Kabushikigaisha Magilumiere

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"Sakuragi Kana is an excellent candidate for the job. Any job! She's motivated and organized, and has a fantastic memory. So why has she interviewed at over 15 companies without receiving a single offer? She's trying to keep a positive attitude, but it seems like her bad luck is only getting worse when a monster crashes her latest interview. As havoc ensues, she finds herself helping the magical girl who comes to their rescue and ends up with more than just her life in return. Meet the newest magical girl at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.!

Source: Viz"

Genre(s): Magical girls, Work, Action

Research

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1-3

So far, I like it. The commodification of anime tropes is usually a winning formula for me, and this is no different. I don't expect to unravel the origin or purpose behind the "Kaii" monsters, but this is not that kind of show. It is about seeing the underdog start-up compete with the 'big boys' of the industry as essentially supernatural pest control.

Kana is a good lead, but the real star of the show for me is Hitomi. She is such a breath of fresh air without being an embarrassing, abrasive musclehead. At a glance, she has all the coding of the "yankee" delinquent type who is all brawn and no brains, but thankfully is not. She knows what needs to be done and doesn't sweat the small stuff... except for the important small stuff. She can listen to orders and doesn't pick a fight with everyone she sees (except for one girl who rubs her the wrong way), but keeps the campy fun of declaring she's gonna "murdalize" the monsters. She is definitely a tough gal, but doesn't wear it on her sleeve and can hold a proper conversation like an adult. Pardon the pun, but her character really hits different than the typical 'aloof fighter senpai', and she maintains some of the femininity that makes magical girls so endearing. A perfect, positive foil for Kana to work with. The rest of the company is so-so, but they don't detract, and there are already rumblings of interactions with other firms. Magi-girl man-boss is kinda funny.

As for weaknesses, the animation goes hard in the first episode, but peters back to reality from 2 onward, and they are already reusing transformation scenes to pad time (though they are pretty good transformation scenes). The fights are also not very technical- the kind where they are instantly decided once the thematic conflict is neatly wrapped up- so not particularly satisfying.

Overall, a solid recommend for now... This could get very fun.

episode 1: I took some damage from the interview, It's hard faking enthusiasm to work in one company when you just want any kind of work. Love how flashy the transformation scenes are for what's basically a standard uniform with a hoodie tied around the waist.

episode 2: the Boss's VA really sells it. I like the OP because of how it mixes fantasy and the real world.

episode 3: are they recycling animation in the ED?

it's fun overall, will keep watching.

Glad you like it.

4-5

This is the first arc that resonates with my sentimentality; now I'm invested. Protecting people's homes and livelihoods is obviously important, but not not always feasible, so that they took the time to try and pulled it off gave me the warm fuzzies. I'm glad they showed them physically taking the gifts back in knapsacks on their brooms. And that little girl's drawing: chef's kiss. The after credits scene of Kana and Hitomi hanging out on boss surveillance had me giggle when they cut back to Kana painting Hitomi's nails; cute and wholesome.

The karaoke party wasn't as much fun, but it did segway into the next arc of interacting with another firm on a joint project for the first time.

As an aside, I think I'll indulge my inner mfauli and wonder just how horrific is it when magical girls lose to the Kaii? All we've seen is the girls on brooms narrowly dodging tentacles or barrier stopping projectiles, so I wonder if magigirls just never loose or the show doesn't want to explore that harsh reality? So far, no instances of death or harm have been shown to the viewer, and it might clash with the tone of the show if they did, but it might be used as a shocker down the line?

For now, I suppose we can enjoy some tea and shopping?

I'm not watching this weekly, but still intreseted.

episode 5 - it really looks like the programmer should actually be one of the magical girls. just like sakuragi and hitomi - strongly colored hair and eyes in a matching color (red, yellow, and green).
going to the big company like that... it reminds me of times when I visit Microsoft or google offices for a meetup or seminar. they got it made.

episode 7 - here's the action and the danger you asked for. this one felt more aggressive than those in the shopping center.

and the stakes are raised. AST must stand for A Shady Team.

