Mashle

In this magical world, one is easily identified as having magical abilities by a distinctive mark on their face. Those unable to practice magic are swiftly exterminated to maintain the magical integrity of society. However, deep within a forest lies an anomaly in Mash Burnedead, who can be found pumping iron with one arm and lifting a cream puff with the other. This aloof boy with superhuman strength—but no magical abilities—leads a quiet life with his father, far removed from society.

Mash's peace is soon disturbed when the authorities discover his lack of magical powers. They issue him an ultimatum: compete to become a "Divine Visionary," which would force everyone to accept him, or be persecuted forever. To protect his family, he enrolls in the prestigious Easton Magic Academy, which only the most elite and gifted students are allowed to attend. Now, Mash must overcome his shortcomings as a magicless being and surpass the other students—relying solely on his muscles.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Burnedead, Mash Main

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Crown, Lance Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Barrett, Dot Main

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Irvine, Lemon Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Ames, Finn Main

Kawashima, Reiji Japanese

Ames, Rayne Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Walker, Abel Supporting

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Razor, Abyss Supporting

Nanami, Hiroki Japanese

Eamus, Rhodes Supporting

Ban, Taito Japanese

Cute, Love Supporting

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Lu, Xiana Producer

Nakamura, Shouta Producer

Shimazaki, Takao Producer

Furuhashi, Souta Producer

Reviews

Jun 30, 2023

SpRayquaza11

Recommended

Borrow but improvise , is the best way to describe mashle, and In my opinion most fantasy/isekai should learn from this example.

It's been a while since we got a good parody anime with a good setting which was able to distinguish itself rather than try to cash in on a particular type, we have had wannabe konosuba clones and wannabe one punch man clones but they teen to forget that even if they are able to feed off of a starved for content audience they will inevitably be forgotten since there is already something similar which is in the store.

Mashle by all means is ... kind of a mixed bag of knockoffs , and its quite plain to see.

We have mash who is clearly an inspiration and closely resembles saitama in his unassuming demeanor and lack of emotions. We also have a very clearly harry potter inspired magic school setting with a very standard shounen power level defining scale with the number of face lines defining the amount of magic power/mana but the potency of the same can be honed with other methods this allows for a fairly nuanced and open ended battles with some surprising upsets also being possible. And a relatable oddball story which is loosely black clover inspired which makes for interesting and hilarious outcomes due to mash being severely underestimated.

There are several examples of anime that do this , but not many examples of anime that manage to do them ALL in a well balanced and entertaining way , most which try , make themselves over complicated or fail the parody and comedy aspect quite hard.


Plot (7/10)
Well , the start of the series is quite straightforward , there is an unusual kid in a world where your magical prowess determines everything to the point that those who cant use magic are deemed as good as dead. mash is unable to use said magic and hence has been secretly raised up by his adoptive grandpa in a remote forest in a way that ensured that he trained with muscles and physical strength enough so that he may fend for himself. Now this made him quite the emotionless and dumb guy due to his lack of human interaction and understanding the room or any of the fancy social stuff. This is basically the first two eps , now circumstances ofc lead to the academy being introduced into the mix with him requiring to earn some gold coins (you know accomplish feats means good boi coins kinda thing).now this is standard shounen story with a well defined route and endgame but it also manages to squeeze a good amount of comedy and parody of the same here . Then we get the very obvious Harry Potter inspired personality based house sorting system after which we go full steam ahead with a first major villain arc with some minor pens along the route with hints of a “mysterious third faction”. The flow of the plot is good , interaction of characters is also minimal with a mostly infodumps approach for system explanation but some comedy and parody hidden here and there to keep entertainment value fairly up.

Characters (7/10)
Mash and his gang have a bunch of nice and quirky yet unique in a way kids. They do have trope inducing kinks like the obsessed girl , the siscon , the wanna be cool mc guy and the scaredy mfer, but most of them are used for parody effect and probably designed in such a way intentionally and are able to fit their comedic roles nicely. Mash is the saiatama clone with straight face and often blunt response to standard villain jargons, however he is much of a nice and innocent figure due to his righteous and hermit like lifestyle. The characters do manage to mesh together well , individually they dont emit much of an aura and its only fun when they are horsing around / interacting with others. Villains are also slightly better than your standard punching back goon , but usually have shallow / predictable backstory with a nakama approach of changing to good from evil.

Sound and VA (9/10)
The OP and ED are both fuckin amazing and the OST is also quite the banger with mash getting quite the spotlight due to the BGMN during his cool scenes. The VA is alright with only the red hair guy being a bit of a standout.

