I will give Mahou keikaku credit in that I knew that after getting a flashback of Cranberry’s past that she was up on the chopping block. But how she died still took me by surprise. It was a pleasant surprise though as there is just something so satisfying about the smug ever so confident Cranberry being one hit killed by Tama. Essentially someone who was considered weak and incompetent moments before by Cranberry. So it is that Cranberry joined this battle to fight strong magical girls and is promptly killed by someone she considered weak. I have a certain love for such poetic justice and it isn’t the only example in this episode. It is also rather funny how both Cranberry and Fav set up this Battle Royale to get strong magical girls and yet Snow White is on the verge of coming out the victor. Despite being not only the weakest but also the only one who didn’t fight or participate. All things considered, Snow Whites beliefs managed to keep her alive the longest albit with some sacrifices on her behalf. While thematically it does have value, it doesn’t really fix that she is still a rather bland character that did pretty much nothing the entire series. It’s clear that this is supposed to be the beginning of her character arc, but I doubt we will be around long enough to see her develop into someone more interesting.
So at this point Swim Swim is the only character left that I actually care about and she killed the last character I started caring about. I still think Swim is a great antagonist and as the final enemy of the battle royale she’s a better option than the rather one dimensional Cranberry. I am a little annoyed that right after Tama’s big moment she killed her over an arbitrary rule. However it does fall in line with her mindset as she follows a rulebook she doesn’t quite understand. Not to mention Ruler likely changed that rulebook based on her emotional state though speaking of Ruler this episode went and showed that she did care on some level about her underlings. Going so far to write a rulebook and then teach Tama when she admitted she didn’t know some of the kanji she used showed that while she was stuck up about herself, she at least cared about them. Other than that though, showing Tama’s backstory after she had been decapitated by Swim only served to develop a character you just killed off. I also happen to notice that this show relies a bit too heavily on flashbacks to develop its characters. All things considered Tama’s flashback didn’t really give much insight into her character that we didn’t already know. Unlike the attack against Cranberry which showed that if Tama had been more merciless than she could have been one of the strongest magical girls in the running. After all her digging holes ability is essentially a one hit kill move and with some training she could be one hell of a powerhouse. Hardgore might have even had trouble with her but well now she’s gone and I am rather annoyed about that.
So that leaves Swim, Ripple and Snow White. Ripple is out for revenge against Swim so Fav has essentially let the game continue so she can get it. But it’s clear that Fav has another agenda as now that Swim is his master he finds her rather uncooperative. I would like to think that Swim actually recognises Fav as completely evil and that’s the reason she refuses to work with him. There are also moments where she regrets killing Tama. One detail is that the kanji she is practicing stands for “Friend”. So seeing as Swim isn’t playing along he has pushed her into accepting meeting RIpple and thrown some hints to Ripple on how to defeat her. It’s a pity but I don’t think that Swim Swim is going to make it out of this arc and it’s possible that these two will kill each other leaving Snow White as the victor. A strange detail is that on going to fight Swim Swim after renouncing her identity as a magical girl, RIpple gets a transformation sequence. This could be the shows way of saying that Ripple is the magical girl this show needs and the kind that Snow White needs to grow into. Next episode is the finale of the series so I wonder just how this whole thing will wrap up. I can’t say it’s the most memorable show but it did try at least to do something different.
enjoyed your commentary
Agree that Tama’s successful elimination of Cranberry was probably the most entertaining and ironic bit in the episode.
I like the series, but I do think the show would have been about 10% more enjoyable if they had decided to go for more suspense over formal structure and not always linked the flashbacks with immediate deaths.
But since they were going to do that, having Tama get the flashback right as she was dying at least her death more of a surprise.
To perhaps a greater extent than it was Battle Royale, this was more Survivor (reality show) the anime, with various alliances, pairs, a “returning character from past season” (Cranberry) and the likely winner being someone doing an “under the radar” strategy.
If Snow White wins
I suppose at the beginning when they were getting knocked out by candy counts did make it somewhat like a reality TV show but once they started killing each other it was more or less battle Royale.
I argee that a better option to keep the deaths unexpected. This show only managed to cover the first volume of the light novel and seems to have padded out the runtime with extra content from side stories. Perhaps covering this arc with a shorter runtime would have been the better option and use the second half for the second arc. But maybe the second arc is longer.