Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

A Magi is a magician whose inclination toward magic is so immense that they can be said to shape the world. With their significant influence, each Magi chooses a worthy candidate to become a king, then helps them conquer strange labyrinths called "Dungeons" and acquire the power of mythical djinns within. Above all else, the Magi supervises their elected representative as they build a country that might one day bring the world to its knees.

Aladdin is a young Magi wandering the world in search of his true self. However, his journey is not a lonely one, as he is accompanied by his friend and mentor Ugo—a djinn he summons using his flute. In his travels, Aladdin also befriends Alibaba Saluja and guides him to a nearby Dungeon. With this newfound friendship, they begin an epic adventure across the world, witnessing various irregularities that seem more frequent than ever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Morgiana Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Saluja, Alibaba Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Aladdin Main

Ishihara, Kaori Japanese

Sinbad Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Judar Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Ren, Hakuryuu Supporting

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Ja'far Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Ren, Kougyoku Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Ren, Kouha Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Yunan Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Saitou, Shunsuke Producer

Ochikoshi, Tomonori Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Shimizu, Akira Producer

Reviews

Oct 25, 2013

Yoaken

Recommended

From someone who has watched countless shounen, it becomes typical to look at a show labelled "shounen", and dismiss it as mundane and cliche. But with every new addition to this vast genre, there are always shows/manga that stick out more than others.

Thankfully, Magi does this.

Story: (9/10) With a setting based on Arabian Nights, you can expect (or at least hope for), a gripping narrative. Thankfully, Magi is structured so that the focus on the two main protagonists (Alibaba and Aladdin) is well orchestrated, and has a unique vibe to it. Through this, the story can become very dark and gripping, while not ... losing the narrative. What differentiates this from other shounen is the political aspect. As a king, you must reign. But how will you do it? Through this question the different nations and factions can interact in a believable environment, without it ever feeling like the author is asking you to pretend they would do that.

Art: (8/10) Most shounens typically fall under long broadcasting widths. While this allows for a developed story, the art tends to suffer long-term. Thankfully the animators have cut the show into a one season arc, while providing room to adapt more chapters if need be. For this reason, the art is well developed. Backgrounds are detailed and varied, with character models being round and developed. There are few jagged edges apparent, which helps realism. The battle scenes don't suffer with still shots (too much), and motion does not degrade the animation. It stays fluid throughout, with the exception of the comedy scenes. Through these, the show takes a different animation style. While humorous in a way, it detracts from the overall value. I don't see the joke through their expressions, but rather, through the goofy way they're drawn.

Sound: (9/10) One of Magi's strong points. Both openings provide a gateway into Arabia, with a melody and vocalist that resemble the middle eastern style. It opens the door to the show, making the transition to background music worthwhile. With this, you experience a variety of festival soundtracks, battle hymns, and adventure tunes. The depth and well execution of sound makes for a more enjoyable watch. This is followed by the endings which slightly devalue the soundtrack. While not bad, they don't carry the show to the end. Had they been chosen better, the desire to continue watching would have been more apparent.

Characters: (10/10) The characters in a show must be well rounded for the plot to work. No matter how great a set piece, it won't work without strong protagonists. And Magi delivers. Alibabba is a naive individual with to much idealism. This pushes the plot forward. Aladdin is a childish yet strangely deep character. His character shifts add emotion to the story. Morgiana is the strong, shackled female who can offer great moments through her actions. This trio has a well-blended bond that works. Their conversations kept me through the show, eager to see how they will handle future situations. The background characters, of which there are to many to name, are stunning. They have unique personalities, and offer believable lines that push the narrative further. Each new individual can hold their own as a main character, and you can care for each one of them. They're so developed you almost want to root for the bad guy.

Enjoyment (9/10) I spent a week watching this show to prepare for the second season. After finishing, I was impatient waiting for season 2. This show was well worth the time put in, and will absolutely have a lasting effect on your view of how a shounen should be.

Overall: (9/10) Magi is a show that should be watched, for it offers a well developed plot that's backed by great sound, art, and characters. For those into shounen, this'll be a guaranteed favorite. For those wanting to get into the genre, it's a good starting point. And for those opposed of the genre, you're missing out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 22, 2016

Treima

Mixed Feelings

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic is a tale of friendship triumphing over all odds. Perhaps you have heard this kind of story told elsewhere. If so, you've probably heard it told better, too. Magi is all over the place in terms of pacing and tone. Even the morals of the story seem quite in conflict with the methods used to tell it. Above all, it's just dumb and boring, which are two death sentences for an anime from this viewer's perspective.

Magi is about two boys. Aladdin is an impressionable, airheaded young Magi, or wandering mage. He comes across a golden-haired and golden-hearted street urchin named ... Alibaba, and they go on an adventure through a massive labyrinth called a "dungeon", becoming fast friends. Along the way, they encounter a mysterious and strong-legged slave girl named Morgiana, which completes their trio as they endeavor to right the world's wrongs with the phat lewts they obtained by raiding and "capturing" the dungeon.

