James was glad to be home so quickly. He had to rest to be fresh enough for that mundane job. Though first, he wanted to see what this anime was about. A few quick searches on the internet revealed nothing… despite the media being quite old. “How mysterious..” it had no English title and searching in kanji to the best of his abilities didn’t work.. what was this “How to be a magical girl?”
Then came the issue of playing it.
He had to dig out the VHS player from storage and took the arduous process of connecting it to modern technology. Finding compatible wires was the hard part but fortunately his modern system was just ‘barely’ compatible with the archaic machine. A few quick checks and he was satisfied he got the player working.
Finally, he opened the strange VHS box, noticing something slide out. It was a weird looking ‘heart’ necklace? Holding it in his hand it seemed to be a cheap plastic material of some sort on a golden chain. A promo toy perhaps? “Huh… they are really serious about this series,” he thought. How come nobody had heard of it before? He pressed play and sat on the sofa with curiosity while examining the girly piece of jewellery. This could be a nice gift for a young girl.
A cute anime drawn woman appeared on the TV with her hands behind her back, the gentle sound of the tape could be heard slowly moving in the background. The lady was depicted with white hair, and a blue diaphanous gown. Her animation was a little jittery. Surprisingly, she also had a set of wings on her back that looked a lot more intricate to animate. The Angel-woman was standing on some kind of ‘space room ‘with stars in the background and was looking directly at the audience.
“No intro?” James wondered a bit disappointed at that. There was a little faint background music though that sounded… interesting.
“Hello young lady.” The angel woman began in the recording. “If you are watching this, you are interested in becoming a magical girl. First, I want to thank you. Your reality is in danger, and it will need all the help it can get. Your world is going to face a lot of changes and you will be toeing the line between fantasy and reality. However! With my assistance I will make you a strong and most important- a worthy magical girl. Do not fear! You will have all the tools you need to fight the monsters.”
James leaned on the sofa, idly listening. “Heh… I’ve never seen an anime character talk directly to the audience like this,” he looked at the heart necklace between his fingers again.
“My name is Ambriel,” the angel continued. “ Your guide to unlocking your power as a magical girl.” The angel-woman continued with a slight flick of her long perfect blonde hair. “First of all, you will notice the necklace that came with this tape. Please put it on.” She seemed to wait.
James chuckled as he looked at the heart necklace. Weirdly the tape seemed like it paused? Was it broken? . Hm…” He put the necklace on around his neck. It was a little tricky given how delicate the jewellery was… and he felt a little stupid and rather glad nobody could see this.
“Wonderful.” The anime-angel nodded. “Now I need to explain what a magical girl is…”
James only half listened. Was this all to make the viewer feel ‘part’ of the show somehow? “- sounds like a massive lore dump is about to happen though,” he thought as he mentally tuned out. Magical-girl standing between the world of humans…. and the world of dreams… the nightmare shadows she must fight… standard basic stuff… something about reality warps…
“- thus, your physical body will enter the realm of dreams in a form of matter exchange. Because of this, you will not be subject reality reformations,” The angel woman continued.
“urgh… I hate info dumps,” James sighed. He was getting bored now… maybe he should go make a cup of tea. Still, he thought the angel woman was kind of hot as she explained all the intricate aspects of the role the hero- er heroine had to play.
“Now part of this involves your desires too. What do you wish for most of all?” The angel-woman asked. Again the tape paused like something out of Dora the Explorer … creepy.
“Hm” James sighed. “ I wish I could be important…” he idly thought.
The angel-woman raised her wings as the tape started once more. “That wish will form the basis of your magic.” She replied. Now first, a few rules. “A magical girl must work in secret… she can not reveal who she is, or even what. Telling people about the magical world without the key components may result in… a penalty. It could even harm your own connection to the magical world. This will be explained in volume three, specifically under Free-Will and Destiny. Although secrecy is important, you will not be alone. In volume two we will discuss your magical companion and sole confident in these matters so please wait for that.”
James stretched his body, bored again now. “uh huh… so what’s the necklace for…”
The angel took out a similar necklace in her hand. “This is the source of your magic, and your connection to the world of dreams. We will go over magical theory in volume four, and the history of previous magical girls in volume five.”
“Great way to make people pay for this series I guess.” James wondered cynically Where he could get the rest- not that he would pay for it. Maybe he could pirate it? It seemed to want to make a person think they were going to help the protagonist in some way. It was a cute idea… a child might even get really into that- though he recalled vaguely such attempts have been done before and it reminded him of a pantomime… clearly only the very young would like this sort of thing. Still, silly but he could see where the writers were coming from. It was at least a six out of ten in the attempt. It had been almost half an hour though and he ha yet to see any explosions or magic stuff… so he didn’t think he would buy any others in the set.
The angel on the screen began to grow in a bright white light. images flew across the background of various anime style magical girls… a wondrous sight . James recognised a few key ones… even…
“Nah… couldn’t be…” maybe he had seen this show before?
“I have determined your class will be ‘princess’. How fitting for your wish! Please wait to receive the power. The title shall now be bestowed.”
James blinked as the light from the TV became ‘insanely bright but… so did his body. “What the hell?” The necklace on his neck grew bright as his body seem to shift and change in a spark of light. He was acutely aware of his arms and mass seeming to shrink… Suddenly everything seemed a little bigger. His body was slender… smaller and- breasts?! A weird feeling between his legs as he felt ‘acutely’ aware that something had just gone ‘really wrong’. There was a brush of pink hair on the sides of her face. “Eek!” The girl squeaked in surprise, glancing at her now smaller hands, body and humbly sized chest.
.”-a very cute girl indeed!” The angel smiled. “Perfect. I will name you now… as Magic Girl Star… rank, Princess.” She winked. “This concludes volume one. For further instructions please find volume two. Take care now!” The tape stopped and ejected itself.
“Wait a sec!” The new girl looked down at her body in quiet confusion. She was wearing a soft white dress with some star symbols etched on the hemline. There was also her pink hair and… somewhat elfin pointed ears. She appeared to be younger now, she guessed about sixteen years of age, looking in every way as magic-girl protagonist!
This was insane! She tried to put the VHS tape back in but for some reason it just always got ejected out. It refused to rewind or play again.
Was she stuck like this?!
