Gushing over Pop Idols!

Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 9 was a good Loco Musica-focused episode. She seems like a fun character and I’m glad we got to see more of her (in more ways than one) this week.

Now, in my Episode 8 review, I made a pretty soft prediction. I said that Loco Musica would split off from Lord Squad — which she did. But, I said I wasn’t sure if she’d join up with Enormita. I should have made a more rigid prediction about that because, thinking back on it, of course she was going to join.

With that said, I couldn’t have predicted that Leberblume would also join Enormita. But, in my defense, even Leberblume herself didn’t know she was going to. Loco Musica decided that for her. And, the fact that Loco Musica made that decision is, at least a little, interesting.

Prior to this episode, I didn’t get the feeling that Loco Musica and Leberblume liked each other. However, we now know that’s not the case. They’re friends, at least to some extent. And, Leberblume only acts cold toward Loco Musica because she’s a tsundere.

Loco Musica has no fans. But, she thought she at least had a few because people attended her concerts. Well, it turns out that Leberblume was using her ability to force those people to attend. Why? Probably because she wanted to support Loco Musica. She didn’t want her friend to give up on her dream of becoming a pop idol.

Obviously, finding out that she doesn’t have any fans hurt Loco Musica. But, it looks like she forgave Leberblume for tricking her like this. After all, Leberblume only did it for Loco Musica’s sake. She wasn’t trying to hurt Loco Musica — she wanted to protect her.

Leberblume’s Magic Ability

We still don’t know what Lord Enorme’s ability is. But, after seeing Leberblume’s ability, we know the abilities of the three Lord Squad underlings. Loco Musica is able to fight with the power of music. Sister Gigant can become giant. And Leberblume is Shikamaru Nara from Naruto.

Back in my review of Episode 7, I said Leberblume’s outfit looked like that of an assassin. It looks like I was right. Her ability lets her control anyone whose shadow she comes into contact with. Where her ability goes beyond Shikamaru’s is that she can also become a shadow.

The first way we saw her using her ability in the episode was to control Loco Musica’s “fans.” At first, I thought she was only preventing them from leaving. But, it looks like she was actually forcing them to cheer for Loco Musica, as well.

In the fight against Enormita, Leberblume shows what else she can do. She controls and uses Leoparde to attack Magia Baiser. And, she does this by entering Leoparde’s shadow via the shadow of one of Magia Baiser’s scissors. The more shadows there are, the stronger Leberblume is because she has more to work with.

Also, in line with her assassin/kunoichi outfit, Leberblume uses shuriken as weapons. This is a good backup attack in case her opponents begin avoiding shadows. And, I guess she can also use the shadows cast by the shurikens she throws. That’s probably pretty useful.

Despite all of this, though, she was still caught in Nero Alice’s dollhouse. And unlike Sister Gigant, she can’t break free with brute force. Once she’s in the dollhouse, there’s nothing she can do. So, Magia Baiser uses the trapped Leberblume as a hostage to also defeat Loco Musica at the same time.

Loco Musica Is Replacing Magia Magenta

It’s been a little bit since I talked about the kinks of the girls in this series. But, it’s time to bring that discussion back. And, the reason is that Loco Musica appears to be replacing Magia Magenta. At least, a little bit.

You might not remember, but Magenta’s original thing was exhibitionism. Baiser stripped her in the middle of the playground. And, at the time, it looked like that was going to be a recurring gag. However, then we got the episode with Nero Alice and Magenta.

I could make an argument for that still falling under exhibitionism. Magenta was still being exposed (to Nero Alice) while Nero Alice was babying her. But, the overarching story of Episode 6 made it seem like age play was the real kink going on. So, that could be more of Magenta’s thing.

Now, with Loco Musica, it seems very clear that exhibitionism is going to be a recurring gag for her. She wants to be an idol, but she’s terrible at singing. However, when Baiser forces her to strip on stage, she can suddenly sing better. And, she really enjoyed how Leoparde and Nero Alice were watching her.

Did being stripped make Loco Musica a great singer? No. She was definitely way better. But, she still wasn’t amazing. Also, being better at singing doesn’t matter too much when the lyrics are still horrible. She needs to be a better singer and a better songwriter.

I wonder how this is going to affect her going forward. If she’s better at singing when naked, is she going to strip on her own in the future? Or, are the Tres Magia and members of the Lord Squad going to strip her? It has to happen somehow, right?

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 9? Were you expecting both Loco Musica and Leberblume to defect to Enormita? What do you think about Leberblume’s ability? And, did this episode change your opinion of Loco Musica? It definitely made me like her more.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about the benefits of supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 10 is available now.

