What I hate about MAL reviews about MagiReco is that most users give it a 9-10 (because of Madoka's and Studio SHAFT's reputation duh) or a 1-2 because they think it's underwhelming and too similar to a mobile game. I believe the truth lies in the middle and this season of MagiReco objectively deserves a 7. I've never played the game so I'm only reviewing what this anime offered us.
Was this season a masterpiece? Absolutely not. I'm not sure I can summarize what happened because I barely remember anything other than the finale. We had a lot of expository dialogue about new rules and Doppels and Connect and shadows but the concepts still feel alien to me. I remember checking the forum discussions after every episode and seeing a lot of anime-onlies comment stuff like "what did I just watch", "I don't understand what's going on". I was relieved to see I wasn't dumb and I wasn't the only one confused but that just means this anime was not good at explaining things.
The character designs are cute and pleasant to look at - however, a lot of animation errors were noticeable (especially in the last three episodes). Maybe the animators were rushed and had a tight schedule, but still this took away from my enjoyment. If you have no smooth animation and no plot, then what's the point of watching an anime? A lot of fans in these reviews love pretending that the flashes of style are indicators of good animation but actually the fights make no sense if you try following them through. You see a character taking her weapons out, you hear a big explosion, and then you see them falling down and then you see their hair and then their eye. But you have no idea what's going on in the fight. Very messy sakuga, if it can be considered as such, but it does give the impression of a high quality fight scene to the untrained eye who doesn't pay attention to what's going on.
While I'm glad this season had a somewhat happy ending, I have to admit it was quite cliche and the girls managed to save the day with the power of friendship. Tsuruno being weak and pretending to be strong is not a new thing at all; in fact, Mami Tomoe had the same problem in the original 2011 TV series. "I'm so weak but I have to hide it from the others. I have to be strong, no matter what." We all know countless anime characters who share these same traits.
Also... remember Ui's disapperance? Well, this season gave us nothing in regards to her. You better watch the third season to know what has happened to her. Personally I won't. My journey with MagiReco ends here.
