Magia Record Anime Review – 65/100

(Little side note: Not meant to start a civil war between us writers but I’m a firm follower of 60 being a line that separates recommendable to mediocre shows. You pass your subjects if you get over 60%, right? Review-aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritics also use 60 as their middle line. So 65/100 means it’s slightly above average) 

Magia Record has a huge hurdle to clear: being a spin-off of one of the most talk-about anime in the last 10 years. This new adaptation doesn’t have the original writer Gen Urobuchi on board, but the background duo of the original Gekidan Inu Curry helm the project with Shaft returning to produce it. The result is a good indication of this transition and of the fact that Magia Record is based on a gacha game. Magia Record has some stunning art designs that fit its dark themes like a T and Shaft does a pretty decent job in terms of visual directing, soundtracking and shot composing, but the show suffers from its lack of focus to the main story, and introduces far too many characters that aren’t well developed. Magia Record uses the settings set by the original quite consistently, with some brand new updated concepts such as uwasa (manifestations of actual rumors) and doppel (materialization of despair from the magical girls), but as the story progresses it feels as if Iroha the main character wanders around for side quests rather than her main quest of finding lost sister Ui whom she has no memory of, as a result Magia Record feels hollow, superfluous and incomplete.

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Magia Record – 13 [A Faint Hope]

And so Magia Record ends –  at least for now since the second season is confirmed – on a sad note. Not only am I disappointed (but not too surprised) about how unresolved everything is, but also this finale does a sloppy job to expand the big reveal last week. So we learned last week about the Doppel as a way to prevent Magical Girls from becoming a Witch, but this week Doppel serves as a weapon to boost the girls’ attack power and suddenly our girls can control the ability at will (Yachiyo with her casual remark: “oh by the way, I know how to use Doppel as well” – Hello, we are not in Yugioh universe). Yachiyo also serves as another source of disappointment, as the way she reacts is pretty inconsistent (“I don’t consider you girls as friends” in the previous episode and then “I decide to disband the team” now – what “team” exactly?). Her flashback is likewise inconsistent as well. Her wish is “to survive”, but what does it have any connection to her being a leader of an idol group?

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Magia Record – 10-12

Welcome back to the mega post of Magia Record. After the stellar episode that was episode 9, the following three have been… unremarkable to me. There are some neat individual moments, mostly due to how well the direction is, but as a whole Magia Record introduces too many characters that it’s hard to keep up at times, while at the same times, the central mystery regarding finding Ui still yet to make any significant progress. With this amount of unresolved mysteries left, I really am in doubt that the finale next week is going to cover them all. That would mean with this pacing there’s a chance that there will be a second cour to wrap things up, but if that’s the case I’m not too interested to follow its second half.

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Magia Record – 09 [A World With Just Me]

Magia Record has been hit and miss so far, but I’m happy to say that the latest episode was pretty solid. In fact, it’s my second favorite episode from the show (the premiere still reigns). Magia  Record’s tackle on loneliness and the bond between this girl Sana and the Artificial Intelligence Ai are handled with nuance and its emotionally powerful. Considering how we barely know any of them prior to this episode, I can say the show did a pretty good job that I legitimately care about them as the credit rolls.

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Magia Record – 07/08 [I Want to Go Home With You/ You Definitely Shouldn’t Respond]

Such a shame for a show that has one of the most impressive productions of the season such as Magia Record that its story can’t match up. Magia Record’s story has one fundamental issue: it’s currently a show where the main protagonists are in search for the plot. That’s why the show feels meandering at times, and its game mechanics are more relevant than ever with new quest/ new rumors. The worst part of it all is how the main storyline of Iroha looking for her lost sister Ui is repeatedly put into sideline, with each mystery case doesn’t have any direct connection to it. I, in particular, was waiting for some dreadful things to happen to Iroha when the luck countdown reaches zero, turns out though that nothing really happens at all. Throw in the already-confusing mix, we have the cult group Wing of Magius with questionable motive and even more questionable activity, Kyouko (one of my favorite characters in the original) randomly shows up and leaves as much impact as a mosquito bite.

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Magia Record – 05/06 [There’s No Place for You Here/ I’ll Do Anything]

At this point, Magia Record’s mobile game root becomes more and more apparent, as we encounter brand new characters with brand new rumors. Episode 5 closes off the Shrine Wish arc to a decent effect, with many intriguing ideas along the lines. Iroha and the after credit scene reveal that our little magical girls can transform into something dangerous. It becomes more apparent to me that these girls are the cause of these mysteries around Kamihama city. And maybe, like the original series, it speaks the core ugly truth about our magical girls: they can never grow up. As long as they have to fight these witches in ongoing battles, is there time for them to grow up to be an adult at all? 

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Magia Record – 04 [This Isn’t the Past]

I can certainly see the game mechanics in new episode: a whole new cast, a new rumor/ mystery, with Iroha’s quest to find Ui as a central plot. This is not a bad episode by any means, but I feel largely indifferent when the EP rolls. To Magia Record credits, the visual Shaft displays this week is a stunner. Magia Record looks on par with Madoka Magica, and this week the visual is benefited from the gorgeous art designs of last minute event. The story, however, is not as neat. While I really like the rumor behind it – the “Seance Shrine” can grant you the wish of meeting your lost one – and how it ties up with another urban legend of a woman who does everything to bring her dead husband back, it’s the new set of characters who doesn’t appear as memorable and the plot does meander at times. I’m talking about Yachiyo suddenly goes shopping in the middle of the quest and somehow that advances the story?

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Magia Record – 02/03 [It’s Proof of the End of a Friendship/ Sorry For Making You My Friend]

Magia Record sure has a pretty big hurdle to pass: for everything it does there will be a comparison to its original – which for me is both fair and unfair at the same time. Every product should be judged on its own merits, but Magia Record gains its attention for being a Madoka’s spinoff (or else no one would be willing to watch it), so that it’s a show’s responsibility to justify why it needs to be here in the first place. As far as the first three episodes concern, they (mostly) manage to stand on its own terms. It keeps the spirits of the original – the sense of there is something wrong in this world is clear, and several mysteries remain in support for that uneasy feeling. What is the deal with this Kamihama city, for example? The magical girls there are more powerful than the rest, the witches don’t have Greed seed (which implies that they might not be witches in the first place), and Kyubei can’t enter the area. Then we have the mystery regarding Iroha’s little sister Ui, as she dreams of her sisters’ best friends while she was living in the hospital. What did she wish for that single handedly wipe out Ui’s existence from everyone’s memory, Kyubei included? I’m sure that wish is not for the faint of heart.

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