Magica Wars Episode 1
What They Say:
In every decade or hundreds of years, the dragon moves its body as if it tosses about unconsciously. The movement becomes the distortion and causes impurity. This “impurity” lavishes an evil on people. And now, there is a huge indication of a distortion. Gods foresaw the greatest harm would happen to Japan, divide own power and give it off as a messenger of God (“Shinshi”) in Japan to gather mediums, or “Magica” who can expel the “impurity”. With the magical weapon the power of Gods, “Magica” will fight to stop evils in Japan.”
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The latest short form series of the season, with Gainax producing, is certainly one that has a different feel right from the start from other shows. Whereas most tend to go for a simple approach and a kind of basic quality about it, some exceptions out there of course, Magica Wars has a slick and upscale approach that makes it feel like it’s almost slumming in a way. It doesn’t hurt that this is part of a sprawling mass media project that involves an iOS game that’s out there, a new PS Vita game that just came out and being part of an internet variety show as well. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that it takes the Hetalia approach of taking the various prefectures in Japan and turning them into magical girls, which makes the whole thing amusingly competitive among the fans.
The opening episode takes us to Miyagi prefecture where we’re introduced to Naruko, one of the girls who is chasing after various cute creatures, in order to bash them apart with her oversized magic wand. With an elder/familiar chastising her for her poor performance, we get to see the action pretty nicely here as it goes on and the kind of character she is as she protects those in the shopping district from the cute beasties. Naruko is pretty fun here in a simple way since there’s not a lot going on in terms of explaining what the show is truly about, but it has a lot of cute humor and gags to it that keeps it moving. But it also just looks damn slick and there’s an appeal in seeing what Gainax can do in a short-form show like this.
In Summary:
Magica Wars doesn’t explain itself at all here and it almost doesn’t even name our lead character. What we get is a visually enticing opening moment here that should have a few explanations coming up along the way, but may simply be relying on its fans to know what the deal is because of the games and exposure elsewhere. Which may mean new fans might have to work for it a bit in order to get it. It’s not exactly sold me in the slightest in regards to story, but it’s got me hooked for the full run for the animation alone to see what Gainax might be able to produce with some slick and appealing visuals and animation.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.