English Dub Review: Magical Sempai “Sempai Discomfort; Celebrating Sempai”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

While dropping off their paperwork at the faculty lounge, our favorite two-person club crosses paths with Assistant’s homeroom teacher. To Sempai, however, she is much more than a loopy teacher—she’s her older sister. When she learns of the magic club, Ms. Teacher transforms into Super-Annoying Big Sis and insists on becoming their faculty advisor. She then makes Sempai perform for her. Sempai messes up, as usual, but her sister is the one who gets in trouble for causing a ruckus in the lounge. She’s not a good teacher.

Later, Sempai wants to embarrass Assistant but winds up embarrassing herself. Throughout the meeting, she is inadvertently flashing her pink, flower-print panties to Assistant whose warnings of modesty fall on deaf ears. Sempai doesn’t notice her faux pas until much later when she’s having a tinkle. A belatedly mortifying moment.

Next, Assistant proves to be a little too skilled at hypnosis when he lulls Sempai to sleep instead of curing her stage fright. In retaliation, Sempai dons a kimono and tries her hand at ancient Japanese magic. Again, Assistant proves to be more skilled at this art which prompts the lady magician to escalate her game. This only leads to tears and the classroom being set on fire.

Temporarily banished off-campus, Sempai tries to do tricks with a flock of common pigeons. The birds aren’t having it and attack her mercilessly. Her string of bad luck finally causes her to snap. Next thing you know, she’s climbing a tree in an attempt to steal eggs from the birds. It ends badly, with the birds attacking her with even more vigor.

In the second episode, Sempai is annoying the piss out of Assistant on his one-month anniversary of the magic club. She’s still brushing up against him with her fit body a bit, so he’s not too mad. However, Sempai’s big sister ruins their fun by springing from the box of mystery and declaring that their club was rejected due to a lack of interest. They have one week to attract more members.

While Sempai stalks Assistant at every new club he tries to join, she is recruited by the track club since she’s ungodly fast. Unfortunately, she’s not interested in track and the track girls have no interest in magic, so it’s a wash.

After a rousing and arousing game of swordy-pokey, Assistant bows out and quits the magic club. Alone again, Sempai regains her magic skills, but none of that matters if there’s nobody to share in the delight. Lo and Behold, Assistant is proven loyal, after all. He wound up joining the chemistry club next door and plans to visit Sempai whenever possible. But watch out, the chemistry club president thinks the two of them are up to shameful shenanigans.

 

Our Take

While Sempai is almost certainly a sociopath, I think Assistant might be on the autism spectrum. I don’t know how it works, but somehow they create a near-perfect pairing. That’s especially impressive given that they hate each other and Assistant is constantly sexually harassing her. I suppose that’s okay because she’s his boss, not the other way around. If he were in a position of power, however, most of his actions would be criminal as hell.

Welcome, Sempai’s sister, you are a curious character. I assume you’ll be the main authoritative voice throughout the series. That’s an odd choice because she’s basically a slightly older version of Sempai who has been the de facto authority figure until this moment. So, if the club is ever officially approved, it’ll be the patients running the asylum.

Sempai’s affinity for birds is one of her more endearing qualities. And yet, her complete lack of ornithological knowledge is classic Sempai to the nth degree. She thinks street pigeons are trainable and that pet store doves are predictable. And what kind of idiot places birds right by their head at night? How small is your house, Sempai? Is everything okay with your home life, dear?

Our good Sempai really needs to learn how to bargain. She needs two or three new members for her club, right? While the track team could be unstoppable with Sempai breaking records left and right. So why not make a deal? Something along the lines of, “I’ll run in a few races—skipping every practice, of course, because I’m a natural—and in turn, you have to at least be members of the magic club on paper. Nobody’s going to check. It’s a victimless crime!” A HUGE missed opportunity. Who’s trying to save this club, anyway? You or me?

Chemistry girl is going to be a fun little wet blanket, isn’t she? Since she’s now established as being right next door, we’re in store for all sorts of sitcom-esque misunderstandings. Come and knock on our door, Ms. Chemistry. We’ve been waiting. Oh yes, we’ve been waiting.