You know, re-reading this again, the theory that the mascots are working together seems more plausible than I thought at first. It would not only explain why Venalita is not as serious about world domination as you'd expect from the forces of evil, but also why his "good" counterpart is managing the magical girl' media appearances in addition to fighting evil. In the end, they're just running a RL magical girl show and making money from it. And interestingly, what made me think of this was the shape of the barrier devices here including both the magical girls' heart and the evil side's star in their design.