Tejina-senpai is a short comedy anime about about a girl running a magic club who has terrible stage fright that renders her unable to do magic, and her assistant that has to put up with her nonsense. This isn’t the story of her overcoming her stage fright or anything of the sort, rather that’s just the justification given for why every trick she attempts ends horribly to amusing effect. There are very few characters in this anime, and the two main characters aren’t even named, simply being referred to as Senpai and Assistant throughout. The cast overall is incredibly flat, with absolutely no character or relationship development. They also have very little depth, basically just fitting into the narrow slots needed for the sake of the comedic scenes.
Still, despite all that, the anime is pretty enjoyable. Senpai is really likable in that she’s really passionate about magic so she keeps sticking with magic despite constantly screwing up, but she’s also really innocent and kind of stupid so she keeps making the same mistakes again and again. She always starts out unjustifiable arrogant but then ends up in a panicked often crying state after she screws up. Other characters are kind of mean to her sometimes, usually because she does something that results in her deserving it, but more so than that it kind of feels like she’s bullying herself, which is kind of hilarious and also kind of cute. Assistant is a good balance to her, in that he calls her out on all her nonsense which makes him work well as a tsukommi, but despite that sticks with her and the club. A core part of why he stays is likely because he finds her hot, but that just makes the circumstances even funnier.
In addition to Senpai the magician and her Assistant, the rest of the cast includes a scientist, a street performer who does stuff like balloon art and ventriloquism, and a psychoanalyst. However, only the scientist and street performer are actually competent at what they do, with the psychoanalyst being just as incompetent as Senpai. This gives the the comedy some variety which allows the show to be entertaining even though it’s just a steady stream of comedy. The explanations by the scientist and street performer were also somewhat interesting, which further helped with pacing. It was kind of disappointing though that there wasn’t a competent magician to explain the magic though, as this is a series mainly about magic, but it is what it is.
In addition I would also like to note that the anime is structured perfectly for what it’s going for. There are twelve episodes, but each is only half length. In addition, each of those is composed of a series, around five or so, of separate segments. There is some continuity at times, such as when they go to the beach and there are multiple linked segments there, but for the most part each segment is completely disconnected from the others. As such, it can focus solely on the comedy without even attempting to be anything more, and because of it’s fast paced short burst format, that works really well.
The art and animation are also pretty solid. The character designs aren’t super unique, but they’re used well. The animation is also full of visual humor and in general the art is pretty nice to look at. The OP and ED are both also a lot of fun both in terms of the songs and the visuals, even if they are pretty standard. The soundtrack isn’t particularly memorable.
