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Summary:
On the way to school one day, Alice spots Junichi and Aisia running and offers them a ride. The two girls quickly become friends after learning that they are both originally from Northern Europe. At the local hospital, Nemu, who is working as a nurse, finds a lonely little girl named Hino Madoka. Visiting her room the next day, it’s obvious to the group that Madoka-chan misses her parents very much. Alice notices a flyer for the circus on her bed, but when she tries to read it, Madoka-chan grabs it back, tearing it in the process. This causes her to break into tears and run out of the room. Later, while looking at a picture in Alice’s house, Aisia realizes that Alice used to be a circus star. She decides that the two of them should hold their own circus show to bring joy to Madoka-chan. Alice teaches Aisia some basic skills and they hold a show at the hospital in front of all the kids. Madoka-chan watches with awe, but is reminded of the time she went to the circus with her parents (which is where she got her hat). The painful memories cause her to run away again, this time out of the hospital. A breeze blows her hat onto a nearby boat, which starts to drift off after she climbs on to retrieve it. Having been alerted of her absence, Aisia and Alice look for and find her calling for help. Aisia conjures a ribbon that Alice uses to create a bridge between the boat and the lighthouse that they’re at. Alice jumps down and grabs Madoka-chan, and then runs back up the tightrope. However, it breaks right before she reaches Aisia, and she is too far away to take Aisia’s outstretched arm. Fortunately, Junichi is there to grab them and pull them up. Madoka-chan explains why she ran away, but exclaims that the performance was really fun; Aisia and Alice are delighted to hear this. Later, Junichi and Aisia are talking about what happened, and he mentions that she actually used her magic to bring about happiness, a statement which makes Aisia quite happy.
I know what most of you are thinking: Gah, not another Aisia episode. The bad news is that you’re right: this is another Aisia episode with focus on Alice (last of the three new girls). The good news is that it’s not as bad as the previous two episodes. Aisia doesn’t run around the entire time proclaiming that she wants to use magic for happiness. Instead, Aisia actually does just that, and only realizes it later after Junichi mentions it. I think that alone redeems this episode somewhat. Granted, the plot is rather corny, and the animation wasn’t the best, so this is a mediocre episode at best. But it’s an improvement over what we have been getting.
The other complaint that I have is that for being character episodes, these past few really haven’t told us much about the girls themselves past the surface. Case in point, Alice has a flashback this episode of her standing alone holding a teddy bear after Aisia mentions understanding how Madoka-chan feels. They don’t really explain it, so all we can do is infer that she was also lonely when she was young. I don’t know if they are planning any further episodes to flesh out these new girls (I hope not), but the ones they have given us don’t tell us a lot (except that Aisia believes magic should bring happiness…we get that one pounded into our heads).
Closing Thought: Next episode is titled 「アイシアの夏」 (Summer of Aisia), which implies another Aisia episode. Looking at the future episode titles, 「心の扉」 and 「歌声を届けに」, I think that we’re approaching a more serious arc, with episode 15 potentially about Kotori.