Here Comes the Lord Squad!

Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 8 formally introduces the Lord Squad of Enormita. Well, to be precise, the Lord Squad isn’t exactly part of Enormita. But, I’ll get to that in a bit. First, who are these new villains and what do we know about them?

First of all, these four are the founding members of Enormita. Their villain names are Loco Musica, Leberblume, Sister Gigant, and Lord Enorme. As you can probably tell, Lord Enorme is the leader. And, the organization appears to be named after her. She’s the one who’s seeking world domination.

We don’t yet know what Leberblume’s and Lord Enorme’s abilities are. But, we do know what Loco Musica’s and Sister Gigant’s are. Loco Musica fights using sound and Sister Gigant can turn into a giant. Even if we hadn’t seen them use their abilities, you may have been able to guess them based on their names.

Now, what is Lord Squad? At first, I assumed it was just the internal name for these four within Enormita. But, that’s not the case. The founding members of Enormita actually decided to leave the organization. Their new group is Lord Squad.

But, why would they have left Enormita? It doesn’t make any sense. Enormita is their organization and it’s named after Lord Enorme. So, why not kick Magia Baiser, Leoparde, and Nero Alice out? Why let those three (and Venalita) take over Enormita by creating a new organization?

This split also shows us that Venalita’s role is a bit more complex. Did he grant the members of Lord Squad their powers? Or, did he join them after the fact? And, why is he now supporting Baiser’s group? I assume he founded Enormita and always intended for it to be what Baiser has turned it into.

Villain Power Levels

One of the seemingly important things we learned in Episode 8 is that there are villain power levels. From what we’ve seen, the more stars a villain has on her body (the head or neck), the stronger she is. So, with that in mind, who’s the strongest and who’s the weakest?

So, you may have noticed the stars on the Lord Squad members. In fact, Loco Musica even points hers out. She, Leberblume, and Sister Gigant all have three stars. Loco Musica’s stars are on her neck. Leberlume’s are on her right upper arm. And Sister Gigant’s are under her left eye.

Lord Enorme has four stars going down her forehead. So, from that, we know she’s the strongest of the group (duh). But, how do the Enormita girls stack up? That’s something that might surprise you due to how the Lord Squad girls spoke to Leoparde.

Okay, so, the Lord Squad girls made fun of Leoparde for having no stars. From what I can tell, they’re correct. Unless Leoparde’s stars are hidden somewhere, she doesn’t have any. And, that would make her the weakest of the villains because Baiser and Nero Alice both do have stars.

Nero Alice has three stars across her forehead. This means she should be on par with the majority of the Lord Squad. That also makes sense considering how powerful Nero Alice’s ability can be if used right. What about Baiser, though? Her star count isn’t as clear-cut.

Baiser has one star under each eye. That’s two. But, her pupils are also stars. Do those count? If so, that’s four. And, her horns each have a star on them. If those count, that’s six. And, when she goes into her crazed mode, the single stars under her eyes multiply into four each.

Loco Musica the Idol

From the title of the next episode, it seems like we’ll be getting more Loco Musica content next week. But, let’s go over what we saw of her in this episode. As I mentioned earlier, her ability lets her fight with the power of music.

Why music? Because she dreams of being the world’s most popular idol. And, she believes that following Lord Enorme is her best way to accomplish that. Once Lord Enorme conquers the world, she’ll obviously appoint Loco Musica as the number one idol. At least, that’s Loco Musica’s logic.

Unfortunately for Loco Musica, she’s probably right about that being her best option. She’s definitely not going to become a popular idol the traditional way. She’s terrible at singing and can’t come up with good lyrics to save her life. But, at the very least, her performance gave me a good laugh.

We don’t know how old Loco Musica is. Though, I suspect she’s also a middle school student like Baiser, Leoparde, and the Tres Magia. And, I’m going to guess that Leberblume is the same age, as well. Sister Gigant and Lord Enorme seem older based on their physiques.

Anyway, at the end of the episode, Loco Musica returns to HQ after failing to defeat Leoparde and Nero Alice. When she does, Lord Enorme punishes her by forcing her to strip and then whipping her. From this, it’s pretty clear that there’s a toxic work environment over at Lord Squad.

So, my prediction is that Loco Musica is going to split off. I’m not sure if she’ll join the Enormita girls — she might. But, I think she’s going to realize that being part of Lord Squad isn’t good for her. She’s not going to become an idol that way.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 8? Which member of the Lord Squad is your favorite, so far? How many stars do you think Magia Baiser actually has? And, do you think Loco Musica is going to defect from the Lord Squad back to Enormita?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 9 is available now.

Azure in Trouble!

Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 7 was a pretty good episode. But, considering it was a Magia Azure episode, I thought it would be a bit better. The best content came toward the end. And, for the most part, the rest of the episode was fine.

In Episode 7, Azure has to come to terms with the fact that she’s been changed by Magia Baiser. As we’ve seen over the course of the series, Azure has become a masochist. She no longer has the drive to fight Baiser. Instead, she wants Baiser to dominate her.

If this was happening in a vacuum, that would be one thing. But, Azure’s failings don’t only affect her. They affect Magenta and Sulfur, as well. If Azure isn’t pulling her weight in the fights against Enormita, it’s three against two. Though, whether or not that actually matters is up for debate.

Sure, when fighting Enormita, Azure isn’t doing much to help her teammates. However, does she need to? Baiser and Nero Alice don’t want to destroy the magical girls — they want to play with them. It’s only Leoparde who wants to see the magical girls disappear.

So, with that in mind, fights against Enormita aren’t very high-stakes. Enormita isn’t attacking civilians or anything like that. They’re only fighting the Tres Magia and primarily doing so because it’s fun.

If the Tres Magia were fighting a monster that was attacking the city, things would be different. Azure would likely be helpful in a situation like that. The only way she wouldn’t be is if it was a tentacle monster. Then, she might happen to get herself captured again.

But, I guess every second spent fighting Enormita is a second wasted. The Tres Magia could be doing other things.

Magical Girl Exhibition

I thought there weren’t ever going to be other magical girls or Enormita villains in this series. We see some other girls in the opening for Mahoako. But, I assumed those girls would be part of some third party.

However, Episode 7 features some additional magical girls and villains. So, let’s start by going over what we know about the three new magical girls. And, that shouldn’t take too long because we basically know nothing about them. We know that they exist and we know what they look like. But, that’s it.

Well, I guess there are technically four new magical girls. The first of them is Magical Girl Miracle Mimiru. She could be a real magical girl. But, it seems more likely that she’s a made-up magical girl. We only see her within the context of an anime.

Alright, so the other magical girls. Utena and Sayo both attend a magical girl exhibition. And, in this exhibition, we see a lot of different magical girl outfits. But, other than the Tres Magia (and Miracle Mimiru), we only see pictures of three other magical girls. So, I’m guessing these three will appear in the series at some point.

The first is a girl with pink hair and a blue, gold, and white outfit. The second is a girl with blonde hair and a green and white outfit. And, the third is a girl with short orange hair and an orange and white outfit.

I don’t remember seeing any pictures of these three together. But, I’m going to assume that, like the Tres Magia, they’re a magical girl unit. Though, it’s not like magical girls have to work in teams of three. We know that Magia Magenta started off as a solo magical girl.

The Fall of Azure

Toward the end of Episode 7, we see Baiser almost break Azure. She tortured Azure to the point that Azure almost ceased being a magical girl. She almost fell to the dark side and even began begging “Mistress” Baiser to punish her more.

Unfortunately, this is where Utena and I have differing opinions regarding magical girls. Once Azure stops fighting back, Utena loses interest. Utena doesn’t torture the Tres Magia simply because she wants to torture them. She enjoys seeing magical girls struggling and fighting their hardest despite being tortured.

If Azure stops fighting back, then there’s no point. She wouldn’t even be a magical girl any longer. And, as we know, that’s very important to Utena. She doesn’t want to torture just anyone. It has to be a magical girl who’s fighting back against her or it’s not worth it.

Baiser decides to fly off before Azure breaks completely. But, what would have happened if she didn’t? What if she accepted Azure as her torture slave? Well, at the very end of the episode, we see what that might look like. Azure, would cease being a magical girl altogether.

The new magical girls may or may not show up in the series. But, we know for a fact that four more members of Enormita will. There’s a group of three — one dressed like a ship captain, one like an assassin(?), and one like a nun. And, there’s a woman who appears to be the leader of Enormita.

These Enormita villains are the real deal. They’re closer to Leoparde than Baiser or Nero Alice. They actually want to defeat magical girls — and they do defeat magical girls. So, while they’re still Enormita members, I think they’ll be in conflict with Baiser.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 7? Do you think we’ll get an episode like this for Magenta and Sulfur, too? Will the three new magical girls ever show up in the series? And, which of the new villains’ designs do you like the most?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about the benefits of supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 8 is available now.

From Mother to Baby

Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 6 is easily the worst episode of the series, so far. It didn’t have to be, though. The start of the episode was good. Why couldn’t we have gotten to see more of that battle?

