RebelPanda

Magical Bros turned out a way better and funnier than anticipated (or Mahou Shoujo Ore if you prefer). It's a thoroughly entertaining, if slightly uneven, magical girl parody that has plenty of funny meta-jokes, self-aware commentary, and a cast of likable characters. Perhaps its source material simply wasn’t long enough to be adapted into 12 episodes, but aside from some sluggish pacing around the series midpoint, it's a worthwhile watch. Even now, the plot synopsis sounds like a crazy fever dream. The first two episodes are supremely ridiculous parodies of a typical intro to a magical girl series. Protagonist Saki plays the straight man ina world of insanity, with hilarious well-timed reaction faces and her perfectly dumbfounded voice performance. Her mom already knows magical girls exist because she was one, contracted by the same scary yakuza guy who’s trying to sign on Saki. Even Saki's singing partner in their up incoming idol duo, Sakuyo, and their manager were totally chill with her magical girl transformation. Oh yeah, she transforms into a burly dude in a dress. Instead of using magic, she has to use her stick to beat the shit out of demons in bloody brawls complete with pixelated piles of bodies to censor the carnage. At first, it’s really funny to see how quickly everyone accepts her demon-fighting form as normal while she continues to freak out. This joke wears off as the show progresses, settling into a stable level of absurdity to give the story a chance to flesh out its characters. The show loves to make the joke of how much carnage magical girls would actually have to cause if they didn’t have flashy light effects, it comes up whenever Saki has to save everyday citizens from legions of fluffy demons. At the start of the show Saki has a typical fairy-like mascot flying around her while she dreams about becoming a magical girl and having her love interest Mohiro fawn over her; only to hilariously awoke to a ludicrous reality where her mascot is the mini yakuza guy floating around her and unable to even look at Mohiro without foaming at the mouth like your average horny harem protagonist dude. It’s not until both Saki and Sakuyo gain magical girl powers that they go from being total failures of aspiring idols (not one fan at their barren roadside concert) that they actually gain popularity. Seeing Saki’s offbeat singing pair with Sakuyo’s comparatively great performance is quite funny, especially when their manager bluntly criticizes how terrible she is. Thankfully the show gives him more screen time to become someone who’s actually likable, we understand why he’s so critical and wants to see them succeed by the end which makes the greatest development the series has to offer. Also, there’s a lot of singing in the first few episodes, the first sign that they’re stalling for a time due to the meager 12 chapter manga being adapted. The singing was good unless it’s intentionally off-key then it’s quite goofy, Mohiro and his idol partner Hyoue were shown performing the show’s great ed song on a tv behind the girl’s empty streetside performance. Perfectly showing how far they have to go to catch up to Saki’s love interest who’s also Sakuyo’s brother. Their relationship quickly becomes something like a love triangle with Saki in love with Mohiro, Sakuyo in love with Saki, and Mohiro in love with Saki’s manly form. It’s sometimes cute to see but also the show occasionally portrays Sakuyo’s gayness as a threat to Saki (there was even a bad rape joke with Saki in bed crying while Sakuyo in manly form looming over her with a cigar). However, like most jokes in the show as it appears more often with increasing stakes it gets better. By the end, she becomes less of a threat and balances out to someone who’s trying to actually protect who they care about. It’s not a good portrayal of a gay character, but at least it doesn’t actively prevent you from enjoying the comedy. Ore takes any chance it can get to poke fun at the magical girl genre, idols, and the anime industry. It points out all of the glaring troubles idols face like not being allowed to date, the age limit, the extreme contract guidelines, and how they have to meet and shake hands with anyone (oh god the condensed milk joke). Also, like any good absurdist comedy, it's surprising and does whatever it can to subvert your expectations to maintain your interest. Whether it be a joke playing out differently than you first anticipating, or even the story taking a direction as opposed to where it hinted it might go. The show also takes a whack at Kamen Rider the hero icon that was stomped out when Magical Girls became popular. The recurring character Ichigo Fujimoto is basically the embodiment of a modern Kamen Rider, living in a run-down apartment, having to make his costume out of trash, constantly being forgotten. He angrily scolds Saki for being one of those weak magical girls just annoyingly lingers around her from time to time. Like most of the supporting cast, he’s an entertaining digression from the main duo’s dynamic. It's clear that Mahou Shoujo Ore didn't have the highest budget. The animation is typically lacking, with lots of camera shaking and so-so background art, but typically they make the best out of what they have. Whenever characters are drawn with the simpler style they're always expressing some over-the-top emotion like a typical reaction face would, so it saves money and improves the jokes. There’s plenty of jokes on the meager animation budget too; a monster that turns the backgrounds black and white, the camera cutting to the 'nice boat' meme during bloody action scenes, most hilariously the art quality being lowered to toddler level for one of the conflicts, and how episode 5 is a riff on the animation studio producing the show. The episode-long digression the show takes to rag on Studio Pierrot is funny and well made, but it has practically nothing to do with the show! It handles the Godzilla plotline even better than its latest anime incarnation, the monster representing an animator who just wanted the latest episode of Mahou Shoujo Ore to be released on time. Even so, this episode came out of nowhere and didn't develop any part of the story or characters. There's a lot of downtime in this show, so much so that it makes you wonder why they didn't shorten it to 10 episodes. The Godzilla episode was totally unnecessary, the hot springs episode was literally one joke for 10 minutes, so much singing, and the 'anime original' idol duo is just a copy and paste of Saki and Sakuyo but with less development. For all the time that Mahou Shoujo Ore wastes, it's mostly good content, and even when it's stalling out the plot progression it's still watchable. Mahou Shoujo Ore knows the limits of its budget and makes an enjoyable time out of it. I wish the insanity from the first few episodes was more present in the rest of the show, but I feel like I will remember this series more for the time it gave to develop the characters. Rather than leaving them as the one-note stereotypes meant to riff on similar shows, it surprises you and makes you want to see what absurd situation they'll be put in next.

Hollweg

Mahou Shoujo Ore presents a synopsis so great one may argue the actual anime isn’t necessary, since it’s unlikely it will reach the absolute zaniness of its premise. And to be frank, parody anime as a whole is a tricky business: jokes being repeated to exhaustion, plots that refuse to go anywhere (when it can afford to have a proper plot to begin with) and characters who are just basic archetypes tend to be the ground rule, which means the number of parody anime that manages to be something more than a bunch of random gags stitched together is ridiculously small. Binan Koukou Chikyuu BoueibuLOVE!, which also tackles the mahou shoujo/magical girl genre, made great use of its clichés in its first season a few years ago, while others like Hatsukoi Monster aimed to obliterate shoujo conventions, but in the end turned out to be nothing sort of a nonsensical mess. Thankfully, Mahou Shoujo Ore delivers much more than a glorious synopsis. It suffers from some of the problems I’ve mentioned earlier, especially since the plot struggled a bit to fulfill a 12 episode run, but it still manages to stand on its own two (muscular) feet. In fact, it’s a pretty solid parody title, perhaps even finding its way into the classic mahou shoujo canon someday. Still, the road traveled wasn’t always the most pleasant: things were rocky not only for our protagonists, but also for the show’s audience. “Unpopular female idols transform into brawny men in miniskirts in order to fight cuddly but evil demons” is the main gimmick here and the basis for most of the jokes, with commentary on idol groups and the anime industry appearing every so often. The comedy hits more than it misses, but since humor is subjective, you may find yourself scratching your head more than chuckling on some episodes given how inconsistent the jokes are. The first two episodes (aired back to back when the anime first premiered) are among the best structured, perfectly introducing the plot while delivering some solid laughs. A good amount of the humor is presented on how the animation for both the action scenes and character expressions are made to be pretty crude and abrupt compared to your average flashy mahou shoujo anime. The girls’ mascot turning out to be a scary looking yakuza with a soft heart is the best example of this. There’s a good amount of references which range from well-placed to “what was even that”, but they don’t overstay their welcome and are usually over rather quick. Still, this may test the viewer’s patience as the episodes go by. Animation is pretty crisp, the main focus obviously being the attractive muscular men that protagonists Saki and Sakuyo turn themselves into, but the aforementioned character expressions are also a treat to watch. The way the show makes fun of itself when they deliver some bad animated sequences is hilarious on its own, but when you realize it’s the same studio that gave us the extremely rushed and poorly animated Tokyo Ghoul:re adaptation, the irony is just too funny. Episode 5 goes as far as comparing Studio Pierrot Plus with a Godzilla-esque creature, showing that the writers clearly don’t give a f*ck. The characters are something of a mixed bag. They hardly change from the first episode to the last end card, to be quite honest. Character progression is still present though, albeit quite faintly, but it feels like it was tossed on to make the plot move forward for the most part. Saki and Sakuyo are likable enough for this to not be a major problem, but I can’t say much for the rest of the cast, although they aren't necessarily bad. While Saki's mom goes on to have an episode just to focus on her retirement as a magical girl, other characters like the male idol duo STAR PRINCE is basically there as plot conveniences, and this sucks quite a bit considering one of their members is both Sakuyo’s older brother and Saki’s crush. Voice acting is on point, with solid performances from the whole cast, though personally I feel that Kouji Yusa was underused as Hyuoe, with his best contribution being the vocals to some of the songs present in the anime. The opening track was the most generic song I’ve heard all season, but maybe the show was spoofing how simple your average mahou shoujo song is (WE MUST GO DEEPER!). The ending song fares a bit better and was stuck in my head for a while, not going to lie. Much like its protagonists, Mahou Shoujo Ore’s trump card is its charisma, which shines through even when the pacing is flimsy or the jokes are lacking. This is because it’s evident that the writers are having the time of their lives coming up with these (seemly) random situations. Every episode had at least one thing that I liked, be small jokes on the contracts the characters had to sign or the satire of idol “meet and greet” events, it has something for both new and veteran anime fans. Even if the series pokes fun at nearly anything, at the same, it feels like a love letter to the anime industry, embracing all the good and bad aspects of the medium. The confusing, but ultimately rewarding fifth episode showcases that very well, resulting in an inspired, lunatic masterwork that matches shows such as Gintama and South Park at their best. Name another anime which aired this season that referenced/made fun of Pokemon Go, anime production issues, School Days and the United States of America (and not just as throwaway gags, as this all contributed to the plot) in the span of twenty minutes. Yeah, even if you’re Barack Obama, you can’t. I enjoyed the heck off of this show (even with all its faults), particularly since I watched it with a good friend, and we breezed through these 12 episodes together always wondering what the hell would happen next. As much as it is silly, Mahou Shoujo Ore manages to stay unpredictable and vibrant from beginning to end. At the end of its run, I’m left satisfied for the most part. It’s a little show that is oozing with ideas and social commentary, even if some of it does gets lost among repeated gags and slow pacing. It didn’t turn out to be Madoka Magika part 4… but then again, who REALLY needs another Madoka Magika title?!