Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

The series starts off light-hearted like many modern series to come out these days, but starts to get serious rather quickly with a nice pace. The world building is nice and breathing compared to many series that make lack-luster attempts these days, and I could even go as far to compare it to the Full metal Alchemist series for a general feeling towards character development and story. Unfortunately, the series turns to absolute rubbish at episode 16 where the whole politically focused plot turns out to just be a really cliche story about "muh darkness", as mysterious masked men try stop them for the sake ... of being evil. Everything after episode 16 feels really cliche and shallow in comparison, characters randomly acting like slice-of-life characters from generic high school anime #9840 complete with over the top emoji tier expressions that I so deeply fucking despise in Anime. I tried to continue the series, hoping maybe the writer was just having a bad rut, but it didn't really improve. Dropped at episode 21 and didn't look back.

Honestly I liked this anime when I first viewed it but then I re-watched it and noticed how shallow all the characters were.

The protagonists are the typical "I'm a good guy" And there's nothing else that defines them other than "They want to do the right thing"


And the Antagonists are just Saturday morning cartoon villeins. "I like to use people! Money greed power! ROARRRR" Only way they could be more evil is if they strapped the female lead to a set of train tracks, oh fuck one of the antagonists did do that...



Magi has a rich world ripe for the calling of adventure ... and all that shit, but its ruined by its grossly unrealistic cast members. The reason why I'm not going to rip into this anime is because it's clearly made with a younger audience in mind

So the characters are mean't to be simple. But I honestly can't recommend this it's just boring.

Every arc ends with a nonsensical solutions and most of the characters have tragic backstories used to guilt trip the viewer into giving a shit about an otherwise unlikable character.

If you really want to try this anime I suggest watching it with a friend.

-

This is the script for my video-review of the show over on youtube, so if you don't wanna read it, listen to me talk about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn7Wk9_TudM

-
Magi is a shounen fantasy adventure, but this time, it's one borrowing not only themes from the arabian one-thousand and one nights, but many other countries as well!
It is based on an ongoing manga by author Ohtaka Shinobu and was adapted as 2 TV series spanning 25 episodes each.

The adaptation by A1-Pictures contains the first 110 chapters of the manga, staying mostly true to the source material, was directed by Masunari Koji and aired in Fall 2012.
...
In Magi's world, several so-called dungeons appeared throughout the lands years ago.
Filled with tons of treasures and magic items, the strongest being "djinn vessels", many young adventurers tried to conquer them, with only a handful of the strongest ever returning alive.
In the desert city of Quichan, our protagonist Alibaba works hard earning enough money to one day conquer the local dungeon "Amon", fulfilling his wish of becoming rich.
Here, he meets the young and mysterious boy Aladdin, who doesn't understand how the world works and therefore gets Alibaba in all kinds of trouble with his boss, all while having to swallow his pride.
When an accident happens while transporting wine to another city and a big desert monster threatens to eat a child alive, Aladdin gets impressed by Alibaba, who can't just stand by and watch.
The two of them then decide to venture into the unknown, as they are responsible for the loss of the wine and in big debt, and go to conquer Amon!

From the beginning on, the series shows us that Alibaba isn't your usual shounen protagonist who's just brawns and no brains, as he knows what he has to do and seems knowledgable in a few uncommon territories, recognizing the monster in the desert or being able to decypher a foreign language.
The anime's third arc, which focuses more on his background, makes perfect sense of all this and places Alibaba somewhere far up near the top when talking about good shounen characters.

Aladdin on the other hand stays mysterious for a long time, and while he isn't a well-rounded character from the beginning, he gets to learn quite a lot from the people he meets and has pretty good reasoning, even though many of his actions only motivation is "For my friend Alibaba!"

Then there's Morgiana, a red-haired slave girl from the very strong, southern tribe called "Fanalis", designwise seemingly inspired by the egyptians. She is hands-down the best thing in existence.
While the show is generally missing a few good female characters, Morgiana would take the place of best girl no matter how perfect the others could be! JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE!
In the beginning, she follows our male protagonists only out of thankfulness for freeing her, but soon, she evolves into their friend, making these 3 characters a really good team.

As for other important characters, there's Sinbad, also called "Sinworst", which is true.
He's introduced as a pretty laid-back, but powerful man, having conquered not one, but seven dungeons in his life-time.
He's not having that much of a formed character during this season, but he is more important for the future of the franchise.

Similarily, Judar, a black-haired mage working for Kou, a big empire in the east inspired by chinese history, seems like a normal "bad guy", but does have some signs of there being a reason for why he is how he is.