Well, let’s go over what the episode was, unfortunately, actually about. Despite being the dumbest of the three magical girls, Haruka is the mother figure of the group. She’s always trying to take care of the other two. And, when Kaoruko points this out, Haruka lets it go to her head. She doubles down.

Who cares? Why does it matter that Haruka sees herself as a mother figure? It’s important because it contradicts how Korisu views her. Well, sort of. When Haruka and Korisu play together on the playground, Korisu probably sees Haruka as an older sister. However, that’s not how Nero Alice views Magia Magenta.

To Nero Alice, Magia Magenta is a toy. She views Magia Magenta as a baby for her to play with. And, this is where the contradiction comes in. As much as Haruka wants to be seen as a mother or older sister, that may not be how she truly feels.

Think of Magia Magenta and Nero Alice like Magia Azure and Magia Baiser. Magia Azure realized she likes being bound thanks to Magia Baiser. And, like that, Magia Magenta seems to have realized she likes being babied thanks to Nero Alice.

As the series progresses, Haruka will likely continue trying to play the mother role. But, much like we’ve seen with Sayo, it’s going to be harder and harder for her to hide her true feelings. Kaoruko doesn’t seem to have a relationship like this with Kiwi, though. Instead, those two enjoy fighting with each other.

It’s Kink Shaming Time

The kink featured in Episode 6 is where I have to draw the line. Unless I’m forgetting something major, all the stuff we saw in the previous episodes is fine. There was bondage, exhibitionism, wax play, etc. That’s all fine.

I don’t care if anyone’s into that stuff. But, what we saw from Magia Magenta and Nero Alice in this episode goes beyond those other kinks. This is the first kink featured in the series that was uncomfortable to watch. This was not a pleasant viewing experience.

I understand that age play stuff like this isn’t about being attracted to the fantasized age. Nero Alice isn’t attracted to babies or anything like that. And, I recognize that’s also true for most people into this. But, that doesn’t make it any less weird. I’m still going to shame you for this kink.

Let’s say the literal baby content wasn’t in this episode. Pretend that we got the same content, but with Magia Magenta looking the way she always does. That wouldn’t make it better, in my mind. I still find it weird to fetishize someone peeing in a diaper, regardless of age.

Now, this isn’t the first anime to include things like this. If you’ve seen Kiss x Sis, you may recall one of the supporting characters peeing herself a few times. That wasn’t as bad as this. But, even then, it’s not something I’m interested in.

What I’m worried about with Mahoako is that this could become more prominent. We’ve gotten quite a bit of bondage content thanks to Magia Baiser and Magia Azure. I hope this content with Nero Alice and Magia Magenta doesn’t follow suit. Let’s go back to the exhibitionist content with Magia Magenta, instead.

The Strongest and the Worst

In my Episode 5 review, I discussed how Nero Alice seems to be the strongest member of Enormita. Her ability is pretty overpowered. She can trap, control, and alter reality for her opponents and allies alike. And, there doesn’t seem to be anything they can do to prevent it.

Both last week and this week, we saw her use stuffed animals to bring her victims into her playhouse. But, we also saw that she was able to create the playhouse around Utena when she was sick. So, if Nero Alice gets close enough, you can’t even dodge her attack.

However, we’ve now seen that Nero Alice is likely going to use her immense power in the worst ways. It would be one thing if she had more of a support role. You know, like using her ability to create situations in which the other two villains can shine.

Remember how at the end of Episode 5, Korisu used her ability to lock Kiwi in a jail cell? Well, why can’t she trap Magia Azure in a BDSM dungeon with Magia Baiser? I’d much rather see Nero Alice’s ability used like that than how we saw it used in this episode.

There are so many ways in which her ability could make the series more interesting. She could create an arena for Leoparde and Magia Sulfur to fight in. Or she could create a school auditorium and have Magia Magenta go on stage nude.

Nero Alice’s ability could be used to complement what the other girls are all about. But, apparently, that’s not the timeline we live in. And we’re worse off because of it. There’s always a chance that this episode was a one-off, though. Maybe Nero Alice will listen to my ideas.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 6? Is being treated like a baby Haruka’s true kink rather than exhibitionism? If so, should we collectively shame her for that? And, how do you want to see Nero Alice use her overpowered ability?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 7 is available now.

Welcome to Enormita, Morino Korisu

Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 5 introduced a third member of Enormita. As far as I know, Morino Korisu is the final member of the organization. But, my only evidence for that is that we only see her, Utena, and Kiwi in the OP and ED.

Let’s talk about this new girl. Who is she? Why and how did she join Enormita? How old is she compared to the others? And, in the next section, what’s her ability?

