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「フレンドを増やそう!」 (Furendo o Fuyasou!)
“Add More Friends!”
Well this was a riveting episode. Well-paced, suspenseful, and with twists left, right, and centre, I dare say it was Mahou Shoujo’s strongest episode to date. Given the fact we are now four weeks in and I’m here blogging it once again, you can consider this one picked up for coverage.
Without a doubt Ruler’s group was the star of the show this week. Ruler’s back story in particular stood out for me as she is now the second magical girl who’s a true adult (I’m assuming Calamity Mary is the other). A high strung careerist with a seriously solipsistic personality, Ruler is the definition of domineering, especially when she doesn’t get her way. Ruler basically saw herself as the saviour, with everyone else either intelligent enough (to listen to her) or an idiot needing her enlightenment. Not hard to see why Ruler utterly failed to anticipate Swim Swim’s coup, under her worldview pawns cannot think, they simply obey. Thus it makes it all the more surprising Ruler didn’t kill Koyuki, but stuck to robbing her. Ironically there was a glimmer of caring under that resting bitch face (as hinted last week), something that could have probably saved Ruler if she let it show more.
The big shocker though was of course Swim Swim. That coup was incredibly well executed, catching Ruler completely off guard and—most surprisingly—never being found out. All the more shocking is the plan was devised by an actual loli. Yeah yeah, pre-teen geniuses are a common trope around these parts, but I doubt anyone pinned Swim Swim being on that level, especially given her fascination with princesses. Makes it all the more ironic that Ruler’s teachings to assume the virtues of the leader came back to bite her in the ass once Swim Swim (with Nemurin’s gentle guidance) decided to take that principle to its logical conclusion. What will be interesting going forward is how well Swim Swim adopts to her new “princess” position. Given Swim Swim’s personality I can easily see the group falling apart as our Peaky Angel twins are opportunistic at best (and downright despicable at worst), while Tama (given her timidity) could easily drown herself in insanity once this Battle Royale reaches boiling point. Obviously Swim Swim can lead this eccentric collection to survival, but given her life experience, I highly doubt the girl has yet internalized the stick as much as the carrot needed for the task.
On the other side of things we have La Pucelle and Koyuki. It’s no big surprise La Pucelle has pledged his her sword to Koyuki, I expected that from day one, including the saccharine white knight personality (really funny how the twins went full meta and called La Pucelle out on that). Likewise Koyuki’s “surrender” performance should quickly disappear once the game heats up and friends start being threatened. Given La Pucelle’s fitting role as tank, it’s likely someone else will serve as the sacrificial lamb necessary to change Koyuki’s mind. The big things up in the air are who will be the next one offed, and what game changes are coming down the pipeline (candy transfers cannot be the only twist here). For once I actually have no idea where we are headed. It’s likely Ripple and our tsundere ninja Kano will be affected soon given the focus on them, while Koyuki looks to be the target again, this time by (what I’m assuming is) the new magical girl. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen next, but guaranteed it’s going to get bloody.
Random Tidbits
I love how Calamity Mary drinks Jack Daniels, because you know whiskey screams cowboy.
Ruler’s ability was actually quite balanced, you can make anyone do anything, but must be within 5 meters and maintain the activation pose. All the good it did her keeping it secret.
Not clear if Ruler died of a heart attack or something else given the blood. I’m assuming heart attack, but come on, do you really think those twins aren’t heartless murder machines?
Preview
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I was really really freak out by the twins dancing and flying around, giggling and happily singing about how they hated Ruler and how they are glad she’s dead right next to her bloody corpse. That’s was fucked up.
Also A very brilliant twist on a typical young girl’s dream of wanting to be a princess.
Man I’m glad Ruler is gone and her backstory just made me hate her but wasn’t expecting Swim Swim to pull a coup, I wonder what would have happened if Nemu never gave her that push to become princess
Also those twins are starting to freak me out, can they be next to go?
Ruler’s backstory is explained in more detail in the LNs – she’s painted in a more symphathetic light.
Check my spoiler post for more details.
Swim Swim likely would have remained content looking up to princesses IMO, her personality so far doesn’t seem to veer towards self-reflection very much.
https://randomc.net/image/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku%20-%2004%20-%2024.jpg
The LN explores Mary and Ruler’s past together in more detail.
Show Spoiler ▼
https://randomc.net/image/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku%20-%2004%20-%2002.jpg
Ruler’s been a Show Spoiler ▼
I liked this episode. It was satisfying to see La Pucelle swat one of those psychotic angels out of the sky like an evil pinata. Her saying that she became a magical girl to “say cool lines” was kind of concerning, though.
And it was tragically ironic that Nemurin’s last act was to unintentionally plant the idea for a coup in Swim Swim’s head.
I didn’t realize this show had an LN… is it any good?
snow white is getting more attached to sou-chan AKA “trap mahou shoujo” and ITS VERY CONCERNING because, the human pyschology states that the more you become attached to a person or an object, the more it becomes your pillar of morality (and sanity in some cases). if snow white’s pillar is destroyed, she might get insane, or worse, go berserk if her pillar of support is forcefully taken away from her. i havent read the light novel but in most cases this happens. snow white name might changed blood red if sou chan died.
