Chapter 461
One reason is that Kazama Reiko is cute and exudes a strong youthful vibe. Another reason is that Kazama Reiko's identity as a 'Magical Girls fan' resonated with many viewers.
Many viewers who also aspire to be Magical Girls unconsciously project themselves onto Kazama Reiko, and consequently develop a greater fondness for Reiko herself.
If Reiko performs well in the future, her popularity might instantly rank among the top of all Magical Girls.
"Reiko, not bad, looks like quite a few people like you."
In the Eastern Ocean District, the Magical Girls who had just been woken up to look at the Sky Screen gathered together. Seeing how popular Reiko was in the Sky Screen, Tottori Shiori couldn't help but pat Reiko on the shoulder and tease her.
Reiko replied earnestly, "... None of that matters. I just hope my transformation scene won't have a close-up..."
"Forehead..."
Upon hearing this, all the Magical Girls from the Eastern Ocean District present fell silent.
Shiori and Kanon both looked in the direction of Tsukinomiya Ayaka at the same time.
In episode 0, when Sky Screen Ayaka transforms, Tsukinomiya Ayaka has already peacefully 'slept'.
Even now that she has regained consciousness, she keeps her back to everyone so that no one can see her.
Clearly, everything that happened in the Sky Screen made Ayaka feel extremely ashamed.
Tsukinomiya Ayaka, who is usually somewhat aloof and looks like Xiao Bai second Shiro, suddenly became much more approachable to everyone at this moment.
Based on Sky Screen's portrayal of Ayaka, the Magical Girls also realized that although Ayaka seemed aloof, she actually longed for companionship deep down.
Although Ayaka a bit reserved now because everyone was teammates from the beginning, she doesn't like to team up with the others.
But if they continue to work together, Ayaka will definitely integrate into the team.
Just like how they acted in their dreams.
[After the opening theme music.]
The subtitles for "<Magical Girl Aurora ~Eastern Arc~>" flashed by.
Following the music of the first phase, Aurora is the first to appear.
She was dressed the same way she did at the end of the third season of the original series: cropped jeans, a short-sleeved T-shirt, and a baseball cap covering her long red hair.
She first walked past Reiko's house, and behind her, Kazama Reiko's figure brushed past her.
Then the scene shifts to Tottori Shiori, who is training on the track and field. She runs forward, and after running a distance, the camera zooms out to show Aurora watching from outside the track and field.
Continuing with the lyrics of the third verse, Aurora is sitting in a coffee shop, while Wu Huayin, not far away, is putting down her coffee and typing on her keyboard, writing something on her computer.
Then, in the next verse, Tsukinomiya Ayaka, leans against the window of her room, gazing out, while Aurora walks past below.
Ayaka sensed something and looked down, only to see a flash of long red hair.
The song then reaches its climax, with Aurora transforming into Magical Girls and fighting alongside Magical Girls from the Eastern Ocean District who are also in their transformed state.
Their enemies include Demons and Mutant Monster that have been corrupted by demons.
The Magical Girls' battle looked difficult; Aurora was even knocked to the ground.
But after being knocked down, Aurora stood up again, and a glowing humanoid figure appeared in front of her.
The luminous humanoid figure Aurora, and the red-haired girl raised her hand to grasp it, but the luminous figure then dissipated, revealing the image of Tsukinomiya Yuki.
Tsukinomiya Yuki smiled at Aurora, then disappeared before her eyes.
Finally, the light emanating from several Magical Girls in the Eastern Ocean District converged and fell upon Aurora, allowing her to reappear in a completely new form and vanquish the final, powerful enemy.
The opening sequence is nearing its end here.
Finally, the opening sequence featured a close-up shot, including Miemie that didn't appear in the opening, and a fleeting glimpse of the Magical Girls' friends and family. After each scene was flashed back to the previous one, the opening ended.
(Oh, I get it now. Aurora was searching for the Magical Girls of the Eastern Ocean District the whole time, so Aurora's figure would appear next to each Magical Girls, right?)
(Wait a minute, Miemie only appear at the end of the opening? Isn't she a main character?)
