Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil

Wizard Barristers is certainly a unique Show amongst the multitude of anime that comes out every year. A little bit of a mix between the themes of Phoenix Wright and your standard shonen anime magic blends together to become a rather pleasant surprise!

Story (8/10)
The story is fairly straightforward. The year is 2018 in Tokyo, the world is full of Wizards who've awakened to latent magical powers, and due to the destructive properties of such powers, Wizard Barristers were formed to serve as legal defendants or prosecutors of suspects in various cases, be it from self-defense or all the way to murder. The ... story follows Cecil Sudou, who has become the youngest Wizard Barrister in history, as she seeks to learn her craft and defend the innocent, though she seems to constantly become caught up in various dilemmas and situations.

Art (7/10)
The character designs are certainly nice with a couple being rather unique. Many of the main cast certainly stand out, be it with certain accessories on their person, or odd character traits. However, though many of the main cast certainly stand out, there is the problem of background characters being relegated to simplistic depictions of people, sometimes even having simple designs that you might not even notice.

As for the animation of the fights, they look very nice with plenty of effort put into the effects of the various spells that are slung around between the combatants. A fire spell will look absolutely gorgeous as the flames dance around the screen, and stick to various details in the background.

While the spells that are used look extremely good from a drawn perspective, I must drop a point due to the CGI used for specific fights, which while nice, look a little lackluster and stiff, as if it needed animation added to them to flow a little better.

Sound (8/10)
The various sound effects are nice throughout the show, as you'll hear various sounds in the background, be it someone listening to music, or a teapot boiling in an apartment. All the sounds associated with the various spells are top-notch and lend weight to the impacts, be it wind being shot, or ice crystals forming. Each sound is very crisp and rather pleasing to hear.

Character (6/10)
While some of the main characters are fleshed out, such as the main character, Cecil, who we learn of her motivations for becoming a Wizard Barrister, there are others in the Butterfly Law Offices that she works at that receive little or no development whatsoever. Some of the paralegals help Cecil during her various cases, but other than being a sounding board for her, we learn next to nothing from them. Others, who she works with that are tied into personal cases, we learn of various things that they've been through, as well as secrets to their past.

Other characters aren't even really discussed at all, such as the various familiars that the Barristers employ to help them out, some of them not even receiving voice roles, and merely being relegated to background characters to react to various dialogue.

Enjoyment (8/10)
Watching as the various cases are laid out, the show itself had a nice flow to it, not really hanging up on any particular moment for longer than it needed to. The series progressed at a nice pace, allowing for breathers when necessary and keeping you hooked on what was going on, and wanting to know what was going to happen next.

Overall (8/10)
I would say that it would definitely be a series worth checking out. While not one of the biggest shows in anime history, it has enough unique ideas going on that if you're looking for an interesting mix of genres, definitely look into it, and give it a watch.

To be perfectly honest, I was very excited about this series from ep 1 - 10.
Cause it seems like there's always this mystery and deeper plot behind so many characters, awaiting to be revealed one by one.
But after that... XD.
Btw, I watched this series in one go, but after 10 it was pretty painful.
O and btw, this series is a little bit like Kyoukai no Kanata... so many inconsistencies, unexplained matters and OMGs.

[Story:5]
I found the story intriguing, but only OUTSIDE the courtroom. Wizard barristers are basically special lawyers, defending wuds (wizards). And yea, if anything INSIDE the courtroom seem a bit ridiculous and a ... lot unexplained, then you can imagine how it is...

The ending is really bad... especially the realisation that many unexplained matters are never to be explained properly.

[Art:8]
It's good for especially the mecha formation and fighting scenes. And I like the flashback animation, and general animation. But at the last 2 episodes, the animation is especially bad.

[Sound: 7]
The voice actors/actresses I felt were quite good, prob is with the OST and some sound effects, I don't really like some of them.

[Character:6]
This is quite a mess. On one hand, some characters had nice progression, like Cecil and Hotaru. But other than that, they are mostly one-dimensional and only portray mostly 1 type of archetype, instead of many aspects.

[Enjoyment:8]
Ep 1-10: 10
Ep 11-12: 6
It was really bad in the last 2 eps... nuff said.

