Magia Record Episode 8: You Definitely Shouldn't Respond

"Originally, she was just a girl who nobody ever really noticed." ~ Rena Minami

You Definitely Shouldn't Respond 絶対に返信しちゃだめよ
First airing	22 February 2020
Script	Kaede Ogawa Gekidan Inu Curry (Doroinu)
Storyboard	Takashi Sakuma
Episode director	Shuji Miyazaki
Animation Director	Yoshiaki Ito Akihisa Takano Shunya Sato Katsusuke Shimizu Yoshikatsu Matsuzaki Shota Tsukiyama

Summary

The episode begins at night with Iroha sound asleep in her room at Mikazuki Villa while the channel for the radio station FM Kamihama plays on her phone. As the broadcast goes on Iroha's phone suddenly starts glitching out in the middle of it, scrambling the radio audio until only the voice of a girl laughing is heard playing.

Morning arrives and Iroha gets up and prepares to go to her new school, Kamihama City University Affiliated School, with Tsuruno while Yachiyo stays at home and Felicia hangs around town. Throughout the scene Rena and Momoko can be seen around the school while Kaede is shown in her family's greenhouse alone. During lunch, Iroha is asked by two other girls if they want to have lunch together, but Iroha turns them down saying that she already has plans today. When they leave she checks her phone and notes how Kaede hasn't responded to any of her messages. Just then Iroha receives another message, this time from an unknown sender asking for her help. She ignores the message and goes up to the roof of the school where Rena is, who apparently didn't know that Iroha had transferred over.

As they have lunch Iroha tells her she tried to tell her and Kaede about her transfer but they never texted back. Rena answers that Kaede also hasn't been texting or answering any of her calls, and that even when she goes to school she leaves as soon as class is over. Iroha wonders if a Witch did something to her, but Rena says she hasn't sensed one and just assumes that Kaede might be mad for some reason or another. Changing the topic, Rena asks her if she has found Ui yet but Iroha says she hasn't made any progress on it lately. She adds that she believes Ui's disappearance may be connected to the rumors in Kamihama, and that by investigating them she may find something. She then asks if Rena knows any other rumors in the city that have become popular lately. Rena says she doesn't have any friends that would give her much information, but tells Iroha that she does know of one rumor: the Invisible Girl.

Rena explains that the rumor is about an ordinary girl that no one ever really noticed and that people slowly began to ignore her until she became invisible. She also adds about something else called "Endless Solitude" that she found on the internet and that one shouldn't approach it. Iroha wonders what it means but Rena tells her she doesn't know much about it either, only of the posts talking about it.

After school, Iroha visits Banbanzai to return a lunch box given to her by Tsuruno and finds out that Felicia is working there now instead of being a mercenary. Felicia urges her to eat, but Iroha claims she isn't hungry and just wants to return the lunch box. Tsuruno then arrives and scolds Felicia for giving customers like Iroha an attitude. Iroha thanks Tsuruno for the lunch and Tsuruno assures her that she'll make the next one with chop suey for tomorrow. Iroha turns her down saying that she usually has leftovers from dinner for lunch and that Tsuruno doesn't have to make lunch for her again. Tsuruno then instead offers her the 4,000 Year Combo now for a discount and shares it with Felicia. As they eat, Tsuruno praises Iroha for getting information on rumors on her first day at school and then informs her of a rumor one of her regulars told her recently: the rumor of an Electric Wave Girl. In Chuo Ward, there lies a tall radio tower that when someone stands under it and holds their phone by their ear, they will supposedly hear a girl's voice crying for help wanting to leave some place.

Back at Mikazuki Villa Iroha arrives home and finds Yachiyo on the phone with someone else, discussing the Wings of the Magius. The other girl on the line notes how they have finally come to Yachiyo as well, and Yachiyo confirms that it means she knows about them. The other girl tells her that they've been giving her trouble and that the Magius have taken away most of the East side. Yachiyo is surprised to hear this and asks her if she knows that Mifuyu is with the Wings of the Magius, to which she answers that she didn't. When Iroha opens the door and enters, Yachiyo quickly ends the conversation, promising to call back again. Yachiyo welcomes Iroha back home and invites her to dinner. While they eat, Iroha talks about how Rena and Tsuruno told her of new rumors. Yachiyo presses her on information about them, but before Iroha can answer she gets another message from the unknown sender on her phone asking for her to erase her. Iroha says it's only spam with weird messages and notes how it's all she's been getting lately. Yachiyo tells her not to respond to junk mail and the other assures her she won't and turns off her phone.

At night, Iroha sleeps and dreams of Ui again accompanied by Touka and Nemu. Touka informs the other two girls about the probability of them meeting and becoming best friends is a mere 0.0000000004%. Ui doesn't understand it, and Touka tells her that the point of it was that the odds of the four of them meeting together is practically a miracle as it couldn't be repeated. Nemu shows Touka her book, saying that talking about miracles with numbers is boorish. The two girls stare each other down and Ui intervenes by throwing her teddy bears at them. The scene cuts back to Iroha's phone, once again playing FM Kamihama. As the host reads off letters from fans, the audio cuts out again to a girl's laughter.

