Randomness And 4th Wall Breaks – Mahou Shoujo Ore Midseason Review

Unlike @cmdrcluckcluck, I do not refuse to refer to Magical Girl Ore by it’s English name, so heads up I may shift between the two as I write about this hilarious show. Picking up from where CmdrCluckCluck left off, we see the show getting crazier and crazier, with our protagonist Saki’s best friend, Sakuyo, turning into a magical girl after declaring “I love Saki! In a sexual way!” leaving absolutely no ambiguity about her feelings in a very clear and concise manner. This leads to a rather entertaining response as well as being elaborated upon in the form of a flashback that is also recognized in a 4th wall break per the theme of the show. Through this flashback we find that the same scene where Saki fell in love with Mohiro (Sakuyo’s brother and much more successful idol) is because of Sakuyo trying to become a better singer to gain Saki’s attention, then getting lost in the forest. While some people feel it dragged on too long, I felt it was rather entertaining and refreshing to see someone being blunt and perfectly fine with being open about their feelings especially in a same sex pairing.

Afterwards we have a rather violent scene with Sakuyo recreating Fist of The Blue Sky North Star complete with AH-TATATATATATATA sound effect where she brutalizes the adorable daemons in an off screen shot of violence. After this, the girls become discovered by their manager in their Magical Girl forms and are offered a better deal as idols in this form. When they go off to make their debut, we see the TV station assaulted and the arrival of another hero, the Cyborg Fujimoto who is a poor cyborg hero. During the assault, Mohiro and others are captured by the daemons and Sakuyo and Saki respond in a fashion with which I can completely agree. Total and wanton violence directed towards the daemons, resulting in a necessary censoring as shown below.

Afterwards, we hit an episode of almost unbearable levels of meta. We have the Cyborg Fujimoto team (as there are really 6 of them a la Power Rangers Super Sentai) essentially battling a meta Godzilla-esque monster under the guise of how anime deadlines, budgets, and managerial oversight. Not going to lie to you, pretty sure more folk can identify different references and nuances in the episode, but I don’t remember a show this confusingly in depth on the meta-ness since Anime Gataris. After this we jump to Magical Twin on their way to a karaoke event, with Mohiro and his suspicious AF partner Hyoue wrapping a music video shoot near by. This episode hits a rather random note in that we have comical moments with Saki accidentally saying Mohiro’s name and transforming while in the baths during the “Men’s Only” time slot and is trapped there trying to maintain her erection Magical Girl form by constantly looking at her beloved. Sakuyo stumbles upon a daemon retreat at the hot springs and proceeds to handle them as per usual (unrestricted violence) and Mohiro and Saki are stuck in the Sauna, with Mohiro thinking Saki (as Ore) is entering into a manly competition with him. Eventually relenting, Mohiro leaves and Sakuyo distracts him and rescues Saki from the sauna after having passed out.

All in all, I find this show a great laugh with some funny moments but some things just seem a bit disjointed. I do really enjoy the music and animation, and the VA work is really on par with many other shows. Additionally, the entire premise where they don’t beat around the bush with unrequited love is refreshing and sells it to me. On the other hand, there’s a couple of other magical girl shows this season that have me sold both as alternative magical girls like Hinamatsuri (my personal favorite as of right now for the season) and Magical Girl Site, which is another side of this alternate Magical Girl genre in that it is horribly violent but also depressing instead of funny. I’m going to keep giving it a shot and hopefully I’ll be able to justify watching and enjoying this quaint and funny show.