Gushing over Magical Girls – 13 (Fin) – Love’s a Game of Give and Take

Vena gives the Enormita girls a much-deserved day off at the beach. Utena rejects the tiny purple micro bikini Kiwi picked out for her, going with a cute lilac one piece instead. Turns out Tres Magia also got the day off, so Haruka, Kaoruko, and Sayo are also there.

Big Sis Haruka builds sand castles with Korisu, Kiwi competes with and shouts at Kaoruko (the two could either be sisters or lovers), and Nemo teach Matama swimming lessons. Sayo ends up with Utena under the umbrella, but perhaps wisely doesn’t bring up last week’s intense massage. Instead, she notices Utena’s Tres Magia bag, and Utena starts to gush about how cool the magical girls are, it gives Sayo a big boost. I can’t help but ship these two.

Unfortunately the peaceful day takes a turn when Kiwi witnesses two drunk girls butting in line ahead of Utena and transforming into Leoparde to threaten them. The Tres girls sense Enormita and transform. Since this is the seaside, Gushing finally has an excuse for Utena to summon a tentacle monster, which not only captures and has its way with Tres Magia, but Kiwi, Matama, and Nemo as well.

Kaoruko, who really hates octopi and tentacles, is almost at the end of her rope when Sayo breaks out her elegant and badass “Maiden of Hoarfrost” new form, much to Utena’s delight. When Utena tosses a couple of her own attacks Sayo’s way, Sayo catches the black bolt in her white shawl, seemingly to deflect it—only to direct the attack back onto herself!

This is the new-and-improved Sayo, who is now able to maintain her dignified façade while embracing her deep-seated love of the punishment Utena is doling out. Utena’s attacks are a form of love, so it’s only right and proper for her to not only take that love, but give some back in return. Haruka is confused, but Kaoruko knows what’s going on: Utena the sadist and Sayo the masochist are having an all-out S&M battle.

Even though Enormita regroups and throws everything they have at Sayo, she’s able to blast them all into the sky, which is just fine with Utena, who has always exhibited switch tendencies. Sayo’s win also allows everyone to transform back into their normal selves, with no one being the wiser about who they just fought (and did … other things too).

It all ends with a (relatively) peaceful night on the beach with fireworks and everyone getting along. Sayo notes how happy Utena looks, and she admits that she is: she has so many lovely friends, and when she’s Baiser she gets to interact up close and personal with the magical girls she loves so much. For all its ecchi raunchiness, Gushing closes out on a sweet note of joy and fellowship.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 12 – Playtime is Back

Utena is now Supreme Commander of Enormita by unanimous vote of the other girls, but morphing Lord into a kid took a lot out of her, and she’s worried about Tres Magia and Azure in particular. When she hears from Matama and Nemo that not only are Tres Magia just fine, but Azure has developed a new ability that was able to crush Lord’s goop monsters, she’s over the moon.

The heads into town where Tres Magia are rebuilding, but without her transformation star, so that there’s no chance of her cover being blown. Azure recognizes her classmate, but has to pretend not to. Utena, barely keeping her composure, offers Azure an innocent back rub that soon gets entirely out of hand(s) when she goes below the equator. I have to think Sayo won’t look at Utena the same way next time they cross paths in class!

Since Utena and Kiwi are essentially Korisu’s parents, they take her to a toy store to treat her to some new toys to replace the ones she sacrificed in the battle against Lord & Gigant. While there they encounter Haruka with her adorable triplet sisters, who proceed to play with Korisu. Haruka notes that it would be nice if days were always like this: quiet and peaceful.

Alas, it’s neither Utena nor Kiwi who ruin the peace, but a Neroalice excited to play with her new toys: a Godzilla-like lizard she blows up to the size of a building, and a magic wand that she uses to similarly size up Magenta once she responds to the disturbance. Unable to stop Alice from having her fun, Baiser and Leoparde join in, climbing up into Magenta to mess with her.

