Ultra Maniac ep.22-24

August 29, 2004 | 2 Comments

For those of you who are wondering "What kind of anime blog is this? I haven't seen any anime recaps/review lately", please accept my apologies. Work, classes, and social interactions have taken away most of the time that I normally have to watch anime. And when I do have the time to watch some anime, I often have no desire to blog them. Or alternatively when I do feel like blogging, I haven't seen any anime so I ended up blogging something else. Anyway, enough with the excuses. As I promised early in the month, here is the Ultra Maniac recap. There is one more to go before the whole thing wraps up. As expected, since the series is about to end, the plot finally kicks into high gear and presents some neat revelations and a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, some of the animations in these episodes look quite bad. Some of them are inconsistent and appear as if they've been drawn by amateurs.

Episode 23 begins with a short scene showing Maya looking scary as usual. She's waiting for a delivery, which turns out to be a package containing a magical pot plant. Meanwhile, Ayu is seen walking to the school and wondering why Nina is in denial about Tsujiai. Before Ayu can ponder about it even more, however, Nina arrives with the bad news that everyone in the school are aware of Ayu and Kaji's new relationship. Ayu and Kaji are embarrassed at the fact that everyone is talking about them but they get used to it after a while. They even start becoming honest with one another and admit that both have been using a fake persona in order to make them look good in front of the other. While everything looks roses for the two, not the same can be said about Nina. She's been failing a lot of her classes, especially English. As a result, her teacher asks her to do an additional lesson after school. Nina is depressed about it and even more so because she can't seem to understand the subject.

Seeing her frustration, Tsujiai decides to help her with the subject. Thanks to his interference, Nina manages to get a better understanding of the language. This, however, becomes the catalyst for Nina to realise that she really likes Tsujiai and she becomes depressed when she remembers that she has to leave him and the others very soon. Meanwhile, Maya has been wreaking havoc across the school by stealing the emotion of the school girls using the magical pot plant, thereby turning them into emotionless drones. Apparently once the plant absorbs the girls' emotion, the plant can show Maya the whereabouts of the white magic orb. Nina who were in the middle of investigating why Ayu has been acting cold to Kaji that day, however, quickly detects her plan. Thankfully, the orb also seems to sense Maya's malicious intent in using the girls' emotion. As a result, when Maya and Nina race to obtain it, the orb decides that Nina is a better person to receive its power.

Episode 24 begins with Nina revealing her identity as a magical girl to Kaji in order to explain why Ayu was acting emotionless towards Kaji in the previous episode. She explains that both her and Maya are from the magic kingdom and that they are there to obtain the magic orbs. Kaji doesn't seem to have difficulty in accepting the explanation so Nina takes Tsujiai, Ayu, and Kaji to her house so she can show them more of the Kingdom using some magical postcards that she owns. Unknown to them, however, someone has been watching them as they enter Nina's house. Inside the house, Nina explains that once she obtains all of the orbs, she can marry the prince, which is her goal ever since she was a kid. Tsujiai looks sad upon hearing this but decides to give Nina his support by telling her that Nina can achieve that dream. Once her friends go home, however, Nina looks sad because she doesn't tell the important part that she can't go back to human world once she marries the prince. Yuta, who has arrived at Nina's house observes this latest development and decides to do something.

The next day, he gives Ayu 2 magical tickets and tells her to use it with Nina and someone that she and Nina likes. Seeing his kindness, Ayu wonders why Yuta doesn't just come with Nina. Yuta tells Ayu that the truth is, he already accepts the fact that Nina doesn't feel like that for him so he simply wants Nina to be happy. Because of this, Ayu, Kaji, Nina and Tsujiai end up using the tickets and receive 2 magical flying carriages. Unfortunately, Nina and Tsujiai, who end up sharing a carriage, seem to be tongue-tied around each other. Because of this, Yuta decides to tinker with the carriage so that it'll flip sideways and throws Nina into Tsujiai's arms. The incident seems to make the two a bit more comfortable around each other and they end up enjoying the trip together. Meanwhile, the mysterious stranger who was seen stalking Nina and the others appears inside a club in the city. The guy then transforms into his real form, which looks like a Saint Seiya reject, and tells another person that he thinks he likes it here.

In the next episode, the end of term is near so the school decides to hold a costume party for the students. Everyone is busy thinking the sort of costume they'll be wearing as well as deciding the sort of costume that Ayu and Kaji should be wearing. Well, not everyone is excited. Maya has not been seen inside the school for a while now so Nina and Ayu decides to give her a visit. Upon arriving at her house, however, no one answers the door bell and it seems as if the place has been neglected for a while. Nina thinks that Maya has probably gone back to the magic kingdom. Unknown to her, however, Maya is still inside the house looking more disturbed than ever. She has created a potion, which has the ability to destroy everything that it touches. Her insanity, however, comes to a halt when the door bell rings again. She decides to open the door and is surprised to see her homeroom teacher asking her to come to the school party. Meanwhile, Nina seem to have a difficulty finding a good costume for the party. But thanks to her father, she ends up coming in a nifty Sherlock Holmes outfit.

At the party, everyone seems to be having a good time. Ayu and Kaji are seen as Snow White and the Prince or one of those fairy tales lovers, I honestly don't really remember which one. Elsewhere, a mysterious blonde stranger decked in a Zorro outfit sweeps Nina off her feet. Unknown to her, Tsujiai looks on from afar looking sad inside a Tin Man outfit. Meanwhile, Maya has infiltrates the party and manages to throw Nina's curious cat into a cupboard before he can ruin her plan. Maya then transforms into her magical outfit and flies into the rooftop of the school. Once she gets there, she pours a potion into the sky and chants magical words which transform the potion into a vortex in the sky, and change her appearance. Meanwhile inside the party, students have been mysteriously missing one by one. Upon noticing this, Tsujiai runs to tell Nina and the others. When they get out, they realise that mysterious black blobs have devoured students. A student then screams and points at the rooftop where Maya is seen looking deranged in the middle of swirling vortex.

Impression:

It's good to see the series finally getting closer to its conclusion. As expected, Maya really does go bonkers and finally decides to take the dark path because of her bitterness in losing the magical orbs to Nina. Another interesting development here is Nina and Tsujiai's relationship. Nina is obviously attracted to Tsujiai and vice versa. And yet, for some bizarre reason, she's clinging to her childhood dream of marrying the magical kingdom Prince. Someone that she claims she never met beforehand. I personally don't like this change of focus in the story from the manga. In the manga, the magical girls (Nina and another character because Maya does not appear in the manga) compete for the chance to become stronger mages. Not for the chance to marry a Prince. This new direction makes the series looks like one of those horrifying reality TV shows. Speaking of the prince, the stalker/Saint Seiya reject/Zorro wannabe is clearly the Prince himself. It's not known at the moment as to why he decides to appear in the human world but it is obvious that he does have an interest in Nina.

© memento 2003