Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well as you can tell the system is back up and running better than ever so let’s get ready to take a magic carpet ride for another Arabian Night and finish up Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.
Opening and Ending
For the second half of the anime we get a new opening and ending. They both started at episode 13. The opening this time around is “Matataku Hoshi no Shita de” by Porno Graffitti who you might remember sang the first opening for the original FMA series. The song is quite good and enjoyable. It took me about 3 episodes to start liking it mostly because I was still bitter that they got rid of SID’s opening. I admit that I prefer SID’s opening over this but I will say that the animation in this opening is a lot better than the animation in the first opening. Practically near the end with Morgiana dancing and smiling. I can’t explain it but when I see her smile I just can’t help but feel happy. The ending this time around is “The Bravery” by supercell. The song is okay, it’s nothing special or interesting. It almost reminds of the opening from Gurren Lagann because of how similar the songs sound when they start off. While I do find the song okay I will say that it sounds 10 times better than the first ending.
Episodes 14-17
We start things off where we left in episode 13. Alibaba makes it to the throne room where the guards arrest him but through Sahbmad’s interference he gets set free. Alibaba then bitch slaps his brother Ahbmad and removes him from the throne (nice. Now smack him again for being a fat dumbass pig). Kougyoku comes in wanting to know who her husband to be is (*laughs* oh you poor bitch. You have no idea that you’re father sold you to a man pig *laughs* woo~). Everyone points to Alibaba saying that he’s the rightful heir to the throne but he refuses to take the throne because of what he has done in the past. He then asks Kougyoku to nullify the contract of the citizens’ right but she refuses to accept this request because she’s still hung on the idea that she’s to get marry to the king of Balbadd even though she herself doesn’t want to get married (than just play along with Alibaba and get the hell out of there). Alibaba tells her that the kingdom of Balbadd will cease monarchical rule and instead become a republic that is run by the people for the people (trading in a flawed political system for another flawed political system. Well I suppose it’s better than slavery so let’s just cut our losses). Alibaba than tries to persuade Kougyoku to give back all the rights of Balbadd by saying that the kingdom of Balbadd is no more and therefore old contracts hold no meaning for to the new country being formed (a very interesting perspective by Alibaba. I feel as if I’m watching a game of politician chess. Save me~). Sinbad comes in (oh thank god. Save me Sinbad from this talk of politics) and endorses Alibaba’s claims and convince her that the Republic of Balbadd (yes, that’s name of the country now. Sounds like a clothing store if you ask me) is a part of Sinbad’s Seven Sea Alliance, an alliance that works together and watches each other’s back from invaders. After hearing this and being convinced she takes her leave and goes back to Kou to talk this situation over with her father the emperor (Kougyoku: Why did you try to get me to marry a pig father? (Emperor): Well you said you wanted more bacon in your life and I wanted the kingdom of Balbadd so I figured I could knock two birds off with one stone. Apparently that didn’t work out so well. Live and learn). Alibaba goes to announce the Republic of Balbadd to the people and even though they have no idea what he’s talking about they are totally on board with his proposal.
In episode 15 Kassim shows up and sees that Alibaba has handled the situation and reached a peaceful resolve. So I guess there’s no reason to fight anymore right Kassim. No, he decides to be a dick and I mean a big dick. He rallies the people by bringing up all the wrong the monarch of Balbadd has done which causes them to start rioting in the streets and demands the heads of the royal family (why Kassim why?). With the help of the Banker and the unconscious Judal the Arms Dealer begins to create a large mass of dark rukh to flood the city to strengthen the rage of the rioters and eventually kills the Banker to strengthen the dark rukh. Alibaba takes action and fights Kassim where he pins down Kassim ready to kill him but he just can’t bring himself to kill his childhood friend (scene here: https://youtu.be/7jheDtj9L2M) and this gives Kassim a chance to absorb the black rukh and turn into a giant gargoyle like monster. While that’s going on Aladdin’s (still unconscious) soul returns back to the place he was before he journeyed to the world. Here, we finally get to see Ugo’s head and he warns Aladdin that an evil organization is trying to go against fate and reverse it. He shows Aladdin that his friends are in danger and sends him back but not before ripping off FMA: Bortherhood and showing Aladdin the truth of the world so he will go back reborn and stronger than ever. Ugo also tells Aladdin that he can’t protect him anymore but that he’ll always be in his heart (*E.T. theme* I’ll be right here).
