Magical Destroyers

Episode 12

…so, that's it, huh? Well, crap.

Given that Magical Destroyers had established itself from the start as an ambitious, messy, and overstuffed anime-original story with little-to-no concern for traditional standards of “logic” or “coherence”, there was always a risk that it would end in a less than satisfying manner, but man, it still stings that the series finale ended up being so…whatever the heck "What You Like, as Much as You Like" is supposed to be. It's not a terrible ending, I suppose, since nothing about it actively betrays the series' characters and core themes, but that is mostly because Magical Destroyers barely even has any characters or core themes to betray at this point. Instead, it simply barrels along toward its unsatisfying conclusion and just kind of…stops.

On a purely mechanical level of “What happens to whom, and when, for whatever reasons”, I guess this episode technically makes sense. Instead of fighting his Magical Girls (who have now been transformed by Shobon into evil “Magical Destroyers”), Otaku Hero allows himself to be killed instead so that his memory can live on in the hearts of his erstwhile companions and followers. Shobon's power in this world is too great, and Otaku Hero knows he cannot win the battle by conventional means, so I guess he decides that becoming a martyr whose mantle can be taken on by other would-be Heroes in the future is the better way. Sure enough, the very end of the episode shows Otaku Hero II and his followers doing battle with the rejuvenated trio of Magical Destroyers, and while Shobon is furious that something completely outside of his script could occur, Origin seems pretty excited that this otherwise boring vision of Shobon's otaku-free utopia can be shaken up a bit.

The problem is that, on an emotional level, none of this feels satisfying or engaging at all. The very nature of Shobon's virtual world means that it is unclear to what extent any of these characters are even real/sentient/autonomous, and even if we do give the show the benefit of the doubt and just assume that all of the characters have full agency over their minds and desires, what are we supposed to make of Otaku Hero's sacrifice, or the girls' hell-turn to serving as puppets for Shobon? Sure, if the show gets a second season where it can follow up on these dangling threads, it might all amount to something, but as of now? It's not even an ending; it's more like a casual shrug that says to the audience, “Yeah, I guess the show is done now, whatever.”

As for whatever Magical Destroyers was even trying to say about otaku culture, fandom toxicity, anime tropes, and so on? I have absolutely no idea. I wanted to love this anime, and even as the season went on, and it became clear that this was going to be more of a “mess” than a “masterpiece”, I was still holding out that it would stick the landing by the end and at least end up being a fun and satisfying experience overall. Unless we get another season to properly conclude this half-baked and scatterbrained story, I suppose we'll just have to toss Magical Destroyers into the bin along with the rest of the anime originals that could have been great, but ended up missing the mark.

Rating:

Magical Destroyers is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.