Magical Pokan 12 (END)

  
  

Uma's somehow come down with a pollen allergy, so her eyes are red and she's sneezing all over the place. Apparently it won't go away for an entire month. Uma, rather pissed, tries to give it to Aiko by kissing her... that ain't gonna work (^^;;) Uma then tries to use her magic to give it to the others... and OMG, it worked! Not that she actually improved or anything..

Uma, very excited that her magic actually worked goes outside and starts using her magic all over the place -- making a cat walk, then painting the town pink. However, the hospital doesn't turn pink -- she tries to give it some more color, and a rainbow appears over it. A girl saw Uma do and excitedly asks her how she did it.. well, she can do magic. The girl asks Uma to make a sakura tree nearby bloom. But not right now. The girl's mother is in the ICU now, but in a few days she'll be back in her usual room, so then. Uma agrees to come back. The girl's name? Miku-chan ;)

When Uma gets back home, Pachira, Aiko, and Liru ask her to use her magic to cure their allergies. And it works again. Liru asks Uma to make a nice dinner with her magic. No problem!.... but nothing happens. Uh-oh... she goes back to her room and tries using magic again... Out of MP, and she even breaks her magical stick ＿|￣|○ How's she going to make the sakuras bloom for Miku-chan and her mother now?

First, Uma tries heating the tree up to make it bloom. Kids shouldn't play with fire, really (^^;;) She then tries putting a ton of those pocket warmer things on it. Miku-chan asks Uma if her magic's okay. Her mom's going to be out of the ICU the day after next.. Uma then uses a huge mirror to try and reflect sunlight onto the tree. Aiko, Pachira, and Liru also show up with mirrors to help her out. As night comes, the tree still hasn't bloomed....

  

Early the next morning, people start gathering near the tree where Uma, Pachira, Liru, and Aiko are sleeping. Miku-chan wakes up her mother and tells her to look outside -- the sakura tree is in full bloom (sakura saku mirai koi yume~). It's a miracle :) Miku-chan thanks Uma for making the tree bloom, saying that it made her mother very happy. Miku-chan's mother asks her who that girl is... she's a girl that can use magic.

---

What a nice, happy ending. I'm rather weak to stuff like this :) It was pretty much all Uma this time, both parts showing off her character very well. She acts like a kid and gets angry easily and isn't exactly all that bright, but she does care for her friends and others. Both parts this time were more the "nice story" (so-called ii hanashi) than the usual crazy endings that make you go （ ゜д゜）ポカーン. Magipoka does both very well, I think :)

And so the first of the one quarter spring shows that I'm watching comes to an end. It really is too bad since I've enjoyed Magical Pokan so much, looking forward to it every week. I had absolutely no idea it would turn out this way when I first learned about the show. I was familiar with most of the cast, but pretty much nothing else, so this is probably the biggest surprise of the season for me.

Though Magipoka seems to be just a moe comedy show on first watch -- see the excessive panchira... more like panmoro from Uma ;) --- it's paced and executed so well to give that （ ゜д゜）ポカーン feel at the ends of episodes, and the characters are so appealing that it rises above the rest (Hime-sama Goyoujin a certain other show that's not as well-paced could learn a lot from it). Each of the characters has her own appeal, and the seiyuu (especially Momoko Saitou as Uma) were pretty much perfectly suited for each (though I did hear Pachira@Aya Hirano more as Haruhi sometimes, hehe) As the show went on there were more and more reasons to like each character. Liru's cute puppy form comes to mind as an example of that ;) If there were one thing to complain about with characters, I would've liked to see less kyonyuu.. more like bakunyuu (see the mermaid and those onee-san at the hot spring). At a certain point it's just too much, you know :P It would've also been nice to give Keimi more time and perhaps even show her ;)

As for technical aspects, the very high quality character design and animation served to highten the appeal of Magipoka that much more. Hirata-san, the character designer and chief animation director, as well as one of the original creators of Magical Pokan, along with the rest of the staff really put a lot of care and love into the show and it showed. Only a couple of episodes went below the usual standard of quality, which is much better than you could say of many 12 episode series from more established studios. One of most imporant things to do in a moe show like this is to keep the characters cute no matter what else happens, and the consistently high quality animation in Magical Pokan did that well. I did a good job keeping myself from saying so-and-so kawaii yo so-and-so, didn't I? ;) The music, while not standing out to me, fit the show very well. The ED is one of those songs that'll melt your brain just like that, especially the Nomiko versions ;)

As I said earlier, it really is unfortunate that this is it for Magipoka, but it was great while it lasted. I'd like to thank the staff for putting so much time and hard work into it -- you could really tell they cared about these characters and the show they made, and they had a lot of fun while they were doing it, too. Would it be too much to ask for a second season? ;)

As usual, some random stats now:

Episodes Blogged: 7 of 12
MVP: Uma. She's definitely my favorite of the bunch, with Pachira following.
Favorite Episodes: 7 (Magical Five!), 10 (onsen), 12
Biggest （ ゜д゜）ポカーン: The second part of episode 10. That was too much, really
Biggest Laughs: Episode 7, Magical Five. Absolutely hilarious :)
Favorite Guest Character: Miku-chan, episode 12. Thanks to the eromators Hirata-san got to design the other guest characters, there isn't much of a choice for me here since I'm not a fan of bakunyuu ;)