Azure and Sulphur head in to help Magenta out, but having four tiny magical girls crawling all up and down her body have the opposite effect. Everyone eventually gets too overheated to keep fighting, and gravity sends them down into Magenta’s panties, which then tear. Having had quite enough of this, Magenta blasts Utena and Kiwi into the sky, then reverts to her normal size.

All’s well that ends well, with Haruka reuniting with her sisters, who report that they saw Magenta’s butt, but she was still really cool. As for Korisu, after having fun with her toys and Tres Magia, she falls into a peaceful, satisfied sleep beside Utena and Kiwi. So begins Utena’s reign as Supreme Commander, whose standing order is to have fun messing with Tres Magia, not eliminating them!

Gushing over Magical Girls – 11 – Asserting Dominance

Having surprised Sister Gigant by revealing her three stars (along with most of the rest of her body), Leoparde proceeds to beat and bomb the shit out of her huge opponent in a rude profanity-laden assault.

The slime hearts are a nice touch

Even when Leoparde starts to cough up blood from overuse of her power, she’s revitalized by her boundless horniness and the promise of a hotel liason with her beloved Magia Baiser. She also uses her brain, creating cracks in the pavement beneath their battle that eventually swallow up Gigant and make her cry real tears of utter defeat.

Korisu has Lord’s slime monsters pent up in her dollhouse, but when she falls asleep, shes transforms out of her Enormita guise Matama and Nemo protect her, they’re soon surrounded. That’s when Tres Magia makes a stylish entrance, and because everyone is in street clothes they don’t recognize them as enemies. Sayo takes on the slime monsters herself and vaporizes them en masse with her nifty new powers.

Meanwhile at Macht Base, Utena is struggling in her battle with Lord Enorme, but due to lack of motivation and boredom with her schtick. Noting that Lord talks about world domination like a kid, she starts to visualize her as a little brat, and suddenly all her accumulated wounds are healed and she reveals a new, even gaudier form, with what looks like eight star tattoos on her face to Lord’s mere four.

By the time Matama and Nemo arrive with a still-tuckered-out Korisu and a heavily bandaged Kiwi, Utena has things well in hand. She turns Lord’s own slime monsters against her, uses them as restraints, then tears off Lord’s clothes starts giving her a spanking. It’s no longer a battle, it’s punishment for Lord’s misdeeds. Lord begs her former allies to help her, but they want no part of what this particularly unhinged version of Baiser is dishing out, thanks!

After sufficient humiliation has been doled out, Utena finally gets a tearful, blubbering apology from Lord Enorme, who seems to have been relieved of three of her four stars. Turns out Venalita let her borrow the other three all along unlike everyone else, who gets their power from within. But her use to Vena has come to an end, so he has Gigant, who was working for him all along, finish Lord off, which presumably means death.

All’s well that ends well. Kiwi is eager to get her hotel date with Utena started as soon as possible, despite being in no condition for any kind of physical exertion. She even looks Matama and Nemo’s way as if inviting them to get a room themselves; they respond by blushing in unison. Korisu clearly looks like she could nap for days.

As for Utena, Venalita makes her the new Supreme Commander of Enormita, and her response is very Utena-y. Apparently Lord Enorme going rogue was all part of Vena’s plan to make the other girls more powerful, and it appears to have succeeded. The question for the final two episodes of this bonkers show is where Utena and her friends go from here.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 10 – Matchmaker Baiser

Even when they were small, Matama always loved to sing, and Nemo hid in the shadows. No one would listen to Matama, and no one would play with Nemo. They essentially became friends because no one else would have them and it worked out for both of them. Now that Matama has decided she’s joining Utena, Nemo ends up following her, because why split up now?

Utena is ready to welcome them with open arms, but they first have to be “purified” of the sin of hunting all those poor magical girls. She traps the pair in a soundproof, shadow-proof dollhouse labeled “The room you can’t leave until you satisfy Magia Baiser.” Utena notes their constant bickering (which they continued here) is a sign of their close friendship, but is certain it goes much deeper than that.

