Story: 6
A shounen if I've ever seen one. The story is the usually, a run of the mill group of hero's trying to overcome adversity, and fight against the big bad. It's a formula that most Anime under this genre follow, and that isn't really a bad thing. It's fun, and entertaining. It also has some much needed flare from the addition of using characters from the Arabian Night stories. Sadly being fun doesn't really make it fantastic. Yes I enjoyed my time in this world and enjoyed the adventure, but it just didn't do anything beyond the template. This isn't the worst shounen I've ever seen (I'm looking at you Naruto), but it certainly isn't the best. Besides being generic, it also was plagued with some pacing problems. Some of the arc's lasted way to long. I should also note the thick level of cheese in some of the more "emotional" scenes. The sound designer blared away a lot of the tragedy or serious nature of these scenes with some overbearing music (more on that later).
Art: 7
It isn't gonna win any awards for it's art assets, but they were good for what it was. The show was filled with bright vibrant environments, and wonderfully designed characters. Some of the CG here and there was shotty, but besides that nothing to really complain about.
Sound: 5
Usually the OST to shows don't bug me. I either love them or just shrug, but this was pretty bad. Sometimes less is more, and I don't think the director understood that. When something serious or tragic is happening I want to be able to be taken by the moment. Usually music in any medium adds to the characters and the situation, but not here. For instance in one scene their was something that was meant to be really heartwarming and serious, but this freaking "heroic" trumpet comes in and smashed the scene all together. It was just over bearing, and made something sad into a cheese fest. The only reason that this score isn't much lower is because some tunes were alright, and the voice acting was fair. But my god I hate it when something takes me out of a story like that.
Characters: 7
Quite the lovely ensemble of heroes. Now I assume as the story continues this score will go up. Since this isn't the complete tale there are obviously some characters that aren't fully developed or realized. The ones that we currently have are all fairly enjoyable. Alibaba and Aladdin are fantastic. Oh and Sinbad is fabulous, and a God among men. I could use a little more from Morgiana, but she was still alright. Now for the main problem I had with the characters. The villains were so meh, besides the wonderful midriff Magi known as Judal they just didn't do much. I know they will probably go into more detail about them as the story moves forward, but as of right now the whole "evil organization" thing is pretty lame.
Enjoyment: 8
The more I think about it the more I actually liked the show. Even tho some parts made me question "why this arc was lasting 7 episodes?" or turning to my brother and saying "Yo look at that ass pull" I still had a ton of fun.
Overall: 6.6
Though it wasn't as good as my friends made it out to be "Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic" was still a fun ride. If you like shounens then I suggest giving this one a shot. If they aren't really your thing, but are just looking for some fun in the Arabian sun then I would also say go for it. Although it had some short comings and pretty horrid sound track, Magi's loveable cast of characters and entertaining world help make this adventure one worth going on.
