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「新キャラを追加しました!」 (Shin Kyara o Tsuikashimashita!)
“New Character!”
After Ruler’s sudden death last episode, it seems denouement is the name of the game this time around, with some minor girls being fleshed out and death flags dropped aplenty. The focus on Sister Nana this week in particular intrigued me as I never expected her to be “important” given her minimal attention so far—she always screamed background character for me. Nana nevertheless is this game’s true pacifist, a quixotic cutie wanting an end to the stealing and trying to recruit other magical girls for that reason. Poor girl just cannot get her way though, ignored by the administrators (and laughed at by Fav), rejected by Ripple, and now actively hunted by Cranberry. You’d think she has the death flag fluttering high over her head, but no, that flag is thoroughly planted on her “prince” charming Weiss Winterprison. The androgynous quasi-reverse trap is the tank to Nana’s healer, and very likely Nana’s actual lover too. Never expected such blatant yuri (of all things) in this show, but damn does it set Weiss and Nana up for some real suffering. Considering Weiss protects Nana, I fully expect her to perish spectacularly and leave Nana something to really agonize over. Unlike with Tama, however, I cannot see Nana losing it at the loss of her lover, her personality is too peaceful for that—healers are never the ones who go on rampant killing sprees.
The big surprise of course was the revelations regarding Cranberry. I knew she was off thanks to those flashbacks, but oh boy didn’t expect something this wild. Cranberry is definitely our true baddie, the thrill seeker searching out difficult fights just for the pleasure they give her. The shocking bit is how Fav actually encourages her behaviour, with enough hints dropped suggesting Cranberry survives not by competing for candies, but by offing strong magical girls at the behest of Fav. In particular, Fav wants her to kill Nana because Nana threatens the competition itself. This is a whole new level of perversion on the part of our sadistic puffball (not even Kyuubey found pleasure in killing his girls!) and potentially suggests there’s more than one way to survive this competition—why else break up groups before they coalesce? Although I could only guess what will happen, at least we now know who the girl teased in the first episode was. I think you can predict where this is going.
Complementing the main developments this week is our comedic relief Magicaloid. Got to admit, I found Magicaloid’s talk with Calamity Mary hilarious. Two opportunistic girls (women?) with a love of cold hard cash, and milking idiots of their possessions. Nana especially was gut busting, too gullible for her own good and apparently made out of money. Hilariously ironic how Magicaloid’s scheme fell apart when she actually produced the one thing Nana was after in the first place, although it becomes more devious when Magicaloid revives the strategy using administrator access (which guaranteed she doesn’t have). Humour aside, at least this bit verified the idea about varying candy payments for different levels of deeds. It seems life and death scenarios pay the most candies, which is how Koyuki has managed collecting so damn many every week. Although Mary seems to collect enough candies through this fact, I can see Nana suffering if Mary decides to wiggle in on her “friendship” with Magicaloid too. Before that, however, it’s back to Cranberry next time as our first true magical girl fight arrives. Grab the popcorn and find a seat, the fun starts now.
Random Tidbits
Really interested to see what Hardgore Alice (love the name) wants with Koyuki. Many are expecting a fight, but I think it’s something else.
Cranberry apparently is the oldest magical girl, which begs the question if she has survived this sort of competition before. That love of fighting had to come from somewhere.
Curious how Swim Swim will factor into things now, considering she’s committed to stealing more candies. More importantly, who will be her target?
Preview
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Wasn’t expecting to see that side of Cranberry but I have to wonder how long Cranberry been a magical girl? She’s been called the oldest but does that refer to age? Is Cranberry secretly working with Fav and this death game has actually been going on longer than it looks? Was Cranberry the girl in the beginning of the first episode surrounded by dead bodies? I just hope Sou-chan survives the upcoming fight
Another thing I wasn’t expecting was a lesbian relation between Nana and Winterprison. Haven’t seen that kind of a relationship in a magical girl show since Sailor Moon
The age thing is the confusing part because it can be interpreted either way. Personally I’m thinking it refers to her time as a magical girl and not her age–Cranberry doesn’t have the mature look of Calamity Mary. Also guaranteed Cranberry is that girl seen at the beginning, I even mentioned it in the post 😛
Agreed on the yuri too, that was unexpected, especially how “natural” the relationship is (barring that disturbing prince role playing of course). Most yuri relationships are usually a mix of ideal looks and fan service, but Nana and Weiss seem to lack that, particularly the fan service.
That’s following the TV trope where the original genre creator has the elements that the deconstructions of the genre have. It is the follow ups to the genre creator that are made nicer than the original.
