Magical Warfare

Summary: >

Takeshi's life took a strange turn after meeting a girl named Mui, who reveals she's a magician. If normal people witness magic, they must join a magic academy, or have their memories wiped. Takeshi's seizes the chance to get away from his unhappy home life, and joins the academy. Two of his close friends become involved, and now study magic too.

They are taken to the "ruined world", a mirror of Tokyo but in a state of desolation. Many mage factions fight in this world, but the one Takeshi just joined may not be what he believes it to be.

Thoughts: >

Magical Warfare is like a 1990s show with ordinary high school students are cast into a land of sorcery while gaining magical abilities. It cuts out most of the boring stuff, which should make this more successful than it is. I didn't see any problems until later episodes but thinking back now, it has more than I realized. This anime has a few good points, but is headed in a bad direction. And that assumes another season is made to finish the story.

The story has a strange accelerated flow. It's like the parts shown are highlights, then it skips forward a month or two later. It doesn't dwell on frivolous details which I liked, however it also skips details which aren't so frivolous. From the introduction of the very cool alternate "ruined world" idea, I eagerly awaited details but everything felt half explained - especially the magic system. It infers talents are specific, but some people have a whole range of abilities while others don't. Magic users have an item allowing focus of their magic. In Takeshi's case this is a sword which can fire magical bullets, but I can't puzzle out why that's actually useful due to the absurd buildup required to use (and I think limited to 3 shots). The sword can manifest itself as a girl, even though no other magic focus does this. This kind of stuff wore me down the farther along the anime got. There's too much random and inconsistent stuff inserted without justification. No specific thing is a deal breaker, it's a combination of things.

Another annoying issue is nearly everyone being worthless. (Exempting the school principal). This is most evident with Mui: the girl who starts it all by a chain of screw ups, then spends the rest of the anime failing at everything so Takeshi can pat her on the head whenever she has tears in her eyes. I liked Takeshi's friend with the carefree attitude and (Kansai) accent, but I don't think he he ever successfully uses fire without it blowing up in his face for the entire show. I can't say Kurumi fails at magic because this anime is so vague about her ability, but she never helps in any situation. Takeshi himself mostly gets his ass kicked.

Although the characters are weak, relationships between them have potential - particularly in the love triangle. Takeshi is protective of Kurumi, who feels more than friendship towards him. Takeshi and Mui are drawn to each other but can't admit it (for whatever reason). Unfortunately this situation continues for the entire duration with everyone stuck in limbo, and it gets rather old.

The story appears to progress well, even with the weird flow and random stuff inserted. Then everything collapses with the introduction of Takeshi's brother - a psychotic evil guy which makes it hard to take this show seriously, and it goes downhill fast from there. The last episode opens up a back story which could yield some very cool material. However the genie is out of the bottle with Takeshi's brother. It's not like the show will get rid of him since he's the main antagonist, so he's destined to make the rest an eye rolling experience.

I didn't hate Magical Warfare even if it didn't fare well. I liked the brisk pace, but too many corners were cut with explanations and storytelling. More importantly, this anime has too much inserted that doesn't need to be there. The story is only half told, with the outlook for rest (assuming it happens) going in a bad direction, so I'd skip this one entirely.

Screen Caps: >