I’ll be really surprised if La Pucelle is killed anytime soon, she’s too central a figure for Koyuki. Without La Pucelle there’s nothing besides a deus ex machina or some friendship shenanigans with, say, Ripple/Kano to keep her alive, she just doesn’t have the fighting power. More likely IMO is someone else friendly with Koyuki, but not close to her (like Nemurin). Keeps the suffering going without running the story off the rails.
i am actually predicting that sou-chan might be the last mahou shoujo (or MS) to die in this battle just for the plot drama and by that time, koyuki AKA snow white would be too dependent and attached to sou.
my point is that having sou die too early wouldn’t impact koyuki too much emotionally and psychologically so the only they can do for plot is they will make koyuki getting dependent and attached to sou over time first, then, when the attachment is at max, KILL SOU, probably BRUTALLY. and of course that would be a super suffering for koyuki who have probably endured the negative psychological effects of what’s happening. if sou dies koyuki would surely snap. we dont know how, but it could be a combination of loss of sanity and morality or either.
and also, its sou is clearly a key character for character progression for koyuki so killing him too early is a waste plotwise.
— now if some could just debunk my predictions lol… i seriously didnt read the LN so i am relying on years long of experience as an anime fan to predict what’s next
Sou-chan in one of the most unbelievable things in anime has not inspected her girl parts in detail. She is only a trap if you let her change back to male form 😉
I like when being horrible to one’s subordinates gets you fragged. (as in hand grenade used to take out incompetent officers) And her death is the primitive or Klingon version were you earn your promotion.
Ruler hit the sexual discrimination in Japan hard but with no social skills or friends had no one to advise her and no where close to the charm needed to push though her intelligence with higher ups. Also her lack of social skills also probably meant that her ideas were quite flawed dealing with people as well making the rejection well earned.
Poor Snow White it looks like a large number of her fellow “magical girls” were never the type of person that should be a magical girl in fact many way closer to villain profiles.
The LNs mention Ruler is very aloof and proud – she accepts only perfection from herself and those around her.
It’s also ironic how you can so easily overlap “Snow White” and Ruler. Ruler being the “evil queen” who wants to get rid of Snow White out of jealousy and hatred, so comes up with a plan that would result in her death, only to end up being the one killed in the end instead.
And so that this Queen Girl Giggles for excitement, to make it on the top, but all of the sudden…
OOPS! Got kick out XDDDDDDD…But i guess they had planed to eliminate her after all..right Fish Girl
https://randomc.net/image/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
Oh OH, Here Comes a New Challenger folks!
gonna just quote my last week post here:
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…
you can call me prohet now…
I have been reading too much Star Wars books concerning Sith masters and apprentices to not see this coming…
“Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!”
So Swim Swim adhere to Ruler’s teaching but not to Ruler herself, too bad. If Ruler had shown her care more even just to Swim Swim I think she’d have survived. One thing that I notice here is how Tama could ask Fav to split her magical candies. If Fav is always observing the battleground, it means anyone could ask Fav to split/send his/her Magical Candies to someone else anytime, what if someone asked Fav “When I died/defeated in battle, transfer all of my candies to X.” ? Will he approve it? Seeing he agreed to distribute stolen candies, I think he will.
I don’t think so. Swim Swim was determined to replace Ruler and had offed her even if she had been a fair and caring leader.
I think it was Ruler’s teachings that caused her downfall. If Ruler was a totally different person and instead of teaching stuff like “Become more like me” Swim Swim might not have gone down that path.
This was indeed a very good episode, which enhanced the whole show. Now I consider Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku to be a contender for ATOS.
https://randomc.net/image/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku/Mahou%20Shoujo%20Ikusei%20Keikaku%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
I have some pity for ruler. She probably had a narcissistic personality disorder, which made her incapable to understand the feelings of others. In my option she was never really cleaver or competent. The best course of action in this situation is to get access to Koyuki’s insane candy productivity. Show her how dangerous the situation is, and offer protection in exchange for candies. But ruler didn’t came up with this idea. Given the low productivity of her group she would be forced to rob the next target, with will be guarded and certainly has more combat prowess as Koyuki. We can be curious how Swim Swim will handle the situation.
Speaking of combat prowess it’s interesting to think which the most dangerous Mahou Shoujos are. I think Rippel has the strongest offensive power and as a plus she is smart and only few are aware how dangerous her power really is. Calamity Mary comes second for obvious reasons. La Pucelle has also very high combat prowess no so much because of her magic ability but because she has lots of skill in using her abilities in battle.
We should start a betting pool on what the soul-crushing final reveal will be:
1.)Everyone just had to share candies in equal amounts to survive (magical energy issue was a lie)
2.)Everyone gets axed anyway due to all the collateral damage
3.)Any survivor that killed for any reason gets killed as well for not being a true magical girl
4.)Obligatory it was all a dream/coma reveal
5.)It was the cook/fashionista/secret relative to the ghost/character already killed off
6.)Reveal is there is no reveal
7.)Fanfiction.exe
Not clear if Ruler died of a heart attack or something else given the blood.
I thought I saw a red beam from the sky pierce the roof of the building with the next shot Ruler’s body.
At first the character designs of this show bothered me. The I felt guilty about watching such such blatant “torture the loli” porn.
But damn if this isn’t one of the smartest and more creative this season.