This is the script for my video-review of the show over on youtube, so if you don't wanna read it, listen to me talk about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn7Wk9_TudM
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Magi is a shounen fantasy adventure, but this time, it's one borrowing not only themes from the arabian one-thousand and one nights, but many other countries as well!
It is based on an ongoing manga by author Ohtaka Shinobu and was adapted as 2 TV series spanning 25 episodes each.
The adaptation by A1-Pictures contains the first 110 chapters of the manga, staying mostly true to the source material, was directed by Masunari Koji and aired in Fall 2012.
In Magi's world, several so-called dungeons appeared throughout the lands years ago.
Filled with tons of treasures and magic items, the strongest being "djinn vessels", many young adventurers tried to conquer them, with only a handful of the strongest ever returning alive.
In the desert city of Quichan, our protagonist Alibaba works hard earning enough money to one day conquer the local dungeon "Amon", fulfilling his wish of becoming rich.
Here, he meets the young and mysterious boy Aladdin, who doesn't understand how the world works and therefore gets Alibaba in all kinds of trouble with his boss, all while having to swallow his pride.
When an accident happens while transporting wine to another city and a big desert monster threatens to eat a child alive, Aladdin gets impressed by Alibaba, who can't just stand by and watch.
The two of them then decide to venture into the unknown, as they are responsible for the loss of the wine and in big debt, and go to conquer Amon!
From the beginning on, the series shows us that Alibaba isn't your usual shounen protagonist who's just brawns and no brains, as he knows what he has to do and seems knowledgable in a few uncommon territories, recognizing the monster in the desert or being able to decypher a foreign language.
The anime's third arc, which focuses more on his background, makes perfect sense of all this and places Alibaba somewhere far up near the top when talking about good shounen characters.
Aladdin on the other hand stays mysterious for a long time, and while he isn't a well-rounded character from the beginning, he gets to learn quite a lot from the people he meets and has pretty good reasoning, even though many of his actions only motivation is "For my friend Alibaba!"
Then there's Morgiana, a red-haired slave girl from the very strong, southern tribe called "Fanalis", designwise seemingly inspired by the egyptians. She is hands-down the best thing in existence.
While the show is generally missing a few good female characters, Morgiana would take the place of best girl no matter how perfect the others could be! JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE!
In the beginning, she follows our male protagonists only out of thankfulness for freeing her, but soon, she evolves into their friend, making these 3 characters a really good team.
As for other important characters, there's Sinbad, also called "Sinworst", which is true.
He's introduced as a pretty laid-back, but powerful man, having conquered not one, but seven dungeons in his life-time.
He's not having that much of a formed character during this season, but he is more important for the future of the franchise.
Similarily, Judar, a black-haired mage working for Kou, a big empire in the east inspired by chinese history, seems like a normal "bad guy", but does have some signs of there being a reason for why he is how he is.
Hakuryuu, a prince of that Kou empire, is important for the future of the series as well, but already has relevance in the second half of the first season, where he's getting a decent character, not on the level of Alibaba and Aladdin, but by far enough to impress me.
The secondary characters sadly go nowhere out of the ordinary, with the only ones worth mentioning for me being the grandmother of the Kouga tribe and Hakuryuu's sister, Hakuei.
The first serving as a mentor for Aladdin, teaching him what life means and how you have to deal with putting your life on the line in a fight.
The later mostly introducing the Kou empire and showing that it isn't full of bad people and that their goal isn't just to conquer the world, but to actually unify it and create one peaceful country.
The several antagonists introduced in each arc have some reasoning behind their actions, but are generally more mid-tier, but the important ones are really not bad characters.
The animation is really the thing that makes me completely disappointed of the adaptation.
The quality drops so hard that the second half wasn't really enjoyable anymore, and after having read the manga, I wanted to watch the show just to see Morgiana dance.
Yes, I am salty because it didn't look like shown in the second opening, but still, the animation has no positive points, and except for a few scenes, the first half doesn't stand out either.
The actual artstyle though is kinda interesting, as the different influences are really fun to see and observe.
It ranges from the already mentioned "1001 nights" and imperial chinese over to the mongolian plains, where the Kouga clan lives.
And Sindria is apparently based on India.
Regarding the character designs, I can just say that -quote- "all the characters are cute" -quote end-.
No seriously, like the world, the characters with their different nationalities are all interesting enough to make me want to see more.
And Morgiana is cute.
No objection accepted!
The soundtrack centers mostly around the thematic of "1001 nights", with most songs straying a bit in different directions, which is interesting, and there are definetly a few in there I listen to outside of the show.
If I had to mention my favorites, they'd be #1 - "Enfin Apparu", #6 - "Faut il Saver" and #13 - "Valse Hot".
Then there's the voice acting, in which my second big problem with the show lies, even though it is heavily influenced by my knowledge of the manga.
It makes perfect sense to let a woman voice the 10 year old Aladdin, but it just quickly doesn't feel right anymore, with him soon stopping to act like a kid and his appearance remaining the only childish feature he has.
The other characters fit their voices pretty well, so I won't complain about any of them.
I've been saying "For the future" a lot in this review, so I'll need to get this out of the way.
The show is not finished, but the manga just entered its final arc not too long ago and I predict the announcement of a third season towards its final stretch.
This may take a few more years, I'll just unknowingly throw "Summer 2017" in the room, but keep in mind, I don't know any more about this than the next person.
Now, that's it, but is „Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic“ worth the watch?
The thing is: You should give the franchise a chance!
If you like manga, I'd actually prefer to recommend you giving that one a read.
If you don't want to read the manga, try watching the anime.
I can't say the show is good, especially because of the problems in animation, but I dare say the story and characters are on par with something like Fullmetal Alchemist, which is commonly reffered to as a masterpiece.
So to sum it up with one simple question:
Would you watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, if the animation sucked?
If your answer is yes, then go watch Magi, if the answer is no, give the manga a read!
If you don't want to read the manga, definetly go for the anime, you'll just have to sit through the enjoyment-killing parts.
