Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 20 (Fin) – Festival Fever

Ryou-chan leads a confused Jahy to the pub to find that the Demon Lord twins assisted in its repairs, and everyone decided to throw a surprise farewell party for Jahy. In all of last week’s excitement, she completely forgot she told everyone she was quitting the manager’s pub forthwith and opening her own.

When Druj comes by and shows Jahy a quote for a twenty million yen spot for the restaurant, Jahy decides to leave everything to Druj, who of course is all too happy to take it all on and impress her Jahy-sama. No longer burdened with the details of her new restaurant, Jahy announces she’ll be continuing to work at the manager’s pub for a bit longer. The manager gathers her in a loving hug, and the farewell party becomes a welcome-back party.

The rest of the episode is given over to another kind of big bash: a shrine festival that takes over the shopping district. Jahy is once again in the dark about it, and declines when Kokoro asks if she’d like to join the kids shrine carry, since it sounds like a hassle. But when she learns there’s shop freebies and a prize to be had, and two boys are mean to her and Kokoro, she gets really into it, and ends up winning the childrens’ prize despite being a “grown-ass adult”, as Ryou-chan puts it.

Saurva makes a spectacular series curtain call by crashing the festival hoping to depose Jahy as the Number Two once and for all, only to get just as swept up in the festivities as Jahy was, only moreso. Unable to say no to the lovely manager, Saurva joins the adult shrine carry and keeps time at the front, then joins Ryou-chan in beating the shrine drum, and learning that Ryou-chan is as nice as her sister.

By the time Saurva encounters Jahy again and remembers what she originally came for, she’s decked out in full Brazilian Carnival get-up, marching down the streets, having the absolute time of her life. Their showdown is once again delayed…but it doesn’t really matter.

Later that night, Kokoro takes Jahy’s hand and leads her through the golden-lit festival stalls. Druj, Kyouko, Saurva, the manager, Ryou-chan, and the twins all spot Jahy and Kokoro as they pass, and follow them.

This results in the entire gang gathering atop a hill, the perfect vantage spot for the festival fireworks and a perfect way to end the series: with Jahy surrounded by friends and people she cares about, having fun by night and working hard by day. It’s all enough to make Jahy forget her original goal to restore the Dark Realm…even though it’s still written on her oversized shirt.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 19 – Sister Act

Druj is all ready to fight beside Jahy, but first reminices about how she was ostracized for her power to control the minds of others. She was ready to basically commit suicide until Jahy pulled her from the brink. It’s a heartwarming story, but Druj takes so long telling it that their opponent flees, so the two just spend the rest of the night drinking, something I very much would have liked to see.

Back at work, Jahy proves she’s not only great at serving tables, but also preparing the food. Kyouko suggests she could even open her own place with her skills, something Jahy hadn’t considered before but soon gets extremely into. Druj offers her services in finding the ideal location—and likely funding for said pub. Jahy tries to use the landlady as a taste tester, but she isn’t into it when Jahy gets all high and mighty about wanting to branch out on her own.

The manager, on the other hand, is nothing but supportive of Hy-chan going after her dream to open her own place, and even offers to help in any way she can. That’s when the weird sparkly horned ghost (which Jahy calls the “Grey Eminence”) appears behind the manager, asks if she wants power, and the manager says yes, she wants the power to support Jahy. Just like that, the manager becomes a Magical Girl.

When the Eminence tells Magical Girl Manager to steal Jahy’s crystals, the manager refuses, saying that’s not right, and if the Eminence wants them, she should sit down and talk about it with Hy-chan. Then the Eminence takes physical form as a white-and-pink Demon Lord clone. She’s about to attack Jahy when the Demon Lord steps in. Before you know it, both girls have grown to kaiju size and start battling each other.

Jahy does her best to stop the warring girls, but ends up damaging the façade of the pub. The manager is only able to use her magic to make flowers, so Jahy asks Kyouko to transform and buy them some time. Jahy then sprouts bat wings, flies between the fighting kaiju girls, and gets severely injured when she gets zapped by their rays.

