[DVD] Anime Review: Magical Warfare

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Suz in Anime // 0 Comments

High school freshman Takeshi Nanase was simply just an ordinary student. Stuck in a lifeless house with a brother who emits disdain at the sight of Takeshi, and a mum who doesn’t seem to care at all, Takeshi wants to run away from it all — even if it means going to hell.

This all changes when he encounters a girl with a gun, Mui Aiba, who collapses right in front of him on school campus. After accidentally exposing Takeshi to magic, Takeshi somehow gets caught in the middle of a brawl between Mui and some members of ‘Trailer’ who has apparently possessed her brother.

Rather than returning to the real world with their magic powers sealed away, Takeshi along with his real friends, Ida and Kurumi, decide to become magicians instead. Enrolling at Subaru Magic Academy, what Takeshi once knew about the world has now changed forever. What does fate have in store for Takeshi and his friends?

As much as MAGICAL WARFARE strikes to be an overrated anime with cliche characters, it is the storytelling, and characters’ interactions with one another that engages us.

This anime has everything we want in an anime series — romance, action, and a complex sibling rivalry that takes place with a magical school as the backdrop. With the opportunity to choose your own weapons and practice your own unique magic, the world of Magical Warfare is definitely one of those ‘anime’ schools that we would want to attend.

Based on Hisashi Suzuki’s light novel, Magical Warfare is surprisingly one of the best light novel adaptations that we have encountered. Despite our disappointment in the lack of filler episodes highlighting their lives as magicians, the rapid flow of the story makes it exciting for viewers to watch.

Taking the audience on a wild ride that never fails to entertain us, the series continually amuses us with a series of events that may or may not take us by surprise. Accompanied by well-animated battle sequences that will give you goosebumps every now and then, Magical Warfare is shaping to be an interesting anime series.

Where there is positivity, there is negativity. Magical Warfare was doomed right from the beginning with its poorly constructed story. Containing plenty of plot-holes, and a lack of depth in its bland characters, the audience cannot do anything but tag along with the story that Magical Warfare is attempting to tell and sell to its viewers.

At one point, Takeshi states “I’m not even sure what this war is about”. Probably one of the smartest lines Takeshi has said throughout the entire series, the audience wholeheartedly agrees with him.

But despite Magical Warfare‘s failure in storytelling, none of it really matters (or does it?) as we find ourselves engrossed in an epic climatic battle that occurs between the rivaling magicians.

Alas, Magical Warfare must ruin the entertainment by concluding the series with a cliffhanger. But surprisingly, we are not fuming about it. In fact, the conclusion of Magical Warfare has left us wanting more.

Overall: MAGICAL WARFARE may have received an overwhelming response of negative reviews, but personally, it is one of the best light-novel anime adaptations that we have seen so far. Regardless of our harsh criticisms, we still like Magical Warfare for what it is as it is a magical-fantasy series with plenty of action and drama up for grabs.