Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst

In the technologically and magically advanced Wahrheit Empire, rumors of a returning catastrophe known only as the "light" causes a disturbance amongst the people. Meanwhile, in the capital of the Empire, transporter Innumael Grauer prepares his daily deliveries, struggling to make ends meet for himself and his sister. Leocadio Wöhler, a newly recruited soldier, assists Innumael whilst commuting to work—unknowingly loading a mysterious package containing contraband artillery belonging to a criminal organization.

Innumael is accused of smuggling the package, facing possible execution due to the Empire's strict oversight of weapons in response to the rising disorder. However, unbeknownst to him, the very syndicate that placed him in this unfortunate predicament may save him from this fate, at least temporarily. Elsewhere, Leocadio is assigned his first mission—to apprehend the criminal group known as "Headkeeper," suspected of transporting illegal weaponry.

Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst follows these two young men on a journey encompassing the Wahrheit Empire, triggering a chain of events that will not only change their lives but also alter the course of the Empire as they know it.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Grauer, Innumael Main

Abe, Atsushi Japanese

Wöhler, Leocadio Main

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Helman Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Gutheil, Schaake Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Irma Supporting

Naganawa, Maria Japanese

Elfriede Supporting

Fujii, Yukiyo Japanese

Wisdom, Conrad Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Claus Supporting

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Marie Supporting

Katsuki, Masako Japanese

Dr. Radboud Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Kitazawa, Shiryuu Producer

Nakatani, Satoshi Producer

Kurosu, Reo Producer

Hosoda, Naoto Director, Script, Series Composition

Reviews

Dec 29, 2020

KANLen09

Recommended

If there is one way to sum this show as a whole, it is the love-hate relationship of director Naoto Hosoda. Take one look at his hit-or-miss work repertoire of anime production over the years, and I'd guarantee that you either love or hate the shows he's worked on (the more notable ones): Hataraku Maou-sama!, Juuni Taisen, Mirai Nikki, Shuffle!, even Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete. And now, this show being another addition onto the reputable director's works, and I can finally understand why.

Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst, translated: Ominous Truth: the First, based on the mobile game of the same name (but without the Zuerst).

If you have ... no idea what to understand of this mobage adaptation, I'd like to refer you to the official anime website and check out the "Specials" tab, because that's where the magic of the show is based upon. The TL;DR is this: KLab Games offered director Naoto Hosoda a free pass to make up his envisioned story of Magatsu Wahrheit, so that both the anime and the game have a similar, overarching story, albeit a timeskip that still honours and establishes the core settings. Not to mention that Hosoda himself is a fan of western live-action and episodic, espionage drama, so it really nails in the niche look of the show that is a rarity in anime form. Not to worry if you've been itching to play the game, because this show can be taken as a one-shot format of a prequel story.

The Golden Rule technique of "Show, Don't Tell" is an art in and of itself, to which the story and characters are related through sensory details and actions. Rather than just ham-fisting readers/viewers with exposition, it fosters with the immersion build-up, allowing them to “be in the room” with the characters. And that's how Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst sets the scene for this show, which takes place 20 years before the game's beginning. Two young characters, seemingly unrelated to one another: Innumael, just an ordinary blue-collar worker, and Leocadio, a soldier in the Wahrheit Imperial Army. Through "A Series of Unfortunate Events" that involves a highly-prized smuggled weapon, and tying both character's fate and destiny individually and together to fighting for what they believe is right with their lives, to the seemingly "random" characters of affiliations, the cat-and-mouse "Two sides of the coin" battle between organizations, cults and empires are truly a force to be reckoned with. Another Akudama Drive-type show, but in a historical military-esque setting that does the suspense well, and keeping up with the illusive foreshadowing of balanced pacing and exposition that defines both the anime and game as a single package. Props to Yuichiro Momose for co-supervising both the scriptwriting and screenplay with Hosoda.

