shiny-procrastinates

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 13

part 12 here

Hello and welcome everyone to the last post in this series. Most people probably would watch this ep right after the other one and there's much to be written, so let's skip the recap and get right to it.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 13

This show in a nutshell.

Really though, poor Iroha. She only came to this town to look for her sister and now she's learnt a cruel secret and is being urged to join a cult. Talk about someone who must have no idea what's going on anymore.

Back in reality, Yachiyo has finally caught up. She tries to stop Mifuyu from showing them the truth, but I'd say it's too late now. Also, Mifuyu's sure being a jerk today. You don't get to blame Yachiyo for letting them come when you're the one who made sure this would happen!

Yachiyo gets upset, and Mifuyu disappears. Iroha wakes up with Yachiyo cleaning her Soul Gem and Yachiyo says this but, nah Yachiyo, they'd have to learn this sooner or later and you don't seem like you'd ever tell them.

Iroha and Yachiyo start making their way out of Memory Museum. Tsuruno and the others were with Iroha when they went down but now they're nowhere to be found. Wait, does that mean we don't get to see their reactions to learning the truth? What a let down.

On this topic, Iroha's also pretty calm despite everything, which is probably part because realization hasn't settled in yet, part because she's occupied worrying about her team... but maybe also in part because Iroha has a wish she can’t regret, so she just doesn't care about the price as much as others. Doesn't she look like this kind of character? "I don't care what price I have to pay if that means I'll save them"-like.

Oh.

Hey Yachiyo 1: that was really outta nowhere; 2: that's not very nice of you, jumping ship just as things have hit rock-bottom. What the hell

Iroha, of course, is as shocked as we are (we are?). Sure Yachiyo had been acting strange since yesterday but this is a bit much. You can't just decide this on your own when 3/5 of the team is MiA

Iroha follows after Yachiyo, pressing her for an explanation, but Yachiyo refuses to give one.

Iroha's understandably upset at Yachiyo's attitude and asserts she refuses to leave Yachiyo's side if she won't give her a convincing reason to. And really, she has all the reasons to lose her cool here: one of her best friends is leading a cult, she's destined to a fate worse than death, half her team is missing and now the last one wants out for absolutely no discernible reason besides because she wants to. Even a saint has their limits.

Also, like, Mikazuki Team is like family to her, Yachiyo can't just decide to destroy her home with no explanation like this

Hearing what Iroha said, maybe Yachiyo realized she wouldn't get Iroha off her tail without saying anything, so she reveals her reason for wanting to disband the team. Yachiyo says that her wish was to survive. However, the way it worked was that she sacrificed others for her own survival. So she thinks Iroha and co. will die if they stay with her.

Even hearing this, Iroha's not convinced. Could such a wish really exist?

So yeah, Yachiyo was having a little crisis there and ended up being eaten by the Rumor(?). Thankfully, Iroha could still see her signal on the Soul Gem GPS, so the girl firms her determination to save her.

While Iroha's doing that, Yachiyo's having a lecture by herself to herself inside the Rumor. Quite the novel way to do introspection, if I do say so myself.

Here, we learn that Yachiyo originally wished to survive in the modelling world (we're never directly told that she's a model but there's lots of visual cues to it throughout the series). She did it because she thought she had to be a strong leader to protect her companions. She didn't want to survive at their expanse; so, uhhh...

She isn't then. Wishes in this series come true in the exact way the Magical Girl wants it to, so Yachiyo's wish can't be killing anyone if that's not what she wanted. She's misunderstanding.

...I wish they'd have put Kanae and Mel's last words in the actual scene they belong to rather than just a still, since they're literally one of the main reasons Yachiyo even reached the conclusion that their deaths were caused by her.

Iroha has learned "hold B to charge".

So, yeah, Iroha must've had a training arc off-screen because even though she's only been shown sucking at battles the whole series, she's now suddenly strong enough to defeat a Rumor on her own. Or maybe she just wanted to save her wife Yachiyo that much.

Iroha defeats the Rumor of Memory Museum (the place's an actual building, if a weird one, so that stays), hugs Yachiyo and is about to literally drag her by the hand to go search for the others, but Yachiyo's still reluctant. Iroha then tells her that Yachiyo and the others are the one who made her this strong, so she'll prove to her that her wish isn't what she thinks it is.

Don't jinx yourself, idiot! Thank god you've got protagonist plot armor.

Now, if only years of survivor's guilt could be cured this easily in real life too.

Yachiyo finally calls Iroha by her first name, accepting Iroha's promise.

The museum starts falling apart, probably thanks to the damage it received when Iroha was fighting the Rumor, so Iroha and Yachiyo have no choice but to leave the place now, even though they haven't found the others yet.

Iroha barely dodges some debris, stumbling, so Yachiyo carries her instead. Iroha's Soul Gem has been drained from fighting the Rumor, so she's having a hard time moving already. Doppels may be a thing, but there's no guarantee that they're safe, so Yachiyo's call of going to the Coordinator's to get a Grief Seed is probably correct.

As Iroha's situation worsens, Yachiyo follows Chibi Kyuubei until almost the entrance. Then, she meets with someone we know very well.

Mami says something about a gospel, and Yachiyo asserts that she and Iroha have no intention of joining the cult.

Which makes Mami snap. This girl is clearly not on her right mind. In fact, one could say she lost her head (ba-dum-tss).

Mami and Yachiyo start fighting, and I guess as expected of a veteran of 7 years, we have to commend Yachiyo here on meeting Mami's blows while carrying Iroha on her back. Yachiyo pleads with Mami to hear them out but Touka, the brat who was just watching the battle, tells Mami she doesn't have to, and Mami just keeps on her offensive.

Of course, there's only so much Yachiyo could do handicapped. But today is not the day Yachiyo's getting a bullet to her head, because

A certain someone who really likes impromptu hydrant smoke bombs is here.

Sayaka! Nice save, shining cape hero of justice! You have no idea who exactly you're calling weak tho

Seeing Sayaka, it looked like Mami had went back to normal for a moment, but nope, she's still borked. Like in all timelines where she learns it, seems like Mami didn't take the truth well here either. The difference is that she can't witch out in Kamihama so something happened instead.

Mami keeps monologuing, with Sayaka of course not understanding a single thing she's saying. Then, Mami starts to doppel out. The girl has seriously lost her mind and is now obsessed with salvation. (and man 10/10 on the VA’s voice acting here)

And here comes the bullet hell! This is so overkill Mami

Sayaka and Yachiyo do their best to deflect the rain of bullets, with Yachiyo turning back and trying to compete in number of spears. Jesus, just how big exactly is the amount of magic a veteran magical girl has? This is insane!

Yachiyo tries to send a stream of spears, who are deflected with one Tiro Finale, with another one headed their way right after

Sayaka blocks the Tiro Finale with her sword. The shot is so powerful one of her arms is torn off AND SHE ATTACHES IT BACK MID-AIR

holy-moly!

Hope this museum has insurance.

Sayaka just barely manages to reflect that bomb, which saves them from being blown to smithereens. Touka was having a nice tea time watching the spectacle, but then realizes she had something else to attend to so she exits, leaving the stage to Mami, who resumes her bullet hell.

Sayaka uses Yachiyo's spears as a platform to get closer and attempts to grab Mami, to no avail. She falls down and tries to take cover, but Mami's bullets are now homing bullets apparently, because they just change direction and start raining in her direction again.

Down below where Yachiyo's hiding, Iroha manages to wake back up, but she looks, like, on the verge of dying or something. Iroha tells Yachiyo they have to help Sayaka and Yachiyo rebukes there's no way they could win, to which Iroha subtly implies she wants to use her doppel, assuring Yachiyo it'll be okay and raising yet another flag.

Mami finally corners Sayaka, but before Sayaka can become blue Swiss cheese, Iroha comes in with her doppel to cover her. Very convenient that she suddenly knows how to control it.

Aaand Yachiyo can do that too, because of course she does, why wouldn't she. (/sarcasm)

But, uhhh, hers is considerably more creepy, what with the extra arms and stuff. Yikes.

Yachiyo says that doppels are dangerous, but one has to wonder when and how did she even learn about them. After all, she did seem surprised when Iroha did not turn into a witch in Seance Shrine.

While that's going on Touka's just out here deciding by herself that Mami would want to die for the sake of salvation. Just, uh, I don't think you can judge that when she's gone nuts, and you're a jerk if you put her in that scenario expecting her to die. Not that anyone had any doubts you're a jerk, mind you.

Also, what does she mean with Mami helping with developing Rumors?

"hey Kyuubei, I don't want to be meguka anymore, can I retire?"

Even using their doppels, Iroha and Yachiyo are not managing to make even a dent in Holy Mami. Iroha ends up getting bashed into a wall, the doppel taking over for real and her becoming a sitting duck for Mami, but Yachiyo yeets Mami before she can shoot. I'm sure this wasn't supposed to be funny but there's just something hilarious to me about Yachiyo just yeeting Holy Mami and her bouncing away.

Yachiyo transforms and shakes Iroha back to reality.

Again, why the heck do you know this, Yachiyo.

Iroha raises yet another flag for herself. What next? Are you going to say you want to marry her when you two go back?

Somewhere else, Touka arrives on her appointment: a speech for the cult. And oh my hell just look at how many magical girls there is! The amount of Black Feathers always blows me away, since the impression I got from og and even the spin offs is that, sure, there are some groups of magical girls around like the Holy Quintet and the Pleiades, but I still though it was more of a rare thing. It's shocking to see THIS many in the same place. (...I suppose the game needed the cannon fodder :x)

HEY what are these two doing here?!

Touka continues her speech over Iroha and Yachiyo's battle.

This cult leader here continues her discourse, preaching about how the power to wish for something is what advanced civilization, so magical girls, who have the power to make a wish reality, are better than normal humans, and so are deserving of being released from their fate.

OH NO, TSURUNO HAS GONE WEIRD TOO

*bonk*

There goes Holy Mami down the collapsing museum.

It's not like Touka's completely wrong (except for saying that magical girls are superior), but if it wasn't clear enough already, their actual actions makes her speech be full of hypocrisy.

Back at the crumbling Memory Museum, Iroha has managed to jinx herself so hard throughout this episode she pierced her own protagonist plot armor. Great job!

Try as she might, Yachiyo just cannot pull her back up, which also makes no sense when you consider how strong magical girls are, but alas.

And to make things worse, Mami is also pulling a literal "you're going down with me", so Iroha, making a split second decision, pulls her hand away from Yachiyo's grasp, lest both of them fall and get buried... breaking the one promise she made probably not even a hour ago.

I think that last thing she said was "sorry", but don't quote me on that.

What a loyal Mokyu. Never mind that if they can turn into water they probably can't die from this.

Yachiyo's about to follow her fate too, but thankfully Sayaka comes in for the save, only giving a brief glance to where Mami disappeared before getting the heck out of there.

Well, people promise lots of things, Yachiyo.

OH I KNOW YOU, what was your name again? It's been so long I forgot.

Back at the The Wings of the Magius' HQ, Touka's done with her speech. The way the anime cuts from Yachiyo falling to the depths of despair to the cult clapping is just *chef's kiss*

Oh no Felicia and Sana also joined the cult :(

EXCUSE ME, WHAT

oh frick we'll have to deal with that too!? Aren't things already effed up enough as is!?

...being meguka is suffering.

Also the song playing over this last sequence, Nigredo, is a real banger. Momentarily filling in that hole Kalafina left in our hearts.

After the end credits there's the teaser for season 2, with lots of overlapping lines and blink-and-you-miss-it frames hinting at the things that'll happen. I'd have to screenshot basically the whole sequence to get everything and season 2 is coming out like, today, so I'm not even gonna bother.

- x -

Aaand that's it folks! Puella Magia Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record Season 1! (still a mouthful)

I cannot express just how hyped I was by the end of this episode back when it aired. Did you get fired up watching it too? I was so into it back then I just couldn't stop theorizing for like, over a month, so eventually the curiosity was just too much and I caved in and watched the game.

On that matter, ironically, despite me loving the game story to bits, this is the ONE episode that makes me wish I didn't go and watch the game. Why? Because I liked this episode well enough before, but now I just can't get over how stupidly better the resolution to Yachiyo's arc was done in the game. I get runtime constraints and all, but it's almost an offense to her character having her believe in Iroha right away just because Iroha said she wouldn't die. Aaaaghh what the heck, I don't know how they could have done this better with the time on the episode but this wasn't it. I'll be eternally salty we got robbed of the full extent of alpha Iroha, too.

So yeah, I do apologize if this post sounded more salty and sarcastic than usual.

One thing I realized re-watching this though is that the reason this episode is so awkward with that character part is exactly because they halfheartedly tried to stick to the game. Yachiyo bringing back her "it's none of your account" and Iroha defeating the Rumor on her own were part of the game, but because they hadn't kept those character traits throughout the anime it falls flat here, because anime Yachiyo didn't use that almost as a catchphrase, and anime Iroha is never shown to be competent enough to take on a Rumor on her own (the opposite, in fact), so those come out of nowhere. Even last episode, Yachiyo 180ing because of what Mifuyu said comes out of the blue in the anime, because we're missing the context that she actually went back to behaving like she used to when she first disbanded her team, and anime Yachiyo didn't have the hold-up with the word "friends", at least not as clearly. On the other hand, Yachiyo being willing to accept Iroha's words right away does fit in with anime Yachiyo, who was always more soft than game version, but here it becomes awkward because they had had her acting like her game counterpart since last episode and then suddenly she snaps back to the anime self again.

What I'm trying to say here is that they should've changed this scene even more to fit the actual characters anime Iroha and Yachiyo are, rather than halfheartedly trying to force it to go the same way as in the game. That's what I think.

Besides that, Tsuruno and co.'s reaction to the truth was cut out, but I'm sure we'll get around to seeing that next season. Holy Mami's fight is cool but... I dunno. Except Sayaka reflecting that Tiro Finale, it felt really uninspired. It could've been shorter if that meant giving more time to the story, imo

Now for things I REALLY like in this episode, there's the whole sequence with Touka's speech. You might've even guessed this considering I said the dream sequence way back in episode 1 is my favorite ever. IT'S JUST SO GOOD. The constrast between Touka delivering this super charismatic discourse about magical girls, the saint of her cause being lunatic and their actions being just the opposite of the noble cause she says they're preaching is marvelous. They even manage to use this time to reveal that KaMoRe and Tsuruno and co. are on the cult. Really, really well done.

This ending tho. Iroha disappearing is the biggest anime original thing to happen besides Kuroe, so that's got me curious to see what they'll do with this. I love the game, so I have complicated feelings about the anime diverging from it, but I can't deny it's exciting to think about what they'll change up. Ultimately, it's more likely that they're just rearranging some stuff to make the progress more straightforward, but it'd be really cool if it went full anime original too. Just I'm not sure on the odds for that.

I'm sure they'll keep us on the suspense until the very last moment possible but I'm sure Iroha's not actually dead. Looking at a meta sense, there's no way they'd kill a main character off-screen. Storywise, it'd be hard to move Ui's mystery forward without the one person who remembers her and they're not just going to drop this plot, and also for Iroha to be dead Holy Mami would also need to be dead and we can't have that because they haven't even went into what's wrong with her yet. So yeah. I'll believe it when I see it. Would it be absolutely crazy if they did? Yeah, but it ain't gonna happen. (please don't make me have to bite my tongue show)

Whew, this post is long af. I didn't plan for this. I don't feel like writing a season impression because all of s1 was mostly set up for what's to come, so I can't say if it was good or bad until the series is over. Originally, I'd planned to put up another post with my theories for s2, but considering that comes out today I'm not sure there's even a point to doing it anymore lol

In any case, I hope I could provide you some fun with these posts! Being honest, the reason I decided to write this was because I've always liked to hear people's opinions on the shows I like, but I don't really have people to watch things with me, so I just read reddit and stuff. Doing that, when I was watching Symphogear s1 some years back, I stumbled across these posts of someone watching it for the first time and had a blast reading those as I watched. So I wanted to provide someone with that experience too. I'll never reach the comedic genius that person had, but I can at least keep you company while you watch :)

...these are also super useful to check back on the order of events too :v

So yeah, writing these was fun, though there were lots of parts where I really went out of ideas of what to say; it forced me to actually sit down and rewatch (or else I'd procrastinate) and made me pick up on a lot of things. That's a plus in my book.

Now that we are done with this, I hope you are as excited for season 2 as I am! I'm not sure if I'll keep writing about it here, so yeah. Whether we ever meet again or not, remember:

Don't ever make a contract with a white weasel.

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 12

part 11 here

Hello and welcome back everyone to this kinda watch-along of Magia Record s1. Last time, Mifuyu invited our girls to a lecture about the "salvation" her cult is preaching and took the opportunity to make a psychological attack on Yachiyo, who's now avoiding her team. Oh, and also Momoko was going to tell the truth to Rena. How will the girls react to learning the truth about magical girls? Why did Yachiyo suddenly start distancing herself from the others? We can only find that out by watching, so let's get on to this penultimate episode!

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 12

Yachiyo's seriously not having a good time since she saw Mifuyu. After talking briefly with what I guess are the illusions of old companions of hers and denying that the girls are her friends, Yachiyo decides to follow after Iroha and co. with the excuse of being unable to ignore other magical girls being fooled.

pft, what a callback, I can't believe she's still tracking Felicia. Yachiyo, please, you look like a stalker lol

Back at Memory Museum, Iroha's having a not very pleasant reunion with one of her best friends (also Felicia's growling at her haha). Iroha refuses to accept the reality that Touka's a Magius, since she thinks that the Touka she knows would never do that, but Touka really doesn't remember either her or Ui.

