Gushing over Magical Girls Review

Gushing over the Tres Magia

Gushing over Magical Girls (Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete / 魔法少女にあこがれて) is one of the standout anime of the winter 2024 season. If we ignore Frieren, which began airing a season earlier, Mahoako — as it’s known — is my favorite anime of the season.

Okay, I know, Delicious in Dungeon is technically better. But, hear me out. Mahoako is an ecchi anime about torturing magical girls. That’s awesome. I don’t know what more you could ask for. It’s kind of the perfect premise for an anime if you think about it.

So, let’s talk about the magical girls. There are only three of them — if we’re ignoring the fact that all the villains are magical girls, too. These three are Magia Magenta, Magia Azure, and Magia Sulfur of the Tres Magia. They’re middle school students who transform and fight monsters, like all magical girls.

When transformed, the magical girls’ identities are hidden (by magic). So, none of their classmates or anyone else know who they are. And, that’s important because of the protagonist of the series, Utena Hiiragi. She’s classmates with Haruka Hanabishi, Sayo Minakami, and Kaoruko Tenkawa (the Tres Magia).

If only Utena knew who her classmates really were. Why? Because she’s a huge magical girl fan who likes the Tres Magia, in particular. However, Utena’s love of magical girls goes beyond that of being their fan. She doesn’t know it at the start of the series, but the thing she loves most is seeing them squirm.

Throughout the rest of the series, Utena explores the joys of sado-masochism. And, along the way, she helps awaken things deep within each of the magical girls she loves so much. Well, mostly Azure and Magenta to an extent — not as much Sulfur.

Enormita and “World Domination”

Alright, let’s talk about the first villain group of Mahoako: Enormita. The core enormita group has three members for the majority of the series. These members are Magia Baiser (Utena), Leoparde (Kiwi Araga), and Nero Alice (Korisu Morino).

While the Tres Magia each have different abilities, they’re pretty similar. Azure uses a sword, Magenta uses a spear, and Sulfur either uses a shield or giant fists. With the villains, however, things get more interesting. They have more specialized abilities, which makes them both more fun to watch and discuss.

Magia Baiser’s ability allows her to turn objects into monsters. Inanimate objects like scissors? Sure. Plants? Why not? Animals? Those are harder to control, but she can do it. These monsters she creates then tend to bind and/or strip the magical girls so Baiser can have her fun with them.

Unlike Baiser, Leoparde doesn’t care about “having fun” with magical girls. She wants to defeat them. And, to help her achieve that goal, she has a more combat-oriented ability. She effectively has Gilgamesh’s Noble Phantasm but for firearms and explosives. She can summon different kinds of guns and grenades via portals.

Nero Alice’s ability is the most powerful. Since she has an Alice in Wonderland theme, she can do things like control toys. And, more importantly, she can trap her opponents within her dollhouses. That second part of the ability could make her overpowered. But, her power is kept in check by the fact that she’s an elementary schooler.

Beyond these three, there are other members of Enormita. For example, there’s Venalita, the mascot of the group responsible for recruiting new members. He’s the opposite of Vatz, the mascot for the magical girls. Also, there are four older members who make up the “Lord Squad.”

The Lord Squad Shakes Things Up

What is the Lord Squad? It’s the name for the four founding members of Enormita. It’s simply a way to differentiate these four from the new members, Baiser, Leoparde, and Nero Alice. So we have Enormita and within Enormita there’s the Lord Squad.

The names of both groups come from Lord Enorme, the leader of Enormita. We don’t know how old she is. But, she appears to be in her 20s — so not a middle schooler like most of the other girls. Her ability allows her to create and control an army of blob monsters.

Sister Gigant is the second in command. She’s also older than most of the girls, either being in her late teens or 20s. She dresses as a nun and her ability lets her grow to giant proportions. Sister is also the most devout member of Enormita.

Loco Musica (Matama Akoya) and Leberblume (Nemo Anemo) are the lower members of the Lord Squad. They’ve been in Enormita longer than our main three girls. However, they’re definitely beneath Lord and Sister. They’re also middle schoolers, like most of the girls.

As you might be able to guess from her name, Loco Musica’s ability is music-based. She fights with music, which pairs well with her dream of being an idol. Leberblume is an assassin who can hide within and control shadows. Think of her like Shikamaru Nara from Naruto.

So, why does the Lord Squad exist? Well, they play the very important role of shaking things up in the series. Mahoako would have gotten stale very fast if it was only the three main Enormita girls vs. the Tres Magia. The Lord Squad inserts another faction into the mix. And, as an ecchi series, more girls means more fun.

Final Thoughts

I gave Gushing over Magical Girls a 7/10. It’s a solid anime if ecchi and magical girls are your thing — mainly the ecchi part. And, since I like both of those things, I thought it was good. There are some episodes that are worse than others. But, overall, it’s a good watch.

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