She orders Matama and Nemo to fully explore those depths of their unspoken love, starting with a simple kiss. The girls don’t really put up much of a fight, and not just because they’re trapped. Needless to say, things get quite a bit nuder, hotter, and heavier. It occurs to Nemo that she might’ve always loved Matama like this, as they proceed to go at it with gusto.

Utena watches the whole thing go down and is well and truly satisfied. As a result, the girls are freed from the dollhouse and end up still entangled on the ground, but now fully clothed, before a somewhat confused Kiwi and Korisu. Now that they’ve completed the task Utena set for them, they are now officially allies.

But the fact remains, the four-star Lord Enorme and three-star Sister Gigant are still formidable foes against the two-star Baiser, three-star Neroalice, and zero-star Leoparde. When Lord launches an attack on the town, the girls are overwhelmed by her globular soldiers, who are an extension of Enorme’s power and will only fully disperse if she’s defeated.

Even with Leberblume and Loco Musica on their side, it’s a tough fight, and there’s a point where I was worried Kiwi, tired of being told how weak she is, was going to sacrifice herself for Baiser. Turns out she was hiding the fact that she’s actually a three-star, and thus on equal footing with Gigant.

That leaves Utena free to head to Macht Base to do battle against Lord Enorme, who to this point has been fully clothed, but likely won’t remain so once up against Magia Baiser. And then theres the matter of Sayo continuing to train. Will she finally be a match for Enormita when they return to town?

Gushing over Magical Girls – 09 – Out of the Shadows

This week Tres Magia is reduced to bookends, content to train in the wilderness. That said, when she tries to meditate under a waterfall, Sayo only ends up getting turned on by the weight of the water and how wet she’s getting. When the trio bathe together, she covers up her breasts, still remembering what a Dollhouse-influenced Kaoruko did to them. Will these three end up strong enough to take on Enormita? We’ll see!

For now, Enormita is busy fighting the Lord Squad, but first we’re introduced to the sisterly bickering of Loco Musica and Leberblume, who is treating her back wounds from Lord Enorme’s whipping. Loco is eager to get back on stage, partly to lure Enormita girls into a battle, and partly because she truly believes she has the makings of a top idol.

Loco Musica’s next show is Utena’s first opportunity to hear her, and Kiwi isn’t surprised by her reaction. Loco is also playing for a crowd of seeming fans, though something is a bit off. It’s a nice touch that they’re just as out of tune as Loco is, but when Leberblume reveals she has the power to use shadows to control people, it’s clear the crowd is under her influence. Leberblume also features my favorite outfit, showing none of her front and back, but all of her sides.

Utena and Kiwi also end up under her control, but Magia Baiser has a plan. The mortal enemy of shadows being light, she uses Kiwi as bait to lure Leber in, then Kiwi releases a flash grenade. In Leber’s moments of blindness, Neroalice traps her in a darkened dollhouse. Utena threatens to smash the house unless Loco strips and performs naked.

At first, Loco is hesitant and embarrassed, but once she actually starts singing, everyone is shocked to find she can actually carry a tune, as if the discomfort (or comfort?) of being in her birthday suit unlocks the talent she always believed she had, but never demonstrated. She also gets rather hot and bothered by the thrill of performing nude, and when she finishes and Baiser, Leopard, and Neroalice offer their enthusiastic (and genuine) applause, she accepts that his battle is her loss.

With their defeat, both Loco and Leber’s identities are revealed as Akoya Matama and Anemo Nemo. Surprising everyone, including her longtime partner, Matama declares that they’ll be (re-)joining Enormita, and will henceforth be their allies against Lord Enorme and Sister Gigant.

I like the twist because it makes sense: Nemo doesn’t want to be stripped and whipped by Enorme, while Matama is indebted to Baiser & Co. for her true idol awakening. Does this mean next time Tres Magia shows up, it will be five against three … or will Enorme and Gigant team up with the good guys to even the odds?

