I think if I were to describe the pacing of this season of Mahoutsukai, it would be “glacial”. Is this really one cour? Nothing much seems to carry over directly from one episode to the next – there’s certainly continuity, but no flow. Things switch back and forth between the traditional setting – and cast – and the school one. And then you have an episode like this one, focused almost entirely on characters on the fringe of the story. And, if I’m honest, ones I don’t really care about all that much.
As such, I frankly found this ep a bit of a bore. Wilhelmina is a sad sack to be sure – sympathetic for the way her family treats her. but hardly a magnetic screen presence. Adolf is interesting in his own way, but certainly a minor character in the big scheme of things. Elias and Chise are here – mostly the former watching the latter – but they don’t have a lot to do, really.
Then we have the weird puddlehead teacher – if we got a name, I didn’t catch it – who seems to be in charge of P.E. and is the one leading the camping trip to Scotland. I don’t remember seeing him before now but the narrative certainly acts as if we’re supposed to know who he is. Obviously something dangerous is going to happen on this trip, otherwise why bother (and even in context it’s supposed to pose unexpected challenges for the students), so hopefully that will raise the overall energy level a bit. Honestly I feel like I need a double espresso after this one.
Nicc
May 20, 2023 at 4:33 amIt’s back to school life again and this particular episode was rather slice-of-lifey. We get a bit of background about Philomena (Wilhelmina works too) as a child and she used to be a happy kid who’s good at climbing. The latter still remains true as shown in the wall-climbing activity. It reminds me of the “climbing the rope” exercise that we had to do in PE class before. Elias is quietly watching and it seems that he’s doing that in-between teaching classes.
Philomena gets summoned back to the household and gets a harsh homecoming from her grandmother. It seems to be a complicated relationship, just like her relationship with Veronica. I wonder how much of it is actually friendship or is she just Veronica’s personal spy.
I do appreciate how the modern world isn’t left behind in the world of magic. There are times when it would be a lot quicker to just pull out a gun instead of chanting a spell. I’m sure that silver bullets would be effective against lots of creatures. And, really, Alice, don’t forget about eye protection while at the range.
So, it looks like the climbing and the cooking was to get the students ready for field trip to Scotland. So right, the summer camp episode is next. Perhaps in this setting, the Loch Ness Monster does exist and likes messing with humans. So, yeah, “Slow and Sure”, like the episode title says. Next week’s episode should kick things up a notch as it looks like there’s some danger afoot. Summer camps and horror go well together, so why not?