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Summary:
Asuna has acquired a mountain of Chupacabra t-shirts that she ordered because they were cheap in bulk, but Kamo points out that no matter how cheap each t-shirt was, she’ll be losing money if she can’t sell them all. With Asuna dealing with this problem, Negi has a problem of his own. When taking attendance during class, he hasn’t been calling the first person on the roll, Aisaka Sayo, and has instead been starting with Yuuna. After class, the girl who sits next to Sayo, Asakura Kazumi, comes and asks him about the empty seat, but Negi asks her to wait a bit longer. It seems that under Eva’s tutelage and with Takamichi watching, he’s been practicing a magic spell that allows him to see spirits. Once he’s able to cast it, he heads to class and uses it to be able to see Sayo. After getting acquainted, he asks her about the reason she became a ghost. Negi thinks that it’s because she probably regretted something, and so resolving that will allow her to go to heaven. Unfortunately, Sayo doesn’t remember anything from when she was alive.
Negi and Sayo decide to go search the girls’ dormitory for clues to her memory, but they get separated when Sayo goes ahead and phases through the door. Negi is attempting to find her when he runs into Kazumi and the two of them hear a scream. Konoka, Setsuna, and Kaede had been playing with a string telephone which had picked up on Sayo’s voice waves. They can’t see who’s talking, so they assume it’s a ghost, but Sayo is gone by the time Negi and Asakura get there. Negi tries to sneaks away from Asakura to use his magic, but she notices and almost catches him in the act. Asakura forces him to tell her about the ghost and decides that finding out why Sayo died 40 years ago is a big scoop. Sayo’s ghostly actions are then seen by Makie, but the next scream that Negi and Asakura hear comes from Chao Lingshen and Yotsuba Satsuki’s room where Sayo took a bite of a meat bun. This continues on as Sayo visits the rooms of the other girls in the class and scares almost all of them.
Sayo’s fun finally ends in Tatsumiya Mana and Zazie Rainyday’s room where Mana points a gun at her. Although they can’t see her, Sayo still apologizes to all the girls. Just as Asakura wishes she could take a photograph, she’s suddenly able to do just that. As everyone gathers around to see what Sayo looks like, Negi notices Eva and Chachamaru walking away and figures out that Eva must have been responsible for the photograph. When he’s alone with her later, Negi tells Sayo to take her time remembering. Sayo in turn promises to report to him if she remembers anything. The next day, Negi starts taking attendance by calling out Sayo’s name first, which makes her quite happy. In fact, Asuna is now the only person who doesn’t know who Sayo is because she had fallen asleep after trying to sell Chupacabra t-shirts the previous night during all the commotion.
I had hoped that this series would avoid the standalone episodes altogether, but that’s what this week turned out to be. That’s not to say that this wasn’t fun to watch, but I just wish they had continued with the Star Crystal story. I also think that because they weren’t on the main storyline, this episode felt much more like it was all over the place. Sayo took up maybe half the time while the other half was skipping around to what the other girls in the class were doing that night. Still, that did allow for some amusing parts. Someone on the production staff must like throwing in references to games (like in episode four).
I can honestly say that I’m not really looking forward to next week’s episode, which seems to be about the twins Fuuka and Fumika, who are two of my least favorite characters in the series. But maybe it’ll surprise me by being really good. We’ll see…