It's right here that I should make it clear that Alibaba is perhaps the worst shounen hero I've ever seen. His character shifts between whining interminably about the state of the world, declaring it impossible to change, and attempting to change the world through perhaps the most idiotic and sure-fail ways he could come up with. He is perpetually gullible, all-too-willing to put his trust in other people with blatantly obvious "hidden" agendas. Say what you will about how stupid Naruto is, at least he didn't turn a blind eye to Sasuke's gradual descent into darkness. In contrast, Alibaba's childhood friend from the first arc might as well hold a giant flashing neon sign over his head that says "I will die and/or turn evil" for how unsubtly the series depicts him, but Alibaba never once takes the hint.

In this first arc, we are also introduced to Sinbad, a character that has already become a legendary king and dungeon-capturer by his own hand. He pledges his aid to helping Alibaba liberate Balbadd from the clutches of its fat, stupid king. It is at this point that the series starts undermining its own tension, because Sinbad is ludicrously overpowered compared to literally everyone else, and has eight underlings of various shapes and sizes that are also exponentially stronger than our main characters. There is no quicker way to undermine a character's personal arc than by introducing another character who could snap his fingers and solve everything for them.

The second arc takes place in Sinbad's kingdom of Sindria, where our trio have decided to take the demigod-level king up on an offer to train and hone their abilities. Never mind that Alibaba's country was teetering on the brink of collapse when they finished the first arc! That's not important now! There's adventure afoot!

This series undermines itself so often that at this point I stopped caring and just kinda tuned out any of the dialogue. I became totally disengaged from the subject matter, and was just resigned to seeing this to its conclusion. I didn't miss much. Sinbad continued to faff about and allow the villains in the series to openly taunt him to his face, kill hundreds of innocents, and splash him with some kind of curse mark that turned half his face black, only for him to reverse the curse instantly in the season climax.

So why did he let himself get cursed? As he put it, "to make Alibaba more motivated to clear the next dungeon". Never mind that Alibaba himself has been afflicted by this same curse, which is actually a very real threat to his life or at least his sanity. Sinbad decides to fake sick so he can do nothing and shift the onus of "saving him" onto a blonde idiot, a blue-haired idiot, a traumatized former slave who does all the figurative and literal "heavy lifting" of the group, and a cowardly prince whose only real use is as a literal meat-shield.

So if the characters and story are disappointing every time you turn around, is the action any good? Well, there are quite a lot of fight scenes in Magi, and they're universally bland shounen-style nonsense, where whoever has the most plot-induced immortality will win. A lot of time is spent developing this complex and verbally dense system of magic, but it all boils down to brightly colored energy blasts and sword swings crashing into each other, with the good guys winning through the power of friendship (read: powers pulled straight out of their asses at the last possible second). What makes this more insulting is toward the end when abilities are plagiarized wholesale from Naruto and Fate Stay/Night.

And thus we get to my next big issue with this series: the word "subtlety" is completely lost on the writers and animators. You can easily tell by a character's dress and method of speech whether they are good or evil. (Protip: good characters are attractive and smile a lot!) I couldn't tell if this series was aimed at children or adults. It pairs simplistic, heavy-handed morals that would fit on a poster in a kindergarten classroom with buckets of gore, complicated palace intrigue, and ecchi fanservice obviously intended for a more mature audience. In trying to appeal to both kids and adults, it makes itself inappropriate for the former and insults the intelligence of the latter. This is not how you do this.

I had the misfortune of watching this dubbed, in which I got to hear a lot of high-profile English voice actors I had a lot of respect for embarrass themselves. The only bright spot in this is Cristina Vee as Morgiana, which also matches the fact that she's the only character I found myself able to care about. The sound design is perfunctory. There's nothing special in the sound effects or music to get you interested in what's going on, and the OPs and EDs are such forgettable tripe that I skipped them routinely.

There are some bright spots. Visually, the show is very bright and colorful, further selling me on the idea that this is trying to ingratiate itself to a wide audience. The character designs are unique and definitely inspired by Arabian folklore, which is definitely special as far as anime goes. The cityscapes are largely gorgeous when shown in wide-panning shots, although everything looks remarkably samey when the characters are wandering the streets.

But the greatest sin that Magi commits, more than anything that I've listed above, is just that it's a big long snore. There's no weight to the fighting scenes, and no real reason to care about the political stuff going on in the shadows. It is trite and unoriginal in every way except the setting. You can predict the events of every episode almost down to exact detail five minutes in. Please avoid this series if you value your time.

Until next time, Ko Empire bills are not accepted at this establishment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Aug 23, 2017

88shotgun

Not Recommended

Honestly I liked this anime when I first viewed it but then I re-watched it and noticed how shallow all the characters were.

The protagonists are the typical "I'm a good guy" And there's nothing else that defines them other than "They want to do the right thing"


And the Antagonists are just Saturday morning cartoon villeins. "I like to use people! Money greed power! ROARRRR" Only way they could be more evil is if they strapped the female lead to a set of train tracks, oh fuck one of the antagonists did do that...



Magi has a rich world ripe for the calling of adventure ... and all that shit, but its ruined by its grossly unrealistic cast members. The reason why I'm not going to rip into this anime is because it's clearly made with a younger audience in mind

So the characters are mean't to be simple. But I honestly can't recommend this it's just boring.

Every arc ends with a nonsensical solutions and most of the characters have tragic backstories used to guilt trip the viewer into giving a shit about an otherwise unlikable character.

If you really want to try this anime I suggest watching it with a friend.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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