Reviews for Magical Warfare

A cool thing about the internet is that it has allowed everyone to become a content creator. While access to mass media and print publication was once closed off to all but society’s most privileged, we now live in an age where anyone with an Internet connection has access to an audience of literally millions. This seems like a weird way to open a review for a show that was broadcast on four different Japanese TV channels, licensed by Sentai Filmworks for a North American Blu-Ray release, based on an ongoing series of light novels with 8 volumes in print as of this writing aswell as a manga adaptation in Monthly Comic Gene magazine, so let me tie them together: Mahou Sensou reads like somebody’s DeviantArt fanfiction.

I’m not saying that free digital publication is a bad thing—it’s given us some of the greatest contemporary works of art and literature—but I AM saying that unskilled, unrefined content creators are published right alongside the hidden geniuses, and Mahou Sensou has a lot more of the former than the latter. If you’ve ever been on DeviantArt (and if you’re on an anime website, it’s a pretty good bet that you have), you know exactly what I mean. The show’s very title is a microcosm of itself, and represents about as much effort as is present in the rest of the show. “Mahou Sensou” probably sounds like it’s something pretty cool, if you don’t know any Japanese, but it’s the blandest, most basic title imaginable. There’s wars! And they’re fought with magic! MAGIC WARS. That is so cool, if you are twelve. It sounds less like fantasy-action series and more like a specialty Lego playset, except the Legos encourage imagination and creativity and can be enjoyed by all ages.

Mahou Sensou opens with a foreboding, post-apocalyptic urban landscape and some dramatic conflict between two siblings. It then immediately cuts to a more mundane setting with a similar inter-family conflict featuring our hero, ordinary high school boy™ Takeshi Nanase. I could say that the parallel of these scenes and characters is deliberate, but I get the feeling I’d be giving the author far too much credit. In any case, it is summer break, but Takeshi is off to school anyway to escape the immense pressure of his home life, which seems to consist of his brother and mother staring at him silently while all the lights are turned off. At school Takeshi runs into his doting childhood friend™ and pretend girlfriend Kurumi Isoshimi (the circumstances of their relationship are explained later, and are as convoluted as you’d expect them to be, so I won’t get into the details—if I examined every plot hole this review would never end). Shortly after Takeshi meets a mysterious otherworldly girl who falls from the sky™, Mui Aiba, and she drags him into her ongoing conflict with four equally mysterious and otherworldly assailants. Also Takeshi’s cool friend™ Kazumi Ida shows up, I guess because we need an even four protagonists? The provided reason is he’s there for remedial classes, but again, there’s nobody around but Main Character, Girlfriend, and the mysterious otherworldly folks. We’re not even halfway into the first episode and this already feels less like a television-ready product and more like a clumsy first draft. Not even a first draft. More like a bullet-point list of story notes.

Well, anyway, the long story short is that MC, Girlfriend, and Cool Guy all get dragged into magical combat (perhaps you would even say…a war?? A magic war, perhaps????), and by the rules of this universe, being exposed to magic makes you a magician. There’s several different rigidly-defined, mutually exclusive classes of magic, each of which is carefully explained in detail both by the Mysterious Assailants and other characters through unnecessary expositive dialogue over this episode and the next, and whichever one you get to use is apparently random. One of the assailants shoots magic bees and, shortly thereafter, nonlethally explodes. The explanation given (again, through expositive dialogue) is thus:

1.A long time ago there was a big MAGIC WAR. To spare the non-magicians from getting caught in the MAGIC CROSSFIRE, a group of MAGICIANS using MAGIC split the world in two.

2.There are two worlds, the “living world” and the “ruined world”, and the ruined world is where the MAGIC WARS continue to this day.

3.The Ghost Trailers—the bad guys—want to keep doing MAGIC WARS in the real world (I think? It’s been three months and I watched 32 shows. Go easy on me.), but the good guys—Wizard Brace—want to protect non-magicians.

4.Wizard Brace cast a spell called “the gift”, by which if you use MAGIC to do MAGIC WARS in the living world, you nonlethally explode and you can’t do MAGIC any more.

The point of exposition is to answer questions, but all this does is raise them. If you can’t do MAGIC WARS in the living world, and you become a magician by being exposed to MAGIC, where do magicians even come from? Is a propensity for magic genetic? Clearly not, since (spoiler alert) Takeshi’s mother is a highly skilled magician, and Takeshi has no skill until after Mui converts him. And furthermore, how was he converted in the first place? Mui shoots MAGIC from her MAGIC GUN at least twice, and the mysterious assailants, while also wielding more mundane, non-magical weapons such as Great Big Anime Swords, also use magic attacks with absolutely no ill effects up until MAGIC BEES gets penalized for it. And if Wizard Brace wants to keep non-magicians away from the MAGIC WARS, what was Mui doing in the living world in the first place? It would be one thing if she was pursuing the Ghost Trailers to stop them from doing their EVIL MAGIC, but they were chasing her. We’re barely two episodes in and the show is already a clusterfuck.

I’ve already given the plot synopsis three paragraphs and a numbered list, which is probably more than the author gave it, so I’ll sum up the rest quick. When the battle ends Mui takes Takeshi and friends—all of whom have been converted into magicians—to the “ruined world”. They are given the choice between being sent back to the living world with their memories of the past several hours wiped, or to move to the ruined world—leaving their lives, friends and families behind—and enroll in MAGIC SCHOOL to become soldiers in a MAGIC ARMY to fight MAGIC WARS. All three of them agree to this with literally less than a minute of deliberation. Okay, so we’ve established Takeshi is an angsty little whelp who doesn’t like his home life, but what about the other two? We even learn later on in the show that Kazumi is the sole caretaker of his younger sister. (She also becomes a magician, because Kazumi blows up their apartment, with magic. He doesn’t get Gifted for it though.) None of these kids think twice about leaving behind their real-world obligations to do MAGIC in MAGIC WORLD, and after the second episode they practically never look back.

I’ve spent more words on the story than it deserves, and I haven’t even gotten into the deepest plot holes or the most trodden clichés like Takeshi’s Big Magic Anime Sword or how the Magic School actually works or Takeshi’s family drama or, as previously mentioned, his fake relationship with Kurumi. And I’ll avoid going into much further detail, but it’s worth mentioning that Mahou Sensou literally ends on a cliffhanger. Things appear to be wrapping up in the penultimate episode, but the finale dumps a ton of unbidden plot twists on the audience out of nowhere and then ends abruptly without resolving any of them. Which is especially bold, considering how even these twists fail to make me interested in seeing the plot actually get resolved.

