Senpai and the Magic Club members do actual magic club activities, including a magic show at a preschool.
Episode 8
Hmm.
It feels like it’s been a long time since we had an episode from Tejina-Senpai (Magical Sempai) dedicated to rapid-fire jokes. I’m glad though, because this means the new characters have found their roles in the comedy setups, and we can just go for humor based on perverted imaginations and put-downs. We’re back to the beginning of the season, without the underlying stress of making a magic club. Now, the kids can make jokes about magic and the audience can relax, laugh, and wait for the inevitable bouncy flash of underwear.
One thing I liked was seeing what a magic club would actually do in their club room besides practicing performance tricks. Figuring out how a magic trick works is fun too. The audience gets to see how illusions work in a real magic show. It’s also a magician’s job to fool skeptics, even their own colleagues in the craft, which increases the overall interest for this kind of old-fashioned entertainment. There’s a new generation of magicians out there and they need a new generation of audiences as well.
Another fun topic the show brought up was in the mentalist scene. Neuro-linguistic programming is a pop-cultural approach to reading body language and provoking emotional responses. It relies on real phenomena and statistical analysis of a population who actually do these things. My knowledge of the subject is a bit out of date, but one of the biggest criticisms of neuro-linguistic programming was whether the body’s responses to certain verbal and visual stimuli, like in a conversation, was actually cross-cultural, or if these responses only applied to Western cultures and languages. If you’re from East Asia, let me know if you’ve heard of these body language cues that Senpai talked about in the episode.
The joke, of course, for Senpai, is that she may notice Assistant-kun accessing his visual memory from his body language, but she doesn’t know enough about human nature, or him, to guess correctly what that visual memory may be about. For example, Assistant-kun put his gaming device down on the desk. He didn’t drop it, but Senpai jumped to the incorrect conclusion. How Senpai ruins a magic trick is always the punchline in Magical Sempai.
Heh.
Chapter 1 – “Chinese Senpai”
Senpai is so happy! She and her club are doing club things! The others don’t know what this Chinese Magic is about, but Assistant-kun has the wrong idea. A sexy idea, but the wrong idea. That face was not what Assistant-kun was expecting.
Chinese bian lian is a mask-switching dramatic art.
Fun. Everybody has different theories on how to make the trick work and they’re trying them out. Like a real magic club! Uh, Ma-kun needs air holes in that plastic wrap. This is starting to look like a serial killer TV show. Uh oh. I see where this is going. Somebody hiding behind the masked person is going to press tightly against them and will rely on feel. Sexy jokes ahoy!
And have a not-so-sexy headbutt!
Oh dear. Splitting something apart from behind when girls have big chests… Who’s going to show us the fancy underwear? Hoh. Welcome to Saki-chan’s reluctant yuri episode. What would Senpai look like with long, flashy hair? Manga artist Azu gifted us with both Saki-chan and Senpai in Chinese dresses.
Chapter 2 – “Mentalist Senpai”
Senpai explains mind reading as a mentalist, which is really just about being observant of body language. Too bad none of her observations about Assistant-kun match his thoughts. Ha! The tables get turned on Senpai, but she just has no filter. There’s no need to interpret any bit of her body language.
Chapter 3 – “Mikan Senpai”
That is a lot of mikan oranges.
Eh? This isn’t a trick. This is just a visual pun gag. A runny nose leaves “nectar.” Wow, it’s been a while since we had these really rapid-fire joke scenes.
Chapter 4 – “Internet Senpai”
Oh no. Senpai is going to learn the dangers of the Internet!
Her heart is so pure. She wants to do magic shows for nursery schools and old folks’ homes.
Bad website and social media jokes, incoming! Her laptop looks like it’s still running Windows 7. Gah! It’s the return of Geocities! Don’t complain too much, Assistant-kun. Senpai gave you Behemoth-kun to hold. Everybody loves Behemoth-kun, even Senpai’s voice actor Kaede Hondo.
Saki-chan’s pictures of the magic club look suspiciously like screen grabs from the anime… Har. Saki-chan just made a generic twitter hottie profile page, complete with low angle shots! Don’t bother trying to find that handle on Twitter…
Holy crap! That’s even worse! It’s totally an escort service profile! Thank goodness for Assistant-kun being the straight man web designer.
Chapter 5 – “Delivery Senpai”
Yay! The website actually got a customer. The magic club is performing for preschoolers.
The kids loved the balloon art, of course.
Senpai has stage fright, but the kids just want a spectacle. She can do this!
She could have said that the reverse of the horse picture was an owl… I’d buy that. I’d totally take that beer, though. The horse-parrot joke was lost on me because I’m not sure what Assistant-kun thought it was. Senpai’s clue was the last two letters being nko [んこ]. Chinko for a penis? Unko for a turd? He really does have a dirty mind. The official subs went for spelling part of “cockatiel,” but it’s supposed to be inko for “parrot.”
Nice. Senpai can actually get little kids to fall for her misdirection. That doesn’t stop them from trying to find the missing items. Still, it was a big, successful show!
