Subculture Anime Blog

Babies can’t be created with magic!

Summary:

Sora wakes to the sound of her cellphone, but the events of the previous night still won’t leave her mind. Gouta notices that Sora is troubled while on the train with her, but she assures him that she is okay. Kouji attempts to get Honomi’s attention about something in the classroom later, but this is soon interrupted by a phone call. Hiyori meanwhile tries to invite Gouta to hang out with her and some of the other regulars, but he denies because he isn’t usually into this type of thing. Gouta continues to notice Sora’s troubled expression during class, as she recalls what Seiichirou had told her previously. Before parting ways with her after class, Gouta suggests that it would be better if Sora had a smile on her face. The girls meet up at a cafe later, and even they notice that Sora is down. Gouta practices magic at the agency in the meantime, though he doesn’t have very much success.

When the girl’s reach the Hara Agency, they find that a small girl is waiting outside. The girl expresses that she wants a baby, explaining that her mother is no longer with her. The girl’s father had also died, only leaving her with a step mother and non blood related family. The girl introduces herself as Ruiko when Sora asks for her name, but she does not give a clear reason as to why she wants a baby. Ruiko is surprised when the girls explain that they are all mages, but when they reveal that there is no known magic to create children, she simply runs away. Sora suggests that they search for Ruiko, making the girls recall that there are some things children do not understand no matter how much is explained to them by adults. Despite the girls will to look for Ruiko, they are unsuccessful after several searches through the town.

While pondering what they should do afterwards, Sora brings up her thought that there are times when magic should be used even when there is not a request. However, she cannot clearly state what would validate such a situation. The girls simply decide to search more, and when Honomi sees that the cafe they visited is named after Ruiko’s family name Nishihara, she decides that she has finally found Ruiko’s location. When all of the girls gather, Ruiko finally explains that she wanted to play with a baby. The friend that she would usually play with, Ayumi, had recently gotten into a fight with her. Bringing up other children that she could spend time with, Sora suggests that Ruiko try reading a book to them later. Before the girls leave the cafe, Ruiko asks Sora if she would be able to make up with Ayumi. Suggesting that she had already cast such a spell, Sora assures Ruiko that she would be able to. At the dinner table that night, Gouta gets a mail from Kouji. In it, it states his plans to quit.

Preview: Kiro.

Impression:

Hiyori, you pronounced “See you tomorrow!” totally wrong! This episode turned out to be a bit different than I suspected it to be from last week. The theme of “friends” was just played on in a different way, introducing a conflict with Ruiko’s friendship and showing the friendship Sora shares with her friends at the same time. I honestly didn’t think Ruiko was a very strong character in this episode, as she was overshadowed by the actions that the girls actually took to help her. More interesting was the way this episode presented Sora’s thoughts and the sights of the city. I can already see people complaining about the flashbacks being an easy way to reuse footage, but really, I see this as a way of presenting how thought is really seen in real life. It was funny how Honomi mentioned that what is important in magic is the image, since in some beliefs, magic is simply described as art. I loved the sights of graffiti and simple things like that in the city as well. It really made me feel like I could just stand on the streets that the girls ran through. Next week will probably deal with the conflict Kouji has brought up, which left an interesting cliffhanger in this episode. I wonder how Sora-oneechan will deal with this!