There’s so much more to talk about. Let’s talk about the animation. Let’s talk about how Madhouse is the living contradiction of simultaneously being perhaps the best and worst animation studio in Japan. Madhouse did Monster, Nana, Dennou Coil and Kaiba, but it also did Chaos;Head, Photo Kano and this. Madhouse shows are either a brilliant, innovative feast for the eyes or they are garbage, and nothing in between. You can see traces of brilliance, like a good animator walked into the wrong room: the ending sequence is interestingly directed and fluidly animated, with excellent use of colour and composition that isn’t to be found anywhere else in the show. The director of Mahou Sensou is about as well-read on film as its author is on story structure. Every shot of Mahou Sensou, besides the aforementioned ending sequence, is boring at best and obscure and difficult to look at at worst. The colours are flat, desaturated and depressing—it could be an attempt to create atmosphere if not for the fact that literally every shot is like this, even when the show forays unsuccessfully into light-hearted rom-com. The animation itself is…not good. Frame count is low, characters are frequently off model, and it often seems as if the animators are trying to restrict movement to conserve the budget.

So if not to the animation, where is the budget going? The voice cast’s salaries, most likely. The casting choices for Mahou Sensou are bizarre, to say the least. It’s a late-night anime with lots of cute, moe girls who adorn the covers of the original light novels, but most of these girls are brought to life by B-list seiyuus with limited résumés. They’re not bad, per se, but they’re not very good, either. Of course, you could say; Mahou Sensou is hardly an A-list show, so it’s not like they’ve got the budget for A-list voices…until you take a look at the cast of the male characters. Mamoru Miyano! Kenichi Suzumura! Toshiyuki Morikawa! Jun Fukuyama! Truly, the night was dark, for all the stars were in Mahou Sensou. When I heard Miyano’s voice uttering some of the first lines of the show I couldn’t believe it. He’s got some of the most recognizable pipes in the industry, but I had to double-check to make sure it was him. Takeshi is the blandest, flattest, most forgettable male lead in recent memory, in a show that is for all intents and purposes marketed towards straight men. His lines could have been delivered by a carefully-trained parrot and the show wouldn’t be any worse for it. Why shell out the cash for Miyano? It’s not like he really brings his skills to the show, by the way. Miyano in Mahou Sensou is not Tamaki Suou or Light Yagami or Rin Matsuoka. He’s…really not very good at all. I know he’s got more talent than he expends here, so he’s either giving exactly as much effort as Mahou Sensou deserves or the show’s voice director is sleeping on the job. The same goes for just about everyone else—Suzumura’s affected Osaka-ben is grating and Morikawa sounds completely uninterested in anything at any time. Jun Fukuyama actually delivers a totally competent and acceptable performance, but he’s not in the show much.

The show’s soundtrack is where it truly shines, in that it is thoroughly average instead of being subpar or outright bad. The opening theme by FictionJunction veteran Yuuka Nanri is a generic chamber-pop number—her vocal work is certainly impressive, but the song lacks anything to keep it from being just another fantasy anime theme. On the other hand, the ending theme is quite good. Nano is one of a wave of utaites-turned-major label artists that have emerged in the past several years and, like many of their fellows, brings a breath of fresh air to the previously stale and stagnant anisong industry. “Born to be”, Nano’s contribution to Mahou Sensou, is catchy and powerful, with a meaty bassline and just enough pop in its pop-punk to avoid giving the impression that it’s taking itself too seriously. The song features lyrics in both English and Japanese, and as an American expat Nano’s pronunciation is flawless (not that I’d fault them if it wasn’t, because English is fucking hard). The lyrics, while technically grammatically correct, are corny as hell, but it’s not like anyone goes into anime music expecting Sufjan Stevens, so it’s totally forgivable.

In addition, Nano’s vocals are featured on a few tracks by series composer Masato Kouda. Kouda is already an accomplished composer, known for his work on Devil May Cry and Monster Hunter, but Mahou Sensou was my first exposure to his work. It’s not bad; one or two really good tracks, a few really bad ones, but mostly in-betweeners. Worth mentioning is “NEW WORLD” (which might not have actually been in the anime proper—it’s labelled on the tracklist as “soundtrack version”, but it’s worth listening to regardless). It moves seamlessly between uplifting orchestral instrumentals, to Nano rapping in English over an electronic beat with piano accompaniment, to a bouncy disco string section. It’s less than two minutes long, but it’s a great track—too good to be stuck in Mahou Sensou, probably.

All that having been said (and if you did read all of it: thanks!), I’m about to say something that might blow your mind. It’s true that Mahou Sensou is objectively and subjectively of poor quality; amateurishly written, amateurishly animated, amateurishly executed in every way. And I would not say that it’s “so bad it’s good”, or that I really gained any enjoyment out of watching it at all or that my life was enriched by having experienced it in any way.

But I would like to see more bad anime like Mahou Sensou.

Let me clarify: in a perfect world, I would not like to see anything of Mahou Sensou’s quality at all. I don’t want to see more bad anime, but when you watch as many silly Japanese cartoons as I do, you get exposed to a lot of shit just by the fact of Sturgeon’s law. But I would rather watch Mahou Sensou a dozen times than sit through Wizard Barristers one more time. I would rather watch Mahou Sensou a hundred times than sit through even one episode of ImoCho.

Mahou Sensou is bad, but it didn’t make me angry. I did a lot of rolling my eyes and laughing out loud in disbelief at how utterly cliché and ridiculous everything was, and I often wondered how the show could have such little self-awareness, but never—not once—did I feel genuine malice towards anyone involved. Mahou Sensou did not offend me, and although I’m certainly none the richer for having experienced it, I don’t feel much poorer either. For as long as there are nerds, there’s going to be anime, and as long as there’s anime, a lot of it will be shit—but I want more of the shitty anime to start taking a page out of Mahou Sensou’s book. It’s bad, but it’s somehow cute, in that I get the feeling that it’s written by someone who is very young, or at least inexperienced. Whoever wrote Mahou Sensou has very little knowledge of literary structure, conflict, storytelling, or even how the real world or real people work. No one in Mahou Sensou is a real person, they are a walking list of tropes, recycled and regurgitated from a thousand anime characters before them. Things happen in Mahou Sensou not to progress the story or the characters, but because they are cool, or they are well-trodden anime clichés. It’s bad, but for some reason I want to pin it up on the fridge.

I’m not saying it’s totally innocent. There are a handful of weird moments of objectification scattered here and there—for some unexplained reason, the first time Kurumi uses magic, her breasts expand (this never happens again), and I can recall at least one very clichéd “the hero walks in on the heroine in some manner of undress” scene. But these scenes are relatively quick and painless, and feel more like the author felt obligated to throw them in because that’s just something that HAPPENS in anime, rather than because they feel any actual antagonism towards women. It’s true that the female characters are undeveloped and two-dimensional, but so is literally everyone else. The last chunk of the show is a very tired “damsel in distress” arc, but Kurumi has at least a little agency while being held hostage—much unlike Sword Art Online’s revolting, misogynistic mess of a second half. Everything about Mahou Sensou feels like it was written by a child, and while that means it’s of very poor quality, it also means theres nothing cruel or mean-spirited about it, overtly or otherwise. I almost feel bad talking trash about it, because it definitely doesn’t WANT to make me feel bad feelings, and I’m pretty sure it’s doing the best that it can.

