Last time, Suzuki, the new teacher for the class Kurumi, declared that she would make everyone in her class magicians. The question is, how can only Magumi students become magicians? Well, Suzuki has a way, and it involves a lot of math
Last time, Suzuki announced that she would make her class magicians. Of course, while she eats with Maki, Kurumi asks what Suzuki said about making everyone magicians. Of course, Yuzu and her posse came and butt in. Besides sharing some of the classmate’s dreams, she said that Kurumi couldn’t possibly become a magician since she is in the standard program. From this, Maki reveals that she wants to become a dancer. Yep, she crushes her dream as Kurumi becomes upset.
Given Yuzu’s behavior, although she didn’t get into Magumi, it’s easy to compare Yuzu to Diana. She seems cold and a know-it-all all. She continues to crush Kurumi’s hopes of achieving her magician dream. Yuzu says, “Kurumi, stop believing in your magician dream. It’s not going to happen.” She probably has more skills than Atsuki, which we will discuss later. The question is whether Yuzu will defrost and believe what Suzuki wants to do. We have to wait and see.
Maki, of course, reveals her dream. She wants to become a dancer, hoping to take over her family’s troupe that does sun dances for the gods. Maki got to dance with them but couldn’t take it over since it was a male dancing troupe. So, she hopes to learn dance at the academy. For this reason, it explains why she waltzed with Kurumi at the entrance ceremony in the last episode.
Also, we know Kurumi wants to become a magician, but she explains how she got that book. While we know it’s not one of the hi-tech ones since it came from that magician lady. However, it may contain valuable information that the regular notebook doesn’t have.
As for Suzuki’s magic teaching lessons, she tries to convince her that her students can make their dreams come true. Their lesson is learning to draw basic shapes, as in geometry class. It’s funny how Suzuki assumes everyone can do it on the first try before explaining it. Some people, especially Yuzu, complain that Standard Program students can’t become a magician.
Suzuki is probably using a loophole since they aren’t using the high-tech magic terminals but drawing the shapes needed to execute a spell. It compares to the conflict between artists and writers against Generative AI. Artists and writers create original works, which take effort to perfect. In contrast, Generative AI spits out any text and image using a prompt without effort.
While those terminals can make it easy for Magumi students to perform spells, it probably limits their creativity. After all, those notebooks probably limit what spells they can perform at a consistent power. It can explain how Suzuki markets her way of becoming a magician by making things easier, meaning the students can achieve their dreams with magic. Sure, it will take more practice and skill to perfect it, but in the end, they may be better off than the Magumi students who can’t draw the spells and know what they are casting. Likewise with Generative AI, sure, the text and image may look acceptable, but if you look deeper, most times it doesn’t give back useful information, but made-up stuff or pictures that look weird,
While the class becomes frustrated as the Magumi students get to fly on magical drones, they are drawing shapes. Eventually, Suzuki changed things by having her students find the treasures they sought and draw a map of the item’s location. The funny thing is that four of her students managed to find the treasures relating to their dreams. I guess there is something to this, although Yuzu doesn’t believe it, as they pick up “junk.”
While Kurumi and Maki look for treasure, they hear a scream. Yep, magical vines on the tree tie up Yuzu and her posse. Kurumi figures out that she needs to use magic to save Yuzu. Yep, she attempts to do the spell that Suzuki did last time. While she got the first part of drawing the spell for water, it was not powerful enough. Suzuki eventually saved them, but that dog was watching them. Yuzu sees with her eyes that Suzuki drew her spell and starts to believe what she is trying to offer. Then again, Yuzu naysays Kurumi’s dream, probably because she wanted to become a magician but couldn’t get into Magumi.
The funny thing is that the dog that observes Kurumi, a shape-shifting girl, might be interested in her. After all, that dog saw Kurumi attempting to execute a spell. Maybe because she knows that Kurumi has potential? Also, who are those mad scientists anyway? I guess we’ll find out next time.
(Also known as The Stories of Girls Who Couldn’t Be Magicians)
@chikorita157@chikorita157.com I wish this anime had more recognition, the watercolor art is gorgeous. I am also getting a lot of “Little Witch Academia” vibes.
My theory is that the cat (the “boss” of the dog girl) is the witch who gave Kurumi her notebook.
@Nikelui @chikorita157 I wonder how they make it. Feels like they add textures instead of filling with colors. I.e. it’s meant to look old school (like water color paintings on a textured piece of paper) but is probably kinda high tech 🙂
I thought that was a boy dog. I bet you are either right or it’s the main villain. The “scientists” defiantly are villains but don’t feel “main”.
@yon@sakurajima.moe @chikorita157@chikorita157.com It might just be digitally painted with watercolor brushes. I notice that the watercolor is mostly used on backgrounds while the animations are mainly in “traditional style”.
@Nikelui @chikorita157 I could have sworn the characters had the same look, but I’m probably misremembering it. Maybe I’ll remember to look when watching the next episode.
It truly has a look that makes it stand out.
@chikorita157 I get the distinct feeling that the creator(s) are of the artsy variety. I mean it is an art form, but further along the scale of the makes the sense.
So the artisanal vs industry definitely feels like a theme. It’s not exactly a new theme and it’s broad enough that one can freely interpret it. So future episodes will be interesting. See how much they leave into it.
But it also touches on something I’ve been curious of for a long time. What’s the story behind the geometric shapes for spells? Because it’s used a lot in Japanese games and anime. I suspect it has some western influences (fantasy style magic is kind of an early 20th century thing in the west), but we don’t see it as much in the west.
So again it will be interesting to see where it goes. See if they have more rules around the shapes.
Kinda wish they didn’t go with a school setting though. I know why, but magic schools have become a trope and it’s been a long while since I’ve seen an actual good take on it.