The fight continues in episode 16 with Kassim killing everyone in sight (now Alibaba, kill the bastard and save the country). Kassim continues to feed off the dark rukh getting stronger and bigger. The palace guards try to attack him but their attacks do nothing. Judal eventually comes in and joins the fight siding with Kassim and tries to kill Alibaba. When all hope seems lost Aladdin comes in to fight alongside Alibaba and we see that he has obtained what’s known as the Wisdom of Solomon (SHAZAM!), a power that allows communication with anyone’s rukh including those contained in the living and those of the dead.
The fights reaches its climax in episode 17. Aladdin temporarily takes out Judal by showing him visions of his pasts and Alibaba gets sucked into Kassim where the two have a nice fight with each other. Kassim expresses his desire to be like Alibaba and overcome the social standing that he was born into by trying to be like Alibaba instead of accepting that he and Alibaba are different people and should live life the way they want to live. He then realizes that if he had just accepted this the future could have been a lot better and their lives as well as Balbadd could have been better as well. Through Alibaba’s rukh he’s able to see all the mistakes he made and decides to give up on his acts of vengeance. This causes Kassim’s body to return to normal but he dies from the effects caused by the transformation (scene here: https://youtu.be/UAoX7r2mlNU). Seeing how his plans have failed the Arms Dealer takes Judal and sends him to his masters in the organization known as Al-Thamen. After that Sinbad gets his metal vessels back from the thieves who stole them and he kills the Arms Dealer (well his body, his soul is now in a snake where it belongs). We end with Aladdin using his Wisdom of Solomon to allow the dead to go say their goodbyes to the people of Balbadd (this is a pretty joyous moment I have to admit) and we finally get to see that mythical bird of the rukh. Oh, and Alibaba’s dagger gets broken in the fight.
Episodes 18-21
In episode 18 the Kou Empire dispatches an armada to Balbadd to take over. Sinbad tells Alibaba to get out of Balbadd but he refuses to leave his city (are you crazy man? If you stay they will without a doubt execute you or use you as their puppet bitch). Sinbad knocks him out (thank you) and puts him on a ship with Aladdin and Morgiana to Sindria (Sinbad’s kingdom) where they’ll be safe for the time being. A few months past once they arrive in Sindria (which is a very nice kingdom and island) and Sinbad returns to Sindria where he tells them that Balbadd is now under the control of the Kou Empire but the rights of its citizens are safe and they won’t be put into slavery (so I guess Alibaba broke-even here). Sinbad than tells them about Al-Thaman and how he would like Alibaba and Aladdin to lend him their power in the fight against them to which they agree to fight. After that not much happens. We get to meet Sinbad’s 8 generals who are his personal advisers and strongest warriors that come from different countries but for one reason or another became close to Sinbad and choose to move to Sindria. Jafar and Masrur are part of the 8 generals and the others we don’t get to know that much about and won’t play a major part in the duration of the anime except for two. One is Sharrkan a fun-loving dark-skinned swordsman who believes that swordsmanship is better than magic. He gets asked by Sinbad to train Alibaba in swordsmanship. The second is a very attractive female water mage named Yamraiha who is very passionate about magic and believes that magic is better than swordsmanship. Because of this Sharrkan and her have a bit of a rivalry with each other. They obviously love each other. She gets asked by Sinbad to be a magic teacher for Aladdin (lucky bastard). That night they have a festival and Morgiana decides to hold off on her plans to go back home and join up with Alibaba and Aladdin (scene here: https://youtu.be/UKxmtp0vNT8). Also in Balbadd, Alibaba gets bitten by the snake that was originally the Arms Dealer.
