This recap contains spoilers for the Magia Record episode “This Is Something Only I Can Do.”
Let’s start our recap of “This Is Something Only I Can Do” with a sprinkle of good news. Kuroe isn’t dead! It really seemed like she might be at the end of last week’s episode, but “This Is Something Only I Can Do” opens with her pointedly surviving. Not before being dogged by the ghosts of her own regrets in the form of her Doppel’s personality, mind you. But hey, she’s alive. And that counts for something.
“This Is Something Only I Can Do,” lengthy title and all, is a very “in-between” sort of episode. There is a lot of setup; there is a lot of moving about — both of characters and plot pieces — from one place to another. The episode has a real sense of being between two defining moments for Magia Record. Whether that means that it’s next week or the week after, in the season finale, that all this will come to a head remains to be seen.
Welcome to Chelation Land
That’s not to say that “This Is Something Only I Can Do” has no noteworthy moments of its own, though. It has plenty. The episode is not the visual buffet Magia Record‘s previous episodes have been (classic Studio SHAFT production troubles seem to be afoot here, sadly). However, it’s worth thinking about what we do see.
You may or may not know that Magia Record is loosely based on a mobile game of the same name. This is why it has such a large cast, among other things, but it also means we get great little moments like here where a whole gaggle of magical girls we’ve never seen before fight off witches in the Wings of Magius’ base, the former theme park Chelation Land.
A series has to have pretty solid character design chops to make a random background character look like this. As far as sheer visual overload, there’s the horde of witches those girls are fighting in the episode’s middle section.
RELATED: Saturday Morning Webtoons: Corvid’s Eye and The Faylynn Revolution
The Rails of Fate
“This Is Something Only I Can Do” delivers on a more solid plot level, too. Mifuyu has a change of heart and tries to stand up to the Wings’ leadership. It doesn’t go well, and the episode also confirms that season one Magia Record magical girl Tsuruno has been subject to the same maybe-mind-control-maybe-something-else process that Mami has.
Elsewhere, the episode also reunites the two halves of our cast. Iroha spends much of the episode trying to figure out how to get Yachiyo, along with Madoka, Sayaka and Homura, inside Chelation Land. She has some help from Kyouko, who returns to the series properly.
RELATED: Geek Girl Authority Crush of The Week: Faye Valentine
The episode concludes with the setup for an inevitable faceoff between Mami, Tsuruno and our protagonists. Beyond the expected huge group fight, it’s hard to say what’s coming next for Magia Record. But, presumably, we will know more next week.
Until then, anime fans.
Stream Magia Record on Funimation, and catch up with our recaps here.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/magia-record-recap-s01ep12/
- MAGIA RECORD Season Finale Recap: (S02E08) You’re Not Strong - September 25, 2021
- MAGIA RECORD Recap: (S02E07) You Don’t Know Anything - September 11, 2021
- MAGIA RECORD Recap: (S02E06) This Is Something Only I Can Do - September 4, 2021
