Magia Record Episode 5: There's No Place For You Here

"I'm her best friend, her oldest friend, and we would never abandon each other. There's no place for you here. I'm the only one who can fill the void in Yachiyo's heart." ~ Mifuyu Azusa

There's No Place For You Here あなたが割って入る隙間なんてないんですよ？
First airing	1 February 2020
Script	Kaede Ogawa Gekidan Inu Curry (Doroinu)
Storyboard	Yukihiro Miyamoto Midori Yoshizawa
Episode director	Midori Yoshizawa
Animation Director	Yoshiaki Ito Katsusuke Shimizu Yoshikatsu Matsuzaki Shota Tsukiyama Akihisa Takano

Summary

The episode begins in the past. Mifuyu Azusa is holding up Yachiyo Nanami's notebook as she describes a rumor about a red telephone box. Yachiyo stares off into space, lost in thought as she sits holding her mug. Kanae is sitting in the back, absorbed in a magazine. All three girls are wearing the uniforms of their respective high schools. Mifuyu snaps Yachiyo out of it, and goes on to indicate that Witches are the ones most likely behind some of the rumors. Yachiyo agrees.

On top of a building behind a lit sign, Mifuyu and Yachiyo stand facing each other in magical girl form. Mifuyu wants to believe in a rumor that may save them from their fates as magical girls. If it's true, they'll both have a chance to grow into adults. But Yachiyo would rather trust in themselves rather than put their faith in a rumor that may not be true. To this day Yachiyo has been searching for Mifuyu to confirm to herself that she is really gone.

Back inside the shrine's barrier, Yachiyo stares up in disbelief at the Mifuyu standing before her on the bridge. Beside her, Iroha Tamaki calls out to the form of her sister Ui Tamaki standing on the next bridge. Ui turns around and begins to walk away as Iroha chases after her. She catches up to her and hugs her, but Ui only stands and smiles blankly. As Ui continues to smile blankly, she says the words "If you want to change your fate, come to Kamihama City. Because Magical Girls can be saved in this town." Iroha is confused and asks her how it is she even knows about magical girls. Ui repeats the phrase once more, then repeats the broken words "Kamihama City", "magical girls", "fate", and "change" over and over to Iroha's confusion. She realizes this can't be her sister as she looks around her and sees the unconscious bodies of other people trapped by the rumor of the shrine. The people lay there curled up next to fake bodies conjured by the barrier. Ui disappears as Iroha's soul gem darkens further.

Yachiyo asks the one she meets if she's the real Mifuyu, as Mifuyu wonders how she can get Yachiyo to believe her. She takes a moment to think, then describes the letters they would write to each other each year in case something ever happened to either of them. She went on to describe how she would often visit her grandmother when she was sick in the hospital and how she cared about everyone's favorite coffee mug. Mifuyu claims to know everything about her since they first met when they were both 12. Yachiyo confirms that as far as memories go, she is the same Mifuyu. Mifuyu asks if she wasn't hoping to meet her here since she was looking for her but Yachiyo doesn't respond. Instead, she asks where Mifuyu has been until now. Mifuyu stands with her back to Yachiyo's and says it would take a very long time to explain. Yachiyo tells her she can take all the time she needs to explain it tomorrow once they're back home, but Mifuyu leaps away from her and holds a pinwheel as she explains that she can't go back. She says she can't because her body has become too used to this world. Mifuyu asks Yachiyo to stay and talk with her instead and offers her the pinwheel.

Suddenly Iroha calls out to Yachiyo, as she tries to explain what she's learned. Yachiyo urges Mifuyu to escape with them from this place, but Mifuyu only shakes her head in refusal. Yachiyo questions her once more if she's the real Mifuyu. Mifuyu smiles and insists she is as the shrine stamps begin to cover the left side of Yachiyo's face. Yachiyo falls to her knees as Iroha raises her crossbow ready to defend her. Mifuyu looks angry as she demands to know who Iroha is and what she is to Yachiyo. Iroha warns her to get away from Yachiyo as Mifuyu leaps away and transforms into a magical girl. She asks once more who Iroha is as she leaps around the girls and announces to Iroha that she is Yachiyo's best friend. As Mifuyu is determined to be rid of Iroha, she throws her chakram down at Iroha, who leaps away to safety. Iroha begins to fire several shots of magic at Mifuyu, who easily leaps away and nimbly dodges the attacks. Mifuyu throws her chakram once more and uses it to deflect Iroha's attacks. As she closes in to attack Iroha, declaring herself to be the only one who can fill the void in Yachiyo's heart, she is suddenly stopped by a spear through the chest. Yachiyo stands breathing heavily, her spear still protruding from Mifuyu's chest. Mifuyu asks her why before dissipating into the barrier's mists.

