Magi – 05

I see that it’s a bit of a challenge for this series to balance out its morals and stories. What I mean by that is the following: the past episodes focused all on this community of ordinary people who are about to be annexed, and a lot of focus was put into not fighting, resulting even in the death of the village elder as she tried to promote her ideas. Those ideas got through, the villagers decided to abandon fighting… only for the main characters to pick up their arms instead and slaughter the enemy nevertheless. Screw negotiations.

It’s obvious why they did it of course: the villain in this episode could not be talked out of his plans, but still: this set-up does deminish the storlyline for the tribe a bit: these two stories next to each other don’t really strengthen each other. Yet, this is still much better than Sword Art Online, which doesn’t even seem to care about its unimportant characters. Magi definitely does care about them, and that care definitely made it through in this episode.

Also, this arc seemed to be for Aladdin to realize what his purpose is, and to meet other kinds of genies and magi that also were there to select kings. I’m definitely feeling the grandeur of this setting with this, and this episoe showed that there is so much more to this setting than what has been shown so far. And really: I like the village elder a lot more than I thought I would. Because of that, her realization of what Aladdin is at the end of this episode made all the more impact.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Magi – 04

Keeping with the theme of not getting the main party together early, this episode told two different stories: one about Ali Baba and what happened to him, and one about Aladdin and a tribe he runs into.

I remember how a lot of adventure series troll their characters with treasure: every time they look like they’re close to getting vast riches… some deus ex machina comes along and makes them lose everything. Supposedly because they need to remain underdogs or something. Because of that I like how Ali Baba put his treasure to some actual good use. And at the same time it’s a very good reason for the pink haired girl to join him.

Aladdin meanwhile got lost in some local power struggle. This episode was meant to show that there is much more to this world than what was shown in the first three episodes, and that a lot of people in power can be big assholes. I like the politics, and this also seemed to show that “Love and peace” will be big themes for this series. Let’s see whether it can add something new to this mix.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Magi – 03

This episode closes off the introduction arc of Magi, and it was actually surprisingly good here. Nothing deep or anything, but in terms of adventure it was rock-solid with many references to the Arabic legends, a lot of creativity and surprisingly solid characters. The adventure part is what I like most about Magi, though: this episode again showed the characters travel from one scene to the other, every single one of them having a ton of creativity.

Most of all this episode also added background of royalty: Magi being the one to select a king is a great back-story and makes this more than a random dungeon crawler, with that bad guy living his entire life for meeting him. In one episode this episode hinted at the pasts for all of its major characters.

I also like that this show is in no hurry to get its main cast together. I mean, it’s obvious that the purple haired girl will end up joining the lead cast, and this episode provided even more hints for this, but we’re three episodes in and they’re still not a team. That’s quite rare for an adventure series (I mean I like the genre and all, but I’m also very annoyed by some of the overused clichés that bog them down).
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Magi – 02

As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– I still remain that I can’t blog Gintama. Even though I find it really hilarious again, I don’t think I can write about it every single week.
– Btooom had the bad luck to air this season, right next to Psycho Pass and Jojo’s Bizarre adventure it just feels inferior. I however like it and will keep watching, especially with how well they handled the female lead in the second episode.
– Sukitte Ii Na Yo: finally a show that’s about an actual relationship again, plus bonus points of having side characters who are also in a relationship. Still, it’s pretty much smut and not going to be interesting to write about every week.

As for Magi… I try to hide this sometimes, but really: I’m just a sucker for a good adventure hsow. This show can be quite silly at times, but it’s great to see an adventure show based on the tales from 1001 nights. It’s a great setting and we hardly ever see any series with Arabia as a background.

And yeah, that pretty much means that I’ll be blogging four shows of A-1 Pictures at the same time. They just completely dominate this season, and even though their best shows are From the New World and Space Brothers, there still is a lot to like in Magi. This episode had some neat graphics and a lot of interesting animation. Again, they’re not as god as with From the New World and they lack the freedom of that show, but this show instead has consistency behind it. Being the series on the Prime Time slot for anime, this is to be expected to remain consistent.

It’s also great to see that the silliness was a lot more enjoyable to watch in this episode. The bad boob jokes are gone and it actually contributed to making this a fun and whimsical series, with the highlight being Ali Baba fooling everyone about the ancient inscriptions he read out loud. The stereotypically evil slave drivers can be a bit better characterized though. I especially wonder how that big guy can still walk around after being repeatedly stabbed in the chest so much.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

Some Quick First Impressions: Magi, Code: Breaker and Bakuman 3

Magi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character likes boobs.
So this is going to be the new series to occupy the prime time slot of anime: Sunday at 17:00. It’s a tricky time-slot: you can get access to a lot of viewers, but this also resulted in Ayakashi Ayashi being cancelled halfway through due to disappointing rates. For that, Magi has come up with a solution to make people talk about it: boobs. It’s a shame, because people will now remember this show as that show with the really bad boob jokes, rather than remember this for what it is: a Japanese take on Arabic folklore. The animation near the end also was pretty damn good and this episode had a pretty exciting conclusion, but the comic relief on the other hand was just BAD and felt really out of place. It still works somehow though and this episode had a lot of interesting stuff amidst the stuff that makes you facepalm, to the point where I’m willing to see where this one is going.
OP: Couldn’t you really have come up with a better song? I mean, you’re in Arabia for god’s sake. Make use of that opportunity to show some influences there!
ED: Same here: why go for J-pop if using classic Arabian instruments will make it stand out much more?
Potential: 75%

Code: Breaker

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious transfer student.
This opening episode was slightly different from usual. The standard for these kinds of episodes is to be all ove the top and throw in a lot of action. Not here: this episode was more dedicated to show that this series knows its build-up. Most of this episode was quiet, right until the end, where it delivered a number of very solid and intense scenes. That pay-off rocked. The rest though… needs work. The problem with this series is that it tries to be funny by using overused and forced romantic cliches. The entire school aside from the lead couple was very annoying to watch in the way they deitified that main couple, and how they just kept going with it. Still, this feels like a problem that with time will become less significant. This show at least had solid acting for the lead couple, and as long as the school setting will play a very minor role in the rest of the episode, it should be fine.
OP: A bit cheesy, but works as the opening for an action series like this.
ED: This one had a lot of overused j-rock cliches, plus the visuals were mostly just a boring slide-show.
Potential: 80%

Bakuman 3

Short Synopsis: Our lead character writes manga.
Well, I can be very short about this: I’m not going to continue watching Bakuman. Of course it’s interesting to watch a bunch of manga authors work together, but with three seasons, it’s just way too long. This episode reaffirms that I’m just going to waste my time if I want to keep up with this, because it wasn’t about creating mangas, but again focused on these soap opera plot twists that have really gotten old at this point. I guess it was a nice idea for the lead couple to have such an idealistic view on becoming a manga artist and voice actress respectively, but I feel like I’m getting beaten ove the head by all this. That’s why I just couldn’t continue with this show, even though I managed to finish Phi Brain: at least that one knew where its strengths lied and delivered upon that. Bakuman really would have made an amazing anime if they went with a story that fits in 26 episodes. This just goes on for waaaay too long.
OP: Granted, this was the best OP for Bakuman so far.
ED: This is just cheesy J-pop
Potential: 60%