Magikano Vol. 2: Witch Hunt Review

            In the next four episodes of this series, its summer time and so it's time for Ayumi to teach Haruo how to swim. But before she can do that, they are attacked by a spirit haunting the pool. It's after Haruo's latent magical powers and it's up to Ayumi, the trio of sisters and the rest of the gang to save him before he is completely drained of his powers.

            A new maid (read: witch) appears in the second episode by the name of Rika sent to support Ayumi in her work by her father. When Haruo catches a magical fever (one too many hammer shots to the head by Maika) though Ayumi and Rika begin competing over which one will get to take care of him resulting in a magical maid battle for the ages.

            The third episode is all about the sports festival. Ayumi is using this as an opportunity to get a kiss from Haruo by using magic to make him into the festival MVP but the spell gets screwed up (take a big predictable guess how?). The new plan is that the girl who is named the festival MVP gets a kiss from Haruo creating a four way competition between Ayumi, Yuri, Maika and Marin but someone on the outside of the competition wants to make things even more difficult.

            In the final episode of the volume, it's time for the school's culture festival and the student council is putting on a production of Cinderella, with Yuri and Haruo in the lead roles naturally. Things go terribly wrong though when Ayumi's little sister decides to crash the show and take matters into her own hand by kidnapping Haruo. Once again a rescue mission is hatched with Maika, Rika, Yuri, Marin and Ayumi going after him.

Good and the Bad

            As with the first volume, the series wastes absolutely zero time in making sure the audience gets its daily recommended allowance of fan service with a swimming pool episode. If you think that's all you're going to be dealing with however in terms of fan service you will be sadly mistaken. Every episode on this volume has at least a little bit of fan service so the squeamish will be well advised to stay away but honestly, if you got through the first volume you saw this coming a mile away.

            The introduction of new characters on this volume was particularly well done though. Rika's introduction was really over the top but the running gags that supported her introduction really made it work. With a series that is so manic and hyper all the time, trying to introduce a character in a subtle fashion is the worst thing that you can do to that character since you doom them to the obscurity. 

            The comedy in this volume does absolutely nothing to deviate from the original pace left in the first few episodes and again, this makes it work on a much higher level than it would have otherwise. Never once in this volume does the series ever try to be clever or coy with its jokes. All of the comedy is over the top visual gags and physical comedy making it much easier to take them at face value and just let yourself get a chuckle. I do really like how the comedy never really got raunchy though. With so much fan service, the audience can't help but almost expect the series to start playing to that lowest common denominator so it's refreshing to see the series take the high road.

            The story and writing is where this series is continuing to suffer the most though. While the jokes and characters remain funny and cute, we're nine episodes in and are just now barely getting to the real root of the series. While there are a few bits of foreshadowing here and there that really went a long way towards keeping my interest in the series alive, the staff is still asking quite a bit from its audience. With only four episodes left, the audience is going to be seeking a huge pay off that, from what I've heard from other fans, may or may not even be there.

Music

            The opening and closing themes still strike me as almost too good to be attached to this series but are still catchy and enjoyable. Leaving this series behind, if you ever hear the opening and ending theme you are always going to be able to remember which anime it came from.       

Dub vs. Sub

            In terms of the performances however, the dub cast has some great standouts. Jessica Boone continues to do an incredibly impressive job with the character that absolutely breaks her usual mold in Ayumi. Her role couldn't shine nearly as much without such a strong supporting cast though in the form of Kira Vincent-Davis as Maika, Hilary Haag as Fuyuno, Luci Christian as Chiaki and Carli Mosier as Yuri.

Extras

            Just clean animations.   

Overall

            The lack of a real story to tie it all together though continues to work against this series that continues to leave me with an empty feeling every time I finish a volume. I enjoy it while it's in my player but once it's done, I don't find myself wishing that there were more to watch right away. It continues to be worth checking out but unless the final volume provides a HUGE payoff, I'm not predicting that you're going to find much replay value out of it.