Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi

Literally a Saturday morning show ( airing at 7 AM JST ) it tells the story of Mari, a middle schooler, and her friend Waka as they travel to different times in our history and meet some of the most influential inventors in human history while trying to find Mari's dad.

The show is aimed at children so don't expect any mature themes from it, but it's still well made and fun enough that it can be enjoyed by everyone. This also means the show avoid the usual anime cliché tropes and instead gives us a very likable cast of characters who are very fun to ... watch and easy to like.

As I mentioned above the show revolves around Mari a middle schooler who's dad has been missing for three years. Before leaving, her dad gave her a necklace that, as it turns out, is a part of a time traveling machine. By pure accident Mari ends up traveling back in time to 1600 and meeting William Gilbert, who amongst other things tells her that he has met her father. The show then revolves around Mari traveling back and forth in time to unravel the mysteries of the time machine and find her time traveling dad.

The show strongest point is the characters, all of them very likable, and the appearance of several inventors and their stories and interactions with the cast, as the show likes to show not only the inventions but give you some personal information about them, like how Bell invented the telephone because of his work with the deaf ( as his wife was deaf ) which helps give their inventions context and makes it feel less like just a history book and more like a proper story.

Animation wise the show is quite well done and while it's not going to blow your mind, it's always consistent and you won't see any QUALITY. What's noteworthy in the visual aspect is the excellent reaction faces the characters use when they are surprised, sad, etc. Maybe it's because it's aimed at children but this aspect is very well done and their faces are all very expressive and funny to watch.

The music in pretty average, it doesn't really stand out but it's never intrusive. The VA work is quite good with lots of familiar names. Overall the audio aspect of the show is slightly above average.

The show also has small clips at the end of each episode where they show a real life video of one of the inventions featured during the episode and give small explanations on how they work.

Overall the show is quite easy to enjoy if you want something that's pretty relaxing and funny, especially if you like to see time travel stories that feature historical figures related to electricity and magnetism.

"Edutainment" series, ones that both exist to teach and to entertain, are something not everyone enjoys. While I think Time Travel Shoujo would not be completely immune of this from some people, I do think it's possibly the strongest Edutainment series I've seen to date, and could still be something those that generally don't care for them would enjoy.

~STORY~ (7/10)
Believe it or not, this is easily the strongest part of this series, as it actually manages to tell a quite adept story all things considered. While it's not immune of plot holes and logical flaws, as nearly every time travel story is, the other aspects ... manage to prevent it from being a frustrating mess. For what I can only assume is an anime directed at younger audiences give it's educational touch, it throws some relatively darker elements at the viewer in some unexpected ways. While the specific single episode stories with each scientist Mari visits can be hit or miss, the over-arching plot manages to remain interesting and keep the viewer hooked from a fairly early point in the anime.

~CHARACTERS~ (6/10)
With a few exceptions, the whole cast is quite likable. For younger audiences they seem like they'd be quite easy to relate to and provide as decent "role models", which is good for an Edutainment anime, while for older audiences they play off the events and lessons well to bring you back to younger days. When it comes to how they work with the more serious, over-arching plot, they do tend to shine a little less though, as most fall into fairly standard roles. And while the primary antagonist brings about some pretty adult themes for an anime directed at this kind of audience, he still doesn't manage to be anything all that special compared to most villains in anime. Still, the characters are not by any means bad, they simple just don't stand out as much as they could've.

~ART~ (4/10)
The art and animation of this series can get pretty lazy at times. When characters are just standing around and talking it's usually not that noticeable, but in any high action moments it becomes much more obvious as the inconsistencies begin to shine through. Heck even the opening sequence, which usually in anime has some of the best animation, is quite questionable. It doesn't manage to distract from the enjoyment of the show too much, but once in a while you take notice, and there's really never any moments of impressive animation to make up for it.

