It's been a while since we got a good parody anime with a good setting which was able to distinguish itself rather than try to cash in on a particular type, we have had wannabe konosuba clones and wannabe one punch man clones but they teen to forget that even if they are able to feed off of a starved for content audience they will inevitably be forgotten since there is already something similar which is in the store.
Mashle by all means is kind of a mixed bag of knockoffs , and its quite plain to see.
We have mash who is clearly an inspiration and closely resembles saitama in his unassuming demeanor and lack of emotions. We also have a very clearly harry potter inspired magic school setting with a very standard shounen power level defining scale with the number of face lines defining the amount of magic power/mana but the potency of the same can be honed with other methods this allows for a fairly nuanced and open ended battles with some surprising upsets also being possible. And a relatable oddball story which is loosely black clover inspired which makes for interesting and hilarious outcomes due to mash being severely underestimated.
There are several examples of anime that do this , but not many examples of anime that manage to do them ALL in a well balanced and entertaining way , most which try , make themselves over complicated or fail the parody and comedy aspect quite hard.
Plot (7/10)
Well , the start of the series is quite straightforward , there is an unusual kid in a world where your magical prowess determines everything to the point that those who cant use magic are deemed as good as dead. mash is unable to use said magic and hence has been secretly raised up by his adoptive grandpa in a remote forest in a way that ensured that he trained with muscles and physical strength enough so that he may fend for himself. Now this made him quite the emotionless and dumb guy due to his lack of human interaction and understanding the room or any of the fancy social stuff. This is basically the first two eps , now circumstances ofc lead to the academy being introduced into the mix with him requiring to earn some gold coins (you know accomplish feats means good boi coins kinda thing).now this is standard shounen story with a well defined route and endgame but it also manages to squeeze a good amount of comedy and parody of the same here . Then we get the very obvious Harry Potter inspired personality based house sorting system after which we go full steam ahead with a first major villain arc with some minor pens along the route with hints of a “mysterious third faction”. The flow of the plot is good , interaction of characters is also minimal with a mostly infodumps approach for system explanation but some comedy and parody hidden here and there to keep entertainment value fairly up.
Characters (7/10)
Mash and his gang have a bunch of nice and quirky yet unique in a way kids. They do have trope inducing kinks like the obsessed girl , the siscon , the wanna be cool mc guy and the scaredy mfer, but most of them are used for parody effect and probably designed in such a way intentionally and are able to fit their comedic roles nicely. Mash is the saiatama clone with straight face and often blunt response to standard villain jargons, however he is much of a nice and innocent figure due to his righteous and hermit like lifestyle. The characters do manage to mesh together well , individually they dont emit much of an aura and its only fun when they are horsing around / interacting with others. Villains are also slightly better than your standard punching back goon , but usually have shallow / predictable backstory with a nakama approach of changing to good from evil.
Sound and VA (9/10)
The OP and ED are both fuckin amazing and the OST is also quite the banger with mash getting quite the spotlight due to the BGMN during his cool scenes. The VA is alright with only the red hair guy being a bit of a standout.
Art and animation (8/10)
It has amazing art and background design which drive home the amazing magic school feeling which doesnt feel like a cheap harry potter imitation, the background and setting art does the heavy work for this purpose , and i am also satisfied with the uniform / house designs. The animation is really good as well with amazing sakuga for action scenes. The only problem is the usually dull and uninspiring monster designs.
This is a must watch for comedy/ parody fans who miss one punch / saiki kusou type of plot line. If you like magic school and harry potter type stories too it would be easily pleasing for you.
I can also recommend watching the first two for understanding if the comedy works for you even if you are generally not interested in this genre.