When they realize they’ve hurt Jahy the girls return to normal size. The white and pink one admits she did all of this because she wanted her older sister, the Demon Lord, to pay attention to her. Indeed, she first turned Kyouko into a Magical Girl for that purpose, but Kyouko was more powerful than she expected and destroyed her sisters realm. Jahy is understandably quite pissed off that everything that’s happened to her was due to a spat between extremely powerful sisters.

Jahy isn’t satisfied with a half-hearted apology from the Demon Lord’s sister, whose name is Su, but the manager forgives Su, asks for everyone’s help in fixing her pub, and thanks Jahy for putting herself in danger to protect her, but kindly asks that she not be so reckless next time. All’s well that ends well, right where we left off before the manager’s transformation: will Jahy open her own pub?

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 18 – Show-Off Always Shown Up in Showdown

With her newly-attained Magical Girl-esque powers and new light-blue threads, Saurva believes she’s perfectly prepared to finally defeat Jahy and become the new Number Two. However, she is thrown completely off her game by the fact that Jahy can’t for the life of her remember who Saurva is, beyond the girl she cheered up in the park in her child form.

Saurva, tired of being ignored and mocked, unleashes a flurry of direct strikes with her glowing golden sword, but all she manages to do is improve Jahy’s circulation, along with tickling her and giving her an itch. Shocked and pained by the fact that the bargain she made with that glowing golden being didn’t actually, Saurva runs away in embarrassment, unable to accept Jahy’s pity. She vows to defeat Jahy with her own power…later.

Little does Saurva know that the worst thing you can do to Jahy is ignore her without explanation. That’s exactly what Kokoro does when she runs from Jahy. In wallowing in frustration, Jahy reveals to the landlady that yes, she has made a friend whom she doesn’t call an underling. The manager tells Jahy to open her heart to Kokoro and they’ll be able to make up. Sure enough, Kokoro isn’t even mad at Jahy; she just has a toothache and doesn’t want Jahy to catch it.

The golden being that briefly gave Saurva the illusion of power becomes a rumor among ordinary humans like the landlady and manager, describing a ghost that asks its victims if they want power and sucking out their souls if they say or even think that they do. Jahy thinks it’s all a bunch of codswallop…though considering the things she’s done and been through, she’s not exactly the best judge of codswallop.

That said, the golden ghost—or whatever it is—confronts Jahy on her way home. She insists she doesn’t want even a smidgen of power, but the being charges towards her before she has time to transform into adult mode. Fortunately Druj swoops in and saves her, reporting to Jahy that she’s been hunting the being ever since she became aware of its existence. Jahy determines the best course is for her and Druj to join forces to defeat this thing…whose horns and voice definitely suggest it could be a form of the Demon Lord.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 17 – A Better Bed to Lie In

While she was just a lowly underling in the Dark Realm, Druj has risen in the human world to lead a Fortune 500-equivalent company, and even launched a highly-successful line called For J, inspired exclusively by her desire to see Jahy in outfits other than her usual strappy black number.

But Druj is still miserable as long as she’s not by Jahy’s side, and furious when she finds out Kyouko works for her at her pub (even though Jahy neither employs Kyouko nor owns the pub). Druj still manages to divine a convoluted reasoning for Jahy is still the Same Old Jahy…without any input from Jahy needed.

Jahy has been doing well of late in all aspects of her life in the human world, but she can’t get a decent night’s sleep, and blames it on the grungy futon the landlady gave her when she first moved into her apartment. Feeling like she deserves a reward for everything she’s accomplished, he hits up a home goods store and buys the best futon they’ve got.

Ryou-chan comes by and tells Jahy she’s been scammed, but that claim is undone when moments after testing out the futon, both the landlady and Jahy fall right to sleep next to each other. This is the scene that greets the manager, who is happy to see what good friends Ryou-chan and Jahy have become.

Unfortunately, the sisters came to Jahy’s to deliver a spot of bad news: the water of the apartment building has to be shut off for three days. Instead of going without a sink and toilet for that time, they invite Jahy to their apartment above the pub instead.

Jahy accepts the offer, and suddenly her living situation has been upgraded considerably. Little does she know the manager had been hoping Jahy came around her place so she could dress her up in all of Ryou-chan’s old clothes and then snap photos of her. Like Druj, the landlady wants variety in Jahy’s wardrobe.

