©Mahonare” Production Committee
If Magumi students seem to look down on their standard classmates, it’s almost certainly because they learned it from adults. If you think about it, most of the discrimination we’ve seen so far has come directly from adults; in some cases, the Magumi kids were dismissive of other tracks, but for the most part, they acted like It’s as if they feel secure in the advantages they’ve gained. Teachers have made it clear that standard pupils deserve no better.
This week’s games made that abundantly clear. The Rttoran Cross Country is a school-wide competition that pits Magumi and Standard against each other on a course designed specifically for Magumi to win, this is made more evident by the fact that they can use drones while Standard students must Drones mainly walk. The zany route involves skirting a huge lake, passing through a swamp with the not-so-subtle name of Badnos, over a mountain and waterfalls, and finally arriving at a special school resort that looks like It’s a few miles away from the starting point. The fact that the winner has to pass the midpoint before noon only drives home the unfairness: it’s all meant to reinforce the idea that Magumi students are better than other students.
Although it all seems rigged, it’s also the perfect opportunity for Kurumi and her classmates to prove that they’re more than just Mame’s rejection. As Asuka realizes, sometimes it’s all about how You solve a problem, and even if this class doesn’t have magical segway cheats, they do have unique skills and Kurumi’s boundless optimism… not to mention our mysterious cat and dog, whose motivations may be very Shady, but still undeniably, a little bit of a level playing field. Learning about old train tunnels and using glow-in-the-dark fabric may not technically be magic, but they are effective tricks.
Perhaps this is what Ms. Suzuki has been trying to make her students aware of. She taught them the basics of ancient magic, but Walnut’s efforts at drawing spells still weren’t enough. That means she’s still missing something, and maybe that’s the application of real-world, on-the-ground knowledge. Think back to the Charms her grandmother taught her: each Charm was designed to do something practical—managing fire, adjusting the weather, helping with household chores. This seems to mean that ancient magic relied on human will, while modern magic does not. Modern spells are all about convenience rather than necessity, which makes the elite seem superior to everyone else and often serves the function of technology in our world. But we know there’s older technology out there; just look at the railroad engineers of the future. Knowing how to use it seems to be the basis of ancient magic, again indicating its practical use. Rowing buckets and walking on lily pads probably won’t Technically That’s less magic than flying a drone, but both are still examples of how ancient magic works—they combine real-world skills with the drive to do better, and it’s hard to argue with the results.
It’s interesting to see Kurumi feeling less hopeful at the end, while Yuzu goes in the opposite direction. Despite – or perhaps because of – knowing the spell, Kurumi’s frustration at not being able to successfully use magic during the race seemed to overpower the joy of completing the race. But Yuzu begins to see her world differently, seeing the value in what she and her classmates do. The two girls need to meet in the middle somehow, and the story does a great job of setting up that possibility. Passion and caution could be a winning combination for both of them – because, as Asuka tells his brother, it depends on how you look at things and then act on them.
grade:
The story of the girl who couldn’t become a magician Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
