Synopsis

Hot on the heals of the Harry Potter craze, we have a few anime trying to cash in on the wizardry school phenomenon. When they start with the psychokinetic powers let me know...oh wait, there's Psychic Academy, terrible shame about that anime, but anyway.... This story is about ye ol typical-anime-spineless-wuse-with-lots-of-power(tm) who is going to wizarding school. He's bad at just about everything, except that he's supposedly descended from a long line of incredibly powerful wizards (and if you look closely, one of them is H. Potter...yeah right sure) which means he's got the genes to produce some of the most powerful wizards of all time. Enter 3 girls who are just the ones to cash in on this little treasure trove: The 'main' girl Yuuna, Kuriko the busty rich blonde, and Rin the traditional Japanese girl...who just happens to be a samurai type as well. There's a fourth, but...ehh.... Can we say typical harem anime? Sure we can.

Originally published on "Where No Anime Goes Unpunihsed."

I liked Maburaho. I'll put that out right now. By all rights I should have hated this anime with such an intensity that I probably would have been shot by mistake by some well meaning do gooder when he saw the amount of froth at my mouth. However, I actually liked it...when I turned my brain off.

If I, for a moment, even THINK about what I was watching to any degree, the anger and hatred explode in a world pyre of nuclear fucking holocaust. I actually had Darth Maul come by and offer me some prozak when I started to consider what it was that I was viewing. So I cut him in half, tossed him down an air shaft, and screamed, "GIVE ME BACK MY GOOD TRANSFORMERS SERIES, YOU BITCH!" But the thought was there; can't fault the guy.

There is not one thing in this series that wasn't cliche. Not one damn thing. If there was a formula to writing a harem anime...this series followed it to the letter. The amount of creativity that went into this series was completely nonexistent. Oddly though, it has its charm, and I'm not referring to the big ass tits that permeate this series. To be honest, the tits don't look nearly as good as the ones in Psychic Academy.

Maybe it's the art style, I dunno. Or maybe it's the soundtrack that fits the scenes so well, and is probably one of the more interesting soundtracks around. It uses a lot of electric guitar in it. I know that damn opening theme song gets in my head and JUST WON'T GO AWAY!!!

It's certainly not the main character, Shikimori Kazuki. This man is the anime spineless wuse taken to an extreme I never thought possible. This male human (as he doesn't qualify for the term 'man' or even 'boy') is bad at pretty much everything. School, exercise...you name it, he probably sucks at it. He is a complete loser and has no desire to excel beyond his loserdom. If he had some drive or ambition, I could feel for the guy a bit, but as it is, he doesn't have shit. Hell, even at Magic, he only has 8 spells that he can use before he turns to ash.

Oh, a bit of background: in the world of Maburaho, mages can use spells only a certain number of times before they burn out and turn to ash. You see this a number of times in the anime, and it's kinda nifty, from a grisly point of view. A couple of times they speak of some council which can fix this, but for some reason do not. There are also some methods one can use to get their powers back, but generally it involves things that the organism is plain flat out not capable of; so most are pretty much stuck. I seem to recall the average was around 8,000 spells, but the more talented could go for over 100,000 or more. You'd think the first thing people would do would be to figure out how to make Ether's, but what would I know.

Anyway, back to Shikimori. The original idea was that this boy actually had infinite spells, as 8 turned on its side is the symbol for infinite. However, it's quickly shown this is not the case. What he really has are spells that are so goddamn powerful, that with one he can command just about anything at all to be done. Also, he's got the blood of damn near every goddamn supermage from a shitload of faery tales and fictional novels (H. Potter...*snicker*) in him. Basically this guy should be literally bleeding power, and in a way he is, but what several really think is that his power MUST be locked up in his genes...and that he will be able to father some of the most powerful mages of all time.

So all of the sudden this wuse is now the most desirable man meat around. Personally I'm thinking a lot, if not most, of girls would look at the full package and probably go, "Definitely not worth it." Which is most likely the reason he doesn't have half the planet after him once the secret gets out. However, there are a few that think the rewards may outweigh the costs, in the form of three (actually 4, but well...anyway) very buxom, very beautiful girls. Being a geek (a rather nasty geek, but still one none the less) I know the fate of such men. And being surrounded by beautiful girls is complete and total bullshit. They'll be lucky to get the time of day from even geek girls, and even if they were to be the type to nail people with chairs when the jocks or whatnot gave them shit, the girls STILL wouldn't do much more than blow them off.

