THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE.
----------------------------------------
Nodoka has wanted to know who her red string of fate connects to and has found a spell that can let her know. Yue convinces her that they try it, and Nodoka’s fills her mind with Negi thoughts as Yue casts the spell. The success of the spell is seen when the spot around Nodoka starts glowing and a red string forms on her left pinky finger. It flies out of the room and starts pulling on her, but Yue keeps her inside the window. The two get a brief moment of relief before they hear Negi, Asuna, and Kamo screaming because they’re being pulled towards this room. As it turns out, Nodoka is now indeed connected with Negi, but this spell isn’t for the red string of fate connection - it just connects two people with a red string. Since Asuna can’t cut it with scissors, Negi thinks that they should just wait until the string disappears on its own when the spell wears off. Konoka and Setsuna then come by and tell them that everyone else is going to the bath. But this isn’t just any bath; it’s the Yukihiro family’s Mahora Spa Resort.
Inside huge place, Nodoka and Negi run into Haruna, who sees them holding hands. Nodoka tries to explain that it’s because the red string is short, but Negi then reveals that people who can’t use magic can’t see the string. In any case, everyone in Negi’s class has formed into small groups and taken to different bathing environments. In one instance, Konoka wants Setsuna to wash her back, but Setsuna is too embarrassed to do it. In another instance, Asuna is insisting on washing Negi’s body, but then Hakase Satomi shows up with a new robot that can do the job. Unfortunately for Asuna, the robot targets her instead of Negi.
A third area has a group of the girls watching a ping-pong match between Yuuna and Zazie, with the latter winning. Evangeline decides to send up Chachamaru as the next competitor, but Chachamaru responds to Zazie’s serve by vaporizing the ball. Negi and Nodoka meanwhile have been put in a sauna together thanks to Haruna.
At the end of the day, Yue is one sitting all alone while everyone else is playing happily together. She’s thinking about her own feelings towards Nodoka and Negi when suddenly her magic wand activates. Red strings expand out through the pool area and entangle everyone, pulling them underwater. Yue herself gets pulled down too, but Negi and Nodoka pull her out. To stop the magic from running wild, Negi instructs Yue to repeat the feelings she had when she used magic, but this time not to use fake feelings. As she holds on to Negi’s staff, Yue apologizes to Nodoka and then channels her true feelings to get rid of the magic. The red strings disappear, including the one that connected Nodoka and Negi. Negi tells Nodoka that it’s ok because the real red string of fate is still connected - even though they can’t see it, it’s connected somewhere to someone. Fireworks soon light up the night sky for everyone to enjoy. Seeing Yue standing alone, Nodoka smiles at her friend, and Yue smiles back.
Each of the girls seemed to get a bit more screen time than the in the previous one, but those scenes were still fairly short. My favorite parts include Setsuna trying to wash Konoka’s back, Asuna getting violated by Hakase’s robot, and the ping-pong scene. |