In a break from previous episodes, there’s barely any Utena or Kiwi in this one. Instead, Hanabishi Haruka gets to shine as the unofficial “Team Mom” of Tres Magia. When Kaoruko points out how Sayo hasn’t been on her A game lately and Sayo fires back, Haruka breaks up the fight, knowing above all, they must remain positive.
It’s also established that Haruka is an extremely kindhearted girl, if a bit weird in her dietary habits. When she sees Korisu not playing with the other girls in the park, she approaches her and speaks to her through a cute little doll keychain, then spends all afternoon playing with her.
When Haruka has to end their impromptu playdate to go grocery shopping, Korisu isn’t quite ready to stop playing. And while Haruka learned her lesson not to wander into strange places, a giant stuffed animal grabs her and carries her in.
She comes to in a giant crib, not just looking and feeling like a baby, but believing herself to be one, forgetting that she’s a magical girl. She starts to cry because she’s all alone, but Adult Neroalice is there to hold, comfort, feed, and play with her.
When the “spell” on Haruka starts to wear off, she transforms back into her older self, only without pants, and Neroalice in the middle of changing her due to all the milk she’s been drinking. This is when the fantasy of being transformed into a literal infant shifts to full-on paraphilic infantilism.
With Haruka back to her normal size and knowing who she is, the illusion is broken, and Neroalice opens a portal to leave. But sensing how much fun Neroalice was having and not wanting her to be sad, Haruka keeps the baby play going of her own volition.
That’s how kind Haruka is: even if a little girl wants to pretend she’s a big baby, feed her too much milk, make her wet herself, and then change her, Haruka will let her do it, because it’s better than that little girl feeling sad or lonely. And while this marks two straight episodes where Neroalice does some pretty freaky shit to magical girls, there’s an inherent innocence to her that Kiwi and even Utena lack.
While Haruka is being babied, Kaoruko recalls when she was first attacked by a monster and beat the shit out of it, impressing Haruka and Sayo, the only two members of … Dos Magia at the time. Haruka’s “unabashed positivity” eventually gets to Kaoruko, and she agreed to join them and make them Tres.
She may find Haruka to be wierdo, annoying, or too motherly at times, but on the whole Kaoruko is glad to call her a friend and to fight beside her, even if their battles haven’t been going too well of late. When she and Sayo sense trouble and find Haruka in the park Winnie the Poohing it, they ask her what happened to her.
Haruka, not wanting to be mean even to her Enormita foe (and also not wanting to reveal that their team mom was a baby for an afternoon), just tells them whatever it was, she feels good. I love how she puts it, because you could construe it either as her having had fun keeping a lonely little girl entertained, or having oddly enjoyed wetting herself. WhyNotBoth.gif?
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