MAHOU TSUKAI ARC I FINALE

Oh, Lizzie will reappear in Ep 13 to pay her li'l sis a surprise visit...

Kay has been given mnemonic drawings to remember to bring all her stuff to class.

At last she begins to show some potential.

Seems I need a little more to cure my absent-mindedness...

Emily, furthermore, has finally overcome her fear of heights.

EMILY (determined): I am no longer the one I was!

Yes, she has finally shown some nerve...

Emily and June try to attack Liz together with a pincer maneuver, the tomboy coming in from the left and the bookworm from the right. Lizzie is not even fazed...

EMILY/LIZ/JUNE (unison): CURE UP! RAPAPA!

Liz manages to dodge both their assailants, causing them to collide with one another.

(THIS WAS THE MOST EXCITING MOMENT IN EP 9, THAT PINCER!!!)

June, the brilliant slacker, who had to take supplementary classes only because she frequently skipped classes... like someone I know very well... (moi) Also a tomboy with a girly streak (stereotypical look and personality of a tomboy, yet conjured up a pair of fashionable wellies...)

Darum sagen wir:
"Auf Wiederseh'n!
Die Zeit mit euch 

war wunderschön!
Es ist wohl besser jetzt zu geh'n,
wir können keine Tränen seh'n...
Schönen Gruß und auf Wiederseh'n."

With another story arc of Mahou Tsukai Precure beginning, it is time to take our leave of the country-esque Magicverse and its denizens with brightly coloured clothing and hair...

Maybe this is the last time we see (outside the train, from your left to your right) Emily, Kay, June, Liz, and Isaac.

Oh, and the dashing headmaster of the Wizarding School...

Darum sagen wir:
"Auf Wiederseh'n!
Die Zeit mit euch 

war wunderschön!
Es ist wohl besser jetzt zu geh'n,
wir können keine Tränen seh'n...
Schönen Gruß und auf Wiederseh'n."

The Muggleverse arc begins and now the roles are flipped: it is time for Riko to adjust to life as a muggle schoolgirl in Japanese suburbia.

We also got to see the hitherto missing male Asahina, Daikichi (Mirai's dad and Kyoko's husband). 

He is an inventor, and he looks a little like a 30-ish James Potter...

Yet he is a techie through and through.

The Asahina family, from your left to your right: Kanoko, Mirai, Kyoko, and Daikichi.

Oh, and Mirai's muggle classmates...

While on Earth, in the Asahinas' hometown of Tsunagi, Riko will bear the surname Izayoi. Riko Izayoi (like Towa and Kanata Akagi, Ellen Kurokawa... in any Precure series, to be a person from a Magical Land among muggles, you need a Japanese surname [aside from the school uniform du jour]). The surname Izayoi, which may sound familiar as the original surname of Akiza in Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds and/or that of Inuyasha's mother, means literally "sixteen-day moon," referring to the phase when the moon begins to wane. It can be seen as a parallel to her host family's surname, since Asahina translates to "morning sun." So "waning moon" Izayoi as foil to "morning sun" Asahina.

Meet Mirai's muggle classmates: Mayumi Nagase (Kay lookalike, left), and Souta Ono (boy, in the middle)

Souta Ono (related to Yoko?)

Mr. Takagi, the homeroom/Maths teacher, and Kana Katsuki (Emily lookalike, right)

Kana Katsuki is also the class disciplinarian.

Kana saw Mirai and Riko flying on their brooms in broad daylight...

KANA: Mr. Takagi! I saw Mirai and Riko flying across the sky on broomsticks!

Rumour about a sentient teddy walking through the 'hood also shocks them.

Mofurun went out for a stroll...

Gecko still sends the cadres on missions: looks like there are Linkles in the Muggleverse too...

The Linkle Topaz, for example.

Topaz Style attack: electric type.

TOPAZ HAMMER (lightning hammer... Thor, anyone?)

