「マヤの死」 (Maya no Shi)
“MAYA’s death”

OMG! With the suspicions surrounding Mikaze’s true identity and Maya potentially being Nostradamus’ Key all coming to light, the story surprises me with the introduction of black witches and white mages. Who would’ve ever thought that Chihiro and her black suit accomplice were on Maya’s side all along and protecting her as per her father’s request. All this time she seemed just as suspicious as Mikaze with her clean-up of all the occult-related incidents, so when she revealed that she used her magic to fake Maya’s death and then transformed into a white mage to take Mikaze’s true witch form head-on, I was completely blown away.

It might just be me, but there’s something unbelievably awesome when a silly character like Chihiro suddenly turns out to be a cool and crucial one to the story. After ten episodes of dropping hints here and there, this episode alone brought everything together in such a satisfying way that none of the previous ones felt wasteful — not even the ones that seemed to get off track. While the explanations with magic was pretty outlandish when I first heard it, I honestly didn’t care because the entire series seemed to come together at that very moment. Even the notebook that Maya received from her father and has kept with her since episode two served its purpose in more ways than I was expecting it to, namely acting as a protective ward that’s prevented Mikaze or any of her occult followers from attacking Maya thus far. Evidently, it didn’t seem to prevent her from approaching Maya in the past, so it was difficult to see that coming. However, it did make immediate sense of why Mikaze’s been getting close to Fumiaki and started seducing him all of a sudden, as Maya appears to be the key to stopping Mikaze’s plan of opening the gates of hell on July 21st.

At this point, it’s probably safe to say that Mikaze is Nostradamus’ Key, even though confirmation has yet to be made with a photograph. The preview does suggest that will be one of the focuses in the epic clash to stop her next time, which looks like it’ll get even more involved once Smile and JK run into the old grannies. One thing I did appreciate was the story bringing up the prospect that Maya could still be the key herself, since she wasn’t thinking about killing herself when she took a picture of herself in the mirror way back in episode two. For those following my posts, I brought up this very point back in episode four and have been using it to justify Maya as a possibility, so it was nice to see that was exactly what the writers were going for. Incidentally, we still don’t know if Maya is the key since Fumiaki wouldn’t let her take a picture of herself out of fear that she may be it and he’d have to kill her. Somehow, I respect him for enduring a vicious stomping from Maya when faced with that possibility, simply because it showed that he wasn’t completely wrapped around Mikaze’s finger. He also wept some serious tears when she thought she was dead and was filled with rage when he thought Chihiro did it, both of which drastically improved his image in my eyes.

In addition to seeing the battle of good versus evil unfold now that Maya no longer has the notebook protecting her, I’m rather curious about whether or not Chihiro faked Junichirou’s death as well. He bears a remarkable resemblance to the commander in the future like some people noticed long ago, so I’m starting to wonder if he went into hiding for the next thirteen years and is now sending Maya help from the future to try and change the past. Assuming he somehow figured he wouldn’t be able to prevent Nostradamus’ Prophecies from being fulfilled the first time around, it could very well be that he went into hiding to devise a way to do so, even if it meant using time travel after the fact. Chihiro’s decision not to tell Maya that her father’s actually alive even now would support that idea, as word getting out would put him in danger and prevent time agents like Fumiaki from being sent back in time to begin with. Whatever the case, I think I speak for a lot of people when I say, “We may have magic, but shit just got real.”

 

Preview

53 Comments

  1. Ha! Mikaze was indeed the antagonist!
    I didn’t think it was going to be THAT rushed. Way too many things happened real fast, from Mikaze being all over Bunmei (for a moment I thought we were going to plunge into HSotD) to Maya’s uber friendliness. The reaction from the rest of the group made me scratch my head. I mean Ami is Maya’s best friend and I didn’t really see any deep emotional reaction from her.
    A lot of surprises in this episode but man, rushing it through was a bit of a choke here.

    Shinjiro
  2. Chihiro for the win, her character gets major props. They pulled off a good twist there.

    Man, my opinion of Fumiaki was low to begin with and vacillated from extreme disdain to hoping he mans up. But good lord Chikara managed to combined Naruto’s numb skull intellect and Shinji Ikari’s pussy ass persona. Both of them had some redeeming qualities but good lord, the combination found in Fumiaki is near toxic.

    That being said I really like this series.

    synkronized
  3. “I’m rather curious about whether or not Chihiro faked Junichirou’s death as well”

    For that, I refer you back to the very first episode.