Gushing over Magical Girls – 08 – The Fault in Our Stars

Sayo owns up, at least partially, to her recent shortcomings as a member of Tres Magia. Without going into the sordid details, she tells Haruka and Kaoruko that she fought Baiser alone and was “totally dominated.” She never wants to feel that defeated again, so she asks them to help her train harder and become stronger.

Meanwhile, Utena, Kiwi, and Korisu are ordered to transform and report to Nacht Base at once, where they’re hastily introduced to the founding members of Enormita: Lord Enorme, Leberblume, Sister Gigant, and Loco Musica. They were just on a “Magical Girl Hunt”, and imagery suggests they are actually murdering girls—not what Utena signed up for … I-I mean, not what Utena was forced to sign up for!

Enorme believes they’re ready to conquer the world, which is at odds with Vena’s commitment to building up their numbers. Enorme decides to turn her back on Vena and Enormita and go it alone with her lieutenants. She then asks Sister Gigant to crush the newbies. She’s able to grow to super-huge size, breaking out of Korisu’s dollhouse.

Before Gigant can crush them between her boobs, Utena tells Kiwi to detonate all the explosives she’s got, then shields Kiwi from the blast at great personal bodily harm. The three and Vena escape the base, and Kiwi is beside herself with worry. But Utena simply starts laughing maniacally, declaring she doesn’t like this “Lord Squad” one bit, and she’ll see to it they’re all put down.

After excusing Kiwi and Korisu at the hospital where she’s healing up, Utena correctly deduces that Vena knew the Lord Squad would betray them. Utena also makes nice and sparkling clear that she won’t be allowing any further hunting of magical girls, which she believes to be treasures. It’s a passionate, fiery rant, beautifully delivered by Izumi Fuuka.

Loco Musica, not content to let the rookies off scot-free, asks Lord Enorme if she can go squash them like the weakling bugs they are. Enorme agrees, but warned Loco she won’t tolerate failure. When she calls the rookies out, Kiwi takes the bait, forcing Korisu to join the battle with her (and bail her out).

Both of them must then endure Loco’s absolutely dreadful singing voice (great work by the seiyu, who can probably sing for real), but with the power of teamwork, they’re able to use flash grenades to stun Loco and slip away. Kiwi and Korisu have a nice moment while hiding in the tree, as Kiwi apologizes for jumping into battle and breaking one of Korisu’s dolls.

Things do not go so nicely for Loco Musica. While she’s a deeply deluded and arrogant young woman who may well have murdered dozens of magical girls, I still don’t think she deserves the harsh punishment doled out by Lady Enorme.

Loco is made to strip, Enorme shoved the end of her crop into her mouth, and then she’s viciously whipped in a scene that frankly feels way too dark and serious for a silly ecchi anime. Maybe that’s on purpose: the kid gloves are coming off.

But the scene does establish one thing: Enorme rules with fear and pain. I wouldn’t be surprised if when she tightens her iron grip, her acolytes may just slip through her fingers, leaving her to contend with a seriously pissed Magia Baiser and her team all by her lonesome.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 07 – Sayo’s Slump

Sayo continues to be the member of Tres Magia who gets captured first. Haruka would never put her down about it, as everyone has slumps, but Kaoruko insists she get her head back in the game. Alas, her kinky interactions with Baiser has her literally slumping, mimicking Utena’s posture. She can’t her comrades what seems to be her real problem: she’s largely come to enjoy what Baiser does to her.

While on a head-clearing walk (after she has to stop herself from playing with her own boobs) she encounters Utena, and we have the odd sight of Baiser and Azure being right next to each other in front of a Tres Magia poster, but neither know their magical alter-egos. While the magical girl exhibition fills Utena with excitement, it only further depresses Sayo. The old TV show is just fiction where everything works out.

That said, Sayo still tries to put up a brave front, just as she did in the incident that got her recruited by Haruka (back when Magenta was the only magical girl in town). When she transforms and is confronted by Baiser (who is alone because Kiwi is on vacation and Korisu is asleep), Azure is the one who takes the initiative, putting up a barrier with the intention of finally beating her nemesis.