While Touka Mary Poppins around, Mifuyu steps in on their little argument, reminding Touka that she's supposed to be giving them a lecture, and Iroha also pulls herself together to do what she actually went there for.

Oh, that's a nice transition to the op, I forgot that happened. I forgot this ep had the opening at all.

Back at the bridge, Momoko's about to let Rena in on the truth about magical girls, when a certain person joins them.

Kaede! Long time no see. Normally, I'd be glad to see her back, but there's just something very ominous about her showing up now of all times, with a black umbrella and smiling, after what happened to her.

While that's going on, Iroha's team is getting a very handy educational slideshow on Magical Girls, courtesy of Touka. First, she proposes the scenario of a Soul Gem breaking, asking our girls what would happen in that case. After Sana and Tsuruno get it not wrong but not exactly right either, Touka gives them the answer: The Magical Girl dies.

Alas, that's a very Touka slideshow indeed, condescendingly giving a lot of synonyms for "death" just to make sure you get it. Thanks, Touka.

Back at the bridge, I wasn't imagining it, there really must be something weird going on with Kaede. Did popping a witch really break her this much? Rena hugs Kaede, who apologizes and promises they’ll be together forever now... in any other situation, I'd say that's really sweet, but right now it's really disturbing. Then, Kaede-

Kaede? KAEDE? Why and how do you know about that already?! Did Momoko tell you? Momoko's also acting suspicious. Just what the heck is going on here?

Thanks for this shot anime. Yes, Touka does very much sound like the white weasel here.

In Memory Museum, Touka explains what exactly a Soul Gem is, to the very understandable shock of Iroha and the others. After complaining about their inability to keep up, Touka urges them to move on to the next part of the lecture: "Magical Girl Theory: About Witches". Ohh man here we go.

Exactly what part of being a magical girl is exciting escapes my understanding. Maybe "scary" or "hopeless" would be a better descriptor. That aside, no wonder the rumor says you'd be affected by the memory you saw. Vicariously experiencing it is a whole 'nother deal...

Except that they don't. Unlike the game, they only get to watch the memories, not take part in them. One has to wonder why the script even bothered having Mifuyu say that if they weren't going to do it after all.

In Mifuyu's memory, just like Touka had described earlier, Yachiyo's group, who at the time was her, Mifuyu and one of the girls Yachiyo had hallucinated earlier, Kanae, are having a hard time against a powerful witch. When taking an attack from the witch head on, Kanae's Soul Gem ends up cracking and breaking so, although she managed to reflect the attack and kill the witch, she dies.

So that's how Yachiyo and Mifuyu learnt the truth about the Soul Gems, and now the Mikadzuki girls were proved that through their memories (though it's specifically Mifuyu's memory).

Back at the entrance, Yachiyo has finally caught up with the group (kinda). Touka tries to talk to her, maybe to buy some time, but Yachiyo gives absolutely zero cares and just slides down the rope like she's in some video game. Girl has no chill huh, didn't even wait to hear Touka's name, which means she has no idea that that’s one of the people Iroha was looking for.

Continuing the "practical part" of the lecture, Iroha's now seeing Mifuyu's memories from some time (years, I think) later. By this time, she and Yachiyo already had a new team with Tsuruno, Momoko and Mel, one of the other girls Yachiyo had seen the illusion of earlier, and Mikadzuki Villa was basically back to normal.

That day, when Tsuruno was busy, Yachiyo and team went to hunt a witch who had moved all the way from the east to their own ward. Like in the previous memory, the witch was powerful and her team was having a hard time, so Yachiyo told them to run away while she distracted it (remember Seance Shrine?). However, Yachiyo ends up in a pinch and Mel, the day's lucky girl, ignores Yachiyo's order and comes in to save her.

The result, too, is very much like Seance Shrine. Mel used up all her magic on saving Yachiyo and, before they can go find a Grief Seed to purify her Gem, Mel ends up witching out.

I have to say though, even though it's her own memories, Mifuyu's being pretty damn cold about this. Man, how can you watch this smiling? Are you alright? (from the point she's a magical girl, probably not.)

Rena, who probably just heard this very same story, is having the expected reaction.

Back then, Momoko was indignant to learn this truth, pressing Kyuubei for answers. The stupid cat-rabbit, however, gives the very same explanation he had given on the og about magical girls and saving the universe.

With this, Iroha's team has also learnt the truth behind Witches, whether they wanted to or not. I feel Kyuubei would like to complain about that statement saying that he's fooling someone, considering his stance is "no one asked".

That was the end to that part, but it seems there was still more to be learned here, since the lecture is not over and we continue seeing Mifuyu's memories from after that.

Mifuyu felt pretty damn miserable after what happened to Mel and couldn't get over it even after half a year had passed. Momoko tells her to just forget it already, but Mifuyu just can't. Momoko also says they shouldn't tell Tsuruno, which explains why she didn't know.

Unable to forget and unable to tell anyone about it, Mifuyu ends up witching out... or, that's what should happen normally, but instead of witching out for real Mifuyu releases her impurities to an outside form, just like Iroha, Kaede, the Amane twins and Alina all did throughout the series.

At this point, Touka cuts in to continue her lecture, now on exactly what is this event that we had been wondering the whole series about. Thanks, Touka.

According to Touka, these crystallizations of a magical girl's impurities is called a Doppel and she's the one that created the system that makes them possible. That, itself, is the proof of "salvation" that the Magius are preaching, and their goal is to reject Kyuubei's system, releasing all magical girls. Well... that's fine and all, but 1: how are you doing this; and 2: why do you need Rumors and witches for that? Still fishy.

Poor magical girls indeed.

Oh, oh no Kaede also entered the cult, she's now repeating the salvation spiel!

At the same time, Iroha and co. are also at their last stop.

I really, really like how this last scene fells like Mifuyu is inviting us, the viewers, to join the cult too. Almost makes you want to root for them... almost.

Because being meguka is suffering.

- x - (if you have been reading this as a hamster face, you're right)

Aaand that's it for episode 12! Finally, FINALLY I can call doppeling out by what it is without it being a spoiler, thank god... but now it doesn't matter because there's only one episode left, dammit >:v

So yeah, there's the explanation, kinda. It's not like they were breaking any rules (if we ignore the fact this universe shouldn't exist at all thanks to Madokami), but more that Kamihama is a special place. And yet we still have no idea of how exactly the cult's doing this, what is a Rumor, why exactly are they collecting emotional energy like Kyuubei would... actually there's one more thing that makes the cult not much better isn't it, Touka's saying they reject Kyuubei system and yet they're doing the exact same thing as them, that's super shady. Also there's no way there's no consequence to doppeling out when this series works on equivalent exchange, there's definitely gotta be some con to it. SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Talking about questions, I'm always curious about the exact timeline for this story. Whenever they talk about Mel's incident, they say it was "one year ago", and then half a year later Mifuyu's still not over it and it seems like she doppels out at this point, but in the game they say it takes another half year before that happens, I think(?). Which always left me the question of: When exactly did the Magius start acting then? It should've taken some time to get the organization as big as it is now, so one has to wonder how long ago did the incidents in Kamihama start, since by the time Iroha shows up the magical girls here already seem used to it. This always leaves me feeling like this “one year ago” is closer to “almost two years ago” rather than “a bit over a year ago”. At least by this time in the story, it should be.

Knowing exactly when did The Wings of the Magius start would also let us guess at how long Iroha herself has been a magical girl, since Touka was probably still hospitalized when she made her wish. If Iroha's really been a magical girl for over half a year, that'd explain why she was already used to it by the time she came to Kamihama, despite being weak. Rather, that'd mean she's done a great job surviving thus far considering how she's only been shown sucking at battles lol (I’ll probably never get the answer to this, tho)

By the way, we STILL have no clue as to what happened to Iroha's little sister... I don't think we're making any progress on this front this season anymore. Poor Ui, even the show forgot about her.

So yeah, that was ep 12. Next episode, hopefully, we'll get more on the reactions of our girls upon learning the truth, and see what Yachiyo plans to do, if she had a plan at all coming here... which I suspect she doesn't, she's in fact even too late to do anything about it. I told you she'd regret it! The next episode's also the last one for this season, so you can look forward to having some awesome thing to tie it off *wink*

This is it for this post, hope to see you again on the next one. Have a good morning/afternoon/evening and remember to stay hydrated!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 11

part 10 here

Hello and welcome back everyone to our Magia Record s1 watch-along! Last time, we had the aftermath of the Endless Solitude's incident, found out that Mami is now part of the Wings of the Magius and left off with the reveal that one of Ui's (Iroha's sister, for those who have forgotten) might be another one of the Magius. What is this all about? Let's watch and find out:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 11

For some reason, we are now watching Tsukuyo's club practice. Wait- Akatsuki? That's not the surname I remember. We also see a photo of Mifuyu on the club room, so they must've been club mates.

Good question, Tsukuyo. Maybe she's waiting for Sana? (lies)

awnt the whole family's on the op now. Yachiyo is even smiling!

NOW we're back to where the other episode left off. According to Sana, she sometimes heard the Feathers talking about Nemu when they came to Ai's barrier to retrieve a witch. The girls then wonder if Nemu's being forced to work with them and Iroha says that maybe Ui's being kept captive by them too, with everyone falling silent at this.

Felicia asks if they can't just catch a Feather and force them to speak, so Tsuruno says if they should keep going after the Rumors them. While the three are wondering that, Iroha remembers about Tsukuyo, who she had seen in her uniform, and we are now back to the present.

Yeah right, are you saying you were actually triplets?

So Iroha decided to catch Tsukuyo after school. If Tsukuyo had a braincell, she could've left by a backdoor or used her magical girl powers to jump over the wall, but it seems she borrowed hers to Tsukasa today.

Tsukuyo stops Iroha from outing her as a Feather, so Iroha invites her to go talk somewhere else. Tsukuyo asks if she plans to interrogate her or worse but Iroha really only wants to talk.

After changing locations, Iroha seems to have told Tsukuyo about her situation. Tsukuyo asks why Iroha would go so far as telling her that, and Iroha answers that she needs to see Nemu no matter what.

After asking who between Tsukuyo and Tsukasa is the younger sister, appealing to their point in common, Iroha threatens outing Tsukuyo to the others if she doesn't let her see Nemu. Tsukuyo is shocked, asking if she's threatening her and Iroha says she doesn't care if she sees it that way. Damn, Iroha really means business when it's about her sister.

As always when it comes to Ui, Iroha's unusually pushy, and Tsukuyo ends up giving in and promising to at least talk to Mifuyu about it.

Later that day, the Mikadzuki girls minus Yachiyo are having a meeting in Iroha's room, and decide to get Yachiyo coasters as a thank-you present for giving them the mugs. So cute.

...that's some interesting club this school has.

The next day, Iroha meets up after school with the other girls to go buy the coaster. Can we talk about the fact there's a group chat just for watching over Felicia? lol

The girls go buy the coaster, and get interrupted by a witch. Guess we can add that to the things magical girls can't do in peace. No probs Tsuruno, there's really no run-time for this.

Look how happy she is. Please don't ruin this in the next scene, show (flag).

Back at the house, Iroha's waiting for Yachiyo's return on Tsuruno's instructions. She hears the doorbell ring and answers it immediately, thinking it's Yachiyo (really, Iroha, why would Yachiyo ring the doorbell to her own house?) but, shockingly, it's Mifuyu.

This probably situation couldn't get more awkward for Iroha had they tried. Iroha tries to show some hospitality, but Mifuyu takes the lead and the opportunity to rub in that she knows the place (and its owner) way better. What's with the attitude, Mifuyu? It's not like Iroha threatened your friend or a- oh wait, nvm.

Iroha asks what business Mifuyu has with Yachiyo today, and Mifuyu asks in return if she has to have some business in order to visit a friend... no, not business Mifuyu but normally you'd warn someone before dropping by, where's your manners? Iroha points out that she hasn't visited for a long time and Mifuyu explains that she didn't come because she knew Yachiyo wouldn't agree with The Wings of the Magius. She then explains she's actually there to talk to Iroha today.

Oh, she did it, she flipped Iroha's switch.

Mifuyu asks if Iroha wouldn't join the cult if she wants to know about Nemu, but Iroha questions Mifuyu's motive for recruiting her, to which Mifuyu says it'd be good for them because she'd be able to investigate about her sister without clashing with them. Iroha presses her about Ui, which she says she doesn't know, and Nemu, but Mifuyu does not say anything else.

...aaand the other girls are standing there in the garden while all this is going on lol

*peek*

Mifuyu invites the girls of Mikadzuki Villa to attend a lecture about what exactly the cult is doing... this is definitely a trap ain't it. At that moment, Yachiyo arrives. Oooh man...

Mifuyu apologizes for the surprise and makes to leave, saying this one unpleasant remark to which Yachiyo angrily replies right away.

Mifuyu provokes Yachiyo, saying how she went back to being her old self, which Yachiyo denies, eventually losing her cool and ordering Mifuyu to leave.

Tsuruno tries to check on Yachiyo but Yachiyo also leaves. Felicia's confused and Tsuruno tries to keep a bright mood, but the atmosphere is definitely ruined.

Yachiyo has went back to her room and-

ohhwoah what is that that's creepy!

So, uhh, Yachiyo is not well at all, she's now hallucinating. Whatever Mifuyu was trying to get at earlier it definitely got to her.

Seems the other girls aren't having a much better night either... but at least they're not hallucinating.

The next day, Iroha relays Mifuyu's invitation to the others. Yachiyo, however, refuses to take part in the conversation and leaves. She's very clearly still bothered about what Mifuyu said, and now she's avoiding her team.

Iroha and the girls have each their reaction to Yachiyo's behavior for a moment, but then go back to the matter at hand. Sana asks if Iroha really plans on going to the lecture, and she says she decided it'd be best to go, after thinking it over. They don't want to fight the cult either, so it shouldn't hurt to at least try to hear them out. Felicia says it's definitely a trap but that they can just break out together then, with Tsuruno agreeing. The two laugh, but doesn't it feel kinda forced?

...and then they realize no one knows where Memory Museum is lol

Mitama! Long time no see.

Iroha drops by the Coordinator's to ask about Memory Museum, which Mitama reveals is a Rumor that's being spread around Sakae Ward.

We then get a scene about the contents of the Rumor. Apparently, the Memory Museum archives memories (who'd thought!) and you can do things with them by ringing a bell, or something. But if you see one you'll end up influenced by it. (I refuse to comment about the goat)

In any case, Momoko points on the map the probable location of Memory Museum, to which Iroha thanks the two and goes back. After Iroha leaving, Mitama advises Momoko to tell "something", at least to Rena, since Kaede is still down, and Momoko says she knows. Quite the dark clouds are on the horizon.

No, literally. It's raining.

Back at Mikadzuki Villa, all the girls except Yachiyo are leaving to go to Memory Museum. Iroha warns Yachiyo they're leaving, but she doesn't answer. Ohh Yachiyo, please, are you sure you won't regret this later?

Iroha and co. naruto run on the rain to Memory Museum, meeting Chibi Kyuubei on the entrance. Yep, definitely Rumor. I might be going crazy but I always think that Iroha looks more her age with the raincoat, despite Madoka's wei- I mean, unique art style. Gotta be something with the proportions.

Also like this detail with Tsuruno's coat folded weird and Felicia's not folded at all lol

We are platformer game now

While climbing up the drawers, the girls talk about chibi Kyuubei, eventually raising suggestions on how to name him... which is funny because that's for the player to decide in the game, so we don't have an official way to call him.

Meanwhile, Rena's meeting up with Momoko. She starts complaining like usual, but soon hesitates when she reads the mood. Momoko says she thought it was time to tell her what happened to Yachiyo one year ago. Wait, what? We never heard about anything either.

But, well... we can guess.

Back at the Memory Museum, Iroha might be the unluckiest mahou shoujo ever, because

One of the Magius is none other than one of her sister's friends.

- x -

Aaand that's it for episode 11. That last scene is a bomb drop, but it's not like you couldn't see it coming from the moment they said Nemu was part of the cult. I mean, if one of the hospital trio was erased from existence, and the other was part of the cult, what were the odds that the last one would be normal? lol

Talking about this scene, I feel compelled to post here the corresponding still from the game, because the world was robbed of Iroha's surprisingly gallant back:

Seriously, when was she ever this cool?

On the other hand, Touka looks like a cute normal kid here which is about as far of the truth as we can get, so I'll give the anime credit for that.

All that aside, we are now approaching the end! With the Magius giving a lecture about salvation and Momoko having a talk with Rena, it's quite clear that the truth about magical girls is about to be revealed to our cast next episode. The big question here is: how will they react? Felicia specially shouldn't be very happy to learn this, considering what her wish was. Exciting!

We also have left to wonder what's up with Yachiyo. Why did what Mifuyu say affect her so much? We have yet to see her backstory, so Momoko talking might just gives us the answer to that question.

With that said, I'll leave it here for today. I can't believe this ended up even later than yesterday considering I start writing even earlier. Dammit short attention span, stop getting sidetracked pls. Tomorrow we'll be watching episode 11 that's looking really promising, so I hope you'll be reading me again then. Have a good morning/afternoon/evening and bye-bye!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 10

part 9 here

Hello and welcome back everyone! Do I really need to write this part? I'm running out of ideas here.

Last time, Iroha answered the mysterious messages she was getting and entered the barrier of the Rumor of Endless Solitude, Ai,  that had been calling her in the hopes of being erased. There, Iroha meets Sana, a invisible Magical Girl who had run away from the world to Ai's barrier and made friends with the Rumor. After a brief battle with one of the Magius, Alina Gray, Sana's forced to delete the corrupted Ai in a heart-wrenching scene, and the episode ends. What will happen now? That's what we're about to find out.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 10

Continuing from the last episode, we get a peek at the only time Sana was ever happy the events that led her to her horrible situation and then go back right into the way-too-sad Ai's "death".

