The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians

Episode 12

This isn't a terrible ending, all things considered. We learn the identities of Ms. Magician and Hazel, and that Kurumi should have been in the Magumi in the first place but that Ms. Suzuki prevented it, which frankly feels like a necessary revelation. Yuzu and Mirai get to demonstrate their differing opinions on how to move forward as well, which is perhaps the most important detail. Both girls are Rettoran legacies, but they also come from very different backgrounds, with Yuzu ultimately choosing to follow in her parents' footsteps and Mirai unwittingly staying with her grandmother's. (Or mother's? It's unclear how aging affects magicians, and we know that Hazel and Minegenius are the same age.) And make no mistake, this is important – no matter how much Ms. Suzuki might want it to, the world isn't going to eschew modern magic for ancient. It may be gatekept right now, but it's easier to use, and the way forward is almost certainly to promote a combination of the two. And then maybe, with time, there'll be a more equitable distribution of magic, with people able to use both. You can't unring the bell of progress, but you can make it harmonize with earlier technologies.

Still, I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a bit unsatisfying. Yuzu and Kurumi's big moment is over before the five-minute mark, and Mr. Harris makes it clear that he's only been temporarily thwarted. The Magumi and Standard classes are still segregated. As the post-credits scene makes clear, Element M is still wreaking havoc on the school, to the tune of evaporating the dog, who is revealed to have some very familiar initials. There are still almost more questions than answers, and that's not a great place to leave things off. Is it designed to facilitate a sequel? Almost certainly, although whether we'll get one is, as of this writing, unknown.

Ultimately, for Kurumi, magic is about joy. She felt it when she first met Ms. Magician, and she's been chasing it ever since, that thrill of doing something that should be impossible. Hazel prepped her for it with the “charms” she taught her as a little girl, and at the end of the day, that's why I believe Kurumi opted not to take the test for the Magumi. Modern magic isn't full of wonder. It's not about making something out of the stars that float through the air like sparkling seeds, it's about pushing a button. When the Magumi class is freed from the room Mr. Harris locked them in and sees the gentle snowfall of stars, they're taken aback. Do they recognize it as magic? I don't know, but I would hazard that it's the first time they've ever experienced true magic. That's what Kurumi is choosing when she makes her decision. It's hard to blame her – whether Edgar Eager, Harry Potter, Diana Wynne Jones, or Eleanor Estes first taught you that wonder, Kurumi's choice speaks to the child in us all.

At the end of the series, I find myself torn about The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians. I love its visuals, with its pastel picture book sensibility, and I like Kurumi as a character. The story's world is undeniably interesting. But I don't feel like, as a series, it was executed particularly well. The pacing was uneven in the middle and the ending was too abrupt, giving this a sense of lost potential. I suppose, in the series' own terms, this was modern magic when ancient magic would have worked better. That's probably not what they were going for, but for these twelve episodes, it'll have to do.

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The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.