Who is Morino Korisu? She’s a young girl who doesn’t speak much. In fact, she only says two words in the entire episode: Trans Magia. As a young girl, Korisu also really likes stuffed animals and dolls. And, that’s important for a few reasons.

Korisu is an only child without friends and with a single mother who works full-time. So, her stuffed animals and dolls are her companions.

When Korisu first saw Venalita, she was likely interested in Venalita’s appearance. He looks like a living stuffed animal. And, when Venalita invited her to join Enormita, Korisu saw it as a way to play with friends. She doesn’t seem twisted like Utena and Kiwi — she’s lonely.

Now, what about her age? We didn’t get this information in the anime. But, Korisu is 9 years old. That makes sense based on her appearance. However, this makes it pretty shocking that we still got a nude transformation of her. Just as with the other girls, it wasn’t censored.

Speaking of the other girls, how old are they? Again, I’m pretty sure their ages were never stated in the anime. But, I can tell you that Utena, Kiwi, and the Tres Magia are all 14 years old. They’re middle schoolers, which is typically the age range of magical girls.

Nero Alice in Wonderland

To understand Korisu’s ability, we first need to look at her villain name — Nero Alice. Nero Alice, and the title of Episode 5, are both obviously references to Alice in Wonderland. And, her ability kind of leans into that.

The first part of Nero Alice’s ability is that she can control her stuffed animals and dolls. We see her do this when she lures the Tres Magia into her trap. But, that’s not the main part of her ability. The main part is that she can trap people within her “playhouses.”

Again, we saw Nero Alice use this ability against the Tres Magia, and it was pretty effective. The magical girls couldn’t escape — though, we didn’t see Magia Sulfur try to bust down the door. But, that’s not all. Nero Alice can also control anyone she traps. And that’s very strong.

We saw this controlling ability in action with Magia Magenta and Magia Sulfur. Nero Alice made them start to “play house” with Magia Azure. Magenta was the father, Sulfur was the baby, and Azure was the mother. And, since this is an ecchi anime, ecchi content ensued.

I wasn’t expecting Nero Alice’s ability to result in ecchi content, though. It doesn’t really make sense for it to. Why would this 9-year-old be making her “dolls” have a three-way? Especially considering Korisu’s personality, it doesn’t make sense.

On top of that, the ecchi content doesn’t even make sense in-universe. It’s not like the abilities of all the Enormita girls are ecchi. Leoparde’s ability isn’t. She doesn’t sexually assault the magical girls like Magia Baiser does. So, if Leoparde’s ability doesn’t result in ecchi content, why would Nero Alice’s?

To me, this only makes sense if it happened after Korisu witnessed Magia Baiser in action.

Nero Alice, the Strongest Villain

So, we know Nero Alice’s ability is strong. But, is she the strongest of the villains? Yes. Yes, she is. However, that doesn’t mean she’s unstoppable. She can’t use her ability for an unlimited amount of time. It uses up too much energy.

But, even with that caveat, if Enormita’s goal was actually to defeat the magical girls, Nero Alice could do it. She doesn’t need to trap Tres Magia within one of her playhouses for long if her goal is to kill them. And, in fact, she wouldn’t even need to be the one to do the dirty work.

She could trap the magical girls in a playhouse with someone like Leoparde. Then, Nero Alice could control the magical girls so that they couldn’t defend themselves. It’s as simple as that. In this situation, Leoparde would still have complete control over her own body.

Something else that makes Nero Alice extremely strong is her ability’s versatility. We saw her trap Tres Magia and control two of them. We also saw her trap Kiwi at the end of the episode. But, what I’m more interested in is when she cured Utena of her cold.

It looks like whatever make-believe stuff happens within Nero Alice’s playhouse actually happens. If Nero Alice plays the role of a nurse and heals you, you’re actually healed. When you think of it that way, the biggest limit on her ability is her own imagination.

What if she decides to play house with you and has your character die in some accident? Well, based on what we saw, you would actually die. On the other side of things, what if you somehow lost an arm? Nero Alice could tape it back on and it would be as good as new.

Final Thoughts

There’s one last thing I want to mention about Episode 5. Did you notice the conversation Venalita was having when Korisu first encountered him? It seemed pretty suspicious, to me. I’m still thinking that he and Vatz are working together somehow. But, I also don’t know what their ultimate goal is yet — aside from watching Enormita and Tres Magia “fight.”

Anyway, what do you think about Gushing over Magical Girls Episode 5? Do you like Morino Korisu? How do you think Nero Alice compares to Magia Baiser and Leoparde? And, how do you feel about her age considering the content of this series? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. And, I’d like to thank Rob and Pepe for supporting at the Kouhai tier. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out DoubleSama.com/support.

My review of Episode 6 is available now.