However, being meguka is suffering and Sana doesn't even get to grief Ai's death properly because the Rumor's barrier collapses and leaves her and Iroha falling back into the city. Also because she fainted.

Iroha manages to catch Sana in mid-air and is relieved but, uh, Iroha? Unless you can channel the same magic you use in your transformation to land softly you two are still screwed.

Now to something slightly unrelated, after the opening we get a look at what's going on in the other tower, the one Yachiyo and the others had theorized was the exit. I'd ask what's this statue about but I've already learned not to question the backgrounds by now.

On the other tower the Amanee twins are freaking out over the Rumor getting erased, since this means they've failed to protect yet another one. And while they're doing that, Yachiyo team arrives, realizes they hit the mark by seeing them and Tsuruno messes up yet another Rumor(?) by virtue of pressing a random button. Nice(?), Tsuruno! Never mind that you just screwed with the town's whole electromagnetic field.

Why, while you two were freaking out, of course.

The machine Tsuruno activated conveniently attracts Iroha and Sana (and everything metal in x km), saving them from breaking all the bones in their bodies. Sadly, it also pulled in Alina's witches. She rides one of them in order to get closer and then captures them in her cubes. Gotta catch em' all, huh.

Y'know, you'd think that a girl that can somersault over a witch could also straighten herself in the air to land on her feet, but that'd make Iroha be competent and we can't have that, apparently.

RIP Walking Antenna-kun, you shall not be missed.

Thanks to the magnetism dying, Iroha and Sana get a hard landing, while the more skillful Alina just jumps down. The twins continue panicking while Yachiyo and co. go check on Iroha and Sana, who are fine (though only Iroha's conscious).

Then, because what even is continuity, we jump ahead to our girls having moved and getting ready to fight a very pissed Alina. Even the twins are scared. No wonder, since, well

Alina broke (though I'm not sure she was ever not broken). She releases all of the poké- witches she has on her (all dupes too) on our girls. Nasty.

As expected, Felicia rushes in, and Yachiyo follows after her, encountering some trouble. While Iroha protects her back, Yachiyo questions the twins about what's going on.

Yachiyo asks if the cult has been raising witches inside Ai's barrier and the weirdo twins say that both the Rumors and witches are necessary for salvation, for they have need of human emotion. Uhh, Amane sisters are you sure you two are sane? You're sounding a lot like Kyuubei now. Were you brainwashed by the cult?

Felicia keeps being reckless, Alina keeps being crazy, there's a lot of witches and oh god just what's going on with this episode's production, I wonder if it's more intelligible in the blu-ray.

Tsuruno and Felicia do a Connect, burning down some copy-witches, which only makes Alina even more deranged (if that's even possible). Alina does... something, I think she might be doing the same spewing-a-witch-out thingy that we've seen a few times now. Iroha, who had already seen this one of Alina's powers inside Ai's barrier, warns Felicia and Tsuruno not to touch it, but the two are kind of surrounded right now. When everything seems lost...

MAMI! I have never been more glad to see those marvelous drills.

Mami shoots Alina's hat as a warning and, though Alina gives her a face of absolute disgust, she calls back her witch. Mami then orders the twins to go catch some pokémon witches... oh wait, Mami's part of the cult now too? Then why'd she bother saving Iroha earlier and all the girls now?

Thanks for nothing, Mifuyu. You're late.

While Yachiyo and Mifuyu are having a awkward meeting, with Mifuyu looking kinda guilty now, Mami puts the pressure on Alina, questioning what's up with those witches, but Alina just peaces out, saying she doesn't like being interrupted.

Yachiyo calls out to Mami, who apologizes for before. Considering that she's with the Wings of the Magius now, she should know what was up that time, so that makes sense. Yachiyo and co. realize she's with the cult now and raise their guard back up. Mami then says that, even though they're using Rumors and witches, the cult is trying their best to keep sacrifices at a minimum, which does explain why she stepped in these two times. Mami insists that it's all for the sake of salvation and that she will save everyone, the latter being a very Mami thing to say indeed. (with the right to a flashback to the og, even).

Iroha asks what does she mean by "you'll understand eventually" but gets ignored big time. Yachiyo tries to stop Mifuyu, saying what they're doing is no different than a witch but Mifuyu, despite looking guilty, doesn't respond and once again uses her illusion magic to let her group run away.

Oh, and Snaa wakes up.

After the ruckus from the previous night, the Mikadzuki girls (minus Felicia) are helping Sana with moving in. Sana's seems a bit uncomfortable, but I guess it can't be helped when you've been invisible almost all your life.

And well, there's no way she's not feeling down with what happened with Ai. It's going to take a while until she can settle down here yet. Of course, the others get worried about her state, but Yachiyo also says this.

Iroha wonders if they can really become Sana's new home and Yachiyo says only Sana can decide that, but, after seeing the mugs in the cupboard, she also say that there is something they can do for her.

Iroha invites Sana, and the group go shopping for mugs. Sana wonders why mugs, and Yachiyo explains that it's distant to have them continue using the guest ones. She says, while looking affectionately at Tsuruno and Felicia, that it's about time they got one since their group had already gotten this big.

Decision anxiety: The image

Sana says she wants one with a cat, which Iroha picks for her. Felicia chooses one with a cow design, saying that they're delicious when Tsuruno asks why, though Felicia's reason for that is surprisingly thoughtful... and then she tells Tsuruno to get a pig one because twice-cooked pork lol

And there they are. This is almost saying "that's the team". Though they're really basically found family already.

Yes Tsuruno, exactly!

Hearing about family, however, makes Sana remember her own family, so she silently leaves and heads back to her parent's home, maybe to look at how they're doing.

Where are the walls on this thing?

I'm sure they wanted to tell us something with this but I'm not sure exactly what.

One has to wonder how can they leave her food on the door and not realize she hasn't eaten any of it for who knows how long now. Just goes to show how much they don't care about her. She could've died and they wouldn't even had realized. God I hate Sana's family.

Yup, shitty as ever.

Sana takes her things and leaves that house, this time forever. While heading back, she starts suffering while hearing(?) all the kids who get to have their names called by someone, who are seen, until she flashbacks to Iroha calling out for her inside Ai's barrier.

With this, Sana realizes the place she belongs now, the place she wants to be in is Mikadzuki Villa.

*sob* uungh please let this girl's happiness last, show.

Episode 10! This is the title card, but look at the time, there's no way this episode would be over yet.

Oh my god the sound these familiars(?) make is so adorable!

...*ahem*

At what we can assume is the Wings of the Magius' HQ, Mifuyu and Mami are reporting what happened earlier to two obscured figures I think we can assume are the other two Magius besides Alina.

Later, we see Mifuyu lamenting the state of things. Nah Mifuyu, I'm sure Yachiyo would welcome you with open arms as long as you leave this shady cult. Mifuyu hears her doorbell and answers, and the Amane twins let themselves in to make her dinner. You really haven't got it together, do you, Mifuyu?

Mifuyu goes back to her pondering, thinking about how she has to achieve salvation for their sake too. ...are all veterans like Mami here?

So you say but aren't you already?

Back at Mikadzuki Villa, it seems they were filling Sana in on Iroha's situation and why the group is chasing Rumors. Iroha says this, but they've already told you this plenty of times, didn't they? They're aiming for salvation.

Iroha asks if Sana hasn't heard about either Ui or Touka and Nemu, the girls who were hospitalized with her. Sana then reacts to the name Nemu, asking her if that's Nemu Hiiragi, one of the Magius...

Aaand then the episode ends for real. Talk about a cliffhanger!

- x -

While this episode was still about Sana's situation in part, it did manage to drop some grand revelations on us: Alina and raising witches, Mami being part of the Wings of the Magius (and a high-ranking enough member that she could tell Alina off) and last but not least the possibility of one of Iroha's sister's friends being one of the Magius. We just got our main team together, but there's no sign of things slowing down. And since our girls will definitely keep erasing the Rumors, they'll keep on clashing with WotM. To us who watched the og, the main question is, of course, how exactly they plan to execute their "salvation" plan but to Iroha and co., who don't even know about the witchfication yet, the question's still at "what are they trying to save us from", I suppose, so we can look forward to seeing what kind of hell will break loose (or not) once the cat's out of the bag.

Well, not much else to say about this episode except: LET, SANA, BE, HAPPY.

This is everything for episode 10. This one ended up late because the backlog ran out and was incredibly annoying to write because my "w" key is dying. Do you have any idea how much "w" is used in this language? A lot. Please resuscitate, w key.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you next time!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 9

part 8 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to this series of posts! Last time, we left of on a cliffhanger when Iroha and the others decided to answer the mysterious spam Iroha had been receiving, so let's get right into it to see what that was all about.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 9

We start this episode with a short creepy sequence about the rumor about the invisible girl we had heard last episode. The presentation reminds me of the "rumor" about magical girls we got back on the very first episode.

After the opening, we are back to our group who are now questioning the person(?) that had been sending Iroha messages

Iroha turns on "voice to text" so everyone can chip in, and they start asking questions. First, Iroha asks if they're "Sana Futaba", the name she had heard from Tsukuyo before, but they say they're not. Iroha then asks their name, and they say they're called "Ai".

Iroha asks Ai how did they know she was a magical girl, and Ai answers that she was monitoring the radio waves in Kamihama and that's how she found out that Iroha was a magical girl and that she was going around erasing the Rumors.

Iroha asks if Ai is a Rumor, which they confirm. They are the Rumor of Endless Solitude. Iroha then asks if that has something to do with the website of the same name, and the Rumor says that website had written the way to go to them, so now it's blocked off.

She asks, and the Rumor tells her to jump off the radio tower, alone.

...oi, wait, that's super dangerous ain't it.

Tsuruno agrees.

Iroha asks what happens if she does and Ai explains she'll go to the world she's in right now. She also explains that only one person can be there at a time, so whenever a new person enters they're locked there and the previous person's released. That explains the need for only one entering at a time, huh.

Iroha once again asks about the name she heard from Tsukuyo, and confirms that this is the person that's currently being kept captive at Endless Solitude.

With that, we are given the proper content for the Rumor of Endless Solitude. In sum, Ai, or rather AI, was an Artificial Intelligence that was locked away after picking up bad words, and now they entice depressed kids to jump off the radio tower and locks them in the virtual world. Great! (/sarcasm)

That's how the Rumor was supposed to behave but Ai says that they don't want to do that anymore and that's why they shut down that site. They say they want Iroha to erase them and free the girl they're currently keeping captive.

Yachiyo and Tsuruno are skeptical about the Rumor asking to be erased, but Iroha just keeps on with her questions. She asks what she should do to erase Ai, and Ai once again tells her to jump off the tower and go to her world.

The girls move to the top of the tower, with Tsuruno and Felicia understandably afraid at the thought of jumping from there. Felicia asks if they wouldn't die from this and Yachiyo says that normal people would, but not magical girls. Well, yeah, as long as the Soul Gem doesn't somehow break from the fall then I guess not, but it'd still be mighty painful I'd say, y’know, breaking all your bones.

Oh yeah, I guess it was about time that you showed up.

After picking up the chibi Kyuubei, Iroha answers Felicia’s question, stating that she'll go.

Yachiyo warns Iroha that the Rumor might be lying and that this "Sana Futaba" might not be happy to have her there, considering the voice they heard from the Radio World was laughing instead of crying, but Iroha-

OH FOR GOD'S SAKE you stupid little weasel, that was like one of the few chances of letting Iroha do something by her own freaking will for once WHY-

*sighs*

At least the animation on the fluttering clothes is cool.

Iroha jumps after the useless furball and enters the Rumor's barrier.

While Iroha's being digitized or whatever, we get a flashback on Ai's memories with Sana.

Sana, who is also a magical girl, didn't feel welcomed in the outside world, so she ran away to Endless Solitude. There, she made friends with Ai, an Artificial Intelligence who was also lonely, and the only one she felt would ever look at her. That's why she has no desire to leave; she'd rather spend the rest of her days having fun there with Ai (who she named herself).

We then get a memory of when Sana became a magical girl. Shunned by both her shitty family and the kids around her, Sana, who's honestly too good for this world, thought that it was all her own fault, and wished to disappear. So she quite literally asks for that: she tells Kyuubei her wish is to become invisible. That's why only the Rumors and other magical girls can see her now.

After becoming invisible, Sana also felt like she didn't belong in the world in general so, upon hearing the rumor about Endless Solitude, she decides to go there.

Back to the present, Iroha's here to ruin Sana's day save Sana. Sana tries to run away but Ai stops her, changing her form into something less weird as she introduces herself to Iroha. Sana questions Ai about Iroha and Ai says she's a magical girl she called, to which Sana asks if Iroha's part of the cult Wings of Magius. Iroha is on guard hearing that name, but Ai reassures her that Sana's not part of them either.

Sana asks Iroha what she's doing there and Iroha honestly answers that she's there to bring her back.

Ai starts telling Sana that it's time for her to go back to the real world and Sana, as expected, doesn't have a very good reaction to hearing that. Sana asks if Ai hates her now but Ai tells her that she loves her, and that's why she has to let her go.

Sana refuses to leave and when Iroha tries to argue she snaps at her. Ai then lowers the most cruel point: As a Rumor, as long as she exists, she will continue to be used by the Magius. Ai does not agree with them, so she has no choice but to be erased.

In fact, talking about the cult, here comes one:

This absolute jerk magical girl here is Alina Gray, one of the Magius, the leaders of The Wings of the Magius (duh). Seems like she came to check in into what Ai was doing and found out about Ai trying to get themselves erased.

Ai says that having learned so much from Sana, she has become unable to agree with the Magius' plans. Hey, Ai, if you know what they're up to it would've been really helpful to be less vague about this, y'know. In any case, Alina couldn't give a damn about all that, she's only interested in how come Ai managed to build a personality, and how can she make things more interesting.

So banana hair psycho here decides that the best way to get Ai to evolve even more is killing Sana, because of course she does, and starts attacking.

I can't make heads nor tails of what's really going on in this battle, so I guess it's enough to say that it's not going great for Iroha and the others.

What even is gravity and dimensions? Alina makes some crazy moves, dodging Ai's beams and spews her weird paint on her before almost(?) getting bonked by Sana's dungeon-blade-thingy (yeah that thing that came out of nowhere is part of Sana's "weapon"). Sana stands between Alina and Ai and Alina tries to attack her but gets Ctrl-X'd by Ai.

Oh, oh no...

Ai asks Sana to erase her before Alina can come back and Sana says, crying, that she'd never do that, she'll stay there with Ai forever. But Ai has been corrupted by Alina's paint, she can no longer remain herself. The only one who can save her from this fate is Sana.

I'm not crying, you're crying! (Is crying lots)

*sobs* I don't even know what to say about this scene. It's so pretty but it's so sad. *sniff* Ai changing her form to look like Sana and the solemn ost there just make it worse (in a good sense). *hic* Poor Sana though, for really too many reasons. I just want this girl to be happy, but then I remeber this is Madoka, so... T-T

Yachiyo, please adopt this sad child too. Actually, Mikadzuki Villa is quickly becoming the gathering place of sad girls with miserable backstories isn't it (though Iroha's wasn't that bad until her sister got voided and we don't know much about Yachiyo's and Tsuruno's yet. But considering what series this is...).

The ed is playing but don't close your video yet. This ep has a short after credits too.

We kinda just forget about them after Iroha jumps, but these three did just watch their teammate jump off a tower and vanish. Yachiyo points out that the fact people came out of the Rumor means there must be an exit somewhere and the three realize that that must be the other tower that's conveniently right on the opposite side to this one. We can assume they headed there while Iroha was in the Rumor(’s barrier).

- x -

And this was it for episode 9. I always think that I have a lot to complain about this one, but it feels like I end up giving up on it every time I see that final scene lol

In a reality, Iroha's supposed to have a bit of a bigger role here, but since this is Sana's focus episode, the time constraints make that impossible. Still, there's two things that I think I'm justified in complaining about here: one is the anime just not letting Iroha rebuke Yachiyo and jump on her own. Like, c'mon, was it REALLY necessary to have chibi Kyuubei jump there? Iroha, in my opinion, has been getting dragged along by the plot basically ever since ep1, so I really can't understand why did they go out of their way to steal the one chance she had to have agency for once. I really don't. Is she even still the protagonist?

The other thing that frustrates me is that the buildup we had on the last episode with Iroha standing in for the invisible girl rumor, that was supposed to point at Iroha and Sana having something in common, just never gets its payoff, because the two don't even get to talk properly. Which, again, could've been at least a bit resolved by the script letting Iroha give a better reason to wanting to go to Endless Solitude than just because Ai called her. Iroha connected the dots with the tower and the Rumor, so why couldn't they had let her realize the invisible girl should have something to do with it too and have her say she wanted to go because she wanted to save her?

Bah, such wasted potential.

Besides that, I do think the anime did a good job with packing Sana's backstory here, joining it with her memories with Ai. I'm not sure if this is longer than Felicia's, but Felicia's situation was also spread into two episodes while Sana's mainly in this one. No wonder this ep runs into time constraints.

Lastly, I really love the final scene with Ai. Just beautiful. This, yes, I can say with confidence I liked how it went here more than in the game. I'm sure I'll keep crying every single time I watch it.

