Forum - View topicMahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers (TV).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11442 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers (TV) Source: Original Demographic: Everyone Animation Studio: Bibury Animation Studios Genres: action, fantasy Themes: magical girl, otaku, rebellion Plot Summary: 2008—With the emergence of a mysterious force, all kinds of otaku culture such as anime, games, manga, music, trains, and cosplay have been eliminated in Japan. Collectibles are stored away and otaku are oppressed in the name of protection. Society doesn't give it a second thought. Overrun by the SSC, an organization charged with maintaining order, the otaku seemed to have perished. However, a group of people appears who take back the blockaded Akiba and rise up in revolt. A young revolutionary, "Otaku Hero" and three magical girls who adore him - "Anarchy," "Blue," and "Pink." Set in Japan in 2011, otaku gather under the banner of freedom. The Akiba Revolutionary Army challenges the SSC leader "SHOBON" to an epic battle. They are determined to create a world where people can say what they want and do what they want as much as they want. Gathered under the banner of freedom, to reclaim the culture that has been stolen from, let the OTAKU COUNTER CULTURE begin. Air Date & Platform: April 7, 2023 (Friday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: Pending |
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smurky turkey
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So, uh, I just watched the first 2 episodes of this and the second episode in particular sure is something. It has been a while since I felt like having a fever dream while watching an anime and this came pretty darn close.
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PotatoGirl
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The third episode made me laugh out loud with how spoiler[abrupt the death scene was. Purple really ain't [expletive] around lol]
spoiler[I'm also just going to go ahead and guess that she and Anarchy swapped eyes at some point, and Purple's is responsible for the blue flame in Anarchy's eye when she transforms. Wonder if the other two Heavenly Kings will parallel Blue and Pink as well. ] Also, isn't this one of the reviewed series this season? Will its review be starting from this week or did Beckett have to drop it? |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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Episode 8
This is a title I dropped a couple of times but kept on trying and now I've caught up. An amusing celebration of otaku-ness, I guess. I'm sure there are a lot of otaku in real life who feel persecuted by the scorn of normie society and this show certainly taps into that. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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Plus it makes a distinction between otaku of different ages and thus experiences and that said differences can mean conflicts or at the very least some negative feelings. These days anime and such has become so popular/casual that it is getting close to being a normie thing to some extend.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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True. I was just at Anime North over the weekend, an event that attracts about 15,000 attendees. I can tell you there are quite a few cute female nerds out there... WHERE WERE THESE KINDS OF HOTTIES WHEN I WAS GOING THROUGH MY D'N'D PHASE IN HIGH SCHOOL IN THE EARLY '80S??? Pffft, nerds these days don't know how good they've got it.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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What even is a nerd these days though? Playing videogames has become very common, anime has also become much more common and accepted. Nerd used to be a term to indicate a person of certain interests and appearance, yet those interests are now mainstream and appearance wise there is not a typical nerd look anymore, hell some people dress up like the old school nerds because it is considered trendy.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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To me, these days a nerd is anybody who doesn't agree with my exquisite taste and sensibility 100%.
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InfiniteJest
 Posts: 136 |
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I haven’t started this yet but the summary from Tony already made me laugh so hard I blew snot bubbles (okay almost). Gotta put this on the list.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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So uh, having seen the final few episodes earlier today, can someone tell me what I was supposed to take from this whole series? I say this feeling a bit lost after having seen the end.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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Episode 12 (Finale)
Welcome to the Uh... what? Express that I imagine quite a few of us are on. Sorry, I cannot enlighten you as I too am confuzzled. James Beckett is doing a pretty decent job in his episode reviews in trying to unpack this stuff and even he is somewhat adrift. For me, at the end of the day, the whole point of this show was a pretty simple celebration of otaku-ism. "Like what you like as much as you like." The whole notion of otaku persecution by the state and society at large is something that I'm sure many real otaku feel due to the occasional bout of censorship that anime, manga and games sometimes face as well as the disapproval of the general population. We in North America are familiar with the concept of "nerds" and "fanbois" and how they can be looked down upon but we really don't experience the same level of actual revulsion and contempt that Japanese otaku can face from Japanese "normies". This show is absolutely drenched in that sentiment. Take that, stuff it in a blender, and you get a show like Magical Destroyers, I guess. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I came into the last episode thinking that maybe it would redeem itself at the end, after all it obviously thinks that it is really smart, but in the end it kind of didn't really succeed. Of course without a first hand understanding of Japanese otaku culture, there is the chances that I just won't understand, or get things wrong, but I have my thoughts.