Still don’t have yuri interest in every cute girl sighted, open mouth french deep kissing yet between girls, or one of the women wearing a shirt totally unbuttoned with nothing underneath in bed room embracing her lover so Sailor Moon still more yuri a tale. 😉
In the LN, the Cranberry-Winterprison fight is narrated from Winterprison’s POV. In the novel the POVs switch between different girls, so you get different viewpoints on the same plot.
The LN description of the battle was more graphic. Cranberry is described as being impossibly fast and strong, and that every kick and punch of hers broke Winterprison’s ribs, made her head spin, cough up blood, etc.
Is the LN available somewhere to purchase or read?
The LNs have not been officially translated into English, and there’s no ongoing fantranslation either(There’s only a translation of Vol 1’s prologue, done 3 years ago).
There should be some copies for sale on Amazon, but I think they’re only in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Most of my info comes from 3rd party sources who can read in those languages.
I noticed that Cranberry have a different phone than the girls.
Since Cranberry don’t want to kill Nana and WinterPrison for now, as a fair compromise she will kill the strongest one among the girls who would work together with Nana. Without a doubt she means La Pucelle who Nana and Winterprison has yet to contact since they were hiding and laying low.
Welp, I don’t think La Pucelle will survived the next episode.
Damn you’re right, can’t believe I missed the phone lol. That does support the idea that Cranberry is a mercenary for hire though, few other reasons she would need a different device from the rest.
That Robot Girl there See is Such a…One Shady Merchant…or sort of!
and That Priestess Over There, She is somehow no clue of what she is up to…
and speaking of this Weird Lady There (Cranberry, Correct?) so weird that she is somehow…not originally from this world (Along with this Critter), so I got a simple speculation for this. I was thinking that she somehow survive a hell of a struggle there, and then she came to town and promote some video game there or something…
Now for some Unpleasantness (IMO)!
Show Spoiler ▼
I think it could be quite confusing to have girl body reactions to having a girl your interested in near but having boy body reactions in boy form. 😉
looks like trap-kun is about to die. i did predict he is the last to die but i didnt expect he would “proably” go first this early… unless i am wrong.
“As long as (insert name) is by my side, I feel like I can get through anything.”
Dammit, Koyuki! Don’t you know that’s THE death flag of all death flags?!
Also, the relationship between Nana and Winterprison reminds me a lot of Haruka Tenou and Michiru Kaiou a.k.a. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, right down to the close-up of their hands and intertwined fingers.
So the reason the announcement only shows the top and/or bottom(after the cutting begin) of the rank is to hide Cranberry I guess. One of the things that haven’t been said above is Top Speed saying that she don’t want to die, at least for another six months. I wonder why but somehow I just thought that she might be pregnant lol.
Looking forward for La Pucelle vs Cranberry next week. Also for people that can’t wait to see what magic Hardgore Alice/Cranberry have(and can read Japanese), you could check the official website, I find Alice’s magic is a guarantee that she’ll survive as long as she wants.
I thought it more along the lines of she has a terminal illness and they gave her 6 more months. One that doesn’t let her walk thus why she’s in the broom all the time.
I think sister Nana has more pronounced death flag – cause, go for the healer/buffer instead of the tank is the oldest strategy in the gaming books…
Fav is truly evil one in this setting, manipulating girls and making sure as many as needed (for whatever his purpose is) die. I’d like to grill him for answers, preferably with a red hot iron and similar instruments…
Calamity and Droid are just out for cash grabbing, and while they are not to be underestimated – especially Calamity with her gunslinger skills – they are not level of danger of…
Cranberry. She is your typical blood knight – fighting for the joy of battle and seeking out strong opponents. She doesnt seem concerned about candies themselves, strangely. does she ahve some kind of secret agreement with Fav? Even if so, she might be backstabbed by the cutesy evil incarnated. A theory: she is a survivor of previous edition of candy games?
Winterpison is nice foil to Nana’s wide-eyed idealism. She is smart enough to suspect motives of other players, as for example…
Alice. She is not attacking SnowWhite for candies apaprently, though… she has a grudge of some kind? Also it is entirely possible all the dying business and her appearing is not coincidence , as Winterprison pointed out…
Sister Nana is the ideal housewife, even to the stereotype of falling for quick and dirty sales pitches from door-to-door salesmen/robots, just because she has too much love. I really like how Winterprison voices her opinion and doubt but always sticks by Sister Nana’s decisions in the end. I thought they were close from the opening, but I never imagined they’d be like that.
I made a quick reference chart of the ending to this arc/series.
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