Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka Episode 10: Fight for Life

The Magical Girls and the Japanese military are faced with an enemy assault in the tenth episode of Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka.

Phoenix ready to take out some aerial foes

The Distonian forces have started their all out attack on the military base, so I’ll focus particularly on what each Magical Girl who is present is doing – as well as a couple of civilians who have got caught up in the battle. Phoenix is using her flamethrower to wipe out large numbers of foes.

Sayako refuses to leave Nozomi

The two civilians I mentioned are Sayako and Nozomi, who make a run for it when from the Disas. One attacks them, but Nozomi is able to shove Sayako out of the way in time. She ends up injuring her leg in the process, but Sayako has no intention of leaving Nozomi there. Thanks to the sacrifice of a police officer, the two girls are able to get away for the moment.

Just Cause guns down her enemies

Elsewhere in Naha City, Just Cause saves civilians from the Disas. They don’t show her much gratitude though, as they are scared witless. Not that Just Cause has much time to concern herself with that, as she ends up surrounded by three Halloween class Disas.

The Disas have firearms of their own

It seems like the Magical Girls and the Japanese military will be able to hold the Disas off, but it turns out that was only to give them some hope before crushing that with absolute despair. The Disas have their own firearms, which are even capable of penetrating Just Cause’s shield. There are many casualties.

Kurumi hugs Asuka

As Asuka listens to the chaos happening above ground, her PTSD starts to flare up once again. As she starts falling into despair about losing even more comrades, Kurumi comforts her with a hug. Asuka is able to focus on the task at hand after hearing what Kurumi has to say to her.

Nozoi and Sayako happen upon Just Cause

Back outside, as Nozomi and Sayako continue fleeing, they come across Just Cause. A Disas attempts to attack her from behind, but Sayako shouts a warning and prevents Just Cause from coming to any further harm – she is pretty heavily injured already, though. Just Cause decides that it would be best for Nozomi and Sayako to stay with her for a little while.

Whiplash, Giess and Killgee enter the base

The forces outside are unable to prevent the enemy from entering the base, so it falls to Rapture and War Nurse to stop them. They find themselves confronted by Whiplash, Giess and their artificial fairy, Killgee. Giess has prepared Cenobite class Disas to keep Rapture distracted, whilst Whiplash fights War Nurse. With those two occupied, Giess heads straight for General Tabira.

The Fairy of Protection, Kenjou, stands between Giess and his target

Giess won’t simply be able to approach General Tabira, though, as first he has to contend with Kenjou, the Fairy of Protection. Let’s just say that is is a one-sided fight…

Sacchuu helps Asuka escape from the Cenobite class Disas

As for Asuka, a little help from Sacchuu and a frag grenade soon sees her escaping from the Cenobite class Disas meant to hold her back. She rushes straight for General Tabira, and finds her incapacitated.

Asuka confronts Giess

Giess’s target wasn’t General Tabira, but rather the magical item she brought with her from the Spirit World. Unfortunately, he overwhelms the general before Asuka can get there. The episode ends with Asuka preparing to confront Giess.

This episode adapted chapters 18, 19 and a fair amount of 20 of the manga. It changed around the order of some events, and certain things happened slightly differently between the two versions.
In the manga, Nozomi and Sayako were safely away from the fighting when the Disas attacked. Here, in the anime, they are in thick of it, and they meet with War Nurse after she was injured. War Nurse got shot in the manga as well, though at this point I don’t know her fate because the official English translated manga hasn’t got that far yet.
There was also a change that disappointed me, and that was cutting out General Tabira’s fight against Giess. Admittedly it wouldn’t have ended favourably for Tabira either way, but it would have been nice to see her hold her own for a bit.
Presumably we didn’t see that so Giess can show his abilities during his fight with Asuka in the next episode. War Nurse also has her own battle to fight, and I am pretty eager to see that as well.

Overall, I would say that this was a pretty good episode. Whilst panning over still shots of action scenes was a bit lame, we did actually see some of it animated and that was pretty good. Both Magical Girls and military alike have their work cut out for them, and both sides suffer heavy losses.

Next time, I imagine we shall get an episode that focuses more on Rapture and War Nurse’s upcoming fights, as opposed to the entire battle. That was what this episode was for, and it done a pretty all right job.