The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies 1: Won’t Kill For Love

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Staff List

Screenplay:
Yuniko Ayana
Storyboard:
Akiyo Oohashi
Episode Direction:
Takayuki Yamamoto

Animation Direction:
Mio Araki
Assistant Animation Direction:
Hiroki Kanno, Ayumi Abe

Key Animation:
Kouta Mori, Yiyi Shao, Kazuha Oki, Miyuki Inoue, Ayarisa Shimoto, Puikei Pang, Hiroo Nagano, Hodaka Hashimoto, Mako Makino, Natsumi Tomobe, Mitsuyo Tsuno, Mayu Sakaguchi, Bones Animation Department, Mami Horimoto

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant has finally come out. As the PV suggested, it is a beautiful homage to the manga written by Cocoa Fujiwara, who unfortunately passed away before the manga was ever concluded. In its short 12-minute runtime, starting from the intro, you can tell that this is work that is being handled with care. Especially if you read the manga before, you’ll know that they are even elevating some scenes. The manga has a very gag-like nature, and so does the anime, as that is the whole point. However, the way scenes are displayed feels much grander and more cinematic than ever before, without losing the pastels and quirks of Fujiwara’s original work. It really does just look great.

The character designs by Haruko Iizuka are amazing, as are most of her other designs. Her creations are consistently respectful of the source material, yet her distinctive style remains unmistakable. While this series is stylized, she maintains great detail in intricate clothing and eyes, providing a smooth transition from simpler gag moments to almost pictorial close-ups. This, in conjunction with all the beautiful visual elements, works seamlessly. The color design by Yukari Gotou, with its pastel and soft look, paired with Gou Kanbayashi‘s use of blue hues and occasional light beams peaking through softly, creates a great sense of harmony between all aspects of the visuals. The art direction by Yumiko Kuga and Takumi Onitani is also beautiful in its soft, paint-like style, which again helps establish the lovely, slightly hazy look of the show.

The show’s short runtime might have annoyed some people, but I think it works completely fine for the series’ original format, which was a 4koma. Many of the storylines and events are quite short and gag-like, so this format works perfectly fine. The only thing I was hoping for was that they would do a bit of something extra for the ending, or add more of their content in general. However, with the short runtime and likely only 12-13 episodes, this series is likely aiming to just cover what the manga had to offer without adding much more, which of course is very respectful to the author. But I think if they add things, it could elevate the source material much like the anime did in terms of the visual experience. The manga was left incomplete, and I think an anime-only ending could do this series justice and give fans the conclusion they wanted.

This is a great adaptation from Bones and Director Akiyo Oohashi; her characteristic and cinematic style at times works well in this show, and I’m confident that any manga fan will be proud of this adaptation. I am glad to say they are doing Cocoa Fujiwara’s work justice. I’ll be here to tune in more next week, and I’m curious if anything will be added or if this will just be a true-to-form manga adaptation.


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