Magi is definitely one of the most creative mangas I’ve seen in recent years. The whole series is based off of 1001 Nights and the characters are characters from the actual place in this alternate dimension where there are labyrinths of magic all over the world and those who manage to conquer the labyrinth will receive riches beyond their wildest dreams as well as a djinn who becomes their servant and grants the user power. We focus on a young man named Alibaba who teams with this kid named Aladdin. The two quickly become friends and decide to conquer the labyrinth together only to get separated after conquering it. As time goes on we discover that Aladdin is a magi a great magician who is to choose a king, someone he believes will lead the world for the better. Aladdin chooses Alibaba and little do they know they get caught in a war going on between the forces of good and evil that could decide the fate of the world.
Man, this series drops a lot on you but it does a good job covering everything while also establishing its world, characters, story, and setting. Something a lot of animes don’t usually do. It really is hard to find fault with this series as I just enjoyed everything about it. Alibaba is pretty cool and funny, Aladdin is cute and wise for his age, and Morgianna is straight-up badass who can’t be stopped. But my favorite character out all of them is Sinbad. He’s like the Auron of this series. Wise, cool, badass, and an air of mystery that just draws you to him. The animation in this anime is amazing. It really does feel like I’ve been transported to another world. The backgrounds, character designs, and animation used for the fighting scenes is splendid. I always found myself coming back to a lot of the fight scenes and just getting a kick out of watching them. If I do have to name one flaw with this anime is that they really don’t go much into the rukh as they should or the history of the magi such as where they come from and how they became so important to the world. Luckily, as the series went on we get our answers so I won’t hold it against the anime although I will admit the anime tends to lag a bit when it doesn’t need to. All in all I really do enjoy this series and I if I was scoring it now it be an 8.5/10 instead of a 9. Looking back I may have been way too hyped for this series and might have scored hit higher than it should have been but it’s still a great series worth checking out. It’s got action, drama, comedy, and definitely puts Disney’s Aladdin to shame.