Anime – Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic [BD]

Anime Jun 6, 2020

Overview:

Tried to like this anime but just couldn’t. Starts out interesting with how the world is set up. There are several towers and labyrinths around the world erected for people to voyage to and conquer if they are able. Several try and fail, towns and cities are commonplace around these labyrinths due to the latent ability they have of attracting various people to them.

Our main boi Alibaba of course starts out and appears to be a nothing… well debatable if that changes much but he does change throughout, albeit with severe ptsd as the means for why it’s debatable. The ptsd he has though, there is no sense of sympathy or sorrow, the show tries to force emotions on this character but really, they give him no real depth or connection to care for him. He is poorly designed imo and used as more of an excuse for the plot than anything. Could have been swapped for an animal such as a doggo and feelings and emotional connection would’ve been probably stronger.

Throughout there are heavy vibes of Fairy Tail Second season onward… meaning there is no sense of tension and lot of setups and environments that are put forth to make the viewer at first be intrigued but severely fall short and shy as the arc progresses.

A slight spoiler is in the final fight one of the characters is severely injured to the point of near death and is clearly stated that without proper treatment ASAP she will die. Oh, wait did we say that? Ya lets backtrack and now she is just perfectly dandy able to fight and stand on her own while comboing off another character… even though she was completely knocked like tf is this? Same arc the main protag is clearly told if he uses any sort of magic he gon be fucked but nah the moment he leaves all the way up until his transformation plot twist bs he was heavily using magic with no consequence and they failed to explain how that was possible as well. Several of these instances where they contradict what was clearly stated a few minutes before are done all for the sake of `Ayyy that would be cool to see` instead of wanting to show and craft an interesting fight sequence or scene with any sort of true depth but lets give the illusion there is.

Near all fights boil down to no strategy or interesting fight sequence, it’s a `hey I don’t like you or you don’t like me haha lets fight but not really since plot`. Started out decent but got worse as it progressed. Even Blue Exorcist S1 with its flaws was able to pull off better fights. Honestly though I should have known not to expect much from an A-1 production, they never fail to disappoint. ~~yes they have done some phenomenal work but majority are just sad to say the least~~

Visuals/Music:

Visuals are decent. Considering it was released back in 2012, the color pallet used and style was good enough but doesn’t hold up the best, its on par with a lot of budget hentai. Its nice though, probably being a lot more critical of it since I was not enjoying the show much. Attacks background and weapons are more than good enough and hold their own, overall is average.

*sigh* is all I can really say about the music as it was done by one of my favorite composers, Shiro Sagisu. He does some of the best OST’s out there, both him and Hiroyuki Sawano make some of the best tracks around. Sadly, the OST’s that were provided and used were not used to a varied extent. The way they placed them, it felt like there was only about 5 instead of a varied amount. Fell short of how it could’ve been. There should have been more than just a handful at disposal. Poor execution on the studios part as far as I can tell. Still the OST’s that are used, can’t argue they are damn good. Toss them on in the background and it’ll be a blissful moment for the most part lol. Due to the way they were used though, its nowhere near excellent or perfect. Black Bullet, Bleach, eva and berserk to name some are done by Shiro and with those series the way the OST’s are used and placed is leagues above. Not as much criticism against the tracks since they do the job as intended but the studio falls short in execution… again, like the rest of the show, but it is A-1.

Final Thoughts:

Overview section sort of intertwined more with final thoughts than usual but meh, can’t bring myself to care enough about this show. I do not recommend this show to anybody except those that are new to anime or are severely bored. Those who do watch, turn any sense of thought off as if you don’t the disappointment as they say will be immeasurable and the day will be ruined. Can only really hope that the rest will turn it around like Blue Exorcist did but keeping expectations low to better cope with what’s to come lol.

Characters (main) – 2/5

Characters (sub) – 2/5

Enjoyment – 2/5

Visuals – 3/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 3/5