Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku Episode 11 Review: Server Down for Maintenance

Nabuka City’s night sky is empty, probably because everybody is freaking dead. After lots of unpleasant and some not-so-unpleasant killing, very few Magical Girls are left. Even fewer soon.

Japanese Title: サーバーメンテナンス中です

Plot

So many questions are left unanswered, even though this season is almost at an end. Burning questions like ‘who actually masturbates to this?!’ and ‘why is all this horror going around because of an evil floating tampon?’ If you are waiting for answers, well bruh, it does suck to be you. But do get ready for some more killing and a couple of cool plot twists.

Episode Highlights

This Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku episode starts just like the first one: a bunch of unknown Magical Girls are fighting a demon who has gone berserk. FAV mentions that its master is dead too. As everyone is bleeding to death, Cranberry gets up and kills him with a strong blow. She seems happy and psychotic as always. Now she is the new master.

Intro plays, which reminds me that I believe Shouta-kun’s not dead. I wonder what is happening with him.

Back to where the previous episode left off, Cranberry is looking for Swim Swim and Tama, who are hiding from her and trying to attack. Swim Swim finally goes all-out yet fails as Cranberry reads her weakness and attacks her with light and sound, managing to affect her liquid form. She then starts having the usual monologue on how awesome and superior she is, approaching Swim Swim who is lying flat on the floor in her human form, that of a young child. While Cranberry is distracted, Tama knocks her on the back, creating a huge hole on her and causing her to explode. Blood rains on Tama. The bitch is dead.

Tama runs to check on Swim Swim. As she admires the youth of her paranoid genius, Swim Swim gets up, picks up her weapon, and cuts her friend’s head off. WHAT. Even though I was somehow expecting it because of the way the scene was directed, my jaw dropped.

We get a really painful flashback on Tama’s life, nothing unexpected there. Constantly undermined by her family because of her lack of talents and of course very depressive, the only person who appreciates her for her kindness of heart is her now dead grandmother. Taken under Ruler’s wing, she feels useful and a part of something for the first time in her life. Her happiness is short lived, after the battling for survival begins.

Swim Swim sheds a tear explaining she had to kill Tama because Ruler said they need to protect their identity. FAV pops up from Cranberry’s magical smartphone and asks Swim Swim to be his new master. She meekly accepts, but refuses to cooperate with him towards anything, because – guess! – Ruler was an absolute monarch and that’s the right way to be. I really don’t understand this girl’s infatuation with a megalomaniac like Ruler.

FAV is busting Swim Swim’s nuts trying to get her to study about being a Master but she has more important things to do like, learn how to write, per say. She ignores him and keeps pondering on Ruler. In the meantime, Ripple keeps having uninteresting emotional flashback starring Top Speed. She decides to avenge her and invites Snow White (who is reminiscing about La Puceru) to a meeting, to ask her if she has any information on Swim Swim. Snow White starts moaning about her ethical values but FAV who is fed up with Swim Swim’s nonchalant and completely childish attitude gives Ripple a tip on how to kill her… and announces the number of Magical Girls allowed in Nabuka City will now be reduced to two. Light and Sound it is then, and Ripple runs off to find a way to kill Swim Swim.

In her box room, she dreams of returning Top Speed’s body to her husband. Before sexily transforming from an angry teenager to a pissed-off ninja, she stares at the 4th dimension bag she stole from Calamity Mary. FAV confirms that he already contacted Swim Swim and she’s agreed to meet with her. It’s on.

Themes & Trivia

Expectations: Following up Tama’s case, did you know that Asian children’s education is very much fuelled by parental demands, fear of failure, competition and pride? Doesn’t sound pretty, but apparently it is quite effective, academically.

Vengeance: It is probably not the first time you hear of an anime character wanting to avenge their peers or masters. In Samurai culture, vengeance was a duty included in the bushido code.

Comments

I did appreciate the weakest character killing the strongest one, as well as the plot twist of Swim Swim killing Tama. Hell, I was shocked. I am completely uninterested in Snow White right now, but have this odd feeling she will be the only one left alive by the end of this season. Even though she’s pretty lame.