Magic, Monsters and Muscular Men (Mahou Shoujo Ore Review)

Genre: Comedy, Parody, Magical Girl, Fantasy 

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Pierrot Plus

Episodes: 12

Original Run: 2nd April 2018 – 18th June 2018

Available on: Crunchyroll

Languages Available: Japanese

Subtitles Available: English

Is There a Manga Available? Yes

Overview:

Mahou Shoujo Ore centres around 15-year-old Uno Saki who is an inspiring idol and wishes to make it into the business with her best friend Mikage Sakuyo. She has a run in with an intimidating man who looks to be from the yakuza. It turns out that this frightening man is a fairy mascot and her own mother is a magical girl who is getting on a bit in age. Saki ends up taking on the magical girl role herself so her mother can retire. Saki uses the power of love towards her crush Mohiro and turns into a magical girl and fight evil. However, all is not how it seems and instead she transforms into a handsome young man when fighting off evil.

Review:

I remember seeing art and hearing about the concept for this anime months before the anime was even announced. From the moment I saw the art and read the concept I knew I had to see it either in anime or manga form. The overall concept was so absurd that I knew it would be an instant favourite as the more ridiculous a show the better.

Mahou Shoujo Ore took the magical girl genre and turned it on its head with a fantastic parody anime. It tore down the beloved clichés of the genre and made as much fun of it all as possible. Magical girl rods, frilly outfits, the adorable mascot and the power of love. All of it torn down in a clever, hilarious manner to ridicule the genre.

The characters are what made this series. There wasn’t a single unlikeable character. Well, maybe I did gave Hyoue the evil eye but that’s to be expected with such a sly looking character. Saki and Sakuyo were lovable in both their female and male forms. The male voice actors did a great job portraying them even down to their singing. Saki in male form sung just as tone deaf as she does in female form and I appreciated that attention to detail. If two separate characters can accurately portray the same character in different genders then that is a good sign of good quality acting work. With Mohiro’s character, well, I’m speechless. Just like him! Mohiro’s role in this series was beyond amusing. His ability to communicate through his eyes and soft grunts and mumbles was a fun take on the cool, silent character type especially since he was the main love interest. The spin of Mohiro being the damsel in distress was also a breath of fresh air in terms of the girl saving the guy for once. Nice to see such a tired cliche spiced up a bit.

The awkward love triangle was a necessity in this series considering their magical girl abilities revolve around love for their crushes. To have Sakuyo in love with Saki, Saki in love with Mohiro and Mohiro in love with Saki in male magical girl form was one of the best love triangles I’ve seen. It was funny instead of infuriating.

The villains and allies of this series were brilliantly done. The normally adorable fairy mascot of the series was instead an intimidating man by the name of Kokoro who looked as though he belonged to the yakuza. The enemies of the show started off as sweet bear looking creatures who then grew ten times in size and cute faces contrasted with bulging muscular bodies. Flipping the villains and allies on  its head in this way was the perfect way to parody the typical magical girl set up. I must say I didn’t see the main villain coming. I won’t spoil it but all I’ll say is that the show fooled me into looking in one direction and ignoring another completely.

The overall animation style was decent. While not much in particular stood out in terms of style it was very clean, colourful and pleasant to watch and flowed well overall. Towards the end of the series they even joked about and dropped the animation quality in order to get on with the story and wrap everything up. This sense of self awareness is something always something to be appreciated in shows like this. I did however adore the art style for the ending credits as the paintings popped and were just so visually pleasing.

As comedy is such a subjective thing it’s always harder to recommend compared to other genres. Having said that it was a pure delight for myself and I’d love a second season in the future. If you love parody anime and over the top humour then it’s definitely worth your time.

Overall rating: 9/10

Until next time thanks for reading and I hope you’re having a great day!

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