Magical Destroyers

Episode 11

So, it finally happened. After a whole season's worth of hinting and foreshadowing and building up, Magical Destroyers has finally dropped the bomb and revealed the truth of the world that Otaku Hero has been fighting to defend: It's all just computer game, an elaborate simulation developed by a disgruntled and vengeful developer who was given the power to make his greatest dreams into a reality. It just so happens that Shobon's greatest dreams are everyone else's worst nightmares.

I should be over the moon at how much we learn about Shobon and the real context of the Otaku War and all that, but to be frank, I'm still honestly more confused than excited. Sure the reveal in the opening scene explains some things, and it at least helps us understand what the hell Shobon and the SSC even are, but learning that every other character in the anime is just an NPC in the worlds weirdest video-game built for just one player makes a lot of other parts of the show make less sense if you'd believe it.

Like, are they all just computer programs? Did they gain sentience, or are they all behaving within the confines of their programming? Is Otaku Hero meant to be a program too, or is there yet another reveal that will explain his role in this whole thing? Furthermore, what on Earth are we supposed to make of Kyotaro being the Origin goddess that gifted Shobon all of these powers, to begin with?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that leaving all of these threads open-ended makes for a bad episode of Magical Destroyers; it just isn't a very satisfying one, on a narrative level. This whole penultimate climax tries to pull out all of the stops when it comes to Blue and Pink's crises, not to mention Anarchy's face-off with Slayer, but I'm less sure than ever how much of any of this is even real, never mind what any of the stakes are supposed to be.

Thankfully, even if “Magical Destroyers” remains a bit head-scratching on a narrative and thematic level, the visuals and direction here were solid enough to make sure it was all entertaining to watch if nothing else. The show is still never going to trick anyone into thinking it's a MAPPA or Studio Wit production, but this episode looked good enough where it counts, and it got back to some of the more surreal imagery and editing that made those first episodes stand out so much.

All in all, I still have no clue whether or not all of this nonsense will have been worth it, by the end. It will be up to Magical Destroyers to provide a conclusion that gets us to care about its characters while also grounding this final conflict in something that at least bears a passing resemblance to reality. Will that be possible to do in just one episode? Who knows! We'll just have to see when it all comes tumbling down next week.

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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.