So would I recommend Mahou Sensou? No. Absolutely not. There is nothing you stand to gain from the experience of watching it. It might not be malevolently bad, but it’s still bad, and everything about it is poor. However, I would make the following to anime producers: instead of maladjusted adult men with a deeply-rooted hatred of women, might I suggest turning to thirteen-year-olds to write more anime scenarios? Fresh, new talent could not possibly hurt the industry.

Watching Mahou Sensou (Magical Warfare) is like finding out you just got arrested for something you didn’t even do and get put for jail for it. Confusion is the first word that will come to mind but then comes the anger phase and regret. The term ‘regret’ isn’t for feeling sorry for yourself but rather as how could a show with a tolerable premise can sink to a defiled piece of work. Not that expectations were high coming into this show but Mahou Sensou is an excuse of a damnation. Mahou Sensou translates to Magical Warfare. As the name implies, the series adapts magical themesinvolving various spells in an ongoing war. The war involves a group of magicians going against beings known as Ghost Trailer from another world. We learn from the first episode that Takeshi Nanase has some sort of mysterious power that allows him to fight on par against some of the magicians in his world. Of course, this doesn’t happen after his life gets turned around forever. Nonetheless, he gets caught in the frenzy when a young girl named Mui became a target by the Ghost Trailers. It’s probable to guess what happens next as Takeshi tries to play the role of a hero and attempts to save her. Not only does this sounds like a trite formula of a typical magical series, it makes little sense at first. Everything happens too quickly as well as all at once. As time goes on, the series attempts to explain itself regarding both worlds, its histories, characters, and everything else in a fashion to hopefully draw viewers in. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t fit right.

The plus side is that the initial episodes blasts off in a quick fashion with the action and drama with little time to waste. Not only does it immediately get to the point with the conflict but it also brings together most of the main characters together in a dilemma that ties with the premise. But here’s the main problem: the pacing. It’s not just rushed but also inadequate. How would you explain a normal boy who resents his family for unknown reasons at first able to fend off a guy nearly twice his size with a large sword? From minute one to the credits proves the show is gimmicky clustered with cliches, gags, and senseless characters. It’s like a hornet nest with everything dancing and flying at once.

Characters in this series ranges from the typical small girl Mui to the more fashioned beauty known as Kurumi Isoshima. The latter is known as a stunning beauty at school but more importantly as Takeshi’s ‘fake girlfriend’. Despite the two pretending to be a couple, it’s obvious that Kurumi might have genuine feelings for her “boyfriend”. There’s also the best friend of the main protagonist, Kazumi Ida, a stereotypical delinquent that comes with the spiky hair, tough personality, and carefree attitude. None of these characters appeal to each other in any way. The worst of them might be Takeshi Nanase who sees to possess no personality. On the surface, he is a caring friend but often is indecisive over various matters. Only does trouble comes will he resent to dramatic action. Trouble comes from the Ghost Trailers whom serves as the main antagonists. They are presented as the epitome of stereotypes with their crafty looks, egoistic attitudes, and cheesy ambitions. Forget characterization. The Ghost Trailers don’t have a ghost of a chance for admirable attributes.

Drama takes in the form of family affairs and conflicts. It serves as a degeneration of a happy relationship because of circumstances. For Takeshi, it’s related to his younger brother Gekkou. Through flashbacks, there’s a clear problem with the boy because of his obsession towards a certain character. It’s an establishment for a bomb to explode soon between family manners. And of course, it does through actions in the way of magic. The way the series progresses this also lacks depth because of its basis. It’s clear as day why Gekkou’s behavior is seemingly justified by his actions. The show doesn’t even need to explain itself because of its clichéd angles. It’s saturated with lifeless emotions because of the weak persona through its characters. The characterization of the main magicians also lacks depth with their purpose. Everything just feels if they need to be there with no sense of morality. It fails to make its point with its collection of platitudes.

As with the concepts itself, mechanics of this show demonstrates some credibility. This is set by the standard of Subaru Magical Academy where students learn magic. It’s a place where characters like Takeshi, Mui, Kurumi and others train to perfect their skill as magicians. On the surface, it touches the basics of magic at a fundamental level. However, everything feels like it progresses far too quickly with its generics. The way magic is acquired is explained in simplicity despite the complex nature of some spells. From the first episode, we witness how our main characters acquire their magic with a taste of fan service involving Kurumi’s enhanced breasts. Besides catching the attention of others, the magic itself is only attractive by its effects rather than its execution. What I mean here is the way how some spells seems be blend to the core with their usage. On a more bright side, the series does focus on training sessions including a magical examination. In essence, it does maintain some degree of trustfulness with this show’s product.

Unfortunately, the romance aspect remains almost tasteless. There’s a lack of chemistry between the main characters. This mainly is focused on the love triangle going on between Kurumi, Mui and Takeshi. It follows an endless cycle of stages with the first stage being misunderstanding, the second stage explanation, and the third seemingly nowhere. Kurumi also gets herself involve with other male characters. We don’t see much progressing between her and them because of her own insecurities. Again, the pacing issue of a one-cour show also plays a role in downgrading Kurumi’s relationships. Furthermore, the chemistry she has with any of the characters just seems lackluster. She’s like a Barbie doll that everyone wants to buy. Her Ken is Takeshi.

Other flaws in the show includes a weak building structure connection both the real world and the magic world. Although it explains itself somewhat with the past and ancestries, the show neglects to explore them in depth. For fantasy writers, a show should demonstrate a decent degree of its world qualities. Unfortunately, this show is not one to serve as an example of that. However, this show does show examples of fan service. Although it doesn’t reach ecchi levels, the clichés reaches its point with swimsuits, compromising positions, and clothes torn by battle damages. The construction of its premise also hardly sounds original with the stereotypical Big Bad wanting to conquer the world and purify its worthless inhabitants. Wait, I heard that somewhere before…

The artwork would be appealing if it demonstrated an imaginative atmosphere. A world with magic and fighting wars between each other sounds attractive but the artwork is not. Character designs are blend and focused mainly on their stereotypes rather than who they actually are. The Ghost Trailers are hardly charismatic either with their lack of personalities. Everything feels forced with their lifeless expressions. Background artwork offers some degrees of admiration although it only ties in with its main themes. The only artistic attributes I find are perhaps the spells as they do offer degrees of diversity. They connect with the magical themes of this show with some degree of limited thought.

Out of all the technical aspects, soundtrack is probably the strongest factor coming from this show. To say the least, the OST is catchy with its hard rock tone and techno-like sensation. It actually connects with the dramatic scenes involved with the battles. Characters also demonstrates their voice mannerisms decently whether it’s feelings of anguish, fear, happiness, regret, solitude, or egoistic. The OP song also has its mood done right despite some of the magnetic movements. Focus should be bought forward to this show’s soundtrack aspects if you decide to get into this show. On the other hand, characters such as Takeshi lacks enthusiasm with his voice while others just feels lifeless.