(Do you think Nino is a main character?)
(Emmm, at least in the first season of the main series, Nino had quite a lot of screen time... right?)
(Magical Creatures don't have a high presence to begin with, and they hide away and have no role when Magical Girls are fighting, so it's normal that they don't have many scenes in the opening.)
(By the way, before Tsukinomiya Yuki appeared, the phantom that Little Red faced should have been her cousin's shadow, right?)
(Oh, so this confirms it? Tsukinomiya Yuki is the cousin who lost his memory?)
(So the question is, how did my cousin survive?)
Even Fang Ming himself wasn't entirely sure about this issue.
Although Xiao Bai in the Sky Screen eventually transformed into a form similar to Pillar-Tier Demon and wielded Demons power, the 'Nightmare Seed' she condensed should actually be closer to the Calamity Demon.
Even if Pillar-Tier Demon were immortal, they would be Resurrection as long as their negative emotions remained, but that would be a long time from now.
Whether the Xiao Bai Resurrection in this way will still be the real Xiao Bai remains to be seen.
Therefore, Fang Ming does not believe that Xiao Bai was resurrected through the means of a Demons's Resurrection.
Something else must have brought Xiao Bai back to life...
What could it be?
Fang Ming was also pondering the real reason why Xiao Bai was able to be Resurrection.
And the first episode of the second season of Sky Screen's spin-off has finally gotten into the main storyline.
"Ahem, her name is Kazama Reiko, and she's my childhood friend with a complicated and complicated relationship with me... So she's also here today to participate in our test of courage."
The scene shifts to evening, outside an abandoned school building, where Tottori Shiori introduces her good friend Reiko to her friends in the track and field club.
Reiko smiled and appeared very polite, but her left hand, which was blocked by Shiori, pinched Shiori's lower back hard.
Then, she politely bowed to everyone, like a Yamato Nadeshiko (ideal Japanese woman):
"Hello, I'm Kazama Reiko, and I've been a good friend of Shiori for many years."
"Haha, it seems you two have a really good relationship."
The student in charge of organizing this 'daredevil adventure', Asahi Reiko and Shiori, said with a smile.
Shiori, who had just been pinched on the lower back by Reiko, grimaced and moved away from the person pretending to be a good girl before turning to the student who had spoken earlier:
"Didn't I already tell you? This is a tragic fate..."
Reiko's face darkened, and she silently stepped on Shiori's foot again.
However, Shiori was prepared and dodged Reiko's kick with minimal movement. Seeing that Reiko was determined to "teach" her another lesson, Shiori quickly said:
"Ahem, let's not talk about that. It doesn't seem to be night yet. Shall we wander around the neighborhood first, or go inside and check out the situation?"
When the matter was brought up, Reiko stopped fooling around with Shiori and looked at Shiori's friends.
This courage-testing team consists of six people, including Reiko and Shiori.
Excluding Reiko and Shiori, the remaining four are two men and two women.
The team leader in charge of organizing this courage-testing adventure is the short-haired girl with naturally curly hair who just spoke; she is the president of the third-year 'Paranormal Research Club'.
Of the remaining three, two boys are members of the Paranormal Research Club. They are hostile to each other and both seem to have a crush on the short-haired girl with natural curls.
The last girl was Shiori's friend from the track and field club, named Saito Yumi. She was friends with the president of the Paranormal Research Club and was also a member of the ghost section of the Paranormal Research Club; she was just there to make up the numbers.
Saito Yumi only went along because this was the last activity of the Paranormal Research Club during her high school years.
Shiori didn't originally want to come, but since Reiko was also interested in these things, she brought Reiko and Yumi along to make up the numbers.
After a brief introduction, Yamashita Junko, the head of the Paranormal Research Club, took out a video camera, started recording, and began explaining the story of the abandoned old school building to everyone.
"Anyway, since there are two newcomers here, Shiori- chan and Reiko -chan, let me briefly introduce the legend of this old school building..."
