i☆Ris -- Fantastic Illusion/Minori Suzuki -- Dame wa Dame（ダメハダメ）

It's fifteen minutes long, absolutely goofy and has made me wonder at times whether it's really more about magical fan service than magic (the originating network is showing this at 11 pm). Still, "Tejina Senpai"（手品先輩...Magical Senpai）has been a fun little equivalent of chocolate-centred candy for the past few months during the usual biweekly anime routine with my friend. Strangely enough, though, in a season where I've gotten to know hyper-competent characters who can give advice on fitness and island survival, the titular Senpai is just the opposite; she's about as good with her magic as Inspector Clouseau is with policing.

"Tejina Senpai" is about as gaggy as gag comedy anime can get and what got me interested was that Kaede Hondo（本渡楓）, a seiyuu that I had gotten accustomed to hearing in long-suffering straight-person roles such as the central member of the undead aidoru group Franchouchou in last year's "Zombie Land Saga"（ゾンビランドサガ）, was playing the boke (funny man) to her assistant's tsukkomi. The other thing is that on first seeing the character, I wondered if she had any sort of familial relationship with either the snack-obsessed Hotaru in "Dagashi Kashi"（だがしかし）or even the sex-crazed Anna in the even more notorious "Shimoneta"（下ネタ）.

Of course, it's also the theme songs that I'm aiming for, and this season, there's been a fairly bumper crop of interesting openings and endings. I've enjoyed both for "Tejina Senpai" including the opening "Fantastic Illusion" by the 6-member aidoru group i☆Ris with the music and lyrics pretty much echoing what happens in each episode: doubt and zaniness.

I think that I was gradually entranced by one of the group proudly exhorting "Ladies and gentlemen!" each time the opening credits started up, and it's got that smash-bang feeling of getting the show up and running. "Fantastic Illusion" is actually i☆Ris' 19th and latest single released just a few weeks ago in late August, and it hit its peak of No. 13 on Oricon. Incidentally, the song was written and composed by Motokiyo.

Here is the full version of the music video by the group and I think i☆Ris has more success here than Senpai does with her own tricks. The group has been around since 2012 and has released four albums along with those nineteen singles. (October 6th 2019: Only found out now that one of the members, Himika Akaneya, voices Senpai's goofy older sister!)

Admittedly the ending credits to "Tejina Senpai" bring up the dial on the more salacious aspects of the show, but I also have to admit that the ending theme "Dame wa Dame" (No Means No) is a corker of a tune. Sung by seiyuu Minori Suzuki（鈴木みのり）although she doesn't appear in the program, I do like that skippy ska beat.

Plus, the full version also starts off with a guitar riff that might even have Quentin Tarentino nodding in approval. Unfortunately again, we only have the short version of the music video and even a full audio version of "Dame wa Dame" is not currently available (oh, really?...take a look below). The song is Suzuki's 3rd single released earlier in August, and it peaked at No. 27. The lyricist is acane_madder with Shingo Asari（浅利進吾）composing the quick melody.