Anime: Rental Magica

Review
Rental Magica. What a weird name for a show I first thought. It looked similar to Negima! as far as I could tell, so I kept it away for a time. I'm not that fan of harem shows, especially when watching two about magic and mystic stuff. But hey! Rental Magica is not exactly that. It's an average show, yes, with your usual plot devices, stereotypes, expected events, fanservice, etc., but it's a good entertainment for those who don't mind a bit of nonsense.

Astral is a company that rents the most varied magicians to perform jobs such as purifying a land from a magic disturbance, hunting mystic stuff, and the most varied kinds of job that a mage can do. The president of this company is Itsuki, a guy with a magical eye named Glam Sight, which has the power to read magic, minds, and many other uses. Together with his employees and friends, he faces off many problems, mostly tied to tabboos and his rival company Goetia.

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1. Yup. Magic Eye.
   A tale about a guy with a magic eye was clearly overused in the late 2000's. Especially an eye power that suddenly changes the character personality so he becomes badass and all powerful. This is exactly what happens here, but the show manages to keep the Glam Sight at tight control and focus more on the novel part of the story.
   
   An one-thread harem show
   Much like other shows adapted from novels, Rental Magica sadly relies on story arcs. This means the show can't keep up multiple storylines, and whenever an arc is finished or skipped, all of it is put to the sidelines and forgotten. Besides that, the show is heavily about a harem, where the protagonist meets dozens of girls, get in some sort of simple cheesy romance, do some jokes, embarass the ladies, etc. Rental Magica doesn't offer much originality here, but also is not completely lame. In fact, the execution of each arc is quite good, with its biggest failure being exactly the beforementioned lack of multiple storylines to follow. The small action parts are quite enjoyable, which is perhaps what makes this show a bit better than your typical novel adaptation.
   
   And the harem we all expect
   Well, dozens of young girls and a boy. You know what to expect, right? This isn't, however, a slice-of-life show, and is most focused on side-quests more similar to a formula from Black Lagoon or Cowboy Bebop (only comparing the formula here...). This means most characters will have a spotlight to develop at least a little. The annoying kids slowly grows to some degree, but the protagonist never really gets to be the central element of the show, everything is more about putting him in some situation with the girly cast and his opponents. Overall, Rental Magica offers nothing exception in its cast, they are charismatic, cute, with your usual tsunderes and lolis, have a small kind of development, but in the end are only big excuses for some fanservice and doing promotional artwork.
   
   One more magical school
   Rental Magica is your average show. You have one guy, lots of girls, ecchi scenes, tsunderes, magical references, lots of terms that try to make you think the plot is deep or based on a true background, etc. It does nothing new for sure, but it has a good execution. The story arcs by themselves are fun, the side-quests and a slightly darker atsmophere than your typical ecchi helps to make things a bit different, and the action parts are quite good for its genre. Overall, it's one of those shows that you'll watch, have some fun, but perhaps never watch again.
   
   The studio's best?
   Zexcs is not that famous for huge animation works, but it made some interesting typical shounens shows like Koukaku no Regios and Legend of Legendary Heroes. Here is perhaps one of their best works in terms of art and animation. Unlike most of their other jobs, Rental Magica offers a very sharp and consistent art and is boosted by a decent animation and special effects. The characters can be a bit typical in their designs, but have enough charm to them in order to aid in the small bits of comedy an fanservice presented.
   
   It doesn't try to innovate
   The themes are nice, with your typical shounen songs that everyone expect, sound effects are decent, and voice-acting can be a bit noisy with all the girls in the show, but overall you won't face any major issues here. A fact that the sound direction never really tries to create a setting can be labeled as a bigger problem, but that's just what happens to most shows out there as well.
   
   Low expectations
   Considering the way magic is handled and how the story is told within the arcs, Rental Magica can be a good show for those who don't create much of a expectation. In the long run, however, the show may grow far too typical to truly capture the audience. Those looking for some comedy, harem stuff, bits of a magic background, action, and are not affected by silly shounen stuff may find a good show here. For everyone else, this is just another damn magic school anime. Passable, but nothing above it.
   

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Comments
It's being a while since I've watched it first, and while most of the plot details have gone from my mind, the fact that I had a fun watch still lasted in my mind. I put the show for a recap and was suprised to see that such a basic and overused style managed to at least catch my attention. The show is some sort of mix between Love Hina, Kaze no Stigma, and Fate/Stay Night... yeah, it's this sort of common. You have cute girls, lots of magic effects that are very good, a protagonist that is stupid until he uses his badass hidden power that all shounen shows have, etc. But the show never tries to be deep, or dramatic, or mature, it knows well that its plot and cast is limited and keeps a grounded approach that helps to make this far more entertaining than other shows of the same genre.

Give this a chance if you're up to a mindless fun, and perhaps you can be surprised by this.

Enjoyable waste of time.

A first glance at the AniDB rating would give an indication that this show is almost not worth watching. Yet, Rental Magica happens to be a fairly enjoyable ride through the world of occult business and strange happenings. I agree the show (and thus my review) doesn't have anything exceptional to offer, neither in terms of characters nor in terms of plot, but it still manages to be pretty enjoyable. And that's solely what it does: being entertaining.

So if you need a decent plot, or solid characters, move on. But if you're looking for that show you can watch in the late night hours with a tiny bit of excitement and an easy-on-the-mind show, this is exactly what you're looking for.

Animation: Just about average.

The animation is average and that's about everything about this series. There are no outstanding cells, there is no excellent background in CG – it's all just average. It shows there hasn't gone much money into the making of this show, but they don't need to, as they never expect it to be that great.
The character designs are more done in order to give the show a certain charm, as there is hardly any ecchi to be seen with the long traditional dresses and the dark scenery most of the time. I have to say I liked the character designs, but they are fairly bland and won't give any new spark to anyone expecting anything of the show.

Sound: Nice voice acting, decent music.

There's once again not much to be said when it comes to this section. The voice actors are doing a good job, but none of them – especially Itsuki, who is the true indecisive lead character and has a voice which is reflecting this – is bringing the show to a higher level.
Music and BGM are done well, but again there is nothing outstanding.

Story: Weak. Often episode-based stories.

The plot is often based on the episode and most are not really interesting enough to contemplate about. There are not many plotlines crossing over any episodes, but the ones which do are oftentimes not really tremendously interesting either. So, what does this show do then? Honestly, not much. It keeps itself running and drops some hints here and there in order to give a decent climax near the end of the show.

Why would anyone want to watch a show which has such a weak plot then? The answer is simple: just like ecchi shows, or horror shows, one focuses on a main theme and tries to tell either a lot of it, or stories as good as possible about it. Whether it is ecchi, horror or mystery, almost none of those categories offer a solid plot. Neither does this one, although it does offer a nice set of mystery and some horror. It flows from the fact that the show tries to sell itself by offering you a whole lot of mysteries and legendary items and legends.

Characters: Standard characters, without too much depth.

Rental Magica's characters are nothing special. We have one indecisive lead character with the name Itsuki, we have a few love interests and a couple of ‘co-workers’ who are one after another incredibly talented and work for a company which can hardly land a single job. There are a few episodes which delve into the pasts of some of the characters, but there is hardly anything done with it.

Value & Enjoyment: Enjoyable time-filler.

If you're planning to buy the show, leave it be. There is nothing you would gain by spending money on this show. It does, however, offer you a little enjoyment for the ride. So if you spot it on tv, or come across it on the Internet, feel free to watch, as it is entertaining. Just don't get your hopes up for anything special and the show will not disappoint you.