First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence:

OP: “M☆O☆S☆O Rappu” 「M☆O☆S☆O乱舞」 by MA chu RI: Ise Mariya (伊瀬 茉莉也), Miyazaki Ui (宮崎 羽衣), Fukui Yukari (福井 裕佳梨)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼

ED: “Pastel” 「パステル」 by Murata Ayumi (村田 あゆみ)

「なんか女の子出てきちゃったんですけど」 (Nanka Onna no Ko Dete Kichattan Desu Kedo)
“Um, But a Girl Came Forth”

First Glance:
In what looks like a mash up between Zero no Tsukaima and Negima comes Macademi Wasshoi!, an adaptation about a high school boy named Hasegawa Takuto who’s ordinary in every way (appearance, grades, athletics), except he attends a secret, unmarked Magician’s Academy after school. On a summoning examination, Takuto makes a mistake and calls forth a naked, red-haired, animal ears girl, who possesses the power to destroy countries in an instant. From that point on, life isn’t quite the same for Takuto anymore when he names the girl Tanarot (after his cat) and inadvertently forms a contract with her, much to the jealous eyes of his cousin Suzuho.

Unlike a lot of people, I actually enjoyed Zero no Tsukaima a fair bit despite its divergence from the manga, but I can’t say I’m terribly interested in Macademi Wasshoi. Judging from the PVs and opening, this series reminded me a lot of the silliness seen in Kyouran Kazuku Nikki, which I eventually lost interest of. However, based on the first episode, it does seem a lot more “structured” than Kyouran from the get-go which is a big plus. Suzuho is already proving to be quite an interesting character, being a normally quiet and obediant girl who uses a note book to communicate with others (akin to one Yamamoto Megumi) after some incident that led to her inability to speak. However, she possesses a huge amount of magical power which is released when the ribbon in her hair is undone, changing her into “Suzuka“, a blue-haired girl who can speak, has a stong-willed attitude, and absorbs everyone’s magic powers, leading to others calling her the “Midnight Blue Vampire”—a name she isn’t fond of at all.

While ZEXECS is doing a fantastic job on the production here (much like they did on Wagaya no Oiniari-sama.), I’m not a huge fan of the character designs in this series. Staying true to the manga’s designs, all the characters have fairly large eyes and are a bit chibi, with Tanarot really taking the cake on both those features. Personality-wise, each of the characters have their various intricacies though, which is always nice to see, but I’m actually overwhelmed by the sheer number of them after reading up on the series a bit. Animation quality is definitely up there though, which I find is really beneficial for series that involve magic, plus there are elements of comedy scattered throughout.

I’m not sure if I can stand hearing Ise Mariya as Tanarot for extended periods of time, but Koshimizu Ami (Kallen Stadtfeld in CODE GEASS) does a pretty good job portraying Takuto in yet another male role. There are also several other big names in this series, with Kawasumi Ayako, Satou Rina, Nabatame Hitomi, Watanabe Akeno, and Hiyama Nobuyuki being some of them. Miyazaki Ui is also here as Suzuho, after only being cast in minor roles since her work on Night Wizard: The ANIMATION, but it’s a bit of a shame she’s only performing the wacky opening song here with a couple of other seiyuus rather than a song on her own. There was no actual ending sequence this episode, but they did play Murata Ayumi‘s “Pastel” song during the credits scroll.

In what proved to be a pretty good first showing, Macademi Wasshoi! looks like it has potential to turn out to be a pretty good series. However, Tanarot’s high-pitched, fast-paced speech near the end came off somewhat annoying, so I can’t say I’m really looking forward to hearing more from her next episode. Dragon Ball Z power reader overload anyone?

 

Notable Cast:
– Hasegawa Takuto (羽瀬川 拓人) : Koshimizu Ami (小清水 亜美)
– Tanarot (タナロット) : Ise Mariya (伊瀬 茉莉也)
– Hasegawa Suzuho (羽瀬川 鈴穂) : Miyazaki Ui (宮崎 羽衣)
– Falce the Variable Wand (ファルチェ・ザ・ヴァリアブルワンド) : Fukui Yukari (福井 裕佳梨)
– Sakuma Eitarou (佐久間 榮太郎) : Terashima Takuma (寺島 拓篤)
– Erneus the Bargest (エーネウス・ザ・バージェスト) : Kawasumi Ayako (川澄 綾子)
– Prof. Sagami (寒河江教授) : Minami Omi (南 央美)
– Trincia (トリンシア) : Kimura Akiko (木村 亜希子)
– Prof. Frankum Stein (フランクラム・シュタイン教授) : Hiyama Nobuyuki (檜山 修之)
– Kirishima Futaba (霧島 双葉) : Satou Rina (佐藤 利奈)
– Miyabi (ミヤビ) : Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Synclavia the Siren (シンクラヴィア・ザ・セイレーン) : Kobayashi Yuu (小林ゆう)
– Agaliarept (アガリアレプト) : Suwabe Junichi (諏訪部 順一)
– Fermi (フェルミ) : Watanabe Akeno (渡辺 明乃)
– Gabriel (ガブリエル) : Matsuki Miyu (松来 未祐)

18 Comments

  6. Well, Zero no Tsukaima was kind of the Harry Potter anime. Guess this one just follows suit. Must say though, I thoroughly enjoyed the first ep and I’m looking forward to more.

    ZeroAlpha
    Reply

  11. Comments from people on another anime blog site:

    Calawain: Here be some lolicon bait. Count me out.

    Impz: This show looks as interesting as Koihime. Actually, that will be an insult to Koihime. NO!

    Shokkeru: What the hell is this?

    Extrange: LOLIS!

    Crusader: No.

    Phuzy: Ahahaha, no.

    Maipeisu: Oh dear God no. Absolutely not.

    Jiff: Nope.

    Justin Olbrantz (Quantam)
    Reply

  17. VERY INTERESTING LOL! DONT JUST JUDGE A SHOW BY IT’S OPENING MAN, I SKIPPED IT AND JUST WATCHED IT ANYWAY, GLAD I DID! IT’S HILARIOUS! GOTTA LIKE SUZUHO (MIDNIGHT BLUE VAMPIRE) BATTLE IT OUT WITH THE NEKO GIRL!

    X
    Reply

  18. I had the same feeling too when I saw the character design and opening, I was saying this doesn’t look too good because I am not too fond of LOLIS with big boobs. But after watching episode 1, I was like wow not bad at all, especially the fight scene and SUZUHO is just too damn cute. So my advice is if you can skip past the chibi/lolis character design and just watch the show, then it is not bad at all.

    Mike
    Reply

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