Episode 12 – Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.

That’s one load off my mind. Magilumiere has already been officially confirmed for a second season following this finale for the cour. That neatly puts to bed my concerns from last week, leaving me free to settle in and enjoy the episode as it is: a precursor to everything that will (presumably!) go down in that next season. And, as I also expected last week, it is a solidly big finish for a season finale. As with everything learned about the Magilumiere company’s Alice System, context goes a long way toward codifying the impact of something.

Big, mutated versions of the Kaii have been the beasties du jour for several storylines, and this merged-together mass of explosion monsters is the biggest, most mutated yet. It does look grand, playing well alongside the expected action this storyline capstone brings. For all the unevenness of Magilumiere‘s looks over the season, it seems they were able to ration their resources effectively up to this ending. There’s a little more obvious CGI in some of the shots of the girls on their BROOMS, but overall this is a vibrant, colorful climax marked by plenty of cool moments.

Sure, there’s still an amount of the “standing in place holding the Kaii back with magic” strategy that’s been in Magilumiere‘s battles since the beginning—an instance here is even framed as an explicit call-back to the first episode! But it’s structured around plenty else happening. Kana and Akane must pull off some daring dodges against the Kaii to collect data and get into position along with Koshigaya. There’s so much going on between the physical parts of the plan, the contingencies, and the precise magi-techno-babble of how the finishing move spell works that it can be easy to get lost in the sauce of everything happening on-screen. But it looks and feels extremely cool, which is like 75% of what magical-girl-ing is supposed to be about.

Magilumiere, as a company, is showing the way towards a new standard for the future of magical girls. In business, with multiple competitors, that can be just as much of a troublesome proposition as dealing with some sort of magical natural disaster. The effect of the overarching collective is teased in this episode’s post-credits stinger, showing Shigemoto getting involved with some sort of Magical Girl SEELE. As Magilumiere has built out its world, it’s also gotten broader and deeper, and that bodes well for the escalation of stories next season.

This episode hits that sweet spot for a season finale: satisfying, yet tantalizing. Kana confirms how she’s come a long way, proving herself as a teacher for Akane while also showing how she learned a lot in the process as well. The revelation that Shigemoto sees her as a natural leader, someone who’s already become the glue holding the company’s system together, feels like it defers a little too easily to Kana’s main character status. She hasn’t been there that long, after all. But I can buy how she improved their overall teamwork. That’s been shown in all her interactions with Koshigaya over the season, and said teamwork is Magilumiere’s whole thing, after all. This is something they’ll need to confirm by committing to in the forthcoming season and for now was the only part of this finish I was really looking askance at. Otherwise, this all caps off a strong freshman outing for Magilumiere, and proves that it deserves that second season.

Rating:

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. is currently streaming on
Amazon Prime.

Chris would 200% work for a magical girl company if they were real, but he’ll settle for writing reviews and ad copy instead. You can peruse more of his views over on his blog
, or catch him reskeeting art of anime girls (magical and otherwise) on his BlueSky.