Jahy sees the revealed form of the Mysterious Light. The Demon Lord arrives to oppose the Being of Light.
Restoration Plan No. 19 – “The Demon Lord is Relentless!?”
Hmm.
Remember when the Great Jahy wanted to protect the city against the Magical Girl’s power? She thought the maniacal Magical Girl would use a nuclear bomb on her and destroy all her friends. The fiend! The totally evil human-hating Dark Realm’s Number Two would never let her enemy hurt her friends! What an incredible bit of foreshadowing mixed with character development. Because that happened!
I felt that the last eighteen episodes of The Great Jahy established why Jahy should care about protecting the city, the Store Manager’s Craft Pub Maou, and the people in it. But this episode decided to waste our time adding another wrinkle to Jahy’s emotional reasons. Jahy cares, okay? We knew that a long time ago. We didn’t need to spend half the episode showing us why Jahy should care more. We should have spent more time on the Spirit Monster Sisters’ history. The episode connected Jahy’s new misunderstanding with the Store Manager to Suu and Maou’s past. The point was to explain how sharing feelings helps avoid problems. Problems like leveling a city.
I’ll keep harping on this because this episode of The Great Jahy crammed in old and new stories to add emotional depth to the characters. Did we need to wait for nineteen episodes to hear about Druj’s first meeting with Jahy? I’ll file this with my anecdotes about adapting a serial manga to an anime series. My complaint about these flashbacks and insertions is that the most valuable news in the show was how Maou and Justice are sisters! Their relationship story is the origin story of the Dark Realm. Please, tell us more about this! Oh, wait, we can’t. We only have one more episode to go.
I instantly loved the character design of Suu, the Voice of Justice. Her dress is the fluffy distillation of all the Magical Girl variations we’ve already seen in The Great Jahy. She tells the truth when she says, “I am Justice!” Her self-referential name “Suu” also has layers. The end credits call her “スー” (suu), which could reference the phonetic spelling of Justice (ジャスティス, jasutisu). However, there’s a more ancient reference. Maou, and Justice, could be the Zoroastrian spirits of good and evil. Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, created Angra Mainyu (the Destructive Spirit) and Spenta Mainyu (the Holy Spirit) as he created the world. These two spirits are twins, and their opposite natures tend toward sibling rivalry. Suu could come from スペンタ, supenta. I wish the episode spent more time with these two sisters instead of all the flashbacks we saw before the kaiju battle.
Heh.
Last time on The Great Jahy, Druj and Jahy were about to throw down with a visibly flustered Mysterious Being of Light (MBOL). Druj decided this was the best time to relate her memories of joining Jahy’s fan club. I like this information that each demon has different powers that a crystal fuels. Will the nineteenth episode be the info dump we could have had in dribs and drabs throughout the earlier eighteen? Ha! Jahy asks if this is the right time for Druj’s discussion. It was for the MBOL. She ran away! Aw. Druj and Jahy spent a friendly night drinking together instead.
Oho. The Great Jahy thinks we have time left in the season for a massive plot shift. How about Nah? I see your emotional manipulation. Ooh. Look at what Jahy considers “treasure” that needs safekeeping. Money, yes, of course, but look at all the four-leaf clovers! Druj is on board for setting up Pub Jahy. She’s good at spinning up new businesses. The Landlady doesn’t want to support Jahy’s venture because she detected an emotional misgiving in Jahy’s motivation.
Aw. Of course, the Store Manager would help Jahy start her own restaurant. And she would miss her too! Because they’re family. There. Thank The Great Jahy anime for putting in more emotional fuel before the dramatic explosion. MBOL is here! To make the Store Manager into a Magical Girl! Oops. Stealing people’s things are wrong, MBOL-chan. MBOL chose another dud of a Magical Girl. Uh oh. MBOL is mad now. It’s the big reveal! Her name is Justice. No, really. As in the English word “Justice.” That makes too much sense. Look, I know the characters are afraid of a golden energy beam striking them. But the audience already knows the light doesn’t hurt anyone. Saurva’s fight with Jahy in the last episode proved that. I want to see what happens. Is this how Justice takes back her power?
Welp, we won’t find out because Maou won’t let us. Small dark girl versus small light girl fight! Uh, huh. Those are the largest, small girls I’ve ever seen! Jahy says this is Maou’s revealed form. Okay then! Every scene with a giant Maou from the entire season was to scale. Oh, right. The Store Manager is a Magical Girl now. Show your stuff! Ahem. Your stuff is a single flower. Where’s Saurva when you need her? Crap! These giant small girls will wreck the city! The first casualty is the Craft Pub Maou! The nineteenth episode of The Great Jahy is also a flashback clip show. Yes, yes. Jahy cares about where she helped. We gathered that much already. Now’s the time for the ultimate tag-team combo. Jahy and the Magical Girl against Maou and Justice!
The Magical Girl is the shield, and the Great Jahy is the sword. But what can Jahy do against giant small girls? Ah. Self-sacrifice. That’s not demonic at all. That stopped the massive small girls from fighting, but what happened to Jahy? She’s stunned, but her friends act as if she died.
Here we go. Out of guilt, Justice explains everything. Maou is her older sister. No surprise here if you understand the Zoroastrian mythology behind The Great Jahy. Uh, why did Maou want to make the Dark Realm and lock Justice out of it? That was a mistake. Because Justice chose Kyouko to take back Maou’s mana crystal. We know what happened after that. Justice’s story explains everything. She shrank the crystals and asked the Magical Girl to collect them because they caused misfortune for humans. That explains why Maou was so tiny when she reappeared, but it doesn’t explain why she appeared to Kyouko instead of Druj.
Things changed when the Magical Girl stopped collecting mana crystals for Justice and gave them to Jahy instead. Successful Magical Girls need to have strong senses of order, and neither Saurva nor the Store Manager did. Kyouko’s was superb. Strong enough to shatter the Dark Realm’s heart!
Jahy heard enough. Another flashback of her misery. She went through all that for a sisterly spat. She needs an apology! Okay, she got an apology. Aw, Druj came too late to help Jahy. Oh no. Druj reminded Jahy how badly the tiny sisters beat her down. She’ll never forgive them!
Next time, the Great Jahy will not lose heart in the season finale.
Crunchyroll and VRV stream The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! (Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai!).
