First Impressions / Magi

Episode 23

「鬨の声」 (Toki no Koe)
“Battle Cry”

 

Preview

 

Episode 24

「堕転」 (Daten)
“Fall into Depravity”

This was a terrible time for my schoolwork and the Spring Preview to make life busy…so much is happening in so little time! Someone’s lost their arm, another person’s become a black djinn, a nation is on the brink of being annihilated, and did we mention the massacre of another nation already? Well then, time to get reviewing!

Although I was reprimanded for revealing his name ahead of time, Ithnan’s name has revealed itself, allowing us to focus our rage onto a specific name. Al-Thamen has definitely been planning its next assault vigorously, splintering various groups to defend for themselves while also hiding their true motives at the very last second. Ithnan, though probably a pawn himself in the grand scheme of Al-Thamen, is still terrible–pawns who control pawns themselves are just as despicable as their masters. Their strategy of preying on good people who are emotionally weak during times of great stress and convincing them to use their rage in destructive ways…they truly are people who want to see the world burn. Despite how terrible it is in practice though, the tactic makes for some deeper storytelling, where many of the antagonists happen to be poor bystanders misguided and disillusioned by the cruelty of life.

Magi did suffer from some one-sided antagonists early on in the series, but that all began to change with the start of the Balbadd Arc. The Fog Troupe, Judal, and now Dunya and Issac, all of them have had tragedy befall them, causing them to curse their fates and take revenge on those who stand in their way. Due to this, white and black rukh in a sense cannot be used as measurements of good and evil, but rather the measure of hope one has for a better future. Dunya lost her hope when the greed and selfishness of others took away the one man who cared for her the most, while Judal never had a chance to feel hope at all. When Alibaba fell prey to the black rukh, it was not his soul becoming “evil’ persay, but rather his hope in fate becoming disillusioned, allowing those with cruel intentions to manipulate his heart through the emotions of hatred. It is hard to hate on any of these characters too much–though they have all committed heinous crimes, the characters themselves are not to blame, but rather the hive-mind mentality of Al-Thamen. It’s a bit of a cop-out, like how corporations protect its top executives, but in this case the organization itself truly is to blame. Now that everyone’s emotions are out on the table and severely thrashing about, hopefully Aladdin’s Wisdom of Solomon can guide them all back to accepting fate’s hope for a better future.

Aside from the dark backstories of the members of Al-Thamen, some of the nations of Magi have also revealed some of their history. Undoubtedly we will not see a detailed glimpse into these nations this season, but the acknowledgement that said nations have a deeper story behind them keeps the story able to move forward. More members of the Kou royal family have been revealed, perhaps to play a greater role when a direct conflict between Seven Seas Alliance and the Kou Empire comes to fruition, but the more important royal member to arise is Dunya herself. Apparently the victim of a war between an established nobility and magicians, Dunya’s backstory gives insight into the other nations that exist. Though unclear of how Dunya escaped the treachery of her people and the rebellious nature of the magicians, it is clear she is part of a repressed and hated group that magicians apparently now dominate. To rise from a school of magicians to an entire nation of them signifies that magicians in this world may be more common than we’ve seen and most definitely more cruel than believed. Of course this probably links back to Al-Thamen, the all-encompassing evil organization, but it only serves to exemplify the reach of their influence. If magicians happen to be quite common, what of other formidable groups such as the Fanalis or dragon people? It goes to show how much of the world of Magi we have yet to see, as well as what international conflicts are to arise in the future.

To end on a meta-note, it seems that the anime has gone for an anime-original ending, which highly suggests that this season has been a “test run” of sorts for the series. With Fairy Tail ending its anime run soon, there may be hope that Magi can take up the mantle for a long-running show. This is entirely up to how sales and popularity run with the show though, so only time can say whether an extension of Magi’s anime story will occur–although a hard task, the show can realign itself with the next arc if need be, breaking back into source material. I would be saddened though to see the show end here, for most of the exciting political intrigue and epic adventures apparently start firing up after Zagan.

 

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37 Comments

  3. Totally reflect on how easy humans can be manipulated. How stupid we human can be, and how brittle our mind is.
    Alibaba is getting on my nerves, he is too wussy to do anything. And the equip on him is so pathetic. Can they not do a better job on his dark armour? So unappealing.