It’s going relatively well, and Baiser even praises her revived enthusiasm, but the power gap is still there, and when Baiser escapes Azure’s coup-de-grace, she places Sayo in a playground panda ride-turned-bondage contraption. Despite the worry she went too far with Azure and caused her to lose her fight, Utena can’t help herself form going too far here as well.

As a result, Sayo’s magical girl heart cracks, and so does Sayo. She gives in and calls Utena “Baiser-sama”, and looks ready to literally lick her boot. Her masochistic is bared for her master to see. But this sudden display of unbridled submission doens’t please Utena: quite the opposite. She’s disgusted by the display, channeling Kaoruko’s directness by telling her to cut the bullshit and have some dignity as a magical girl whom little girls look up to.

Later, Utena admits to Venalita that she’s being a bit of a hypocrite here, even though she’s technically a villain and thus not subject to the same “rules of conduct” as Azure. But now she’s found the limit to messing with a magical girl where it becomes Not Fun anymore. As for Sayo, after another devastating loss not just to Baiser but to herself, I’m not sure where she goes from here.

Will she finally open up to her comrades about what’s going on with her? Even though Utena objected, Sayo switching to Enormita kinda makes sense! The timing of all this is interesting, as we’re about to be introduced to the four preposterously dressed OG Badgical Girls of Enormita, who all consider Baiser, Leoparde, and Neroalice to be pathetic wannabes.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 06 – Mommie Dearest

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?

Gushing over Magical Girls – 05 – Down the Rabbit Hole

When we meet Korisu Morino, she’s chilling in a dark alley in the middle of the night, which is an immediate red flag. Is she a homeless orphan? Her clothes are too clean! Then she meets Venalita, who asks her if she wants to join Enormita, and when next we see her she’s meeting Utena and Kiwi. Utena is in awe of her cuteness, while also assuring Kiwi she’s extremely cute too.

After she transforms into her evil magical girl form, which is an ornate Alice in Wonderland outfit complete with oversized watch, Vena deploys the trio into the field to demonstrate Korisu’s ability. Tres Magia, or specifically Magenta, is easily led right into a trap by a tattered stuffed animal, much to the bad-tempered Sulphur’s chagrin.

Once they’re shut into a closed room, suddenly Sayo is being attacked by her own comrades. Haruka cross-dresses and plays the role of a suave husband, while Kaoruko dons a bonnet, acts like a baby and starts suckling at Sayo’s breast. The setting changes to a hot spring, their clothes are gone, and they’re locked in a steamy threesome.

This is Korisu’s power: once she’s trapped someone in her magic dollhouse, they become her playthings to do with what she pleases. Judging from what goes down, I agree with Utena that she may just be the most depraved of the three Enormita girls. Her power doesn’t last long, and Tres Magia are soon released from the dollhouse, but they aren’t likely to forget what they just did to each other.

Another day, Kiwi invites her and Utena to Korisu’s house, where they find an ominous note from her mother with money for food. My mind went to a dark place: How long has that note been there? Did her mother leave for work and never return?

The neat and tidy state of the place suggests no, but it’s clear before Utena and Kiwi entered her life, Korisu’s only friends were her dolls and toys, many of which are in pretty bad shape. Utena actually shows there’s still a good girl within her when she stays up all night mending Korisu’s favorite doll.

When she returns the mended doll to Korisu, Utena is suffering from what seems to be a pretty bad cold. Korisu then uses her powers to place Utena in a hospital dollhouse, where an adult Korisu appears as a sexy nurse, has Utena partially undress, then applies some kind of ointment to her.

The camera perhaps wisely cuts away shortly after Korisu produces a plastic syringe filled with the ointment, and seems to be moving it further down Utena’s body. But as strange as this whole incident is, it ends with Utena declaring her cold is gone!

The next day, Kiwi is upset that she didn’t get to nurse an ill Utena back to health, but also considers that she could use Korisu’s powers to turn Utena into a helpless “wittle baby.” It’s at this point that Korisu traps Kiwi in a prison dollhouse (i.e. horny jail), which indicates that Korisu will be the sole person deciding how Korisu uses her powers.