We slow down and have some fun in episode 19. Alibaba receives a new dagger from Sinbad that once belonged to the former king of Balbadd and Morgiana gets her slave shackles turned into a household vessel. Household vessels are basically like metal vessels except they don’t have a jinn. If a friend of the dungeon conquer has a strong bond with them they can create a household vessel and use the power of a familiar that belongs to the dungeon conquers jinn. After that, diplomats from Kou show up to meet with Sinbad. One of them Hakuryuu the fourth prince of the Kou Empire and the younger brother of Hakuei. He’s voiced by Kensho Ono (Tetsuya Kuroko from Kuroko’s Basketball). The other is Kougyoku who accuses Sinbad of raping her. Sinbad claims he never touched her but nobody believes him not even his own generals (that’s pretty bad when not even your own friends believe you). Not being able to take the stress anymore he has Yamraiha use her magic powers to show that nothing happened between Kougyoku and Sinbad. Once the truth is shown two guards of the Kou Empire confess that they were the ones who knocked out Kougyoku and put her in bed with Sinbad; saying that they were following the orders of Kougyoku’s assistant who had plans to seize the throne of Sindria by becoming the caretaker of their child and influencing him (that lowdown snake in the grass). The assistant goes into a big apology earning sympathy from everyone except Jafar who sees through his lie and hilariously spits in his face. At the end Hakuryuu talks privately with Sinbad and tells him that the reason he came to Sindria is because he wants Sinbad’s help in destroying Kou (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COk1QORtRCI).
Around episode 20 is where the anime deviates from the manga. Remember back in episode 18 when that snake bit Alibaba? Well it turns out it was a curse that will eventually kill Alibaba. The curse also gets on Sinbad and will kill him as well. Not knowing how to beat the curse Sinbad sends Alibaba, Aladdin, Morgiana, and Hakuryuu to conquer the dungeon known as Zagan which has a jinn inside said to be able to heal any wounds or illnesses. But the jinn in the dungeon hates humans and is said to eat anyone who enters it and even kidnaps people just for getting close to the dungeon (damn, this jinn is mean). Now, you’re probably asking yourself why doesn’t Sinbad go and conquer it instead of sending a bunch of teenagers and a child into such a dangerous place? Well, it’s because he as well as his generals can’t go into anymore dungeons because apparently the jinns believe he has acquired too many jinns and so anytime they try to go through a dungeon’s entrance nothing happens to them. That’s right folks, Sinbad and his gang are so awesome and overpowered that the author of this series had to put a fixed level cap on him and his generals. That is a scary thing when even the author recognizes a character is overpowered that they have to limit them just to keep the story focused on the main characters. They arrive at the island where the dungeon is on and get dragged into the dungeon with one of the native girls who wants to rescue her parents.
They enter the dungeon in episode 21 where they see that dungeon is rich with mushrooms and talking cannibalistic but weird looking animals and plants (it’s like if Edger Allen Poe, Lewis Carrol and Dr. Seuss got together and created a book together. “Quote the Cat in the Hat in Wonderland nevermore”. Not gonna lie that’d be kinda cool). They find the captured villagers and see that Zagan is using them as trees to produce more creatures for his dungeon (do they grow? (Zagan): Oh yes! They grow. THEY grow). Zagan appears before them with the native girl captured as well saying that he’ll return everyone back to normal if they can reach the treasure room and conquer the dungeon. Also for some reason he reminds me of Pegasus from Yu-gi-oh (Zagan: Ohhh~ humans in my dungeon? This simply is not fabulous. (Nitsuj): Are you gay? (Zagan): Bitch, I might be). They journey through the dungeon where they fight one-eyed rabid rabbit mages (there’s something I never thought I would write in my lifetime) and get split into teams of 2 and are forced to fight rock knights (we really are in a Poe/Seuss/Carrol collaboration aren’t we? The only thing that could make this place even more surreal is if Tim Burton was directing these episodes). In each of the challenges Hakuryuu keeps getting in the way and having to be rescued by the others. This causes Zagan to make fun of him and we get this scene, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blvu5XdYX34 don’t know whether to feel sorry for him or laugh for him (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWDozBLKdJ4). After that breakdown Alibaba and Hakuryuu have a man to man talk and work out the hidden issues they have with each other. Alibaba saw Hakuryuu has an old version of himself which upsets Alibaba because it reminds him of how bad he messed up in Balddad and Hakuryuu saw Alibaba has a happy-go lucky guy who abandoned his own country and threw away his hatred which made him weak. In a strange way these two are like mirrors of each other. Both are guys who believe they have to do everything themselves without relying on the help of others or getting others involved with their problems. The only difference is the path they took and the people around them who influenced said path.