    Tingster013
    Reply

      1. So basically this is Alibaba’s full Djinn Equip? Kinda boring given how other Djinn Equips tend to have more animal-inspired themes and Alibaba’s is just a set of armor. There were hints of this during the Balbadd arc when Alibaba was concentrating his Magoi to strike the Dark Djinn and his burnt hands evolved into black gauntlets.

        I wonder if the manga (which still hasn’t shown his full Djinn Equip yet) will go with the anime version.

        MacrossFan
        Reply

      2. Alibaba dark armor’s is pretty much Dunya’s scorpion armor for male. A-1 really really can’t imagine anything for shit.

        So no, that’s definitely not Amon’s djinn equip.

        Vermillion
        Reply

  4. “This was a terrible time for my schoolwork and the Spring Preview to make life busy…so much is happening in so little time! Someone’s lost their arm, another person’s become a black djinn, a nation is on the brink of being annihilated, and did we mention the massacre of another nation already?” – I could say the same, I’ve had so much things piling up that I was suprised at how far behind I was on this.

    I can say that the last episde (24) has took me by suprise. I love how the show never gives you signs of what may happen next, I even forgot that in the ending Hakryu has a metal-like arm and was massively shocked when he lost his (as if I didn’t know from the ending theme), and then I expected the curse mark on Alibaba to cause some havoc, but not this way, no, I thought he’d have a fight with Hakryu, which is generally what I think I expected from the signs I was given, but never that it was Alibaba’s conversion to the black king. Leaving that aside, the Althamen’s people hailing him as a king was very sudden and cool. Graphics in this episode were good too, not like some episodes ago either.

    “Ithnan” means “2” in Arabic, so I’m assuming that there’s ‘8’ (Since Al-Thamen means 8) and their father is the 8th, but I don’t know at all. I can’t wait to see, I’m excited!

    Thanks for your review, Cheers.
    M.

    Mi-Chan
    Reply

  7. I was really moved by Dunya’s predicament and how She was manipulated by evil(al-thamen). I swear these al-thamen cult is pretty much very evil, it’s almost on par with satan himself and I’m sick and tired of Ali Baba being a sissy, He needs to Man up and be bolder. He cannot continue to be a whinning widdle baby.

    K C M
    Reply

  8. I don’t know where some people are getting this ridiculous notion that the Anime will end, I have searched every source available concerning the status of this TV Show and so far I have not seen any proof that it is ending so soon, some said it will end last week but it didn’t, some said this week but it didn’t and some are saying next week but I doubt. Any way whether it will end or not I still know that the show has a lot to offer Anime lovers as the Manga is pretty much great and It is still a new show relatively at it’s beginning, it needs to progress further to it’s current Manga before we it’s popularity surges.

    K C M
    Reply

    1. I haven’t watched episode 24 yet, but please don’t tell me that last panel is showing what I fear it’s showing.

      The anime is now moving to areas irreconcilable with the manga.

      Zache
      Reply

      2. Zache is pretty much correct that the differences now between the anime and manga have become irreconcilable (what’s the difference between that and incompatible? none except Zache’s choice emphasizes the degree of the divergence) and the consequence is an anime that will have to strike out on its own entirely or risk a lot awkward plot devices to try to use the manga storylines. It may be better and cleaner to just end this series after the Al-Thamen attack and come back years later and disregarding these last 10 or so episodes and continue on when there is more manga material (ala FMA Brotherhood). Some of the examples that the anime has diverged greatly:

        Removal of a lot of humor in the Sindria arc has created a more action-oriented anime, but at the expense of pacing and some depth to the story. An example–the manga has Aladdin and Alibaba getting fat in Sindria while Sinbad was away negotiating with the Kou Empire. It would have been incredibly funny to see Sinbad raging at them and forcing them to run all over the place to get back in shape but it will also reveal that Aladdin only loses his extra weight when he expends his Magoi, something he had stopped doing since losing Ugo.