~SOUND~ (5/10)
While I don't have much negative to say here, I also don't have much to say positively either. The voice acting and music do their job and that's about it, nothing more or less. The only thing that really stood out to me is one insert song that sometimes plays before a character travels through time. It's actually quite nice, but it loses it's charm after you've heard it a few times.

~ENJOYMENT~ (6/10)
Despite some iffy aspects to the production side of things, this was still a really nice watch. I didn't have terribly high hopes for it going in as Edutainment stuff generally doesn't have a lot to offer, but the surprisingly well written story it offered outside of those educational elements definitely deserves a bit of praise. Hopefully we see more anime like this in the future, as it might be enough to open the doors of anime as a medium to more audiences.

History of physics - the anime. An edutainment show through and through on magnetism and electricity.

Story - 7

Girl's father went missing. Girl discovers father's time travel machine and goes back in time to find her father with the help of her neighbours. Evil organisation is hunting down her father as well. Not the most original plot, but it's a mere device to explore the history of science in every episode, with a real life explanation of how the theory works at the end of the episode after the credits.

The writer made it as close to history as possible, and kept the small details (Things ... you never knew you never knew) like Michael Faraday forgetting to credit Davy and Wollaston for his thesis, Ben Franklin arguing with the local pastor over installing lightning rods on churches, and Thomas Edison marketing the first commercial toaster as CEO of GE. I'm giving the writer props just for the research alone.

That said. This isn't just science. This is history AND science. There are some parts which only adults will understand and make little sense for modern kids like Mari, like the existence of uneducated black slaves in 1800s America, and the suppression of heretical scientific discoveries by the Pope before the Enlightenment era.

Art, Sound - 6 (Fair)

Standard fare. Nothing particularly good or bad stands out.

Character - 7

Nothing too annoying in the beginning considering the main characters are just children. Over the series, they learn the value of hard work for different motives altogether, and how hard work applies to everything in life. MC starts to like science but she's bad at science. The message is clear. If you start loving something but you're bad at it, just start learning and you'll get good at it.

Another kid likes football but his grades are bad, and he got banned from football until his grades pick up. After some whining, he picks himself up, studies hard to improve his grades and learns how awesome it is to play all the football he wants without adults breathing down his neck over bad grades.


Overall - 7

I'm giving it an solid "7" just for this breath of fresh air in the anime industry which lacks educational shows like Time Travel Shoujo. I'm hoping this show will encourage more anime studios to start developing more educational shows in the future.

It's a passable family-friendly show to watch with your children if you've studied physics in high school and want to show them how science can be fun too. In fact, after every show, you should go to the local store, buy the same stuff they used and conduct an experiment at home and watch your kids go "Woah. Science." It'll make the world a better place for science.

Kids Show. well, adult may be able to relate it because it's basically about the history, specifically on how the Electromagnetic waves or electricity was invented. (woo)

Characters are well-made. but i hope the focused more with them, ...(T_T) like, they put more importance to them.

story line - 7/10. they just focus on the story of those inventors on how they created their inventions. (just read your history/science books then .. lol :D) though ,it's kind of a refresher for me either, well its been a long time since i read my science book., i dont even remeber their works.

voice actors --- well ... since i love Toyosaki,aKi, (sphere group -all of them), thumbs up :D

MariWaka is not i.) a dark, unsettling anime produced exclusively for Fuji's infamous Noitamina block, ii.) a story about emotionally unstable teenagers, iii.) something relying on the emotional buoyancy of tragedy to keep its story afloat, and/or iv.) a work with outstanding animation, so it will ultimately be forgotten.

And that much is not fair.

It's not that any of the above traits are bad qualities for an anime to have, but MariWaka is at a disadvantage for being itself and nothing more; being an edutainment anime that is primarily geared towards children and their parents. For the same sick and twisted reason, it is also ... suitable for people who are tired of the medium; it has some tropes you'll undeniably be familiar with, but nothing worth giving up hope for.

At worst, it is an average show, and at best (its first and last episodes), it is just good—that roughly averages out to a nice, solid "decent", and so long as you're willing to accept that, I would say it's worth your time.

