Sousou no Frieren: ●● no Mahou

This series was really enjoyable to watch, and I'm saying it as someone who is not a huge fan of all those "chibi episodic series". Not that I don't like them. I just prefer said chibi episodic series' main series, that's all. I was worried "Sousou no Frieren: Marumaru no Mahou" would be just another mediocre series, created for the sake of just existing alongside the main anime (in this case: "Sousou no Frieren"). I was wrong. It's a solid chibi episodic anime.

There are 12 episodes, each one dedicated to a different magic spell. What all of them have in common is being just short ... and cute way to show funny gags happening between various characters from Sousou no Frieren. They naturally fit into the main series' storyline, expanding it a little in a wholesome way. I like if such series go that way. Explaining things that did not appear in the main series is cool and always welcome, sure, but I don't think using funny chibi short stories is a good way to do it.

The art is simple, the characters look chibi, and the animation isn't as good as in the main series... And that's perfectly fine. The audiovisual side of this anime is balanced and fits its general atmosphere. All characters look like good chibi caricatures of their official designs known from "Sousou no Frieren", and the animation is good enough to work as a tool for making gags or certain scenes look rather pleasant to one's eyes.

In short, "Marumaru no Mahou" is a nice and fun way to spend several minutes of your time. While it's not obligatory to be watched in order to have better experience coming from watching the main series, I think that it's worth giving it a try, especially if you are a huge fan of "Sousou no Frieren".

If you're a fan of Frieren, this review would not be even needed for you to even watch it. You would watch it regardless of what me and other reviews say.

This is extra content about mundane magic spells. The subtext would be that magic spells should be part of day-to-day stuff contrary to the idea that magic is for killing, which resonates well with Serie.

There's some humour here but nothing earth-shattering. It's just a good watch, about 2 minutes per episode.

It's only 12 episodes compared to 28 episodes of the main Frieren anime. As far as I know, as of the date of this ... writing, which is the 5th of April, 2024, there's no guide that ties each episode of these chibi series to the main series. Though not required, it would have been handy.

This is a neat series of 12 chibi comedy shorts with the topic of each short being a silly spell that Fern or Frieren found.

The comedy in the shorts is good enough and it's nice that there's consistency in the form of having a new spell every episode. Most of the spells aren't mentioned in the main anime but some of them are. The fifth episode features some sort of sauce as an advertisement, probably due to a cooperation between Frieren and the sauce manufacturer.

The characters are Frieren's old and new party. The chibi animation is pretty cute but obviously doesn't look as ... good as the main anime. The voice acting is good and the background music is unimpressive.

Overall this is worth watching if you like Frieren and if the concept of comedy shorts about random spells sounds fun to you but it might not be for everyone due to the chibi animation.