The reason the clothes fit now is that even in her child form, Jahy has physically grown since first arriving in the human world. Jahy warns the landlady that this also means she possesses the power to destroy her at any time, but the landlady trusts that Jahy would never do that. And judging from what we’ve seen of Jahy, she’s absolutely right.

Besides, the true destruction comes shortly after the manager suggests she, Ryou-chan and Jahy put their futons together for the night. That’s when Jahy learns that despite her sweet nature while awake, the landlady is an absolute menace while asleep, flopping around like a fish and throwing vicious kicks and jabs. Ryou-chan, obviously used to this, retreats to the edge of the room, while Jahy plans to return to her apartment ASAP.

The post-credits sequence is actually the most significant part of the episode, overarching plot-wise. At first it seems to be a series of running gags where the Magnificent Saurva thinks of various ways to torture and torment Jahy, all while doing good deeds around town: picking up litter, returning a lost girl to her mom, and helping an old lady across the street.

The dissonance between Saurva’s thoughts and actions and idea of herself as the ultimate Evil Bad Guy finally comes to a head when some kind of sparkly benevolent being—who vaguely resembles the Demon Lord and may be her good counterpart—bestows power upon Saurva, and turns her black uniform white.

It’s possible Saurva accidentally became a magical girl, as she’s given the same mission: destroy the mana crystals. In addition to being an interesting twist in Saurva’s fate and potentially setting up the series’ endgame, it’s also immensely funny development to behold.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 16 – A God Doesn’t Need a Reason

With Kyouko following Jahy around everywhere she goes, it was only a matter of time before she and Druj crossed paths, and the two are far too alike to get along…at least at first. Druj’s Hanazawa Kana and Uesaka Sumire’s Kyouko proceed to yell at each other over, while Jahy is caught in her web of lies.

Alas, they care less about calling out Jahy than proving to each other who is the better underling/friend, and Jahy is powerless to stop them from changing into their battle gear and storming out of the café to see who can collect the most crystals for her. It seems like a good deal to Jahy until she realizes she was left with the bill, and has to wash dishes.

Kyouko and Druj seem well on their way to gaining a reluctant respect for one another, only for the next segment to nix Druj altogether, and shoehorn in the Magnificent Saurva. She seems to have given up on potions and has gone full Wile E. Coyote to Jahy’s Road Runner, using her knowledge of metallurgy to create not one but three bear traps she calls “Chompy-Kun” Marks I-III.

Rather than Jahy, Kyouko gets caught in two of the three and ignores the third…to which Saurva simply forgot to add bait. While not Saurva’s best work, it was pretty funny for her to mistake Kyouko for an ordinary human only to witness Kyouko utterly destroy the two traps after only pretending to be hurt while caught in them in the hope Jahy will come to her aid (she doesn’t).

The Kyouko-heavy episode continues with a peek at her mornings with the Dark Lord at her creepy house, which consists of making herself and the Lord a lunch only for the Lord to inhale it before Kyouko walks out the door. Worse still, the Dark Lord stows away in Kyouko’s bag while she’s at school.

Kyouko eventually determines that the Dark Lord came to bring her the lunch she forgot, but the rice grains on the Lord’s face should be a dead giveaway the Lord is simply handing her an empty bento. That said, Kyouko has reached a state where her dark and threatening aura is gone, and friends want to eat lunch with her.

Kyouko’s no longer alone at home, at school, or at work, which all but completes her establishment as the series’ deuteragonist, complete with an arc containing highs and lows. But having spent a fair amount of time with the Dark Lord, she wants to know from Jahy if the Lord is really as powerful an entity as Jahy has always claimed.

Jahy will brook no disrespect from her Lord, whom she believes is no different or less significant than a god…her god. But her “story” about how she and the Dark Lord “came to be”—in which Jahy simply spoiled the shit out of the do-nothing Lord—exposes Jahy as not much different than not only Kyouko, but Druj as well.