In another strange way these two are like Zuko from Avatar. Zuko was a deep character, he carried the baggage of wanting to win back his honor and be seen as a good son by his father. He didn’t ask for help or open up to anyone about it, he just carried the burden himself not relying on anyone and getting the wrong idea of people. But as time went on we see Zuko discover who he really is and make the necessary changes to follow his own path and do what he believes is right because he had a good mentor and friends who saw the real him and accepted him. Alibaba and Hakuryuu are like this. The only difference is that Alibaba had Morgiana and Aladdin there to remind him that he doesn’t have to do things alone anymore that he can depend on others for help. Thus he became the Zuko we came to like and respect by the end of the series. Hakuryuu didn’t have the things Alibaba had. Sure he had his sister but she wasn’t around him all the time and he had no friends in Kou outside his family members who would constantly save him from danger. So because of this Hakuryuu could only depend on himself and carry the burden himself without relying on or opening up to anyone. Thus going on the path that Zuko originally had in Avatar without changing. Chances are Zuko would have probably ended like Hakuryuu right now if he didn’t have Iroh there to help him. It’s amazing, how one little difference in a person’s life can be the big game changer for their life entirely.
Episodes 22-25
With their issues resolved they continue into the dungeon in episode 22. Along the way to the treasure room they find out that the Zagan that has been kidnapping villagers and taunting them all this time is actually a fake created by the real Zagan to keep intruders out (*cellphone rings* Hello. (Zagan): Ohhhh~ what a twist eh Nitsuj boy? (Nitsuj): Will you stop bothering me *ends call*). They fight the fake Zagan and defeat it but more fakes show up to fight them and they overpower the group. They throw the group into a pit but Morgiana activates her household vessel and saves the group from the disaster by using the chains on her wristbands to stick to the wall and catch the others like Spiderman using his web slinging abilities (Morgiana, Morgiana, does whatever a badass does. Can she knock Spiderman out? Yes she can cause she’s a badass. Look out~ she is Morgiana). And to add more flavor to her badassery she figures out that the real body of the fake Zagans is in the pit and uses her vessel to unleash a crazy attack and destroy the fake Zagans once and for all (YES~ Deus ex motherfucking Morgiana for the win baby). But because of this attack she almost uses up all the magoi in her body and collapses while coughing out blood and bleeding from the eyes (scene here: https://youtu.be/nxVb6eyrbYo). While that’s going on Judal arrives in Sindaria where he tells Sinbad that Al-Thamen is coming for him (bring it on he’s the goddamn Sinbad Legend of the 7 Seas) and that Al-Thamen has sent some of their agents into the Zagan dungeon to kill the others. Going back to Alibaba and the group they reach the final level of Zagan where they’re confronted by the Arms Dealer (this guy just won’t die) and the agents of Al-Thamen Dunya and Issac.
