Kyoto Animation, as a studio, has pretty much sated our hunger for anime, and a lot of the stuff they make is usually great. But every now and again, they hit a rut: they make an anime that's so bad, bland, and/or boring, that they try and cover up that anime's mediocre fanservice, unmemorable soundtrack, bad characters, worse character development with a pseudo-interesting take on its genre, beautiful art, and flashy effects. Notice the keyword "try." If you're smart and alert, you can catch KyoAni red-handed. We've seen it with Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!, we've seen it with Free! Iwatobi Swim Club; we've also seen it with spinoffs of rather successful/respectable KyoAni works, such as Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, K-On!, and Hyouka.
Musaigen no Phantom World is no different. Once starting off as a very good manga, its anime adaptation behaved as Pupa did, in the sense that it failed to meet the standards of its manga predecessor.
Story: 5/10
Musaigen no Phantom World is basically just another show that Kyoto Animation slips up on, and tried to cover up with some fat anime tiddies and lolis. While the story that Musaigen concocted sounded great in theory - humans being able to see and interact with supernatual entities known as Phantoms due to a research facility bombing spreading a virus that gives humans this ability - the execution was rather lacking. There have been other anime out there where people can interact with otherworldly beings... but they do the job better... Like Mushishi. Hell, I think even InuYasha did it better: that show's cast at least had to JUMP through a bunch of flaming hoops to get to their goal.
I think Musaigen's story started to tank when KyoAni defaulted to the boring high school setting, and not coming up with an original, or a not-so-overused setting. It was even exacerbation by giving a select few characters in the show super powers, in a sense. In hindsight... it wasn't exactly the best idea. It wasn't even a good idea. They're not just abilities, but they're... "special" abilities. Because having a teddy bear grow to ten times its size to fight for you, and rubbing your jugs to try and use the "element of fire from your heart" is definitely what I call "special."
Art: 8/10
I gotta give it to Kyoto Animation: they know to make even some of their worst works look really, REALLY good. I feel bad to constantly roast them like this, since Musaigen's art has been proven to be very well done. The effects are very nice, too, and everything in the show feels really vibrant. I haven't experienced good visual quality like it since Hyouka or Hibike! Euphonium.
Their art and visual effects might have been their saving grace if everything else was better. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Sound: 6/10
Musaigen has fairly decent sound as well as their art. The sound effects of fight scenes between the characters and the Phantoms, the battle roars/cries of the Phantoms during these fights, the small little lilts of noise of each character's abilities; all of them are relatively decent. Sadly, Musaigen's SOUNDTRACK proves to be an issue: the OP and EP are both rather unmemorable and grating to the ears. The music during the fight scenes are heavily forgotten about as well, because of the visual effects that mesmerise us and distract us overall. Argh, damn you, beautiful graphics!
Characters: 2/10
Here we go, folks. We're at my least favourite part... or favourite. It is long, after all, so I guess it depends on whether or not you think I enjoy ranting about dreadful characters in Musaigen no Phantom World. Characters make up everything for the anime, from how we perceive them to how they develop from beginning to end. But Musaigen's characters are, for lack of a better term... trash.
Haruhiko Ichijou is our main male protagonist, in a cast that is overrun with attractive females (and a loli.) That alone should already be ringing a loud angry alarm in your head to a nice, roaring 10 exawatts. He's basically the nerdy kid that gets ragged on by his peers for bearing too much "useless" information. While he has the ability to banish and summon Phantoms by quickly drawing them in his sketchbook, the first half of his special power is pretty much made null and void by Izumi Reina, who we will be getting to shortly. Thus, Haruhiko has become what we label a "cuck" after the first few episodes. He does undergo mild improvement, but nothing whatsoever that appears to get rid of that NTR nature that shows he'll still get dumpster'd by his friends.
Haruhiko's annoying Phantom companion, Ruru, is basically a huge-chested Navi that's just blitzed on the strongest strain of amphetamines. She's cute to look at, but will cause the aneurysm in your head to swell more and more by the minute. I honestly thought she would be more levelheaded by the end, but unfortunately, that ain't the case.