Mahou Sensou is not just an underwhelming show but is exactly what you’ll expect. Its predictable plot is almost laughable with rushed scenarios, weak characterization, and conglomeration of cliches. It’s shameful that a show with the concept of magic can turn into this cluster of weak thoughtlessness. What you may expect is what you will get in the form of poor writing, romance cliches, thoughtless characterization, and farcical development. Despite the way this show originally set its family feuds into motion with darker aspects, its executions is stale and atrocious. Rather than evoking excitement, it spawns boredom with no redemption. If you really want to check out this show, then be prepared for a magical tale of mediocrity.

The phrase of "Dont judge book by its covers" is really true. When we all seeing the short explanation by this anime, we're gonna imagining something great, magnificent, epic battles and stunning art. But in the end it was all just an illusion. Illusion that been made by this anime, summary we're being deceived. Mahou Sensou or Magical Warfare is anime that technically is about action and magic like the genre has said and thats it. If we're talking about plot, it hasnt. Well, at the first you would introduce that the world has two side world, first it was human world and the other oneis wizard and whatever world. Then, somehow without any logical thinking, our MC is choosing to live in magician world just for helping one girl and moreover its the first time that they meet.

The first time i watch this, i cant help to feel cliche and so pushed. Like one scenes that i said before, the MC is choosing to live in magician world just because he cant enjoyed living in his own house and feel urge to save someone he just met. Being heroic, is probably one of the good aspects that the MC must have but realistically speaking, even the stupid people would think twice to risking their live just for saving people. If the this MC called Takeshi have a good reason for it, then it doesnt matter but honestly all of the reason that he give is kinda illogical and another kind of illogical things is how kendo sword that been made wood is capable of fending off a real blade and moreover its a steel one. Oh god.

Aside from logical thinking, another things that quite funny is how easily people can be affecting to use magic. I mean, in this anime the MC or Takeshi is a normal human being and the second later he become magician just because Mui Aiba (the heroine) using magic near of him. Its like "you want to be a magician? then come here i will use my magic and you would become magician! yeah!"

Moving on to the art section, this is probably the worst aspects that this anime have. For anime that been adapted by Madhouse studio the one who brought you Hunter x Hunter (2011), this anime's art is really horrible for anime that airing in 2014. First how the characters design isnt consistent. When watching this, i cant help to notice that in every scenes they draw the characters so badly and something that doesn’t bode too well for an action/fantasy series such as this. Like sometimes, the face looks so awkward like it bents to the otherside.

Another things that probably being controversial is how the character design is like from fate/series. In the opening song, you would see like a white saber with that armor and things, then there is this blonde guy called Kazumi Ida who is looking so similiar with Gilgamesh. For anime that been made by a big studios called Madhouse, surely this one is such a big failure.

After all that, there is one thing that atleast "normal" and so so. It was the sound. There is nothing to much too mention in this term. Good things they have Mamoru Miyano for voicing Takeshi, as usual he did it well and really fits with the MC. For other seiyuus, they did well though i believe it wasnt something special. The one i like from this anime is the ED. Nano with their "Born to be" song is so epic, their fastbeat and energetic song makes this anime looks so epic though it wasnt happen. Such a shame.

Last, the characters. The explanation that i said before maybe give you a glimpse about the characters in this anime. First, we have a "heroic" MC called Takeshi which is have a justice feeling and prepare to help anyone who need to help. ANYONE. At the first we would see that he have such a dark past and trying to make us curious. But honestly well, its failed. I dont understanding what happen in this anime so why would i need to curious about his dark past? and for some circumtances, he is dating with such a beautiful blonde girls named Kurumi Isoshima. She is just your typical tsundere girls, and at last, we have Mui Aiba, our main heroines. She is nothing special to being mention about this. Well, she have a gun. a GUN. Summary, the characters isnt likeable which is the most important things in anime to make the viewers enjoy to watch. They have nothing that makes us to like the characters, after all they all plain characters.

After all that mubbling, i honestly feel guilty to writing this review. I dont want to judge the anime so badly but its just i cant bear it. I am not saying this anime is bad for all of you but in my perspective, this anime is bad though they have a lot of potentials in there. If you're liking action and magic with some cliche romance on it, probably this anime would suit you but honestly, there is still anime that is more better than this one.

The magical warfare. Where to begin? Its an epic tale of conflict with shounen ideals and stride. Its an enthralling tale that captivates the hearts of casual watchers like myself. And did it? No. - Story - When it comes to having a plot, the anime nails it for having a premise. But is there an actual plot? Not particularly. The first half of the anime is devoted to introducing the protagonists and hinting that Takkeshi might just be a super powerful magician by the end. The second half kept me on the edge of my seat because, well, it was so rushed that eventhe episodes couldn't tell you the whole plot. The established love triangle was more or less realistic, which I applauded. There were several loopholes in explanations and how things popped up. The random pokemon encounters with enemies was not appreciated. By the last episode all I honestly watched the anime for was some senseless violence, and by then it was 5:00 AM. It was a magical night. All in all, there was a rather poor pacing for an unrefined plot.

- Art -

The art was actually quite good, enough to make me want to see an epic poster disproportionate to the plot itself. Character designs were actually really cool, along with the weapons of some. My qualm was the absolute lack of originality. Sure, the characters were cool. But I would look at other anime for the exact same hairstyle and face.

- Sound -

I gotta say, the music was hella catchy. It had the right vibe to the situation most of the time which I really liked. What else can I say? The folly was pretty standard and there was nothing special in sound effects.

- Character -

Oooh boy. Now for the bad boy. The main character Takkeshi was extremely bland and standard. For a protagonist, I haven't seen an emotionless character like him ever. Aside from the stereotypical crying over lovers and yelling at friends to get to safety, this main character had absolutely no emotion. His quirk was the lack of quirks. I can't even call it natural. Without his powers and role in the plot he might as well join the pile of scrap characters I've imagined for fun. His powers made absolutely no sense by the end, since the story couldn't even be told properly by the episode.

Now for the female protagonist, Mui. What in the world is wrong with her. She supposedly has a brother complex, which is understandable. But her development and dynamic with the other characters ended right there. There was nothing to characterize her other than having a brother complex and has a crush on Takkeshi. In terms of her powers, since this is an action anime, she had no growth either. She introduced the characters with her magic, and she stayed stuck. Then what happens, you may ask. She gets hurt. Rinse and repeat.

- Enjoyment -

Was all that heavy stuff weighing on my head as I watched the anime? Not until the very last episode. So I suppose I had a high enjoyment factor when it comes to brainless plot twists and incoherent violence. Not that we couldn't tell what was happening, rather, we just accept that power-ups never need to scale with what was previously established. Like DBZ right? Buu just needs to revert to his original form to be the strongest even though he ABSORBED strong beings to become STRONGER.

- Overall -

I guess I did enjoy this anime while watching it. But if you're the type to watch something and actually take in the details of what is going on while watching, I wouldn't recommend this anime. I'm one to appreciate the anime while watching but also think about it afterwards. In all honesty, Mahou Sensou could have been VERY different and so much better, but the mesh we have is not what I would consider a polished piece of work.