What's best about the show is that it uses its educational context to form a one-of-a-kind time travel narrative that would not be feasible outside of the unquestioning nature that a Saturday morning cartoon provides, relaying the story of a child travelling through history in search for her missing father. Meanwhile, a corporate mystery unfolds as a businessman attempts to track down the very same father figure, and the convergence of these two storylines happens in a very satisfying and unexpected fashion.

Once the story grabs you, it's easy to forget about the cookie-cutter nature of what characters are key to the story, but there are still a few outliers sprinkled throughout. Most of these flaws are exclusive to the children in the anime, so there's always the possibility of it being an intentional choice made to exemplify the lack of individuality of a mind that is still maturing.

Nevertheless, MariWaka is not a psychological venture, so there's no need to get into that—I would most likely recommend the series to those looking for something new and fun to watch, especially if you're able to forgive a little roughness around the edges.

Sometimes a lack of perfection is what is most perfect about a work, and if you can see the appeal in that, you have probably attained humility.

We wanted something a bit light hearted and fun, so tried out this show.

Cakes, school life, time travel, intrigue. All mixed up in bucket with cream on top. Can't but help think it is a little bit "Bill and Ted" but with millefeuille.

Airing natively at 7pm , having furigana above kanji and with the after credits educational content this show seems to be aimed at pre-teens; but it is just messed up enough (e.g. quriky anachronisms, the "where did that come from" dramatic medical tension early on, gratuitous gun violence) to hold our interest. Not completely sure if we are laughing with it ... or at it, I think with it. All this despite uncomfortable aspects like a what should have been 40 year old but depicted younger Benjamin Franklin flirting with a school girl.

The opening is not it is strong, but it has a nice chibi closing.

Time Travel Girl at the start was a pleasant surprise among the Summer anime season. By the end, I have some major criticisms, but still, I enjoyed the ride. It had a likeable set of characters and interesting premise. It was strict to formula, but was never overly ambitious. Each episode left me feeling satisfied and a want to continue, for the first nine episodes at the least. Then, I just trekked through the rest.

The formula is usually one episode focused on one of the eight scientists, though sometimes two for a certain few of them. There's a certain ... situation or issue happening that concerns the protagonist Mari in the present. Her issue will "coincidentally" match with the scientist in the past, even sometimes with the scientist giving her words of wisdom, providing the lesson of the day. Lastly, when she returns, she takes the words to heart and moves forward. It's pretty straightforward in it's approach, not surprising since this anime is targeted for kids. However, even as mostly a kids show, the series had elements even a 26 year old like myself could invest into. The level of accuracy in the portrayal of the history presented is astounding, really showing the work on the writers' part. The only disappointing one was the last one where the story shifts to resolving a subplot that's been built up throughout the series.

The characters are also enjoyable. The main duo Mari and Waka are easy to get behind. They have enough personality to where they aren't just a stereotype of a overused cliche. Even the businessman Mikage who serves as the main antagonist has shades of a personality and isn't a caricature one-dimensional bad guy, that is until the climax when he's degraded into the latter.

However, for this storyline to work while taking into account child viewership, some contrivances were taken. When the time traveling occurs, the people of the past that witness Mari or Waka suddenly appearing in a gulf of blue light react only with a seconds worth of shock before accepting it, and take the idea they are from the future at face value at first before accepting it later on. The dress of both Mari and Waka in the past only gets a few comments that it's shameful due to the short skirt, but it doesn't draw as much attention as you would think it would. And again, this is so the show can focus on what's intended.

There's plenty of plot convenience as well. I already mentioned the coincidence on how each issue introduced in the beginning of the episode manages to coincide with the scientist the protagonist would be meeting later on. In addition, Mari, for the first six trips, always accidentally activates the time machine. Shun, the oldest of the group and Waka's brother, is the one to suggest Mari shouldn't tell her mother about the time traveling. Furthermore, no sane wife would still be married to a husband who she has not seen or heard from for 3 YEARS.

