Magical Sempai Episode 9

Welcome, one and all, to my continuing series of weekly reviews for the ecchi comedy anime, Magical Sempai, aka Tejina Senpai. The series feels like it’s going from strength to strength to me right now. Let’s find out how.

Biased Sempai

Sempai was working on her mind-reading and wanted to use some envelopes to guess people’s darkest secrets. She wanted to have everyone write down one secret, and guess who each one belongs to. The idea was that she’d subtly marked the envelopes so that she’d know which was which. But she forgot which one was which! So, she improvised and pulled a secret out, planning to guess who it belonged to.

The secret read: ‘I miss the connection we used to have.’ Sempai immediately thought that it was Assistant’s and that he missed her bossing him around. Assistant said it must be Saki’s, and be referring to her brother. But Sempai thought that hers may be the one that reads ‘My growing chest is becoming a bother.’ But that one was Ma’s.

So, the team decide to do it all again, but with Sempai taking part this time. Assistant opened the first one, and it was a letter to Ma, which was clearly from Saki. The second one was a request for Saki to stop stealing recently-used clothes, which was clearly from Ma. The last one was blank because Sempai has nothing to hide and nothing weighing on her conscience. All three other club members left in protest.

I actually enjoyed that. The gag was obvious, of course, but both versions were amusing. I do kinda want to know what Assistant wrote on his slip though.

Make-Up Exam Sempai

Saki and Sempai were waiting for an exam invigilator to appear, so Sempai suggested a game. You both take it in turns alternating saying the numbers from one to thirty, and whoever says thirty is the loser. Sempai knew that there was a trick to it, as if she could stop at 21, she’d win every time. They started the game, and Sempai ended up stopping at 20 to answer a text from Assistant. This distracted her and she went up to 22. Uh-oh!

Sempai lost. She demanded a rematch and figured out that 25 was also a magic number to stop at. Such was her joy when Saki stopped at 24, that she threw her fist in the air…and nailed an uppercut on the invigilator. Ha! Assistant and Ma went to the arcade rather than do club.

I actually used to play that game myself as a teen, so that was really cool to see. Again though, that was a funny episode. Poor old Sempai is so endearing with all her bad luck.

Ice Cream Sempai

The club is doing activities during summer vacation, but it’s too hot. Sempai was on the case though, and had brought ice cream! Or not. The empty box was part of a trick. You see, it made a noise when she shook it, making it look like it was full. She had taped a box of loose change to her arm to make the noise, making this a successful trick.

Saki and ma retaliate to the deception by blowing up balloons and rubbing them on her. She ended up buying ice cream for everyone. Her attempt to make her spoon disappear failed miserably, unfortunately, then Saki got upset because she wanted to do something summery. She suggested a beach trip.

This has been a strong episode so far! This scene felt like a light-hearted slice of life moment. There was nothing much to it other than to set up the final scene of the episode, but it worked.

Swimsuit Sempai

Sempai has been getting ready for the beach trip. When she reveals her swimsuit though, Saki insists she buys something more bikini-esque and the four go shopping. Sempai offered Assistant the chance to help her choose, and he leaped at it…then had second thoughts. He wanted to see her in something skimpy but thought that Sempai may ride him about the choice and embarrass him.

Sempai couldn’t remember how the trick to make people choose what you want them to worked, so Ma offered the option of psychology. He offered to help negotiate and refused to let Assistant settle for a compromise swimsuit. He told Assistant to intentionally make a big request she’ll refuse so that she’ll be more open to a smaller one. Assistant wasn’t up for that, so Ma suggests starting with a minor one then adding more problematic conditions she’ll have to agree to. Assistant thought both ideas was essentially fraud, but sexy swimsuit time won out.

So, Sempai handed her a very modest swimsuit, with Ma suggesting a much skimpier one after. Assistant thought it may get Sempai angry, so Ma charged ahead and handed it in…only for Saki to put it on. Meanwhile, Sempai put her one on backward by mistake, meaning her boos were straining against the lace-up section that should have been on her back.

Then Sempai managed to bring magic into the equation. With Assistant not paying attention, she moved her shoes to the next stall along and pulled the curtain closed. She was going to call him over so that, when he opened the curtain by her shoes, there would be nobody there. There were two ways you could see this going: one, Assistant knew which stall she was in and pulls her curtain anyway, revealing that she hasn’t put her bra on yet. Two, he pulls the other curtain, revealing someone else. So. Which one happened?

Well, before she could call him, one of the sales staff noticed that the shoes were in front of the wrong stall and moved them back to the right one. She called Assistant, and he got an eye full!

That was the first majorly lewd moment in the whole episode. I’m okay with that as the lack of ecchi stuff made it far less overwhelming. Again, you could see everything coming a mile off, but that was good fun.

Overall

That was actually a really fun episode. There wasn’t anything too over the top in terms of the rude moments, the light-hearted humour worked well, and nobody came across as entirely unlikable. Great work!

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