Maerchen Maedchen Episode 2: Kuzunoha Girl’s Magic Academy

Previously, Hazuki discovered a world of magic. Turns out there is a magic school in said world, and Hazuki is pretty eager to enrol. Episode 2 of Maerchen Maedchen shows how she gets on as a student there.

Hazuki awakes to find a little girl giving her a death penalty

After a flashback to Hazuki’s Mum reading Cinderella to her, Hazuki wakes up to discover she has been tied to a stake. A little girl starts calling her a criminal – and when Hazuki calls her ‘little girl’, the girl calls for the death penalty. She intends to burn her at the stake.

The mage girl tells Kasumi to stop teasing Hazuki

The mage girl hears the commotion coming from the room, and she investigates. She calls the little girl Kasumi, and tells her to stop teasing Hazuki. After that is sorted out, the mage girl takes Hazuki to visit the farmer woman she met previously.

Turns out the farmer is actually the headmaster of a magic academy

The headmaster returns Hazuki’s possessions to her – the thing Hazuki is most concerned about is her book. The headmaster introduces herself as Sugami, and welcomes Hazuki to Kuzunoha Girl’s Magic Academy.
It takes a few moments for Hazuki to realise that she is in a magic school. Kuzunoha Girl’s Magic Academy is a school that trains Book Users. The Original Book of Cinderella chose Hazuki. Sugami asks Hazuki if she wants to enrol, and Hazuki doesn’t even hesitate to say yes.
After agreeing to enrol, the mage girl helps Hazuki return home. Before she leaves, Hazuki wants to know the mage girl’s name.

The mage girl introduces herself as Tsuchimikado

The next day, Hazuki returns to the academy. She can’t help but notice that Tsuchimikado is pretty, which causes her to have one of her fantasies.

Hazuki’s fantasy

After coming back to reality, it is time for Hazuki to begin training with other Maedchen – students chosen by the Originals. The first order of business is for Tsuchimikado to give an example of how the power of the Originals work.

Tsuchimikado’s Original has her channel the power of Princess Kaguya

Hazuki is impressed with the transformation. She even directly references Harry Potter with the whole magic thing, and then indirectly references PreCure seeing that the magic is effectively a magical girl transformation.
Tsuchimikado’s demonstration was of the most basic spell Original Users have, called Bouf Hyure. The magic unites one’s body with the Original, making magic more efficient.

Hazuki’s attempts at transforming don’t go so well

Hazuki isn’t able to use Bouf Hyure. When Tsuchimikado reveals that Hazuki’s Original is Cinderella, the other students talk amongst themselves. It’s pretty clear that they don’t like the idea of Hazuki possessing one of the more powerful Originals, and that she is cheating somehow.
Of course, this causes Hazuki’s Story Syndrome to flare up again. However, it isn’t a book that calms her this time around.

Tsuchimikado’s presence calms Hazuki

With lessons finished for the day, Hazuki returns home once more. She tries to ask Tsuchimikado her first name before leaving, but she just can’t gather the confidence to do it.

Kasumi mentions something called the ‘Hexennacht’

Hazuki returns to the academy the next day, and Tsuchimikado has had a load of baby toys bought in so that Hazuki can be eased into learning magic. There is one item in particular that catches Hazuki’s attention.

Hazuki picks out a toy wand with the name ‘Shizuka’ written on it

Hazuki discovers a toy wand that looks like it could be PreCure merchandise, and discovered that it belonged to one Shizuka. That Shizuka happens to be Shizuka Tsuchimikado – the girl who is helping her to learn magic.
Shizuka asks Hazuki to return it, but Hazuki decides to keep it. Though she experiences doubts about her ability to use magic, ultimately she is able to pull it off. Hazuki summons a pumpkin out of thin air.

Hazuki hugs Tsuchimikado after her successful spell

It turns out that someone was watching: an exchange student at the magic academy. She introduces herself as Yumelia Kazan (not Yumilia Qazan as I previously thought it was…).

Yumelia Kazan

Yumelia reveals the existence of the Hexennacht to Hazuki – a battle between schools where beginner Original Users battle for real. Yumelia goes on to say that Tsuchimikado was only helping Hazuki learn magic to prepare her for that.
When Tsuchimikado confirms that, Hazuki is upset though she avoids showing it. She just runs off. Tsuchimikado reaches out, but doesn’t chase after her.

Sugami gives Tsuchimikado the encouragement she needs to catch up to Hazuki

With Tsuchimikado going after Hazuki, the headmaster turns her attention to Yumelia. She was supposed to be cleaning the library after the damage she caused previously, and we see that Sugami has no trouble teleporting her away with a snap of her fingers.
Tsuchimikado is able to catch up to Hazuki, and they go to a fast food restaurant together.

Shizuka and Hazuki start referring to each other by their first names

Tsuchimikado reveals that she never really done anything familial with her own mother. She does have one memory of eating hamburgers together, though, and as such hamburgers became her favourite food.
The reason she took Hazuki out for hamburgers was that she was hoping she could make up for what she did earlier. She does exactly that, and both girls start calling each other by their first names.
Turns out Shizuka and Hazuki also have an unexpected companion.

Kasumi reveals her first name is Ariko

The episode ends with Hazuki thinking to herself that she has found her own story, and this was where it began.

Once again, Maerchen Maedchen continues to just tick all of my boxes. A magic school, magical girl transformations, relationships between girls…
We’re only two episodes in, and I already feel that this is a very strong contender for my anime of the season.

If I had to pick out just one thing I enjoyed from this episode, I would have to say the developing relationship between Hazuki and Shizuka. It seems pretty evident what Hazuki’s preferences are, but it was nice to see that Shizuka was willing to go after her when she was upset.
I also get quite a lot of joy whenever two girls start referring to each other on a first name basis – after all, that’s a sign of closeness when it comes to Japan. Or something like that.
I adore Hazuki, and I like Shizuka a fair bit as well. Ariko seems all right, though I think I need to see some more from her before I can decide for sure.

We also got an idea of what is to come with the Hexennacht. Turns out Hexennacht is another word for Walpurgisnacht, or Walpurgis Night.
Regardless of what it is, it does probably mean that we can expect to see more of the cast soon. I imagine they’ll start showing up over the course of the next couple of episodes, and I am certainly looking forward to that.