It starts like a straight magical girl show, then slowly reveals it's making fun of every straight magical girl show ever made. By episode five you realize the whole thing is a joke told at maximum commitment, the eye patch that grants powers, the conveniently timed transformations, the absurd vendetta that nobody asked for, all of it weaponized against anime's own worst habits. The comedy doesn't land until you stop expecting sincerity, and once it clicks, rewatching the early episodes hits completely different.

Jiyu Nanohana is a cheerful junior high student with an ordinary life until a scatterbrained samurai, three centuries old, tells her she is the reincarnation of the legendary swordsman Yagyu Jubei. Whenever she puts on the fabled Lovely Eyepatch, she turns into a formidable fighter with his skill. The role brings duties she never asked for, including a feud with the rival Ryujoji clan that has lasted three hundred years. That clan's grudge against the Yagyu means she has to fight often, in a series that mixes action, adventure, comedy and drama.