I was curious about how the broader Magical Girl business worked in Magilumiere, and this third episode delivered. Kana’s officially a full-time employee at the company, so it’s time for high-octane detailings of salary rates, insurance coverage, and corporate competition! I joke, but this is what Magilumiere exists for. Start-ups competing with established companies? Boring. Do that via Magical Girls blasting monsters in cool outfits? Now we’re talking.

Admittedly, there’s relatively little actual Magical Girl action in this episode. Kana and Koshigaya have a short stint of an extermination partway through, which introduces a Magical Girl from the rival AST Corporation, and demonstrates that aforementioned competition aspect. Here it’s more of an ego thing than horning in on anybody’s profits, as it’s made clear that Magilumiere will still get all the payment for the Kaii that the mean magical maid killsteals from the girls. Koshigaya’s mostly mad about getting help without needing it, and there’s also the matter that the AST girl makes off with the Kaii sealed in the USB device. The whole system of sealing, not fully exterminating, the Kaii is a bit of worldbuilding that seems primed to set up for a bigger scheme or crisis down the road, especially with this detail that companies like AST are going out of their way to gather them. I’m sure it’ll be fine, nothing’s ever gone wrong in stories about filling a containment system up with monsters.

The introduction of AST is here to expound on what makes Magilumiere different from these other, major, Magical Girl companies. “Aesthetic” is the keyword of the episode’s title and within its story. Companies like AST use Magical Girls as a necessity in the Kaii extermination industry, but to hear President Koga talk about it, his heart isn’t really in the “magic” of it. Maids are hardly an uncommon Magical Girl aesthetic. In this case, it feels that AST’s girls are explicitly hired laborers, workers just there to perform a job. Compare that to the snappier costumes of Magilumiere that the girls have visible fun changing into and the different attitude in aesthetics comes through.

This episode shows how Magilumiere’s President Shigemoto takes Magical Girls extremely seriously. And for all his passionate arguing about proper ribbon length, it’s clear that his love for the “aesthetic” of Magical Girls isn’t purely style. Going beyond being exterminators, Magical Girls should be passionate defenders of their communities. This explains why there was so much umbrage taken any time Koshigaya would involve civilians in her battles but also makes clear why she’s kept on anyway and is such a natural fit for Magilumiere. Koshigaya loves her job and makes her particular brand of kicking ass as a Magical Girl into an aesthetic.

Kana’s aesthetic compliments Koshigaya’s, and is gradually being worked into Magilumiere’s aesthetic overall. There’s interiority to Kana as she comes to understand things this episode, as Koshigaya fills her in on more about the Magical Girl business world and President Shigemoto takes a somewhat offhand approach to guiding her in understanding Magilumiere’s approach. He could have told Kana why they weren’t using a wide-range magic circle on this latest job. But he stayed confident Kana would realize the destructive impact it would have on the district on her own, and it makes a stronger impression that way. Kana’s attuning her observational powers to Kaii’s extermination, and her decision to try and safeguard the district by not deploying the magic circle confirms for the company that she does fit in with their aesthetics. It’s shown in contrast to the commentary of AST President Koga, who would blast the area without a second thought. He’s also the type who would consider using his company’s Magical Girls to airlift his car out of a traffic jam, which makes me wonder if he’s as business-minded and budget-conscious as he acts.

This is a basic feeling as you’d expect an episode going into more detail about the Magical Girl market environment to be, which makes it catnip to someone like me, but might lose some viewers who mostly want to tune in for magical women kicking ass. It also means the episode doesn’t get as many opportunities to look as good as the previous ones, and more scenes get a little janky. But the plot is a necessary part of the larger, ongoing whole, and as I said, I found it all pretty interesting. There should be plenty of fun slime-blasting next week.

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 retweeting art of anime girls (magical and otherwise) on his Twitter.