I will be reviewing the entire series in a Non Spoiler Fashion, based on the Manga and the anime. The anime is an extremely faithful adaption so discussing the manga in my review is basically just reviewing the same content as the show. —Non Spoiler Review— Katsute Mahou Shoujo to Aku Wa Tekitai Shiteita, or Mahoaku as the fandom has taken to calling it, is the story of a magical girl, an evil lieutenant who has been forced to fight her, her cat like fairy partner, and the friends she makes along the way. I’m sure that when you hear me describe the show
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like that it sounds painfully generic: it probably sounds reminiscent to you of whichever magical girl anime you know (Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, etc). But let me tell you that this series is extremely unique, and for a hardcore fan of the magical girl genre (such as myself), it completely blew my expectations out of the water. The first thing that makes MahoAko such a unique magical girl anime, is the way in which it flies in the face of the normal formula you would find in magical girl shows. Many magical girl shows follow what I like to call Monster of the Week formula, where the main character, the magical girl heroine, encounters an evil general, and fights against his/their monster. After that the general flees on his/their way running into the night after being defeated by the magical girl. This show completely abandons that formula basically as soon as it starts: we see in episode 1 what appears to be this same generic formula, as we meet Byakuya, the magical girl, and Miller, the Evil Lieutenant, who has sent a dragon to fight her. But, the show quickly changes directions completely, as the magical girl defeats the dragon in barely a single minute, and then, the evil General type character, is revealed to have actually fallen in love with her! This type of twist, of the monster fight actually not being very long or important, might remind you slightly of One Punch Man’s humor (and in fact, MahoAko is actually animated by the same studio as One Punch Man), but what makes this show stand out in comparison to One Punch, is the way that this subversion and this breaking of expectations is being applied to the magical girl genre. And also, the fact that, instead of being an action packed comedy, MahoAko revealed its true nature as a heartwarming romance. How many anime can you think of, which are presented at first like formulaic kids shows, and then have a subversive joke that changes the genre you expected, and then after that, transform into a passionate and heartwarming romance?? I am gonna guess you know of very few series like this, which makes MahoAko extremely unique!!
Now, I need to go into depth on one of the series more controversial elements which unfortunately is probably the reason this show is so unfairly underrated. You see, this series has a controversy surrounding the age gap of the main romance of the protagonists. This is something that is extremely frequently brought up because it’s very clear from the dialogue, backstory etc: the main couple of the magical girl and Miller is clearly a couple with a large difference in ages. It is clear Miller is quite older than the magical girl herself, Byakuya, because she is so much shorter than him and he also seems to have much more experience in life than her. In fact, in the manga the male lieutenant character Miller, even stated directly that he is a 27 year old man. You can see screenshots of this, within the discussion on the forum for this show titled “What is the Age Gap? Does anyone know?” Which was created by Ka_Kun_Moetan many months ago. So… uh yeah. I created that discussion: because at first I was genuinely concerned, that this might be a story between a little girl, and a grown man… Adding to this is the fact that we have no way to ask the Late Author herself, (and also I would argue it would be rude, to just suddenly ask her “hey what is the ages of your characters??” Even if we could it would be disrespectful imo). BUT, I want to say, this series completely shifted my perspective, convincing me of the wholesomeness of this romance, and much like it did in episode 1, breaking and subverting my expectations / judgements: I am no longer concerning myself with the discussion and if anything I regret making that discussion post because this series clearly deserves your support: it’s very good. A large part of what convinced me to change my mind on this was another review posted of this show, from after its 4th episode. A user NozomiCoco posted a review here which featured their thoughts on the show as well as a huge rebuttal to the controversy this show has been recieving on Twitter, making several extremely good points such as the fact that this show is not the first show to play up what looked like an age gap between the main romance (Sailor Moon also played up an age gap romance, with the anime having the boy be a college student instead of high school just so that he came off as older). And then of course there’s also the romance in shows like magical girl shows like Fullmoon which has an age gap, and also shows where there is a difference in ages because there’s a species difference, of a human girl and a non human being (such as Nozomi and Coco in Pretty Cure, or Elias and Chise in The Ancient Magus Bride).
In conclusion, this is a wholesome romance. Mahoako subverted my expectations and received a massive jump in score in my head, and I really feel you should give the series a chance! Give this series a try, and don’t let those hate mobs on Twitter who are posting that the show is gross, convince you of anything, because frankly those people seem to hate on everything.
Sep 9, 2024
I will be reviewing the entire series in a Non Spoiler Fashion, based on the Manga and the anime. The anime is an extremely faithful adaption so discussing the manga in my review is basically just reviewing the same content as the show. —Non Spoiler Review— Katsute Mahou Shoujo to Aku Wa Tekitai Shiteita, or Mahoaku as the fandom has taken to calling it, is the story of a magical girl, an evil lieutenant who has been forced to fight her, her cat like fairy partner, and the friends she makes along the way. I’m sure that when you hear me describe the show
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