Spoiler Warning: While concentrating mainly on the relevant episode, information from other episodes may be mentioned.

Episode 2 – Wizardry

Watch Episode on Crunchyroll.com

While the first episode of Yuko Wakaru Gendai Mahou was relatively action packed the second episode occurs at a relatively sedate pace in comparison. The content of the episode also comes as a bit of a surprise if you did not bother to watch the next episode preview at the end of the first episode. Unfortunately this mistake is repeated in this episode as the events of the first episode are only referenced post credits and even then it is just to say that they weren’t mentioned but will be followed up on eventually.

In many ways the second episode serves as better introduction to the series than the first episode and not just because it is set in the correct time period. The main reason is because it is focused on the main point of view character Koyomi Morishta and how she started to learn about magic.

The start of the episode is relatively sedate as it covers how Koyomi (like Yumiko) found a leaflet advertising the Anehara Magic school and tried to convince Misa to teach her magic. This initial visit was a failure though since magic Daemons appear from Misa’s computer and attack Misa and Koyomi when Koyomi tried to use magic for the first time (and fails), though Misa is surprised that Koyomi can see the Daemons clearly.

While sedate up to the Daemon attack, this part of the episode as well as introducing some of the characters establishes there is something going amiss with spell codes, which is a focus of the first few episodes. This introduction also shows that neither Misa nor her brother seem to remember Koyomi from 6 years ago which raises the question of why. Unfortunately this (and other) questions are never answered satisfactorily in the anime. I will go into my own theories on what happened at a later date.

The Daemon incident also raises the question of was it just a coincidence that they attack just as Koyomi is tested for magic and is also odd as it is one of only a few occasions that she doesn’t produce a wash basin in response to magic. The scene also starts to establish that Koyomi has high magical sensitivity as Misa is surprised that Koyomi can see the Daemons despite being a novice when it comes to magic.

Moving on in the episode, the next day at school Koyomi is injured during PE and has to be taken to the infirmary by the class representative Kaho Sakazaki . Kaho then tries to become friends with Koyomi by inviting her to Akihabara. However once at Akihabara they get separated as Kaho isn’t paying attention to Koyomi.

This part of the episode introduces us to one of the main supporting characters Kaho Sakazaki who despite being the class representative is portrayed as having quite a withdrawn personality. Perhaps in part due to this I never really understood her purpose in the anime except perhaps to serve as a contrast to Koyomi. She is then almost completely forgotten about after she forgets about Koyomi while wandering around Akihibara until she turns up again right at the end of the episode.

The scene following that is quite dark since Koyomi after detecting magic and being drawn to it, runs into a pop idol being attacked by a crazed fan. This scene and another later on in the episode are probably closest in tone to that of the desperation in some scenes of the first episode with Gibaltes hunting down Yumiko. Fortunately Misa promptly appears and rescues them and then invites Koyomi to continue from where they left off the day before.

During the time they spend together Misa introduces Koyomi to the basic principles of Modern Day magic using computers, and mentions how codes (spells) throughout the city are acting up. She then asks Koyomi if she is willing to help her. As well as introducing us to some of the basics of the series, the scene also demonstrates that Misa is still using her magic in unethical ways to make money, this time by using it to encourage people to buy the idols DVD.

The help Misa wanted was to disguise Koyomi as the Pop Idol and use her to entrap the president of the Idols talent agency who was pretending to be a crazed fan in order to gain more publicity. After Misa captures him, a real crazed fan appears and holds Koyomi hostage. Koyomi then uses magic for the first time and summons her trademark wash basin which lands on top of the attackers head knocking him unconscious.

As well as being amusing as it was the first time a wash basin appears from Koyomi’s magic, it was also amusing given that Koyomi was not that impressed herself given that Misa had told her to find her own magic. As will be revealed in later episodes while the end result of her magic is useless, the means it uses is anything but.

During the aftermath Misa agrees to teach Koyomi magic (for free) mentioning how it is possible to change chance into fate. This is an important line as it is almost exactly what Koyomi said when she protected Yumiko in the first episode indicating that she now believes in the same philosophy. Misa is also shown to not care exclusively about money as she is not getting paid by Koyomi. There is then an unexpected ending as Kaho turns up wondering what is going on between Misa and Koyomi laying the groundwork for her to learn magic as well.

All of this would have made the second episode of the series a good first episode. Unfortunately when watching it for the first time I was left slightly confused given the lack of reference to the first episode and this confusion would last for a few episodes. Looked at in hindsight though the second episode lays some of the groundwork for the events of the first episode and establishes some of the basics about magic in the series without getting bogged down in details

Episode Rating

6/10 – A solid if unspectacular second episode that lays the foundations for future events.

Upcoming Posts

My next posts will be reviews of the first episode of Occult Academy and Evangelion 2.22, both of which should be online in the next 3 days.