Episode 13 — “Still Gushing Over Magical Girls”
Hmm.
Did we need a bikini episode? Even with all the previous fanservice from Gushing over Magical Girls? Yes. Always yes! Do you even need to ask such a question?
Heh. Geh.
We just had a relaxing aftermath episode last week, with a bit of a fun skirmish. Do we get the same thing at the beach for the season finale? Who will accidentally turn into a villain this time, so Tres Magia has to come and play? I bet on Kiwi because Korisu couldn’t contain herself at a toy store last time. But what would provoke Leoparde at a beach? Ohoho. As if Utena would walk out in public wearing THAT barely-there microkini! But ultra-low hip huggers and pasties are okay as her Gushing over Magical Girls uniform. Umi da! Someone had to yell it. Ha! The Tres Magia girls are here, too. Taking a break after a photoshoot. That Vatz. It’s a meetup at the beach for the good and bad guys. Fun!
Everyone knows each other except for Matama and Nemo, who attend a different school. These scenes are pure fan service as the girls pair up. I laugh so hard at Kaoruko and Kiwi bickering. Hee hee! Sayo wants to ask Utena for an oil rub but doesn’t know how. Oh. Now Sayo knows how much Utena obsesses over Tres Magia. I’m sure that will matter later in a possible second season.
Beach episode montage. My theory: girls hate Haruka’s obsession with mushrooms because they’re a phallic symbol that doesn’t exist in their world without men. Why is Kiwi wearing an octopus on her head? Instead of drunk men bothering women, Gushing over Magical Girls has drunk women cutting lines. Ah. That’s what provoked Kiwi. Suddenly, Enormita threatened the beach! Neroalice should understand how Kiwi and Utena felt last week.
Here we go. Tentacle grape! On everyone? Baiser controlled a sentient creature well enough to spank her, but an octopus was too difficult? Press the star sign to doubt. Multiple orgasms for everyone! Baiser loves those salty tears of defeat.
Ooh. Magia Azure has a new transformation scene with pure cotton wrapping. She’s the Maiden of Hoarfrost. Good for Baiser. She can see the new form that Loco Musica and Leberblume warned her about. Ha. Hahaha! Azure needs to take Baiser’s attacks. For love! No more giving up. No bending or breaking. Just accepting tainted love. Ecstasy for Baiser! Kaoruko calls it — perverts going at it in broad daylight. Get a hotel room already! The villains went at it hard, then left. Baiser’s policy is in effect!
And back to the beach episode for Gushing over Magical Girls. That means summer fireworks. New friends, new fun. Venalita hopes for more excitement in the future, too.
Epilogue time. Another fight between Enormita and Tres Magia. Magia Baiser is still gushing over magical girls! The end.
Final Thoughts.
I loved Gushing over Magical Girls! The production committee and Hidive looked at the state of ecchi anime worldwide and realized something. An audience still remembers how fun anime used to be. The cowards at Funimation gave up distributing Interspecies Reviewers. But Crunchyroll (after the Funimation merger) took up streaming Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World after the success of Hidive’s ecchi streaming efforts of Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory. Crunchyroll learned its lesson after the failure of World’s End Harem from its embarrassing efforts of censorship. It even had Tales of Wedding Rings this past winter season.
But Hidive is the North and South American guaranteed source of ecchi for fans of “culture.” I hope this trend continues because the 2024 winter season spoiled old-school fans of ecchi harem anime titles like High School DxD, Rosario x Vampire, and To LOVE-Ru. Will the 2024 spring season have titles like Tales of Wedding Rings, Gushing over Magical Girls, and Chained Soldier? J-List Blog will let you know!
One common complaint from prudes in the West about media aimed at young adults is how much sex and violence it features. Strangely, western media has only allowed sex if it’s mixed with violence, but violence by itself is okay. The Japanese never shied away from adding the spice of fanservice in all the genres of action-adventure, horror, romantic dramas, romantic comedies, slice-of-life, and pure sex romps. I never liked how America’s Puritan streak had to justify showing nudity with equal amounts of violence. What a turnoff! But anything else would be straight-up porn, right? No. We can enjoy a nip-slip in the context of an everyday occurrence instead of ultra-violence like Queen’s Blade. All that said, what about Gushing over Magical Girls?
Madoka Magica started the trend of subverting the mahou shoujo genre into horror elements, mystery, and simple torture porn. That was the western approach of mixing violence with all the fringe genres to justify its publication. Fans of hentai doujins and anime know the Japanese approach was to mix sex with shounen and seinen genres. But could subversive genre storytelling enter the mainstream with sex instead of violence? Of course!
Redo of Healer started the trend of mixing sexy fanservice with dark revenge fantasies. And then you saw all the other titles, plus others, mentioned above. Gushing over Magical Girls takes the premise of Madoka Magica but uses bondage, sadism, masochism, dominance, and submission explicitly. The violent torture in the other subversive magical girl anime slyly used kink and fetish elements. But that anime couched them in terms of body horror and psychological suspense. Where’s the fun in that?
Instead, Gushing over Magical Girls took a page from recent comedy anime like Kenzen Robo Daimidaler, Love After World Domination, and this past season’s Mr. Villain’s Day Off. What if the good guys and the bad guys are not that different? What if the hero and villain stuff is just a job, and they can hang out after work? It’s like those sentai ranger shows put on for kids: the villains beat up the magical girls a little bit, then leave to fight another day. And that’s Utena’s new policy, which fits Venalita’s circular logic: the villains exist only as long as the magical girls do. They wouldn’t have to be magical girls if they defeated the evil organization. That’s no good for fans of magical girls! Utena became the villain for the magical girls’ sake. It only makes sense!
Meta-subversive anime arguments aside, Gushing over Magical Girls examined the love-hate relationships that villains and fans have with heroes. Utena’s need to see magical girls never give up twisted into enjoying their suffering before rising against adversity. Sayo’s masochism is pure perversion, though! That adds to the comedic subversiveness of the anime. We also saw how heroes and villains paired up through affinity from their characterization. A good villain’s back story will not attract an audience’s interest without an emotional connection to her archenemy.
Gushing over Magical Girls explicitly matched the mahou shoujo with specific villains to comedic effect. The duo of Loco Musica and Leberblume is simply yuri. The tsundere childhood friend’s code name and why she joined Enormita fit together. Leber Blume in German is “love flower.” We know what that means in a world without men. Let that lily love bloom!
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