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「二人の師匠」 (Futari no Shishou)
“The Two Teachers”
For me personally, definitely one of the better episodes of Majo no Tabitabi. Does it have anything to do with how little Elaina featured? Maybe…
Nike’s Two Apprentices
Since they live in a small world, turns out that the witches who taught Saya and Elaina are extremely close friends – Fran and Sheila. It also turns out they didn’t always get along so well, which prompts a flashback to the days where they served as apprentices under Nike. By this point, I think it’s pretty obvious that Nike is Elaina’s mother. Which explains how Elaina’s parents were able to enlist her as a mentor in the first place.
Anyhow, they get off to a really awful start and positively hate each other’s guts. Sheila’s abrasive and fiery nature rubs Fran the wrong way. Not one to be outdone, Fran endeavors to at every possible turn. Eventually, at the Magic Association’s request, they’re tasked to bring down a gang of thugs in the coastal town of Qunorts who’ve somehow acquired magical items – allowing them to run rampant with no opposition. To increase the stakes, Nike makes it clear that failure will lead to expulsion. The two apprentice witches immediately see this as an opportunity to throw each other under the bus – sabotaging each other’s efforts, in what should have been a fairly easy effort to round up the gang members. Instead, they’re both apprehended and incapacitated by the gang that’s been causing trouble.
Finally, they realise that there’s no point fighting that hard when they shared a common goal. So they work together to break out of their confines, take down the gang and have them locked up. Unfortunately, they forgot about the red box in the basement. Judging from how the episode wrapped up, that might be next episode’s story for when Elaina visit the coastal town of Qunorts.
Concluding Thoughts
Truth be told, I probably would have preferred a series which focused on Nike or Sheila. They seem like much more interesting characters. I should mention that I don’t mind narcissistic or sociopathic characters. But Elaina’s rather one dimensional in that regard. Although you can see shades of it in Elaina’s mother, Nike seems a lot friendlier and willing to interfere with matters while maintaining a smile as her poker face. But it is what it is. Elaina is our protagonist. So that’s the only way I can judge this series. Even if there are some tantalizing what ifs.
Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading this post and see you all next week!
Shizuka Ito (Nike), Yoko Hikasa (Sheila) and Kana Hanazawa (Fran), all together in one episode?! If this was an early 2010s anime, this would have gotten me excited AF.
Seiyuu fanboying aside, I always appreciate a well-written backstory for supporting characters who are interesting in their own right.
Also a nice breather/setup episode after last week’s darker (downer) episode.
All hail Fran-sensei!
Makes me want to rewatch the 1st episode all over again
The ep[isodes are in order based on LNs. Some stories are skipped but they do not jusmp back. Is it chronological order in the story itself hard to say.
Sorry, wrong quote. This was for the poster below.
And what a change of pace from last week’s ghastly episode! I love these lighter episodes though there are hints of something dark up ahead, but I know it’s going to be one glorious reunion for all and probably a possible reveal to Elaina who her mother really was?
Which also makes me wonder a lot of things. I believe this story is in a chronological order or perhaps is there some reason to believe they are not? I’d love to see how all the previous episodes will have resulted to some character development for Elaina. I mean, she isn’t used to seeing people being killed (decapitated even), and given her fondness of the Nike travelling diaries, how she even is going to put into words all her travels including her darker experiences.
Anyway, I still have mixed feelings on this show, but generally I am enjoying it.
” I believe this story is in a chronological order or perhaps is there some reason to believe they are not?”
are you okay? do you taste colors? clearly episodes are not in any order at all, has it not been obvious? some episodes are set 2 years after she became a witch, meanwhile next episode is basically months after she became a witch. Now previous episode where she had mental breakdown has absolutely 0 effect on this one. This is Simpsons all over, all episodes completely unrelated to each other and are just standalone mini stories.
I honestly can’t understand how do you not see the obvious, drugs are bad mmkay.
Very rude response…
The series quite closely follows the order in the LN. In a sense, one will realize while reading the LN that it DOES NOT go back in time (as you have implied), the stories simply move forward as isolated stories, and in some cases it becomes clear that there is some sort of chronological order to the story. If the series follows the LN, it might be hard to tell which story came first or what (but it’s obvious that it does not jump between timelines like 2 months to years), BUT your implication that the stories are out of order is simply NOT TRUE well of course except for the obvious flashbacks. Read the LN so you get what I mean and so you won’t make a fool out of yourself here, as it seems it is quite clear who is high on drugs here mmkay?
I think I’d rather have a show that’s just a longer version of this.
And the bandit leader was a nice Castle in the Sky reference!