Episode 13 – Gushing Over Magical Girls

It’s funny how things work out. My early reviews of Gushing Over Magical Girls saw me snarking about how the series was unequipped and uninterested in pursuing an analysis of someone’s interfacing with their BDSM fetishism and its impact on their relationships. Because, I mean, obviously. Yet here now at the end of its season, that’s… sort of what it winds up doing? It’s not a deep nor serious tackling of the subject matter, to be sure, nor is it the only focal element of the finale, either. But it is there, and as it does for Utena herself, serves as an indication of how the series has matured over its run.

Given it wrapped up its primary plot a couple of episodes ago and sketched out a thematic status quo last week, it wouldn’t be out of line for Gushing to just go for a victory lap and call it a day. There’s part of that vibe in the this episode as both the villain and magical girl groups head to the beach for an “obligatory swimsuit episode” here at the end. It’s a fun enough way to get all these characters bouncing off of each other (Kiwi and Kaoruko’s antagonistic chemistry continues to be a delight) and to see the show indulge in probably the most vanilla variety of fanservice it ever has.

Before the inevitable escalation, this episode is already setting up its now-oddly-customary thematic lines thanks to all those character interactions. The power of secret identities means that Utena, once a shy shut-in singularly obsessed with magical girls, now has interlocking groups of people she can genuinely call her friends. And these connections did, bizarre as it may seem, arise out of her being drafted into the bad-touch bad-times role of the bad guy. Sure, Utena could have potentially interacted with Sayo via the vector of Tres Magia fandom. But neither girl would have been in the same psychological place to get to know each other had they not spent all this time messily getting to know themselves.

The episode’s obligatory erotic escalation demonstrates that point—even as it serves as functional fanservice. Yes, the series at last evokes the classical art of The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife with an eager octopus that’s equal opportunity enough to truss up friend and foe alike. Utena remarks about the difficulty of controlling monsters made from living creatures in a wry, oblique reference to power scaling seen before over in the Precure franchise. But the threat level of that molestation mollusk necessitates Sayo/Azure breaking out her previously glimpsed power-up—which turns out to be a tipping point for the episode, the storyline, and Utena/Baiser’s relationship with her. Attending to the clarity of this point, Sayo’s transformation into “Maiden of Hoarfrost” begins with her intentionally binding herself, before reemerging in an outfit evocative of miko—a symbol of purity. Gushing has always been the opposite of subtle, after all.

This is where another funny call-back to some of my earlier musings on the anime occurs. The teased possibility that the magical girl/villain battles could just be elaborate, consensual BDSM roleplay sessions is made extremely explicit here. Kaoruko even calls them out on effectively doin’ it out in public. It is symbolic of the way heroes and villains in cartoons push themselves to be stronger, yes. But in this case, it’s also emblematic of the way healthy communication in relationships often doesn’t come until after some tricky tribulations and resolution. It’s almost healthy advice—as long as you can stop gawking long enough to decode its very textual subtext.

Gushing Over Magical Girls truly did turn out to be a series about figuring yourself out. That goes for the show itself and myself through reviewing it. Yes, I find it a bit funny that I got on board with many of the themes it eventually developed—as well as several of its presentational indulgences (even as I’ll continue asserting that the series limited itself by near-totally focusing on tween tiddy). What’s funny to me though is realizing that I was so honed in on my favorite girl Kiwi (and championing her crush on Utena), that I rather missed the decidedly more earnest dynamic developing between Utena and Sayo!

Their semi-healthy BDSM roleplay also ends up equating to a semi-healthy romantic connection—apart from neither Baiser nor Azure knowing who the other is yet, of course. But that too is a driving dynamic for magical superhero stories. I guess I’ll be left to find out who I’m shipping among Utena’s odd little love triangle, alongside pondering how much I want another season of this anime I regarded as but a kinky curiosity at first. If nothing else, it’s another reminder that even as a critic, one can sometimes stand to be less judgmental and to not knock things until you’ve tried them—unless you’re just wholly squicked out by the whole underage-cartoon-characters-fanservice thing (which is fair, I get it). And while we’re on the topic, let me tell you about this show called How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord–

Rating:

One more bonus image for the road, less so in the name of any censorship shenanigans, and more just to say thanks for sticking with me through this wiggly, wet, wild journey.

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.