When Korisu’s mom finally shows herself, returning home with some groceries, I breathed a sigh of relief. Her mom can also tell Korisu’s in a good mood, which she correctly chalks up to her finally making some friends. If she only knew what she and her friends got up to…

Gushing over Magical Girls – 04 – The Naked Truth

Utena’s constant tilts against Tres Magia (most recently an aerial slime-fest) are having a negative impact on her grades. She was probably never top-ranked in academics, but now she’s simpy too horny to study properly, even if she had the time. Her mom threatens to throw out all her magical girl stuff if she fails a make-up test.

Yet even though Utena fully intends to go home and study, she spots Magenta with a crowd of admirers and surrounded by signs practically begging Magia Baiser to attack her. Utena can’t resist, and ends up using a swarm of scissor monsters to slash away all of Magenta’s clothes, scandalizing the witnesses.

While she made the interaction brief, Utena can’t get naked Magenta out of her head. Venalita also remarks that he’s observed her not studying and simply looking at BDSM magazines, so she might as well head back out for another Tres Magia fix. He also implies he’ll leave the mags out for Utena’s mom to find if she doesn’t.

Utena does the exact same thing to Magenta, but this time, Megenta is wearing pasties on her breasts and crotch. For a little while, at least, she doesn’t display any embarrassment, as the “important bits” are covered. Her resolve falters when some of her fans start snapping picks, but she tries to fight through it, resulting in her ending up on top of Utena, whose nose is bleeding profusely.

When Sayo and Kaoruko find Magenta in this state, Sayo is extremely curious to know what exactly Baiser did to her and how horrible it was, which suggests she’s somewhat upset she missed out on the action and has come to actually enjoy Baiser’s treatment. Kaoruko seems to be picking up on this too.

The fact that Azure is becoming less and less effective in battle and Magenta is resorting to near-nudity to fight Baiser speaks to how Venalita and Enormita seem to be winning the war to corrupt Tres Magia. Haruka isn’t even sure Baiser is trying to defeat them, since every time she has them where she wants them she flees into her dark portal.

The third Tres Magia member, the foul-mouthed Kaoruko, isn’t the goody-two-shoes her partners are. If anything, she’d make a more appropriate bad guy! That much is clear when Haruka invites Utena to join them for lunch and Kiwi explodes, accuses her of trying to steal Utena.

Kaoruko provokes Kiwi into a nasty bout of trash talk that makes everyone else uncomfortable. It’s incidents like these that make it very hard to suspend disbelief these five aren’t at least little aware of their magical alter egos.

We also see that Kaoruko hates all of the PR stuff like photo shoots Tres Magia has to do, booked by their good Kyuubey, Vatz. Her smiles in these shots are forced, because to tell it like she would, she’s fuckin’ frustrated with Baiser and Leo continually splitting before finishing what they started. When a civilian accidentally backs their car into one of the magical barrier devices at the studio, Baiser and Leo are there once more.

We learn from Vatz that Venalita was once good but went to the dark side. Kaoruko uses her own barrier magic to deflect Leo’s bombardment, and when Vatz tells her the sponsors won’t like her using her fists, Kaoruko’s response is delicious and very un-magical girl-like: “Who gives a fuck about our sponsors?!”

Kaoruko wants a knock-down, drag out fight, so she unleashes her giant fists and lets the baddies have it. Much to her delight, Baiser being attacked and having bits of her outfit torn off only seems to make her happier and more excited to wipe the smug look off Sulfur’s face. Sulfur’s reply is basically “Bring it, bitch!”

