Now that Astral and Aria have gotten over Mahou Shoujo Ore episode 5, it’s time for them to face their new opponent for the week.
Aria: I warned against a fanservice episode last time, but not for this show. What did you think about it, Astral?
Astral: I liked it more than the previous one, for sure. The comedy was funny again, our main characters that we care about were back, and we even got some nice bits of character development on top of everything. Kind of sad to think about, but the fanservice episode may have been the shows most well-rounded episode so far.
Aria: After all this talk about jokes overstaying their welcome, I may just be coming down on the show a bit harder now…but did you think the sauna “competition” between Mohiro and Ore was overused to pad for time? Also, Hyoue’s getting even more sketchy…at least now Sakuyo’s on to his case.
Astral: Yeah it’s nice to see characters not being blind for plot reasons, and Hyoue is sketchy as heck. I thought the sauna bit was dragged on a bit too long, as well, but overall the episode was pretty good, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Aria: Speaking of Sakuyo, the part where she (as a magical boy) runs into the demon party…I didn’t think I’d laugh as hard as I did at that scene. (With the way I describe it, it seems more like an isekai, LOL.)
Astral: Yeah that caught me pretty off-guard as well. And she beat them up anyways for, what? Having dinner?
Aria: Well, the motivation for it is there – magical boys defeat demons – but now that you put it that way, it does seem somewhat unwarranted. Maybe that’s the source of its humour.
Astral: At least it’s confirmed that yes, Saki is actually a dreadful singer… not that anyone bothers to ever mention it.
Aria: The visuals actually managed to imply as much this time, which is a step up. Since they stated from the beginning of the episode this trip was “for business”, I wonder if their lip-synching will have any consequences in the future…? I can see them being accused of being “fakers” by someone, although who knows if the accuser will be Fujimoto, Hyoue or the other idol girls if it happens.
Astral: On one hand, Hyoue does seem to want to undermine them as much as possible, but on the other hand he doesn’t seem like the type to get his own hands dirty.
Aria: Hmm…you’re right there. Could that mean he might have hired someone, or might hire someone in the future to interfere with Saki specifically (because he seems to mostly have it in for her)?
…Oh right, they mention a “Konami” near the end as the person who requested Saki and Mohiro sing together. Who’s Konami?
Astral: I have no idea…
I looked it up, it’s Saki and Sakuyo’s manager. Guess he’s a decent wingman, too.
Aria: What a nice guy…
Speaking of Konami, prior to the shot of him panicking over something at his desk in the ED, there seems to be an image unique to every episode. One time (it was probably episode 3) it had Fujimoto, and so I thought it was just a part of the usual ED. However, now that I’ve spent a bit of time trying to screencap the few seconds where this ep’s image shows up without credits, I know that’s not the case. Here’s what episode 6’s image looks like:
Aria: If you watch the credits around that point, you’ll also see the ED illustrations were done by the original creator, Icchokusen Mokon, which should explain their scratchy look in comparison to the rest of the show.
Astral: Well that’s actually a pretty nice touch. I like it when things pay homage to an original work. I usually don’t watch through the end credits, so I’m glad you caught that.
Aria: I was trying to skip over the ED when I found it, but for some reason I just keep coming back to this spot…
Astral: Going back to Hyoue, what do you think he might be? An alien/demon, maybe a demon boss in disguise? Or maybe he’s a human that’s colluding with the demons for some reason. And why does everything want Mohiro, anyways?
Aria: Hmm…maybe that human option, although I can’t really think of a motivation for Hyoue doing so. (Plus, were there ever aliens in this show???)
…hey wait, what if everything wants Mohiro because they’re attracted to Love Power? I don’t really know if it’ll be Sailor Moon-style “demons harvest energy from humans” or something else in that regard, though. A lot of this stuff’s in the air simply due to how unguessable this show is.
Astral: Hey, there’s demons and cyborgs, so why not aliens? I hope there’s some kind of motivation behind everything and not just like… “eh, because they want to” or whatever. Those kinds of rationales tend to irritate me.
Aria: I hope the Powers That Be don’t just throw in everything and the kitchen sink and call that a “masterpiece of a comedy” just for the sake of being unguessable. Coming out of left field is really dependent on execution as I think they’ve demonstrated already with episode 5, and…well, that “throw everything and see if it sticks” approach just didn’t work there.
Astral: I agree. I’m pretty particular when it comes to comedy, as I’ve had experience studying and writing it myself. If you read my post about The Rules of Comedy, I mention that randomness can be used to create humor, but that overuse can backfire and just be annoying instead. Unfortunately, I feel like the art of writing good comedy has mostly been lost in a sea of mediocrity and laziness nowadays; it’s hard to find real, great comedy anymore.
Aria: (Sorry, I haven’t read the post because it was tied to Carnival Phantasm…) Maybe I’m just a common consumer when it comes to comedy, because I’ve been pretty happy with the shows that’ve come out in the past few years, although they seem to be full of the same things (references, subversive humour and language jokes). Speaking of references, in the middle somewhere, with the different art style…was that an Ashita no Joe reference?
Astral: I dunno. I haven’t seen that show, unfortunately, so I’m not on the in with the references…
Aria: Haven’t seen it either, but this image is pretty iconic as part of its ending apparently:
Astral: Now that I compare, I can certainly see the resemblance. I think you’re right about it being a reference; certainly wouldn’t be the first time the show’s done that.
Aria: If we’re going to talk about humour, then for references you’d have to pick something that’s well-known to your audience, right? I did a post on why I like comedy and one of the things that was established in the comment section was the need for a “shared set of knowledge” from which to draw in jokes. With both of our shows, the shared knowledge mostly comes from magical girl shows, but then it’s interesting to see what other choices the creators decide to make on that front. On that note, I think it’s time to wrap up.
Astral: I agree. Let’s see what I can do about our enemy this week… Try this one on for size! Starlight Avenue!
Starlight Avenue is less of an attack and more of a supporting technique. By utilizing the power of starlight, the image of a wide, smooth, glowing road is conjured. On such a straightforward and well-lit path, it’s hard for any enemy to use techniques to divert attention, or stray too far from the point, allowing our heroes to fight this enemy head-on.
Both: Magical Explosion!
Aria: Alright, I think we did it! We got ‘em!
With that, our heroes are done for another week. Even though they’ve just started using supportive techniques, who knows if they’ll need more of them in the future…?
< To be continued in the next post… >
Back to the usual on Mahou Shoujo Ore this week. So let’s speculate on what’s up with Hyoue in the comment section! Plus, do you think Konami’s been really undervalued so far? (That seems to be the case, now that I think of it.)
The next part of the collab is on the Zodiac Room, so you can head over there to check out our thoughts on Boueibu Happy Kiss for the week.
The Animanga Spellbook 