    “You over there! Admit it! This was staged, right? There’s some trick, right?”
    …(near the end)
    “When she screamed at me, I was scared out of my wits.”
    “But she hasn’t realized the truth yet.”

    Looks like pretty clear confirmation of that, now that we know what she can do.

    Shiden
  4. I thought maybe Fumiaki was under some kind of spell and was hallucinating. That Chihiro cast it on him to throw Maya off track. When he was crying I thought maybe he would of gone back to the future to only go back hours before Maya’s death to save her. There has been a lot of crazy stuff in this episode.

    Silentcid
  5. Methinks when she took the picture in the mirror way back it was actually the mirror itself and not her in general. The mirror could end up being just a wasteland of sorts afterwards, since there wouldn’t be any house in the future. Just taking a guess on it, I could be wrong.

    Jason Isenberg
  6. Many people called it, yet few called how AWESOME Mikaze was gonna be when she turned on Slut Mode. Talk about brainwashing poor Bunmei. And I couldn’t help but see Maya trying to turn her time with Bunmei into a makeshift date seeing how he wanted to go home and she kept wandering around.

    TehJawknee
    1. LOL AWESOME INDEED! yes.. all around the world Anime fans’ pants got a little tighter.. haha I wouldnt have minded a lil HOTD style for just this ep! lol nice transformation too! even tho she broke my heart!

      royceHOLLERED
  7. ok… that was a weird episode. I mean the Mikaze being evil thing was kinda a given, I mean there is no way he fooled her with his ‘cool’ act and he has abandoned her to death on more than one occasion. seeing as how utterly usless and cowardly Bunmei is I personally thought Mikaze was the key since way back. but dark and white magical girls? thats just odd

    Will
  8. I totaly expected all of this. Except the witch and mage part though. For the whole time they’ve only been showing Chihiro being suspicious as heck so obviously they’ll use it for a twist like this. As for Mikaze, she was way too friendly and nice. Yeah, nothing bad about that but that is exactly why it gives her away completely. Combined with how she’s all over a useless bum like Bunmei.

    One thing that bothers me is the dark and light witches. Couldn’t they have used something else other than some magical shindig?!

    Nina
      1. Sorry, what I mean to say is, can’t they use something else other than witches and mages? Possibly with them having psychic powers instead. Because to me, it feels sorta lame to end it with them in it. That’s just what I think though.

        Nina
  9. If Maya was the key, Mikaze would not have gotten Fumiaki to kill her as its all the wrong timing. Either of them should have noticed this, though Maya lacks the information that Fumiaki was asked to kill her.

    Maya really hasn’t changed much. She is still incredibly violent. Her kicks at Fumiaki was very forceful, though at least it wasn’t towards a total stranger like JK when they first met.

    The animators really did a lot of the saliva stuff early on eh.

    Looks like my initial guess of Mikaze being the old granny is not happening but the rest looks ok

    Zaku Fan
    1. Two more interesting things. If the 2 old grannies and Mikaze are together, they would be a match the requirements for a coven of hags (3+female+mostly wrinkled), though without the eye sharing part.

      Also Fumiaki may have misinterepreted the “Key” Mikaze was talking about. People talk about things from their point of view and with their goals in mind. From her point of view, it would mean that Maya may be the “Key” for stopping them opening the portal

      Zaku Fan
  10. That saliva stuff grossed me out lol.
    Good episode. Mikaze being evil wasn’t a surprise to me, but Chihiro being on Maya’s side was.
    With the series being so short, I wish they would’ve done something else instead of those 2 episodes about the ghost girl.

    Andrew
  11. Good stuff. Shame the Mikaze had to turn out evil. I was kept guessing by the show’s somewhat comical nature. I mean, while in real life, Mikaze would prolly never fall for Bumei, its an ANIME, so therefore she may be a unrealistally dimwitted girl for comedy’s sake. >.- Hopefully, in the end, it turns out she was possessed so that Maya and her can battle it out for Bumei. 😀 Althought its probably not gonna be like that, Mikaze probably will have to die, and White mage is prolly gonna die too in the next episode or so. So its just Maya and Bumei :P.

    I kinda like my theoretical ending better because its more open and so maybe we’ll get a new season. :DD

    Looking forward to the next episode, and heres to another season of this crap. Cheers!