In episode 23 Alibaba and Aladdin fight against the members of Al-Thamen. In fact, the whole episode is one big fight. Alibaba takes on Issac in a sword fight where he shows that he learned how to use magoi manipulation and transform the Amon sword back into a dagger to fight (alright they bought back the dagger fighting style, well played Magi, well played). With this style change he’s able to fight to his full potential and slices up Issac (damn Alibaba, you a cold blooded-killer. Props to you man). Aladdin takes on Dunya the princess of a fallen kingdom who can manipulate sand. She uses her dark metal vessel to transform into a dark jinn but Aladdin uses his unlimited amount of magoi to pin her to the wall. But she breaks free and uses the dark jinn equip to become stronger and more dangerous. Issac also gets back up showing that he is just a sand soldier that used to be human but died protecting Dunya when she was a child. Hakuryuu comes back to help them after getting Morgiana to safety but Dunya has had enough playing around and prepares to unleash her ultimate attack. While that’s going on Judal tells Sinbad that Al-Thamen is sending an attack force to destroy Sindria and that he should prepare himself and leaves. So wait, why is Judal warning him you ask? Well, it’s because he wants the pleasure of killing Sinbad himself (congratulations Judal, you just made Batman villain mistake number 2. Don’t wait, just do it now. The first mistake was attempting to take on the goddamn Batman).
Shit goes down in episode 24. Hakuryuu gets his hand chopped off by Issac protecting Alibaba and Dunya fires her ultimate attack at them which is a million swords raining down on them (I like to call it Rain of a thousand swords). But Aladdin causes her to see an illusion which makes her miss her target completely and run out of magoi. As a result of this Alibaba is able to defeat Issac once and for all and the Arms Dealer stabs Dunya in the back causing her dark rukh to spill out (this isn’t as disturbing as it sounds). Alibaba goes to check on her but he gets absorbed in her dark rukh and sees how her country was overthrown when she was a child and how they attempted to kill her just because she came from the royal family. Alibaba gets so swept up in the dark rukh that his curse beings to progress quickly through his body covering him completely. The Arms Dealer approaches Alibaba and tells him that it’s his fault everyone is suffering which angers Alibaba that he stabs and kills the Arm Dealer allowing the curse to take over his body completely and he transforms into the Dark King (scene here: https://youtu.be/LJKEoyz8RUs). Back on Sindaria the eight generals and the soldiers fight the dark jinns approaching the island. Masrur, Sharrkan, and Yamraiha take on dark metal users where Masrur and Sharrkan use their skills to defeat the dark metal users (and by defeat I mean actually kill them brutally. And to think this is a primetime show in Japan. How I envy Japanese television). But a large dark magoi blob is approaching the island and will destroy the island once it reaches it.
In the final episode Morgiana regains consciousness and fights Alibaba to save him. She gets help from Hakuryuu who we find out has become the master of Zagan who gives Hakuryuu a wooden hand to replace his missing hand (I would not use that hand for your night time activities). With their combine effort they manage to remove the dark jinn mind control ornament on Alibaba which allows Aladdin to use the Wisdom of Solomon to dive into Alibaba’s subconscious and save him (scene here: https://youtu.be/pFJ4A4KGrBU). With Alibaba no longer under the control of the Arms Dealer, the Arms Dealer escapes and tries to make his way back to Al-Thamen (will you just die already, you’re becoming a huge pain in the ass). But he gets stopped by Sinbad who we find out has both light and dark rukh flowing inside of him and is able to remove the curse on himself and take out the Arms Dealer once and for all this time (scene here: https://youtu.be/wgVQOqK8Yos, about damn time). Also, Kougyoku saves Sindria using her jinn equip powers of water to blow away the dark magoi entirely (love~). With everything settled and the curses removed we wrap the season up with a good moral and show future characters that will be playing a major role in the next season.
Manga vs Anime
Before getting to the Final Thoughts I thought it be a good idea to show you how the events in the manga played out in the last 5 episodes. Okay, first off, Alibaba getting bit by the Arms Dealer snake never happened thus the curse on him and Sinbad never happened. Although the snake did bite someone but I’ll get to that later. The reason why Sinbad sent the group to conquer Zagan was because he wanted to test their new strength and protect them from the members of Al-Thamen. Most of the events in the dungeon do happen in the manga except for Alibaba becoming the dark king and Hakuryuu losing his arm. Also, the Arms Dealer didn’t stab Dunya. After Dunya fired her ultimate attack at them and missed Alibaba snuck up from behind and decapitated the Arms Dealer. After Issac is defeated Dunya gets frustrated and dark rukh starts to flow from her body. Aladdin than decides to use Solomon’s wisdom to dive in Dunya’s rukh and see her past. He shows the others and uses Solomon’s wisdom again to bring Issac’s spirit to talk to Dunya. This causes her rukh to change from black to white and she collapses from exhaustion. After that they all rush to the treasure room where they find Zagan. He apologizes for everything that has happened to them, heals Morgiana who is still passed out and frees the villagers in the dungeon. He then chooses Hakuryuu to be his master because according to him Hakuryuu is the most capable with him. After gathering treasure and getting ready to leave the Arms Dealer snake shows up and bites Hakuryuu and they leave the dungeon with Dunya.
