Gushing Over Magical Girls

Episode 11

Gushing Over Magical Girls is rushing towards its end and continues to show how well thought-out each new escalation is. I'm not going to say that Kiwi casting off her exterior outfit to reveal her true power as Leoparde is an intentional allegory for what this anime is getting up to, but it's an appropriate comparison nonetheless. The sexy stuff in this series was something you could take or leave based on whether you were in the extremely specific audience for it. That material occasionally crossed over into strong, properly integrated story content, like Sayo's character work. But the action is where Gushing can more unilaterally shine when it's flexing. Its adults-only framing lets it indulge in some visceral magically powered beatdowns, to the point that I can happily look past it happening between a naked 14-year-old catgirl and a gigantism-fetish nun.

Look, the current Precure series deadass doesn't have any fights in it; I've got to take what I can get.

As cathartic as Kiwi cutting loose on Sister Gigant is just on a fight scene level, I think this whole sequence leans into why Gushing Over Magical Girls works in this moment. There's back and forth brought on by Kiwi's still-tripped death flags and the questions of how her just-revealed powers work. But it's tempered with the show's now-confident sense of self and tone. I find the consistent swearing in this show really amusing, for one. The subtitlers' commitment to peppering in the potty language sits well with the subverted cartoon energy. It ought to be fun to hear if it ever gets a dub. That overall sense of personality powers the appeal of Kiwi herself, fully motivated by how horrendously down she is for Utena. It culminates in an Ashita no Joe riff, except instead of exhaustedly saying she's tired, Kiwi says she's so horny. It's tragilarious.

The idea of learning and improving applies to the characters of Gushing Over Magical Girls as much as the composition of the series itself. There are new power-ups, sure, like Sayo showing off as the Tres Magia swoop in for a last-minute save or Utena getting a boost, thanks to her key realization in this episode. But really, those show how a story that can concoct something, anything on a conceptual level will be naturally buoyed by that idea-based foundation. It helps me justify (to myself, if no one else) why my opinion of the series has swung so positively in its second half, apart from the usual episode review curve-grading.

If you recall my coverage of a series like Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, my problem wasn't its presence of pervy content, but that it was boring despite that because it had nothing else to do or say. Gushing has, in the past few weeks, given me consistently more to talk about and analyze beyond its outrageous sexual content. That material is still there to its "credit" because it understands and embraces its obligation to its base audience. In this episode alone, the anime breaks new ground by featuring giant nun feet and characters getting swallowed up by giant slime monsters. And it's somewhat suspect that part of Utena's defeat of Lord Enorme comes as she realizes she's not "into" fighting the bad boss in her intimidating, voluptuous form. It makes it somewhat sickly funny that this leads Utena to forcibly de-age the boss dommy mommy into a younger body she finds more appealing. Though I guess there's something to be said for Utena preferring girls her age? Sort of? Look, I said I enjoyed this show because it had stuff besides these parts for me to think about-

Because seriously, the elements of Utena's defeat of Lord that don't involve age regression and awkwardly animated spanking work within the concepts that Gushing has effectively embraced thus far. It's funny that Utena is bored by Lord's overly generic bad-guy speech since, of course, she's seen this a million times in other, more well-written magical girl shows. It's downright heartening to see our herovillain arrive at the epiphany that being an enemy to magical girls is an act of love for them since they wouldn't exist for anything otherwise. It all, appropriately, feels like it still comes out of an admiration for the magical girl genre this show is otherwise scandalizing, since the love the writing and Utena have for their principles feels so genuine. It's exploring the genre instead of just using it as a backdrop for its 18+ doujin material, and to be interesting is the most I could ask of something that otherwise exists for this much indulgence.

Also, Kiwi survived, and it looks like she will finally be rewarded for all her trouble with that hotel trip. Get it, you glorious little gremlin.

Rating:

Coming down to the wire of the season's run as we are, I suppose I could, at last, properly throw you guys a bone on the fanservice bonus image front. But even I know there are some things you don't give away for free.

Gushing Over Magical Girls is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Chris is hoping that following this series at the same time he's keeping up with Precure won't result in him being put on a special list. Please direct any call-out posts to his increasingly decaying Twitter, or whip him into writing more quality material for his blog.