At the end of the day Jahy doesn’t care if the Dark Lord was, is, and will always be a layabout, bone-idle NEET who only eats, sleeps, and leaves messes for others, and plays pranks. She is the Dark Lord, and that is the one and only fact that matters to Jahy as far as her devotion is concerned.

As Jahy and Kyouko head to their shift at the pub, the episode seems poised to end on a sinister note, as the Dark Lord follows Kyouko in her energy form, then perches herself atop an electric pole in wait. It’s a fake-out; when Kyouko returns home, the Dark Lord is asleep in the middle of the main room, surrounded by the remains of all of Kyouko’s snacks. Why would a god ever change?

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 15 – Shokugeki no Jahy

With the Dark Lord restored and her nemesis now her pawn, Jahy wants a reward for all this progress in the form of her dear friend Kokoro’s company and praise. Unfortunately, Kyouko is still following Jahy around like a lost puppy. When Jahy takes Kokoro and runs, Kyouko assumes it’s a game of tag and chases after them with her Magical Girl Speed.

When hopes of Kyouyko being carted off by the cops are dashed, Jahy finds herself in the awkward position of having to admit that Kyouko (whose name she just learns now) is a friend. Not only that, she has to come to terms with the fact that Dear Kokoro belongs to no one, and she is biologically incapable of not becoming friends with someone.

Thus, Jahy must adjust to the fact her playdates will consist of both Kokoro and Kyouko. Yet when she heads to work looking forward to being away from her, she learns Kyouko has responded to a flyer for a part-time job, and the manager hires her on the spot. Now Kyouko is her friend and co-worker.

At first, Jahy is happy for the prospect of extra help—she’s asked for it in the past—but as expected, Kyouko is as big an accident-prone klutz serving customers as she is defeating evil as a magical girl. Jahy only salvages the situation by wowing the customers with feats of balance and dexterity…catching everything Kyouko drops.

Kyouko is discouraged when Jahy orders her to stop doing…everything and just stand back and observe, but the manager assures her it will be okay. Jahy, after all, was horrible when she first started, but as the manager has come to learn, Jahy will give something she cares about her all.

Thanks to Jahy’s diligent training, Kyouko ends up learning the ropes fast and finding her footing. It also has to help that Jahy found a tiny mana crystal in Kyouko’s hair, which must have been causing at least some of her serving mishaps.

Jahy exhibits her typical snobbishness in foisting something the manager wants help with on Kyouko, only to parkour herself over to the dining area with fork and knife in hand when she learns that something is a taste test for new menu items, starting with stewed flounder.

While Kyouko offers gourmet criticism that wouldn’t be out of place in Food Wars (and must indeed be a nod to that franchise), Jahy is more cryptic, both because she’s not so well-versed in food critic-speak, but also because she wants to use this opportunity to eat tasty food for free…which is truly the feral demoness we know and love.

As a result, Jahy is able to sample ginger pork and then cubed Wagyu steak. Eating meat revitalizes her like nothing else, as she’d become so used to bean sprouts due to her low budget. But the steak gives her a full-on Food Wars-style foodgasm, metaphorically stripping her clothes off and sending her straight to steak nirvana.

What makes all this indulgence possible are two key qualities of the manager and Kyouko: the former has been overthinking her menu so much she’s not thinking straight, while the latter is so deferent and adoring of her first and best friend that she’s not thinking straight either. In the absence of better judgment, Jahy is able to feast to her dark heart’s content.

Unfortunately someone who does have better judgment (at least when she’s not knocking back booze) arrives in the form of the landlady, who stops this charade by very clearly identifying what’s going on here (Jahy just wants food) and vetoing the choice of steak on the menu (since they’d never make a profit).

Then the Demon Lord shows up out of nowhere, drawn to the pub by some combination of her meal ticket Kyouko, Jahy’s mana crystals, and the smell of delicious food. She polishes off all the food and wants more, but Kyouko cuts her off before she can cause lasting damager to the manager’s business.