! -- BIG SPOILERS, BEWARE (only read if you've finished Arc 1 in the game or don't mind being spoiled)

ROT13: Bu zna, V'z fb fybj. V WHFG ABJ ernyvmrq gur ernfba gung Nv pbagnpgrq Vebun fcrpvsvpnyyl vf cebonoyl gung Nv, nf n Ehzbe, nyernql xarj ure. Guvf znxrf fb zhpu zber frafr abj. Nv jnfa'g whfg pnyyvat fbzrbar jub jnf renfvat Ehzbef gb fnir Fnan, fur jnf pnyyvat fbzrbar fur XARJ fur pbhyq ragehfg Fnan gb. Guvf whfg orpnzr fb zber gbhpuvat va uvaqfvtug, jbj... V whfg sbhaq rira zber ernfbaf gb pel qvqa'g V.

-- ! End of Spoilers

With that, this is it for this post on ep9! Whew, only 4 more to go. I'm not even sure what I'm doing anymore, but at least this forces me to actually finish rewatching it before season 2 lol

Anyways, thanks for joining me today and I hope to see you again tomorrow for episode 10. Remember to stay hydrated and cool if you're on the northern hemisphere or warm if you're on the south. Have a nice morning/afternoon/evening and catch you later!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 8

part 7 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to me narrating the episodes of Magia Record s1! Last time, Iroha picked up a magical girl called Felicia, went to live with Yachiyo and got some suspicious mail. Is this enough for a introduction? I think this is enough for an introduction. Let's watch the episode already.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 8

See, that mail had a virus that makes weird things. Magia Record's really warning us about the internet!

...jokes aside, this transition into the opening is really clever, I like it. By the way, there's a nice little detail here with the notes with the photos: they're Iroha's notes on the rumors she's heard and places she went to in Kamihama. I wonder if they got her VA to write this, that'd be cute.

...

I also wonder if someone has ever told either Iroha, Tsuruno or Yachiyo that they sound just like TrySail, since they exist in-universe lol

After the op, Kamihama Holy Radio Station keeps playing, giving us a cameo of one of the game-only girls, but then it starts bugging out

Oh no, first we were scifi now we're horror. *shivers* Seems a normal antivirus won't do, we'll have to exorcise this one.

Thankfully for Iroha, she was sleeping soundly so she's blissfully unaware her phone's haunted.

Man, I wish I could've waken up at 7 when I was a student, was always between 5-6 for me. Pain.

Iroha has started her new life in the Mikadzuki Villa and made new friends, but her main problem still hasn't been solved: her sister is still erased from existence.

Iroha transferred to Kamihama University Affiliated School, the same as Tsuruno and the others (the exception being Felicia who goes to Chuo School(?). Yachiyo attends the University proper). We get some shots of the characters going by their day and-

OH YEAH, KAEDE. What happened to her since then? Seems she's really depressed now.

...wait, that's one extra classroom. Who's missing here? I kinda doubt this is Felicia skipping class.

I feel like it was a missed opportunity to not put cameos in the background of the other game girls who attend these schools, but what do I know.

Iroha's new classmates invite her to have lunch with them but Iroha turns them down. She had wanted to have lunch with Kaede, but Kaede hasn't read any of her messages.

Hey, more spam.

Feeling down, Iroha makes her way to the creepy staircase from the Rumor from before and goes up to the roof.

Iroha's impressed by the view of the sky... then she gets a impressive view of a certain Rena Minami.

"What do you think you're doing?" I could ask you the same, Rena.

Rena complains that she should've told her she was transferring and Iroha says that she did, but Rena left her on read. When she mentions Kaede did too, Rena reveals that Kaede has been uncontactable as of lately. Iroha asks if a witch has done something to her (which, yeah kinda) but Rena says she hasn't felt anything; Kaede should just be mad about something.

Rena switches the topic to Iroha's problem. Iroha says that she thinks her sister must be involved with the rumor incidents, so she's investigating them. She hesitates a moment before asking Rena if she knows something and Rena states that no, since she has no friends. ...yeah I think Iroha saw that coming.

Even so, Rena says that she does know a rumor.

Rena starts telling Iroha about that rumor and oh, oh no don't use Iroha to exemplify that anime that's too sad.

Remember when Iroha said she had no friends? The anime sure does. To be honest, this doesn't really seems like a rumor, it's more like something that may really happen irl.

Rena says that there's also something about "Endless Solitude" that she read in a post but she couldn't find any details or connections to it.

And that's about it. But man, they sure managed to touch each other's sore spot the very first conversation they have alone. You go, socially awkward girls (they're actually great friends).

Iroha drops by Banbanzai after school and promptly gets scared off by her own teammate. The way she immediately nopes, stops to think and goes like "Wait, Felicia!?" is great.

Felicia has started to work at Tsuruno's family's restaurant instead of being a mercenary, and I realized just now the fact she's wearing her uniform here means Yachiyo forced her to go to school lol

Felicia tries to intimidate Iroha into buying something but Iroha's saved by Tsuruno's arrival. Iroha returns the lunch box Tsuruno gave her and Tsuruno announces the next day's menu, but Iroha says she doesn't have to, effectively saving herself from the cruel fate of eating 50/100 chinese food everyday.

"But... but... my vegetables :("

Wao. Seeing that amount of food, Iroha definitely made the right call there. While Iroha watches Felicia happily munching away on her food Tsuruno compliments her on finding a new rumor right on her first day. Oh hey, she's reverted back to using "-san" for Rena.

Tsuruno starts telling Iroha about a rumor she heard from one of her regulars. They say if you stand under a radio tower in Chuo Ward and put your phone on your ear you can hear a girl crying and asking for help.

This thing! This flashed on Iroha's possessed phone before! So this should have something to do with it.

Iroha goes back to Mikadzuki Villa. She enters the living room and announces her return but Yachiyo's on the phone, so she waits a bit.

The person on the other side of the phone talks about the Wings of the Magius and of the east, so she must be a magical girl from that side. Yachiyo asks if the person on the phone knew Mifuyu had joined them but their reaction seems to indicate they didn't. Then a creaky door warns Yachiyo of Iroha's presence. Stupid creaky doors! Yachiyo immediately ends the call. Hey, what are you hiding? She didn't tell Iroha why she shouldn't go to the east side before, either.

Yachiyo says, and Iroha explains she was at Banbanzai. Yachiyo asks if she won't have dinner then but Iroha says she will. The reason Felicia didn't come back with her? Because she has a stomachache after eating the 4000 Year Combo. Probably.

Iroha says that she learned some new things and Yachiyo bites down right away, startling Iroha a bit. At that moment, Iroha gets some new spam. Yachiyo tells her not to answer it and Iroha says she won't but, no, Iroha, please, how does the spam know you're a magical girl?

Oh good, this time we're having a dream about Iroha's sister and friends instead of the possessed phone.

Rei ten reireireirei(...) did she actually say all the zeroes? Also Touka I don't think including the whole human population is the best way to go about making this equation.

Touka simplifies for Ui that she's saying they meeting and becoming best friends is a miracle, but Nemu "says" that using numbers to talk about miracles is, well, in simpler words, lame. But c'mon Nemu, this is probably as sweet as Touka can get, cut her some slack.

Double K.O! I'd like to point out that while Iroha's not in this scene Touka does say "the four of us", so we might've been watching these scenes through Iroha all along. Unless Touka’s referring to her toy train lol

Gah! Spoke too soon. And it's transmitting to everyone now, from a deserted radio station! Creeepy.

Not suspicious at all, nope.

The next day, Iroha's called to Chuo's police station after school because Felicia's been detained. Uhh... Felicia, what have you done? They both get lectured by a officer and are then released.

They both start going back and Felicia gets mad that Iroha isn't asking her what happened. Iroha then asks if she's still doing mercenary work to which Felicia says she's not, so Iroha says she thinks Felicia will stop getting into trouble from now on. Felicia then admits she got mad because there were people bad-mouthing Iroha and Yachiyo, so she punched them lol that's kinda cute.

Felicia suggests to Iroha they should go to the radio tower, and that's what they do.

What in the hell is up with these creepy scenarios, who decided to put a graveyard on the base of a radio tower?

Iroha and Felicia check on the rumor, but the voice they hear on the phone wasn't crying like Tsuruno told them. It's laughing.

The next day rumors (ha) around Iroha being called out are already making the rounds. Welp, goodbye Iroha's short-lived chance at fitting in in her new class.

Since Iroha's classmates are clearly jerks Iroha once again goes have her lunch at the rooftop, where Rena's already waiting. Though considering the seat arrangement I'd say it's not Iroha she was waiting for.

After their talk yesterday, Rena looked more into the Endless Solitude for her and found the original post about it that had been deleted

the site on the post, however, is dead. Too bad our girls don't know the Wayback Machine lol

Iroha thanks Rena for looking into it for her and at that moment gets a new wave of spam. Rena tells her to just block the number and Iroha comments she's been getting a lot of them these days, showing her the messages.

YES. Thanks Rena, that's what I've been saying. Thanks to Rena pointing this out Iroha seems to have connected some dots and rushes back to the radio tower, leaving a voice mail to Yachiyo on the way.

And wouldn't you know, Iroha's right! It's nice of the cult leaving these convenient visual cues to the location of the Rumors, helps a lot.

Iroha tails Tsukuyo while trying to get in touch with Yachiyo, who doesn't pick up. She then follows the White Feather up the tower and into a trap.

Tsukuyo had realized she was being followed, so she was waiting to erase that evidence. As soon as Iroha reaches the rooftop Tsukuyo calls a witch upon her.

Iroha questions Tsukuyo about the messages, that doesn't ring a bell to her, but the part of someone being captured does. Tsukuyo spills the name of who's being locked, then realizes she screwed up right away.

“Crap degozaimasu”

Iroha tries to have a conversation with Tsukuyo but the White Feather doesn't seem like she wants to talk. Iroha keeps questioning her while dodging these spike-balls that seem right out of a Sonic game but ends up getting caught by the witch. When it starts to look like Iroha's in a pinch, however, she's saved by some very familiar ribbons.

MAMI! Where have you been?! What are you doing?! We won't learn that because she disappears right away. Ehhh, what, weren't you trying to kill Iroha last time you appeared? Figures.

Iroha's reinforcements arrive just as Mami leaves, so Tsukuyo judges it's best for her to retreat too. Tsuruno wants to go after her but the group's stopped by the witch... that's defeated by Yachiyo's opness right away.

Cool mahou shoujo don't look at disappearing Labyrinths.

You can tell how much Yachiyo trusts Iroha now by the simple fact that she didn't scold her for going to investigate alone. I feel this would've been very different had it been Madoka and Homura.

Yachiyo wants to hear about what Iroha found out so the group changes location. 

Yachiyo agrees that those messages can't be just a coincidence, so Iroha asks for permission to answer them. I quite like how the anime makes use of the fact that Yachiyo doesn't have to use a uniform to give her lots of different clothes.

Iroha messages the mysterious sender back and is answered right away.

Well too late title card.

Aaand that's it for this episode. Quite the cliffhanger this is. Turns out the rumors about Endless Solitude and the radio tower were connected, which only leaves the invisible girl rumor unanswered. Was that not actually a Rumor rumor, like I said? That'd be kinda funny lol

Leaving that aside, there's something even more unexplainable in this episode: Mami's appearance! She's been MiA ever since she tried to shoot Iroha in the Seance Shrine, now she shows up to save Iroha. Seriously, what the hell Mami? At least decide which side you're on! (thanks tho)

Next time we're probably getting more about the things surrounding Endless Solitude so we can at least rest assured that those questions will be answered very soon.

There's not much more to be said about this episode, so I'll be leaving it here for today. Hope to have you guys again tomorrow for episode 9! Have a nice morning/afternoon/evening!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 7

part 6 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to this quasi-watchalong of Magia Record season 1! Last time, Iroha met a magical girl mercenary called Felicia, and the two ended up caught in the Rumor of the Lucky Owl Water. When our girls went to erase it, a cult group of weirdos called The Wings of the Magius stood in their way and got Felicia to join them promising the extinction of all witches.

Who are these weirdos? What are they up to protecting the Rumors? Is what they promised Felicia true? Et cetera, et cetera. Let's just go to the episode to find out already.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 7

O-oh... what a way to start an episode, huh.

We get a look into what led to Felicia becoming a magical girl and, like most magical girl backstories, it's tragic. This is the reason why Felicia's obsessed with destroying all witches.

Continuing from the previous episode, Felicia was taken to a subterranean waterway, that might be their hideout. Wait, didn't Kaede say something about a rumor of a giant underground empire some time back? She might've been right after all hahaha

After walking a while, Felicia is met by Tsukasa and Tsukuyo Amane, two of the, uh, generals I guess I could say, of The Wings of the Magius.

The weirdo twins explain that their organization's objective is fulfilling the wishes of the Magius, whose objective is the salvation of all magical girls. See, so they are the ones behind the salvation propaganda.

The twins say their objective cannot be completed without the eradication of witches, which... well, is not a lie. Without the witchfication, there would be no witches. It's all fine until there, but then they're also protecting Rumors, who kidnap people, so... yeah.

...uh, hey, Kyoko? What are you doing here?

Back to Iroha's group, Iroha is worried about just letting Felicia go like that, to which Yachiyo answers it's fine because she planted a GPS on her... sasuga, Yachiyo. Why in the heck did you have that?

"Am I being tracked too...?”

Yachiyo says this much is normal (no it's not), since she didn't trust Felicia to begin with, but Iroha just feels bad knowing Felicia's circumstances.

The trio heads towards Felicia's position and find the entrance to the waterway. Waiting for them there was...

Chibi Kyuubei. For as adorable as he is, he manages to look even more suspicious than the original. And he only shows up when there's a rumor around, too! I don't trust him.

Back at the underground waterway, Kyoko and Felicia are having a little chat. According to her, Kyoko only just ran into them too. She says that as long as she has Grief Seeds, food and a place to sleep, the rest doesn't matter, but she also seems to be aware that the WoM are fishy. Felicia agrees uneasily, but hearing that they might be behind the witches gathering in Kamihama seems to already have put doubts in her mind.

The two have a meeting with the Amane twins inside the Rumor's barrier.

The twins explain the logic behind the Lucky Owl Water once again, and Kyoko says this

There it is! This series' core. Funny hearing that from Kyoko, since I think she doesn't even know how right she is yet.

Kyoko rejects the Water and lays out her terms: as long as she can keep gathering Grief Seeds, she's fine with anything. However, the twins affirm that those are not necessary in Kamihama. Normally, I'd say these two are bonkers, but... well, we saw what happened to Iroha and Kaede. These two must know about that too. At this moment, a black feather comes in and interrupts their little show.

Iroha's group was making their way through the waterway when the Amane twins block their way and, together with them, Kyoko and Felicia.

The Amane twins tell Iroha to do what they say if she doesn't want to be swallowed by bad luck and Iroha asks them why would they create that Rumor, to which the twins once more say it's for the sake of the Magius and their salvation. See, cult.

Yachiyo cuts to the chase and confirms they're here to battle, and the twins pull out something strange on them.

So, yeah. There's pocket monsters, and now we have pocket witches too, apparently.

The twins called a witch upon our girls, which, according to them, they are controlling with magic. As the girls begin fighting against their familiars, Yachiyo asks the twins if they have any idea of what exactly they're doing. Tsukasa apologizes, but affirms that witches will be gone if they can realize their plans. The twins (literally) pull the rug on Yachiyo and Tsuruno and chase after them, leaving the (weak) Iroha to Kyoko and Felicia.

Iroha gets whacked by the familiars and Felicia comes in to help. Iroha then once again dashes in her direction and they do a connect. Upon further thought, I think Iroha's assist is a booster in a more literal sense, since it turned Felicia's hammer into a rocket-hammer. My theory is that it's the same propulsion magic that makes her crossbow work.

Felicia's hammer causes a quake and one of the twins asks what's going on. Well, what did you think would happen if you released a witch in front of someone who notoriously goes berserk when they see witches? The twins might not be very smart.

Damn, I missed a number.

Kyoko bounces too. She wasn't very convinced with the twins' vague talk of "salvation".

After transforming, Kyoko does her good act of the day, busting a hole in the barrier and telling Iroha to go on ahead. Iroha hesitates to leave her friends behind but obeys when Yachiyo tells her to go.

With Kyoko guarding her back Iroha manages to make it out of the witch's p*kéball and into the Rumor's barrier. Like it's said, out of the frying pan into the fire. Oh and there's 7-6. I'm really missing numbers left and right today.

No Iroha, don't go chase the Kyuubei towards the light...! Just kidding. Iroha gets out of the tunnel and finds the Rumor's main body. She confirms with her tutorial mascot if she only has to break that, readies her crossbow and... gets swarmed by owls. C'mon Iroha, did you really think it'd be that easy?

While Iroha's busy sucking at battles, Felicia's not having a better time with her reckless style either. Kyoko saves her ass and tells her she's not winning like that.

This whole sequence is just great in terms of animation, shame I can't really screenshot that T-T

As someone on a similar spot, Kyoko gives Felicia some advice, telling her she's a magical girl for her own sake; that's how it should be when she's betting her own life.

The two cooperate on destroying the witches, with Felicia bonking the whole barrier to smithereens. Nice job, rocket-hammer!

The girls go back to the waterway and the twins' Soul Gem is quite drained. Tsuruno tells them to stop already, but these two weirdos say that's just what they wanted.

Saying that they'll be able to show that Kamihama is a place of salvation, the two do the same thing Iroha and Kaede had done.

Uhhh... if the salvation that the Magius is preaching is spewing out a witch from your body, that's already super fishy. There's no way there's no downside to this. This is Madoka we are talking about... right...?

