I think that if there is one thing where this show disappoints a bit, it’s is storyline. Compared to the rest of the series this season, I feel like it could have used itself better, and right now its main theme, fighting for freedom and against poverty, it has been done many times before unfortunately, and better.
What this show does have is interesting character. Perhaps they’re nowhere near the best of the series, but they have this charisma that makes them interesting to watch. That other magi in this episode made the fight that this episode was all about worth watching with how confident he was. The episode really worked in how far it actually went: it started off mundane, but got more and more serious as it went on, to the point where Ugo just went crazy.
Most peculiar detail here is that something else was giving the magical powers to do that, meaning that there is much more behind their bond than what Aladdin thought at first. It definitely gives a much needed different dimension to such an overpowered being in this series.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)
I think episode suffers from SAO syndrome, in that they both fail to completely convey what’s going on in the source material.
I don’t know anything about the manga, but it seems to be fairly straightforward to me. I’ve never really experienced that things are not being explained properly or that the story is disjointed.
What’s interesting about magi is that it’s a show that’s moving forward at a pretty decent pace. It’s shounen but doesn’t suffer from the same problems as naruto/bleach where it feels like nothing is resolved and the fights just keeps going on and on… and on….
In Magi the fights are intense and fast paced, they are also conclusive in most cases, so we don’t get the whole repeat with the bad guy coming to fight, gets beaten, only to return in the next episode.
I don’t think Judal is beaten just yet though, so I just hope Magi doesn’t fall into the same tired naruto/bleach formula in the future.
I wouldn’t worry about it being formulaic, since the manga seems to be heading in an FMA-ish direction.
I’m just a bit peeved that they left out a couple details from the manga in this episode. I hope that this is not the start of a trend.
Yeah, they seem to have failed to explain the actions taken by some of the minor characters and some of thoughts and considerations of the major characters.
It’s a bid sad, because if they did take the time to explain stuff more, it would raise your expectations more for the next episode, instead of them just showing what they did/thought at a later stage.
It takes some of the mystique out of the show.
Reading through the manga (up to the current chapter, which is 48) they seem to have completely left out chapter 1 (50 pages), which is an introduction to alibaba, which makes the introduction of some characters in an later episode seem like a introduction, when we actually meet them for a second time
In chapter 4 they left out some story explations about the dungeons, and how they came to be, also some less important stuff about their preparation to enter the dungeon. They also changed how/why aladin and alibaba entered the dungeon in the first place. In all, I would say it was more exciting and had better pacing in the manga, so I honestly have no idea why they switched it around in the anime (makes no sense)
In the dungeon (chapter 7-11) they changed the spike traps to fire traps (for some reason). It’s pretty much true to the source material in the anime otherwise.
In chapter 12, during the dual, alibabas past is explained in pretty much four pages, they skip this in the anime, but devote much more to explaning it later, so this makes some sense
In chapter 14, the “djinn” in the dungeon is summon in a believeable fashion, from a bottle with sinbads flute. In the anime he seems to just “appear” when they have beaten the bad guy. It’s better executed in the manga. The Djinn also is MUCH more imposing in the manga, in the anime he’s pretty much just a blue beardy geezer. In the manga he looks pretty freaking powerful and a bit scary. When “someone” closed the dungeon, they were a bit more secretive about it in the anime, in the manga they clearly show who did it.
In chapter 16 when alibaba, alladin and morgiana are separated, it’s explained properly, and they actually show on a map where they were “teleported”. It’s pretty much unchanged though…
Well, that’s it for now, It seems the farther into the manga we get the closer they stick to the source material. I don’t really get why they ignored the first chapter, and skipped some of explanations (since they didn’t need to skip it, and would make stuff a bit more clear), but show could have been a bit better if they had not done some silly decision.
All in all though, I’d say it’s very close to the source material.
they will explain about the magic and ugo head a little later
Was a good episode, the action was well done but in overall is inferior to the manga versión, meaby a bit sensored here. But the storyline is not developed until now meaby next to this arc but not now. And belive me is not about poverty or freedom is much more deep.
Why do you say it’s censored when it’s cleary not censored at all? It’s pretty much frame for frame the same. They just changed the location from inside a ruined building, to outside on the streets.
If I remember well Judal nearlly killed Alibaba and the thieves,Was much more blood in the manga. But the figth was pretty close to the manga versión. That is why. But meaby I am a bit confused whit next scenes.
Judal is badass as usual. Nice to see some action and all. Pacing is pretty good so far.
Impressive animation this episode.. Well anyway, yeah the main point currently is the freedom thing but there’s more to it than that.
A cool thing is the Ugo is not just some power for Aladdin to fight with, he’s an important character himself.
Maybe he just used his own magoi as he had to keep Aladdin’s wish to be his friend. I don’t know how it works this thing about fulfilling wishes and well, he’s a djinn.
Judal got too overconfident in the end, he only need to flee the place but instead got what he was looking for.
I think you covered what I thought was awesome about this ep, Ugo transforming from part of Aladdin to his own individual character. I’m not sure him going berserk is ’cause of Judal hurting Aladdin, or a personal grudge towards Judal, I felt it was the latter during the ep, but I suppose I will only know sometime later. Either way, it’s rage, powerful directed rage, conveyed through nothing but his body and actions (since we can’t see his face), and it was AWESOME.
@rachnid yes you will know what happend to ugo more later
One thing. Aladdin doesn’t know magic, confirmed from this episode.
But a few episodes ago he casted Harharl Infigar…
???
He recognized the magic, he just didn’t know that that was what it was called. At least that’s what it seemed like to me.
There’s an explanation why later.