Once outside the dungeon the gang gets attacked by the three members of Al-Thamen who attacked Sindria in the anime and get decimated by them. But luckily Masrur, Sharrkan, and Yamraiha show up and kill them. These fights are actually a little more brutal in the manga. Hell, each fight has their own chapter. When they return to Sindria they have a party to celebrate their victory. At the party Hakuryuu’s hand falls off and the Arms Dealer comes out and splits himself into three people to try and curse Alibaba, Aladdin, and Sinbad. Aladdin figures out his plan and protects himself from the curse but Alibaba and Sindad get cursed and the Arms Dealer escapes. Sinbad uses teleportation magic to find and destroy him while Aladdin uses Solomon’s wisdom to go inside Alibaba and vanquishes the remaining spirit of the Arms Dealer. He also sees that some of Kassim’s rukh has remained inside Alibaba. That’s how the events of episodes 20-25 unfold in the manga.
To be fair the anime’s version was alright, it wasn’t bad but I be lying if I said I didn’t like the manga version more than the anime version. In the anime’s defense I think the reason why they changed so much was because of two reasons. The first reason was time. I imagine they wanted to follow the events in the manga accordingly but then they found out that they only get 25 episodes so they had no choice but to change things up so that they could finish the arc accordingly in the time frame they had. As a result we got this different but alright ending to the first season. The second reason was uncertainty. From what I’ve heard the creators of the show were uncertain if Magi was going to get a second season or not. Keep in mind, the second season of an anime depends entirely on the Japanese audience not the rest of the world’s audience. If the first season gets high ratings in Japan than it will get a second season. My guess is ratings were still up in the air for Magi and A-1 decided to play it safe and not announce a second season until after they saw the ratings. Because of this they decided to play it safe and give the series their own anime stopping point and finish up the current arc while still leaving room to work in a second season. Once A-1 saw how high the ratings were they decided to go ahead and green-light the second season.
Final Thoughts
Magi is مرعب, مرح, مثير, و أصلي. For those of you wondering that was Arabic for Magi is awesome, fun, exciting, and original. This is hands down my favoriteof 2012. The story is interesting and creative. I like how the author and the animators pay close attention to the contents of the anime. They have Arabic writing on some of the walls in the dungeons, terms, and clothing as well. You can tell that they did their research and wanted to pay proper respect to the culture and world the series was taking place in. The characters are also great too you really do come to like them and understand them. Aladdin is cute and a bit of a pervert but at the same time he’s quite smart and wise for his age. I like how when he’s not fighting he seems like a harmless kid but when it comes time to fight he loses that childlike presence and becomes somewhat of a badass mage. Alibaba is also a good lead. I like how they don’t make him perfect or you’re typical shonen male lead. He has a few quirts of a typical shonen character such as being handsome, a good fighter, and having a tragic past but they also give his character depth. He tends to doubt himself, he doesn’t always do the right thing or have the right answer to the problem, he’s not all that strong and will lose in fights but learn from them so that he doesn’t make the same mistake in the future. They show his strong points but they also show that he’s imperfect just like us and that just like us he suffers, doubts, and doesn’t always make the right choice but will press on and try not to make the same mistake again in the future. Morgiana is just a badass there’s no other word to describe her. Just watching her fight and seeing her backstory just cements the fact that this is a character you are going to like. She’s cute, well-mannered and wants to help out her friends and those close to her as much as possible. She’s not a girl who’s gonna sit on the sidelines waiting to be saved. If you catch her you better make sure you chain her up good and tight because if she gets loose your ass is grass.