Art and animation (8/10)
It has amazing art and background design which drive home the amazing magic school feeling which doesnt feel like a cheap harry potter imitation, the background and setting art does the heavy work for this purpose , and i am also satisfied with the uniform / house designs. The animation is really good as well with amazing sakuga for action scenes. The only problem is the usually dull and uninspiring monster designs.

This is a must watch for comedy/ parody fans who miss one punch / saiki kusou type of plot line. If you like magic school and harry potter type stories too it would be easily pleasing for you.
I can also recommend watching the first two for understanding if the comedy works for you even if you are generally not interested in this genre.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by SpRayquaza11 (108)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 12, 2024

narumimaria

Mixed Feelings

Informative

To start this madness, we are introduced to a world where all human beings are born with the gift of magic, but this changes when a child without this ability emerges, Mash Burnedead, a teenager full of muscles but devoid of magic. Considered an aberration, Mash takes refuge in the forest until one day he is caught and forced to attend a magic school a la Hogwarts.

"Mashle" combines references to Western works with situations and key concepts seen in other successful anime, many of them like One Punch Man. Similar to the protagonist Saitama, Mash was born without any special ability and achieves strength that ... surpasses any magic through training. What limits him is his nonchalance, another established element that "Mashle" adapts in its pastiche; Mash's monumental disinterest makes everything extremely comical in the anime. Whether it's his compulsion for profiteroles, his ability to work out in any situation, or his poor performance in mathematics, everything is a pretext for a punchline.

The series doesn't make much effort to invest in suspension of disbelief and presents the most absurd climaxes and outcomes possible. Initially, we see Mash dealing with his problems in the Saitama style: with just one punch. As the episodes progress, the character's life becomes more challenging, and he needs to rely on other muscles to overcome his obstacles. The commitment with which the series embraces satire and the ridiculous surpasses the lack of complexity. It's already one of the best surprises among the anime premieres this year, an unpretentious entertainment that only a good underdog can sometimes provide.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by narumimaria (17)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 12, 2023

oponent

Not Recommended

Funny

I dunno how this anime got so popular on release.
So basically you have a OnePunchMan protagonist but with a brain size of a pea in a Harry Potter setting (you have your typical characters of Ron, Dumbledore, Draco and Lucius Malfoy, ect... your broom flying lesson, the house selection hat, quiddich, Hogwarts and everything else that's not original).
This kind of concept already failed with Black Clover, having a protagonist being OP besides having "no magic", but somehow it fails even harder here, despite having to pass tests that require magic, the MC just breaks the laws of physics (which contradicts the challenge the anime impossed ... on him, which is the whole point of the anime) and passes them anyway by brute force. In the topic of the MC it's really unbearable having one being so dumb, he doesn't even follow orders or rules, and gets off scott free thanks to Dumbledore being too nice.

It fails as a shonen offering no challenge to the MC both when it comes to fighting or following the rules of the school/world, and it fails as a comedy by having the same ol' repetitive jokes on how the MC can punch through everything. It serves only as a parody not worth watching

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by oponent (24)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Overpowered Main Character (Isekai & more). [#03]

by 1List2RuleThemAl

46 Entries · 68 Restacks

INFP male characters in anime

by QueCarajillos

50 Entries · 2 Restacks

new gen manga adaptations

by azadoderso

41 Entries · 6 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for June

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for June. Week 1: June 4 - 10 Anime Releases Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? (Is the Order a Rabbit?) ...read more

Jun 3, 11:38 AM by Aiimee | Discuss (2 comments)

'Mashle' Second Season Announced for Winter 2024

The 12th and final episode of the television anime adapting Hajime Koumoto's Mashle (Mashle: Magic and Muscles) manga announced a second season on Saturday. The...read more

Jun 30, 2023 8:33 AM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (14 comments)

	Poll: Mashle Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jun 30, 2023	243 replies	by Pitchagon »» Oct 12, 10:22 AM
	Poll: Mashle Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Apr 14, 2023	228 replies	by DOLLMYU »» Sep 17, 2:50 PM
	im not a big fan of parody's and gag human shows mydaddy - Aug 31	15 replies	by Tahmim97 »» Sep 3, 12:10 PM
	Poll: Mashle Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) rasterman7 - May 12, 2023	131 replies	by TrebleClef798 »» Sep 2, 7:34 AM
	Poll: Mashle Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Apr 28, 2023	160 replies	by Robrob3821 »» Jul 29, 9:19 AM