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EP. REVIEW: Gushing Over Magical Girls

The age play thing doesn't happen in sequence in the manga. This episode is made up of chapter 26, a few pages from chapter 31, and about a third of it is completely new material. The manga does not have this much characterization for Haruka. This is a really good adaptation.

Whatever, those of us who like it still like it, objective adaptational quality be damned, and that's what really matters.

Also, best part this week was a tie between Kaoruko bashing a mook's face in with a block of concrete and Korisu's reaction face (you know the one).

One funny joke is that the magical girl show within the magical girl show was also obviously made on a shoestring budget

The actual focus for this entry is on Sayo AKA Magia Azure, in what's emerged as a round-robin of detailings for the heroic magical girl trio. Sayo's schtick has been emergent since early on, as she's undergone a particularly powerful masochistic awakening thanks to her interactions with Utena/Baiser. Of course, while a practiced, consensual kink relationship with understood boundaries can be fun for everyone involved, having it intrude into your mental state while you're trying to protect a town from monsters is decidedly less desirable. As I've gone over before, Gushing Over Magical Girls has no space to acknowledge that these tweens' sexual awakenings are being done the opposite of favors by lacking proper education and guidance in engaging with them—this was never going to be that kind of show. These were kids raised by cartoons, and it shows how they process situations far above their ESRB rating.

That's where those diegetic magical girl anime come in. Gushing has already showcased Utena's earnest appreciation and inspiration held for those classic kids' shows. She maintains that attitude despite her directly destructive goal toward actual magical girls in the present. Sayo, on the other hand, isn't able to reconcile that cognitive dissonance, perhaps on account of being on the receiving end of it. Her rejection of the idealism of fictitious magical girls at the behest of the "reality" she's suffered is dented a bit by the fact that this series has generally only treated its bondage of bad times as comedic. There certainly is something to be analyzed in how actual 12-year-olds would process regular sexual battery, but again, this is not that show. That's perhaps for the best for everyone's sanity, not that Sayo's shattering ideals do all that well otherwise.

Gushing has already showcased Utena's earnest appreciation and inspiration held for those classic kids' shows. She maintains that attitude despite her directly destructive goal toward actual magical girls in the present.

I feel like the reviewer got Utena's intentions wrong on the last part. She isn't worried about children potentially watching that scene, she's disgusted by the fact that a magical girl, an existence that is looked up to by children, is about to let herself fall to the darkness. Utena enjoys making the magical girls struggle, she gets off on seeing them make it through the humiliating situations she puts them in. That Magia Azure is just fine with losing and getting dominated, fine with not struggling anymore, is absolutely unacceptable for Magia Baiser.

I feel like the reviewer got Utena's intentions wrong on the last part. She isn't worried about children potentially watching that scene, she's disgusted by the fact that a magical girl, an existence that is looked up to by children, is about to let herself fall to the darkness.