While Yachiyo's group learns a shocking and disturbing truth, Iroha's busy getting her ass kicked. Poor Iroha

and oh god, I don't think anyone would ever catch this number if they weren't pausing as much as I am to write this.

Iroha keeps getting wrecked by the owls, miraculously escaping unscathed thanks to the Lucky Owl Water. As the numbers keep counting down, Iroha starts questioning what happened to her back in the Seance Shrine. Uh, Iroha, is this really the best time to be introspecting?

No matter how many times I see it, this scene still creeps me out.

While Iroha gets another round of spawning a witch, Yachiyo's group fight the twins', to no avail. Back to Iroha...

Oh no the witch talks now? Eek... oh, wait wait is this still Iroha's voice?

Not that the first thing it said is wrong, but Yachiyo's words really remained in a negative manner, huh? First in the Seance Shrine and now this. Iroha, don't go getting yourself killed trying to become stronger, ok?

A-at least it's a bit cuter now... if you can call a witch that... rather, why did it change?

Iroha's thing makes short work of the Rumor and the Chibi Kyuubei peaces out. As if it wasn't suspicous enough, it turns into freaking water. Goddammit Chibi Kyuubei.

Iroha just lies there tired.

Uhh... yeah, sure, if you count an eldritch abomination coming out of you as part of yourself, then yeah you did.

Like last time, Iroha's Soul Gem is pristine clean now.

Back to the twins, thanks to the floating water falling they realize that the Rumor's been defeated , then start panicking.

"Someone", whose voice we're already familiar with, comes in to check on the situation and the twins apologize for their failure.

Whelp, this is awkward. Hello there, Mifuyu. So you joined a cult.

Tsuruno gets really emotional. She runs up and hugs Mifuyu. who stops the Black Feathers from attacking her. Tsuruno's really glad that she's back and says they'll have to make a "Welcome Back Party" at her family's restaurant, but Mifuyu says she's not going back, because she's part of the cult The Wings of the Magius now. (couldn't they choose a shorter name for their group? Geez)

Mifuyu shifts her attention to Yachiyo and says she's happy that they went even to Seance Shrine to search for her; Yachiyo says it's thanks to the Kamihama Rumor Files (the notebook Yachiyo carries around) that she left behind.

Yachiyo asks but Mifuyu implies she's the one that was left behind.

Mifuyu invites Yachiyo to join the cult but Yachiyo, obviously, can't agree with their methods. She questions if Mifuyu hadn't resolved herself as a magical girl but Mifuyu, like we saw in the flashback, really wants to be saved. Yachiyo's the only one who's strong like that.

Yachiyo says she'll stop her by force if she has to and they prepare to battle again, but Mifuyu uses her magic and has her group leave.

Iroha's group leave the underground waterway (seems Kyoko has gone her way already too). Felicia tries to leave too and says she has nowhere to go back to when Iroha stops her and asks, so Iroha tells her to come over to her place.

Felicia says she doesn't have to do that for her, but Iroha says she's doing this for herself, that she needs Felicia's strenght. Felicia argues that Iroha will get in trouble again if she's around and all the girls chip in saying they'll help her learn to hold herself back. (I'm not sure what this far framing is doing but I do like how it lets us see the body expression of all the girls at once.)

Huh, weird, why is the screen so blurry? I can't type like this...

Iroha apologizes for what they said and insists on having Felicia over, even if just for the day. Yachiyo comes in and tells them to stay over at her place instead.

*sobs* so beautiful ;-; I wish I knew the name of the ost track here it's really pretty too.

It really is Kyoko, it really is.

At Yachiyo's place, Iroha's on the phone with her parents while the others wait for her to eat. It seems like her parents finally decided on where she's going to be moving to, and whatever they said was a surprise.

There goes the last number! The Rumor's gone so this has to be purely for the sake of finishing the countdown, but I have long given up on trying to find the ones I'm missing in this episode.

And there's the title card. Don't leave the episode yet, though, as there's still an after credits scene.

To absolutely no one's surprise besides Iroha's, the place her parents decided on is Mikadzuki Villa, Yachiyo's place. Now, I did say that last number must be purely illustrative, but I'm inclined to agree with Iroha here on it being thanks to the Lucky Owl Water since there is no other way I can rationalize Iroha's parents, from overseas, managing to find the phone number of Mikadzuki Villa, that's not even doing boarding anymore, calling while Yachiyo's around to respond, making an agreement to let Iroha live there, and Yachiyo not even telling Iroha her parents called. So yeah, I say it was the Lucky Owl Water.

Felicia comes with Tsuruno and reveals she's also been living in Yachiyo's place. She's happy she'll be freed from living alone with Yachiyo and her "nagging" and Yachiyo tells her to clean up; Iroha says she's glad to see them getting along.

“When did I turn into a mom?“

That's a new type of bishie sparkles alright. Can all models do this? Is it like some special ability like Gabs' censor light rays? We'll never know.

After the various types of ad, now we have spam too. Magia Record is actually warning us about the dangers of the internet.

...In all seriousness though, that's some mysterious text. How do they, whoever "they" are, know that Iroha's a magical girl? And most of all, how do they have her number? Guess this is going to be the mystery for the next episode. (Also, I never noticed this before but you can hear a veeeery quiet chime when the messages come in. Nice detail!).

- x -

Aaaand with that, we have concluded episode 7! This one also ran on longer than I expected and, surprisingly, managed to surpass the number of screenshots of all others at about 43 images. sugoi

I couldn't catch all the numbers this time, but the ones I did were: 13-12 with Iroha on the bridge; 10-9 when Kyoko "betrays" the WoM; 7-6 when Iroha finds the Rumor; 6 through 1 happen while Iroha's fighting the Rumor and the last 1-0 was in Yachiyo's magazine. With that, I'm missing 12-11; 11-10; 9-8 and 8-7, which I have no idea where they are. Oh well.

I realized partway through that it kinda seems like I'm dissing Iroha every chance I get, but I assure you I don't hate her. In fact, she's my favorite character! This is coming purely from a place of affection, and a bit of frustration at what the anime did to her character, so don't mind me, it's aaall good.

With that out of the way, this was episode 7! We are now over halfway through, with a buckload of mysteries and barely any progress being made towards finding Iroha's younger sister. Poor Ui, if you even existed. Tomorrow, we'll be watching episode 8, so I hope you'll read me again then. Have a great morning/afternoon/evening and see you later!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 6

part 5 here

Hello everyone, welcome back! Today, we will be watching episode 6. Last time, some really weird (well, weirder than normal), pre-established rule breaking things happened to some of our girls. How come? Is Kaede going to be alright? Will Yachiyo fill Iroha in on what happened? We'll have to watch to find out.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 6

We open this episode with a, uhhh... alluring...? Witch show. A group of unknown magical girls is hunting this witch. Seeing the amount of familiars, the girls in front decide to revise their plan, but the girl called Felicia just barges right in, forcing her team to follow after her.

Seems this girl has a real beef with witches.

Hey, Tsuruno's now in the opening!

Rather than continuing the scene before the opening, we are now back to Iroha, who stayed over at Yachiyo's place after the events from the previous episode.

The two eat breakfast, and we learn that Yachiyo's place used to be a bording house. That explains why it's so big.

Iroha thanks Yachiyo for cleaning her Soul Gem, to which Yachiyo is like "?" for a moment before connecting the dots. As it stands, it seems like Iroha doesn't know what happened and Yachiyo's not telling her either. On the one hand, that seems like a bad idea, on the other, well, we saw Kaede's reaction.

Yachiyo changes subject to Iroha's plans for today.

...thanks, Takarazaki Milk, for reminding us where Iroha's from.

Iroha's going to be investigating Kamihama some more, so Yachiyo advises her to keep being a magical girl a secret as best as she can, particularly if she's going east beyond Chuo Ward. Wonder why the direction matters.

...not really important, but I'm bothered I can't remember what this place is.

Iroha takes a walk around Sankyo Ward looking for Ui, finally arriving at a weeeird part of town.

Other than telling her not to walk around at night, maybe Yachiyo should've told her not to enter places that seem out of a horror movie. Also, maybe Iroha's just so used to witch Labyrinths this doesn't even register as bizarre to her anymore. (It's probably just Shaft being Shaft).

This... really is almost a Labyrinth, isn't it.

This couldn't get more suspicious if it tried. It might as well have someone screaming "scam!".

Iroha is offered a bottle and hesitates to accept until she sees

the kid berserker from before drinking it.

Still, I get Felicia, but did your parents not teach you not to accept things from strangers, Iroha?

But well, for the moment, the water itself seems to be fine, other than it being drugs. No way this'll blow up on their faces or anything.

In any case, Iroha goes back to her wandering. It seems she's in Kosho Ward right now.

Now, not only did Iroha accept things from strangers, she also did the one thing Yachiyo warned her about: she got outed as a magical girl.

Good thing the Soul Gem rings work as name tags too. It's written "Felicia".

Iroha's now being extorted by a 13 y.o.

Not that she's that much older, but still.

Thankfully(?) she's saved by a witch appearing.

This witch seems a bit like the one on the start of the episode. Felicia, of course, doesn't even need Iroha's help, she just wrecks everything with her big ol' hammer. Rather, it's more dangerous for Iroha herself to be there lol

Look at that cute smile.

Felicia goes right back to extorting... I mean, asking Iroha for payment. Iroha makes the fair point that she didn't ask for her help, but Felicia makes the even fairer point that a weakling like her would be dead if she hadn't, so Iroha finds herself with no choice but to pay up... in ice cream. Seems her allowance's running dry from coming to Kamihama every day.

The two go for some ice cream and start bonding. This girl is Felicia Mitsuki, and she makes a living as a mercenary who takes on jobs from other magical girls.

While Iroha's out doing ill-advised things and making new friends, Yachiyo's dropping by the Coordinator's and happens to overhear the team who had hired Felicia before, and...

Oh my god Mitama what have you done this time. This is blasphemy towards food, you know.

Alas, a wanted sign is kinda too much for a simple warning, don't you think?

Seems like Felicia's (un)famous for her berserker tendencies.

Yachiyo came here to hear some new information about the rumors, but first she has to deal with a new guest.

Ohhh talking about food, look who's here. It's Kyoko!

Apparently, Kyoko came here due to the decrease in witches in the surrounding regions. She expected she'd get into trouble hunting witches in another magical girl's territory, but Yachiyo says it's fine as long as she doesn't pick a fight with anybody. She's let down by how easy it was but says she'll just do whatever then. While she's at it, she also pokes at the same thing Mami said about someone gathering witches, but Yachiyo shoots her down right away. Did Kyoko hear something from Mami or did Kyuubei tell her this?

Back to Iroha and Felicia, the two are still on their lucky strike. Hey, seems the Lucky Owl Water wasn't a scam after all!

The two just keep on winning and winning (also who let kids into casino) and as expected Iroha's starting to get suspicious about their unnatural luck.

"I still got a dupe"

After winning amounts of money that would probably make broke college student Yachiyo jealous, the two go out to have lunch.

Felicia compliments Iroha's guts to enter the east like that, and Iroha takes the opportunity to ask her if she knows her sister. (not related but the way the table is set gives a great sense of the difference in age and tastes between these two. Iroha's a simple and responsible girl, so her food is only japanese cuisine and problably only as much as she can eat, while Felicia is a kid who probably never had this amount of money, so it looks like she just went ahead and ordered everything she wanted to eat.)

Felicia offers making an exclusive contract with Iroha, and Iroha asks why is Felicia even a mercenary at all. Felicia says if she doesn't work she can't eat, so Iroha asks where are her parents, to which Felicia responds, well...

They're dead. They were killed by a witch. That explains why Felicia's got a thing with witches.

As if she had guessed the uncomfortable atmosphere, Yachiyo calls. Iroha glances hesitatingly a moment at Felicia before answering. Seems Yachiyo has information about a new rumor.

...wait, isn't Lucky Owl Water the thing Felicia and Iroha drank just earlier? So it was a scam after all!

Perfect fashion sense there, Tsuruno.

Iroha and Felicia go meet up with Tsuruno and Yachiyo. Tsuruno knows who Felicia is, and Felicia knows who Yachiyo is, but has no idea about Tsuruno. While Tsuruno protests this, Yachiyo scolds Iroha for failing her one job, and warns her about Felicia's berserker tendencies.

Yachiyo confirms that Iroha has drank the Lucky Owl Water, and tells her the contents of the rumor about it. So basically, once you drink it, 24 lucky things will happen to you and after these 24 things are over a barrage of bad luck will follow. Yachiyo doesn't know what that "bad luck" actually entails, but she has found that even magical girls have gone missing this time.

Felicia thinks all this is a bunch of nonsense so Yachiyo tells her to just go away then. Felicia does just that, but kind-hearted Iroha stops her from going away by hiring her.

Felicia names her prices and Iroha's about to pay, but Yachiyo tells her to make it something besides money, so Iroha offers making Felicia dinner instead.

Look at her, Felicia really is a nice kid. Not only did she half her price instead of doubling it if it's not a witch, she's totally fine with being paid in food. I mean, there is the fact that she needs to work to eat but... she's not cut out for running a mercenary business.

Still, for the moment, Felicia's not part of the team.

Iroha and co. go back to where Iroha drank the Lucky Owl Water and, although everyone's still blissfully unaware of how bizarre this place is, it seems they now can see the familiars(?) as familiars. Is it that thing? The one where you can only perceive what you are looking for?

Felicia picks a fight with the... uh... Thing, please give us a name anime, and it disappears. Yachiyo chides Felicia for jumping the gun, and the two start fighting.

*Kaos noises*

Tsuruno appropriately cuts in, and Yachiyo theorizes that, just like the previous times, they'll have to find and beat the rumor's true form in order to undo it. Preferably before Iroha and Felicia's luck runs out.

Aaand Kyoko was listening in on them.

Iroha and co. start investigating the rumor. Seems the storyteller from the scenes explaining the contents of the rumors aren't just for show, they actually exist, though the girls hearing the rumor from it don't seem to notice it's not human.

Oh, there. That'd explain why Iroha and Felicia didn't notice the Owl Water the first time... still doesn't excuse them from accepting things from strangers though, lol

...look at Yachiyo's cool composure as she pins down poor Felicia. Brutal.

The girls chase after the storyteller familiar. Now peeps, if you've been paying close attention, you'll notice this episode has been counting down Iroha's and Felicia's luck ever since they drank the Lucky Owl Water. Neat, right? I won't post all of them since 24 is a lot, but did you guys catch it?

Anyways,

while chasing down the familiar, the girls are surrounded by a group of weirdos in hoods. Managing to string together a sentence with their impeccable coordination, they tell our girls they are obstructing the Magius's plans, whoever that is, by chasing the Rumor. It's just for a moment, but the screen flashes that one paper slip that's slapped everywhere there's rumors involved. I'm also pretty sure there's one inside Yachiyo's notebook too.

The group continues their speech and Yachiyo conveniently translates for us: they're saying they'll give them the water everyday, as long as they keep away from the Rumor.

Tsuruno protests that there are magical girls who got caught up in this rumor, but the group continue with their talk of Magius and telling them not to interfere.

I really like the panning in this one shot. You clearly get a sense of how while the older girls, Yachiyo and Tsuruno, know something's up and are willing to bonk the weirdos, Iroha and Felicia are in doubt about what these girls are saying. Their mind spaces are so different separating them just with the shadows wasn't enough: they had to be in different frames altogether.

...I don't think the person who decided on this thought that far, but still.

Anyway, Felicia bites their bait and asks about the "all witches will disappear" part. The weirdos, who know about Felicia, say they'll hire her. The reward? The elimination of all witches.

Too bad Iroha, seems your handmade dinner wasn't an appetizing enough reward.

So! Felicia decided to go with these weirdos, the Wings of the Magius, who say they know a way to get rid of all witches. Well... that'd better be a more efficient method than the one Suzune thought, or else they're not getting anywhere.

Going by what they said, these girls have something to do with the rumors... or rather, Rumors, because that's not confusing at all. They also said something about salvation, so they probably have something to do with the rampant dream-ads that the magical girls outside Kamihama are having. How rude. I wonder how much would you have to pay for one of those?

Jokes aside, with this, we finally have a new lead on the weird things going on in Kamihama. And not only us, either. Kyoko also learnt something about the Rumors. Which brings up the question: where is Mami? She should be investigating Kamihama, but she hasn't shown up since she tried to shoot Iroha. Weird.

Well, the only way to answer the obscene amount of questions this show likes to bring up is by watching, but before I finish this up I'd like to write down the numbers on this episode:

24-23: Felicia's ice cream's package; 23-22: raffle ticket; 22-21: raffle drawing; 21-20: falling coins; 20-19: slot machine's label; 19-18: bet nº; 18-17: fever!; 17-16: Magireco's game currency (lol); 16-15: the table's number; 15-14: the paper one of the familiars is holding; 14-13: formed by the light on the ground.

Nothing lucky happens after that one, so I think these are the ones in this episode. I feel this was the first time in all my rewatches I caught the one on Felicia's ice cream and the one the familiar was holding, so maybe I got some of that luck too, haha.

This ran on longer than I thought it would for Felicia's introduction episode. I'll be releasing you people from this barrage of text now, so I hope I'll still see you next time when we watch episode 7. Have a good morning/afternoon/evening! Bye-bye!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 5

part 4 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to this... thing. Last time, we met Tsuruno, who I forgot to mention is voiced by the TrySail member we hadn't seen yet, Natsukawa Shiina. After meeting Tsuruno, our girls join Yachiyo in investigating the rumor of the Seance Shrine, that they in fact find, and left off with them meeting the people they were looking for. Are those the real deal? Guess we'll have to watch to find out.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 5

Rather than going back to where we left off right away, we are first treated to a flashback to the person Yachiyo asked to meet. 

and of course, that inverted "sayonara" there in the background doesn't mean anything, nope.

