©まほなれ」製作委員会
Mr. Harris is up to something. Just what isn’t one hundred percent clear yet, although it feels like a safe bet to say that it has to do with stamping out Ms. Suzuki’s attempts to bring back ancient magic. He made that pretty damn clear last week when he captured and imprisoned the rogue teacher inside a clock and handed Kurumi an offer to retake the Magumi test – and he’s doubling down on that because it turns out that he also gave Yuzu and the recently removed Aniku the same offer. That’s a major statement about how concerned he is about what Ms. Suzuki is teaching because he’s covering all of his bases. The two girls who have successfully used ancient magic and the boy at risk of learning it if he remains in the standard class.
Does that mean he’s anticipating Ms. Suzuki breaking out of her glassy prison? Not necessarily. Instead, it shows that Mr. Harris is planning for all eventualities. If Ms. Suzuki is freed, if either Yuzu or Kurumi refuses the offer, if some other heretofore unsuccessful ancient magician surfaces among the other members of the standard class, if he knows about the school nurse and the mysterious boy…it’s less that he’s worried about specifics and more that he’s afraid he’s overlooked someone or something. If he could, I suspect he’d act like the king in Sleeping Beauty and banish all writing implements from Rettoran grounds on the off chance that someone might accidentally draw a spell array. The man is paranoid, and you know what they say – just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you.
What his investment in keeping magic for the chosen few remains unspoken, but I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that it’s about power. Up until this point, the power structure of Rettoran and the larger world has held magicians above “ordinary” people; the fact that the Magumi is so selective says a lot more than just Kurumi’s obsession with learning magic does. Put those two things together and you end up with a system that says that magic is “special,” and that only the chosen ones can use it. Rettoran’s two-tier system – Magumi versus standard – says it all. If you’re “standard,” you don’t get to partake in the wonders of magic. Only the chosen ones get that honor. Separating things like this is nearly always about one group of people getting to say that they’re better than everyone else.
Naturally, such systems backfire. Revolutions are born from them, and even small rebellions can be dangerous to “merit”-based systems that aren’t actually about merit or skill at all. While Kurumi and Yuzu do opt to take advantage of Mr. Harris’ offer, it’s more significant that Aniku doesn’t. His removal from the Magumi has ripped the scales from his eyes, and his time spent with a group comprised primarily of standard students over the break has shown him that there are things just as good as magic out there. I daresay that Asuka, the twin who didn’t make the Magumi cut (probably on purpose), was a major influence on him, because if anything Asuka seems a lot happier than Kyo. But Yuzu and Kurumi, who were thought to be Magumi shoo-ins, also probably made an impression – neither of them ended up in the Magumi and they’re both still doing just fine. Suddenly, it’s not looking like magic is required for happiness, and when Aniku tears his invitation in half, what he’s doing is rejecting what the Magumi stands for: a specific vision of the world that he now knows to be false. This may make Aniku much more dangerous to Mr. Harris than anyone else.
The increasingly unpleasant teacher may still be blinded by the idea that if Yuzu and Kurumi pass the Magumi re-test, they’ll happily join the class. He probably has no idea how close Kurumi was to not taking it at all, and his worldview doesn’t allow for the possibility that someone might not think that being a magician is the best thing ever. He can write off Aniku as subpar in all ways, but Yuzu and Kurumi? That could be an eye-opening experience for him. I’m ready for these girls to start a revolution, one small refusal at a time.
Rating:
The Stories of Girls Who Couldn’t Be Magicians is currently streaming on
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