This episode focused a lot more on plot development rather than humor. However, that isn’t to say that this episode wasn’t funny at all. Whenever the episode seemed to be getting too serious, there was always a line or a short little back and forth to make it light-hearted once again. Plus, I like that right out of the gate they acknowledged what kind of episode it was going to be, so we knew we were in for a good time. Like previous episodes, this one seemed to be broken into two sections: one on infiltrating Momo’s dream to take her blood and the other on taking care of Momo… and accidentally stealing blood in the process. So… at least Shamiko accomplished her goal!
In the first half of the episode Shamiko gets a visit from Lilith because her signal is particularly strong. And, while most characters in the anime seem to not be fans of Lilith, I’ve really enjoyed the episodes that she has been apart of. She adds a good dynamic to what’s going on, and quite frankly she seems to be moving most of the plot by coming up with new ways for Shamiko to overtake Momo. This time around Lilith convinces Shamiko to infiltrate Momo’s dream to obtain a bit of magical girl blood. However, once appearing in the dream we get something a little bit unexpected. The dream world is murky and generally against the entire bright and cute atmosphere in the rest of the anime. In the middle of all of this we see a younger version of Momo wallowing in the murk of the dream. This is likely to give a hint at what Momo’s time as a magical girl has been like, but not a whole lot. We’ve known from the previous episodes that she doesn’t like being a magical girl and that her experiences have not been great. So we… really didn’t get a whole lot more into her history, but boy it sure set us up for a ride.
However! Shamiko coming into to the dream to just clean up all the darkness really emphasizes the two’s relationship, at least in my opinion. Even though Shamiko aims to ultimately defeat Momo, she’s actually ended up brightening everything up. We’ve seen that Momo is generally happier around Shamiko, so in that respect, Shamiko is just cleaning up the darkness that Momo has held on to in real life. Sure, the dream was probably made for a joke, but that was my take on the whole situation.
Moving on to the second half Shamiko spends the remainder of the episode caring for Momo and we meet one of the best characters: the cat. Sure the cat only said 4 words, but man there was a talking cat! But aside from the cat, the rest of the episode was just really cute, especially watching Shamiko eat the “hamburg steak” that Momo had cooked. But in all of the fussing over Momo, the seal for Lilith was officially broken…. It was by mistake, but that goal was achieved!
Overall, I think this episode set us up for somethings to look forward in future episodes such as the two protecting the city together and learning more about Momo’s past. But! Our orange magical girl appeared in the preview so we’re finally going to meet her and I am very excited!