The lord is upset, but Kyouko mitigates that by promising she can have her choice of anything at the konbini on their way home. Jahy has to watch in outrage as her Demon Lord walks away hand-in-hand with Kyouko. If Jahy could out-feed her superior, she could defeat Kyouko in this fresh predicament. Alas, bean sprouts aren’t going to get it done…

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 14 – Second in Command, but Third to Food

Here it is: the epic battle between light and dark that Jahy has been looking forward to, but only recently become powerful enough to fight: a duel with the Magical Girl. As they fight, Kyouko says Jahy knows nothing about her, about the loneliness she’s felt, and her calling to erase all misfortune from humanity. But even when she disarms and bests Kyouko, this new Jahy tempered by human kindness and generosity stays her hand.

She’s not too proud to admit that she would never have collected the crystals she needed, or even survived in this strange new human world, were it not for the help and love of others, from Manager and Landlady to Kokoro and Druj. Kyouko being utterly alone in both her life and mission is the reason Jahy can defeat her, but also the reason she won’t: no one person should have to bear everything alone.

So thetwo make peace, and Kyouko embraces “Jahy-kun” as her first and only friend. Since she’s so rusty in social skills, her manner of trying to get Jahy to hang out borders on stalking and harrassment, but the promise of the all-important snacks finally wears Jahy down. That, and the fact she assumes Kyouko to be loaded and have a nice place.

She does not. Her house, while large and grand, is run down and “riddled with calamity”. Floors and ceilings crumble above and below even the tiny Jahy’s feet. It’s no surprise the house is in this state: this is where Kyouko has stored all of the crystals she’s amassed. One wonders how Druj’s employees dealt with the misfortune of handling and sotring industrial levels of crystals.

The epicenter of misfortune is the crystal storage room itself, which Kyouko warns Jahy has been haunted by a “shade” after dark of late. Jahy, spooked but determined to get to the bottom of this, opens the door to reveal…Maou, The Demon Lord. Jahy later explains that the mana crystals themselves represent the Demon Lord, and Kyouko must’ve simply collected enough to bring her back into being…albeit in lil’ squirt-sized form like Jahy herself.

Jahy is absolutely over the moon to reunite with her one and only superior, and Kyouko provides tea, snacks, juice, and eventually a huge spread of delivery delicacies for the celebration. Maou says nothing and only eats and drinks. Even when she eats everything, leaving Jahy nothing, Jahy is happy, as her lord was only just restored and needs her energy. There’s a little bit of Druj in Jahy’s demeanor towards Maou, in that Maou can do no wqrong in her eyes.

Kyouko has already stated that she harbored no ill will towards the Dark Realm itself, and regrets destroying it. Her journey as a magical girl began when she rescued a drowning kitty, only to fall into the water herself. Rather than dying, she was met by a bright light and a benevolent voice, that made her into a magical girl and gave her the mission to free humanity from misfortune by collection all the mana crystals.

I loved how beautiful and dramatic this sequence was, contrasted with Kyouko’s and the show’s usual goofiness. It strikes the right balance of helping us learn about and empathize with Kyouko’s own plight, while still maintaining that she is, and always will be…just a lot.

This means if the Dark Realm is going to be restored and stay restored, that mysterious voice must be identified and dealt with. In the meantime, while Kyouko wishes to dedicated every waking moment of her life to being by Jahy-kun’s side and assisting her, Jahy is content to simply go back to her home with Maou. Only…Maou doesn’t want to go with her.

On the contrary, she runs over to Kyuouko and hugs her instead! And why? Simple: Kyouko gave her food. Was that the secret to gaining the Demon Lord’s favor all along…just keeping her fed and happy, like a stray kitten? If so, it isn’t mana crystals Jahy needs, but cash to buy more delicious snacks. In this endeavor, it would probably be wise to join forces with Kyouko rather than try to compete.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 13 – Punching the Shark

The first half is a Jahy beach episode. Jahy is vibeing on her newly-found mana crystal and eager to find some more, but the manager and landlady insists she work at their uncle’s seaside restaurant. Every time Jahy tries to rush out into the sea to look for crystals, she’s lured back by yakisoba, ice cream, and the threat of being docked pay.

But the fact that the normally packed restaurant is almost empty, and it starts pouring when there was no rain in the forecast, and couples get in fights and lots of people end up in danger in the ocean, means that there must be mana crystals nearby, casuing all that misfortune. In the process of narrowing down exactly where they are, Jahy ends up rescuing dozens of people.