In the end, Baiser and Leo gain the upper hand in the battle and flee once more. But Sayo (who was once again strung up by vines), Kaoruko, and even Haruka all have a look of satisfaction. Kaoruko got the fight she wanted for once, and is no doubt looking forward to the next one. Thanks to Kiwi being a straight-A student and helping Utena scrape by in her make-up test, she’ll get that next fight soon.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 03 – Bad Friends Forever

Venalita takes Utena to a dark dimension where Enormita HQ is located, and its imposing geometric form is sufficiently cool for the bad guys’ lair. There she meets her first comrade, Araga Kiwi (Koga Aoi), who joined right before she was forced to join. Kiwi hates the Tres Magia, watched Utena’s battle against Sulfur, and is curious why she looked so happy after getting her ass kicked.

Wondering if it might be weakness, Kiwi tests Utena by initiating a battle as Magia Leoparde. Utena is able to dodge Kiwi’s giant gun fusillade attack and encase her in a light bulb monster. After zapping her a couple of times, she explains that she was smiling because seeing new sides of Tres Magia as she bullies them makes her ridiculously happy.

Perhaps throwing stones in glass bulbs, Kiwi, who as Leoparde eschews pants or a skirt for a skimpy thong, declares Utena a “fucking lunatic.” She’s insanely jealous everyone thinks Tres Magia are so cute. But after she  gets sufficiently zapped, Utena gently pulls her into a hug and declares her, right now, to be the cutest girl in the whole entire world.

Those are the words Kiwi has always longed to hear, so the next day, she transfers to Utena’s school and lovingly tackles her on site (interrupting an interaction with Haruka). Utena is her first friend, and she is Utena’s. Kiwi meets up with her on the weekend on what she deems to be a first date. It’s here we learn how Kiwi, obsessed with beating Tres Magia, was about to post racy photos of herself online when Venalita invited her to Enormita.

When Kiwi activates both her and Utena’s transformation stars, Tres Magia arrives, and Kiwi picks a fight with the similarly hot-headed Sulfur. Magenta backs Sulfur up, leaving Azure/Sayo alone with Utena again. Sayo loses her composure by anticipating what Baiser will do to her next, which turns out to be tying her up with vines and playing with her breasts. As Venalita hoped, Utena is discovering more and more depraved things to do by the day.

Utena ends up sacrificing an Azure figure as a decoy to rescue Kiwi and escape together. Kiwi apologizes for making her use the figure she just bought, but Utena says she’s just glad Kiwi is okay, and smiles at her so brightly Kiwi begs her for a kiss. Yep, by first dominating, then praising then saving her, Utena has caused Kiwi to fall head-over-heels in love with her, to the point where she’s dragging her towards a love hotel.

If nothing else, a kind of balance has now been struck between the punishment Utena doles out for pleasure, and the punishment she’s now receiving in the form of Kiwi’s unwanted advances. We’ll see what they get up to next week, or if the third Enormita girl makes her debut.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 02 – Wax On, Wax Off

At the start of this week’s episode, Utena is fantasizing about the naked Tres Magia when she’s called out by the teacher for not paying attention. After class, Sayo (who is Magia Azure, but Utena doesn’t know that) tells her she can come to her if there’s anything troubling her. Utena turns down the help, but is happy Sayo spoke to her.

Utena should have taken Sayo up on her offer, because I don’t know if she can fight this sickness on her own. She prays at a shrine for the strength to stop doing stuff to Tres Magia and to keep Venalita away. She wants to be good. But then she discovers a trail of BDSM magazines (left by Venny), gives in to her curiosity, and starts reading.

Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with BDSM. Your kinks are your kinks and I ain’t gonna shame you. But one of the key tenets of the BDSM community is mutual trust and above all consent. The things Utena reads about are done between consenting adults. Utena and Tres Magia are not adults, and nothing she’s done was with their consent.

That makes her, well, a villain. A more contemporary term is sex offender. I have to think that if Utena knew Azure was her classmate Sayo, she’d probably reconsider covering her face with a fox mask and caressing her up and down her body. But she doesn’t. Doing this to Sayo here and now feels good, and she’s been given the power to do it, so she does it.

While Venalita presses Utena to come up with a Villain name, Haruka and Kaoruko can tell something’s off about Sayo. She maintains what happened to her “wasn’t that bad”, and she’s preoccupied with the villainess saying she’ll “have more fun” with her another time. But it’s automatically bad by dint of her having no choice in the matter.