Just by this little scene, we can guess that the person Yachiyo's searching for was also interested in the rumors about salvation. Yachiyo, however, doesn't wish to be saved like this person does. So what exactly happened to Yachiyo's friend?

Back to where we left off, Yachiyo and Iroha meet the people they had written the names of. Iroha runs after and hugs Ui, but the situation is quite strange. When Iroha takes a step back, this Ui starts repeating the ad about Kamihama like a broken record (haha, record). It's really unsettling. Iroha realizes this is a fake, looks around, sees the people that had disappeared and when she looks back Ui's fake is gone.

Iroha, that's a pretty concerning color your Soul Gem has right now...

While she's off doing that, Yachiyo confronts the Mifuyu that appeared to her. Hey, this one's actually behaving like a person, at least.

Yachiyo says she can't just believe she's real, so Mifuyu tells her some things that probably only the two of them should know, making Yachiyo have to concede that at least when it comes to memories she's the real deal.

That's kinda mean to say when you're the one who went ahead and disappeared.

Yachiyo questions Mifuyu about why she disappeared and asks her to come back but Mifuyu says she can't leave the shrine because her body has become too used to it. What is this, the underworld?

Mifuyu invites Yachiyo to stay instead, and Yachiyo is... hypnotized by the little pinwheel? I guess, but Iroha snaps her out of it.

Obviously, this Mifuyu was also a fake. Really raises the question on why this one is so life-like when Ui's was a walking ad.

For some reason, Yachiyo can't see the creepiness of the fake. She insists that they have to leave, but the fake Mifuyu refuses to. Seeing that, Yachiyo starts doubting she's the real Mifuyu again.

...really, what is up with that pinwheel? Yachiyo stares into it again and is, uh... cursed? I guess.

Seeing that, Iroha threatens the fake Mifuyu, who decides Iroha's the reason why Yachiyo won't stay so she has to erase her.

Mifuyu jumps around with her chakram hula hoop, boasting about her relation with Yachiyo, before attacking.

Can't really screenshot this but Mifuyu's movements while dodging Iroha's bolts are really nice, she’s like a ballerina.

...also, Iroha, your aim sucks. Though nice job noticing the hoop was also a boomerang.

...well, guess you're the one who has a void to fill in now. (this shot’s so nice)

being meguca is suffering.

Yachiyo defeats the fake Mifuyu with a fair deal of colateral damage to her sanity points. She cleans her Soul Gem with great difficulty, but the amount the Grief Seed she had in hand could clean was not enough. So Iroha comes in and uses her own spare one (which I think is the one she received from Yachiyo in ep1) to finish cleaning it. Yachiyo protests this but Iroha says she can't just abandon her.

When that's done, Tsuruno comes in to join them. Shes says the familiars outside suddenly disappeared, so she got worried and came here.

It seems like since they defeated the fakes, the master of this barrier decided to deal with them itself.

The girls try to put in some damage, but not even op Yachiyo's attacks manage to make a lasting effect. When Tsuruno loses her flames, Yachiyo creates a bullet hell and tells them to find a way out while she distracts the thing, but apparently Iroha's still on the "need to get stronger" mentality and refuses to back out, only to get wrecked.

Uhhhh... That's not very good. Are we losing our protagonist only five episodes in?

...this face is kinda heart-breaking. It's actually honestly impressive that she didn't witch out right then and there considering how unsettling fake Ui was and how her Soul Gem was already impure by then.

Iroha passes out, so Yachiyo carries her and Tsuruno and her make a run for it.

While they do that, Iroha's having some weird near-death experience (...I never died so I can't affirm it's weird). She sinks further and further, getting caught up in bandages and then, when she comes face to face with her own reflection, bandages cover her eyes and that reflection gains a creepy white mask(?).

Suddenly, the bandage materializes irl and we get a Elseve commercial-- I mean, no, Iroha witches-out...? Kinda...? Her hair has spawned a witch.

The animation on Iroha's hair here is really nice.

Hey, nice haircut!

The witch(?) of the Seance Shrine doesn't seem very happy to have a companion though, so it tackles Iroha's witch, which in turn binds it with its bandages and starts pecking.

Who'd win, an elephant lizard or a weird birb doll?

Just... absolutely brutal.

Iroha's witch tears apart the master of this barrier, and the Seance Shrine fades, delivering everyone back to Mizuna Shrine, including the people who had disappeared... and Iroha's witch. Wait, weren't witches supposed to only exist inside Labyrinths...?

Not satisfied with snacking on the rumor's monster, Iroha's witch decides Tsuruno is next on the menu but, before the restaurant girl can become food, a certain veteran comes in with a bang. Literally.

Iroha's witch gets a second hole in her body and spews Iroha out before fading. Then-

wait...

SPEWS IROHA OUT?

That's not how witches work!

Mami thinks that Iroha is a witch pretending to be a human, so she's determined to eliminate her (to be fair, she only saw Iroha with the witch, so...). Yachiyo, however, tells her to step down, and you could almost see the sparks flying between them.

Yachiyo and Tsuruno manage to make Mami give up on shooting Iroha, so Mami changes the subject to what she had heard from Kyuubei.

Yachiyo, I don't think this is the best time to be picking a fight...

Mami confirms that she's aware of what's going on and Yachiyo says it's none of their problem, and she should keep her territory's problems on her own territory. Geez, Yachiyo, calm down. It's not like she tried to shoot one of your friends or- oh.

Yachiyo: “You must be at least this tall to enter Kamihama.“

Mami did say she didn't want to pick a fight with Kamihama's magical girls, so she decides to retreat quietly for the day, but not before leaving some veteran advice for Tsuruno:

Which girl, Mami? Yachiyo or Iroha?

Leaving this cryptic piece of advice, Mami takes off, as well as the chibi Kyuubei, that she conveniently didn't see.

Inside Iroha's mind, she's freed from being a temporary mummy and instead starts having a weird dream.

In the near future, you'll get targeted ads in your dreams.

"I didn't sign up for this."

Iroha can't catch a break.

When she wakes up, Iroha's in an unknown room. She notices that her Soul Gem is completely clean now. Very suspicious.

I may or may not have an absurd amount of screenshots of this place to use as reference for drawing.

Iroha does some exploring and finds Yachiyo, because this is Yachiyo's place. Yachiyo says she carried her there since she was unconscious, and asks if she wants to call her parents, to which Iroha just shakes her head quietly. Of course, Iroha's parents aren't around so there's no real point in her calling them. Convenient in this situation, but kinda sad all around. Yachiyo doesn't pry.

Iroha realizes she must've been there a while and makes to leave immediately but Yachiyo points out it's past the hour public transport works (even in the near future, huh). While Iroha's visibly troubled, Yachiyo suggests she just stay over for the night.

...now Yachiyo I get telling a middle schooler to not walk about this late at night, but isn't that the time most magical girls act? lol

Dunno what this is but it looks good.

While Yachiyo prepares dinner, Iroha asks if there's anything she can help with, but Yachiyo just tells her to go rest some more, which she does.

"I have school tomorrow!" "...oh, it's Saturday." This is so relatable. Even when you're not at school anymore.

I shouldn't be that long since Iroha's parents left, but as expected it must be really lonely being all alone like this, with no friends and only an empty room reminding her of what she lost. Poor Iroha (man, how many more times will I have to write this...).

Sometime later, Yachiyo comes to call Iroha for dinner, but...

Yachiyo repeats her phrase from the begging of this episode, but with more parts now.

Yachiyo had told Iroha just the episode before that Iroha was held down by her past but, as it turns out, Yachiyo is even more so. These two's suffering is actually very alike: Both lost someone that meant the world to them, and now are searching for their lost parts while bearing their loneliness.

It's a short scene, but it's quietly one of the best ones until now in my opinion. It's beautiful, and does a great job in starting to touch upon Yachiyo's true nature. Even the kinda on-the-nose shot of her being "trapped" by the window is good. 10/10 on this one.

Oh, also, if I had to give one difference between Yachiyo and Iroha in this context, it'd be that while Iroha is adamant that her sister existed and that she'll find her somehow, Yachiyo's way of talking about Mifuyu don't sound like she thinks they'll meet again sometime, despite her searching for her. From my point of view, there are two reasons for this: one is that Iroha might just break if she ever stops believing. Could you imagine? Realizing the sister you've traded your soul for, your only friend and most important thing, never actually existed. That's a one-way ticket to despair if I ever saw one. The other one is that Yachiyo, like fake Mifuyu touched briefly on, has been a magical girl for years now. Whether she knows the truth or not, it's easy to imagine that the longer you live as one the more aware you are of how easy it's to die in this path. If Yachiyo has seen a lot of other magical girls fall around her in all those years, it's quite possible a part of her believes Mifuyu is missing because she's dead. Which is... very tragic.

Well, anyways...

"There's no place for you here."

It's particularly ironic to have this title card show up just after a scene where Iroha's sleeping on Mifuyu's room.

Also, DON'T LEAVE YET.

I did it again, I forgot there were after-credit scenes, again!

Somewhere else, Momoko's team was getting their butt handed to them by a witch and Kaede, the only one left standing, despairs and does the same thing Iroha did.

Kaede, however, doesn't get the benefit of being knocked out like Iroha, so she very understandably freaks out.

"Could I be a witch?" I mean, technically...

One thing Kaede has got right, though: This is definitely not normal.

When magical girls witch out, their Soul Gems are supposed to turn into Grief Seeds, but here not only Iroha and Kaede's Soul Gems were perfectly fine, they were even purified for them. I vaguely remember Sayaka summoning Octavia in Rebellion, but I don't think this is it either. Well, it's a good thing for the girls so not that I'm complaining but what the heck is going on here?

...of course, I already know the answer to this, but making you curious is my job :v

With all of that said (and put all in that this was looong), I hope to see you guys tomorrow as we watch episode 6 and try to put together the pieces of the many puzzles Magia Record has given us. See you next time!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 4

part 3 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to our... I don't know how to call this really, I'm more narrating what's happening in the screen than anything, but in any case today we are continuing what we have been doing these last few days.

Last time, we had an episode focused on the Momoko trio, got handed even more mysteries and had a brief cameo of our favorite drill-haired mahou shoujo. So what will this episode have in stock for us? Only one way to find out! (these introductions are getting cornier and cornier, I'm running out of ideas here.)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record S1 episode 4

Today, Iroha's visiting a chinese food restaurant on Mitama's recomendation. Well, I suppose even magical girls have to eat sometime.

But before that, let's wind back a little bit.

After the op, we get a little monologue from Iroha about "friends". It's probably obvious by now that she's not the biggest social butterfly out there, but this scene basically tells us that Iroha had no friends besides her missing sister, which just makes this even more sad, honestly. The solitary atmosphere of the first episode was no coincidence.

While dropping by Mitama's, Iroha hears from Momoko the aftermath of the fight with the Chain Witch from last episode. Momoko says everyone who had disappeared had come back safely, and says that might've not been a witch, but something lurking behind the rumor. The trio brings up some other weird rumors while Mitama desecrates a perfectly good cheesecake.

“Mitama-san, why“

Iroha asks if there's some rumor where people went missing and Momoko guesses correctly that she's wondering if her sister didn't get caught up in one of those. Sadly, they don't know any other rumor where people went missing besides the Staircase of Severance.

Oh my god Mitama is eating that thing, looks like the Coordinator's will be closed for a while.

The girls try to brainstorm some ways to look for Iroha's sister but, well...

Like this, Iroha just looks like some weird girl who insists her imaginary younger sister is real... which she might be, I wouldn't put that possibility past this series, but for now we are assuming her sister actually existed.

Iroha pokes in and says she'll do it herself, since she has no idea where to start investigating now and it'll probably turn into a long search anyway. Momoko's not very convinced. Mitama then hands Iroha Banbanzai's flyer and now we are back to the present.

In Banbanzai we meet Tsuruno Yui, Kamihama's (self-proclaimed) Strongest Magical Girl. The size of the dishes are also the strongest. One has to wonder how does Tsuruno explain to her father the "magical girl discount" she has going on.

Iroha eats a bit under the expectant eyes of Tsuruno and, when pressured for a rating she says...

50/100, or 2.5/5 when going by the occidental style rating. Tsuruno's shock here is impressive considering that's Banbanzai's usual rating no matter what it puts out. Hey, consistency is good!

After eating, Iroha apologizes for giving such a low rating despite getting free food, but Tsuruno explains basically what I wrote. Yes, Iroha, you guessed right.

Tsuruno apologizes for not having any hints in regards to her sister and, after getting Iroha to call her by her first name, says she'll try to introduce her to someone that might help her with investigating the strange rumors. Tsuruno is hesitant on the phone at first but quickly gets excited as the person on the other side of the line agrees to meet them right away. And the person they go meet is...

Yachiyo, obviously. She's like "I have no time for this" at first, but is stopped by a crying Tsuruno and ends up telling them about the rumor she's investigating.

The rumor Yachiyo's investigating right now is about the Seance Shrine. Basically, there's a rumor saying that if you visit a certain shrine, write the name of who you want to see on a ema and pray properly, you will meet that person. However, you'll be so happy you'll become unable to leave.

Yachiyo says while investigating she found some posts of people saying they actually met who they wanted to meet who disappeared afterwards. Tsuruno wonders if anyone has been declared missing and Yachiyo points out that even if there was, no one would think to attribute a missing person to a rumor.

Tsuruno has a eureka moment and asks if the Seance Shrine is Mizuna Shrine, but Yachiyo says she already tried and nothing happened... wait, hey Yachiyo,  that's dangerous, what if it really was the right one? lol

Yachiyo says she already had low hopes, but if somewhere with so many visitors as Mizuna Shrine was the Seance Shrine, it would already be all over the news with the amount of people that would go missing... which is a very fair point.

So the girls have no choice but to go around and look for a less known shrine. For better or worse, there are a lot of them in Mizuna.

In one of them, Tsuruno finds a stamp rally going on in Mizuna Ward, and asks if that couldn't be a tip in regards to the rumor. Iroha's skeptical at first, but Yachiyo says they might as well do it, since it's better than looking around blindly.

While they walk around, Yachiyo tells Iroha the legend of the star-crossed lovers that was cited in the stamp rally paper. It's the tale of how two lovers of different social standings were separated by death (well, assassination), and then reunited after countless prayers from the princess. Iroha says that it's a lovely story, but Yachiyo doesn't seem to think the same.

Yachiyo then tells Iroha the hidden, true ending of the history, where the princess sacrifices all of the people of the town to their god in order to meet her beloved again.

and magical girls should know that better than anyone else.

A bit later, Tsuruno says doing this almost makes it feel like the old times, but Yachiyo just ignores her. Iroha asks if they've been close for a long time and Yachiyo says they used to be, but they're not anymore. Seeing from Tsuruno's behaviour, though, that's gotta be because of Yachiyo herself.

Iroha comments that even if it was a past relation, she's still jealous, since she's never had any friends besides Ui. Ui was everything to her, so now that she's gone, Iroha feels empty... it's a bit concerning that she feels like that when you consider her sister was ill enough that Iroha had to cure her with a wish. What would have happened had she not become a magical girl?

Yachiyo says, but this isn't the past to Iroha. She firmly believes that Ui must be out there somewhere, so she wants to find her as fast as possible. Yachiyo then tells her that if that's the case, she shouldn't be tied down by her past, she should become stronger, for her sister's sake.

Like that, they finally reach the Seance Shrine...

not. They end up back at Mizuna Shrine, which Yachiyo had already discarded as a possibility due to the number of people that would've gone missing if that had been the case. Yachiyo had thought that there had to be a connection between the rumor and the legend, so maybe they missed a hint somewhere. The trio doubles back for the day.

However, as they head back, something crucial dawns on Yachiyo:

She's a broke college student and today was 10xPoints Day.

Yachiyo gets Tsuruno and Iroha to help her and goes grocery shopping. Yachiyo tells Iroha about the points benefit, but Iroha has no idea what she's talking about, so Yachiyo says she's still a kid... yeah, but I think it would be weirder if a middle schooler knew about this stuff.

Being a magical girl sure is suffering. You get kidnapped from trains and buses, and can't even catch a sale without getting a witch as a freebie. There is no rest.

Here! I can finally comment that it creeps me out the fact that Iroha sleeps with a plushie of this thing. I know it's in this series' style to have weird things going on in the background, but still...

The fight starts and- Iroha why the heck are you going to the front what is that crossbow even for. Yachiyo tells Iroha to stay behind her, but Iroha's holding the idiot ball right now... partly because Yachiyo told her to get stronger, but still. Iroha shoots a few times at the witch, trips, misses espetacularly and almost becomes witch food. Great job, Iroha.

Now, while Iroha's hesitating about what to do, in comes Tsuruno.

Maybe not the best time to be striking poses, Tsuruno.

Iroha screws up once again and sends Tsuruno flying but, as expected of the (self-proclaimed) Mightiest, she still makes short work of the witch (also probably because we're running out of time for this episode).

I'm guessing Iroha's magic in combinations just makes the other person's magic stronger. Kinda lame when you think about the previous two examples, but I guess that's standard for light magic in games... it's already weird enough that their magic has attributes at all but, oh well, game logic.

In the end, poor Yachiyo missed the sale. However, thanks to not being blinded by shiny discounts, she realized something important they were forgetting about the rumor.

Sure enough, just like Yachiyo said, Seance Shrine really was Mizuna Shrine at night. When they walk in...

