Machikado Mazoku – Episode 4 – Momo Piles on More Debt and Shamiko’s First Job

Finally, Shamiko remembers to give some offerings to Lilith. However, Momo discovers a switch under the ancestor statue and seems curious.

After forgetting what Lilith told Shamiko in the last meeting, it seems that Shamiko finally remembered. She along with Anri brought some offerings of sweets, DVDs and magazines. Somehow, Momo finds a switch underneath the ancestor statue and becomes curious. She flips it and Shamiko loses consciousness. Shamiko awakens in the dream world where she sees Lilith playing games and watching television. It’s funny how Lilith complains about the pouch Shamiko put on the statue, until she started crying.

Of course, Lilith eventually took control of Shamiko’s body in real life and try to face off against Momo. Sadly, it didn’t go so well despite being hilarious. Lilith didn’t realize that Shamiko’s body is weak when she tried to pick up her desk and throw it at Momo. She even tried using magic, which ended up firing back at her. It’s not too surprising since this happened in the last episode.

In the end, to bring Shamiko back in control, Momo took her to a health spa. This is when Shamiko woke up in a massage chair. At least Shamiko now knows her ancestor’s name. Sadly, Shamiko now owes 1720 yen more to Momo, thus snowballing her debt.

This makes me wonder if Momo is actually doing this on purpose so that Shamiko will never be able to challenge her. Or maybe, Momo is piling on the debt so that Shamiko can get closer to her to cancel it eventually. Either way, Momo’s feelings towards Shamiko develops further in the second half.

Now with Shamiko’s debt rising, she decides to get a job so she can pay it off. I find it funny how the curse prevents Shamiko’s mother from earning more money. When she earns more money, a bird would take the check or she would drop it. I wonder why this happens since direct deposits exist. This would mean that Shamiko’s mother wouldn’t lose all that money, unless she withdraws it. Thankfully, the curse doesn’t apply to everything such as heating bill.

Either way, Anri helps Shamiko finds a job. Shamiko worked at a stand handing out wieners samples. Momo comes up to the stand and Shamiko becomes shocked. Shamiko working to earn money to pay off her debt amazes Momo. She thinks that what Shamiko is doing is pure. Shamiko accidentally knocks the electric frying pan off the table while sharing her desire to defeat Momo. Is Shamiko done for now?

Thankfully, Momo used her magical girl powers to save every sample and the electric pan. Shamiko becomes amazed that Momo saved her again. She shares the reason why she doesn’t use her magical girl powers that much. Apparently, she had bad memories while being a magical girl.

This makes me wonder what happened that caused her to feel this way. Maybe this is the reason she wants to help Shamiko. It shows when she admits that she didn’t want to see Shamiko’s work go to waste. Either way, this leads to a nice moment as Momo grabs Shamiko’s hands while thanking her for helping her to become stronger.

In the end, the store manager seems amazed that Shamiko sold that many wieners. Sadly, there weren’t any remaining stock to give to Shamiko. In other words, Shamiko is left with plain yogurt again as she curses out Momo. The funny thing is Lilith saw Shamiko become upset on television and it looks like she is enjoying it. Either way, this makes me wonder if this is a grand scheme for Momo to get closer to Shamiko. We’ll see. ¶