I have been summoned here by my very own rage. Sheer amount of anger at this single series has led me to write a review. I chose to watch this show randomly as it started getting released at the winter 2013/2014 anime season and, God my witness, I chose wrong. I really did chose wrong. The story revokes around random looking and acting characters in a somehow magical world. Nothing is really explained properly, nothing really adds up. No sense AT ALL. The story is not the slightest enjoyable for the viewer to see, it's full of random time skips, lack of explanations and a plethora ofboring characters. And it gets worse episode by episode.

The MC, TakeshiT, is a generic black-hair main hero guy who has a talent in magic (giving him random power ups for no reason at all. Honestly, there is not a single reason for him to live apart from being the main guy).

As for side characters: most of them are useless. They either appear scarcely in the whole anime, their appearance could have been totally cut off without any harm for the "story" or despite their powers they never did anything significant. For example, Kurumi is as useless as Sakura in Naruto first was (and most people remember it as a legendary feat). Despite her powers, she does NOTHING. nothing at all. she''s just "there". she exists to cry over Takeshi, when he's hurt. Mui looked promising at first but basically she's powerless, she can be beaten by any random enemy there is. Nothing good can be said about any other characters as well.

The only fine one is Gekkou. Why, him, of all people, you might ask? because he's, well, nuts. He's just insane and that's all there is to him. Paradoxically, he makes the most sense in the series. and STILL he's a character that has little sense as well.

There is NOTHING told about the magical world itself, NO ONE ever asks nor questions such issues like brainwashing of other mages or gives a sensible flshback to light a character background up. Events are sudden and out of place, everything seems forced and rushed.

This is Mars of Destruction tier almost.

Mahou Sensou's randomness and really bad plot development make this series practically unwatchable. it's as if someone is TRYING to make it suck. And he's doing a really good job at it.

Every single episode just goes worse and worse and WORSE. It's both boring and stupid. If you looked for one of the shittiest anime in world history, this is one definitely made it to the top 100 in my personal rank.

The only good thing is the ED. I like the music and the animation going with it. and that is all good to be said about Mahou Sensou. Don't watch. Just don't. You won't enjoy it.

Okay..where do I start. This is an anime done by Madhouse, so my expectations were quite high, since I've seen most of their other works, but oh God was I dissapointed. Story: 3 (poor) First of all I think that this is my major problem with the anime. For starters the whole magical stuff is quite chiche, but that is not my real problem here. The real issue is that the plotline is really quite predictable and it lacks development. Overall the story is predictable and full of cliches used all over the place. Art: 5 (mediocre) The art for the anime is quite good, as expected of Madhouse,but on quite a lot of occasions there are characters in the background that won't move, also as well as that there is some 'derp' faces coming from the main characters.

Overall the art isn't a major issue here.

Sound: 6 (fair)

Now that is the one thing about this anime I actually liked, with both the opening and ending themes being catchy and memorable the soundtrack fitting with the scenes and everything.. oh such a waste of great music.

Character: 4-3 (decent/poor)

Another major issue I have with this anime is the lack of character developmet. At the beginning we are introduced to a relationship that starts developing between the main male and female lead that does not develop any further than the first few episodes.Which is a real shame, because it would've been nice to see how thing worked out.

Enjoyment: 4 (decent)

You could say that I somewhat enjoyed the anime, but if it weren't for all of the things listed above I would've had far more fun watching the show.

Overall: 4 (decent)

With that in mind I reccomed this anime to anyone who is willing to watch a predictable shounen, full of cliches.

review by: dark_cookie

When I first saw the synopsis for this series, I was extremely excited for it. Unfortunately, my expectations for this series was not met and it left me thinking that this series was a pure waste of my time. For one thing, the pacing, in my opinion, is just terrible. The series will have an episode with a battle, then an episode with an explanation. All the explaining is extremely annoying. Sure, I like knowing what is going on, but usually the explanations have nothing to do with whatever event is occurring at the moment, and it will still leave me several unanswered questions as towhat exactly did happen.

Another thing that seriously annoys me are the characters. Takeshi is just extremely gullible, and I found myself calling him an idiot more than once. Kurumi is your typical "damsel in distress" who doesn't seem to really have any useful powers. Ida just acts first without any thought, but we don't even see much of him anyway. Then there's Mui, who I can't really find anything noticeably wrong with her, except that she causes drama between Takeshi, Kurumi, and her.

Then, there's the romance aspect of this anime that I find uncalled for and unnecessary. It provides fan service, I know, but it is not needed at all. The anime would operate just fine without it, and all it does is take up episodes where something important could be happening (or an explanation -.-).

The ending was also rather open-ended, leaving you to try to figure out what actually happened, or happens... I might just force myself to read the manga in order to try and see if what happened is explained, because the ending of the anime just left me with even more questions than before. Overall, this series is something I wish I didn't spend my time to watch. It is not something I would recommend to watch.

Well ,I'll be totally honest about this anime ,it's one of the biggest deception I had in my otaku life.Why? Is it the story? The characters? The art? No, no and no.Actually all of those point are good ,really. I know it's bad to spoil in review ,so if you really want to see that anime don't read me.But if you're hesitant please read me because I have to warn you about one thing. Story : Okay ,I'll admit it ,the story is a cliche.The plot sound different but you'll find all the elements for making a classical shonen.Magic war ,a stupid MC which a big heart,a strong will ,a desire to grow stronger for his friends ,and of course girls ! Girls with big boobs (or kind of) and big crush for this stupid MC (which ,like all the time ,will never understand anything about that and stay dumb like all MC of this type.).But in the big line ,the story is really interesting ,looks like there is a lot of mysteries,factions fighting for power, a love triangle ,a new magic war is coming ,,the big bad boy is finally back with his badass magic of the doom ,a strong rivalry between two brothers lead them to fight and...CLIFFHANGER !! Yeah ! That's exactly how this anime end ,with a fucking cliffhanger.The last episode end with a lot of unanswered questions ,even more questions asked and nothing.It end.Like that.That's all.What? Want to know what the fuck happened? Who's really that big bad guy? Why all those plots around the two brothers?You really want to know that?...Me too.

Art : The chara design is ,for me ,really nice and pleasant.It's colored ,warm ,well animated ,the characters are nicely done ,the fighting scene are fast paced and dynamic.Yeah ,I think that the art is the best part of this anime.

Sound : The opening is not really my cup of tea but it's a nice song.The anime ost is ,for it's own ,pretty good I think ,some great songs are put in the backgrounds sometimes ,turning some classical scene into something a little more epic/dramatic.

Characters : Classic ,cliche ,seen again and again...But for my own I never turn tired of this kind of characters.The MC is ,as usual ,stupid but have a strong will like I said ,it's the perfect Shonen hero type.You have the childhood friend secretly in love for this idiot ,the new girl without which all the anime can't start and which will fall in love for this idiot too (turning it into the classical love triangle) and the MC useless ,but funny ,best friend.Add in the middle of that a black haired dark-emo big brother with dark ice power, a loli who actually...Well I don't know what she's doing here really but I don't care ,I love loli ! ..Emmm ,a badass with badass power of the doom of the death (I'm sure this one made some 13yo little boys erect for his power).Anyway ! Cliche ,but nicely done ,so it's not a bad character choice.

