Matoi the Sacred Slayer is an under-viewed show but don't let that stop you from watching it if you are a fan of the magical girl genre.
An area that I find MtSS to be particular lacking is the plot/story department which is what this show struggles with to a large extent. I can’t confirm whether it wants to be an episodic show with an overarching storyline or that it undergoes the linear format which is not the case through retrospection. It all takes off with shrine maiden Sumeragi Matoi being shocked with the fact that she has managed to awaken her latent magical abilities. This act of transforming in to a magical girl is called a Divine Union, which is the process of undergoing a physical connection with a supernatural God that has manifested itself and is unique to that individual. This enables her to consciously borrow powers from her aligned God to partake in battles involving demons that are commonly known as Nights. These ‘Nights’ are evil demons that take possession of unsuspecting individuals, hence allowing them to manipulate their bodies to their liking while deriving the host of their own consciousness.
There isn’t much to add to this point as most episodes follow the same format of encountering a Night at some point. The lack of variation is the downfall for this series, the residue of depth that is left to be filtered is a quick process because in the end its just magical girls fighting enemy demons. There is expansion in the form of how the world functions combating these walking disasters known as the Nights. The anti-creed of Fatima is an organisation based in the Vatican with the objective of banishing all the Nights from the world. They send out two individuals with one of them being Clarus Tonitolus aiding in the efforts of fighting these atrocities that are out to do harm. It is known she can activate Divine Union herself but it is usually controlled due to the fact she is supervised by her superior Cariot, who she reports to on a timely basis.
A character known as Haruka Luciela makes her introduction representing a scientific organisation called the IATO. Her role is basically to record the findings of Nights through special instruments which can detect their presence as they appear which isn’t hard to do considering they all turn up next to Matoi. There is some exposition with regards to the world and the number of dimensions that exist in the universe. The peaceful Gods and mischievous Nights vacate a total of 24 dimensions which sounds kind of silly at first, it just feels like an arbitrary number. They could instead have a single different dimension housing the supernatural entities to simplify things but that’s just a minor gripe of mine.
The lack of plot does not give rise to poorly written characters, quite the contrary in fact. Matoi having just reunited with her detective father Sumeragi Shingo is struggling to adjust with her new surroundings. The idea of calling her father on a first name basis feels strange but understandable when you consider the fact she was living with her grandparents just recently. The absence of her mother who disappeared without a trace is noticeable which was brought up countless times by Shingo.
The awkwardness is there, as Matoi finds it a challenge just to make small talk with her only existing parent. The longing of her mother is a dream that she wants fulfilled sincerely and her father shares the same exact sentiments through his inner monologues. An aspect that irks me is the lack of openness between each other, as Matoi keeps her identity of being a shrine maiden of Divine Union a secret to avoid implications.
Kusanagi Yuma is apparently the cousin of Matoi considering she is also a shrine maiden herself and is quite clingy at times. She comes from a family of priests who specialise in the act of exorcism and are quite informed about Divine Unions and Gods in general. Yuma is known to have had her abilities sealed, as they leaked out during her early childhood but has managed to reawaken them through determination and sheer persistence.
The other user of Divine Union Clarus is given some characterisation during her screen time which is seen through her flashbacks. A close friend of Clarus’ was left in a vegetative state after being attacked by a Night which has only fuelled more fire to her hatred of the Nights. Her objective in the end is to help the goals of Fatima to prevent similar situations from reoccurring. Other than that, she doesn’t progress that much and remains largely a static character.
I didn’t mention this until now but one aspect I found to be just stupid and quite frankly unnecessary was the reversion of Divine Union. The reversion causes the magical girls to lose all their clothes, effectively leaving them buck naked for all to see which in this case are middle schoolers, who are under the age of 16 and are classified as children. It got so bad to the point that Matoi was contemplating on stocking up on clothes considering her closet was running bare. This isn’t a pet peeve but an actual concern of criticism. This would be resolved if this wasn’t inserted in the script and countless shows have gotten around this issue – see One Piece and logia devil fruit users.
Now on to the general aesthetics of the show, the character designs are looking smooth but for the females is giving them that moe look to appeal to the targeted audience (them otaku). The designs are kind of exaggerated with the eyes being enlarged but not to the level of Clannad. The characters are distinct in terms of appearance making them easily distinguishable. For example, Haruka is the blonde lady wearing the cream office suit accompanied by her large bosom. That was an extreme example but the fact of the matter is, she’s only there for fan service.
The animation by White Fox is fine but there was no ‘Sakuga’ scenes I could find and it feels inferior to Re;Zero’s animation which finished last season. It might just be the art style in general but nothing stood out apart from the flashy colour palette which contributed to the glitter and flashiness. The sound is composed by Katou Tatsuya who is known for his works Mirai Nikki, Shoukugeki no Souma just to name a few. The show incorporates a lot of wind composed music which is evident in the opening and other segments.
The use of the drums is emphasised to the point it may be a standalone piece or in combination with other instruments. The drums are personally to my liking as it’s complementary to the Japanese setting which involves shrine maidens, who are most familiar with its usage. The voice acting for the characters was alright but for characters like Yuma felt way too childish compared to their age, other than that nothing stood out as being noteworthy.
To conclude, the show is not that imaginative compared to other similar series. You'll get a happy ending in this one for those seeking that type of finale. It's kind of meh to me as it never really resonated with me.
