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Magic Fighter Riui
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Title Info
- alias: Mahou Senshi Riui
- seen: 1-3
- type: TV
- grade: watchable
- source: digital fansub
- form: sub
- Series state: Can't find any more to watch.
- made: unknown
- Review created: Mon Jun 18 10:26:51 EST 2001
- mod: none
Welcome once again to the land of Faux-fantasy. It's got a modern air about it, is full of obvious rpg'isms and has some fairly outrageous characters. On the other hand, this sort of thing can be a whole lot of fun, and this show has some promise.
Synopsis
The city of Orphan is a bustling medieval inspired fantasy location full of many normal people and a fair few definitely non-normal people. And amongst these are adventurers, people brave enough to try, and skilled enough to survive, exploring the wilderness for treasure and reward. In particular we get to meet a party of three female adventurers. One has the build of a man, a big sword and an air of menace and is clearly a warrior. One, blond-haired and carrying a hammer, seems full of faith and magic and is clearly the priestess of some god. The final is small, energetic and can suddenly be carrying a handful of daggers and a mischievous grin, clearly a clever rogue type.
However what they don't have is a sorcerer, and it's confounding their most recent attempt to find treasure. Thus they seek to recruit one, although had they known they'd end up meeting Riui they probably would never have tried. While the son of the greatest sorcerer in the land his casual attitude to his studies and ability to get carried away make him dangerous to be around. Unfortunately he loves the idea of being an adventurer. The team are unsure, whether to ignore him or kill him, which leads to an explosive confrontation on a temple rooftop. Unfortunately at the same time the priestess is calling on the gods to identify the hero she should follow and serve (in all ways) when guess who should drop through the ceiling? It looks like the group and Riui will not be parting ways so easily.
Review
Now one thing that quickly needs to be said is that the writing, and character work, is a little bit more clever than you might expect. And the three females are not the type to be pushed around. Thus Riui finds himself the most junior member of the team, if he counts as a member at all, and is expected to prove himself worthy of something. At the same time Riui himself seems to have potential, and can be quite clever and focused. So while it is a comedy, it's not a silly comedy, with much of the humor being pleasantly complex.
The team are good, both in appearance and in giving a sense of character, even if they are a touch familiar. The thief character has a touch of sensitivity and even vulnerability about her. The priestess is intelligent but sometimes troubled by the complexity of actually understanding the intent of the gods she follows. While the female warrior gives a wonderful sense of brooding power and confidence mixed with a deep loyalty to her friends. She's also got a build that looks like a female warrior, although she seems to have the familiar aversion to armor. There's also a number of support characters, including a very interesting sorceress female, who have a surprisingly complex interaction with the story.
The power level, currently, is low and the stories have a rich sense of normality to them. Magic exists but it's not that common, monsters exist but they're not all powerful, and such things as food, equipment and planning are important enough to be considered. Heck, we even get to see Riui and the warrior doing some training. Personally I love this sort of stuff, where the focus can be on the characters without some universe shaking threat being forced upon them. Now I've little doubt that something will develop, and that there are some nice secrets being saved for later, but I hope the show can maintain this sense of balance and depth.
The animation itself is clearly modern with some signs of computer assistance and also modern character designs. The computer assistance is most obvious for spells, some special effects and also some of the motion sequences, and within this context it seems to work quite well. The world seems quite interesting with some sign of originality and some nice `incidental' locations. The music is good, although a touch strange for a fantasy series and there's quite a discontinuity between the opener and closer. Voices are good and varied and some of the dialog is rather nice. I'll be waiting to see more of this and find out if it can build upon this positive start.
Other Reviews
At the current time none of my regular sources have a review for this title.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:21 WST 2009