Hakuryuu, a prince of that Kou empire, is important for the future of the series as well, but already has relevance in the second half of the first season, where he's getting a decent character, not on the level of Alibaba and Aladdin, but by far enough to impress me.

The secondary characters sadly go nowhere out of the ordinary, with the only ones worth mentioning for me being the grandmother of the Kouga tribe and Hakuryuu's sister, Hakuei.
The first serving as a mentor for Aladdin, teaching him what life means and how you have to deal with putting your life on the line in a fight.
The later mostly introducing the Kou empire and showing that it isn't full of bad people and that their goal isn't just to conquer the world, but to actually unify it and create one peaceful country.
The several antagonists introduced in each arc have some reasoning behind their actions, but are generally more mid-tier, but the important ones are really not bad characters.

The animation is really the thing that makes me completely disappointed of the adaptation.
The quality drops so hard that the second half wasn't really enjoyable anymore, and after having read the manga, I wanted to watch the show just to see Morgiana dance.
Yes, I am salty because it didn't look like shown in the second opening, but still, the animation has no positive points, and except for a few scenes, the first half doesn't stand out either.
The actual artstyle though is kinda interesting, as the different influences are really fun to see and observe.
It ranges from the already mentioned "1001 nights" and imperial chinese over to the mongolian plains, where the Kouga clan lives.
And Sindria is apparently based on India.

Regarding the character designs, I can just say that -quote- "all the characters are cute" -quote end-.
No seriously, like the world, the characters with their different nationalities are all interesting enough to make me want to see more.
And Morgiana is cute.
No objection accepted!

The soundtrack centers mostly around the thematic of "1001 nights", with most songs straying a bit in different directions, which is interesting, and there are definetly a few in there I listen to outside of the show.
If I had to mention my favorites, they'd be #1 - "Enfin Apparu", #6 - "Faut il Saver" and #13 - "Valse Hot".

Then there's the voice acting, in which my second big problem with the show lies, even though it is heavily influenced by my knowledge of the manga.
It makes perfect sense to let a woman voice the 10 year old Aladdin, but it just quickly doesn't feel right anymore, with him soon stopping to act like a kid and his appearance remaining the only childish feature he has.
The other characters fit their voices pretty well, so I won't complain about any of them.

I've been saying "For the future" a lot in this review, so I'll need to get this out of the way.
The show is not finished, but the manga just entered its final arc not too long ago and I predict the announcement of a third season towards its final stretch.
This may take a few more years, I'll just unknowingly throw "Summer 2017" in the room, but keep in mind, I don't know any more about this than the next person.

Now, that's it, but is „Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic“ worth the watch?

The thing is: You should give the franchise a chance!
If you like manga, I'd actually prefer to recommend you giving that one a read.
If you don't want to read the manga, try watching the anime.
I can't say the show is good, especially because of the problems in animation, but I dare say the story and characters are on par with something like Fullmetal Alchemist, which is commonly reffered to as a masterpiece.

So to sum it up with one simple question:
Would you watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, if the animation sucked?
If your answer is yes, then go watch Magi, if the answer is no, give the manga a read!
If you don't want to read the manga, definetly go for the anime, you'll just have to sit through the enjoyment-killing parts.

PROPER MINDSET
Magi is a superpower/adventure show, loosely based on the anthology of the Arabian fairy tales A Thousand and One Nights. It later on blends in elements from other cultures as well, so at least on a superficial level it has variety in its locations and backgrounds. The protagonists are Aladdin and Ali Baba (friends, not enemies), who are looking for fabled treasures inside magical caves full of traps and wonders. Yet their dungeon crawler adventures are soon halted by various bad guys who are out to torture people and make money.

THE STAFF
- Animated by A-1 Pictures, a studio with very good production values and ... behind many famous anime. None of them are amazing though and they love to turn to silly fluff even the most serious and dark stories.
- Directed by Masunari Kouji, who has made several silly anime, most of which are enjoyable to the most part, but none are anything particularly great.
- Based on the manga by Ootaka Shinobu, who has also drawn and adapted Sumomomo Momomo. I don’t like her art style and her stories are too light and goofy for my taste.

PRODUCTION VALUES
It is an eye-catchy show with a lot of antithesis between cheery bright colors of fluffiness and dark depressing colors of agony and thriller. It doesn’t look particularly great for any given reason and even the songs are simply ok. It covers all the basics of a good teen adventure but rather waters it a lot more than it should with goofball comedy and light fan service.