Yachiyo insists to herself that it wasn't the real Mifuyu as her soul gem continue to darken. Shaken, she tries to cleanse it with a grief seed but her hands are shaking too much to do it right. Iroha grabs hold of Yachiyo's soul gem and cleanses it with her own grief seed. Yachiyo is calmer now that her gem has been cleansed and asks her why she would use her own grief seed on her. Just then, Tsuruno Yui calls out to them as she comes running to catch up. It seems the shadows that were harassing her earlier suddenly disappeared, so she wrote a name on a votive plaque and was pulled into the barrier as well.

The water beneath the bridges begins to froth as large bubbles appear from below and blow the bridge they're standing on to pieces. The girls fall deeper into the barrier as a creature with glowing eyes appears. It unfurls its elephant-like trunk and shoots more bubbles out at them. They leap out of the way as Tsuruno engulfs it with the flames from her fans. Iroha shoots more magic at it with her crossbow but none of their attacks have had any effect. Yachiyo tears it in half with her spear before turning and launching her spear at its head, taking out a large chunk of it. But as soon as the dust settles the creature regenerates itself almost instantly and turns its attention towards Yachiyo, smashing one of its many arms down at the bridge where she stands. The creature fills the air with the bubbles from its trunk as Tsuruno leaps down from above. She smacks the bubbles away only to find her fans drenched in the mucus from the bubbles leaving her unable to launch flames. Yachiyo fills the air with her spears as she launches them continuously at the creature, urging Tsuruno and Iroha to escape while they can. Iroha insists she can help fight it too only to be knocked out by one of the bubbles. Yachiyo hurries over to where Iroha is laying on one of the bridges, her soul gem darkened to a dangerous point. She asks why Iroha would use her grief seed on her rather than herself if her soul gem was in such a state. Iroha wonders if maybe it was the shock of not getting to see the real Ui that threw her into despair.

Tsuruno attempts to keep the creature at bay by smacking it in the face with one of her fans only for it to smack her down several flights of bridges. She crashes onto the level where Yachiyo and Iroha are, wondering if this is the end for them. Yachiyo picks up Iroha and urges Tsuruno to run. As they're running away, Iroha dreams she is in a dark watery place. As she falls, long strips of gauze catch on her as she wonders if she'll ever find the real Ui. Iroha continues to fall deeper into her own being before she meets an exact copy of herself. The gauze wraps itself around Iroha's eyes blinding her as the copy's face is replaced with a pure white mask. As Yachiyo hurries, Iroha's cape comes off and her long hair comes loose and begins to fly upward. Iroha begins to float into the air, her arms above her head as the gauze wraps itself around her arms and body. Her hair forms into a witch-like creature that screeches at them like a bird. Iroha flies upward as the creature from the shrine chases after it. Iroha's witch-like form wraps the creature in gauze strips, mummifying it before it begins to rend at it with its beak repeatedly until the creature is no more.

With the creature gone, the barrier around the shrine disappears and the unconscious people from earlier are all left laying on the main bridge of the shrine. Iroha's witch-like form floats in the sky momentarily before crying out once more and diving down at Tsuruno. Just as she's about to attack, Mami Tomoe appears and uses her Tiro Finale to blast a hole in the side of the witch-like form. Damaged, the witch-form drops Iroha's body where Yachiyo stands and dissipates. Mami slowly makes her way down the steps, her musket trained on Iroha's prone form as Yachiyo demands to know who she is. Mami explains she was following the traces of strange magic only to find a Witch posing as a magical girl. Yachiyo insists she put her weapon down and get out of their way. She asks once more who she is. Mami makes her way further down the steps as she introduces herself, her gun never wavering from Iroha. She tells Yachiyo to step aside so she can finish the Witch off, but Yachiyo points out that Iroha is only a magical girl and tells her to put her weapon down. Mami finally relents, admitting that the magic that Iroha admits is different from the magic she followed earlier. She asks Yachiyo to explain what it was she saw but Yachiyo says nothing. Tsuruno pipes up, insisting that Iroha is just their friend. Mami tells them she came to Kamihama because of a rumor that a magical girl is gathering witches so she can keep all the grief seeds to herself. Even though Yachiyo flat out denies it being her, Mami reminds them that it IS true that there is a scarcity of witches in all areas outside Kamihama. Tsuruno asks Mami if she knows why there has been more magical girls than usual lately, but Yachiyo steps in and tells Mami they will handle their own territorial disputes without outside interference and to focus on her own territory disputes instead. Yachiyo asks that she leave once more, and without another word Mami undoes the magic of her muskets and walks away but not before warning Tsuruno that Yachiyo is hiding something from her.

