DISCLAIMER: I tried to conceal most spoilers, but some information will leak through, namely the kind of plot the series develops, but not the specifics. Also, this review was originally made with scores on a scale of 100, so values will be rounded down or up to arrive at the desired final score on MAL's scoring system, and what I tried to evaluate isn't the same as what MAL seeks to evaluate.
There are so many shows and series out there that feature mages and wizards concealed in the midst of our real-world society. Sometimes, large-scale battles take place. Did you ever wonder how
...
"magical criminals" might be handled post-incidents, or how the law might account for the existence of magic, and for the resulting destruction?
WELL THEN, this anime was made for you!
...Or so I would like to say.
In reality, this show is about as much about lawyers as it is about groping breasts, since an almost comparable amount of time is dedicated to either subject. But let's take a look at each aspect individually:
Story - 5.5/10 (rounded to 5):
The setting is introduced as being seemingly like our world, only with certain humans adquiring magical powers. It is established early on that this is common knowledge.
The plot is centered around Cecil Sudo, as she joins a law firm and struggles with becoming a competent barrister, surrounded by a variety of other characters who all have at least mild interest in her.
Back to the setting though: Even though mages with considerable power to summon automated/controllable constructs and manipulate the elements and objects exist, society has evolved just like ours, with no additional technological/"magical" advances taking place.
Instead, there are now laws and discrimination towards mages, to the point that they can't even hold public positions.
It's hard to fathom that no experiments took place or attempts were successful to use magic to better our world, and that instead laws were put into place that would prevent the use of magic in nearly any situation; this sort of contrivance could be explained away by giving some insight on how things ended up like this, but the show doesn't really try.
The whole plot could be described as a somewhat generic "prophecy" scenario about a certain character, and it progresses in a linear fashion. The unusual setting (the wizard barristers and whatnot) could in theory make the deal sweeter but in practice the main characters could've been ordinary mages and not barristers, for the most part, and the story would've stayed the same.
They cite one of two different laws, sit in court, talk to suspects or look for evidence (this last one happens a lot in many shows independently of the characters being barristers or not). The "barrister element" is there but it's not all that important to the central plot, which revolves around Cecil searching for clues regarding her past and a certain event that took place years ago, and soon this element fades into the background.
Even in the end, when the real story hidden behind the daily routine and "issue of the week" format gets explained, the reasoning offered doesn't answer many of the questions posited in the beginning.
Some of the key motivating events of Cecil's past make more sense in the initial excuse plot given than they do in the grand scheme of things; the story is so focused on providing evidence for the wrongdoings of certain characters, that it completely neglects to explain why the first and most important events took place.
Also, there are a few panty shots and groping of breasts/butts, mostly courtesy of the frog familiar Nana Genie (not sure if this is the correct spelling but it's the one that makes the most sense). He and Koromo Sasori incorporate all of the direct ecchi elements of the show. Sometimes they clash with the surrounding mood, sometimes they don't (just kidding, they always do).
I should add that I'm heavily biased against ecchi in most shows; depending on how it's handled it can erode the serious tone of any scene. Cecil keeps Nana Genie around despite all the groping, and even though she always eventually slaps him away, I can't help but dislike this frequent unsolicited contact.
Characters - 4.5/10 (rounded to 4):
This was the show's greatest flaw (aside from animation problems when it aired, of course). A great deal of characters were bland and/or stereotypical, sometimes aggravatingly so, including the protagonist.
In particular, the majority of the barristers on the show were one-dimensional and their personality traits and interests could be completely summarized in one sentence each. Right at the start of the show it's easy to catch on to what are the major traits of each character and they never change much beyond that.
A few episodes are dedicated to expanding the backstories or just introducing different traits for some of the barristers, and yet, they went through little character development. When they did go through some, it was the kind that you could see them going through right from episode 1 (like a "tsundere" type character becoming softer and nicer to her target).
Cecil is pure, innocent and always optimistic. As a 17 year old, it is shown that she's far younger than the other barristers and therefore may be a tad immature and unprepared for field work. These traits leave her feeling generic as this is the typical description of any "innocent little kid" for most shows.
The issue with her characterization becomes more relevant later on as she goes through quite a few traumatic events, but after a display of emotions on the spot, remains seemingly the same character-wise.
The character lines and conversations were alright. Nothing too insightful or surprising from the majority of the characters. There were quite a few times where the dialog between characters would also sound less like what a person might say to another in that situation, and more like said character was addressing the viewers specifically to provide some info you'd be wondering about, but this apparent fourth-wall breaking felt very unintentional and awkward given the setting.
Visuals - 7.5/10 (rounded to 8):
The strong point, in my opinion. Beautiful color usage for the character designs (right off the bat, just look at the different hair colors in the show's opening! It's indicative of the rest of the palette). The magic duels were also very beautiful.
The scenery was also very colorful, but it was often rendered through CGI, and as such would sometimes stand out a bit compared to the hand-drawn characters. Special mention goes to the court-room that looked pretty damn bad and was a reoccurring element in the story.