Enjoyment : Well...How can I explain the pain?...This anime have 12 episodes.Yeah...12...Just 12.And as I watched the 11 first episodes I was totally in the story ,I was like "Oh god !" "Awesome !" "Wait what?..." "So it was...Oh god it is !" and all.The story was awesome ,the plot catch me episode after episode ,questions started to form in my head.I wanted to know about that and that and that.I have watched the full series in one shot.Spend a full night for that but I watched it.And finally I came to the episode 12.And at the end of this episode I was like "What.The.Fuck.".Why? Because it's not an ending episode ,it's just a normal episode ending with a cliffhanger ! I've searched for an episode 13 or a season 2 ,or an OAV.But no ,it's over at 12 ,and 12 end with no answers ,new questions ,a big mind fuck and ,for my own ,a strong feeling of disappointment and...a sensation that I've lost a night doing nothing.

Conclusion : Take care watching it ,it's interesting but it's a totally unfinished anime with a not-ended plot.

Just finished Magical Warfare (Mahou Sensou) and now I'm here to warn you all of the complete waste of time it was to watch. Out of all of the anime that I watch I hardly ever find one that I just didn't like. Well.. I guess there is a first time for everything. Story: At the start you think you're going into an anime with great concepts and characters that will leave your jaws on the floor and cosplays to be made. WRONG!! The story's pacing seemed as though it was on a good track the first 3 episodes but the more you watchedthe more unstable everything got. From skipping between large gaps of time to completely rushing through important adventures and plots, this story seemed like a really bad LSD trip.

Art: I can't really complain about the art style here. It wasn't anything to showcase but it wasn't horrible per-say.

Sound: The only piece of music that i could happily recognize was the opening soundtrack. Aside from that everything else was so overused to the point to where it became a drowned out blur.

Character: The only two characters that really stuck with me were the MC and his younger brother. That's only because one was constantly on the screen and the other was so god awfully annoying all I could do was think about how I wanted to kill him myself.

Enjoyment: No. Almost none at all. Every episode half way through was a huge cock tease mixed in with a bit of half assed plot.

Overall: I can't say that I absolutely hated it. Yes there were so many reasons to hate it but I think that overall the concept of the world was pretty impressive. I wish that there were more episode so that there would be more of a story build. But hey this is what you get when you try to build Roam in a day.

As I said in my Strike The Blood review, I do not write many reviews for anime so bare with me as I write something for this one. Honestly, I don't see why this anime is getting so many bad reviews its not as bad as people are making it out to be but of course that is my opinion alone. Now onto the review: I found this setting sort of unique from most animes and for the fact this anime wasn't a harem was a major plus, let alone there wasn't much fan service. It kept serious, and stuck with the plot which Iwas glad for.

I was also quite pleased with the main female; Aiba Mui for she tries very hard to fight on her own without the needing to be saved and how she was devoted to save her brother, but I won't get into spoilers for people who haven't seen the show. For a young girl, I thought Mui was strong. I also was quite pleased with our male protagonist Takeshi Nanase; who had grown from the twelve episodes. I love characters who have strong determination. : D

The whole two worlds being separate; sort of gave me a Shakugan no Shana feel for the series which was a nice feel. The music was entertaining, the opening and ending were strong points in the anime as well as the way magic was set up in this series. And I like how Takeshi and crew were transferred into a Magic Academy rather than sticking around in High School; being ordinary the normal thing anime tends to do.

And this anime has a lot of nice twists and turns. But again, I'm not gonna get into that because it will be spoiling. However, I'm not going to give this anime a perfect score; considering it ended in a cliff hanger and these type of series I feel needs 24 episodes or more so characters can have room to grow. And have more time.

Also the art was pretty smooth to look at as well. Another good work by MadHouse. : D

Hopefully it will get a second season!~

I give this anime a 7, I would give it an 8 but a lot of questions are still left unanswered and let alone the cliff hanger. My score would change if this series gets another season. :]

Writing this review to try to save as much people from watching this piece of garbage!! I'll try to keep it short. Main adjectives to describe this anime: SHALLOW, MEDIOCRE, LAME, WEAK, CONFUSING. The story basically has no strong foundation to hold it. It has this main plot/premise but has major problems executing it to its potential. When you read synopsis (wont write it since it's in the main page already), sounds interesting enough. But as you watch the episodes, the pacing is way to off (some episodes are slow and some, too fast) and lacks a straightforward direction. The ending was extremely rush thatit left the viewers with more questions than explanations. There was absolutely no resolution. Additionally, the reason why the characters are acting this certain way is pathetically, annoyingly shallow.

Art is mediocre!! The art of the characters look like a ripoff from different animes. There's no distinct attribute that make them look unique and exclusively from this anime.

Characters are lame and lacks development.. A typical, weak, martyr "hero" who risks his life to saves a girl and decides to follow her to a magical world along with his friends, to run away from his problems in the real world.. my definition for this type of character, an idiotic coward. A fake girlfriend/childhood friend=powerless, tsundere damsel in distress. A delinquent looking friend with a sister complex. The magical, gun-wielding heroine with a brother complex, who later is reduced to a supporting character (she loses significance later on. She might as well be invisible). And lastly, the jealous younger brother who perceives that an honest to goodness street accident was an attempted murder by his "hero brother", going to great extent to get his revenge also because the brother "stole" everything from him. SO SHALLOW and DUMB!! BTW, their powers are ordinary and lack originality, to the point that the concept is dumb.

Overall: dreadful, boring, weak, mediocre, confusing. STAY AWAY FROM THIS!! Pile of crap and a waste of time!

I don't even know where to begin...or maybe I do? "Don't judge a book by it's cover.", comes into play here. You'd think the girl in the front cover, and title would get you all hype about "what wonders lies within this amazing looking light novel."? Or the fact that the PV/Trailer video about the anime was downright attractive. Well let's start with how I first knew the series. I first knew about Mahō Sensō(Magical Warfare) back in around 2012 IIRC. I was looking for Visual Novels and/or Mangas similar to Shakugan No Shana, because it was been a while since I read a series that involvesfantasy, romance, and action.

I found about Mahō Sensō Light Novel and thought to give it a try. Oh boy, it was interesting at first. At some points as I continue the plot and story becomes bland, and character-wise, everyone has little to no progression at all. I thought at first that maybe 'cause this is a Light Novel and that it'll probably be different when I actually see them in action, like in an anime, or a manga atleast?

2013, the manga was released. I gave it a try, and...it was mediocre at best. I decided to give up on the series, or atleast let it on hold.

2014, the anime was finally released. And what a surprise, it's still bland as ever.

Honestly I'm seeing a lot of potential with the theme and concept. But it just isn't working well with the whole plot and characters.

