Magia Record – 10-12

Welcome back to the mega post of Magia Record. After the stellar episode that was episode 9, the following three have been… unremarkable to me. There are some neat individual moments, mostly due to how well the direction is, but as a whole Magia Record introduces too many characters that it’s hard to keep up at times, while at the same times, the central mystery regarding finding Ui still yet to make any significant progress. With this amount of unresolved mysteries left, I really am in doubt that the finale next week is going to cover them all. That would mean with this pacing there’s a chance that there will be a second cour to wrap things up, but if that’s the case I’m not too interested to follow its second half.

Episode 10 continues to examine Sana, the Invisible Girl as she returns to her normal life. The most relevant part in regards to that is where she comes back home and finds out that no one really cares about her disappearance. Her Mom still thought that she was a shut-in (but the fact that she doesn’t touch her food should alarm her, right?). Shaft’s direction expertly frames Sana’s family as cardboard figures to signify how fake, empty and artificial they are. The sequence is so well-done that it would sit comfortably with Disney Pinocchio’s darkest moments.

At this point I can say that The Wings of Magius members are hardly relevant to the main plot, as are the Witch battles. To the point that in Episode 11 the show skipped the whole Witch battle, which begs me to question why include it at all? The Wing of Magius members, except for Mifuru and Touka – the latter appears in episode 11- are just additional contents. Alina Gray is a wreck of a character, the twins are forgettable, and the inclusion of the original members of the series in Wings of Magius cult feels out of place at best. At this moment, Kyouko and Mami make an appearance, but they are hardly relevant to this story.

Thankfully, the intriguing relationship between Mifuru and Yachiyo rides Magia Record’s narrative, and so far I am interested in how it plays out. Certainly they have a history, and then something happens that effectively strays Mifuru off the Magical Girl path, and leaves Yachiyo a cold person that doesn’t want to make any more friends. We see a bit of these explained in the flashback in episode 12, although I still think we haven’t seen the end of it yet. Speaking of THE BIG SHOCKING REVEALS in episode 12, I’m quite disappointed that two-third of its time is spent explaining details that we’re already in the know of in the original series. I doubt that any newcomer is watching a spin-off in the first place, so except from the specular visual we don’t really learn much. That was until the reveal that Touka has an ability to create a Doppel, in which a Magical Girl who is transforming into a Witch can reverse back to normal state through Doppel. It, I reckon but not too sure, is the same version that we saw Iroha losing consciousness a few weeks back. Just like Madoka’s wish at the end of the original series, my take for now is that it’s Touka’s wish that saves the Magical Girls fate, hence the “liberation”.

But there’s still one more card left from Magia Record that needed to be addressed soon, Nemu, the other childhood friend of Ui. It’s interesting to see that Touka has no recollection of Ui whatsoever, and she doesn’t seem to recognize Iroha either. I’m not entirely sure if she just doesn’t know or she lies but maybe Nemu holds the key to open the secret door here. My theory remains that it’s Iroha’s wish that erased Ui’s existence forever, but it might also be the case that Ui doesn’t even exist in the first place. Now we know the true intention behind Wings of Magius and they seem like good guys now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they take their quest into extreme and would do any means necessary to justify the end. Also, Yachiyo’s role and her past aren’t over yet.