Mahou Shoujo Site – 08

「Last Summer」

Out of all the ways I imagined a beach episode in MSS going, this had to be one of the more surprising options. Cutesy water splashing, swimsuit fanservice, and promises of memory making is as paint by numbers as you can get, but combine that with some trap confusion and outright demonic crossdressing and we’re going places no sane man would dare venture. And that’s before returning to the meme faces and this show’s love for all things sharp and edgy. MSS may have its problems, but fun definitely isn’t one of them.

As expected with the phone call cliffhanger last time magical girl lifespan is the important issue of the day and Tsuyuno is (will be) its first victim. This was predictable enough even without MSS’s penchant for maximum suffering, but it does reinforce the question of exactly how long each of these girls are going to live. Is Tsuyuno’s limit in days or months? If she cannot heavily use her powers again, how will an administrator be caught? I personally think this reveal is nothing more than a red herring for the sake of cute crying Aya faces and that a magical stick power will be found to fix the issue because plot reasons, but hey, this is cutie breaking we are talking about—death is always waiting in the wings.

Beyond Tsuyuno though there’s plenty of options for the next bout of cutie breaking considering how Nijimin just upended the entire apple cart. With Kaname now in possession of the magical panties to the chagrin of one poor sucker no one is safe considering Aya’s loving brother has the worst (best?) mindset possible for such a power. It won’t take long for him to start bringing the good girl squad to heel (if Nijimin’s brainwashing is any indication) for example, and with Kiyo the only “outsider” who knows what happened, full bets on our trap who may actually be a reverse trap pretending to be a trap cashing in those death flags before too long; cannot be having the girls finding out about the administrators’ plans through other contacts now can we? At least Kaname’s awakening reveals guys can actually use magical sticks, and that they are beholden to the same rules all the girls are. If Aya and friends cannot put dear brother in his place (and it won’t happen before Aya experiences Kaname’s tender loving affection once again), they can always just drain him dry through overuse of the panties. It’s going to take quite a bit to keep Nijimin under proper control after all.

Whether we get to successful Kaname scheming and pantsu power problems (alliterations are love), however, is likely to come down to the other elephant in the room in the site administration. From Kiyo’s ability it’s pretty clear magical girls are being pruned at a substantial rate, and if ominous girl is any sign, they’re all set to start implementing whatever the hell the Tempest greeting call is. One way or another a showdown between our good girl squad and the administration is likely to happen soon, with the only wild card (barring a certain package boy) being Sarina and her own desire to survive. For how far we have come in MSS there’s a surprising amount left to dig through, and with only four episodes remaining in this stick slugfest, you can bet something big is going to happen soon.

Cutie breaking after all never gives up halfway through.

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