Shelf Life

Modern Magica

What happened Sekirei?! I gave season one a Rental Shelf and a fairly positive review, which was a ringing endorsement on my part; I think Sekirei was the first “boob” show that I didn't rank Perishable. I remember the animation being good, and the plot, although bizarre, was at least somewhat compelling.

The first four episodes of Pure Engagement look terrible. The animation quality has dropped precipitously. Granted, I didn't watch season one on Blu-ray. BD is not kind to this show. You can really see the seams. The production quality finally crawls up out of the garbage around episode six or seven, and starts to get back into form. More so than other shows, the competent animators were clearly saved for the fight scenes, making for some extreme vacillations in quality. The final few episodes and important fights are so different that they look like they were done by famous guest animators. The OVA episode is particularly well animated, which makes me suspect that episodes 1-4 were given $20 each so the remaining $99,920 per episode (a wild estimate based on Justin Sevakis's articles) could be used for the OVA.

The plot flops around like a fish on land for the first half of this set, dying and gasping for air. Eventually the game master forces some weird Battle Royale scenarios on the sekirei fighting teams, but for the first five episodes he just kind of hangs out, on a clock tower, waiting for some more sekirei to emerge. Or rather, I think that's what was happening. I was so bored it was hard to tell.

As the characters yammer on and on about their Pokemon-like masters, you've got a lot of time to think about their breasts, because they are right there, taking up most of the frame. Eventually it occurred to me that Sekirei may actually use breast size as a shorthand to characterization. After a while, I got really preoccupied thinking about Matsu's (the hacker) nipple shape design. Her areola is raised, so her nipples are like a two-stage rocket. There are bath scenes of course, but I'm talking about her nipple profile as seen through her clothes. (Believe it or not, there are bras in the Sekirei universe, but I think clothing physics are just totally different.) Sometimes Tsukiumi's (the one who talks in presumably archaic Japanese; her best dub line in this set is “thy jig is up,”) and Kazehana's (the drunk) nipples are also drawn like missiles sometimes, but other times they look more normal. I suspect the weird nipple shapes come straight from hentai doujinshi trends, but I'm not exactly an erotica expert.

The final arc for this set winds up in the same series of scenes that a lot of anime and Japanese media conclude with nowadays. Without spoiling it, (is it possible to spoil a cliché?) the hero and his/her friends go into enemy territory, and one by one friends stay behind to hold off the bad guys in a heroic sacrifice so the hero can keep going. Dear Japan, I'm getting tired of this ending.

Did you know the original manga was by the same artist as Sensitive Pornograph? That means Sekirei was penned by a lady who normally draws yaoi! Knowing the characters were designed by a lady added another weird level to my viewing experience.[TOP]

This show screams “based on a light novel!” It's difficult to nail down an exact reason why that is, but if you were making a list of light-novel-like qualities, start looking for examples in this show (and then share your list with me).

Koyomi is a klutzy short girl who decides to attend a magic school to improve her life somehow. Her only magical ability so far is to summon wash basins, and/or turn other people's spells into wash basins. She befriends Yumiko, a practitioner of traditional magic, and Misa, a practitioner of “modern” magic who uses computers to cast spells.

At the very least the original concept distinguishes Modern Magic from other otaku-centric series, I mean, at least it doesn't take place around the Japanese school year. Unfortunately, I'm against the premise on two counts. First, I hate midichlorians. That is to say, I liked Star Wars better before Lucas made The Force based in “science;” generally, I guess you could say I'm against explaining magic systems with science, and this show makes magic less magical.

Second, I think this series glorifies programmers as wizards. A lot of the spells are just programs. Even in the show they're called “scripts”. I'm not sure if how many Japanese anime otaku are programmers, but if it's a significant number, this is truly “fan service” of the highest order. Imagine if this were a series aimed at a demographic of accountants; the girls would probably do magic using math.

The other type of fan service in the show, i.e., panty shots, are handled awkwardly. Yumiko goes commando for a few scenes and it's neither funny nor sexy. A demonic rogue “daemon” (har har) steals someone's panties in another scene that seems oddly out of place in this otherwise cutesy show.

The first plot arc spans six episodes and involves time travel. Jumping back and forth in time to the characters at different ages isn't the best way to introduce them. I found the first plot very difficult to follow. Why not start with another other, simpler story from one of the other novels first?

Yumiko shows off a lot of cleavage in her default outfit as an adult, but thanks to the time travel she spends a lot of the first arc as a kid. I half-suspect the time travel was just an excuse for viewers to get the option of choosing which bra size they like Yumiko in best.

Modern Magic Made Simple also raises some serious questions about morality that it fails to address. In several scenes, spells are used as marketing tools to work consumers into a buying frenzy. It's eerie to watch such invasive marketing tactics. Misa seems to operate by her own moral marketing code, but the show glosses over larger, worldwide implications of spell-marketing in order to cut to what you've all been waiting for: the pool episode! (I knew I wouldn't have to wait long…)

And seriously, what's going on with wash basin summoning witches? It's incredibly weird that both Rosario X Vampire and this show have a cute witch who can only summon wash basins. Is Rosario parodying this show? Are wash basin witches some hot new trend?

Other than the awkward moments, Modern Magic is more bland than horrible. If the plot was a bit easier to follow and the fanservice was less clumsy, I'd give this Rental based on the somewhat unique concept.[TOP]