When it starts getting dark, the manager and landlady insist she give it up and come inside, but Jahy doesn’t give up, and she is rewarded in the eleventh hour with a bonanza of mana crystals. They’re small, but she harvests two big buckets worth of them, meaning she’s never been in a better position to take on the magical girl.

If she’d simply accept what must by not be several warehouses full of crystals from her underling Druj, Jahy might’ve already defeated the magical girl and restored the Dark Realm. But she’s never even considered taking Druj’s haul. Druj, who is having a bad stretch, is immediately cheered up when she spots Jahy (who is waiting for Kokoro), but is worried that living with humans has changed Jahy.

Praising her hard work, letting her sit next to her, telling her not to work too hard…this is not the Jahy Druj knows and loves, and because she’s an incurable masochist, she simply isn’t satisfied until Jahy berates or abuses her. Jahy goes just far enough to placate Druj, who goes on her merry way very much convinced Jahy-sama is the same second-in-commander who made her fill the holes she dug and threw wine in her face.

But we know better: Jahy’s insistence she’s the same is just another piece of the throne of lies she’s built around herself to save face with Druj. And I highly doubt she’ll go back to being an evil villainess after thirteen episodes of hanging with humans.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 12 – All Dogs Go to the Dark Realm

This fun grab-bag of Jahy-sama situations begins with the most Wile E. Coyote-ish: Jahy finding a big mana crystal but assuming it’s a Magical Girl trap. While she analyzes all the ways she could be done in, the manager shows up and prepares to pick it up.

That’s when we see how much living among humans has made Jahy a better person: she dives at the rock to save the manager at the potential cost of her own life. She was scared to grab it before, but when her friend is in danger, she didn’t hesitate.

That acquired Jahy-sama goodness shows up again when she’s surveying the upgraded playground. While she’s trying to focus on looking for crystals, she can’t help but think of how to make Kokoro happy by going on the slide, the wobbly bridge (a favorite of wee me) or picking a flower for her. Then she spots Kokoro being accosted by two men, and again springs into action.

Turns out one of the men was just helping her up after she tripped, and Jahy committed unnecessary assault. When she spots the police, she runs for it, as she abhors any authority other than her own, and the police, with nothing better to do, give chase. Jahy ends up back at the station for questioning. Perhaps she shouldn’t have kicked that guy, but in the heat of the moment she put her beloved Kokoro’s safety first, so I can’t fault her.

Our next segment is another welcome Saurva-centric one. This time she’s completed “Woof Woof DX”, a potion that will transform Jahy into a subservient pup and give Saurva the second-in-command mantle she desires above all else.

Making the potion took many sleepless nights, and in her fatigue, Saurva accidentally drinks the potion instead of her matcha, and transforms into the very dog she intended Jahy to become. Not just physically, mind you…but mentally, Saurva starts acting more like a dog, despite herself.

This results in her running around outside instead of staying home and waiting for the potion to wear off. She encounters the white dog who chased her as a human, then encounters Jahy, and learns the unparalleled joys of having your tummy rubbed and playing fetch.

Later, when Dog!Saurva encounters the landlady she fears so much, she recoils, but soon learns the lady’s kinder side, as she leaves her umbrella behind to keep Saurva out of the rain. She concludes that people are nicer to dogs than her, and just when she gets used to the idea of being a dog a little longer, she turns back into a human…a naked human. This begs the question: she were arrested, who would she call?

The final segment post-credits is about the dangers of gambling. Jahy just wants to take Kokoro out for a shopping trip to the mall for snacks, but gets overly competitive over a crane game, and soon spends all of her money trying to get a big bag of snacks that costs far less than she put into the game.

It matters not in the end, as Jahy gets a lucky roll and wins the snacks with her last 100-yen coin. The taste of the steak and strawberry snacks is enhanced by the taste of victory, and having again proven her greatness to her dear Kokoro. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler!

