English Dub Review: Magical Sempai “Four Balls Sempai; Growing Sempai”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Sempai won’t stop playing with her balls. Assistant can’t help being distracted by how much trouble she has manipulated her balls. Her sweaty hands make the balls damp so they don’t fit neatly in her palms. Assistant knows for a fact that she plays with her balls in the shower, so he’s not buying that excuse. Sempai then blames it on her tiny hands, which prompts her to hold hands with Assistant. He enjoys the experience even though the sweat-exchange is very gross.

Later, Masa catches Saki going through and smelling his garbage. This leads to him distancing himself which depresses Saki. As a coping method, she forces Assistant play with a Masa hand puppet. The role-playing doesn’t work for her, but since Assistant was such a good sport, she gifts him with a sexy Sempai puppet.

The next day, Masa tells Assistant that he saw Sempai on an outing with a mysterious man. Assistant, pretending not to be jealous, tempts the gang into following her. They tail her to a café where she eats two slices of cake all by herself, and then she runs across the street to a gas station for a super-long poop.

Finally, she meets up with the guy. Due to his casual appearance, they suspect he’s either: unemployed, an assassin, or a pornographer. When the pair visits a lingerie shop, they lean into the pornographer theory. The man is actually Sensei’s husband who wanted Sempai’s help in choosing a birthday gift for his wife. Everyone is embarrassed.

In the next episode, Saki shows the club the “magic” of balloon animals. She shows off by blowing them up with her nose and making flawless balloon dogs. Sempai can barely make her balloons look like snakes, and when Saki tells her to rest the long balloons between her legs, the men blush.

Next, Sempai locks herself up in chains to excite Assistant. But instead of freeing herself Houdini-style, she hides in a locker, pretending to have disappeared. Even though she won the moment, she’s unfortunately trapped in that locker for most of the night.

In a rare reversal, Sempai peeps in on Assistant and Chemistry girl doing what appears to be filthy chemistry. It’s innocent but they have to explain the situation to the lovely magician, anyway. All of a sudden, Sempai is impressed by science which pleases Chemistry girl to no end. However, the infatuation doesn’t last as long as the entire magic club refuses to leave the comforts of her lab.

After having trouble doing her act even when Assistant is sleeping, Sempai resorts to drastic measures. This involves donning a bunny costume which is even more revealing than the swimsuit she wore to the beach. She does extremely well despite Assistant’s eyes being glued to the skimpy clothing. In celebration, Sempai jumps for joy and loses her top to end the season.

 

Our Take

It’s quite obvious that the creators of this show are huge magic fans. Because even after showing Sempai’s ineptitude for the umpteenth time, they do so with a brand new magic trick. I have a sneaking suspicion that the writers’ room consists of a bunch of folks attempting to do magic tricks while others jot down the results.

Okay, so it was bad news when Saki was sniffing those discarded Kleenex in Masa’s garbage, but after that, she showed some growth. During the puppet sketch, she cared about Assistant enough to make him a puppet meant to fulfill his deepest desires. And following that, she managed to share the same space with her brother for multiple scenes without acting like a complete love-sick fool. The girl still has a long way to go, but progress is progress.

Sempai, on the other hand, is a little too stunted for my tastes. Aside from discovering the wonders of science for two damn minutes, our heroine is ungodlily obsessed with magic. Even when she thinks she’s alone, we find her compulsively attempting a coin trick. But wait. Isn’t that how professionals become professional? If one doesn’t work at their passion and put those 10,000+ hours in, how would anybody become an expert at anything?

Perhaps I’m too hard on Sempai because the show frames her as a lovable loser. They set it up so even the smallest of wins elevates the character in the limited parameters provided. Under such a low bar, one never even fathoms the emergence of a professional magician. In other words: Sempai, they’re doing you wrong. All that’s left for you to do is to show us your strong protagonist potential and prove them wrong.

I’m fully aware that the kids might have a skewed understanding of what grown men wear on a daily basis. But why did their minds automatically resort to students or unemployed when they saw Mr. Sensei’s casual attire on a weekday? Do professionals never have weekdays off in Japan? Is “office worker” the highest position available to the Japanese bourgeoisie? And, if I’m supposed to believe this theory, why was this bloke dressed like a slob for two consecutive days? The reveal is a little weakened when there are so many unanswered questions. Don’t you think?