[Story]: (6.5/10)
The story of "Soushin Shojou Matoi" (or Matoi The Sacred Slayed in English) isn't anything special like Madoka Magica or Yuki Yuna is a Hero. It's basically about a normal middle school girl named "Matoi" who wants to live a simple, ordinary life. Due to a sudden turn of events, she suddenly became a magical gir-...woops, my bad....I mean, an exorcist girl whose job is to exorcise the demons known as "The Nights". She and other exorcist girls teams up to defeat the Nights that's ravaging their world. Think of other magical girl shows out there and you'll barely notice any difference between this show and other magical girl shows. I guess the only slight difference here is that the girls here have their own "familiars" or what the show likes to call them "Kami" (Gods) which fights alongside them.
Now that doesn't mean the show is bad. Sure, this type of story has been done before but the show was surprisingly pleasant to watch. The show had a very mediocre start (1st episode was honestly bad, albeit really boring) but it progressively got better bit by bit as the show went on and by the 2nd half of the series, the show was enjoyable to watch and I ended up enjoying the story (The mystery about the Nights, who they are, what they're doing in this world and their purpose) as it unfolded. I also enjoyed the development between Matoi and her dad, which is, in my opinion, one of the best aspects of this show. Just ignore the scene where Matoi's dad accidentally groped her daughter's boobs, which is very disturbing even if it was only used for comical purposes.
Speaking of grabbing someone's boobs, the show doesn't have a lot of fanservice. Most of the fanservice scenes that you'll see are only present in the first half of the series. 95% of them are Matoi getting stripped and running around naked because anime. Thank God, my mom didn't walk in and spot a naked middle school girl running around on my screen or else she would have called the cops on me immediately even though I'm her son. Anyways, in the second half, the fanservice got very light. There's still the "obligatory" beach episode but unlike the other beach episodes out there, it wasn't some useless filler fanservice-heavy episode. The episode was still relevant to the plot which kinda surprised me.
The comedic aspect of the show was alright. Yuma is supposed to be the comic-relief character of this show but before the "Yuma-focused" episode, Yuma's actions weren't funny for the most part and at that point of the show, it became apparent to me that the show was just trying too hard to be funny. However, the episode that focused on Yuma was legit hilarious and it's when Yuma truly shined. Moving on, the dramatic aspect of the show was also ok but I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't one part of the show that made me emotional.
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[Art/Animation]: (8/10)
If you've watched any of White Fox's shows before then I can almost guarantee you that the first question that will pop up in your mind when you look at this show is "White Fox made this?" or somewhere along those lines. Judging by the art style, this doesn't even look like a White Fox show. This looks like something "Studio Trigger" made. That cheap-looking but somehow beautiful and unique looking art that Studio Trigger is known for is what Shoushin Shojou Matoi looks like. It makes me wonder if this is White Fox's insurance policy just in case Re:Zero flops because this show looks cheap compared to their other shows. Anyways, I actually like the art style. It looks somewhat unique and beautiful. The animation for the action scenes were also fairly smooth and wasn't a pain to watch.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
The OSTs for this show is awesome. No, it's not awesome. It's AMAZING!! Reading it off my review can't properly convey to you how amazing the OST is though so you have to listen to it for yourself. The OSTs for this show's action scenes is what made them more exciting to watch. I actually decided to research who did the OST and it turns out that Tatsuya Kato is the person who composed the OST. The same person who also did the OSTs for both seasons of Shokugeki no Souma (Food Wars) which explains everything. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)
The OP theme song is "Chou Musubi Amulet" by Mia REGINA. This OP is one of my Top 10 OP for this season. The song sounds very...I don't know how to say it properly....powerful. You'll understand once you listen to the song. The song is also very catchy and the singer's voice sounds wonderful.
The ED theme song is "My Only Place" by Sphere. I love songs that have dramatic/melancholic tune and the song was exactly just that which is the reason why I love this ED.
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[Characters]: (7/10)
Matoi Sumeragi, the main protagonist of the series, is a character that I ended up liking more and more as the show progressed. At first, I thought she was an annoying and useless character and I thought she was going to constantly whine throughout the series about her wanting a regular life despite the fact that she was chosen to become an exorcist girl but I'm glad she changed for the better at the end. Matoi isn't just some character who wants to fight because "Fuck it, I'm a Mahou Shoujo". She clearly doesn't want to fight because she wants a regular life but she fights because she wants to protect those she cares about. Especially her Dad.
Matoi and her Dad's relationship is one aspect of the show that I really enjoyed watching. Hell, I loved watching their relationship grow. At first, their relationship was a bit weird. The fact that Matoi calls her dad by his first name should already tell you that they have a strained relationship. As the story progressed though, you'll understand what happened between Matoi and her parents and why Matoi calls her Dad by his first name. The last 2 episodes which further enhances the father-daughter relationship are the scenes that they handled really well. It wasn't too melodramatic and it was a right amount of drama that admittedly made a guy like me emotional.
Matoi is a really good main protagonist and she also got a good amount of character development but unfortunately I can't say the same thing about the other characters. Yuma Kusanagi, a friend of Matoi, is at best a decent character. She was annoying at the start and truth be told, she almost ruined the show for me with her annoying-ass personality and her unfunny jokes but after she got her own dedicated episode, her character improved but she's still not as good as Matoi's character. She also got a decent amount of character development. Her backstory pretty much explained almost everything about her and why she's an exorcist girl.
One last character that I want to talk about is Claris Tonitolus. If it wasn't for the fact that she's one of the main character of the series, she would have been a completely forgettable character. Her personality is boring and they did explain why she is the way she is and her purpose for fighting the Nights but that doesn't change the fact that she was boring to watch at the first half of the series, besides her being a badass when she turns into an exorcist. Although, her character improved slightly on the second half so she was more bearable to watch on the second half.
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[Enjoyment]: (7.5/10)
Soushin Shojo Matoi was painful to watch at first. It was boring and I even thought of dropping this show but thank god, I stuck with it because it ended up being a good series at the end and a show that I enjoyed watching every week.
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[VERDICT]
I had somewhat of a high expectations when I decided to watch this show because it was being animated by White Fox and while it didn't really live up to my expectations, I still like the show for what it is. A regular magical girl show that isn't trying to be too dark or edgy and with a decent story and a good cast of characters which took time to get used to. This show is definitely recommended if you just want a magical girl show that isn't too dark in nature or characters suffering in despair.
[OVERALL]: (7.5/10)