When the three part ways, Kaoruko, who seems to be the shrewdest of the trio, sets a trap for the villainess, with herself as the bait. That means getting restrained by a giant candle monster, having the front of her top ripped off, and the villainess dripping candle wax on her chest.

Magia Sulphur then breaks out her giant metal fists, declaring that playtime is over. She gets a couple of licks in, but villainess is able to dodge serious damage, and creates wax clones to escape. Sulphur is fine with the result, but makes clear she won’t be falling for the same trick twice, then asks the villainess for her name.

Utena tells her she’s Baiser … Magia Baiser, with baiser being German for meringue. Like that confection made from egg whites, Baiser’s smooth, striking exterior masks a brittle (in her case moral) interior liable to crumble to dust. Venalita’s blackmail and manipulation aside, Utena still has the choice whether to act on her fantasies. As long as she chooses to do things to Tres Magia sans consent, She’s the Baddie.

Gushing over Magical Girls – 01 (First Impressions) – Magical Churl

Hiiragi Utena is an average girl who keeps to herself. Her town is protected by the Tres Magia, a trio of strong, beautiful magical girls. Utena loves them very, very much and wishes she could be them. Someone heard her wish, and decided to make it come true … with a twist.

That someone is the Kyuubey-like Vinalita, who presents Utena with a talisman that switches out her school uni for an extremely risqué get-up complete with star pasties. When she comments that the look doesn’t scream “magical girl”, Vinalita lays it on her: she’s going to be a villain.

When the Tres Magia spot them and think they’re up to no good, Vinalita blackmails Utena with video of her transformation and hands her a crop with which to turn a flower into a monster that binds the magical girls into compromising positions with its tendrils.

Utena admits that watching the girls squirm makes her feel “funny”, but it’s not a feeling she hates. Venalita, not content to let her simply watch, tells her to take an active role, and she does, spanking the girls repeatedly with her crop-like wand.

Venalita believes that Utena’s feelings for magical girls isn’t love, but a twisted delight from watching them suffer, and an even greater delight in administering that suffering. In other words, Venalita believes her to be a pure sadist—the perfect new recruit for the evil organization, Enormita.

Utena wakes up in bed, relieved it was just a dream (albeit one she somewhat enjoyed), only for Venalita to shatter the idea it was a dream. Due to magical interference, Utena doesn’t realize that the Tres Magia are in the same class as her, nor do they recognize her as their torturer.

Haruka, greets Utena warmly at school and and compliments the flowers she tends to; Utena is surprised Haruka even knows her name. Throughout the day Haruka and her comrades Kaoruko (blonde hair) and Sayo (turquoise hair) suffer the lasting effects of their lashing and vow revenge against the evil perpetrator.

They get the rematch they wanted, but it doesn’t go the way they want. Venalita lures them to an abandoned warehouse to fight low-level baddies. Then when Utena shows up, she creates monsters out of mannequins that once again restrain the magical girls.

This time, the mannequins tear away their sleeves and boots and start mercilessly tickling them. The display once again gets Utena’s juices flowing, and she joins in the ticklefest, once again giving in to her darker impulses.

When Sayo breaks free, Utena has to retreat. Back home, she continues to wrestle with the outrageous, previously unthinkable fact that she has tortured the magical girls she loves more than anything not once but twice now, and can’t even deny she enjoyed it.

As a bad guy, I’m sure it’s Venalita’s goal to hone Utena into a more confident villain by steadily flushing away her shame with more close encounters. The OP and ED also indicate she’ll be gaining two villainous comrades, so we’ll eventually see how a 3-on-3 battle will shake out.

Utena definitely engages in objectionable, villainous behavior. At the same time, there’s the question of whether this is who she was always meant to be. Before she met Venalita, she was a loner with no power. Now she’s about to gain friends and has gained lots of power. We’ll see if it ends up being worth it.