the mentioned Tempest, but not if that’s their actual purpose. Are they sacrificial pawns? World saviours? Simple distractions from a different sort of evil lurking under the surface? And just what sort of apocalyptic scenario is the Tempest set to bring about? MSS has been playing these cards close to its chest so far, but it’s easy to guess the answer doesn’t involve anything good (call it intuition). We’ll likely need to find who is actually behind the website before getting anything more concrete, which means it’s a good thing one doting brother also happens to be snooping around on the big mystery. If Aya and Tsuyuno cannot discover the reason behind their suffering-injected powers (because plot), you can bet big brother Kaname will.

After all, cannot let some cutie breaking website interfere with the ever important brother-sister beating bonding time now can we?

 

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「…私だけ見てて」 (Watashi dake mi tete) by Nijimi Anazawa

Preview

12 Comments

  1. It gets more and more disturbing with each passing episode. Love this!
    The sadistic onii-san, the vengeful idol, the scarred class bully and the obsessed fans.

    And wow the ED live idol performance, is that the real seiyuu for Nijimin?

    ornehx
  2. I really thought the first episode was brutal. Over the top, but just brutal. With a couple more eps and Pancakes’ “. . . every—and I mean every—girl featured in MSS will be three steps removed from a psychiatric ward (at best) . . . “ I’m in. I want to see how far all this goes down the rabbit hole. Here’s one vote for blogging MSS.

    For this episode, I liked Nijimi’s “pseudo submissive BDSM-laced idol role” and with her “shtik” (sic) being mind control. I’m looking forward to see what we get out of the other magical girls. Also, the idea of a Dog Play idol group didn’t phase me. I just saw it as another crazy idea to throw on top of all the other ones from Japanese pop culture.

    Keep Refrigerated
  3. HalfDemonInuyasha

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