STORY (4/10)
mehh. I had fun with it myself, but in the end the actual interesting parts of the story and worldbuilding were really poorly paced. the origins, cultural impact and uses of magical arts should really have really been explored more, but this exposition was almost entirely sacrificed in the end to allow more screentime for the interpersonal bits and pieces between the characters. with the setting being a prestigious school, there is no shortage of varying stories of high-achieving kids struggling to meet expectations, so I did at least enjoy that and in my opinion it does still pull it off well enough to be enjoyable overall.
another series I had this problem with was AoKana, and that did not have the slice of life/romance aspects down well enough to get away with neglecting worldbuilding in the way that Magic-Kyun has.
ART (7.5/10)
the art has its weaknesses (the female characters in particular can veer off model or look a bit lopsided at times) but the style is overall really bright and charming. the boys were all drawn beautifully and fairly consistently, the scenery is colourful and well-designed, and the magic sparkles are truly gorgeous.. I've heard a lot of other people compliment the sparkles and I'm totally here to join that chorus. the 2D animation for them is incredibly smooth, in some cases 3D is used and that works nicely as well!
SOUND (5/10)
with there being a relatively nice insert song per episode early in the anime, I can't exactly rate this lower than a 5. however, the music is absolutely not to my personal tastes.. the OP is energetic, very typical anime OP. the ED I enjoyed slightly more, very corny lyrics but again, fun and energetic with a more lively beat and a little catchier. something that soured my enjoyment of the vocals is that Teika, the character who is supposed to be Amazing At Singing, is not in any way notably better sounding than the other boys.. in fact I actually prefer some of their voices over his. not a huge deal, but a little immersion-breaking that the group songs are better-sounding than his solos.
CHARACTER (7/10)
probably a rating that many will disagree with but I actually found the side characters to be really endearing in this series! while they are obviously tropey, I really enjoyed that the boys not only got along, but also seemed to genuinely care for and support one another. it's refreshing to have a harem setup where the suitors aren't all at each others throats constantly. the rivalry is played for laughs a couple of times but it doesn't really get in the way of anything else and isn't there so often that you get tired of it. there are plenty of other
add to that the presence of Juri, Kohana's best friend (who I totally chose to read into as lesbian/bisexual) and you have a winning cast of characters for me.
coming back to the poor pacing.. due to the focus on the boys at the start of the anime, it's actually a while before Juri or Kohana see any character development, but when they do, it was pretty good. Juri is a charismatic wingman for Kohana throughout the series, really coming into her own towards the very end of the series where her love (platonic or otherwise) for Kohana, emotional side and jokester nature become apparent.
Kohana herself is what you'd expect from a reverse harem protagonist: kind, hard-working, a little naïve, self-conscious, with big dreams. she spends the early part of the anime changing the lives of others just by being so darn sweet and supportive, and... sees all of her own character development crammed in at the end. what was touched on was pretty good, sticking with the series until the end rewards you with a closer look at Kohana's personal insecurities and distrust in both her own abilities and the compliments from other people. while she's far from a well-written character, she's a refreshing take on an otherwise cheerful girl suffering from impostor syndrome.
ENJOYMENT (7/10)
I'll be honest. I got hooked on this extremely corny anime. I feel shame. but I accept the shame and would absolutely do it all again if by some miracle this anime gets a second season.
OVERALL (6/10)
this is an extremely situational overall score. if you're a reverse harem connoisseur, you'll probably find this enjoyable enough but it's perhaps not something that will stand out. if you hate reverse harem anime, this show likely isn't good enough to change your mind about it.
if you're apathetic, give it a try for a couple of episodes, it could be a fun way to kill some time and for me it sits right on the boundary of 'so bad it's good' and 'a genuine - if slightly guilty - pleasure'.
