We finally get to see the difference between a small start-up like Magilumiere, and AST the biggest Magical Girl company in the business! And I got to say, it’s not really a great environment to work at. Its president Koga, is something akin to someone who wants to be an “evil boss” and is all about wealth and efficiency in his company. So naturally he has no qualms about headhunting a magical girl of interest from another company to bring to his, or destroying a space or something precious to get the job done. (It was also alluded that Kana may eventually be targeted to bring into his fold in the future for her memory power, as I highly doubt Hitomi would even consider the offer if made to her.)
Speaking of, we also got the chance to meet a famous magical girl from AST. She is regarded as the best in the field. It costs a pretty penny to hire her for the jobs, and that makes her AST’s most profitable magical girl. But Hitomi doesn’t like her, and understandably so. Mei is known for her habits of swooping in onto other people’s commissions without asking. While they will still get paid for it, not only is it disrespectful, but it’s not a good look either. Clients could potentially get the wrong idea that they are incapable of taking care of the matter themselves. The more respectful and appropriate approach would be responding to the calls that actually are calling for backup. Anyhow, it’s certainly one way to trample on one’s confidence and pride. Hard to say whether she’s really doing this with good intentions in mind, or it’s because she thinks of them incompetent, or just single-minded when it comes to the cleanup. Frankly it’s impossible to get a good read on this girl at the moment.
Fortunately it was probably for the best that she was not around when Magilumiere got the call to deal with a serious Kaii outbreak at an old shopping district. The problem was that existing spells in the books to deal with the Kaii spread would cause irreparable damage, and it’d essentially be wiped out. Kana didn’t fully understand that at first, which was why she was getting frustrated and confused as to why they wouldn’t use the most ‘practical’ spell in the book. Furthermore, she didn’t understand their aesthetic. It was only after Hitomi told her to survey the area that she finally understood wide-range spell was too powerful for the old buildings in the shopping district. They needed a different solution. The problem was the solution wasn’t something that existed in the manuals, so that left her to suggesting an alternative solution, which lead to Kazuo and Boss (who also turned out to be a magic engineer, and a brilliant one at that), to literally create a brand new spell from scratch to provide the solution to their problem (in 15 minutes no less!). That is their aesthetic. It’s not always about relying on the books. It’s important to go to the site and adapt accordingly to the environment. If a new spell needs to be crafted, that’s exactly what they’ll do to get the job done!
In contrast to this, we know that President Koga’s ways of doing things would just straight up blown up the old shopping district, and simply tell the people to rely on the insurance given to them for the damages. But insurance will never be able to cover the loss of something or a place with deep history or sentiment. That’s that’s the difference between the large corp like AST and a small start-up like Magilumiere.
In response to Magilumiere’s consideration for the community, Kana was able to experience being the place of receiving gratitude for their thoughtfulness. It was especially sweet to see the little girl give them a drawing of the two of them. It reminded her why she’s grateful to have landed this job with this company.
November 16th, 2024 Status Update: Dropped
Reason: I need to cutback on my workload at the moment (unfortunately this may not be the only show I have to drop this season), and while I’m enjoying the show a lot especially with the recent episode, I’ve concluded I get more enjoyment out of watching than covering.
Note: Ep 5 entry will be released as a double-post w/Ep 6 next week.
Update: No new entry this week. I’ve been dealing with severe migraines for the past few weeks and it’s really taken a toll on me. I’ve been contemplating whether I need to reduce my workload for this season because of it, so I’m going to allow myself to get some extra rest this weekend and see how my condition is by next weekend.