SCRIPT
A thing that Magi does very well is to have a sense of adventure, as every new place they go to has its own style and themes that need exploring and dealt with. It is indeed like those old fairy tales that was making your imagination go wild. A thing that doesn’t do so well is to be anything more significant past that. You see, it tries desperately to be many more than just that. It has high amounts of boob jokes, violence, and crazy villains who love to torture people for fun; thus expands to social commentary, morals, and even respecting the lives of those weaker than you. These themes are simply there, not really looked into past mentioning them and dealing with them in a black or white manner. Basically, the show has a very naive morality thrown amidst a setting that would normally require far more realism and grey handling. It’s like trying to solve world hunger with the power of friendship.

Speaking of power, there are dozens of magic items in the show that contain genies and other sorts of powerful forces that can be used in battle. Aladdin for example has a magic flute that summons a huge genie to aid them when they are in trouble, but he refrains from using it unless it is of grave importance since it feeds from Aladdin’s… stomach. Nice excuse to make the protagonist need of eating a lot for a change. In a similar fashion many other characters have such items that they use to achieve their goals.

A thing that will disappoint most is that the show ends prematurely. Although the anime went for an original ending, it still feels like it left out a lot of side stories and revelations. So in case you expect a long storyline that will end in a satisfying way… stop hoping.

CAST
So what goals and objectives does this show have anyway? Well, more or less every ambitious person in this world wants to get on his hands these magic items that he will use in order to become a powerful emperor, or to help his people. You have both selfishness and selfness at play, and they are presented in a most polarized manner. The bad guys are one dimensional assholes with no redeeming qualities and the good guys are saints who are already picture-perfect. That makes characterization to feel very shallow and in many cases irritating. You won’t believe how dumb everybody behaves or how many times I wanted to punch Aladdin in the teeth for acting like a 10 year old girl scout who wants to share rainbows and unicorns with everyone.

Not that he is as pure as he seems, since he and most others in this show are horny deviants who love to fondle breasts. And the camera never misses the chance to zoom on bare legs. It’s light fan service but it’s there all the time! I can’t say it adds anything to the context, since nobody seems to be “having any” out of screen. There is also a rather high amount of blood, torture, mention of rape, slavery, skeletons, and other creepy stuff to make the whole show to appear even darker.

Of course it is still light as heck, since as I said it is still black or white all the time and the characters turn to deformed blobs all the time for the sake of silly comedy. There is nothing you can’t magically fix if you have enough firepower on your side. It is very disappointing to see so many grim and serious situations to be solved just by Aladdin blowing his flute and summoning his genie to save the day and dance happily with everyone around the campfire. So the build up to every major conflict in this show may seem serious and dark but the resolve is always rushed, convenient, and always soooo cheery that seems completely out of place with everything else going on in the background.

LEGACY
As far as said build up goes, it is very good for such a type of a show. There are these empires, and those evil kings, and gangs of criminals, and they all look for a man to unite them all, and boobs, and spells cast by huge nipple-piercing genies. It is going to look brilliant in the eyes of 10 year olds, especially in our current years when most new shonen are total crap. So in a way this is like a bit darker Fairy Tail, but still immature and superficial. Although it can be a nice time waster thanks to its lively adventures and good production values, it just lacks something noteworthy to remember it for, and thus next to other titles such as Hunter X Hunter and Full Metal Alchemist, it is nothing but a “watch once and forget” type of anime.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 7/10
General Artwork 2/2 (looks like a fairy tale)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (fitting with the feeling of the series)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 1/2 (basic)

SOUND SECTION: 7/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 3/4 (not great but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 3/10
Premise 1/2 (typical)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 1/2 (not much)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 0/2 (open)

CHARACTER SECTION: 4/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 1/2 (way too good or way too evil)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 1/2 (overblown but it’s there)
Catharsis 0/2 (none; the show is incomplete)

VALUE SECTION: 3/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 1/3 (low because of the simple plot)
Memorability 2/4 (I liked the setting and the themes but the presentation is weak)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 3/10
Art 1/1 (looks like a fairy tale)
Sound 0/2 (sounds meh)
Story 1/3 (feels epic but plays out childishly)
Characters 1/4 (way too good or way too evil)

VERDICT: 4.5/10

Not sure if I'm in any position to give a solid and well-thought-out review, but there is a spoiler that completely ruined my view of this show.

Initially, I was having a very good time with the series, and really enjoyed the direction it was going. I found it very interesting how the show kept me hooked on the overarching story, as well as the later developments that occurred. I thought to myself "man I love adventure series", and this anime reaffirmed my previous beliefs. I'd have to say everything seemed pretty average, but I was having fun with it, so I didn't really need to ... criticize it too harshly. But then, I reached the latter half of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.