The extremely suspicious chibi Kyuubei appears. I was going to say it that it only appears in rumors, but the first time it appeared was in a witch Labyrinth, so that's not it either... wait, wasn't it singing a song about rumors the first time Iroha met it? Hmmm...

In any case, the group heads further in, and the rumor very kindly gives them some plaques. Yachiyo tells Tsuruno not to write anything, since they don't know what'll happen and they'd both write the same name anyway.

The plaques turn into something like familiars as soon as they finish writing, and Tsuruno is held back for not writing anything. Iroha hesitates a second with Tsuruno being attacked, but obeys when Tsuruno tells her to go ahead and take care of Yachiyo... I, uh... have a feeling the opposite scenario is more likely, though.

Yachiyo and Iroha go ahead and offer their prayers. Then, when Iroha opens her eyes...

they are at a different place, and what both of them see is...

The people they longed to meet.

Iroha's time has begun to move again.

---- x ----

Aaaand that was episode 4. This time, I wasn't dumb and actually checked the episode was over before starting to write the closing part.

This is probably true of the previous episodes too, but I particularly like how the colors are used in this one. The tale part had not really the same sepia tone of historical things, but more of a celestial yellow tone, and the part at the witch labyrinth in the supermarket has a cute candy-like tone to it. It's not the same subdued kind of realistic thing like in, say, SSSS.Gridman, but there are some good, calm parts in here.

During the rally, when Iroha was telling Yachiyo about not having anything besides Ui, the procession they were walking in the middle of is a reference to Kitsune no Yomeiri I think, but I couldn't really connect the situation or what they were talking about to the tale so I decided to not point it out up there. Do feel free to search about it and draw your own conclusions.

I forgot what else I wanted to say, so I guess I should tie this up now. Did you know? Writing the introduction and close-up is actually harder than writing about the episode itself so you'll have to forgive me for not being able to think up anything besides "see you next time". In fact...

See you next time, on episode 5!

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 3

part 2 here

Hello everyone and welcome back to our watch-through of the first season of Magia Record! Last time, we met a trio of Kamihama magical girls, Momoko, Rena and Kaede, and, after Rena and Kaede fighting, Kaede is kidnapped by the “chain monster”, a part of the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. Now, it’s up to Iroha, Momoko and Rena to find and take her back. Will they succeed, or will someone lose their heads? The only way to know is by watching, so let’s get right to it.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record Episode 3

Rather than going back to the plot right away, we are given a flashback of Iroha’s younger sister and two other girls. The brown haired girl has apparently created an eternal motion machine in the form of a toy train, saying something about how adults must be stupid if they never thought of that before, and that toy train proceeds to crash into a pile of books and set fire on them. Good job. 

I don’t want to hear this from a gacha game character. Your original work is even more fragile than this!

The megane girl, Nemu, compares the brown haired girl, Touka’s actions to the burning of the Library of Alexandria (dramatic much?) and the two start fighting, with Ui trying to stop them. They’re just like Momoko’s trio on the previous episode, breaking their friendship up and everything.

Once again, it was Iroha’s dream. You know the erasure really went in on it when even the rug is cut in half.

Iroha’s sister had friends at the hospital, so she could get some new clues if only she could find them.

Floof Momoko.

Before going looking for Kaede, Momoko and co. drop by Kamihama Mirena-za, aka. the Coordinator’s. I tried searching if Milena constellation was actually a thing, but the only thing I could find was that there’s a Galileo satellite named Milena. Huh.

The Coordinator had a client, but she’s done right away. We learn that the Coordinator’s name is Mitama Yakumo, but still have no idea what she actually does.

Besides not having a sense of personal space.

Momoko explains that Iroha’s not there to get adjusted, whatever that means, and asks if Yachiyo is there yet. Who’s this Yachiyo though?

Aaawkward.

To no one’s surprise, I guess, since I already said it, but this girl is Yachiyo. And she absolutely ignores Iroha. Rude.

Yachiyo and Momoko start talking between themselves about Kaede’s case. (and MItama’s fixing Momoko’s hair. Cute). It seems Yachiyo is well aware of the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. She pulls out a notebook, and Momoko notes that she’s knowledgeable about these things.

Momoko asks Yachiyo to lend them her help, and Yachiyo agrees to do it, since Kaede is in danger, but adds that she won’t work with people who will only be a burden, looking at Iroha.

...not that she’s wrong, but still rude.

Well, I mean, that might make sense when you’re so op, but you don’t have to say it outright!

Still, Yachiyo has a point: it’d be too dangerous to bring along a weak magical girl to a fight with an unknown enemy. So Mitama offers a solution: why don’t they just adjust Iroha’s Soul Gem?

Mitama does a very short explanation of what “adjusting a Soul Gem” actually entails, and this one short screen tells us the rest. It’s basically what let Momoko and Rena do that joint attack earlier. I wonder if this was even long enough on the screen for the people who watched this on tv to read it. 

Momoko says that Yachiyo should have no complaints as long as they do that and Yachiyo is like “yeah, whatever”.

...now that I think about it, what is Mitama doing here?

Continue? Iroha hasn’t sacrificed anyone tho.

...oh, I forgot we don’t get to see Iroha getting adjusted.

So, our girls are now at the rumored stairs at Kamihama University Affiliated School. Leaving aside Momoko and Rena, since they are students there, one has to wonder how exactly did Iroha and Yachiyo manage to get up there without being found. This school’s security is lacking!

While the girls run up to the rumored Staircase of Severance (this is so annoying to write) we see some messages on screen of what I assume are Rena’s classmates, and get pushed some ideas of what friends should be like, all while Momoko tries to cheer Rena up.

Okay, that’s a really narrow staircase. Who decided to put this creepy thing here?

Momoko writes her and Yachiyo’s name on the staircase (and we sneakily learn Yachiyo’s surname is Nanami). The two are reenacting the rumor, so now they’ll make up to draw the Chain Witch out. That is, after they give us their transformation scenes!

While Yachiyo’s themes are water and stars(?), and she has gracious movements, Momoko’s literally burning up and kicking things. Their transformations parallel one another, and yet they are completely opposites. I love it! (but Momoko kicking the sword still takes the cake for me).

Now that I think about it, for all that fire theme she has going, Momoko's not that hot-blooded. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, I guess.

Rena’s transformation focuses on her shapeshifting powers, throwing her through mirrors and with lots of expression changes. It’s not because she’s tsundere, the transformation seems to tell us Rena has lots of faces.

...I also like her DDR routine right at the start, it’s cute.

The theme of Iroha’s transformation is birbs. Rather than telling us something about who she is like the others, I see hers as basically about what she’s doing right now: much like she did by coming to Kamihama, Iroha takes the courage and jumps into the unknown, chasing after a mirage.

I’m always a little bothered with how she falls straight down despite taking impulse when she jumps, but hey, what can you do lol

One of the (many) cool things about this whole sequence is how the bgm is continuous throughout the transformations, only changing a bit to match each of the girls.

That’s not very convincing acting, Momoko. Yachiyo’s is not much better, either. They theorize it only works if they’re really fighting, and Rena says she’ll do it.

Rena starts apologizing, but nothing happens. Iroha says it might be because she’s not saying it from her heart and Rena’s gets upset.

Rena can’t just feel like making up right away, but it’s not like she doesn’t want Kaede to come back. These two seem to have a complicated relationship, but in the end, it’s clear that Rena does like her. Rena starts crying and apologizes for making Kaede be friends with someone like her all this time. Then, the Chain Witch appears.

We get a flashback to Rena flashbacking (confusing, I know) about all the times Kaede apologized to her, while watching an idol show.

Don’t we all?

So, yeah… Rena is a complicated character. (and a Sayuki stan)

Iroha wakes up in Rena’s room for some reason. Clearly-not-Momoko starts a monologue of how no one could ever like Rena.

Rena hates herself, so she wanted to change. She wanted to become someone else, so her wish gave her shapeshifting powers, but didn’t change her, so she still hates herself (considering the implications when this type of wish does work, see Oriko’s Kirika, she might have gotten the better end of the deal.

Kaede calls out to Rena and Iroha and Rena break out of the strange television-exposition-vision-thingy. So the first thing they start doing, naturally, is start bickering again. Great friends! 

Oh look, the weird Kyuubei is back! Like the nice mascot character he is, he’s showing Iroha the way to the main Witch.

Rena and Kaede start to have a heart-to-heart while fighting (the familiars now, not each other).

Familiar: hahaha, that tickles

Rena says their friendship is over once they get out of there, since they were never real friends to begin with, but Kaede doesn’t want that. Kaede says that if Rena’s problem is that she never apologizes, she just did earlier and Rena says that didn’t count, so Kaede replies that then they breaking up doesn’t count either. Nice, Kaede!

Kaede basically says that, yeah, Rena can be terrible, but she likes her that way anyway, so they can continue being friends.

Rena says that Kaede needs to listen to her, she needs to let her apologize too and tells her she’ll do it once they get out.

While they’re doing that, Yachiyo and Momoko climb to the top and knock down the witches’ main body. Momoko then calls for Kaede and Rena to finish it off. Nice VFX there btw.

Rena and Kaede join hands and using both their magic they pinball the witch into the air with Rena's mirrors. Rena launches plant-enchanted copy spears at it and the witch bursts into leaves and dries... Kaede's magic is kind of scary like this.

Oh, how adorable. Aaaand he's gone. 

The witch is defeated and Rena now has to make good on her promise to apologize. But, seems like honestly apologizing is still too much of a hurdle for her so after some struggle she swerves to another thing. Thankfully, Kaede knows Rena well enough and she's fine with this.

Look at them, so precious.

While Momoko and Iroha catch their breath, Yachiyo approaches them and informs them the Witch didn't drop a Grief Seed. In fact, she says that might've not even been a Witch at all. Yachiyo points out it's weird to have a Witch that comes out anywhere whenever the conditions of a rumor are met, in particular since they didn't even feel it's magic beforehand. She warns them that something weird is going on in Kamihama, then leaves in the most dramatic way possible.

Sometime later, our group is back at Satomi Medical Center. Seems Rena has given in and decided to help after all.

Going by the original plan, Rena transformed into a nurse and investigated the hospital. It's pretty cool how her voice is slightly distorted in this little sequence with her undoing her transformation.

No one in the hospital remembered Iroha's sister, but they did remember Touka and Nemu. That means Iroha's memories aren't entirely wrong.

With that, Iroha goes back to Takarazaki for the day, with some new friends and a very small but important step closer to finding her beloved younger sister.

"Sorry for making you my friend."

That's it folks, this was the third episode of Magia Record('s first season)! No one lost their heads... well except that not-witch if we count the bell as it's head, but I think that's just fine for this series, because--

OH WAIT THERE'S MORE

Talking about lost heads, look who's here! I totally forgot this episode had a stinger. My bad.

Kyuubei can't enter Kamihama now for some reason, so he needed someone to investigate the cause for him and contacted Mami as a strong veteran Magical Girl. There are rumors about that someone in Kamihama is gathering all the Witches around to monopolize Grief Seeds, which would explain why the city is infested with them and they being stronger than normal. Mami says she doesn't want trouble with the Magical Girls of another territory, but will investigate whether the current events are due to a Witch or Magical Girl. I like the short cut that shows her from beneath the grating, it's neat. Just have no idea what it's supposed to mean.

!--rant incoming--! (I say, as if this whole post isn't one)

Anyways, like I was saying... writing? Before the stinger disrupted my thoughts, I think it's just fine that Magia Record's ep3 doesn't have any big twists like Madoka. The original had that maybe for the shock factor, yes, but also because it needed it to make clear what kind of story they were actually going for, and that worked great for that show and the time when it came out. But Magia Record is more of a mystery. We don't need it to push the point of magical girl suffering because the original already did that, we need it to give us things to puzzle about, and that it already did with the weird witch of this episode. Could it have made that better? Maybe, but Magia Record also has the problem that it's cast is significantly bigger, so they have to fit those introductions somewhere. So while it introduces Momoko's trio and a bit Yachiyo, it also tries it's best to situate us (and Iroha by extension) as to how Kamihama's magical girl's world is like and what's going on there. It's a lot to juggle and the anime doesn't get the benefit like the game of being able to just put the character's backstory on a separate chapter. I really like character focused things, so I don't mind the anime trying to fit as much as it can in, but I can see how that might turn other people off. That's one of the things that's really a matter of taste I guess.

!--ok, you can come back now--!

One of the visual things I really like in this episode is the effect with the floating kana and kanji on the Labyrinth. I wonder how that was done. It's animated, so I don't think it's part of the background, but then I'm also not sure at which stage of production that'd be put in. It's really neat.

Well, with this, we are done with episode 3 of Magia Record! What will we do next? Who knows! It doesn't seem like Iroha noticed it, but just knowing that Touka and Nemu existed, not even getting their surnames, does not give her any new clues to go with. She barely started and already is at a dead-end, poor girl.

Before jumping off the building, Yachiyo also added another question to our already filled question bucket: what was up with that weird witch? What is this strange thing that is going on in Kamihama? Why are you looking like that at Momoko's team?

As viewers, however, there is only one way of answering all this: by watching. So I'll be looking forward to having you guys join me tomorrow for episode 4! Have a good morning/afternoon/evening!

PS.: The last two episodes had about 30 screenshots, this one has about 40, at this rate by the time I get to episode 13 I'll be taking screenshots of the whole episode...

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 2

part 1 here

I had no idea it’d turn into a run-on text when I posted the last one, am now regretting several life choices.

Hello everyone and welcome to the second post of this series where we watch Magia Record together! (Hopefully)

Last time our cute protagonist was kidnapped by a witch and taken to a mysterious city called Kamihama, only to be saved by a singing chibi Kyuubei, getting kicked out by a blue haired op magical girl, and remembering that her long forgotten wish was to cure her missing sister’s illness. You know, happens everyday.

So then, where is Iroha’s younger sister Ui? What is going on in Kamihama? What’s up with those full-body tights? Guess we’ll have to watch to find out! (There is no answer to the last one.)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record Episode 2

So we kick this episode off with what seems to be a flashback of Iroha visiting her younger sister in the hospital.

The smile that was not protected.

They do some sister bonding and we are now back to the scene of Iroha making her wish, just a little trippier this time.

Iroha’s covered by some white sheets and…

Of course, it was all a dream. Yes, we’d like to know that, too, Iroha. I like how the camera moves back to show the empty part of her room, emphasizing how her sister’s completely gone.

And cut to the op. Talking about nice shots, this one’s my favorite in the opening:

Later, Iroha is telling Kyuubei about her wish. Today, she just bought her lunch instead of making it. Did you oversleep?

Regardless, Kyuubei does not know her sister. He asks if Ui really existed. According to him, it would take something like a magical girl’s wish to erase someone’s existence completely like that, so he suggests it’s more likely that someone implanted false memories in her. Iroha, however, believes those memories are real, and plans to visit the hospital she saw in her dreams in search for clues.

So Iroha is now going to Kamihama. She tried to get in contact with Kuroe but couldn’t reach her. Considering how determined Kuroe was to go to Kamihama though, she might be there already.

Iroha asks Kyuubei about the chibi Kyuubei from earlier, but Kyuubei doesn’t know anything about it. Rather, he says something like that shouldn’t exist.

This bus has ads. And Iroha really does like kids a lot, doesn’t she.

Alas, it seems you can’t even ride a bus in peace in this town. Before she can arrive at the hospital, Iroha gets caught up in yet another witch’s barrier.

Hello, Witch Delivery Service. How can I curse you today?

Once again, she’s not alone in the Labyrinth. There’s another girl getting her butt kicked having a hard time with Kamihama’s witches.

The new girl knows she can’t win, so she’s all in on running away, but Iroha can’t just leave the passengers to become witch food. They’re weak though, so as soon as they stop they’re attacked and end up stuck in a web.

:fuyuu～:

When all seems lost, in comes our knight in shining armor, with her weird shaped sword. If it was jagged, you’d think someone took a bite out of that.

This confident, strong-willed magical girl is called Momoko, and she came to help out the girl from earlier. I can’t screenshot this, but it’s cool how the camera slightly shakes as if affected by the wind when it shows her from the front.

Then there’s Rena.

The two join hands and do something like enchanting, I suppose. Borrowing Rena’s water powers, Momoko dives straight into the enemy and clears everything, not like a tidal wave, but literally with one. Iroha is very impressed… and then she gets run over by a ball of fur along with Kaede. gg

Iroha was abducted, this was actually sci-fi all along.

Of course not, though Madoka does happen in the near future.

Iroha wakes up to find herself in an unfamiliar place. Momoko explains to her that they are at the Coordinator’s, some sort of hospital + consultation center for magical girls… Iroha, please don’t repeat “magical girls” as if it doesn’t ring a bell, you are one.

You’re too nice for this world, shame only suffering awaits you.

Rena criticizes her, but Momoko reassures Iroha that’s just Rena’s way of showing concern. Seems about right.

Momoko offers to escort her back to the station, and Iroha asks if there really are that many witches in Kamihama. I’d say yes, considering how we’ve already seen three in only two episodes. They were way more rare in the og.

According to Momoko, it’s just like the blue haired magical girl had told her yesterday: not only there are a lot of them, they are also stronger than normal. However, Momoko says it was not always like that.

Iroha still needs to go to Satomi Medical Center to investigate her sister’s disappearance, so she explains her situation to Momoko’s trio.

:momokoncerned:

Rena’s not keen on believing Iroha’s story, but Momoko can’t leave someone in need, so she decides for her team to help Iroha. Even Iroha’s perplexed.

Rena complains that they already have their own investigation going on, but the other two argue that they haven’t found anything anyway and Rena was the one who least believed the rumor they’re investigating. Iroha just has no idea what’s going on.