Critical Short Review:

Story-wise:

It involves 90% around a girl trying to bring her "onii-chan" back from the "Dark Side". Laughable. In seriousness, the plot is about two worlds in actually one reality. Magical Side, and Human side. Whole common concept about some dude wanting to erase non-magicians.

Not unique at all.

Art:

Mediocre at best. Even the magical effects are mediocre.

Sound:

Seiyuu/VA - If it wasn't for Nao Tōyama voicing Aiba Mui, I would've dropped this. There are others like Kenichi Suzumura, but they don't fit their characters well.

Music - There's music?

Character(s):

I'm sorry what? The main male protagonist is just your average guy from any other fantasy, romance, action, magic anime out there.

Every character is dull and boring. No uniqueness at all.

Enjoyment:

I'm really sorry, but it's not working at all.

Overall:

4.2

Sad. The concept, theme, and plot had some potential. Ruined by the common concept ideas of characters, and story-line.

-

I wrote this right after I watched every episode on the date of March 28th, 2014. The date when it ended. So this is my full honest review.

Mahou Sensou was overall the complete definition of a disaster. Starting the anime, I was completely hooked and found it very interesting but the last half is what destroyed it. Parts of the anime skipped from one area to another and plot developement was sacrificed in the process. The characters, to me, werent bad and were fairly well thought out though some were unoriginal the main characters seemed decent. The characters and the storyline the plot attempted at were ultimately the strongest assets of the show. Lastly, the final episodes were utterly haywire. A new scene is produced the is not at all explainedor supported in any other parts of the anime and leaves the watcher extemely confused and almost dumbfounded by how chaotic the events become.

I've already written up a review on this anime. You can check it out on my blog, to get a full review on it *it does contain spoilers*. But to keep it short. This anime starts off pretty well. A solid start, nothing wrong with that right?. But under closer inspection, this anime flaws are pretty evident. And it harms it a lot. Characters: Takeshi is your most generic male character. Nothing outstanding about him. You can forget about Ida, that guy supposed to be one of the lead characters and he is off screen and forgotten about for the most part. Not onlythat, he is just as generic as Takeshi is. Mui, has some redeeming qualities, but like Takeshi and Ida just generic. In fact the whole main and side cast are just plain generic and forgettable.

Story:

Starts off strong, then goes down hill mid way. And then just evaporates with the most ridiculous "cliff hanger". Oh and the pacing is just bad - especially towards the end. Heck even the exposition of the story, makes little sense.

Art:

Suffers a lot here. The consistency is just bad. Mui has her nose missing in episode 1. Turns up in episode 3. The budget must have been low, to have even the most basic things go missing then added later on.

Overall:

A very bad anime. Don't waste your time.

Writing this review because I watched this piece of crap anime while it was airing but was to dam lazy to make a review. This was one of the worst animes I have watched it was just as bad as watching Kanokon. I literally felt slower than the characters in the series. Watching this anime made me feel like I was killing brain cells luckily I survived. First off I give the story a 3 It has some potential to be good but it was executed pretty badly and rushed. I didn't like the reason why there was a war because of 1 person I thought thatwas pretty stupid. I also thought there was too much story and not enough episodes, almost like they didn't have enough money to keep going. You got Mui trying to save her brother, Takashi's problems with his family, The war between the magicians and trailers or whatever the hell they were called, Takashi being brought into the magic world, 2 girls fighting over him, and the list goes on. It was poorly done in my opinion and they should have added less plot.

Art - 4

The art was okay but could have been more original. The characters didn't look very unique they just looked average.

Sound - 8

The only thing good about this anime was the fact Nano sung the ending which sounded very good but sad to see it being used in this anime.

Character - 3

I felt no connection to the characters at all. The only character I felt sorry for was Gekkou because Takashi was a piece of sh*t towards him and he just takes it like they're in an abusive relationship and forgives him so easily even though he was a b*tch and shoved him into a car because someone apparently told him to. The kid can't even make choices on his own and he's a weak character. He thinks his mom abuses him even though she was helping him get stronger. Takashi is the definition of a brat. The blonde haired girl is too dam clingy, I was hoping she would go for Gekkou but she's too stupid and falls in love with Takashi even though he's a brat pretending to date her like a little b*tch that he is throughout the whole series. Mui fell in love with Takashi too easily, I see nothing special about him, he claims his mom hates him and he tried to kill his brother and wonders why his brother hates him. Lastly there's Kazumi Ida, I see nothing cool about him that's really all I can say because he really had no involvement in the anime, he wasn't needed at all.

Enjoyment - 3

I give it a 3 because there were some episodes I laughed at how pathetic the anime is. It was such a chore watching it and finishing it but I survived without losing all my brain cells amazingly.

Overall I give this anime a 2 because it sucked so bad, I would give it a 1 but seeing animes like Kanokon I'm being generous and giving it a 2

Mahou Sensou (Magic Warfare) Is one of those animes that has a lot of potential but also poorly executed. The plot and idea isn't bad but when you put a bunch of generic characters with less then nothing in character development. its a recipe for disaster If it had 24 episode it might have been better, but who knows. Story: I think the idea and plot is good, magic academy training students to fight evil, brother rivalries, and untold secrets. However they rushed everything within 12 episodes. Which caused it to end up not being really good because it brought in more plotholes and unanswered questions....that will never be answered 3/10

Art: The art is decent and the animation is nice nothing too special. I'll give it a 4/10

Sound: The sound was ok, I don't really know what to say for the sounds...however, the ending song is very nice. It is probably one of the only good thing that came out with this anime lol. 5/10

Character: Generic heroine's, Generic villains. Nothing that really needs a explanation. The first 3 episode is already self explanatory about the characters. 3/10

I did not enjoy this anime. However, my motto is once you start a anime you must finish it. Each episode felt like a stab in chest. I didn't even know what was going on in some parts of the anime due to the fact there were a lot of skipped time lapses. There went 264 minutes of my life....

I highly do not recommend this anime unless you like to watch this kind of stuff with plot holes with a wtf ending. Nevertheless if you have spare time or nothing else to watch than maybe you could check this anime out for yourself.

This show is such a train wreck it's not worth a full review. Here's a shortened version for your convenience (and mine): Story: 0/10 How can someone rate 0 on a story? Well, it's simple: the whole show is a buildup for season two, and explains about fuckall. A few minor characters get some background exposure, but even that is poorly executed and overall uninteresting. The end is an absolute mess. The character development is so absent it often times feels like characters are going backwards in development, getting tricked several times in a row by the same lies and tactics. It's worth 0 simply because it isworthless.

Art: meh/10

I'm not a big art guy. This was so uninteresting to look at that I spent most of my time looking at my fortress on dwarf fortress. I know I didn't find it particularly good, and other people seem to have noticed that it's inconsistent, uninspired and possibly even just a knockoff of characters from other shows.

Sound: forgettable/10

I don't remember a single song from the show. I don't care much about voice actors, so I can't really judge them; but it sounded as standard as it gets.