The characters are really interesting as well: Every single one of them is kept being purposeful to the plot that accumulates overtime, tantamount to the endings of stories with solid foundations that actually use their resources to the full. At first, you're left wondering why both Innumael and Leocadio, as young chaps as they can be, seem like fools in a river full of piranhas that have people creep up to them for their actions. But as the story progresses, as we play the "Guessing Game" of theorized craftsmanship, it keeps the extremely tight pacing consistent, while fleshing out the execution of amounting pressures and tensions enough to keep you focused and invested. Every single decision and motivation made between all characters (as many and difficult as you can count and follow, besides Innumael and Leo) actually make sense that moves the story along, and doesn't make you feel like you've wasted an inch of time on this show. That to me can be hit-or-miss, but it really keeps you on your toes of the next plot pointer(s).

Some notable characters of a lightning round:
- Both veteran VAs Asutshi Abe and Yuuki Ono were really good fits for both Innumael and Leocadio.
- The one, the only veteran VA Kenjiro Tsuda, voicing Innumael's superior Captain Helman. The instaneously recognizable gangster voice dubbing a "grim reaper"-like character, that is the charismatic "scummy" voice we all know and love.
- Character designs don't go as nice and well-drawn as Schaake Gutheil. A red-haired, green-eyes girl, and a member of the mysterious organization Headkeeper, she excels at being both serious and a bad-ass.

The reason why I say notable is because this is newcomer Akiko Sugizono's debut anime doing character design all by herself. Having drawn only female characters, and it was a monumental task for her to draw and design male characters, and it was an insane challenge for her. Luckily, Naoto Hosoda also had dips in the formulation of the character designs, so it's a win-win on both sides of the story.

The music is also another fascinating viewpoint. Director Naoto Hosoda explains that the show's voice-acting was done during the COVID season, so most of the Seiyuu have to do their recording remotely, as opposed to the regular sound-mixing studio where the entire cast will gather and do their recording all at once. As a consequence of the pandemic, it took 3 times as long for the entire cast to record their lines, but thanks to the veteran cast's skills and professionalism, along with sound director Kisuke Koizumi, the VA job is handled graciously. Add in another veteran of sound composer Masaru Yokohara (Kanata no Astra, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso), and wow, what a star-studded production team that is a blessing to add to the show's grimacing atmosphere.

Maon Kurosaki attempting an opera-like OP, and H-el-ical// with another dark-edged ED, the OST does a pretty good job setting the mood and the theme of the series, matching its American counterparts of a classic visual opening and silhouetted black-screen ending with "historically classical" music.

The elephant in the room is undoubtedly the mediocre visuals and animation, but it's a no-brainer of a surprise coming from the now 5-year-old studio, Yokohama Animation Laboratory. They did some ONA co-productions in the past, but it's not until Miru Tights that they branched out doing original work. Even with the KLab Games' deal with Summer 2020's Lapis Re:Lights mixed-media franchise, these 2 shows showed potential for the studio to do low-budget animation that's a considerable pass. And everything about both shows can be applied here, just with a dark, cinematic tone (while sticking with KLab's dealership). In spite of the worsening animation (that's lucrative of a low-budget studio), the visuals do get the job done explicitly with art director Hirotsugu Kakoi at the helm, expressing the entire show in its own unique class.

Despite a small production team of a mix between old and new staff, an S-Grade of a character voice-dubbing cast, and masterfully-crafted soulful music of veteran directors, honestly, this show stands on a marvel of its own merit. It's more than just your typical "cash-cow" mobage anime adaptation, and I feel that this is one of the few pedigrees of game adaptations that truly gets the formula right: beckoning anime-onlys to play the game to discover what the advertised game is all about.

