Following Iroha’s rescue, Nemu’s Uwasa, the Eternal Sakura, disappears and tells Iroha that it’ll be waiting for her and three others. I’m guessing the others the Uwasa is referring to are Ui, Nemu, and Touka. It’s the right number of characters. Combined with the Uwasa’s connection to Nemu and Iroha, I don’t know who else fits the bill.
Iroha, Yachiyo, and Kuroe reconvene at Mikazuki Villa and Iroha learns from Kuroe that Nemu remembers her. Since Nemu is Iroha’s first lead in 84 years, Iroha has Kuroe bring her and Yachiyo the Magius’s headquarters, Hotel Faint Hope. I question Iroha calling Nemu and Touka her surrogate little sisters, if only because there’s barely any scenes involving any of them together, but I guess her dream world made her realize how she felt about them in the past. Momo Asakura manages to sell it at least.
At Hotel Faint Hope’s current location, the trio encounters Tsukasa (Aya Uchida) and Tsukuyo (Maaya Uchida) by accident. Yachiyo holds them off, allowing Iroha and Kuroe to enter the HQ before the Amane sisters close the entrance. I’d be bummed if we don’t get to see the fight between Yachiyo and the twins. If nothing else, Yachiyo is a damn good fighter and her action scenes are typically entertaining to watch. That said, I’m not entirely opposed to Magia Record cutting to the aftermath as it would be a good joke after all the hostility the Amane sisters show to Yachiyo.
While traversing through the basement level of Hotel Faint hope, Iroha and Kuroe catch up with each other. Kuroe explains that she joined the Magius because she wasn’t strong enough to fight witches and survive and she admits that she’s used her Doppel a couple times now. Iroha then suggests to Kuroe to leave the Magius and team up with her instead of relying on her Doppel. Relying on the power of friendship isn’t an assuring answer per se but it is something Iroha would say and it lines up with the general idea of magical girls needing to stick together to overcome the harsh reality they live in. I’m sorry but Iroha telling Kuroe to stop using her Doppel kind of reminds me of an intervention for an addiction. I can’t help but picture all the characters sitting in a circle and discussing their use of Doppels.
Eventually, Iroha and Kuroe encounter Rena and Kaede, who are trying to desert the Magius. I get Rena calling it quits as she always found the Magius fish but Kaede? Last time we saw her, she was all for the weird magical girl cult. Not a lot of time has passed either so what on Earth happened to change Kaede’s mind?
The four are then attacked by an Uwasa bodyguard. Kuroe considers using her Doppel to defeat it but Iroha purifies her Soul Gem and the two team up instead. It’s nice to see Iroha be true to her word shortly after she gives it. I do wonder where she got that Soul Gem from. Like, is that the same one she used for Yachiyo all the way back in Season 1 Episode 5 or does Iroha just have a bunch of spares lying around? Also, I’m mixed on not seeing Kuroe’s Doppel. I get that the girls should avoid using their Doppels but the restraint does create a conundrum for Magia Record. With witches, there isn’t any point in revealing what they look like until someone reaches the point of no return. With Doppels however, everyone in this show is technically free to use them so you kind of want to see what they look like. I’m sure the show has all sorts of Doppel designs its artists want to show off but that’s kind of hard to do now if the girls aren’t supposed to summon.
During the fight, Kaede accidentally activates her Doppel, which fuses with its host and goes berserk. Rena infers that this is due to Kaede using her Doppel too much. Again, the show tells us rather than show us what’s going on with Kaede. We’ve only seen her summon her Doppel once in the entire show so we just have to take Rena’s word that it’s happened a bunch of other times offscreen. At least the fight is cool to watch, especially with Iroha, Kuroe, and Rena combining their powers and weapons together.
Once Kaede is restrained, Mitama arrives with Momoko to contain her in some kind of pod and she takes her away to a ward where other magical girls and their Doppels are similarly locked up. How these two have an inkling of what’s going on is beyond me but there’s already a couple of things that don’t add up to me so let’s move on. Mitama confirms that Kaede’s fusion with her Doppel is due to overuse and even though Kaede is still alive as a human, the fusion is currently irreversible. Everyone else is naturally upset with this revelation; they feel this fate is no different than becoming a witch. This feels repetitive, the characters being oblivious to this type of truth and their subsequent shock has already been done before, but this is something Magia Record‘s lore desperately needs. The show spent far too long being vague on it’s fine to use a Doppel and the concept hasn’t felt all that compelling until now. And had the concept not have a drawback, it would undermine what the franchise has established with the magical girl system.
I kind of love how apathetic Mitama is about the whole thing. She doesn’t share the same anger or sadness as everyone else. When the others confront her about withholding such a truth, she argues that she technically did warn some of them about overusing their Doppel. When Momoko asks her if she’s okay with locking Kaede and the other girls up, she gives no response. It’s very similar to Kyubey’s attitude but I think it has its own appeal since Mitama is a human as opposed to an Incubator. I wonder how Mitama came to be this way. Is it a coping mechanism to better deal with treating Doppel overdose or is Mitama actually that heartless. Either would be acceptable to me.
Watch Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Season 2 -The Eve of Awakening- on Crunchyroll and Funimation
Xenodude Scribbles 