Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 4: Add More Friends!

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

I’m honestly shocked. Swim Swim is terrifying.

I told you. I told you, that Swim Swim was someone to look out for, but not for the reason that happened this episode. I thought she would be dangerous because she was so loyal to Ruler, that she would do absolutely anything for her. But instead, she betrayed Ruler and basically killed her with her own two hands. And what makes her even more terrifying is that she’s a little girl.

Should I feel sympathy for Ruler? I sort of felt bad for her, but I saw her death coming but not this soon. But still, should I feel sympathy? Her attitude in school, I didn’t understand. But I can understand her frustration in her office job where she was made to brew tea and make copies of documents, typical among female workers unfortunately. Being disrespected and her proposals being rejected was also sad to see. But her ego was so large that my sympathy for her was pretty much disappearing. I felt at times that she cared about her group, but seeing as how she always called them idiots and trash and recruited them because they were stupid and easily manipulated just made me annoyed with her. She was basically a dictator. No, she was a dictator and she got what she deserved. Manipulative of those weaker than her, taking complete control, and dividing the Magical Candies in a way that would mostly benefit her, of course they all got sick of her crap. But the coup d’etat was certainly wasn’t what I was expecting.

It’s interesting how all actions have their consequences. I didn’t think the last dream Nemurin visited would be all that important, but the fact that Ruler was in it raised a lot of questions. But the fact that it was Swim’s dream was surprising! The little girl is Swim! The fact that Nemu’s words with innocent intentions caused all of this to happen is even more messed up.

A simple plan was made where the twins would distract La Pucelle and take her away from Snow White so Swim Swim and Ruler could corner her and steal her candies. Ruler’s power was being able to make anyone do anything she wanted them to do by pointing her staff at them, so while she ordered Snow not to move, Swim took her phone and transferred all the candies into her own phone so she would be able to divide them with the others. The angels were having a hard time with La Pucelle because she’s so strong. We got a mini battle which wasn’t too flashy but still entertaining to watch. But the plan went through and Snow White was absolutely devastated her candies were gone. La Pucelle offered her candies and to go after them, but when they check her Magical Phone, they are met with a surprise.

It turns out, not all of her candies her taken, but only half. In total, amazingly, Koyuki was able to accumulate 50,000 candies, but Swim only took 25,000. Now, I know Snow has an advantage when it comes to doing good deeds, since her power is hearing the voices of those that need help, but how was she able to get that many candies in just one week?! Helping people out of a burning house was a little over 400 candies, but it’s hard to find events like that all the time. She needs to go to school from the morning to the afternoon, so the free time she has from the evening to maybe midnight, she must have been moving like crazy. the numbers confuse me, but that’s actually not too important here.

Swim turned on Ruler. Swim only took half of Koyuki’s total and distributed the Candies among all the girls except for Snow, La Pucelle, and Ruler. That put Ruler in last place and she met her fate. One thing I didn’t understand was Ruler’s death. Where did the blood come from? Did the twins or Swim stab her? Nemu died from a heart attack in her sleep, but where did Ruler’s blood come from? Well…

The thing with Swim, she admired Ruler. After disposing her corpse we saw a tear from her. But Swim wanted to be a princess, just like Nemurin told her, but she couldn’t do that with Ruler in the way. To be a princess, she needed to get rid of Ruler. Wanting to be a princess, that is something a little girl would want. But the fact that this same little girl also elaborately planned to only take half of the candies and make sure Ruler would have the least in the end, knowing full well that she would die, is…scary. It was a smart plan, and this kid was able to make it happen. And now she’s taking the leadership role. Now, I see problems along the way. Swim is a little girl that only cares about being a princess, so I’m not sure if she has those leader qualities. But the fact that she was able to come up with a devious plan makes me think that it might work…for awhile. It’s possible the angels might turn on her too. Tama, I’m sure she’s going to probably leave the group eventually. Another problem is that I think it was a little hasty that they went with the coup d’etat so soon. Now they’re going to be targets among the other magical girls and I don’t think they’re prepared for that.

This show isn’t the bloodbath I was expecting, but it’s still very dark. So far it’s more of a psychological battle but it’s probably going to get much more violent later. La Pucelle promising that she’s going to protect Snow just raised another death flag, so now I’m worried. Still, I think Tama is probably going to die next, poor thing. At the end of the episode, Top Speed and Ripple meet with Sister Nana and Winterprison, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen. Top Speed thinks they probably want to team up with them, and I want to believe that, but after the events of this episode, I wouldn’t be surprised if this sweet nun turns on them. Also, we saw the new magical girl!

One thing I appreciate about this show are the different age ranges we have. Ruler and Nemu were adults, we know Ripple is in high school, Snow and Sou-chan are in middle school, and we now know that Swim has to be in elementary school. Also, a boy being a magical girl is still cool. But now it makes you wonder how old everyone is, and if knowing their ages will give people more sympathy to the younger ones. I’m not so sure though, what with Swim. And those twins, who I’m guessing are pretty young. They scare me.