Yamashita Junko revealed a slightly wicked smile and said to the crowd, "You probably don't know this, but fifteen years ago, this school was Dongdu. It is said that the university admission rate of this high school was as high as 85%!"
"There are almost no bad students in this school; it is a prestigious high school in Dongdu."
"But...'almost no bad students' means that there are still bad students. And in a university where academic performance is the sole measure of worth, I don't need to elaborate on the treatment these bad students receive..."
Yamashita Junko succinctly explained the preconditions of the story in just a few words.
After speaking, without waiting for a reply, Yamashita Junko suddenly lowered her voice and said to everyone:
"... And the story I'm about to tell is about a poor student from fifteen years ago."
"I heard that there was a girl who didn't do very well in school, and she was bullied by some people in the school."
"At that time, it was an unwritten rule that if your grades fell to the bottom, you would be bullied by everyone."
"But no matter what, this school is a prestigious one. 'School violence' would be a scandal if it happened here. So the way they treat the bullied is different here than outside."
"It's not hitting, not scolding, and certainly not playing pranks on someone's desk or shoe cabinet, but... ignoring them!"
"They pretended not to see the girl, not to hear her, and ignored her cries. Whether it was teachers or students, they took 'passive aggression' to the extreme!"
"And it was under these circumstances... that one day, that girl really disappeared!"
Volume 5 Side Story Magic Mystery Season 2: Chapter 496 The Ghost Demon!
It must be said that Yamashita Junko does have some talent for storytelling.
That deep voice, paired with the eerie background music that seemed to come from nowhere, truly sent chills down one's spine.
"... Hey, Yamashita-senpai, could you please not play this kind of music when you're telling stories...?"
Shiori suddenly interrupted Junko's narration and looked down at Junko's hands.
It turns out that at some point, Junko had taken out her phone and started adding background music!
The eerie background music that just played wasn't the music playing from the Sky Screen; it was music that Junko herself played!
(Grass!)
(That explains why the music style suddenly felt off)
(He added his own music; it was really impressive.)
(That scared me! Yamashita Junko is so mean!)
(The president of the www. supernaturalclub, this is considered a classic character in some anime works, right?)
(In supernatural works, these kinds of characters are always the first to be sacrificed, which serves as a profound lesson: if you don't court death, you won't die.)
(Unfortunately, this is a mainstream Magical Girls anime...)
(What are you regretting!)
"Sorry, sorry, it was just a subconscious reaction..."
Yamashita Junko turned off the music, feeling embarrassed, and put her phone away. She continued explaining the situation of the old school building without any background music.
"Ahem, let's continue the story. After the student who was ignored by everyone disappeared, strange things started happening at the school."
"Either someone heard piano music coming from the empty classroom, or they found graffiti of unknown meaning in some classrooms."
At first, everyone thought it was just someone's prank, and not many people took it to heart, until one day... one of the people who had bullied that girl jumped off the rooftop!
"!!!"
Hearing Junko recount this, Reiko and Shiori, who had never heard the story before, were both taken aback.
Junko's story continued, "And that was just the beginning. Every now and then, people who had bullied that girl would jump off the rooftop."
"The school conducted an investigation and even invited a Daoist priest to perform an exorcism, but nothing worked. Then one day, a fire suddenly broke out in the classroom where the girl disappeared!"
"The fire engulfed that classroom, killing most of the students! Since then, the school building has been gradually abandoned, until now..."
As Junko finished telling her story, as if in sync with her, a sudden gust of cold wind blew.
The wind blew out from the school building, bringing a chilly feeling to everyone in the sweltering summer heat.
It's like opening the door to a room with the air conditioning on and the temperature very low.
Reiko shuddered involuntarily. She turned to look at Shiori, her eyes filled with silent condemnation.
Didn't you say this was related to recent urban legends? How come it suddenly switched to a supernatural theme?
Say!
Reiko seemed to be saying this to Shiori.
Realizing she might have made a mistake, Tottori Shiori swallowed hard and quickly asked Yamashita Junko:
"Yama... Senior Yamashita, didn't you say before that this... this place is related to the recent urban legend? How... how did it suddenly jump to fifteen years ago?"