I'm just going to say this: even if you have no intentions to check out the mobile game, this is a hidden gem of a must-watch. As I mentioned in the beginning: this is classic Naoto Hosoda storytelling at its finest, and it's expected that not a lot of people will like it (as evident by MAL scores), but please, give this a try.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 3, 2021

pluvia33

Mixed Feelings

To put this out front, I just finished this series after mostly watching it week-to-week and it largely left me with a feeling of emptiness. The few reviews that I tend to write are pretty well planned out if nothing else, but this time around I'm going to just write this as I go to use it as a way to work through my feelings on what I just watched. So, yeah.... To that end, I'll still keep my usual category breakout format and get right into it:

-----Story - 3 out of 10-----
Magatsu Wahrheit is an anime based on a mobile game which takes place ... in magitech setting, fusing industrial age modern esthetics with classic sword and sorcery fantasy elements mixed in. The main plot centers on how a normal truck driver gets mixed up in a resistance organization while a bunch of political intrigue concerning a magical disease and experimentation goes on in the background. To its credit, I felt that the story structure of the series went really well at first! They drop you into an interesting situation without spoon feeding you a bunch of backstory. Things for the most part naturally come to light and seem pretty interesting. But then, the series just kind of loses focus. They're setting up a bunch of "stuff" and I'm watching wondering if any of it is going to actually go anywhere. There are a few sparse bright spots, like a subplot that takes place with a small village in the forest that I thought was genuinely interesting and touching. But it mostly just meanders along until I absolutely lose all interest in the story. And then finally, they committed the dreadful sin of a grand exposition dump with took up the entire first half of episode 10, betraying the previous more natural storytelling structure. It was so frustratingly bad that I would have been pulling at my hair if it wasn't for the fact that I shave my head. Then the ending came.... Now, I don't really mind a non-conclusive ending, but the final "and the story continues...." crap that they pulled at the end of this left me wondering what the point was in all of this?? I mean, I assume the point was to advertise the mobile game, but still. Could they not have done better? It felt like this was originally supposed to be a 24 episode series, but it wasn't doing all that well so they decided to make it half as long. I don't know. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe this story will appeal to an audience that is more into political intrigue than I am, but man, I just thought the story was an utter mess.

-----Art - 4 out of 10-----
If I had to describe the art and animation of this series in one word, it'd be "inconsistent". Yes, having some inconsistencies in the production for a weekly TV anime is to be expected, especially when also dealing with COVID-19 leading up to and during its production. But this is some pretty bad stuff. First thing is the hilariously bad opening credits "animation". The first few episodes had a temp-opening which was little more than a Windows 95 screensaver with some text over it. Then, they eventually got a "finished" OP together which was barely better, mostly consisting of the series' central artifact floating around with silhouette action animation mostly consisting of scenes from the show itself. Oh, and then the ending credits didn't even bother with trying to do anything as it was just text scroll on a black screen. Anyway, so what about the look of the series proper? Well, there were some actual good points to this as the animation of the big action sequence in the first episode looked pretty cool! And the look of the series was unique and interesting enough overall; not your typical fantasy look for the most part so it can act as a bit of a breath of fresh air. But then, some of the character designs just look weird and there is a plethora of off-model faces that began to make me laugh constantly at one point. Again, I don't know how fair this criticism is when this kind of thing isn't particularly rare in anime, plus dealing with COVID could have been a factor, but man this largely sucked.

-----Sound - 6 out of 10-----
The highest score I'm giving goes to Sound! And it's just an "it's alright" 6-score in the end. I felt that a good amount of the music was really nice. I was especially a fan of this one particular recurring little ditty that was in damn near every episode. And the voice acting overall wasn't bad, but wasn't particularly memorable either. Honestly, this might have gotten a better score if there was more music, but they did re-use a LOT of stuff. But hey, overall, not bad.

