Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians, The
Entry updated 3 February 2025. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (2024; original title Mahō Tsukai ni Narenakatta Onna no Ko no Hanashi). J.C. Staff. Directed by Takashi Watanabe and Masato Matsune. Written by Hiroko Kanasugi. Based on the web novel by Yuzuki Akasaka. Voice cast includes Hana Hishikawa, Yui Horie, Hikaru Midorikawa, Mako Morino and Misuzu Yamada. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour.
As a child Kurumi Mirai (Hishikawa) is unhappy that she cannot perform Magic; a passing magician assures her that anybody can be a magician and hands her a notebook. Years later, though she came first in the mock exam, Kurumi fails the entrance exam for the Magumi class of the Rettoran Academy of Magic (see Education in SF), where magic is taught, and so is placed in the school's Standard Program Class, where it is not. However, their teacher Minami Suzuki (Horie) – newly appointed and seemingly little more than a girl herself – assures them they will all become magicians. Other magicians use "magic notebooks" to perform spells (they look like mobile phones and contain "spell apps") and fly by standing on drones called "droneys" (see Flying; Science and Sorcery). However, Minami performs her magic without this Technology, explaining that she uses geometry (see Mathematics) that represent the four Elements "and everything else in nature". Whilst magic notebooks provide spell arrays on command, her students are to be taught to use geometric shapes, points and lines to draw the arrays: they are dismayed to find every lesson is about geometry. We later learn that Minami used her influence to have Kurumi fail her exam, so she could teach her.
Required to join a school club, Kurumi tries to join the Mystic Research Council, who study spellcraft and study magic theory; but only Magumi students can join. However, two eccentric students now appear: they are the other MRC, the Magic Research Club. Dressed in lab coats, they study "the Seven Wonders of Rettoran ... [the] strange phenomena that occur at this school", caused by increasing emissions of Element M: they seek the cause "before the forces of evil conquer this world". We eventually meet all seven Wonders, with names like the Cacophonous Piano and the Legendary Disaster Hole. Minami turns out to be the club's advisor, and is training her new students to defeat this evil, using "ancient magic" that accesses "M Space" (this emits "infinite waves ... [that] speak into your brain"). After this Infodump she flies off, though she does give Kurumi a toad.
During the winter break a few of the students, including Kurumi, stay at the school; those that aren't already members are dragooned into the Magic Research Club, joining an exploration of the structures beneath Rettoran (see Underground). Here they are attacked by the "Engulfing Dark Fog", another of the Seven Wonders. Magic performed using a notebook has no effect; as Kurumi hesitates, another student, Yuzi Edel (Yamada), uses the ancient magic to counter the fog. In a later visit they are rescued by a young man who calls himself "the gatekeeper"; he then Shapeshifts into the school nurse, who happens to be a Cat. Meanwhile, Minami is imprisoned by one of the teachers, Mr Northern Harris (Midorikawa), "head of the State Magician Intensive Development Programme".
The MRC have discovered a supply of Element M is sealed beneath Rettoran, whose leakage causes the Seven Wonders. The Standard Program class begin collapsing, but the nurse tells them this is not due to Element M leakage – and they need to find Minami. Fortunately the toad is her familiar and takes them to her. Minami explains Element M is "the energy we receive from the natural world" and was once used by all to perform natural magic – but a group of humans sealed it away, to keep it for themselves. However "modern magic requires ... human vital energy to cast", which at this school is drained from the Standard Program students via a kind of Vampirism; unfortunately, though only a little of their energy was initially needed, the increasing number of spell apps has finally debilitated them.
We now see Mr Harris in a laboratory, amongst equipment whose many tubes stretch along the floor like tentacles, worriedly talking to himself about how "gathering this vital energy will free our magic from all limits". When Minami confronts Mr Harris about the students he responds "progress always comes with sacrifices. That's how humankind has come this far." At this juncture he can be considered a Mad Scientist; he claims to seek "equality for all humankind", but adds that "magic belongs in the hand of gifted, qualified overseers". But his machinery is undergoing meltdown and notebook magic is useless against it, meaning Rettoran is seemingly doomed. Kurumi and Yuzi use natural magic to break the seal (which apparently constitutes the seventh wonder), releasing the reservoir of Element M, and so the school is saved. All seems to end happily, but Mr Harris mutters "A greater scheme has begun in secret," and there is an ominous after-credits scene.
The new way of using magic, via technology, is controlled by the government, here represented by Mr Harris: Element M has been stored away and is only available to State appointed magicians (trained by the school), to ensure it is used responsibly (see Politics). Minami wishes to return to the days when the element was a natural resource that everyone could use for magic. How deeply this is to be read metaphorically is unclear: the Anime's predominately safe and gentle mood means any intended message lacks punch; it also blurs the worldbuilding, which is unoriginal but cluttered (with some loose ends, presumably awaiting a second season). Though the boys in the Standard Program class are allowed their moments, they tend to be easily demoralized (and their personalities are a little grating): the series' dynamic characters are female (see Feminism). Despite treading water during its third quarter, some tension does build towards the end. The show's main virtue is the animation: the pastel look is charming. Overall, The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians' is a pleasant though flawed comfort watch. [SP]
links
previous versions of this entry