Review: Magi: The Kingdom of Magic

Nice to see the gang back together again. I like them.

3ET: N/A

Review Scale

Warning: the following review contains SPOILERS and twice the plot, none of the filler!


I really enjoyed the first season of Magi. The main characters of the Magi Aladdin, his "King Candidate" Alibaba, and the former slave Morgiana were all likeable, partially thanks to moments of levity during the scenes ripe with dramatic tension and action. There was actual plot advancement and character development, especially in the case of Alibaba dealing with his homeland's eventually futile struggle to stay an independent nation. All while an evil organization named Al-Thamen bent on ending the world worked its magic in the background. I was cautiously optimistic, hoping that there wouldn't be a drop in quality for the second part. There wasn't.

I realize Hakuryuu looks like the angry pretty boy stereotype. But, you'd be pissed too if you had a mom like him.

If anything, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic improves over its successor in its story thanks to telling multiple interesting stories at the same time. It starts by giving the temporary fourth member of the main character team, Hakuryuu, an arc where we see him straight up murder a bad girl while we learn about his past. Then he travels off to his home country of the Kou empire where we get to learn more about the politics of an empire that wants to take over the world, and is controlled by a sociopathic matron. Meanwhile, Alibaba is off learning how to control power he got at the start of season one in Leam (Ancient Rome) and Morgiana is searching for more of her race (pink hair substituting for brown skin as she is in Africa) when she ends up in Jacob's cabin from Lost talking to a guy who wants to help her. I found all three of these stories intriguing, and all would have gladly watched more about them in the running time. However, none were the main storyline of the season.

The main plot is about Aladdin as he learns how to more effectively use his massive power as a Magi at a magical school in the nation of Magnostatt. If season one was centered around Alibaba and his development in Balbadd, season two is about Aladdin and his development in Magnostatt. At first, things are going fine for him. He goes through a training arc, meets some new friends who are fun to be around, and the audience gets some insight into how magic works in this world. In fact, I would totally watch an "Aladdin at Magical High School" show. It was fun. Then, things go sour. Aladdin learns that Magnostatt abuses a lot of its non-magical citizens in an underground area where they drain their energy to power magical devices. And all of this is under the control of the head of the school, and also the head of the country, Magal Magomett.

Not the world's best dad, but he tries.

Now, it would have been easy for Magi to make Magomett a one-dimensional, moustache twirling villain. And if Magi were lazy, it would have done that, then tried to redeem him in the last episode by dumping his tragic backstory on the audience in an attempt to make him sympathetic. This would have failed miserably, and is exactly what this did not do. Instead, throughout the show, Magomett is seen as a man who loves his fellow magicians and wants them to be happy. This in complete opposition to his experience as a magician in service of non-magical kings. He saw how abusive these kings could be to magicians, and lost friends and his entire family as a result of their abuse. So, his simultaneous nonchalance to the suffering of non-magical people and his passion for magicians is understandable. The fact this information is shared as the show is exploring his atrocities makes him a complex and sympathetic character, and one who I felt sorry for when his arc concludes at the close of the season. And he isn't even my pick for the most compelling character.

That would be one of Aladdin's friends at the academy, a magician from Leam named Titus Alexius. A lot of this comes from how his story is revealed as well. At first, he seems off, being amazed at the simplest things in the city, like cats and shops. And then it's revealed that he is an artificial being, who has only been truly alive for about a year. And that he is going to die in short order, thanks to the source of his magical energy, the Magi of Leam named Scheherezade, being about to die. But, part of the credit to how compelling I found his character has to go to his voice actor, Matsuoka Yoshitsugu. The scenes where Titus is yelling/crying about how he wants to live and how unfair it is that he has to die after living for so short a time don't work unless Matsuoka nails them. And he does.

Sometimes it's the simple things that make life worth living.

All of these plots collide in the finale, where Magnostadt is under attack from both Leam and Kou. Magomett decides to go full evil for a time, summoning dark magical  monsters to attack Kou after his defenses are exhausted fighting the attack from Leam. Even here, he is being cruel to the non-magicians by draining their life energy to summon the monsters to protect the magicians he loves and cares for. And Titus, deciding to make his short life meaningful, sacrifices himself to stop Magomett from further killing the non-magicians. It's a truly tragic moment, and there is no doubt that both characters are D-E-D, dead from this sequence.

Afterwards, things get ridiculous as Al-Thamen's plot to destroy this world reaches its climax. That means it's time for the gang to get back together to show off their shiny new powers to defeat the evil ball of magic. And that's not as snarky as it sounds. Magi has several scenes where it is clear that they are saving money for something, and this battle is precisely where all that money went. It looks spectaular. And while having all the characters come back to fight in the final battle sounds silly, it isn't. This thing is malevolent and powerful enough that it requires all of this strength. And really, I don't mind seeing characters I haven't seen all season pulled in for a cameo appearance, because I like them and seeing their moment of awesome. And the aforementioned post-battle scene with Magomett and his adoptive daughter, a magician Aladdin met in season one, provided good emotional closure for his story. As for Titus, there is a nice scene with minimal dialogue that I actually won't spoil that provides a good end point for him as well.

Smile kids, you fucking earned it.

The thing Magi does best though has little to do with its plot, and everything to do with the relationships between the characters. Thanks to its deft hand at comedy, Aladdin and his friends, both in Magnostadt and with Alibaba and company, are able to joke with each other. This makes their camaraderie feel authentic, and when they go their separate ways early in the season, it's an effectively poignant moment. And it makes their reunion at the end of the season that much better. That kind of emotional currency is earned bit by bit, and these scenes rely on what they have built up over the thirty-five episodes or so that lead up to them.

With all of that in mind, Magi: The Kingdom of Magic doesn't live up to its predecessor, it surpasses it.  The world feels larger and more interesting after this season, and the story more epic. And the shit that gets revealed near the end is legitimately surprising and some of it hits like a punch in the gut. And the soundtrack is still great from Sagisu Shiro, who mixes pounding action music with Middle Eastern tracks to perfectly set the scene. I could probably gush for another thousand words about this show, so it's no surprise I think this is the first truly great show of 2014. Give me season three. Now.

Final Score: 8/10