The next day Iroha is in class until the teacher approaches her and tells her about Felicia, asking if she is her friend and that she is currently in police custody in Chuo Ward. Iroha runs out to Chuo Ward to see her. While there, Felicia gets scolded by an officer about getting into a fight over turf and associating with delinquents, telling Iroha to inform Felicia's parents about it. The two girls walk out of the station together and Felicia asks Iroha if she is going to ask her why she was fighting. Iroha asks if she's still a mercenary, but Felicia shakes her head and says she has Banbanzai now. Iroha smiles and says that Felicia's troubles with others will fade as time goes by. Felicia talks about how a bunch of people pissed her off by calling Yachiyo a weirdo and Iroha an outsider. Iroha asks if Felicia was sticking up for them and Felicia says that she wasn't, that they just pissed her off and she got into a fight with them. Felicia then tells Iroha they should stop by the radio tower in Chuo Ward to check out the rumor there. Passing through a cemetery, they reach the tower and Iroha pulls out her phone to listen for the Electric Wave Girl. They're both taken aback when they hear a girl's laugh coming from the phone. Felicia notes that it's not like the rumor says as Tsuruno noted that the voice would be crying and begging to be let out rather than laughing.

Back at school the next day, some girls chat among each other about Iroha being called out of the room and that others start to believe she may be a delinquent. One girl says they shouldn't talk like that before Iroha then opens the door to the room, silencing them. The bells rings and the other girls quietly take their seats as Iroha wonders why this was happening to her. Later on she goes up to the roof again and sees Rena there. Rena had been looking into more information on Endless Solitude for her and shows Iroha posts on the internet that were mysteriously deleted in relation to the rumor. Iroha wonders what the posts were and Rena shows her that they were apparently a link to a website that has since been deleted. Just then Iroha's phone buzzes again with another message from the unknown sender. Rena tells her to delete the spam mail until she notices the strange messages that have been sent to her, talking about saving someone that has been locked up and asking if Iroha is a magical girl. Rena asks her how does someone know that Iroha's a magical girl and Iroha suddenly notices the connection between the messages and the Electric Wave Girl rumor. She informs this to Yachiyo in a voice message as she runs off to the radio tower once more to investigate.

Once there, Iroha tries to listen for the voice again until she hears someone else walking nearby. She quickly notices the other person to be Tsukuyo Amane and follows in pursuit of her in order to learn why she is here. She follows her up to the roof of the tower only to enter the barrier of Witch once there. Tsukuyo takes notice of Iroha and addresses her directly, saying that now that she has seen her she will not allow her to leave. She then plays her flute and summons the Witch Stacey to fight Iroha. Iroha asks if she is the one who has been sending her the strange messages, but Tsukuyo doesn't seem to know what she is talking about. Iroha tells her about the messages saying they have someone locked up and Tsukuyo wonders aloud if she is talking about someone named Sana Futaba. As the Witch attacks, Iroha tries asking what the Wings of the Magius is and how can protecting Uwasa free magical girls but the other girl refuses to answer. During the fight Iroha gets caught by the Witch but is saved by someone else's magic, heavily implied to be Mami Tomoe. Yachiyo and the others then arrive shortly after to help Iroha, forcing Tsukuyo to retreat and leave them to fight the Witch and Yachiyo quickly finishes it off. Once the barrier fades, Yachiyo talks to Iroha about her tracking her down when her call wasn't able to get through and asks Iroha to let her see the messages on her phone.

At a restaurant Yachiyo notes how the messages can't be a coincidence and Iroha asks if it's okay for her to answer them. Yachiyo lets her as if something happens now they're in a position to deal with it immediately. Iroha goes ahead and texts back to them, asking who they are and gets an instant response back. The messages again ask if Iroha is a magical girl and says they're in Endless Solitude and want her to come there.

Translations

Screencap	Notes
	INUMILK ICHIGO MILK
	Stacey

Observations

Waiting Room of Tianjin West Railway Station

• When Touka is explaining the chance of becoming friends, the equation written on the whiteboard is Drake equation, which is usually used to calculate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations.
• When Nemu refutes Touka with the text "Talking about miracles with numerals is boorish", some other texts beside, "燕は王子の足もとに眠りました。" (... and he [the Swallow] slept at the Prince’s feet.) and "天使なんかみたこともないくせに。" (... you have never seen one [angel].) are taken from The Happy Prince. These texts are written in Kyūjitai and old kana, while the one at the center is written in Shinjitai and new kana.
• The design of the hall of Central Tower that Tsukuyo enters is possibly a reference to Tianjin West Railway Station, China (Picture)。
• The witch that Iroha meets on the rooftop is Stacey (Rooftop Witch).

Changes

• When Yachiyo helps Iroha onto her feet in the opening sequence, she now gives her a small smile instead of a neutral expression.
• Felicia joins Yachiyo, Iroha, and Tsuruno at the end of the opening sequence. The location also changes, with Mikazuki House replacing Mitama's location.
• Mami saves Iroha with her ribbons during her battle against Tsukuyo.

Trivia

• The two girls who share their stories in Kamihama Radio Station are Rika Ayano and Kanoko Yayoi.
• Kanagi Izumi makes a voiced cameo, talking with Yachiyo about the Wings of Magius.
• Stacey's labyrinth features giant cartons of strawberry milk, a reference to Alina's habit of stealing Karin's strawberry milk.
  • Stacey is the witch fought in the battle sections of Alina's personal story.
• The model of cellphone that Iroha uses is MEDIAS BR IS11N
• When Yachiyo is browsing the Kamihama Rumor Files and finds the Wings of Maigus emblem in it, 3 Rumors and 5 Witches that show up in the file are the 8 prize-winning works for Alina's Brilliant Gallery, a real-life Uwasa-making contest in 2018. See these images, 1, 2, 3 and 4

Gallery

See:Gallery:Magia Record Episode 8

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External links

Episodes
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I Want to Go Home with You	You Definitely Shouldn't Respond	A World With Just Me