Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club – 01 – Surprise of the Month

I post about Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, and suddenly, six months after it originally aired, the first subs appear. At times like these, you begin to question coincidence. ^^;

Anyway, I’m going to be blogging this series in a strange way. As I still have to catch up on the first series, I’m going to watch both seasons right through each other. At this point, I’m not having any hopes for more subs to come out, so the rest of the episodes I’ll be watching will probably be done raw.

About the series: I think I understand why so many people were turned off. First of all, the promo-art. It didn’t really manage to portray the cuteness in this show. In fact, it turned out rather ugly. And second of all, most of the ones who actually did see the first episodes were probably turned off by the first scene of the first episode. It’s not really a bad scene, but it was in a way a very childish one.

It also doesn’t happen often when the voice-acting in a series impresses me. If I recall correctly, only Disgaea did this so far. But I have to say that the voices used in Sasami Mahou Shoujo-club work great. They may take some time to get used to, but they fit the characters very well. I’m also surprised to see that even though this is meant for children, the girls don’t have such high-pitched voices. You don’t see that often.

Okay, a small summary. We start out at a regular morning, and it immediately becomes clear that Sasami likes cooking. What’s even cuter is that her mother actually tries to help her, but only ends up making a ribbon-shape carrot. This show also derives from most other shows when it seems that Sasami’s already able to use a bit of magic, instead of the whole “awakening”-process most anime attempt. It seems that her parents know about it, and she had to promise that she wouldn’t use any magic outside of the house.

Sasami’s father seems to be some kind of writer of books about a magical world (with a sloppy handwriting, by the way). In the second season, we see him on a deserted island. Was he collecting research material in there?

Sasami’s friends then come to pick her up to go to school. They’re starting a new grade, apparently (fifth grade). It also seems that a new infirmary teacher has arrived. On their way to school, they run into a very shy, blue haired girl (Shinohara). She avoids everyone, though Sasami tries to make contact anyway. Shinohara then runs away. A chase follows to a construction site, where the teacher is watching them. I’m not sure why, but she decides to drop a giant, bouncing black ball on them. Sasami tries to protect Shinohara, though as it was a “bouncing” ball, it just bounces out of view. Therefore, it seems that seems that Sasami (who had to endure some injuries, by the way) just tried to attack Shinohara.

We then switch to the opening ceremony. The teacher is about to be introduced, though then it seems that she can’t make it for some reason. Sasami wants to find out this reason, so she uses her injuries as an excuse to check out the new teacher. This turns out to be a rather frightful experience. ^^

Back to classes, the same boy we saw in the first episode of the second season appeared. I loved the parody on fanservice-anime the creators slipped in. We’ve got another one of those perverted boys, who try to find a sneaky way to get some free pantyshots of his teacher. Today’s plan: mirror on shoe. Then it turns out that the teacher forgot her skirt, rendering trick useless. I could be wrong, but this one was actually one of the first parodies like these which actually worked. Though I am worried why Sasami seemed to support the kid. The two could be childhood friends. After all, he is going to find out her secret at some point.

Also, any anime mentioning “Otoko no Romance” is pure win.

Later, the teacher hands out information about the different clubs which can be joined. Sasami and her friends will be joining the cooking club, it seems that they’re all good at it. We then turn to the school break. The guy from the second season seems to be the janitor of the school. Sasami always seems to eat lunch with him. He also loves her father’s books, and he therefore is very grateful to her that he gets the chance to see his works, before they even hit the stores. But then the first problem of the show appears. Sasami feels that these books somehow hurt her. It seems she doesn’t like the way he criticises her. Could be great for future moments.

Shinohara then enters the room. It seems she also liked Sasami’s father’s work, and she seems to be lending the books from the guy before (is it me, or was his name never given?) She then runs away immediately. We then switch to the cooking club. The infirmary teacher, or Kozuka Washuu, appears to be the one to look over things. She then decides to thin out the group by making them prepare a rather unorthodox dish: her pet. The little guy escapes (probably on purpose) and Sasami and Shinohara end up chasing it. The little animal will be in trouble if Washuu catches it first, so the two of them decide to catch it before she does.

The pet ran into the janitor’s house, does something strange and opens a closet which brings Sasami and Shinohara towards some kind of other dimension. Then, we get some background info about Shinohara, and we find the reason why she avoids everyone. She possesses some kind of black thingies who come out of her when she’s scared. Because of that, people at her previous school looked down on her. Quite interesting indeed.

They then come to another room, at which they find a door, painted on the wall. The pet then appears again, and suddenly starts turning into a huge size. Both Sasami and Shinohara (or Misao) try to use their powers, but they aren’t rather experienced enough to really do something. it then turned out that everything was a test by Washuu, in order to determine whether they’re good enough for the cooking club, otherwise known as the mahou shoujo club. And now we also know where the name of this anime comes from. ^^;

I never imagined how incredibly likable Sasami turned out. Not only is her character design very cute, even despite the fact that she wears very plain clothes, but she also has a very lively, three-dimensional personality. Okay, so what if this is an anime for children. It’s very fun to watch. ^_^