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 11 – Odd Couple

When Jahy’s manager starts growing cherry tomatoes outside the pub, Jahy follows suit, planting seeds in a pot and basically trying to assert her old Dark Realm authority to compel them to sprout. Initially it doesn’t go so well, but with enough water, sunlight, and bug repellant, her plant soon flourishes and bears fruit…in the form of red-hot habanero peppers.

Jahy’s solitary apartment existence is suddenly upheaved when the landlord has a fight with her sister and moves in with Jahy. When Jahy asks why she doesn’t just move into the vacant apartment next door, the landlord says she’d be lonely. Jahy can’t turn down an offer of free rent, but the landlord soon proves to be an unruly roommate, making messes and stealing blankets left and right.

Jahy gets a reprieve from her landlord roomie when she joins Druj at a fancy cafe for a meeting over the progress of collecting mana crystals. Druj has actually collected quite a lot of crystal shards large and small, but believes her rather impressive progress to be woefully insufficient for her dark mistress (Druj is the queen of optimistic assumptions).

Even when Jahy’s lie about defeating the Magical Girl is immediately debunked by the sight of her, Jahy simply declares the flashily-dressed girl as her newest underling, which only makes Druj want to work harder to prove she’s superior to a lowly human.

Jahy returns home to find that the landlord has done precisely none of the housework she was supposed to do, and learns that the landlord is in fact terrible at housework, since she live with her big sister who takes care of it. When her sister calls her, Jahy forces the landlord to take the call, and after a few minutes, the ordeal is over and the landlord moves back in with her sister.

Turns out their “big fight” was about the manager wearing her shirts and stretching them out with her ample bosom. But Jahy was right: when you have a home to go home to and someone waiting for you to return, it’s just selfish not to go back. As for Jahy, she longs to restore her home, and that of the Dark Lord, of whom we catch a glimpse for the first time this week.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 10 –Magical Girl Envy

Kokoro is running to the park hoping to help look for mana crystals with Jahy-sama when she runs into a street without looking both ways, a big anime kid move. Fortunately for Kokoro, the magical girl Jinguu Kyouko is on the job, and stops the truck dead in its tracks with one hand. Kokoro is, quite understandably, immediately impressed by the big strong magical girl.

When Kokoro tells Jahy about this, the notion of Kyouko stealing Kokoro’s heart along with her crystal simply will not do. So Jahy reveals her true adult form to Kokoro, who is thoroughly impressed. Kokoro also asks Jahy to lift a huge rock and demonstrate some magic, and Jahy has no choice but to oblige her, lest Kokoro think less of her than Kyouko. The cost of using so much of her mana? She’s unable to work her shift at the pub, since she can’t maintain her adult form.

The next evening when she’s back on duty, the manager’s constant (and earned) praise rubs Jahy the wrong way. Hiring more employees aside, Jahy is frustrated that by adapting to living with and working with (and for) humans, she’s losing what makes Jahy…Jahy. Despite these feelings, her mouth keeps smiling, her feet keep moving, and she keeps completing orders.

Suddenly feeling like nothing more than the manager’s puppet, Jahy runs out into the alley to cry between two bags of trash. Manager comes out to try to comfort her, saying the reason she’s smiling so much is because she’s having fun working. And because she has fun working, she should get back to work. Jahy almost “falls” for the manager’s genuine sentiments, but suspects her boss is trying to pull the strings again.

In the final segment, Jahy follows Kyouko as misfortune after misfortune befalls her, in an effort to “beat her to a pulp” and steal her crystal back once Kyouko is sufficiently physically and mentally exhausted. The problem is, no matter what happens to Kyouko, she bears it like an absolute champ, because she’s a ridiculously strong magical girl. Kyouko is happy to bear the burdens that might otherwise hurt others or make them cry.

For a brief moment, Jahy actually feels a measure of sympathy and even respect for her nemesis, but then remembers that she’s never going to get her crystals or her realm back if she feels bad for the enemy. And so we arrive at the halfway point in Jahy-sama’s 20-episode run with the central plot brought back into the foreground. Will the second half spend less time on slice-of-life and more on Jahy achieving her seemingly impossible goals? Either way, I’ll be tuning in.

