©岩田雪花・青木裕／集英社・株式会社マジルミエ製作委員会
I should have guessed that Lily would be fine; clearly Magilumiere is not a magical girl type of show. Does it feel cheap to cut from a shocking, bloody character only to reveal that she just scratched her cheek? A little, but the next shot of Lily confidently, defiantly wiping blood from her face clearly shows her underlying evil nature and fits quite well with established expositional motifs, along with all the makeup and cosmetics. It's clever and brings things back so strongly at the beginning of this episode that I was able to quickly get past the cheating cliffhanger and enjoy everything else it was doing.
What it is doing is presenting some of Magilumiere's core concepts in a contrasting way without necessarily favoring one over the other. Kana, Magilumiere, and their focus on aesthetics as part of the magical girl role are necessarily sympathetic perspectives—after all, they are the representative, focal aspect. But the truth is that the arrival of AST's Tsuchiba and her taciturn approach turned the tide of the fight against the mutant Kaii, saving the others and the viewers while Kana was forced into a supporting role. Therefore, the anime explains both sides of the question”What is most important in creating a magical girl? Aesthetics or straightforward results?”
What makes things more beneficial for Kana than what she realizes is her? contribute to common efforts. The only reason the observing civilians could be persuaded to get out of the way in an orderly manner was thanks to Kana's accounting for Miyakodo and AST's strong Yelp review scores. Never mind that Tsuchiba only arrived after Kana and Lily had prepared themselves for this battle. It was all an exceptionally collaborative and coordinated effort.
That disparity, however, creates Magilumiere's mature, real-world appeal. Once everyone was out of the way, Kana quickly turned back to try to assist Tsuchiba. She's encouraged by Lily, who seems to think she can facilitate some understanding and cooperation between rival magic businesses, which only makes it more impactful. than when that fails. Kana doesn't contribute to the fight beyond stopping a minor attack, and her emotional attraction to Tsuchiba seems undiminished. Failure at work is an important part of growing in any role, and this helps illustrate the number of layers Kana still has to overcome in her business.
She would have her own work to do with Tsuchiba anyway. While I think overall the conceptual conflict between the two magical girls is one of those conflicts that rarely works between the two, it's still undercut in some respects. First is the fact that Magilumiere's overall aesthetics and presentation may be too good to make its point. Tsuchiba's AST Magic is said to be reminiscent of basic office productivity software, with simple spreadsheet wizards and a circuit board magic wand that simply Gets Work Done. That in itself is a strongly conceived aesthetic. I think it's interesting to see a chain of magic attacks based on decompressing files and ctrl-c/ctrl-v-ing elements.
Luckily, Tsuchiba's shoulders have good enough contrast. From her glassy eyes to her calculating work hours, this melancholy magical girl has all the signs of someone defeated by the workforce she joins. I hope she gets welfare, because she's clearly not one to take advantage of her vacation or sick days. She represents the opposite of other characters who insist that magical girls must always smile—which is acceptable compared to the unreasonable demands of service industry workers in the real world. real world. It's hard to see Tsuchiba's way of doing things as a legitimate negative when, as mentioned, she actually tries to get the job done in an efficient way that protects everyone and everything.
In a way, the audience is invited to question these things. I guess the ultimate answer to all of this will be a bit of the classic “Porque no los dos?” but it's still good to ponder at this stage, especially as the show prepares for the season. The next bigger story. The allusions to the rivalry between the bosses of Magilumiere and AST have been editorially committed like a high-pressure business movie, and I like that for a real-world magical girl show to relate this official. Also, the preview for the next episode promises the idea of a magical tech EXPO and it's a great concept.
Rating:
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Chris would 200% work for a magical company if they were real, but he'll decide to write reviews and promotional copy instead. You can see more of his perspective on the blog or watch him relaunch his anime girl artwork (magical and otherwise) on BlueSky.