In her dreams, Iroha floats while wrapped almost entirely in gauze strips. As the gauze slips away from her face, Iroha slowly opens her eyes and sees her white-faced doppelganger floating away from her and back into the dark abyss. The gauze strips continue to slip off of Iroha as she herself floats back up and out of the darkness. Iroha is now dreaming of her sister Ui. In different scenes from their lives together, Ui continues to repeat the words and phrases she did when they were in the shrine's barrier.

Iroha awakens in a nearly empty bedroom, the soul gem on her ring shining clearly with no trace of the impurities from before. She make her way down a flight of stairs and opens the door to the main area, where Yachiyo stands making dinner in the kitchen. She tells Iroha that she brought her here because she was still unconscious. She asks if she wants to call her parents, but Iroha shakes her head. Iroha apologizes for being an unwanted guests and makes for the door, but it is late at night and the trains are not likely to be running at such a late hour. Yachiyo offers Iroha her home for the night as long as it's no trouble to her, especially since she's already started dinner. Iroha accepts her offer and asks what she can do to help. Yachiyo tells her to get more rest while she finishes cooking. As Iroha lays in bed, she falls asleep smiling, thinking about what a long time it's been since someone had cooked for her.

Sometime later, Yachiyo enters the room to let her know the food is ready. As Iroha turns in her sleep, a tear runs down her cheek. Yachiyo looks at the window sill and imagines Mifuyu sitting there, smiling. The name tag on the door to the room turns, revealing this room as the old room of Mifuyu. Yachiyo thinks of Mifuyu, reminding herself why she continues to search for her and admitting to herself she's still a prisoner of her past.

Momoko Togame and Rena Minami lay unconscious on the floor of a witch's barrier. Kaede Akino stands trembling, crying out to her two teammates as she faces the witch Albertine on her own. Albertine grows in size, ready to attack Kaede as Kaede continues to sob in fear. Something explodes around Kaede, and as the smoke clears Kaede can be seen once more as she stands atop a witch-like creature. Kaede's face has been replaced with the same white mask as she turns her attention towards Albertine. Black hands appear from the witch-form's antlers and engulf Albertine in black sludge-like mold. As she spins around, black hands form from the sludge and crush Albertine, her blood like rainbow-paint splatters Kaede as Kaede faints. The barrier dissipates and Kaede wakes up, hurrying over to where Momoko and Rena still lay unconscious but alive. Kaede shakes them before remembering the black hands from earlier and seeing the rainbow blood on her hands. Mitama Yakumo calls out to Momoko, wondering where she could be and asking if they're done defeating the witch. Fearful, Kaede gets up and leaves before Mitama can see her. As she runs through the trees of the park, Kaede wonders if something is wrong with her. She wonders if maybe she's a witch as she continues to run. She trips and falls forward, laying on the grass full of worries and fears as she realizes that what just happened wasn't normal.

Translations

Screencap	Notes
	ANJA WACHSMALSTIFT

Observations

• Kanae Yukino makes a cameo appearance in the episode.
• After "Mifuyu" invites Yachiyo to leave, all windmills begin to spin reversely, which echos "returning to the past" in the previous episode.
• The clock chime in Yachiyo's home resembles the ones in Rebellion after the bus Homura takes departs.
• Iroha's hair was completely loose after she unleashed her witch form, but was braided into its usual style when she woke up in Yachiyo's home. This means either Yachiyo or Tsuruno combed her hair while she was unconscious.

Changes

• PMHQ in this episode's OP is slightly brightened.
• Tsuruno joins Yachiyo and Iroha at the end of the opening sequence.
• The shape of the Rumor of the Awaiters' "Horse" is changed almost completely to look like a Chinese dragon.
• Iroha doesn't wake up directly after releasing her Doppel.
• The fight against Mami is completely omitted.
• An anime-only scene is added, where Kaede releases her Doppel Zola against Albertine.
  • This also marks Albertine's first animated appearance.

Trivia

• According to a tweet from Gekidan Inu Curry, the past was shown in 4:3 format while the present is shown in 16:9 in order to mimic the change of technology and to better illustrate the flashback as being in the past.
• According to a different tweet, the change in appearance of the rumor was due to over-farming for materials on the game app.
• When Iroha tries to leave Yachiyo's home, the wallclock chimes and they note that it's 11:30 p.m. Clocks generally only chime on the hour mark, not every half hour.
• The crayons in Albertine's barrier read "ANJA WACHSMALSTIFTE". Anja is the name of her familiars while "wachsmalstifte" is the German word for crayon.

Gallery

See: Gallery:Magia Record Episode 5

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  End Title Card by Ueda Hajime

External links

Episodes
Previous Episode	Current Episode	Next Episode
This Isn't the Past	There's No Place For You Here	I'll Do Anything