The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies

Oh man, I was really enjoying this freaky, kinda weird magical girl anime: The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies and I got to the last episode and was wondering if there was more (it stopped rather open-ended) and looked it up and the mangaka apparently died very young at 31 and left it behind unfinished.

So, that's a bummer. I binged the whole thing in one night -- the episodes are about half the length of normal ones (which makes sense because it's from a 4 panel manga) and even shorter if you skip the intro/outro. It is a little bit charming, a bit sketchy, very sweet, but also a bit dodgy. It has a deadpan heroine (the eponymous magical girl of misfortune Byakuya) who works about a billion jobs and never has enough money. And an eyeglass wearing "evil" lieutenant that falls in love at first sight. He wants to do his job and defeat the magical girl, but no, he really just wants to spend time with her.

On the skeevy side, it also has the weirdest ass most awful "angels" / familiars who are "in charge" of the magical girls. Byakuya's is the chainsmoking pervert dude in a cat suit who is constantly trying to get her into compromising jobs or talking about her boobs. He's gross. Actually, beyond gross. Mira tears his head off at one point, though he sadly doesn't stay gone, and you really wish it was permanent. The other magical girl is a childhood acquaintance and she hardly ever actual speaks (except in her head) and acts like she has Tourette's because she's constantly blurting out "fuck" as she randomly chomps people. The swearing part, not the violence. Her familiar/angel is a very bizarre looking bird-man with a six pack. Though when the familiars go back to "heaven" (is it really??), they look like guys.

Honestly, could have completely done without the other magical girl and the horrible angels that are just taking advantage of the girls. Just give me more of the "evil" lieutenant who can't help but save the hapless but...ok, I was going to say plucky, but she's not plucky. She's resigned. But she keeps going even so. I love that they find their happiness in each other.

So there's no real end to the series due to the author's death, so I imagine that she is somehow the magical girl who saves everything by the two of them falling in love. And even though there's an age gap (not sure how much, but this is a weird world where he's not human (?) and she's not either exactly, now that she's a magical girl, so I'm just gonna roll with it). 

So, am I glad I watched it? Yeah. I doubt if I'll watch it again, but it has it's own special charm. In "my" ending, I'll also imagine that Mira ("evil" guy) manages to send off the familiars once and for all and truly save Byakuya and give her the life he so desperately wants her to have.