        And as stated above, a lot of details have been removed or changed from this arc that may need to be awkwardly brought back somehow. The Toran girl speaking directly to Aladdin’s group and not needing translating from Hakuryuu or Alibaba saddened me because the manga has created a mystery of why the Toran people are different from the rest of the world and the anime pretty much ignoring a central theme to the series. Probably the worst change is in the last episode where Hakuryuu loses his arm and Alibaba succumbing to the dark rukh…

        Show Spoiler ▼

        MacrossFan
        Reply

      4. “unless the anime comes up with quick contrivance like he didn’t remember what he did during his stint into depravity.”

        That’s exactly what they would do. Quick and simple, and doesn’t really change what happens later.

        In other words, even though you hate the changes (I don’t like them either), it’s quite simple to continue on with the changes they have made. The hardest change is one you haven’t even mentioned, which is basically that people who don the dark vessel tend to die later on. But it isn’t really a strict rule that all who do will die, even in the manga, so even that won’t make this irreconcilable.

        Far from it, in fact. One episode with some exposition about what happened would bring it fully in line with the manga.

        Tre
        Reply

  9. Spot on, Zanibas! The part about Rukh not representing good and evil pretty much sums it up. A more general and simplistic way of putting it would be that White represents the positive side of things while Black is the ambassador of the negative.

    Can’t believe I didn’t notice it, but seems like Ithnan plays the role of the sniper dude in two mecha anime. No wonder he sounded so familiar! Gotta say his voice is pretty good for an evil role too.

    Trying not to compare the manga and anime here, but I find the faceoffs between the three generals in the manga more meaningful. Still, wouldn’t hurt to have a ‘final’ boss in the form of the black goo threatening to engulf the entire state of Sindria. Does make for a good – if cliche – final stand for Sinbad and co.

    Owaranai
    Reply

    1. In the Ending we see Show Spoiler ▼

      There is no chance that we see the other characters. Also the other Ren family mambers are just shown as pictures. So there the hope goes for the anime.

      NatsuLaSommer
      Reply

    1. The differences between the manga and anime are great in number, but they aren’t necessarily bad either. As much as I talk smack about the original anime for Fullmetal Alchemist for it’s divulgence, it wasn’t all that bad. The story was still entertaining, the characters were still… themselves (aside from some name switches, and all that jazz).

      My advice would be to approach the anime with an open mind and not to compare it to the manga. Doing so will only ruin the experience. 🙂

      Kerensa
      Reply

      1. I understand it. But, i could’t enjoy with this anime, first for bad animation that was (its killing me), second by the details that gave meaning to the series and they omitted it. And third … this last chapter where Alibaba is transformed. Why? Well it’s easy, he’s a character that gradually grows. He never falls in redemption, He didn’t want follow the steps of Kassim, struggle against it and… on this case he falls so easily that… I couldn’t bear.
        PS: The anime of Full Metal is another story, they didn’t kill the characters, and the history they created were really entertaining and interesting.

        Ren
        Reply

  16. Was I a fool for hoping that the anime would reach to the current arc of the manga? If it’s not Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece, there won’t be a long running anime adaptation -_-.

    First, Hitman Reborn’s anime, Fairy Tail’s ending tomorrow, and now Magi seems to be going for an original ending….

    This makes my hype meter for any anime adaptations that come from Shonen Jump manga extremely low.

    Magoiichi
    Reply

  18. I don’t like the way the studio has handled the adaptation of Magi into an anime. It feels like a lot had been lost along the way;the humour, some of the character building. Like a lot of people, I felt disappointed that fat Aladdin and fat Alibaba didn’t make it into the anime.

    Anime original ending urgh..will Alibaba die then? Every one who has worn dark djinn armour dies of the effects…well, we’ll see how the last ep goes.
    I would have been ok with the anime ending at the end of Balbadd arc, which would have been perfect setting up for a potential season 2.

    I think that it’s a stellar cast though, and if a re-adaptation is made(not season 2 but re-adaptation >.<), I hope it'll be the same cast. I really enjoy listening to the Magi radio show every week.

    k
    Reply

  21. This episode was quite gripping, in my opinion. The comments tell a different story for the rest of the crowd, though. What a shame it’s not synching with the source material, especially if the comment above mine is true.

    I noticed some interesting use of arabic words. Al-Ithnan means the second. Al-Thamen means the eighth. Also some attack names like Alf Al-yad (thousand hands).

    hoiut
    Reply

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