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If you watched season 1 and finished it wondering where all the plot was, it’s all right here in Season 2. Sasami and the girls train hard and learn a lot about themselves as well as what it means to have real friendship. Ride the tides of their emotions as they wade through the highs and lows of their magical adventures.

From the very beginning to the very end you are thrown through the plot fast! These magical girls start off with a greeting from the Chief Sorceress. She wants the girls to come to a very special summer camp in the Witch World. At first their parents tell the girls no for various reasons but later the Chief Sorceress makes a few special appearances with the parents and suddenly they change their minds. The girls go out and buy themselves matching hand towels to celebrate their soon-to-be summer fun.
Washu and Daimon are not very trusting of the Chief Sorceress and quickly follow the girls to the Witch World with plans to bring them back. While training with the Chief Sorceress in what appears to be destructive magic, Misao really starts to shine. When she and the girls are forced to leave the Witch World she makes her displeasure very clear.
As time continues to march on Misao begins to become resentful of all the attention that Sasami gets, which eventually leads her to run away to the Witch World and seek more power so that she can surpass Sasami and the other girls. The heart of the story is what goes on between Sasmi and Misao. Sasami tries very hard to understand Misao but seems to constantly get things wrong. The dealings with the Witch World and the Chief Sorceress quickly begin to feel more like props to give the girls room to grow and make sure the audience stays entertained as they go through emotional growth.
The downsides are few and probably the only people that will notice them are those from an older crowd. The plot moves very fast so some important details are gone over very quickly and without much explanation. Even so, with the plot moving so quickly you won’t have time to worry about not understanding a few details here and there. The relationship between Amitav and Ginji might feel a bit awkward for the American audience. It was a bit too creepy-clingy for me.  I was also bothered a bit by Misao’s brief appearance as her adult self. She appears with a perfect body, great clothes, and a glamorous air about her but she’s completely tainted by dark emotions. I’m generally against anything that might insinuate in the tiniest way that excessive beauty makes a woman bad or evil but that was my take on it.  The ending is probably my biggest complaint. I looked and I looked but I can’t find anymore information about whether or not something is supposed to come after this. The ending did not feel finished to me. Without giving anything away I can definitely say that the last episode looked like it was set up for more to come. If that truly is the meant to be final ending of Sasami then the last five minutes of the show must be another of the many instances where the details are just not explained well enough.  Oh and I wish they had cuter costumes. The prettiest costume was Misao in her adult form and Anri’s Magical Girl costume. Sasami actually has the ugliest costume, which is probably why they spend most of the series in their casual clothes. If you’re watching magical girl shows you kind of expect the costumes to be wild but they are usually still pretty.
The special features are text-less songs and trailers for other series. Personally I can take or leave special features in general but if you are one who likes lots of them you wont like these. I don’t think trailers should actually count as special features. My favorite “feature” if you want to call it that is the reversible cover. They get me every time! The extra side has great images of Sasami and Misao as well as the title in Japanse and the episode list (in English).
I must say, I haven’t seen a magical girl show since Sailor Moon and I was very happy to get to do so. Sasami is definitely for a younger crowd so unless you love the magical girl genre or are 12 I would probably skip this. If you are in the target audience then this is a great watch. The magic is beautiful and the exploration the girls go through to understand their emotions and feelings for one another add more sparkle to the already beautiful story.

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