Dia+Sapphire+Ruby+Topaz+Aqua+Tourmaline=six Linkles confirmed (six more to go).

Also: Ha-chan grew into a four-year-old!! 

MY OWN HUMBLE OPINION:

So sad that June and all the others, and the Magicverse, are a thing of the past.

On the other hand, it was most welcoming to meet Mirai's friends and her dad for the first time :)

Ha-chan growing into a four-year-old: not as fast as Hotaru Tomoe, but this girl ages up pretty quickly.

KEEP WARM AND CARRY ON

The following review is brought to you by Ellen Kurokawa.

Mahou Tsukai Precure still continues to be a pleasant series (except for the monsters made from objects: luckily, Spain has seen the premiere on Disney Channel of Miraculous, the first Franime ever to employ The Heartless trope!!! [Check it out!!]).


Today's review of Episode 5:
KEEP WARM AND CARRY ON

Two plus three. Two Precures plus three wizarding students with a vast potential to unlock. Let us see, only time will tell, if these three will someday become warriors of lore...

JUNE (smug): To put a kettle on? Easy breezy lemon-squeezy!

The Cures & Friends (still not clear whether the Friends will become extra Cures), wearing adorable kitty-ears riding hoods.

And their next assignment involves... A KETTLE?

Isaac brought the quintet to the icy Glacier Island and told them to gather some dihydrogen monoxide to fill the kettle over there. And then heat it up, put the kettle on, while staying in this place as cold as the palm of Elsa's left hand... enough to freeze their asses off! (Is Ondalina beneath this place??)

EMILY: My lips are... Freezing...

Her wand tip is an orange club... She reminds me to a certain degree of Alice Yotsuba... Alice Yotsuba as the Cowardly Lioness...

JUNE: I could make it if it wasn't so cold!!

Now where's your self-confidence?

Guess I've already got a fave character... the short-haired, tomboyish, rebel hothead with over-the-top expressions...

Notice also that June's tip is a diamond... a blue diamond... but she is nothing like Rikka... Could she be the child Ira and Rikka might have had? 

Kay slips time after time on the ice...

Is her wand tip a spade? 'Cause all other card suits are taken up...

But Riko will not give up that easily.

Mirai suggested they played this Japanese winter game, Oshikura Manju, to stay warm. Emily and Kay joined in. Riko was surprised. June was not amused.

"Oshikura Manju, don't cry, even if shoved!"

 Riko... is just recovering before another go at putting the kettle on.

A skeptical June looks on, raising an eyebrow. Should she try this Oshi-what's-its-name?

At first she's like: "I would not could not in a box, I would not could not with a fox..."

While Riko is putting her kettle on time after time, June watches the Oshikura players...

All three appear pleased with the game, and their cheeks glow rosy...

And thus, an eager June joins in, becoming ECSTATIC!!

The Three are first in putting the kettle on...

In the end, they managed to fill and heat the kettle.

Mirai & Riko have a Breakup/Makeup plot strand going on in the second half of this episode. But I'm still impatiently waiting for something more June-centric...

Isaac gets June & Co back to the mainland on a carpet.

On the villain front, we got to see Dokuroxy closer up:

Headlight eyes... the only facial feature seen so far looks rather sinister.

Furthermore, there appears to be some rivalry between Batty and Gecko. Tensions mounting similar to the Dysdarks' King's-Landing-style intrigue. I can sense that one of them is an upstart in a lower position vs. the veteran right hand... Dyspear had no proper right hand until Twilight was introduced and everything was basically cadres fighting for the vacant post...

I don't like either of these two Mahou Tsukai claimants, but I prefer Gecko already. He's your quintessential right-hand cadre in a powdered wig, which makes him look cooler! Still, I prefer the Dysdarks. And SHUT foremost.

BACK TO THE HERO FRONT...

Oh, and this is the Smartbook. The Linkle gemstones are inserted here. 

The Headmaster gave the Cures this smartphone-like spellbook. 