-----Characters - 5 out of 10-----
One of my biggest personal things in fiction is that I can still enjoy a series with a weak story as long as I have some nice characters to latch onto. Unfortunately, this is largely a plot-focused story so there is only so much that good characters can do. And sadly, when it comes to the characters in Magatsu Wahrheit, as a whole they were mediocre at best. I did find our lead Innumael to be enjoyable/interesting for the most part, although he did legitimately get annoying at times. Spunky little Irma was probably my second favorite character in the series, but she wasn't in it enough to make much of an impact. Aside from that, the characters didn't do much for me. I thought the series especially had a major villain problem. One of the best antagonists was a psychotics military commander, but he was pretty much just generic pure evil dude with little real motivation and once he was out of the picture there wasn't much to fill the void since all of the other bad stuff was being worked "from the shadows" or whatnot.

-----Enjoyment - 4 out of 10-----
So how was my personal enjoyment of this series? Well, that's kind of what I'm trying to figure out. I ended up giving this series a personal score of a "4", something that I don't do very often with my broad tastes and largely forgiving critiques of entertainment. But with how empty and pointless the whole experience of watching this felt, it definitely fit the "Bad" label that a "4" holds in the "Your Score" dropdown on MAL. While I was enjoying myself and interested in the series for the first few episodes, I then began to enjoy it less and less until it became a legitimate chore to sit through around the 8th episode. But at that point, I was in it for the long haul and just watching it once a week wasn't PURE torture or anything. But man, in the end I just couldn't grasp what the point of this all was. Innumael kind of seemed to have grown throughout the series, but also mostly felt the same. The main promo image used on Funimation's page for this series shows a 2-halves look at Innumael and Leocadio, one half of them as they look at the beginning of the series and the other showing more badass versions of them sometime in the future. But in the scope of the anime, these fully badass versions are never seen, with the only part that's truly realized being the cut across Leo's face. Again, it feels like this was originally meant to be a 24 episode series that got cut short, or you're just expected to move from this to the mobile game. Who knows. But whatever the reasoning is, I felt fully unsatisfied with this series in every way and it hurts all the more because of its earlier potential.

-----Overall - 5 out of 10 (Conclusion)-----
In the end, I'm going to go ahead and bump my overall review score for this series up one point from my personal enjoyment score. I admit that a major reason for that is me being influenced by the fact that prior to me writing this review, the lowest review score given was a "6" and the literal majority of reviews posted are 9s or better. I MUST be missing something, right? Did I just "not get" this series? Again, I'm generally rather kind with my critique of anime as I have pretty broad tastes. Usually, if I don't like something that others do, I can recognize it largely as a matter of personal taste. And granted, the average score for this series is not great (6.60 at the time of writing), so maybe it's mostly just people who enjoyed the series that are inspired enough to review it, while those who didn't like it simply didn't care enough to write a review? I don't know. I guess there might be something here to enjoy if magitech and political intrigue are things you're REALLY into. But for me, that just wasn't enough to counteract the inconsistent production, incomplete and uninteresting story, and overall meh characters. And with that, I guess this came out just about as extensive as most of my other reviews. Well, hope this was somehow helpful for someone to read! It was at least a nice way for me to gather my thoughts on this series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 8, 2021

Kage_Okami

Not Recommended

Having read all the 8's, 9's and such I was spurred into action by my sense of justice...and to let readers see a different opinion other than the fanatics of the series.

Firstly if you looking for a good action filled anime, this ain't it. Sorry sunshine but this one is tons of dialogue and politics. But hey, believe it or not, that's not the worst part of this horrible adaptation.

See, they need to leave these no name game adaptations where they belong, nowhere. But I digress, that's just a little rant of mine.

Putting it bluntly so's that I don't bore you to death, ... the worst part of this anime is the characters, and not all the characters, just a the lead. And not BOTH leads, just the little pansy who suddenly becomes a hero. Because yeah, we haven't seen that character type before.

Other than that, I can overlook the character designs, the generic facial animations and the text book personality traits as seen in this title.

Overall, it's a huge skip unless you like cookie, then enjoy this baked treat courtesy of the a-typical cookie cutter that seems to be Japanese game animation adaptations.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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