    Phantom
  12. This show from entertaining to really over the top awesome in this episode. Hopefully it keeps this momentum next episode. I really like Fumiaki’s rage face too, definitely shows a different side of him.

    fragb85
  13. It felt rushed. I was all “what? where? when?” during last… 17 minutes? Especially after that slow-mo Akari arc.

    However, all this episode did was reinforcing my belief that Anime-no-Chikara has really bad-ass series. Excluding Soranowoto ’cause it would be weird for moe series to be bad-ass.

    Nya
  14. Thats a WHAM! episode if I ever saw one!
    Great job linking all the pieces of puzzle!
    Anime-no-Chikara is growing on me with each new series.
    @Nya: Soranowoto was badass just watch the last episode. Taking big bad hostage, driving archeotech supertak thru allies and foes armies alike like hot knife thru butter and stopping apocalyptic war – if that aint badass then what is? Mafia no woto episode was too badass, though on a lesser scale.

    ewok40k
  15. Yea, The shoes were a hint that the body =/= Maya. Anyone felt the “tranformation” from Mikaze to dark witch very cliché? It’s almost like watching some old Sailor Moon show. lol.

    RainbowIslands
  16. Too bad dango-chan didn’t had a full transformation scene. Was her love for idiot fake too? Black witch transformation scene was nice. Had to agree the episode was fast moving, compared to the pacing so far.

    Island Esper
  17. yep totally called it.. but it was still fresh tho. I wasnt expecting full on witches.. some type of supernatural power manifesting sure, but not black & white witches and whatnot. I hope it stays this good and doesnt throw together a cheap ending.
    I bet that the Nostradamus key is or is inside of Maya and it can be used for good or evil.. and etc.. etc..

    royceHOLLERED
  18. Uwaah, I think this was the best episode yet! Mikaze’s true nature is revealed (I KNEW she was suspicious) and I have to say she’s a pretty good villain to use an innocent personality and sex appeal to fool Bunmei.

    That theory with Maya’s dad actually being alive makes perfect sense.

    Although I did WTF a little at the magical girl-esque part (white mage and black mage seems a little cliche) I should have known not to be surprised at anything this show throws at me now.

    akani
  19. So wait… if Maya’s dad is really alive and he’s the future commander, shouldn’t he know everything? Meaning… shouldn’t he have been able to provide more detailed instructions to his time travelers? They sent all six of these guys off with extremely vague instructions on how to prevent the alien invasion. They better give a decent explanation, otherwise that’s a GAPING plot hole. All he would have had to tell the time travelers is: “The people who are behind the entire invasion plan to do so by killing a female student named Maya. Your mission is to: (a) make sure Maya isn’t killed, (b) investigate who is behind the plot to harm her, and (c) be on the lookout for a big boobed evil witch hottie that drives a Porsche and is scheming to open the gates of hell. To me that would just be slightly more helpful than: “Hey! Run around and take pictures with this cell phone so that you can find something that’s called the Nostradamus Key, which someway or another is the cause of the alien invasion.”

    That aside… I still <3 Mikaze even if she's a creepy dark witch with a ridiculous hair style. C'mon Bunmei! Awaken your psychic powers so that you can salvage this situation and create a magical/occult harem! It's pretty much assured that his powers will come back at the very last moment, right? That said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the series teases the heroic Bunmei ending, only for his attempt to comically blow up in his face. In fact, that would be rather fitting.

    Jaysus
    1. Not really. The insertions of agent 1 to 6 to find the key points to the commander not actually knowing what the key was. Since he faked his death in episode 1, he had no knowledge of anything from episodes 2 to 12. The Aug 21st explosion destroyed everything so the VP and associates may not have been able to escape to tell the commander what they knew.

      You have to keep in mind the principal’s off the board, any data coming in will be from the POV of the VP who does not know as much as the viewer watching if they even communicate (they may have gone for radio silence to prevent tracing of the principal).

      Zaku Fan
  20. OMG YES I FINALLY WATCHED IT!! I didnt have timee shit xD
    I hate Mikaze, I always hated her xdd
    poor fumiaki.. but arrg, I wanna now whats ging to happen, I need spanish subs xD jesus xD

    arrg, why I like Maya x Fumiaki xd

    lol
  21. just started marathoning the last 3 episodes. this ep sure is quite a surprise change of pace from the previous episodes. the story seems a bit rushed this episode, with all the twists and turns, and “shocking” revelations. loled at the mahou shoujo transformation scene though 🙂

    gandalf8

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