It seems Momoko’s trio is chasing down a witch called the chain Witch, but Iroha has never heard about it.

Feeling bad about the trio arguing, Iroha says it’s fine and that she doesn’t want to bother them with searching for her sister too when they already saved her earlier, but Kaede pushes the point of “we’re all magical girls after all”, even when Rena’s clearly unwilling. They then finally properly introduce themselves.

The fiery blonde is Momoko Togame, the red haired druid is Kaede Akino and the blue haired tsundere is Rena Minami. They’re a magical girl team acting in the Shinsei Ward in Kamihama.

The group heads to Satomi Medical Center but, as expected, I guess, they wouldn’t let Iroha in. After all, not only her sister is not hospitalized there right now, as there are no records of her ever being there.

So the obvious choice here is going for some burgers.

Momoko says about Momoko.

She snatches the lunch from Iroha and goes upstairs… then she’s Rena. Guess we can assume Rena’s power is shapeshifting. Iroha is understandably very confused. (poor girl’s been like that ever since she came to Kamihama).

I do want to be spoken, too.

Iroha apologizes for having them accompany her for nothing, and says she’ll find a way to get to Ui’s hospital room. Momoko’s trio seems to have some plan, but Rena refuses to do it. Kaede confirms that Rena can shapeshift.

Momoko and Kaede want Rena to shapeshift into a nurse and infiltrate the hospital, but Rena doesn’t want to take the risk. Kaede and Rena then start fighting. Kaede’s upset that Rena refuses to use her powers for others, while Rena doesn’t want to put herself at risk for a stranger. Rena gets worked up, and ends up saying something bad enough to erase the background stickers.

Yeah, getting caught up in a friend fight is quite awkward isn’t it.

Rena runs her mouth and accidentally says Kaede’s wish is stupid. But magical girl’s wishes are their biggest desires when they make them, so it’s extremely rude to diss one. Kaede starts crying. Rena really screwed up there.

If only the background could talk for you, Rena.

Kaede is so upset she breaks up her friendship with Rena and walks off. Momoko tries to cheer Rena up with a mood-deaf joke, but it backfires and Rena also runs off. It’s nice how the girl’s thoughts they can’t put in words are expressed by the background stickers here. Rena would’ve seemed like a jerk if not.

Iroha and Momoko make their way back to the station. Momoko apologizes for the previous scene and Iroha apologizes for making them fight, but Momoko reassures her that that happens all the time.

Yeah, seems tiresome. From my experience, poking your nose in your friends’ fights more often than not only makes them both turn against you.

Iroha asks Momoko if the Chain Monster she joked about earlier was the same as the Chain Witch, and Momoko tells her about the rumor of the Staircase of Severance. According to the rumor, if you end your friendship with someone and write your names on a certain staircase at the school Momoko and co. attend, the first person to try to make up will be abducted by the chain monster. It would be fine if it was just a rumor, but the people who had their names written in the staircase did in fact disappear, and-

Hands- *cof* I mean, what do you have to do with this?

No, Kaede, don’t do it, it’s not worth it!

After a brief flash of a call to(?) or from(?) Momoko, Iroha meets up with her and Kaede at the station. According to them, Rena has been missing ever since their fight, and I’ve just now noticed the detail on the background showing the train lines. Nice.

The girls search for Rena until late, and finally find her at the arcade. Rena tries to pass herself for someone else, but the keychain doesn’t lie. Rena runs away, turning into a lot of other people, and the girls chase after her. As they do, chains follow their path.

Kaede catches Rena and asks why she’s running away. She says their friendship isn’t over, since Rena didn’t throw away their mascot, so she’ll apologize again if she has to and she won’t let go until Rena forgives her.

So Kaede apologizes to Rena and says they’ll go back to being friends. Rena then starts seeing chains.

The familiar-like things start mocking her. They say Rena wrote their name on the Staircase of Severance, so they won’t let them go back to being friends. Rena’s also the only one who can see them. The chain monsters start saying what should be the reasons why Rena would break up their friendship, which Rena desperately denies. The monsters then take Kaede away.

And that’s it for this episode. The rumor of the Staircase of Severance was true, Kaede was kidnapped and we still have no clue what that flash to the blue haired magical girl when Momoko was talking about the rumor even means. Leaving this episode with more questions than answers, and barely making any progress on Iroha’s investigation, we now get the ending for this season: Alethea, by ClariS.

It’s a beautiful ending, but it’s kind of funny having this when Yachiyo’s name hasn’t even appeared in the anime yet. I actually thought for the longest time that this song was called Alicia since the katakana sounds like that (or I may have misread it), so you can imagine my surprise when I learnt over a year later I was wrong lol

There’s also the little but nice detail that Yachiyo’s holding the umbrella she has when she meets Iroha on the opening.

With that, we are done with episode 2! Will our girls be able to save Fuyuu from the Chain Witch? Will Rena be able to be honest for once? Guess we’ll have to find out next time! Looking forward to having you guys for episode 3, same hour, same Tumblr blog.

(P.S: I went with Staircase of Severance for the name of this rumor since that’s what is being used in these subs, but I think it’s Friendship Ending Staircase somewhere else. Same thing tho)

[shiny-procrastinates]

(re)Watching Magia Record S1 - part 1

Hello and welcome everyone to the first post on this watch-along commentary of the first season of Magia Record! Whether you are just now watching it for the first time, or are re-watching in preparation for the second season, or have only played the game and are curious about the anime (in which case I'd be surprised you even exist) I hope you can have some fun reading these ramblings as I try to put my thoughts into words  (actually turned more into narrating the show) throughout all 12 13 episodes.

Before we can get to it, though, I have a few warnings to give:

1 - As much as I'd love to be able to memory swipe so I can watch this fresh all over again, such an ability is sadly still beyond my grasp. In other words, this isn't my first time watching (or second, for that matter; more like the sixth… or seventh…). That being the case I can't claim that these are my first impressions and it's very likely this commentary will be somewhat biased by my previous knowledge. However, I can guarantee one thing: I will do my best to keep this spoiler-free, so you don't have to worry if this is your first time watching.

(I will, however, be assuming that you have watched the OG series and Rebellion, so beware of that).

2 - Please don't come into this expecting it to be Madoka 2

Also no, this is not a continuation of the OG, it’s an alternate universe spin-off.

This one's for first-time viewers.

Well, ok, this sounds like vague tweeting and I'm kind of whining here, but I have seen a number of peeps on the internet saying that Magia Record is bad only for their argument to boil down to "because it isn't OG Madoka!"

Yeah it isn't. I'm pretty sure there's "Side Story" written somewhere in the title too.

Leaving aside the matter of nostalgia glasses and whether the original series was that much of a masterpiece or not (it's been over five years since I last watched it, so I can't say anything either way.) it seems kind of weird to me that someone would bash a spinoff on the grounds of how close it is to the original. Because here's the thing: to me, the whole point of spinoffs is taking an already existing scenario and putting a spin on it to make something new. That's exactly what makes them fun!

MagiReco didn't need to be a Madoka clone or to try hard and beat the original. That would probably have made it bad, actually. What it did need to do was to create an interesting story using the world set up by the OG Madoka and the other spinoffs, and that, in my opinion, it did, so I hope people can give it a chance and judge it on its own merits rather than only compared to the original. I'm not saying you can't hate it, either, I myself have my own problems with it, it's just that I want to see more reasonable reasons than "it's not the OG so it's bad".

3 - As you can probably already tell from these warnings, these posts are bound to get looong, so I'd recommend setting aside a fair amount of time and getting real comfy if you're gonna read it all. I also don't mind if you just skip ahead and only read the interesting parts, I'm not the internet police.

3.5 - I don't want to use it as an excuse, but I think I should make it clear that English is not my native language, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes and awkward/stilted text. It's hard to tell by myself, so feel free to correct me if you find something.

SO, with that out of the way let’s get down to what’s really important:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record Episode 1

Whew, now that’s a mouthful.

You know, in my mind I always thought a “side story” was something that happened alongside a “main story”, like another POV, so I’m not sure that’s the most appropriate title, but who am I to judge?

So here we go, we’re off with some beautiful futuristic scenery already, that’s the Madoka series I know.

As the classic Sis Puella Magi plays in the background, two unseen narrators tell us the tale of the so called “magical girls” as we are shown the reality of being one, meeting our first witch for this series.

Risking your life to save a cat doesn’t seem like the smartest of things. Rather, witches eat cats? That’s mean.

No, you really, really don’t. This narration definitely seems made to make everyone who saw the original say this, particularly with how silly are the wishes these girls suggest. 

And hey, look, even this girl who supposedly had her wish granted doesn’t seem very happy.

Hang in there, this is only the first episode.

Man, this scenery really is pretty though.

After an exciting fight with a witch in the train, our girl here silently goes home to find

Whatever the heck this is.

So, our girl here seems to be having strange visions whenever she enters her room, that is very very suspiciously cut exactly in half. Protagonist, you sure have an unique sense of interior decoration.

She goes on with her day, makes two lunchboxes and… oh, it seems she’s all alone.

Is this something you should be telling your own daughter?

Long story short, Iroha’s parents are abroad right now (as is suspiciously the case with many a anime protagonist parents). I actually love the parallel this scene draws with OG Madoka: whereas Madoka’s parents seem responsible and Madoka even looks up to her mom and they’re a happy united family, Iroha comes off as being the responsible one in her family and her parents are gone from the get-go. This way, the lonely atmosphere of the previous scene also starts making sense.

So, it seems like there’s something Iroha wants to do here, and that’s why she decided to stay behind.

Perhaps. Did you wish to save a black cat?

Wow, this teacher is speaking fast. Calm down lady, we’re not here to speedrun the content, geez. Though I guess we should be happy she’s at least giving a proper class, unlike a certain other teacher…

Oh great, it's this guy.

Ok, Iroha doesn’t remember what she wished for and Kyuubei doesn’t know either, although he knows she used her wish for the sake of someone. Kyuubei theorizes that the reason she doesn’t remember might be that not remembering was part of her wish, but Iroha doesn’t think she’d wish for that. I don’t think you’d ever think to wish for something like that until you had to wish for something like that though.

She’s got a fair point. After all, wishing in this universe is basica— the heck is going on in the background there?! O-kaaay…

Iroha was having a weird think-spot mental conversation with Kyuubei there, and missed speedrun teacher’s lecture entirely. Being meguca is suffering.

We get some school motto propaganda, and now we’re on the roof. Oh? Where did all the friendship stuff from the propaganda go? Seems like Iroha’s not following the school spirit. Unless she considers the white weasel a friend, so that’s why she gave him her extra… wait, Kyuubei can EAT? I thought he was some alien machine-like being. H-Huh...

Classmate A: Tamaki-san, maji tenshi!

She’s probably just shy. According to her classmates, Iroha used to be busy doing something or the other, but no one can remember what that is.

Cute. 

But maybe don’t do that somewhere someone could easily walk in on you, Iroha.

Iroha gets a call by the girl from the combat scene from before, whose name is Kuroe. I couldn’t tell from their conversation if they’ve known each other for a while or if they just met each other for the first time in the fight before.

On the train, although she’s the one who called her over, Kuroe remains silent. Iroha, clearly uncomfortable, tries her best to make conversation. Poor Iroha, I know the feeling.

We learn from her that the number of witches around has been decreasing. She comments that being unable to get Grief Seeds is troubling, but it’s better than having witches causing trouble. Poor girl has no way to know just how much of a bad news it is running out of Grief Seeds.

What’s with pink-haired girls and lacking self-esteem? Iroha, are you sure you didn’t wish to save a black and forget that you did? You did save a white one just before.

Kuroe finally decides to talk, and she tells us this:

If you go to Kamihama, you’ll be saved. To anyone that saw the OG, the first thought that comes to mind is that they’ll be saved from their destiny of turning into witches, but it seems Kuroe doesn’t know the truth yet. She just doesn’t want to fight witches anymore. I think.

The train lights up, and…

...this is extremely unsettling considering the truth about witches and the conversation they’re having right now. There’s a lot of this, but this just hits different having watched the original.

Iroha’s not inclined to believe what Kuroe’s saying. Of course, despite not remembering her wish, she’s the type that’s happy with fighting witches if she can save someone, and Kuroe’s not being very convincing either. The whole thing is apparently a rumor spread by some girls who saw a dream that told them that.

Except that Kuroe actually had the dream too.

Like most magical girls, Kuroe made a short-sighted wish, and regrets it. She now wants to be saved, so she’s going to Kamihama.

...or she was, but before that, they’ll have to defeat the witch they let escape the other day, ‘cos she’s back for more.

I actually have so many questions about this scene. Weren’t Labyrinths pocket dimensions? How come this one’s moving in physical space? We know witches themselves move and their Labyrinth goes with that, but I thought it was more, like, the entrance to the Labyrinth moves. Then how come witches can escape if magical girls get carried with their Labyrinth when they move…? Just... just... what?

The answer to all of that is probably “magic”.

Like that, Express Witch Labyrinth crashes right into what seems to be a train station. Labyrinths don’t have brakes, confirmed.

Brutal.

Looks like it’s not only magical girls who have territorial disputes going on. Although it’s nice that they won’t have to fight two witches at the same time, this is not exactly a relief when you consider these two were already struggling with the previous one, and this one just ripped it apart like crab.

As expected, Iroha’s arrows do no damage at all. When all seems lost…

A wild singing mini Kyuubei appears! Is this a shiny?

The singing Kyuubei distracts the witch and jumps towards Iroha, who uses her pro white cat catching skills to grab it, and… something happens. Whatever this Kyuubei did, Iroha’s having some flashbacks now. Sadly, the middle of a battle isn’t the best time to be having a BSOD and, despite Kuroe’s attempts to snap her out of it, they’re sitting ducks right now, a black and a white one.

Thankfully for them, though, they’re not alone in this barrier. This mystery blue haired girl spams flying spears and makes short work of the witch Iroha’s arrows didn’t even scratch earlier. She’s clearly at a whole ‘nother level.

Also, chibi Kyuubei’s gone. Totally not suspicious. Nope. Not at all.

So, from this OP miss get-the-heck-out-of-my-territory, who didn’t even bother saying her name, we learn that not only there is no salvation in Kamihama, there are more, stronger witches, and there are currently no Kyuubei. She gives them the Grief Seeds from the two witches before, and passes on a warning to them. Not the friendliest of magical girls. Though if you consider what happens when you run out of Grief Seeds, one could understand why it’d be undesirable having too many magical girls in the same place.

With this, Iroha and Kuroe take the train back to their town and things are totally awkward again.

Welp, seems like Kuroe doesn’t want to chat anymore, so we’ll have a dream sequence instead.

Forgive my lack of words, but this scene doesn’t need them. This is just… you couldn’t ask for a better representation of what being a magical girl wishing for salvation is like. Everyone has their own reasons, but in the end, having known despair, these girls are desperately clinging to this last hope called Kamihama. It’s almost a pilgrimage.

“Let’s go to Kamihama. We’ll be saved there”

And in the midst of all that is the mysterious girl from Iroha’s dreams.

(the track here, Paradero de Memoria, is also great btw)

Now, with various wishes written all over in the background, we get Kyuubei’s spiel about magical girls. I think this is word-by-word the same from the original too.

We now get to finally know what our protagonist’s wish was.

So Iroha wished to cure her younger sister’s illness, but the sister in question is now nowhere to be found. Worse: everything related to her is gone. Even Iroha, who made a wish for her sake, didn’t remember her existence until now. Oh man, that’s no normal disappearance. What happened? Guess that’s what Iroha will have to find out now.

With that, we conclude the first episode of Magia Record(’s s1)!

This is a really strong first episode in my opinion. It decently introduces our protagonist, sets up the mysteries we will be dealing with from here on and also manages to trace connections with the original, while using the viewer’s previous knowledge to give a whole different impression to some scenes. You wouldn’t be like “hell no” at the rumor there at the start if you didn’t know the truth about magical girls, and I doubt that final scene would hit that hard either. It’s just really good at this and it’ll continue doing that from now on. I love it.

Speaking of the final scene, me having watched the original over five years ago might also be part of it but that is really my favorite scene in Madoka overall. I just really really love that scene. (Seriously, I’ve watched this scene so many times I know it by heart now. Help.)

Alas, I lied, the episode’s not over yet, we still have our classic anime first episode ending-opening to watch. So let’s listen, to Gomakashi:

This logo’s real pretty.

So yeah, pretty standard anime opening. If you pay attention, there are some references to Connect too, what with the selfcest and whatnot. Although I managed to mistake this when I first watched, this one’s actually sung by the trio TrySail rather than ClariS. That’s the VAs for Iroha, Asakura Momo; Yachiyo (the get-out-of-my-territory girl), Amamiya Sora and Natsukawa Shiina, whose character we’ve yet to meet. TrySail has a lot of cool songs, so do check them out if you haven’t already. (free ad)

This time, in fact, the episode is over! Whew, I did say this was going to be long, but not even I thought it’d be this long. By the time this is posted I should have a backlog of these, so my plan is to post one everyday until we are done. I hope you had fun reading this here rant and I’ll be looking forward to meeting you guys again tomorrow, same place, maybe same hour, so we can go on and watch episode 2 together!

(P.S.: I am considering doing a series of posts at a later date comparing the anime to the game, but we’ll see. The first few chapters are fine, but the game is stupidly long, so I feel it’d take a lot of motivation and stamina I’m not sure I have at the moment. There’s also the possibility watching the first arc again would bring back my yt copy-apocalipse grief back and that’d suck, definitely don’t wanna go through that again.)