Kuroneko to Majo no Kyoushitsu Ep.23 - Aria is back! No yuri with Spica? Sad!

Episode 22 of Kuroneko to Majo no Kyoshitsu completes the graduation event with the aftermath of the battle between Spica and Aria. It turns out there were no surprises in the ranking, and Spica literally just won the match. It was a bit of a bummer, as I was hoping for a third party to butt in.

Everyone graduated, though, partly thanks to Hana giving one of her crystals to Chiron for helping her survive in that cave. It's nice to see how much Hana has mellowed out compared to the initial episodes, and that's really all thanks to Spica. They still look so adorable together, like in the finale scene where they're playing in the water.

Watching Aria cry for the first time in the series for real, losing to Spica was a huge hit to her confidence.

Hana continues to be the girl among the girl with her interactions, I wonder what will happen to her later...

Aria's defeat really hit her, to the point where she was actively avoiding Spica. It might sound kind of harsh to say, but Spica's "Do you understand how I felt?" was a really good line. It's exactly what Aria needed to hear in order to grow up a little and maybe get more involved with the class.

She is now pursuing magic purely because she likes it rather than just to spite Spica, and that will make a big difference considering how much talent she has. Of course, this also means she is back to being a brat when interacting with Spica, which is a shame since I was expecting their relationship to move forward a bit.

Of course, we don't know if that's permanent or if we will see changes in future story arcs. The anime adaptation is pretty much over at this point, though, so I guess we'll need to read the manga to see where it goes from here. I'm definitely going to give it a shot later.

Next week is the final episode, and the preview shows that we're going back to the original pairing, Spica and Claude, for the grand finale. It looks like a date between the two to buy a new wand, and maybe something more for Spica. I mean, her original idealized image of Claude is completely shattered at this point, but...

Classic final shot with Aria and Spica laughing together to close down the episode, good job there, but I would've preferred...

The school director is the most childish, even more than the kids. I wonder how she was years ago when Claude was still a student.

Yuri developments seem to have stalled since Hana, and it's kind of a shame. I know Claude is the intended romance target, but in my heart, Spica has way more chemistry with the girls than with him. Claude just feels way too much like a distant teacher rather than an equal.