The Linkle is inserted in the top circle, with the garland (what is the pentacled bottom circle for?)

If you insert the Linkle Dia(mond)...

...and draw a baby bottle with the rose pen...

(It's uni-mare milk... unimilk, to cut it short.)

...it becomes a real drink for our baby fairy!!

Ha-chan with a white mo after her very first drink of milk.

The Cures found the Linkle Aqua (with ice powers?) on Glacier Island.

So far, we have only seen what the Aqua does if inserted in the Smartbook:

Insert the Linkle Aqua, draw a cloud, then a cup around it...

...and what you get is a cupful of Sky Drink.

I wonder what it tastes like (water? blueberries? smurf-flavoured ice cream? Powerade? peppermint? pineapple [like blue Suguses]? something completely untasted by us muggles?)...

At least Ha-chan loves the flavour, whatever it may be...

Three Linkles confirmed so far: nine to go.

And Ha-chan has grown a little... Now she appears to be 2 or 3.

It is implied that she will grow through childhood and into adolescence as the series unfurls...

IN NEXT EPISODE (6):
When Isaac falls ill, the class temporarily gets a substitute teacher, a twentyish hottie who turns out to be Riko's older sister Liz.

However, separated for a long time as they were, the bond between these siblings is not as it used to be...

LIIIIIZZZZIE <3 <3 <3 <3 !!!

She's filling in for an ailing Isaac... as a substitute teacher... more like substitute eye candy <3 <3 <3

6 CRASH COURSE MAGIC WANDS! THE TEACHER IS RIKO'S older SISTER!? (3/13)

The third magic lesson is today. But Riko was surprised when saw who the teacher was in the classroom! The teacher is... none other than Riko's sister, Liz!
Liz is only a student of Mahou School, but she happens to be very skilled at using her magic wand! Filling in for Isaac, who has fallen ill, it will be Liz who's teaching for the day!
And Liz's class work is to shape water into an image of your own liking with magic, then keep its form for 10 seconds!
Liz easily created an example for them, but neither Mirai or Riko are able to do it...
What's more, after Liz gave advice, Riko set off from the classroom.
What on earth is going on with Riko...!?

>Isaac suffering from lower back pain 

(LBP ["lumbago" in Spanish]... a man his age... that is so obvious...)
>Riko opposes Liz's advice and leaves

For more information, Episode 7 will involve a merfolk village and Episode 8 will center on a family of pegasi. Riko's sexy sis, merfolk, pegasi... what will we encounter next??

7 MAGIC OF THE MER VILLAGE! the SAPPHIRE'S THOUGHTS RESTORED!

To take a special class taught by mermaid Loretta, Mirai and the others visit a certain mer village underwater. To these mermaids that rarely leave their village and fear the outside world, these people from the surface are rather curious creatures. Cici (Cissy? Sissi? Cece?), a mermaid girl who befriends Mirai and Riko, tells them of a legend that circulates in the village.

Animedia
For today's supplementary lesson, they will be taking lessons on speaking/enunciation from the mermaid Loretta, a special lecturer from a certain mer village. While taking a break, Mirai and Riko befriend three mermaids named Cece/Cici/Cissy/Sissi/Sischy, Dorothy, and Nancy.

8 HERE WE GO ON OUR MAGIC BROOMS! RESCUE THE PEGASUS FAMILY! (3/27)
Newtype
For their supplementary lesson, the Main Five have to find the pegasi that live in the magical forest and take a picture of them. However, there's a rumor about a terrifying carnivorous flower blooming in the forest that lures its prey in to eat them.
Animedia
The assignment for today's supplementary lesson is to fly freely in the sky and take a photo with a pegasus. To take a picture with a pegasus, the students have to be able to ride their brooms well.

9. GOODBYE magicverse?!

It's last day of supplementary lessons at Wizarding School. For their final lesson, they're having a magic showdown with the teacher.