Oku-sama wa Mahou Shoujo – 11

Short Summary:
After telling Tamotsu everything, Ureshiko returns to Tatsumi, saying that they should run away together. When they get to the train station, Ureshiko boards the train with Tatsumi, but gets off right before it leaves, sending Tatsumi off alone. With a storm brewing above, Tatsumi runs all the way back from the next station on the line. At her favorite spot, Ureshiko transforms and prepares to protect the city by erecting a barrier while in Realm, the council is starting a ritual to erase the world, even while Freya and her mother try to stop them. Sayaka learns that Ureshiko is still trying to protect the world alone and goes to find her. She meets up with Tatsumi, who has reached home. They proceed to the cliff overlooking the city where Ureshiko is fighting a losing battle. Sayaka slaps some sense into her, telling her to not do everything by herself. Sayaka reveals that Ureshiko will be erased along with the town because of her actions. Tatsumi tells her that he won’t run away, wanting to stay with her instead. Sayaka also wants to help, so Ureshiko uses the ring to unseal her powers. She then has Tatsumi throw the ring as high as he can so that the two magical girls can shoot their powers through it, using it as an amplifier. The plan works, and the massive amount of power is successful at dispelling the storm. With the sky blue again, Sayaka is thrilled until the ring floats down into her hand. She tries to give it back to Ureshiko, but Ureshiko lets her keep it. Ureshiko realizes that she still has to go to Realm to take care of some unfinished business.

I really like the premise of this show, but lately the story feels rather predictable. For instance, I knew that Ureshiko wasn’t going to go withTatsumi on the train as soon as I saw it pull into the station. And of course Tatsumi would come back to help her. Towards the end, as soon as Sayaka gets the ring, it was apparent to me that Ureshiko would let her have it. I’m not criticizing the storytelling, but perhaps the characters are so well defined, maybe a bit too much, that it’s easy to see (for me at least) how they are going to act.
While the animation isn’t top notch this week, I really can’t complain because everything looked fairly good, and my fears from the preview last week were unfounded. Most of the shots seem fine, but aren’t as clearly defined as they can be. A few characters just don’t look as detailed as they have in the past (Tomatsu comes to mind). The next episode preview seems to have taken care of that though, as all of the featured scenes look great. And while elements of the story may be predictable, I’m not so sure where the overall storyline is headed. Which is of course why I keep watching, especially since we’re so near the end.