I swear, not even having finished this anime, and this being my first review, this show went from a solid 7 or 8 to a 4. The latter half of this show is unbearable, and it makes me sick seeing the development between Alibaba and Kassim. Kassim's character and logic are just objectively bad, and it infuriates me to even listen to him explaining his viewpoint and backstory in episode 17. I feel no remorse for this guy. I am just filled with vitriol and malice towards him. He wants to complain so damn much about how the people living in the slums are doing so badly and proceeds to make the situation even worse by going against Alibaba setting up a democratic republic. How does that make sense? And I get it "oh boohoo" your sister died, and you have to help take care of these people, but does he have a single brain cell that can comprehend the fact that if they're not under a monarchy, the people in the slums will thrive under new jurisdiction and laws? They live in a port town, and the economy will eventually flourish. Why be a complete jackass, and not think anything through for half a second? Seriously I fucking hate Kassim. And I hate Alibaba for being so indecisive and not killing him when Kassim himself said to do so.

What pisses me off most about Kassim would be the entire ideology revolving around his character. He constantly complains about how Alibaba and he are so different, even though they came from the same place. This makes no goddamn sense. I don't get how he doesn't understand that actions determine a person's character and ideals, and it isn't determined by birth. But for 5 episodes, which felt like an eternity, this guy complains non-stop about it, and when his entire reason for revolting against the kingdom of Balbadd is solved by Alibaba, he just couldn't take a hint and stand down. Instead, he wants the audience to believe later on that he wanted to be "king", and properly rule the nation. What an ass-pull. There was no indication anytime before this was mentioned that gave me the idea that he wanted to usurp the throne for himself, and it was a bullshit justification that was needed to give him a reason for being a total prick.

I honestly think I had a stroke writing this because of the sheer idiocy of his character's existence. I'm done now. This is probably going to be my first and last review, unless another show comes along that fuels me with this much anger and frustration.

I'd still recommend this series, and all that it has set up. But for the love of God, I'm going to be skipping every section that involves Kassim or his goons whenever they show up on rewatch. Let's hope the Kingdom of Magic would be more bearable to watch than this. (Edit: Kingdom of Magic is a lot better)

tl;dr: I find this show to be generic, cliche and tropy. The characters behave more like generic anime characters than real people, which negatively impacts the political story line. The dialog is awkward and stilted, while consistently using the crutch of explaining everything as a form of constant exposition. The themes regarding destiny/fate are confused and many of the situations are hard to swallow as believable.

I recognize that this show is very popular and well liked, which is why I was originally interested in watching this show. I love 1001 Nights and the aesthetic that goes with it, so it seemed like a good ... fit for me. I have actually watched this show before, when the season was first released and decided to read most of the manga (before ultimately dropping it), but my feelings on the show are... complex. I wish there were a rating for just "setting" as that is really the only thing I actually like about this anime. I find that the later storylines pick up some of the slack and the story DOES improve somewhat, but not within this season.

As far as shounen anime go, this is a fine place for any shounen fans to go. I would say that it's in league with shows like Naruto or Dragon Ball. That is, however, as far as my recommendation goes. I imagine that if I had watched this as a kid, I would have loved the anime. It has a great inspiration, the setting is interesting, and it has all those shounen gimmicks for an action/adventure show that any kid would love. If you are looking for a shounen series, this show is passable.

However, I wasn't looking for a shounen series, I think I was looking for something more a long the lines of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood in quality. I don't particularly like shounen as an adult and I don't think that this show does anything to escape the trappings of the genre. I also, fundamentally disagree with the idea that anime should continue to follow these tired and obnoxious tropes. I don't think that "shounen" is an excuse for cliche.

The characters are pretty basic anime tropes that do nothing to escape that trapping. They are the same characters you have seen in a hundred anime. The show itself is cliche, predictable, tropy and it does nothing to separate itself from every other shounen. I am actually shocked that this series has such high ratings, because of just how unambitious it is. It is sterotypical anime down to its core. The dialog is awkward at best and absurd at worst. People don't talk or behave like people, they behave like parodies of anime characters. I find the dialog and writing to be embarrassing and cringy; I haven no other words to describe it. You have people CONSTANTLY explaining what they are doing, as if the audience is too stupid to figure it out. It runs into that issue where battles come to a complete stop so that the characters can narrate what they are doing, which is unnecessary and something I particularly hate. It violates the classic concept of "show, don't tell" every chance it gets. Possibly due to translation, but the dialog itself comes off as incredibly unnatural. Not just because they are constantly explaining what's happening, but because the show seems more interested in fulfilling shounen check boxes than it does illustrating a believable world, inspired by 1001 nights. The characters, their actions, and the way they talk are all ridiculous and in some instances, unbelievable. The villains are so petty and obvious that it's impossible to take them seriously. The heroes are just... anime heroes.