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 09 – Jahyat Emptor

After last week’s charming Druj-centric episode, we get a substantial serving of The Magnificent Saurva, which totally sounds like a Mad Max character. Specifically, we get the bathhouse segment from her POV, and learn that she just wanted somewhere to get away from worrying about defeating Jahy.

Instead, Jahy steals half of her fancy shampoo! Saurva also slips on soap, but lands in the soft bosom of the manager, thus attaining the peace she originally sought.

The next segment is something totally different, as Jahy gets her monthly paycheck and decides to hit up a home goods megastore to stock up on weapons with which to defeat the Magical Girl (who doesn’t appear this week, and remains menacing in her mere absence, like in Jaws or Alien).

Unfortunately, Jahy is extremely suceptable to the hard sell, and marketing in general, and ends up blowing her pay on a bunch of mostly useless junk.

In the next segment Jahy prepares birdlime and other traps at the entrance and window of her apartment in order to trap an attacking Magical Girl. By doing so, she traps herself in, and she has to wait for a Magical Girl that may never come.

Fortunately, Kyou comes in to unknowingly save Jahy from being trapped forever, and as thanks, Jahy takes not a bullet, but a washtub to the head to protect Kyou. It’s a sweet little moment that shows how close they’ve become.

We’re back to Saurva in the fourth and final segment, as she has nightmares about Jahy (and Kyou) and sits in the park feeling sorry for herself. That’s when she finds a little girl with Jahy’s complexion and hair whom she still doesn’t realize is Jahy, but is amazed by how hard she’s fighting against three crows stealing her lunch.

Lil’ Jahy ends up giving Saurva some encouraging advice not to let a few failures get her down and keep doing her best. Alas, when Saurva finds a pissed adult Jahy aggressively waiting tables on an unusually busy weeknight at the craft pub, Saurva decides not to attack quite yet, but give it some time…what’s the rush?

Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai! – 08 – Too Much of a Good Thing

After a thoroughly unpleasant cold bath in her cramped metal tub, a hungry Jahy wanders the streets until picked up by a giant white limo sent by, who else, her trusty attendant Druj. A sumptuous feast of sweets awaits her, and a remote control transports her into starry space. She doesn’t want the ultimately short ride to end; she wants to live in that limo.

However, duty calls. Druj, who is the president of a profitable consulting firm, wants Jahy to give a motivational speech to some young corporate recruits. While I thought Jahy might get stage fright from being out of the spotlight for so long, she ends up having no problem taking the stage and speaking…if only the overeager Druj would let her speak.

The raucous applause that follows Jahy’s time on stage doesn’t please her in the least, because Druj kept interrupting her with what she expected her to say. In a way, perhaps Druj was actually protecting Jahy from embarassing herself by sounding like a chuuni, but on the limo ride back Jahy looks suddenly disillusioned with all the preferential treatment. When Druj invites her to a party, she cheers up a bit.

At work, the manager notices Jahy is smelling a little ripe, the product of only bathing once every three days—and without hot water or soap. This is how Jahy discovers an absolutely kick-ass bathhouse within walking distance of the pub. In addition to vicariously enjoying the simple pleasures of hot water, steam, and sweet-smelling shampoo, Manager can’t help but pamper Jahy (especially when she’s in child form), all while Saurva creepily lurks in the background.

The night of Druj’s Dark Realm party arrives, and at first it’s a lovely simulacrum of Jahy’s former lifestyle, complete with decent approximations of Dark Realm delicacies and using Druj as a chair. But there are constantly little real-world interruptions that ruin the fantasy for Jahy, such as when Druj, while still being sat on, switches to Corporate Mode on her cell.

I have no doubt Jahy appreciates Drujs’ not inconsiderable efforts to make her feel like she’s back home, but the bottom line is she’s not home, and her home doesn’t exist anymore because she wasn’t strong enough to protect it. After the evening of fun, Jahy returns to her ratty apartment and cries bitter tears over things lost, and frustration at her lack of progress.

So she runs inside and basically howls at the moon that she basically won’t let herself be defeated. It’s moments like these when we see the real vulnerable Jahy that have really endeared her to me as a character. Much like Nagatoro, she contains multitudes…nearly all of them charming and adorable.