I did appreciate the danger (and obvious cliffhanger), until that entire attack only scratched her cheek. Not to sound like mfauli, but this could really use some danger to make the stakes real. This narrative idealism, as if this were a magical girl show for little girls, betrays the show calling magical girls a 'respectable' occupation, as if it entailed real effort or danger/sacrifice. Between the tech-bro versus big corpo themes, shouldn't there have been at least mention of the dangers inherent to this job? I guess all the magical girls are really good at this and never make mistakes as far as we know?

8-9

So the tech expo was a vehicle for programmer boy to strut his stuff... after overcoming his social anxiety. At this point, magic is completely presented and handled as computer code, for better or worse. Magic operating on the 'something out of nothing' principle is a bit disappointing, but, given how low the bar is, any explanation at all of how magic works or is 'developed' puts this above ~90% of magic girl shows in its world building.

Sadly, the sluggish panel by panel adaptation isn't doing any favors for Magilumiere, as scenes with any supposed urgency fall victim to endless feeling 'anime time' that could have been avoided by a more skillful adaptation. When there is X amount of exposition needed to advance the story and only Y yen to animate it with, you have to get creative, or we get... this: boring generic shots of Kaii slithering while the pro magic girls... float and repeat programmer boy's name ad infinum; cut to self doubt monologue- then to flashback- then to hopeful resolution with the power of confidence and nerd-sourcing...

With some better editing of scenes to cut down on panning shots, perhaps interspersing the backstory segment across the entire expo (not just lumping it all in one scene) and giving the girls more to do or other objectives that didn't require flashy animation, this could have been much less of a slog to watch. Especially since the animation is buckling big time now.

Just a reminder that an adaptation can be more than a few key frames between trace overs of the original manga! The show is still barely holding on to me (specifically the tension with AST), but it could be dropped with as little as one more boring episode/arc.

Yes, the series suffers from un-inspired animation. It took me five episodes to tell the ED wasn't recycled animation, just extremely similar. not action enough, too many repeating or slow shots with the same music in a short timespan. one shot everything is clean and normal in the background, and then there's a shot to say "actually no, the hall is wrecked", but it didn't seem damaged before.

onto the episodes.

It's weird seeing that building used for any context other than comiket... I know it's the venue center for a lot of stuff, but I only see it depicted for that. It was weird that the lecture doesn't have chairs. are people really expected to stand there an hour and listen? those are adults that paid for entrance, you shouldn't treat them like that.
Magic is python. got it.
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weird that they randomize the power, cost and effect. but maybe it's a mocking class for testing purposes, who knows. No idea what the numbered labels are, maybe number of revisions on that line? doesn't seem right.
I can't imagine just opening the company codebase to someone, even if this wasn't a huge security and legal risk, I couldn't do it because of IT stuff, I guess them being a startup helped in this case.


as for real explanation for magic, I don't think the manga got in to it, but here's what we know.
1. men can't be magical boys because there's something wrong with their bodies.
2. there's no inherit thing needed to become a magic girl - no midichlorines or mana, it's just another job.
3. Kaiis are affected by magic, so there has to be something living to do magic, so you can't replicate it with just a machine.

episode 10: really? a child genius? in our somewhat realistic show about career-oriented adults?
episode 11: another matching eyes and hair, and it's a redhead! she looked better before transforming. also some backstory!

is next episode the finale?

episode 12: I think the finale battle could have been more exciting. oh well. Akane looks much better un-transformed, her magical custome is too read, and whoever colors the scenes knows it, since the transformation uses green as accented color, but it doesn't stick and becomes another shade of red. I don't know why we needed the ending song twice.

7.5/10 series all in all. held back by production values and by being in the middle of career slice of life show and action, so it has a much slower start.