The climax is also pretty weak. The antagonist who was morally grey beforehand jumps of the slippery slope to be the "bad guy" of the series. He's evil because he wants to use the time machine for profit, and intended to use the protagonist as a hostage against her dad to make him cooperate, but then midway, he changes his mind to instead prevent her dad from returning, which doesn't make sense since he himself said he needed the dad to work and maintain the time machine. And even that becomes unnecessary as plot happens to make sure one of them can't get back anyway. Guess who? The guy ends up being a poor antagonist, as in the end, he really doesn't do anything, and is just an excuse to add conflict in the story where there were other alternatives. For instance, actually have the future change because of the interventions of Mari, Waka, or Mari's father. Mentioned before, it's pure plot convenience, how nothing they said or did changed the future e.g. appearing right in front of people after time leaping, letting the scientists know they were going to make a difference, the clothes they're wearing, showing off future technology, etc.

And then the confrontation concludes with Mari recalling each scientist, and preaching essentially the theme of the series. Again, it's marketed towards kids; it's understandable, but comes off as a forced way to spread the show's message, one that was already iterated quite a few times already throughout the series. Also, there's the blatant diversion off of Mari's dad's misuse of the time machine by making Mikage act caricaturely evil. Even if some good came out of it and he fixed any time inconsistencies he unintentionally caused, Eiji was still time hopping for his self interest to witness major scientific discoveries and in the end, these events lead to his family having no contact with him for three years. The anime tries to lesson it with time travel "logic" by the one we meet being the one from three years ago and it's this version that returns to the present. Also, it tries to mitigate it by having the wife unleash her fury at him. However, all of it is to simplify and handwave the main issue, not to mention adding the plot hole of why Mari's dad from three years ago doesn't return to his timeline but instead jumps to the present.

For a kid's anime, Time Travel Girl is fairly average. It wants to provide education and inspire children to take an interest in science. In that aspect, it does things well. After each episode, there's a cute segment with chibi versions of Mari, Waka and Mari's dad that explain what was discussed in the episode in more detail, with real life presentations and examples. On the other hand, it also tries to add a deeper story subplot with Mikage in an attempt to add tension, but fails in this regard. In the end, he becomes an inept villain meant to act as scapegoat to divert attention away from Mari's dad, and the confrontation ends with a speech that wasn't natural to reiterate the story's theme.

Time Travel Girl functions as both educational adventure and mystery as high schooler Mari finds a pendant and book belonging to her missing father that somehow causes her to travel back in time and encounter several historical inventors famous for their major contributions to scientific and technological advances. Outside of Mari's encounters with famous inventors like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, the series adds to the education theme by having segments at the end of each episode that demonstrate the means by which each of the inventions function.

In regards to the historical exploration from Time Travel Girl, the series believably depicts its time periods from ... the fashions to the societies to how technologies are utilized. The series aims to show the challenges that each inventor had during their time period with getting their work accepted by others, trying to get their invention to work, or working through perseverance to get the results they are seeking. It shows through hard work and perseverance, these famous inventors were able to create their inventions and this gradually led to further advancements with the ideas and concepts discovered through them. Mari serves as a sort of viewer surrogate to learn about these inventors through her time travels and gradually develops an admiration for the hard work they put into contributing their inventions. The experience of viewing this is informational enough as such where even older audiences may learn some new things on inventors they may have forgotten or never learned of in school.

Outside of the focus on historical figures, the series also takes the time to focus on other characters within Mari's life. While a bit simple in characterization, they are still mostly likeable and help add some levity to get away from the anime's educational focus. It also adds an element of mystery to the anime as Mari does learn her father has connections to the time travel technology that she uses and tries to figure out what his connection to it is.