The story itself is passable. It's nothing special and only works because of the interesting setting that the writer put together. I love the ideas of dungeons and Magi and the Arabic aesthetic. However, I think the presence of sterotypical anime characters and ridiculous plot tropes really only drags the compelling setting down. You have these political scenarios, which sound interesting on paper, but are executed to a degree of absurdity. These nations don't behave or interact like real world nations, they behave and act like, well, anime characters. In shows like Gurren Laggan, it works, because of how wonderfully absurd and stylized the story is. In this, they try to play it too straight for it to be believable. Compare it to the political events of central in Fullmetal Alchemist or the tense political scenario of 08th MS Team. In the latter, the political situation is believable, consistent, and has a thread of realism that makes the situations feel dire and tense. In Magi, it just feels... made up. There are multiple moments in the show that just seem overly simplistic and unlikely.

Beyond the fact that I find this show to be intensely generic, unrealistic, and cliche, Magi is also built around some ridiculous themes regarding destiny. Without spoiling anything, the end of the first season builds up this theme that I just cannot get behind. The themes of Magi are only believable within the context of the show and are not translatable to reality. That is at least, if you take the story in the first season at face value. I think that the themes become more reasonable in the second series, as more information is provided, but at the very least I would say that themes are confused. Specifically, I am referring to the show's position on the concept of fate. The theme honestly feels inconsistent, which leads to this conflicting opinion on it. There are moments in the show that almost seem to imply that "going against fate is bad", which is ridiculous and one reason I detest the show. But... then the actual mechanics of the concepts of fate become fleshed out and the theme begins to take a turn. But I would almost argue that the inconsistent perspective of faith has more to do with providing the good guys opportunities to be in the right, rather than any solid stance on the concept. Either way I find the themes to range from dumb at worst to confused at best.

At the end of the day, this show is just another shounen anime that doesn't do anything to evolve the genre. There are too many anime that use shounen tropes as skeleton to make something unambitious, cliche, and generic. I don't like these tropes and they hold the genre back. Just because an adventure series is aimed at young adults, doesn't mean that they have to tell the same stories and characters over and over again. There are better shows that do way more with the medium.

It has some protentional but the character development needs work, the dub voice-acting can be iffy (even if they have great voice actors), and it tries to be a political thriller but the main character is a whiny idiot lol. It tries to tackle a lot of important things but just kinda fumbles it because the way the situations are dealt with aren't realistic, the plot resolve doesn't feel impactful.
Morgiana was the best character because she had clear development, reasonable decisions, good voice acting, and she just actually gets shit done.
Sinbad also kinda just ruins the whole character development and tension of the ... story (of the arc atleast).
I did quite like some moments with Aladdin, like with the Grandma. And to some extent the Djinn, but that started to feel repetitive already.
Anyways, it's not the worst but I would watch smth else.

I have seen plenty of anime due to this my level of expectation has gone up. I can no longer enjoy something which doesn't make sense. After trying this over praised anime Magi, I am seriously left disappointed, it started good but soon converted into another generic show.

My problem with Magi is that it doesn't know what it is doing, let me give you little summary.

Just like every other anime, main protagonist has some sad back story. in this case the protagonist's father is king, but he suddenly dies, due to this the entire kingdom has fallen into the hands of his evil big brother, ... now everything rest on this kid's shoulders. He is willing to do everything to save his country, but he lacks faith which will be fixed with some lectures and betrayal.

After some serious struggle and a small scale battle, Our protagonist gained the chance to talk with his unreasonable brother who consider him less than an insect. The conversation Our protagonist wanted to have is, Plz as a king promise me that you will do everything to protect the life of our people and his brother replies is this is all you have to say to me.

(I mean seriously after all the things he went through, this is all he wanted to say? Did he really expect him to understand. Let's just say, your country gets taken over by Kim Jong, will you just march to his face and say please save us, please don't treat us like a garbage. Do you really think he will say you have opened my eyes, how can I have been so wrong.)

After some time passed, he gains some Shonen powers. Soon he does the same thing again. He marches into the palace and say this is a coup d'etat, just like that he has dethroned the king.

(Seriously, is this all? Is dethroning a king supposed to be this easy? Let just say if you lived under the British Empire rule, could you have just walked into their palace and say, I dethrone you queen.)

Seriously, this anime follows the horrible sense of logic, it is so annoying that it gets me irritated.