Well, the show has demonstrated every other bottom-of-the-barrel cliché so far, why not throw in a Lolita complex as well?
- Last week on Magical Warfare, the protagonists started their stint at the magical academy to study magic.
Summary of Magical Warfare Episode 3:
- Continuing their stint at the academy, Takeshi, Kurumi, and Kazumi continue to learn magic. However, Kurumi and Takeshi’s relationship starts to go sour when Kurumi thinks that Takeshi is spending too much time around Mui. After talking about it, Mui and Kurumi start to bond. Then the two see a fortune teller who tells Kurumi that Takeshi will cheat on her. This prompts Takeshi and Kurumi to break up, only to get back together after it’s revealed that they weren’t dating in the first place, only pretend dating to keep men away from Kurumi.
Magical Warfare! The story about… love?
My Take:
- Magical Warfare? I don’t think there is any warfare, and there’s certainly nothing ‘magical’ about any of it. This show would be more aptly named “Magical Derivative School Drama + Some Fan Service and Maybe Some Awkward Reactions”. And even that would be false advertising because of the use of the word ‘magical’.
- This episode was bad. Really, really bad. I complained to great lengths last week about the absence of action and the constant allusions to Harry Potter, but that now seems like it would have been more enjoyable. This week, nothing but drama happened. Yes, I love drama, but this isn’t the kind of drama I like; I want a drama where the people involved have some level of maturity or understanding about how the world works. I don’t like adolescent drama where everyone is a complete moron. This show about wizards fighting each other for the fate of the world has turned into a show about who wants to date Takeshi. Plus, the most important part of this whole drama debate: this show shouldn’t be a drama.
- Every unnamed school student in this world is a pervert. Oh, like we haven’t seen that in… 98% of anime ever made. Seriously, this archetype needs to end.
Magical Warfare! The story about… history lessons?
- What’s up with Kurumi? At the start of the episode, she was dishing out the fan-service left and right and not giving a damn about who sees her. Then at the end of the episode, she suddenly realizes that she hates to have men ogle her because of bad past experiences? It’s as if halfway through writing this episode, the writers suddenly decided to give her a backstory and didn’t care if it contradicted anything that she had said or done in the past. I’ve seen inconsistencies in characters that vary from episode to episode, but never before have I seen inconsistencies like these happen within the same episode!
- I’ll give the writers some credit, though; they actually explained that whole Kurumi/Takeshi fake relationship thing. I find it interesting that they would have a fake relationship as a means to protect Kurumi from the legions of perverts who seem to populate both the real and the magical world. But this predicament leads me to one conclusion; Takeshi is so friendzoned that it hurts even me. Even though it’s not a situation I’d personally like to be in (nor even really care about in this anime), it’s nice that the writers gave us something.
- But then they do something stupid like giving Takeshi a backstory that is laughably pathetic. He is on bad terms with his family because of a horrible accident he apparently caused. They keep on building this up, then we finally see what happened; Takeshi’s brother (Gekkou) got mad because he believed Takeshi was in a relationship with Kurumi, so he accidentally ran into the path of a speeding car. Yet somehow, this is Takeshi’s fault. I have no sympathy for characters who get injured because of their own actions then turn around and blame the nearest person.
- Looking back on it, sadly I think that the first episode was the best one so far. Sure, it was awful, but it at least had some warfare. Now this show has just deteriorated to another insultingly bad school drama where the main character has his pick of the ladies who for some reason lust after him. Do we really need another show like this?
Magical Warfare! The story about… family discussions?
- This show is the by-the-book definition as to why an average person won’t take anime seriously. We are constantly bombarded with shows that were written by people who don’t care if they insult their audience, and any outsider who sees a show like Magical Warfare will (rightfully so) start to develop misconceptions about anime in general. After three episodes, it’s become abundantly clear that Magical Warfare is going to do nothing but torture me every week, and I don’t wish to go through that. It could be said that I might miss some great developments later on if I stop watching this show now. Fair point, but from what I’ve seen so far, nothing later on can justify the absolute pain that Magical Warfare has brought upon me.
