[Summer 2021] Magia Record Season 2: The Eve of Awakening Discussion Thread

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マギアレコード 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ外伝 2nd Season

Iroha's quest to find her sister and uncover the truth about the rumor regarding the saving of magical girls. But before that, she'll have to overcome her extreme case of despair after what materialized at the end of the first season. This is the second of three seasons for this spinoff of the magical girl show that turned the whole genre upside down.

Airs: Saturday, July 31, 2021

Studio: Shaft

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Iroha Tamaki and the magical girls return in Season 2 of Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story.

Notes
As usual, please try to follow these two easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please indicate in the first line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please quote that post (or a relevant reply to that post), or include the episode title in the first line. ("Re: Episode 1") Just make sure the episode is indicated.

For more guidelines please refer to this thread.

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Episode 1

Kamihama is calling.

To start off the second leg of this series, it begins with that flashback episode from the main series in one of the timelines when Homura became a magical girl in order to rescue Madoka from her fate, and in particular the one that involves the battle against the seifuku witch. The characters are much different here as Homura is still the sweet girl whose desperation level was relatively low, Sayaka is level-headed, and Mami has sided with the enemy just like what was seen at the end of the first season. And then Homura gets the call to come to Kamihama trying to see if there's a way to save magical girls like what she wants to do with Madoka. Pretty much, this is all setup for what's to come as Madoka and Homura didn't appear in the first season, but they figure to have quite a sizable role in the second season after everything that went down. It will be interesting to see exactly how this ties into the main Magia Record storyline seeing that things have gotten pretty desperate for Iroha after everything that happened in the end of the first season.

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Episode 2

Where hope is faint.

After the first episode was about Madoka and Homura being told by Sayaka what happened with Mami at the end of the first season, it's back to the main story as the focus is on Yachiyo, who is willing to do anything and everything to bring Iroha back, and among the things on her bucket list is to crush the Magius. It turns out that the Doppel form has some serious side effects, and Yachiyo is in need of a black feather if she is to enter Hotel Faint Hope. And then there's Kuroe, tasked by the hospitalized bookworm Nemu to track down a certain Uwasa. Then there's Mifuyu as Yachiyo is not exactly pleased at what her former bestie has become siding with the Magius. And then it ends with Yachiyo finding Iroha. Yachiyo sure is starting to really lose her mind there, but when she loses a friend the way she did, it's quite understandable. Nevertheless, Magius has some grand scheme in place and it will be interesting to see how they are going to put their plan into motion. As Kuroe is an anime-original character and has quite a prominent role in this episode that it looks like the show is going to diverge from the game, and seeing that following the game has led to some serious lapses in story writing that I can certainly see why.

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Episode 3

Will the real Iroha Tamaki please stand up?

Just when it looked like Iroha was back, it turns out that Yachiyo is dealing with her Doppel self as this one doesn't realize what Ui means to her. After diving deep into her fantasies, they find out exactly what was causing this problem, and it's none other than the Doppel hiding inside Iroha herself in order to overwrite Iroha's nightmares. Iroha fell quite far ever since the ending of the first season, but now it looks like things are looking up for her. In the meantime, it's back to focusing on Madoka as she's searching for Mami and bring her back to herself after becoming that monstrosity that caused quite a lot of havoc at the end of the first season.

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Episode 4

Friends don't let friends be Doppels.

And now, it's onto Hotel Faint Hope as with Kuroe's message, Iroha is out to see Nemu seeing that she's about to die. And it's quite a perilous journey there as there's the Amane sisters that attack, which Yachiyo stays behind to fight. And then they meet Rena and Kaede that are trying to flee Magius, but then Kaede's Doppel goes berserk. In the end, Kaede is still alive, but now she's out of the battle having been locked away in an isolation ward where those who have succumbed to their doppels are withheld until the mission is over. It's a tough break for Kaede, and it serves as a warning for Iroha to avoid using her Doppel seeing that she nearly succumbed to her own Doppel.

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Episode 5

On the Embryo Eve of destruction.

It's a great thing Sana and Felicia ran into Kyoko when they did or else they probably would have been done for. Kyoko is stealing Grief Seeds from the Magius in being there. While that's going on, the Magius is planning to draw in all the witches that includes the final boss of the original series, Walpurgis Nacht, and that along ought to make things quite a serious problem there. The Magius is bringing them in order to wake up the artificial witch Embryo Eve to Doppelize the world. While that's going on Iroha continues to push forward, and Kuroe stays behind to hold back the Feathers as she pushes forward to reach Nemu to know exactly what she's up to seeing that what they are doing is being contradictory to their mission. Just an ominous episode that was going to show the hypocrites that the Magius is as it's hard to get a read on them. They claim to know how to save magical girls, but what they have been doing doesn't add up at all.

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Episode 6

Welcome to Chelation Land.

Iroha and Yachiyo, meet Madoka and Homura as the two leads meet each other for the first time. So the truth about the plan to save the magical girls becomes quite clear as instead of becoming witches, the girls become Doppels where they still maintain part of their humanity, but the consequences are just severe when they are overused. While that's going on, Sana and Felicia bring Mifuyu back to Mikazuki Villa. So it sets up two big battles going on in an amusement park setting as Madoka and Homura battle God Mami, all while Iroha is fighting her own battle with their paths having crossed. Things have gotten extremely tense here, and even more so than any point in the first season.

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Episode 7

Nothing but an empty shell.

And the Mikazuki residents minus Tsuruno are together again after Iroha and company manage to escape Mami and Tsuruno. Felicia is quite vocal there about not wanting to hurt others in order to prevent them from becoming witches. While that's going on, Mifuyu and Momoko convince Mitama to spill the beans about separating Mami and Tsuruno from the Uwasas in which they are fused with, and to do that they need to use Connect. They tried it on Tsuruno, but that failed and instead Tsuruno suffers extreme damage to her body. Given everything that just transpired, it's going to be one crazy finish for this season. One more episode left to go for this season, and it will be interesting to see how this leads into the final season.

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Episode 8 (Season 2 Finale)

The gang's all here. Both of them.

And to end this season, Tsuruno is back with the Mikazuki alliance, while Mami is brought back to Madoka's team after using connect to bring them back from the Uwasa. It turns out that Tsuruno didn't now how Meru truly died and has been blaming herself for it all this time, putting on a tough facade to mask her true feelings. And then Iroha and Madoka destroy the device that attracts the witches and with Walpurgisnacht being redirected that her job is done. So with Tsuruno and Mami back, it's onto the last leg of this story as Iroha learns the truth about everything that has happened straight from Nemu. It will be quite interesting to see what that is, and it won't be long before that happens with the final season coming sometime in before the end of the year.

Overall, this season is a huge improvement over the first that was adapted in a way where it became pretty obvious that this was meant to be a mobile game and not exactly well-suited to be an anime. This season opts to go with an original story, and for the most part it works as far as being fit for an anime series. The Shaft-style visuals and production values continue to be top-notch, all while having the Madoka cast more involved with the plot is a great way to jump-start things. That said, this is still nowhere near as great as the original series as the story wasn't as deep and comprehensive, but for a spinoff like this, it's an improvement as it sets things up quite nicely for the final season.

MAL Rating: