Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 18

「サルワさんは敗れない！」 (Saruwa-san wa Yaburenai!)
“Saurva Will Not Lose!”

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! is veering into more serious territory with Episode 18 as Jahy is tasked with piecing together the whereabouts of the spirit that has been creating magical girls to collect mana crystals. But as she starts making sense of an entity brazen enough to offer divine blessings to denizens of the Dark Realm, she also has to come to terms with her own personal attachments to

MORE KOKORO PUNS

Jahy’s anxiety about why Kokoro was avoiding her ended up being an interesting turn of events because of how Ryou reacted to hearing that she was worried she was losing her friend Kokoro. It marks a turn where Jahy has to consider that she went from considering her closest associates “underlings” to truly valuing their presence and realizing that it makes her happy to be around them.

It’s goofy to say that Kokoro wound up being where Jahy found her heart considering that “kokoro” is a word for “heart”, but in a Grinch-like way, the joy she has from playing with Kokoro resonated with her to the point where she understood her feelings best by reflecting on the fun she has hanging out with her on the playground.

I assumed Ryou would be mocking her because she considers an actual child her best friend and shrinks down to her weakling form to get away with pretending to be a kid. It’d be hard not to make fun of given that she only connects with people her age when it strictly involves earning money or crystals. But Ryou actually gives her the space to comprehend why she doesn’t see Kokoro as a pawn to restore the Dark Realm.

HOLY GHOST

The most plot-heavy we’ve gotten with regards to Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! has been the back-and-forth contention between the Dark Realm and warriors of light. The Light Spirit that’s been gracing people with magical girl powers has become increasingly busy as they find a replacement for Kyouko, going so far as to court Dark Realm denizens to do her bidding.

Choosing Saurva makes sense because she is innocuous enough to be a magical girl and do the Light Spirit’s bidding as long as she gets to defeat Jahy. Her one-track-mindedness makes her highly susceptible to manipulation, considering that all it took for Saurva to admit victory was for Jahy to accept her as a rival. But for that reason, she had her powers rescinded once it came to light that Saurva could care less about good or evil unless it gave her an advantage for overthrowing Jahy.

The Light Spirit also has quite the ignorant streak given that they’ve been recklessly wandering the streets enough to become the subject of a local ghost story. It was funny how ghosts were the one delusion that Jahy had to be tricked into taking seriously, and how Ryou was startled by Jahy being surprisingly rational about ghosts being a ridiculous concept. It took Ryou and the Barkeep sharing ghost stories for her to psyche herself out during her run-in with the Light Spirit.

The end of the episode reminded me a bit of Maid Dragon where riskier run-ins with the supernatural escalate into full-on fights. When Jahy refuses the call to become a magical girl and ends up targeted for gathering the mana crystals it seeks, it prompts Jahy to take the Light Spirit seriously as a threat.

Druj’s appearance and her own personal hunt for the Light Spirit ramp up the tension further as her presence puts Jahy in the right mindset to help her fight. It’ll be interesting to see if the story ends up leaning into more action or if the Light Spirit’s sweatdrop is a sign that they’ll try to diffuse the situation from escalating any further.