Anime Meta-Review
Mahou Tsukai Tai, TV Episodes
Index's
Home
Alphabetic
Quality
Genre
People
Recent
By Date
Title Info
- seen: 1-8 of 13
- type: TV
- grade: watchable
- Other elements of this title:
- This title is a sequel that extends a previous series.
- made: unknown
- Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
- mod: none
A shadowy gang controls the worlds supply of magic, and their power knows no limits. Surely world domination is the next logical step? Well, not really, because this is the high school magic club and their problems are of a slightly less epic nature. One of those problems is their magic, it's more than a little erratic. In addition the 5 members of the group are more than a little unusual. Thus this series is a combination of high school drama, comedy and an always present under-current of magic to liven things up. We follow Sae, insecure (with good reason) and through her the events that occupy the members of the magic users club.
The other part of the story is that this is the TV continuation of the popular OAV which had the magic using club existing in a world under indirect threat from an immense alien mothership. Thus it had drama, charming comedy and moments of danger and backstory to tie it all together. While the original was on the light and charming end of the anime spectrum this material, without a strong background story, is even further out. It is really light-weight. You'll probably only enjoy it if you have seen the original (since the characters are not really re-introduced) and like it. Since it definitely has the feeling of an `encore' performance. This is enhanced by the writing, both in story and dialogue, being much reduced from the OAV. This leads to a loss of subtlety and some very silly episodes which reduces the charm and atmosphere the original contained. At the same time the characters are less complex than the originals. It is still watchable, and enjoyable, but I don't know if you'll be able to enjoy it without knowing the original. In which case you might also find the original to be considerably stronger. Being episodic some of the stories are better than others, but as a whole it remains something of a disappointment.
This can also be seen in the animation. Admittedly it is not un-expected with an OAV to TV transition. The style tries to be similar, and at its best it is not too far off, but it can't maintain that quality. This is most noticeable when in `comic' mode, and makes some of the characters (especially the two males) less believable and interesting. In addition there is some use of really obvious computer transition effects and backgrounds which look terrible, although the subtle computer enhancement on `spells' works quite well. In effect this is average to good TV quality animation with some unusual style elements inherited from the OAV. The voices are good, but not used that well by the dialogue (aburatsubo fans will be very disappointed). The opening and closing music is strange, starts well but manages to degrade even in the short time it has.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:21 WST 2009