Story? Story is pretty good, Aladdin, a Magi meets a young boy, Ali Baba an Aladdin helps him fulfils one of his dreams; completing a dungeon. Then comes my favourite character in the anime, Morgiana. After completing the dungeon, she was set free from slavery with the help of Aladdin and Ali Baba. After all that dungeon-exploring in the first few episodes, Aladdin soon goes alone into different territories and the main topic of discussion was, War. War always sprouted from hatred. War is main topic of the entire series. Though, most of the excitement starts fading away when it was in the Balbadd arc; it's not bad, but it's at least, watchable.
Main focus in the Balbadd arc was Ali Baba and his friend Kassim. Flashbacks start appearing in the series, Ali Baba's and Kassim's past begins to unravel. These flashbacks weren't too bad, I found it pretty interesting to watch. The action scenes in this arc becomes a pretty boring. Surprisingly, there was a filler episode about Sinbad and one of the Princesses of Kou somewhere later in the series; and yes, it was pretty boring, and most importantly, pointless. I think, the whole story of the anime strayed far off from the manga's point of view somewhere in episode 20, or probably even earlier than that.
A-1 Pictures is starting to make a name for itself(or they already had) for making terrible original endings. First anime I've watched from the same studio (as far as I can remember), was Ao no Exorcist, and yes it had a lot of potential to become a great anime, though its biggest flaw is its ending. The studio's biggest mistake has always been the same: starts off good in the first half, terrible second half, then accompanied with a terrible original anime ending. What happened to Ao no Exorcist, also happened to Magi - Labyrinth of Magic. I guess, history really does repeat itself.
Characters? Magi uses characters from the Arabian nights, making them look more awesome than the actual person from the stories. For example, take a look at Ali Baba in the original Ali Baba and the forty thieves tale. and try comparing it to the Ali Baba in the anime. Look how they awesome they become. My favourite character is Morgiana, a tough chick. First 20 episodes, I watched Magi because of the plot. Then after that, I felt that the plot became somewhat rushed and strayed off from the Manga. So in the later episodes, I watched Magi mainly just because of Morgiana. Also, Aladdin and Ali Baba are both likeable main characters.
Sound? The opening and Ending theme were so-so, and the voice-acting were pretty awesome. But the background music was very epic, especially during the fighting scenes.
Visual? Though, its visuals are pretty good, but not always. The quality of visuals sometimes end up looking pretty bad, where characters faces look somewhat different. But overall visuals are decent.
Conclusion? Though, I find Magi to be very awesome in the earlier episodes but somewhat boring in the later episodes, so I find it a little difficult for who recommend it to. obviously enough, if you like prefer the shounen/action genre, Magi is definitely a good choice. Though, it's definitely not recommended for everyone.