Maybe that's what really pisses me off about this sort of anime. It's a reminder of all the nice things I wish I could have had (if highly exaggerated), but never got back in school. It's the lie that I cannot reconcile. The fantasy that causes more pain when you come out of it than you had before you went into it. It's the joke that says, "See, this guy has all the girls, and he's just like you...but since you live in reality this will NEVER be you in any way shape or form."

Course then we grow up and quite a number find a decent girl who is actually very nice. They won't be Belldandy, but that's as it should be...and honestly as it better be. I like my girls like Urd anyway...though corrupting an innocent cute girl has its satisfaction too, >_> but I'm digressing.

However, he goes back to his dorm after getting this news and finds...Yuuna Miyama there having turned his dorm room into a love pad for two. You find out her reasons for what she's doing later, but hers are more...I guess the word pure comes to mind...in comparison to the others. Backing away from the psycho at light speed, probably to call the cops, he runs out and runs into rich, blonde, and busty Kazetsubaki Kuriko, who wants his body for his genes so her family can remain the top in shear magical power in the world. Within the next few seconds, the traditional Kamishiro Rin shows up, told by her samurai mage clan to make a baby with this boy to bolster the power of their line. She is less than enthused when she sees what a complete and total waste of flesh the boy is otherwise. Mind you, you KNOW she's eventually going to fall for him cause he's, heh, kind, but that's how these animes go.

Now were it me, at this point, after I'd taken stock of the situation, I'd have gotten extremely fed up and gone, "FINE! I'll be up in my room. One at a time or all at once...I don't give a damn! Argue it out between you three!" and waited to see who comes up. But no, this man is not that practical, and for the most part, a complete and total sexaphobe. Only one girl is offering a relationship, the other two just want to boff him. Hell, if he was worried about Yuuna, which is unlikely there at the beginning, he could have just offered to proved them a sample (sounds familiar for some reason) and told them to piss off.

No, instead of all the things we could do, we get a helluva lot of haremific episodes where the girls stick to him like glue. Oddly there was one ep where Rin had this crush on a science geek...it was the way he focused on his work...it rang a bell with her. But in a completely contrived and artificial ending, after she makes the boy a shitty lunch (can someone tell me if girls really DO that in Japan?) she decides not to give it to the boy, and instead give it to Shikimori as he was nice enough to help her...which was blatantly done to keep her interested in that waste of space, Shikimori. Cause, as we all know, worthwhile men outside of the main spineless wuse do not EXIST in a harem anime (assuming any other guys exist at all). God, I could FEEL the artificial story telling in THAT one.

Turns out Yuuna had known Kazuki from way back (though there at the end it was total chaos...I still can't figure out what the fuck happened there or what was really valid there at the beginning or not). While she was interested in him for the progeny he would produce, he had that cliche anime childhood thing going with her that allowed her to love him for what he was, which virtually guarantees her role as the alpha of his harem. In fact her role is so powerful, the other girls can't compete and they have to bring in a 4th girl, another childhood friend, in order to be the counter to Yuuna there at the end of the series.

As the story progresses, Shiki tends to use up spell after spell saving these girls or whatnot. In fact, he uses his last two to save Yuuna from some magical virus that was sapping her spell points. Mind you, this guy is so wishy washy that when he gets vaporized, he can't even decide if he should move on or not and remains there as a ghost.

This is about ep 12 or so. The rest of the series is about how to bring him back and it DRAGS! The biggest bit of conflict about the series after this point is the Doctor's sister who collects spirits...and should probably be turned in for slavery, but from what they imply, this is a heavily underground sort of thing.

Then comes the end. They actually find a way to bring Shiki back. Problem, he's going to forget all about them...they agonize over this for awhile, the fourth girl, his childhood friend comes in and gets into it with Yuuna over this situation. Eventually they manage to bring him back...but he got copied 10 times...so everyone gets a Kazuki harem if they want. Shiki(s) is less than enthused.

Let's just say there at the end, as you watch the progression of events, you can tell the author was pulling shit right out his ass, as he had no IDEA how to end this. The idea of a reverse harem is certainly ironic, but it's a harem of the same wusey personage...that's just what the world needs. A clone of a male human that disgraces the title of, 'man.'

Yup, that's about all there is to this series. Not very imaginative, tends to drag, totally fucked ending, and formulaic haremificness to the extreme. By all rights, I should have hated this anime...and like I said, if I think about it I do. But if I turn my brain off I actually find I can enjoy it for some reason.

But is it any good? Honestly, I can't believe an anime of this lackluster quality got 24 episodes while something as imaginative and interesting as Midori no Hibi only got 12. So no, it's not really good. Maybe worth a rental, but if you do, don't think...just watch. It'll get you through it, and you might even enjoy yourself.