With this second batch of episodes released for Western audiences, Fairy Princess Minky Momo feels like it really hits its stride. By this point, the formula is well-established: Momo, in her guise as the daughter of an Earth couple in an unnamed European country, finds someone who needs help, often by accident, and uses her magic powers to transform into the adult profession that will best address their needs. Being comfortable with this setup, the story has space to be even sillier when it wants to, giving itself the wiggle room to capitalize on its premise. The result is that these fifteen episodes are even more fun than the first batch Crunchyroll released.

Continuity is also a little better this time around. The overall thrust of the series remains episodic, but there are more nods to earlier characters and plotlines, with the horse from episode one once again becoming the focus of episode sixteen, and Momo's Fenarinarsa dad playing a much bigger role. That's a very mixed bag, because he's a pretty obnoxious character. Clearly, he's meant to be funny, but his daffy antics and verbal tics drastically dial down the humor. (There's a sense that in 1982, he was probably a lot more entertaining, which is typical of older shows.) In the bizarre episode twenty-three, he ends up coming to Earth after he feels ignored by his wife in favor of her pet monster, Dossie (a Nessie knock-off), so he decides that his daughter ought to interrupt her mission to fawn over him. That's not literally what he says, but his behaviors make it clear that that's what he wants, and this puts Momo in the position of needing to do damage control rather than causing the damage herself. It's interesting and works well as a storytelling technique, but the increasingly bizarre plot and the king's not-that-funny antics bring things down. The king also plays a more significant role in episodes twenty-seven (the "Pomuda" Triangle leads to Fenarinarsa) and thirty, when Momo disguises herself as an astronaut and ends up on a space mission that lands on Fenarinarsa; more importantly, this is where we see that her collecting the gems is paying off because many of the storybook characters who inhabit the land are awake and acting out their stories.

As you can see, episodes run the gamut between absurd and a little more grounded. Episode thirty clearly references the 1980s NASA missions; even though most of us tend to focus on the 1986 Challenger Disaster, there were missions in 1981 and 1982, although the episode misses the whole "first woman in space" thing by twenty years. Other episodes tackle sexism in baseball and the conservation of African animals…and are supported by lighter, sillier fare such as a spy caper with "James Giveme," the Bermuda Triangle and inexplicable 18th-century pirates, and trying to help a unicorn reach the Rainbow Valley, which feels like the most 70s thing to happen in the 80s. The serious and silly episodes don't always sit comfortably together, but Momo pulls it off, especially her voice actress, Mami Koyama, who was more recently in BanG Dream! It's MyGo!!!!! and The Ancient Magus' Bride. Koyama's voice is impressively flexible, pulling off both child and adult Momo with panache.

The series also uses these episodes to establish some of Momo's powers further. Previously, we knew about her transformations and talking animal spells. Now, we add that she can change her magic camper/car Gourmet Popo into a different shape – it becomes a stagecoach in episode sixteen – and can choose how far to age herself up. In episode twenty-three, Momo uses her wand to become "an ordinary girl," which places her at what looks like fourteen. Somewhat surprisingly, this may be Momo's actual age; in episode nineteen, Momo comments about being a teenager, which means that she's at least twelve or thirteen, even though she looks younger. Her "ordinary girl" transformation may grant her the ability to look like an Earth girl is expected to, which is an interesting statement in itself. Momo transforms twice during the animal conservation episode into a conservation officer and Tarzan. However, it must be said that she comes off as more Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Speaking of Sheena, there are an impressive amount of pop culture references thrown around, which can make this a fun viewing experience. Whereas the first fifteen episodes took a sort of generalized early 80s look, this batch gives us Star Trek imagery, complete with Kirk and Spock, name drops Wonder Woman, and we have movie posters for Rocky IV and Star Wars. Interestingly enough, both Wonder Woman and Star Wars are given their legal names, while the other two are Rooky and Star Trick. In terms of future influence, it's worth noting that in the unicorn episode, Momo transforms into an adult princess in an Ancient Greek-inspired gown and sits on a crescent moon, imagery that will be very familiar to fans of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon.

Fairy Princess Minky Momo's second fifteen episodes are even more entertaining than the first, and we can see even more clearly the influence this series had on subsequent magical girl titles. Although it has moments of 1980s-style racism – the Western episode (which hilariously features the town of Bang Bang City, Texas) and another where characters watch a Western in the theatre have some unpleasant stereotypes, although the episode set in Africa largely does not – it also has the good-natured flair of a Saturday morning cartoon. It doesn't always feel child-appropriate by today's standards, such as when Momo and her (Earth) dad end up stuck in the middle of the "Screw the Cops" road race, but it's still a fun way to spend some time with the added delight of seeing the origins of some of the magical girl genre's tropes and themes.