Every April 1st, I spotlight a heartwarming anime with a special place in my heart. Last year, I covered the wonderful family film Shoujo Ramune. A film where we learned the lesson to choose ice cream over frozen yogurt, because some yogurt isn't even yummy at all! This year I'm covering "Master of Martial Hearts", which is the greatest magical girl anime you've never heard of! Move over Doremi, there's a new sheriff in town!
Why you should watch Master of Martial Hearts:
1. The characters. Simply put, Aya is one of the loveable and well developed characters in the medium. However, great characters can't exist in isolation. Even Don Quixote needed Sancho Panza. In Master of Martial Hearts, we get to see the astoundingly realistic family life of Aya and her mother Suzuko. The relationship between these two just blows past the mother/daughter relationship in Beast Player Erin. This is family drama on the level of Yi Yi and Tokyo Story.
2. Funimation is well known for their high moral standards. That's why they chose to dub, mass distribute, and continue to stream this series. Anime has a reputation for being lewd and sexist, but Master of Martial Hearts finally gets the portrayal of women right! This belongs in the pantheon of high brow, feminist anime along with Nana, Rose of Versailles, and Utena.
3. The art. My GOD the art is just beautiful. I wouldn't expect anything less from the esteemed Studio Arms. A studio most well known for their excellent biographies of prominent 19th century intellectuals including Wordsworth and Gauss. With titles like that, you KNOW it means quality! What other studio would have the artistic merit to make biographies of William Wordsworth and Carl Friedrich Gauss?!
4. Finally, it would be remiss not to mention the ending. I don't want to spoil anything, but this is hands down one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen in a visual medium. The ending is so clever it makes your jaw hit the floor, but then you feel mad at yourself for not guessing it. The clues were all cleverly laid down all along! When the big reveal happened, I stood and applauded ecstatically for 3 minutes! This is the best ending I've seen since the 1973 film The Sting!
If you have friends that turn their noses up at anime and say it's trash culture, you MUST show them Master of Martial Hearts! Not Lain. Not Texhnolyze, not even Galactic Heroes. FUCK that shit! You show them Master of Martial Hearts and they will immediately apologize for ever questioning your tastes!