Mahou Sensou Series Review: 7 out of 8 volumes in 12 Episodes

Torturing myself every season yields one of the worst things I’ve ever watched. It’s gonna be tough to top this one off.

Every series that is deemed “bad” usually has something going for it. It can be its animation, it’s distinctive style of said animation, music, fight scenes, and practically anything that can have some merit in watching it. I’m sure the worst of series can at least be salvaged with its saving grace.

THIS, however, has nothing going for it.

I wish I was kidding as being my usual snarky self but the worst part is: I’m not.

You know, with a premise that goes along the lines of ruined worlds and magicians, you would expect some half decent stuff going around. Hell with 8 Light novel volumes, maybe you would notice a saving grace for the series. Unfortunately for everyone who watched, I”m sure a good majority of people would agree that this is a prime example of how NOT to make an adaptation. The last few episodes had only 2 major fights which were not at all riveting or exciting. For the finale, they end in a yet another cliffhanger but this time, in the past. No comment.

But let’s go over some bad characters

• Takeshi suffers both from regular teenage angst and being an utter weakling. With magic based on preemptive/future prediction (think King Crimson) I expected some fights with low interior monologue. Turns out I was lucky if I ever got to see a fight in the first place. Those complaints will show up later so other than boring fights he’s just a boring character. Only characterization he has going is that he has a shaky relationship with his brother and mother whilst keeping up a fake romance with one of his friends. You get that and they give you nothing else.
• Ida: Thanks to the minimal amount of screentime Ida gets in comparison to Takeshi and the rest, Ida stays off the radar in becoming a unlikable character. The problem was that they focused on “Developmental” moments with everyone that wasn’t Ida and being the underdeveloped characters they are, the moments felt completely bland. Ida got nothing so it’s hard to hate on him. When a fight actually occurs, Ida is a support until the last episode where he finally pulls something off.
• Ishoshima falls under the category of damsel in distress as she cannot accomplish anything without someone helping her. Hell, I didn’t even know what magic she was supposed to be doing until the last quarter of the series. Ishoshima is the dependent female that had trouble interacting with boys due to her getting stalked. Other than that, she gets reduced to literal plot device when Takeshi’s brother finally decides to do something. She gets kidnapped, gets helped by another trustworthy male character, and then gets stabbed. Oh well.
• Mui is the combat girl of the series and fulfills the role of onesided love interest and “boy meets girl” trope that anime and manga love to use so much. Other than being obviously in love with Takeshi, her “arc” actually had some fighting going on so I can at least forgive for not being terribly boring.
• Gekkou deserves to have something said because he makes for a “please hate me” villain. Then again, he’s the catalyst that got the last half going so props to him for attempting to move the plot. Doesn’t mean I like his character though.
• If the main characters were this boring, why should you expect anyone else to be interesting? But apparently, everybody loves the twin-tailed director of the school and once again, minimal development made her into someone that I can’t justifiably hate.

I’m the person who rarely ever complains about animation and production values but I really have to speak out on this. The entire thing was…poorly done. Characters looked incomplete and when you couple this with fighting, you kind of don’t want to see more fighting. I didn’t screencap enough for this but I can assure you: This series looks messy and unfinished.

While this information did not come from the most reliable of sources, an LN reader basically stated that they jammed 7 volumes into the span of 12 episodes. This goes into “pacing” which is something else I rarely have trouble with. I can forgive the series in general but in the anime’s case, I have no idea what they were thinking. One volume should at least take 3-4 episodes while in this case, I can’t even imagine how much they’ve skipped with 7 FULL VOLUMES condensed into 12 episodes and leaving us with a cliffhanger.

With Magical Warefare as the title, it’s fair to assume big fights, but no, focus is once again brought into the highschool atmosphere. Honestly should have expected this but oh well. The final verdict is: If you dropped this, good for you. Don’t go back and finish this. For those of you who endured the pain, props to you, go watch something with good animation to recover. For those of you who want/are curious to start this: Don’t. Unless you want to laugh at how bad this is, be my guest.