Manaria Friends

Disklikes: title, episode length, season length

Likes: pretty much everything else

This is another one of the shows I enjoy that surprises me is rated so low on here. I can see where there are things people don't like, but I'm not sure why the could be enough to make people down-rate it so that the aggregate is where it is (6.66 as of the time of this review.)

I think the title is absurdly ridiculous in comparison to the content you get in the show. "Mysteria Friends" sounds more like a comedy/action/low value show. This is definitely not that. I am so content with it that I ... know there has to be something better - maybe something a bit more formal. I've mulled this over and over can't come up with something I'm happy with. Nonetheless, I wish there was more - more than the 15 minute episodes, more than the 10 episodes we get.

THIS IS A WONDERFUL WORK OF YURI! Right from the beginning, literally headfirst into the first 5 minutes of the show, there's a strong indication that this is what was going on. This was going to be a true story of love between two girls, no matter what the status is during the show or how it ends; you're well informed but don't know just where things will take you. I think this was excellently executed.

My favorite of all everything is the music score! What a great piece of work, even if it sounds similar or the same, the whole show is executed with mood appropriate music. Also, NO INTRO and a very small outro that's necessary for every episode, so if you you tend to skip over it, DON'T DO IT with this show! The end of the episode follows it.

I really enjoyed this. It's likely going on my shows to re-watch. It just left me feeling satisfied.

Decided to pick up a quick series that plays out as a slice-of-life, even though it takes place in a bit of a different world. My understanding is that it's based in the world of Rage of Bahamut, a different series, but it's not a required watch at all.

Story & Characters: Mysteria Friends is a quick, ten episode series that takes place in a magic academy, and focuses on two princesses from different kingdoms. Anne is very dedicated to her duties, but you can tell she'd rather have a bit of her own life. She's a bit of a prodigy in using ... magic and is clearly looked up to by her peers. She doesn't seem to have a wide circle of friends though, and sees her classmates as peers, rather than friends. That is, outside of Grea. She is born from a dragon and a human, which comes with its own complications as it is. Like Anne, she doesn't have a wide circle of friends, but find comfort in each other's company. Grea's physical attributes are quite exceptional, likely from being part dragon, but she's a gentle giant.

The story structure itself really isn't much of anything. Like I alluded to earlier, the story elements are very brief, and each episode seeks to make a quick problem and solution right away. Nothing's really fleshed out, and this series plays out as pretty shallow as a result. Each episode spans roughly fourteen minutes, though curiously, two to three minutes plays after the episodes' credits. Those two to three minute segments never have anything to do with the episode it's contained within, and it makes it feel kind of misplaced and random. While the pacing of the episode is strong, those segments at the end stagger them a little bit.

Side characters are mostly non-existent, and that in itself isn't really a problem for a series of this nature. Owen is Anne's faithful servant, and he's mostly likable. He's never a distraction, though one of the episodes does hint that he can be a bit of a goofball. Still, episode two and ten kind of reflect his commitment to his duties and he was a strong inclusion. Hanna is the student class president and isn't really much of anything. As much as she's fine in the role, you don't really sense she's above anyone else in terms of anything, outside of maybe popularity. Miranda is one of the academy's teachers and she was a fine distraction in one of the episodes, as strange as she was. Lou, one of Anne's classmates, pops up every now and then, but she doesn't really add anything.

Still, Anne and Grea would be why you're watching Mysteria Friends. The multiple moments of anxiety when they are separate are very apparent, especially with Grea. They spend most of the series tackling some problem or another, some of which are trivial, and while they come out ahead in most of them, it's not really a deep dive into the problem. For Girls Love watchers, hints of such seem pretty obvious here and there, but I believe the goal is on friendship here. Anne's playful characteristics is a perfect match for the shy and timid Grea and it's those opposites that reflect the series' best moments.

While getting to the end, the sense of direction isn't really there, so outside of episodes one, two and ten, the rest could have been viewed in basically any order. That's unlikely why you're watching this series to begin with regardless. The ending is sweet and was probably the best place to leave our two characters. (Story: 6/10, Characters: 8/10)

Art: Cygames Pictures isn't really a studio that's everywhere in the anime world, but they do a pretty admirable job here. They have no real flaws that show up in some bigger names, so that in itself keeps them ahead of them at times, even if the ceiling is lower. (8/10)

Sound: Similarly, I have no real issues with the sound production here. Most of the OST is made up of piano tunes in the early going and some of the later tracks do get a little more exciting. Avery Smithhart (Grea) was the strongest of the crew, which comes off as a nice surprise, as I'm not familiar with her work outside of Scum's Wish, where she was mediocre, and O Maidens in Your Savage Season, where she was hilarious. Cat Thomas (Anne) is someone I'm back and forth on similarly, and I didn't love her work here. She had moments where her lines felt more "said" than acted, and I'm not sure it was the best fit. Adam Gibbs (Owen) and Hilary Haag (Lou) have been around forever, and are both predictably strong here. (8/10)

Overall: Mysteria Friends is a short series that shouldn't have strong expectations, due to the episodic length. It's still worth watching because Grea and Anne are great, and it's not a huge time commitment regardless. You can basically ignore all the side characters and still have a decent time. (7/10)

Ok, so first of all is it Manaria Friends or Mysteria Friends??? Cu'z either way the title doesn't make any sense given that this was taken from a game, and by the looks of it , the game itself it's basically a galge game and what we're watching was the animated version of the game. Not surprising since that producer Cygames with the cooperation with Happinet were mostly in the game business and animation was only secondary to them, it didn't help at all with Sentai Film works on the helm of the production , since what we see was more like a yuri relationship ... between 2 princesses , one a human and the other a half dragon/human, now given that this was an anime based from a game, well, definitely there is no story plot around here, in fact any climax you see here will one way or the other be a train wreck cu'z the story part basically flip flops from Grea avoiding Ann , to Grea wanting Ann, and there is Ann at one point would be this female Stalker to this sweet loving lesbian girl. The sound was just as terrible, cu'z Anne's seiyu Hikasa Yoko doesn't sound like Hikasa Yoko, actually it was Grea who sounded like Hikasa Yoko even though the character's seiyu is Fukuhara Ayaka, it would have been better if Grea's voice was done by Hikasa Yoko and Anne's voice be done by Fukuhara Ayaka...or maybe some one made a fucking mistake where the one's who voices who weren't what the info indicated. Ya know jaz watching this was more like a chore than anything else , in which one would be doing some fanservice hunting than anything else. So without anymore BS, here were my ratings:

Story-Poor 3: It doesn't have any, since the plot was just like something taken by some one who is a backseat player of the game.

Art- Very Good 8: Cu'z of all the eye candy and in fact anybody who give this a 10 to 8 were just into them eyecandy and nothing more, since there is only a one time Grea fanservice here.

Sound-Pathetic 1: Cu'z Grea sounded more like Hikasa Yoko than Fukuhara Ayame and Anne don't sound like Hikasa yoko, somebody made a mistake around here.

Character-Poor3: Cu'z even if it was just Grea and Ann all the way, one would feel like that they're just characters in the game, where they both go in circles.

Enjoyment - Pathetic 1: Watching this is like having sex and as one was about to cum, suddenly something or someone ruins it and all that cum starts to rush back into the backstage.

Overall- Poor 3: You're better off playing the game than watching this. jaz saying.