This said, Time Travel Girl does carry its fair share of issues. Perhaps a big one is that the series does have a fair number of logical holes with how its time travel gimmick is implemented as it disregards any focus on potential ramifications for the future timeline by intervening in historical events and doesn't really get too deep into the particulars of plot elements like how the time machine was created, thus some suspension of disbelief is needed to enjoy the educational value of the series. The show's attempt to add in a villain in the form of businessman Joe Mikage felt out-of-place for the intended focus of the anime. Also, the visuals to the series are nothing impressive as there are a decent number of still shots employed and character designs are on the plain side.

Still for edutainment, Time Travel Girl offers solid engagement in its focus on famous Western inventors and showing that history and science can be engaging and beneficial to learn, something that younger and older audiences could appreciate.

Time Travel has been a bit of a craze in 2016, but this anime takes things to a weird degree. Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi is essentially an edutainment anime, mostly focusing on science by a Japanese highschooler time traveling back to eras of important scientists like Graham Bell and Benjamin Franklin.

As a basis for an anime focused on entertaining kids about the "beauty" of science, for the most part, they do it decently, making the entire time traveling both playful and "educational", but oddly enough there is a subplot that seems more serious than the genre gives us (secret organization ... after the main protagonist' father and his time machine comes to mind).

In terms of characters, we got our typical highschool girls of Mari Hayase voiced by Aki Toyosaki and Waka Mizuki voiced by Minako Kotobuki and the plethora of scientist and really with Mari being the eccentric type and Waka being the more grounded one to Mari are rather typical, with even the obvious life messages the anime is trying to bring out through like "failures", "expectations" and "trying our hardest", the scientists they meet and somewhat give the main characters a bit of development. As such Mari and Waka do go through development by using the time travel and learning things from the scientist they meet that reflect their own dilemma's, sure it's by the book but it still works. However ironically as they do look at scientist's dilemma's due to the dozen or so scientists, the majority of them don't get development and a little more than plot devices for the main characters to learn their lesson or revelation. (It was to be expected as much of a flaw it is, LA can easily overlook this). Can LA just say that Mari's mother Akira voiced by Haruka Tomatsu becomes a hidden badass later on and quickly gained LA's respect, unfortunate that it came by the final episode nonetheless. The anime also goes into the function of the the time traveling through the compass and "how it works" which gets expositioned by Shun, Waka's older brother and is the "bridge bunny" to their antics. Mari's own storyline does focus more on finding Mari's lost father and gives her a reason to time travel to find out where her "present-day" father is...yeah LA won't get into detail about THAT mess.

Which comes up a good point, LA did feel like there was a bit of a paradox concerning the time machine, how did it get there?...if it was from the future, how did it get to Mari's father lab in the present time WHILE having Mari's father in the time machine helping scientist like Mari does?...LA is just sayin'. On speaking of plot holes, LA will say that ALOT of these time traveling antics might come of as inconsistent in terms of actual historical events and to that, LA will say that "isn't most of history have inconsistencies depending on who's perspective we see"?...thus LA could overlook if this anime ever did, the show isn't a history lesson as it is a science lesson and the scientist's dilemma's looked at.

As for the "villain" of this anime..yeah because this anime just HAVE to have a villain about a time traveling girl to see scientist who made the modern world what it is, what is this? Steins;Gate?...... However as soon as LA said that, LA wanted to quickly rebutt this argument by saying that yes, this anime is aimed at kids, so WHY NOT having a secret organization after a time traveling machine, LA isn't saying this to demean the "edutainment" genre or it "being for kids", but LA is saying that IT CAN do this, it's aimed at kids and as long as it gives both enjoyment and education about science, then why not have this to grab the attention of kids and try to make them learn about science (well more like how to be successful using life lessons that scientist also went through but semantics here). The more attention grabbing it can get, the better it is...because seriously WHY NOT?.

In terms of animation, the animation is overall very decent with most of the best animation coming from the time machine, the character designs are vibrant and expected poppy in contrast to the duller grayer "earlier time traveling" places, though the aesthetics to the time traveled places aren't that bad either. The animation is "ok" overall but the mechanical features of the time machine look very polished.