Character: -2/10

Sweet lord in heaven, how can a show about magic have such weak main characters? All the main characters get defeated over, and over, and over again, to the point where you wonder what the hell they've been learning in their high school and when their teachers are going to start teaching them how not to suck at life 101. Towards the end the sensei to end all senseis steps in and teaches the main character to actually use magic in about three days (after him theoretically learning it for a year). Suddenly the main character can move faster than someone teleporting. Seriously, what a mess.

I actually feel like expanding on this topic.

What do we have as the MC crew?

Here's a short breakdown:

A guy who uses evasion magic. Which theoretically means he should never get hit, yet gets his ass handed to him by physical blows he could've easily avoided every other minute.

A girl who uses illusion magic. It somewhat feels like the only reason this is a thing is for the obvious sexual innuendo the people creating this show could cram into this concept. Fanservice galore for a few episodes, and then they completely forget that she's a witch for the rest of the show except when someone needs a bit of healing (even though I've never seen her heal anyone all the way to recovery). Great move, whoever made this.

A guy who uses destruction magic. I'm sorry, I meant to say a guy who uses self-destruction magic. He's so bad at it that the only thing he can do right is give his magical powers to the first mc so they can have a nice little deus ex machina moment every few episodes. You'd expect him to get better at it after practicing for a year, but his improvements are so subtle you could be forgiven for not noticing.

A girl that uses a pistol to shoot fire. Oh, and I can't remember a single instance where she actually defeated an enemy, even though she was technically more powerful than anyone else in this crew.

And because you can't have generic without a harem, both girls love the first mc, even though he's completely oblivious to it. Props to the makers to actually make the MC oblivious all the way to the end, and not actually revealing it to him. I, too, believe character development is grossly overrated.

Enjoyment: 5/10

Hey, my dwarves managed to beat a human to death using nothing but their bare hands, hence avenging their fallen comrades from the madness of the wereiguana, while the show was playing in the background. Now *that's* entertainment value. This show is made for background playing: it's usually very slow and relevant sections are short and far in between. Except for the last episode, which makes me question the sanity of whoever thought this plot was a good idea. I enjoyed watching my fortress while some really contrived plot was happening off to the screen on the side.

Overall: 3/10

This show proves that it is possible for the ending of a series to retroactively make the rest of the series bad. If I had to rate it after 2 episodes, it would've been an 8. If I had to rate it after 6, it would've been a 6. At this point I wonder if I really want to give it a 4 or I should just go with a nice, fitting 2 or 1. If you want a good dumb, action-oriented show where you can just turn your mind off for 12x25min and enjoy some mindless action, do yourself a favor and avoid this like the plague, because even the most brain dead person on myanimelist would have a hard time arguing this show has entertainment value at all.

Mahou Sensou or Magical Wars really does have a good premise. For those who are interested in fantastical settings with some sort of ongoing war, (obviously just from the title), then this a good show to sit through. Or so I thought. Yes, I enjoy fantastical settings and I didn't put much expectation into this series while I was beginning to watch it. I was just looking for a show to watch before the fall anime season begins. Anyhow, to be fair, this is adapted from an ongoing light novel series, which would explain the choppy storytelling. There are a few gems with this types of lightnovel turned to anime but I don't include Mahou Sensou in this category.

First of all, there is a lack of depth with the story. Again I stress that the premise of the story is good. In fact it is interesting, but the anime was unable to expound further. There is a lack of exposition of the characters; what I want to say is that, these characters were not flesh out enough.

By the last half of the series, you would expect that there would a resolution, or a closure, but there is none. Mahou Sensou leaves you very hanging and there is a gaping sense about why did the studio decided to end it that way? Seeing that there are currently 8 volumes published in Japan, I think that there is enough material or sufficient material to draw from. Unless of course the studio is planning for a second season in the event that the BD and DVD sales are good.

Secondly, the animation is a bit off. I enjoy the scenes were the characters start casting their magic and the magic circles appear but other than those, some scenes are just not right.The budget is low for the animation aspect but for the ending sequence, it was very good. Normally I would immediately end the episode once the ending song starts playing but I watch the entire episode until the very end so as to watch the ending sequence.

I may not be an expert when it comes to music but I find the opening and ending songs quite good. Also, the background music was enjoyable. There seiyuus were good in conveying their characters. It's just disappointing that the characterizations aren't enough.

Overall, I won't watch this series again. It's a good enough to while away the time if you have time to spare.

I watched this anime after seeing a couple scenes in a youtube clip. It looked interesting so I watched it. Here are some of the pros of the show 1. It had some interesting characters. 2. The magic in it is cool and there were so pretty decent fight scenes. 3. Near the end of the show the story got pretty interesting. Now here are the cons. 1. The interesting characters aren't the main characters. The side characters in this show are more interesting and awesome than the main characters. The main characters are pretty dull and boring, and only one of them becomes semi interesting nearthe end of the show.

2. I feel they cut a lot and I mean a lot out when adapting this from it's light novel counterpart. One episode we see them unable to do a certain sort of magic and then the next they have suddenly mastered it, not because they are awesome like that but because months have actually passed between the 2 episodes.

3. They bring in new magic that the charactrs can suddenly use, yet the audience never gets told what this magic actually is or does. We can semi guess what it is but overall 9 times out of 10 we are left in the dark.

4. The story gets interesting near the end. I put this in the pro part as well because it was an interesting story point. It's also in the con part because well nothing in the show ever really leads into this story. It's all just suddenly dropped on us in the last couple episodes.

So in conclusion, I would love to read the light novels this show is based on since it did perk my interest and I know they would go into more depth. As a tv show though, it is a complete mess and not worth watching. There is no real story, the characters we are suppose to connect with we don't and most the time the relationship between characters seems strained at best if not just plain unbelievable. This is because the show skips over so much character development. To sum it up simply, imagine all 7 Harry Potter books jammed into one 2 hour movie and that's pretty much what Magical Warfare is.

Mahou Sensou seemed to have it all right off the bat. The art looked great, the story was new and the concept interesting. The story surrounding the MC's, Takeshi's, life was different and interesting. We got a love interest right off the bat, hell, he had a girlfriend! The best friend looked like a reliable goof, and then their world went upside down thanks to Mui and her magic. But the problem began with what seemed to be the shows strong point; the characters. Takeshi is a wimp, plain and simple. Sure, he has a moment here and there where he sucks it up and actslike a main character, but only in the beginning of the show. Once the main villain is introduced, who is terrible as well because his reasons are so ridiculous and stupid, every time something bad is going to happen to Takeshi or his friends/loved ones Takeshi doesn't do jack shit. He has the magic, the weapon, the resources to be GOOD. But he throws it out the window because he still holds on to some incredibly naive and stupid thoughts.

Kurumi is just pathetic and frustrating, always going on about Takeshi. She gets mad at Mui for every little thing, and provides no support whatsoever. Mui has something going for her, and Kazumi is probably the most normal out of them all; trying to do something and fighting, instead of standing around. The whole show focuses on these horrible characters, so you can't even stop to appreciate the original concept of the show. You completely forget why you picked up this anime because the characters are so terribly done.