I don’t know if I’ll be covering every episode but as I’m enjoying the show well enough and I think I could add a short-form show to the lineup so let’s give it a tryout for now.
This episode begins with Mira beginning a file on Byakuya. Despite hanging out with the magical girl, he actually knows little about her specifically, including both her real name and her magical girl alias, Glass Happiness (I guess Byakuya never did a roll call). Kind of creepy that he’s procured various pictures of her in her civilian life but then again, he is technically the villain in this story. Funny how he can obtain these pictures and yet, he still can’t figure out her secret identity on his own.
During the next hangout, Byakuya notices a burn mark on Mira’s uniform so she sews a cute little applique on Byakuya’s coat. The following night, Mira worries that he’s appearing soft to the army so he decides to attack the city with an army of slimes. Per anime tradition, the slimes are considered a low-level threat so the fact that Mira deploys them implies that even when he is trying to be evil, Byakuya’s kindness is still rubbing off on him. Funnily enough, Byakuya actually struggles against fending off the slimes, even getting into a rather compromised position. The fanservice is enough to make Mira die inside so in the end, the one who foils his plan is actually the evil lieutenant himself. With Byakuya’s magical girl uniform disheveled, Mira hands over his coat to her. I like how this decision gives Byakuya an easy out from looking soft to the army but he still admits out loud that he’d rather have held onto the coat Byakuya repaired. It goes to show that he does cherish the applique Byakuya sewed for him.
Throughout this episode, Byakuya seems to be awfully comfortable around Mira. Aside from sewing the applique, Mira shows up to teatime in her work uniform. She only transforms when Mira points this out. The fact that she forgets to transform shows that she’s at ease with the evil lieutenant. Even more evident is the fact that she actually has Byakuya walk her home after the big fight with the slimes, thereby revealing both her address and her real name to him. That’s a huge risk as Mira could use this information against her or pass it off in a report for the army, something he contemplates on during the post-credit scene. It’s strange; these two are supposed to be enemies and yet, Byakuya has an awful lot of trust in Mira. Then again, you sort of get where the magical girl is coming from because her situation at home doesn’t look very good.
Speaking of which, there sure is a dark undercurrent in this otherwise wholesome show. We learn in this episode that the cat mascot (Shin-ichiro Miki) pretty much has control over Byakuya’s life. He “manages” all of her money and he looks for odd jobs for her, some of which look very sketchy. Frankly, the cat comes across less as a cute companion and more of an abusive or exploitive manager. And judging by the post-credit scene, that’s exactly what the show is going for. I know that Mira is the lieutenant of an evil army but honestly, this damn cat looks more villainous than anyone else in the show. I also can’t help but think about Byakuya’s alias, Glass Happiness. As the magical girl explains, her name means that “‘happiness can be as fragile as glass'”. That sounds depressing in a vacuum but it also puts an ominous light on the story. Like, Byakuya clearly enjoys spending time with Mira but who knows how long that’ll last. It’s weird but I must admit that this tone does make the show a lot more interesting.
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