Kawakami Mai is the large-breasted female MC. Is that alarm from earlier getting louder in your head? Well, we're not even halfway done yet, so buckle up even further. She's an unoriginal character, quite frankly: large jugs, awesome feats of strength, seemingly perfect and adored by her peers: she's basically Medaka from Medaka Box, but blonde. Her ability lets her rub her body parts, namely her rack and her hips, to summon an element from their respective spots to fight Phantoms with... it's like a sensual version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Booooring, next.
Izumi Reina, another female MC, is basically the "ojou-sama" of the show, with her soft-spoken demeanor, proper manners, strict parents, and her urge of saying "How dare you!" every time Haruhiko gets too close to her goodies (because those are the apparent perks of being a male in a harem-like anime), resulting in her cucking - I mean, decking him. Her ability allows her to banish Phantoms by devouring them, and this not only cucks Haruhiko even more, but of course this has to interfere with her personal life: she has an unrealistic appetite, and can eat anyone under the table, but she never has enough money. She's not a boring character by any means, but that doesn't mean she's not generic in terms of her personality and traits.
Minase Koito is yet another female MC in this ragtag harem of misfits. I can somewhat empathise with her: listening to music and being alone is what I do on a daily basis. However, she's basically just the generic "lone wolf" character who underwent ostracisation because she's more of a rebel/thug for her peers to handle. Her ability lets her use singing to combat Phantoms She's... okay, in the sense that she is cute, independent and can be kind of a badass at times, but her inability to warm up to others in reasonable time puts her behind greatly.
Kumamakura Kurumi is the shy lolita supporting character. I... I have to roast her. I can't NOT do it. First of all, this character is ten years old, and she still brings her teddy bear, Albrecht, to school. In one episode, she underwent PTSD harder than a war veteran at the peak of his 'Nam flashbacks because she *lost her bear* only to have the apparent psychedelic trip she's obviously on go into full swing when the teddy bear started talking to her in a magical land filled with giant mushrooms, because of, you guessed it, those darn Phantoms meddling in peoples' business! Second of all, her hair makes me pop a blood vessel in my eye harder than the filthy lolicons can pop a stiffy to hentai of her. She legitimately looks as though she woke up and called downstairs, "Hey, mom! Can I look like a praying mantis today?" It's even worse because her character was cute, to the point where I'm sickened by it all, and her development as a character is only slight, with her shy demeanor being a less crippling obstacle for her by a minute amount.
As you can tell, I have a deep-rooted loathing/disappointment for some of these characters. What is even more hilarious is that KyoAni tries to that thing, that really annoying thing where they make the harem aspect more harem-y by poking fun at the bonds between Haruhiko and the girls, like "when are they gonna go out/get married?"
Enjoyment: 4/10
Despite me ragging on Musaigen for its awful cast, I guess it's...fun? I mean, I guess that's all it is, like Chuunibyou was. The humour that Musaigen brought to the table was more or less hit or miss with a lot of the audience. It wasn't gut-busting when you did get it, either: it was just a little chuckle, or slightly more air escaping your nostrils. It was more or less cute girls doing cute things with a guy being thrown into awkward and risque situations for comedic relief. As a grown man who has undergone tons of cute girls doing cute things with Yuru Yuri, School-Live!, Kiniro Mosaic, Love Lab, and more, to be turned off from watching something with that many incorporations of moe-trash in it defeats me, really. Still, it is what I classify as fun, using the word "fun" as loosely as possible.
Overall: 5/10 ((5+8+6+2+4)/5 = 5)
It's average, at best. The sound is okay and the art is amazing. However, the music was rather lacklustre, the story could have been executed in a much better way, and the characters absolutely sucked. It's enjoyable only when you're making fun of it, honestly. KyoAni came up to bat, and while they did try to provide a very good show, it just became something that was namby-pamby, wishy-washy, and relatively bland like unflavoured tofu. All I can say is that at least they tried. But it wasn't their best, not by a long shot.