The metamoloid/mechas had intricate and neat designs for the most part (animation non-withstanding), though the villains seemingly always used the same mecha for most of the show. They also looked very awkward when combined with traditionally animated characters.
It had a rounded approach to character faces and the body proportions were realistic. The characters wore normal clothes for the most part, a tad outlandish sometimes given their profession. No two characters on the main cast wore the same outfit, and a decent bit of detail went into each specific design, further differentiating each barrister.
Overall, the visuals were nice enough, mainly the hand-drawn ones. Since they were the focus, for the most part it was easy to ignore the CGI in the background, though not always.
Animation - 6 /10:
I won't take into account animation failures that took place when it was airing, but if I did, then the only thing to say would be: they were terrible and completely ruined the mood, immersion and interest for what could be considered the climax of the entire show. I would not advise anyone to watch the version of the show that aired.
Now, putting those aside, and only considering the fixed scenes in the blu-ray:
The traditional animation was good overall. The normal day-to-day scenes were nothing to scoff at, but it was during the magic fights where it shined the most.
thought the way they animated anything not-solid during magic duels was very good: the fire, the water, the air, the dust, they all had significant movement and felt like they were actually gaseous/liquid, instead of solid blocks of orange or blue.
It's a real shame that the mechas were animated at a rather low framecount and looked very dated technology-wise. Even worse, many of the fights would overlap segments of hand-drawn magic flinging with the dreadful mechas slowly lumbering and swinging away, drawing away the viewer's attention from what was actually worth watching.
If the mechas weren't there I'd rate the animation a 8/10.
Sound Quality - 7.5/10 (rounded to 7):
The soundtrack was cheerful and upbeat for the scenes that warranted it, and somber for the more darker scenes, though these were far and in-between. So cheerful were most of the tracks, that when the show got harsher and darker the accompanying BGM could come across as trying too hard, or lead to some mood whiplash.
But overall, as with the animation quality, it's standard, nothing too catchy but not bad either.
The opening theme bears the distinction of going through a lot of "phases" in the song; contrary to most openings these days, the song doesn't cycle from the beginning to the refrain/chorus (as in, they're not versions of the same thing), and I found that quite refreshing. It feels a tad too serious for the initial episodes, but matches the ending ones better.
The sound effects used were alright. Nothing too garish, but nothing impressive either.
The voice-acting, as everything else in the sound department, felt mostly average. Maxwell and Moyo Tento's voice-over stood out as particularly appropriate compared to the rest; the former's was calm, focused and lent some strength to the otherwise bland lines he belted out, and Moyo's was playful and with the proper tones to leave the viewer wondering if there was more to her.
On the other hand, Cecil's voice-work was for the low-point, being very high-pitched and too energetic. In a show where everyone else had deeper or more subdued voices, spoke slowly/mysteriously or calmly, her voice left my ears ringing more than once. I think I understand the kind of character they wanted to portray but they went overboard.
Enjoyment:
I don't usually take this into account when scoring, but since everyone likes to mention whether they liked the show or not, I'll do the same. MAL even requires you to add a score for this, so I rated it a 7, but it doesn't matter for the final score.
A few characters (Moyoyon best girl) were great fun for me, even if some of them were one-dimensional, since they happened to have the character traits I like.
I enjoyed both the beginning and the end episodes, since in the beginning they were still introducing what magic and wizards are capable of, and in the end the story finally settled down to what it really was about (without going into details). The magic duels, as I've mentioned more than once, were also great fun.
The middle of it was rather dull, plagued with the introduction of numerous stereotypical characters in need of aid, ecchi moments with very bad timing, and in general I couldn't get a feel as to what the show wanted to do; focus on magic in general, on wizard barristers specifically, on Cecil as a person of interest, or deliver some vague lesson on morality, humanity and discrimination.
Conclusion:
A somewhat unoriginal plot masked in a setting that could be very interesting and unique, but was left greatly unbuilt and unexplored. Bland characters, decent but unremarkable soundtrack and bad CGI. The traditional animation and the art-style was definitely enjoyable though.
All added up, this means a 6.2/10. In MAL's system I rounded it down to a 6/10.
If you are just feeling like watching an "average" mystery show for the sake of nice magical fights, then this might be worth a try. I would also encourage anyone to check out the opening and a few stills of they can, since the visuals are the main selling point.
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May 3, 2015
Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil
(Anime)
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DISCLAIMER: I tried to conceal most spoilers, but some information will leak through, namely the kind of plot the series develops, but not the specifics. Also, this review was originally made with scores on a scale of 100, so values will be rounded down or up to arrive at the desired final score on MAL's scoring system, and what I tried to evaluate isn't the same as what MAL seeks to evaluate.
There are so many shows and series out there that feature mages and wizards concealed in the midst of our real-world society. Sometimes, large-scale battles take place. Did you ever wonder how ... |
