English Dub Review: Magical Girl Raising Project “Up Your Friendship!”

Watch this episode just because you feel like it.

Overview (Spoilers!)

After last week’s frankly terrifying cliffhanger, Snow White wakes up in her own bed. Was her encounter with Alice all just a dream? FAV says it wasn’t, his words are backed up by the rabbit’s foot, a magical item that Snow White now possesses. FAV explains that the item’s original owner was Alice.

Snow White receives a message from Sister Nana, as does Swim Swim. The twins are nervous about Weiss’s strength, and Swim Swim decides to take her out.

Mourning in her own way, Calamity Mary demands that FAV tell her who killed Magicaloid. She locates Alice and shoots her, but Alice regenerates immediately. Mary goes to great lengths to make sure Alice is dead, including stabbing her, burning her remains, covering them in cement, and dropping them into the ocean. But of course, our hearty Alice survives!

What time is it? Time for Ripple’s backstory! When Ripple was a child, her mother went through five husbands in quick succession. The kids at school called Ripple’s mother a slut and insisted that she must be a slut, too. Ripple responded with violence, making her even more socially isolated. After one “father” sexually assaulted her, Ripple moved into her own apartment.

Sister Nana meets up with Snow White and invites her to join forces. Snow White readily agrees—until Alice shows up and agrees to participate in the alliance as well. Snow White is horrified, but Alice doesn’t harm her. On the contrary, she explains that she bought the rabbit’s foot for Snow White “just because [she] felt like it.”

Across town, Ripple and Top Speed share some quality time. Ripple admits that she has no social ties in her human life, and Top Speed says that she was once the same (although she still refuses to reveal her secrets).

Meanwhile, Swim Swim is ready for Weiss and Nana’s arrival…

Our Take 

First of all, it was so obvious to me that Alice was coming back. If a show includes a character who can regenerate after an injury, they’re not going to kill her in her second battle—so the fight between Mary and Alice isn’t that exciting because there are no stakes. Alice is way too OP, and Mary is clearly going to lose. Though I did expect Alice to kill Mary and take over as this series’ main antagonist, which didn’t happen at all.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the direction this show decided to take Alice. I like that, despite her overtly sinister design and powers, she doesn’t kill just to kill. Her murder of Magicaloid was mostly in self-defense. So that brings me to the question: what does she want with Snow White? I’m sure we’ll find out, and I can’t wait to learn. Also, I adore Alice’s claim to have bought Snow White a present “because [she] felt like it.” She gave up years of her life for a complete stranger just because she felt like it? That’s so funny. I actually laughed out loud.

I’m not sure how Snow White ended up in bed, though. Hopefully, that will be explained better in future episodes? And while we’re on the topic of random plot holes—where does Calamity Mary get all her weapons? Where did she get cement and gasoline???

I also, once again, have to knock off some points for lack of originality. When you’re fighting an immortal being, the way to prevent them from regenerating is to destroy their remains and then encase them in cement, right? Yeah, that’s what the creators of Torchwood thought, too. Hey, that’s an idea—if Alice is just discount Jack Harkness, maybe she gave Snow White the rabbit’s foot as a way of flirting.

(Speaking of which, I still love Weiss and Nana’s sweet and caring relationship. I ship it so hard.)

As for Calamity Mary, I do wish the writers would give her a bit more depth. Maybe learning her backstory will help, but during the fight with Alice, she seems to inhabit a generic “crazy person” trope that isn’t very nuanced or interesting. I think at one point someone said she’s the oldest magical girl? I want to know what that’s like! We never get stories about magical girls in their forties, so Mary has a lot of untapped potential as a character. At the moment, though, she’s pretty boring and one-note. Although I do like that even the heartless Mary still took the loss of a friend hard. We’ll all miss you, Magicaloid.

Which brings me to Ripple. It seems like the show is trying to take a stand against sexual assault, which is nice. Anime is a genre in which underage girls are often sexualized to an extreme, so I’m glad this show is trying to say, no, maybe don’t do that.

But now that we know her backstory, damn am I uncomfortable with Ripple’s outfit. She has been called a slut her whole life. She has been repeatedly sexually assaulted. And the people who made this show… decided to put that character in the skimpiest outfit of anyone in the cast? To be clear, I’m not trying to say that people who have been sexually assaulted shouldn’t dress promiscuously. People can dress however they want. But it’s uncomfortable to me that, while apparently trying to show that sexualizing a kid is bad, the costume designers for this show… sexualized a kid. Ripple even says she’s uncomfortable with her outfit. Unless it gets referenced in-show—if FAV says he gave her that outfit on purpose to cause her discomfort, for example—I very unhappy with this costume choice.

I’m really glad Ripple got out of that situation, though, and that she now has a good friend in Top Speed. That, at least, gives viewers some hope. (Although, let’s be real—a 17-year-old buying her own apartment, in this economy?)

I’ve been trying to figure out what the main theme of this show is, and I haven’t been successful. Maybe it’s something about how people naturally distrust each other, how they’ll cheat and steal and even kill when given the chance. Maybe it’s about how you don’t know what’s going on in someone’s life until you really get to know them. Maybe it’s about how good intentions often lead to terrible outcomes.

But as I’ve said before, maybe this show just isn’t that deep, and I’m okay with that. MGRP is usually charming enough that it can get away it.