As we creep into the second half of Muhyo to Rouji no Mahouritsu Soudan Jimusho’s anime run, we’re starting to get into the passages of the manga that most accurately reflect its true nature.  That is to say, a story that’s quite a bit darker than it initially appears, where bad things happen to good people that they don’r recover from and the world is a rather dark and scary place, full of horrors.  And the Magical Law Association is hardly a bastion of unabashed good and decency.

Two more characters join the fray this week, the magical item creator Bico and the woman who instructed Bico and Muhyo at the academy, Kurotori Rio.  Bico is in fact a girl, though she fools Rouji pretty effectively and in his defense, it’s hard to tell while she’s wearing her big magic cone hat.  The rules governing talismans and such are pretty straightforward – those who create them can’t use them and vice-versa.  It’s two different crafts, though certainly symbiotic ones.  And Bico has come to seek the help of her old classmate because one of her talismans has failed, potentially allowing a hugely dangerous spirit to roam free.

The magical prisons are clearly not the MLA’s most PR-friendly enterprise, and it’s clear in the way they’re hidden (and managed) that they aren’t places the MLA wants to call attention to.  And indeed, Bico’s talisman has failed – though Rio (who’s waiting to greet the trio when they arrive) assures her that it isn’t her fault.  Something very bad has definitely happened on the bottom floor, and the prison’s most notorious inmate – “Sophie the Face-Ripper” – escaped.  She’s such a pill that even the other inmates want nothing to do with her, though the prison staff makes no attempt to evacuate them when they flee the prison themselves and the on-site magical law judge, Iwai-san, sacrifices herself to try and seal the prison from the inside.

The picture painted here isn’t exactly a pretty one.  The MLA, short on executors, is taking shortcuts to try and enforce magical law, and stashing violators in secret prisons while hoping for the best.  The situation with Sophie is certainly bad, but it’s indicative of a larger rot at the core of the system Muhyo and Rouji are a part of.  I don’t know how much of that the anime is going to get to, obviously, but it’s nice that it’s at least making an effort to paint the picture.  As I said, this material is a pretty good representation of what the series is at its core.