[Overall:7]
I agree with several others, this is really stillll better than mahou sensou, despite some cliches etc. But really, this anime has a great buildup in the beginning, I've read quite a number of mystery/suspense stories but still this managed to intrigue me. But then honestly, halfway through they started throwing a lot of free answers and the suspense just self-destructed. But more than that... sometimes the court proceedings made little sense.

Watch for the mecha ahahahaa it's quite interesting.

Well, it's been a few years since I've written a review, and I don't know if this means I will continue writing them, I just felt like giving it a go. Here goes nothing.
I am going to be blunt in this review, I will state my reasoning accordingly to the scores I have given.

1. My thoughts on the title, coverart and synopsis.

- Honestly, I didn't know what to expect when I saw this anime. I was just browsing through the magic section on MAL and this one peeked my interest. I remember I saw the first 2-3 episodes back in 2014, but I ... can't say why I didn't finish this series till now. Lack of interest? Maybe. Too busy with other things? Possibly.
Wizard Barristers. My first thought was that this was going to be something that'd blow me away. Wizards, as the word says, is obviously about magic. Barristers, about law. When you put the 2 together, well, you could say it's something about magic and the law concerning it. I was interested, a new story I hadn't seen yet. I checked the coverart, and noticed a somwhat strange, colorful picture of a young girl seemingly floating in the air with a neon circle coming from her hand. 'this is gonna be good' I thought. When I read the synopsis afterwards, I decided to give it a go.

2. Story 5/10

The story, in my opinion, wasn't all that special unfortunately. Even though it kept my interest piqued for the remainder of the series, I can't decide whether I just wasted my time or whether I enjoyed it. It felt, rushed. That's one thing I can say for sure, lots of holes are still waiting to be filled. Agreed, it was only 12 episodes, and there's only so much you can do in them. But I feel like they wasted valuable minutes on minor details, than on the actual storyline. There is this giant conspiracy happening, and it doesn't get explained enough. It left me.. unsatisfied.
Yes, I can hear most of the readers already hastily pressing their keyboard 'go read the manga, go read the novel, etc'
I'm sorry, that doesn't work. A rushed storyline, skipping over important parts in the anime that do happen in the original work, makes me annoyed and would probably make the score even less.
Back to my reasoning though, as I was saying, the storyline felt really rushed, but since it managed to keep me interested I'd give it a 5 out of 10.

3. Art 6/10

There's not much I can say about the art, I liked the fighting scenes. The CGI for the metalomoids was pretty decent, even the fights between them were interesting to watch. The colors, amazing. When the characters casted spells, it was an aurora of colors jumping from my screen.
It did take getting used to though. The characters look a bit weird, out of proportion even and their movements look sluggish at times.
The backgrounds were sometimes great, other times not so much, but I suppose that's normal.
A nice 6 out of 10 for the art!

4. Sound 7/10

I loved the music, the sound the played whenever the MC awakens her powers just made me shiver most of the times. The sound-editing was really solid, and neatly finished. The OP was enjoyable, same as the ED.
No complaints! 7 out of 10!

5. Character 5/10

The characters were.. awkward. Not only movement wise, but too stereotypical maybe? The MC's character was borderline annoying in my honest opinion. It could've been done better I think. Kudos to the voice-actors for bringing them alive though!
5 out of 10.

6. Enjoyment 6/10

I did watch the anime in 1 go, so you could say I was invested in it. In retrospect it might've been a huge waste of time. I enjoyed the music, I enjoyed some of the episodes, and certainly enjoyed the magic battles. Do I want to rewatch it? No, I do not. It was good to fill an evening with, but I don't think I'd rewatch it again or recommend it to someone else.

7. Conclusion

This anime is a hit or miss kinda thing. For me it started as a hit, but then the ball went out of bounds. It felt rushed, certain things were lacking storywise as artwise. But because I didn't drop it and watched it through to the end, that means there was something that kept me watching. All in all, I'd give it a beautiful 6 out of 10 on the overall score.

For the readers out there, who want to watch it, go for it! It might be a hit for you! Don't let my judgement cloud yours. I'm just sharing my opinion here :-)

Thanks for reading!~