The side characters are also well-developed and fun too. Sinbad is quite funny and strong and pays proper homage to his original character from the book but Magi takes him a step further. They turn him into a king, a man responsible for the safety of his people and he lives up to it. In the anime you’ll see that Sinbad cares a lot for his country and people and holds the position of king with maturity and honor but at the same time he’s still an adventurer at heart and is not afraid to back down from a fight. At first I was a little bit worried when I found out he was the king of a country but after seeing his character in the anime and in the manga I can safely say that this was good and well played move. They also show at the end he has his own dark secret waiting to reveal itself. The Kou Empire is quite interesting. They show them as a kingdom trying to conquer the world but for the short amount of time we see the main heads of the empire we see that they’re all nice and honorable people. Hakuei fights with honor and wants to help expand the empire without causing needless bloodshed. Kougyoku has a split personality when she’s fighting but you can tell that she’s a very delicate person who’s actually lonely and wants to have friends she’s just too shy to admit it. As I said before Hakuryuu reminds me of Zuko from Avatar he even has a burnt scar over his left eye like Zuko. He seems to have a pretty dark and tragic past that causes him to suffer greatly and he can’t move on from it until he faces it. Despite this in the short amount of time they introduce him they actually do manage to make him a likable and sympathetic character. And if his character development is anything like Zuko’s than he’s definitely gonna be one of my favorite characters in the series. Al-Thamen is also quite menacing. We don’t know that much about them but just seeing what they can do and what their objective is just makes you mad that you just get happy seeing one of their members get beaten but at the same time you do feel sorry for some of them like Dunya.
Besides the deviation from the manga around episode 20 which was alright in my opinion I really have no complaints about this anime (and believe me I really did try to find faults). I’ve heard some people complain about the pacing of the anime saying that it rushed through some events but I didn’t really see that I thought it had good pacing until around the last episodes. At some parts I felt the pacing was kinda slow mostly around the Baldbadd arc. I feel that they extended and hung on to some of the events in the arc for a while. The animation is nice it’s like a mixture of the animation from FMA: Brotherhood and The Idolm@ster and that same style is used on the characters as well. Some characters do go chibi on us like Aladdin and Alibaba at times and we’ll see that over the top shocked face which is funny and fits into this series. The music is amazing, they have a mixture of Arabian music mixed with rock music as well as some orchestra music to play up to the suspense of the scene. It’s done excellently and plays out well in each scene. The music for this anime was done by Shiro Sagisu who did the music for a lot of other major animes such as the Evangelion series (including Death and Rebirth, The End of Evangelion, and the reboot movies) and Bleach so if you liked the music from these two series than chances are high you’ll like the music in Magi.
There are also character songs for the anime already out as well. We get a character song from the main characters as well as Sinbad and Judal. They’re sung well and match up perfectly with the characters. Aladdin’s song is cute and cheerful but not childish at all. Alibaba surprisingly has a great singing voice (who knew) that really caught me off guard the first time I heard it. His song is quite emotional and very inspirational probably my second favorite for the series. Morgiana has a rock song that almost sounds like an anthem to her badassness. Judal has a slower pace but menacing song that sends a chill down your spine and Sinbad’s song is my favorite out of all of them for its triumphant feel. It’s been a while since I’ve heard Daisuke sing, I’ve forgotten how good a singer he is.
Final Score
The final score for Magi is a very high and well-earned enthusiastic 9/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. This is one of the most original, creative, and interesting animes I’ve seen in a very long time. It deserves to be watched and praised by otakus and fans of animes. With its interesting story, plot and well-developed and likable characters this is a series I think will leave a good mark on everyone who watches and will be seen as one of the best series in the years to come and I can’t wait to watch the second season continue the story because I’ve been reading the manga in my spare time and all I can say is that the story just keeps getting more and more interesting with each chapter. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All images, pictures, and videos are not owned by me and belong to their respected owners. All rights reserved*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment or send them along with requests or feedback to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com