In terms of voice acting, Aki Toyosaki was LA favourite voice actor in this anime as she did decently throughout the anime and Mianko Kotobuki who voiced Waka isn't that bad either though she goes into a slight "whiny territory" and once again Mari's mother Haruka Tomatsu gets special mention. (also hi "Sphere" being reunited in this anime), LA really doesn't have much to say about the voice cast besides the "villain" of the "suave" Joe Mikage voiced by Tomohiro Tsuboi..but LA really couldn't say much about the voice cast overall.

The ending, well with all the hints given, the ending was predictable to say the least, what the major villain fate however felt it was more cruel than "couldn't do anything sorry". The lead up to this and the themes Time Travel Shoujo was doing does present itself pretty well, it's the expected scientist vs. patent shown clearly as Mari & her father vs. Joe Mikage beliefs, LA DOES understand that Mikage's fate was unpredictable and again cruel but the irony to his fate makes him a more sympathetic character...as much of a "shrewd business man" he was before this ending occurred. The ending is overall decent enough to portray the message it was trying to given off even at the cost of character's fate and another's "happy ending"

Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi for an "edutainment" anime, it did it's job of telling life messages of success and failures through it's time traveling antics and meeting scientists and reflecting that onto it's main characters, sure the anime is aimed at kids but LA will say that it does cater to kids and doesn't belittle or insult them, it brings out it's message for the day, says some science facts and melds them together with the main characters with the attention grabbing storyline of the secret organization trying to use it for their own greedy needs to seal it as a decent anime in the edutainment genre.

This is a great anime to get your child to watch. It's full of very important scientists and it shows good morals all around

Story 8/10

While the story is kind of sketchy on the start )read- how the hell can they do that), it develops really nicely in the end. The scientists that they show us are very inspiring people and every time they introduce a new one, they show an experiment or two that they're holding at that time.

Art 8/10

The art is a good mix of 2D and 3D, as is usual. The characters are very moe (probably due to the age of the target ... audience) which limits their face details. The dresses and uniforms that they use are very detailed and accurate for the times which is nice as well. The animation is fluid, especially around the time travel parts. Also, damn all the male characters are p hot as well.

Sound 7/10

The voice actors did a good job, but that's all I can say. There isn't really anything to set it apart from everything else. The music (apart from the OP and ED) is rarely used which I find disappointing considering they go in past where they could use classic-style music.

Characters 8/10

The characters are well defined and in the end, none of the characters are perfect which I like. The scientists are my favourites in here because of how they interact with the MC's and they basically accidentally help them solve major life crises (and the opposite happens are well). As for the main antagonist, he isn't all that "black" as you would think and I appreciate what they did about his "demise" in the end.

Enjoyment 10/10

Being an electro-technics student, I very much enjoyed watching this anime. I actually learned a few things from it as well (namely how a morse machine works :P). The characters are good and the story kept me going until the very end. Since I am also a fan of isekai-esque shows, this was right up my alley.

I watched all 12 episodes of Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi. Here are my thoughts:

I have very little to say about this anime. This is basically the Japanese equivalent of an educational TV show that a school teacher might throw on when they're feeling lazy or something. It literally aired on Saturday morning and is targeted to a child audience. I mainly just watched it while I was eating breakfast.

The educational focus of the show is on electricity and magnetism. There are various relevant experiments that get incorporated into the show, and there are also some short educational segments at the ... end of each episode. For me, the most amusing aspect of the anime was the incorporation of various western historical figures into the cast, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. The use of these characters in an anime was entertaining enough to keep me watching.

Otherwise though, the anime was pretty bad. I mean, it's literally a kid's show. The plot was groan-worthy. The characters were very simplistic. The art style and animation were unremarkable. It seems perfectly fine as a kids' "edutainment" show, but for me personally it was bad.


My rating: 4/10

Worth it though to see Benjamin Franklin as an anime character. Lol.