Firstly, I think its general premise is very misguided, dated, or poorly executed. It feels like something of that would have come out over 10 years ago, with the self-pity of otaku persecution, and design elements that just don't feel like the now. For one it was really bugging me that pretty much all the otaku in the show were men, all except the magical girls, and maybe the random seiyu/idols that showed up in the last act of the show. We have a show done this season called Otaku Elf, featuring a female otaku, and I would think that it has become more obvious in the last decade that there are female otaku. I was kind of leaning maybe that things would lean into another possible aspect that the whole Otaku Hero character doesn't really make sense as the show stands. My sort of running theory would be a reveal that the reality were shown was a skewed perspective of one guy who from his view the things he and his kind like are being hunted, and this could explain why from his point of view it was all men having the stuff they like destroyed. This could have explained why he magically can just save the day, why magical girls showed up around him, as well as the mascot, and why he has no other name than Otaku hero. But really none of that played out, because in the end he died and things continued. A new person took up his mantle, like all of the stuff around his character has actually been playing straight the whole time, rather than say a bit of self-awareness that maybe things didn't make sense, and the sense of otaku persecution is a bit extreme. Following that I think the main villain of the show doesn't really make sense, or really represent something meaningful, since Otaku Hero was meant to be taken seriously, this guy was too. Some of my thoughts was maybe the TV guy could have represented something like mainstream media, so his traits would have to play into that. But as said in the last episode apparently he was against otaku because they stood against him or something, and was wanting to make a game. On the mainstream media thing I was thinking maybe the whole deal was that he was setting otaku up as villains as a way to keep public opinion on his side, and maybe his war on otaku would be that they are not growing up because they still watch cartoons, and have deviance. In that way what the three magical girls could have meant in coming under his control, could have represented something like otaku media that is a bit too saucy, and so the media uses it as examples of how deviant and are something like a danger to kids. I am sure we could pick examples like when magical girls moved away from being just for little girls, and then were used for lewdness and violence. It actually made me a little excited when the last scene started in saying that it was in 2011, as I didn't remember the show saying a year before then. The reason that automatically tripped my memory was because 2011 is actually kind of special for the magical girl genre, as it was the year that Madoka came out, which I think kind of created a new subgenre of the dark magical girl series, and I remembered even hit main stream appeal in a positive way in Japan. But I didn't really get that in the end as any significance. Just looking at those pieces, I could have imagined it as something like the magical destroyers being used as monsters under the control of the villain, and then have something that could have represented the pathos that I think Madoka helped bring as a shift to otaku culture, and how maybe the view changed some. Exploring further, what the girls (magical destroyers) themselves represent, is kind of unclear. Because I was kind of leaning towards that sort of double edged sword of otaku culture of violent, sexy, and a bit overly edgy or moe, which could be fun in moderation, but may be unhealthy to otaku if used too much as a crutch for things like identity or human connection. But in the end I don't really think it lived up to the idea, that there was that intention to the idea of the flaws of these characters that fed into things like the trope of the magical girlfriend that was even more popular in the past when apparently the show was set. They were kind of just characters one moment, and then were hacked and generally under the control of the villain. I think that maybe it would have been cool if say Anarchy's violence was exaggerated that it made the otaku look more violent to the people, the same with Blue's sexual deviance, and Pink Moe dreaminess. If I had to pick what Pink would or should have represented, it would have been a caricature of moe, where her followers wanted to protect her, and would rather keep themselves in drug like hazes in ignoring the real world. Since I see some of those pieces, I might like to think there was some of these intention, where the magical girls represented trappings of otaku culture, that when made excess, could look to general audiences as ways that otaku culture in general is bad. But it feels like forgo all of that for just having a character make a speech that otaku should be allowed to like what they like, rather than say any exploration of maybe why do these otaku cultures exist in the first place, or why people think there is a problem. There are those pieces of intelligence, where I think even the OP or ED was maybe pushing that there are some unhealthy aspects of otaku culture, and our hero is maybe a bit too much like a terminal patient that is being rolled around by his vices that make him happy, but maybe also make him miserable. But none of that is in the show itself. Instead we get some random reveal that the comic relief villain that was funny killed often, was apparently playing (watching) the game of otaku being rounded up, which I can't imagine would be really that fun, as they are not really doing anything. Especially at the end where apparently the fun conflict was just made one sided where the apparent favourite piece was just removed. There is always the risk when I do something like this, that it really just turns into me making a fan fiction of how think the show should have been, rather than what it was and I should be judged just on those merits. But I honestly think these sorts of themes and plot threads are so obvious, that it kinds of feels like they were purposefully ignored for what they thought would be a safer story of otaku victim complex, and a sort of hollow message of people should like what they like. My rating will be Decent (6/10), as it has things like nice animation, parts that make it feel smart about the medium it exists within, I just genuinely think that it fails to pull threads together to more clearly or obviously be about something. In ways it is kind of like Wonder Egg Priority, where it all relies on something that feels like a meaningful message, but just fails that step. Granted Wonder Egg shat the bed much worse with what it did. |
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