The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies

Marinate1016★ 10

Mahoaku is a fitting tribute to late mangaka Fujiwara Cocoa. She was sadly never able to see her work finished or adapted into anime, but studio Bones were able to follow the framework she left behind and stayed true to the spirit of the original manga while adding their own respectful touch. A simple and wholesome that romance fans of all walks of life will enjoy. I’m a massive sucker for the star crossed/forbidden lovers trope. I love seeing two people from vastly different backgrounds come together, fall in love and overcome despite the odds. Mimori and Mira are supposed to be sworn enemies, yetthe more time they spend together the more they realise they have in common and enjoy each other’s company. These 12 minute long episodes were pure bliss and seeing the purity with which they both looked at each other and yearned to deepen their bond really resonated with me. Mira might be an “evil lieutenant” but he’s one of the kindest fellas you’ll see, and the extent of his cruelty is wanting to see Mimori embarrassed because of how cute she looks. Mimori is basically cuteness personified, and her childlike naïveté about the world was adorable to watch. Because of her backstory and circumstances as a magical girl, her time with Mira is basically a learning experience for her. She gets to see what the outside world is like and learn about people other than her creepy familiar. Which perfectly leads into my ONE issue with this show. The rapey familiar. Mimori’s familiar basically sexually harasses her nonstop in this show and takes advantage of her financially. Luckily he’s only in a few episodes, but when he does show up it really just kills the vibe. I’m not sure what purpose he’s really serving narratively being that way, maybe Fujiwara sensei thought it was funny or her editor did.. but for me it didn’t land and just made me uncomfortable. Mimori is the sweetest and most wholesome girl ever so having a dude want her to walk around naked, or work at a host bar or try to grope her just didn’t sit right with me. The story also tries to redeem him somewhat in one of the final episodes where the theme is basically “he’s a pos, but he’s the only family Mimori has and she loves him anyway” I wouldn’t say this was a minor detail of the story, but certainly not big enough to detract from my overall positive impressions of the show and how sweet Mira and Mimori relationship was. Other than Mimori familiar, the other side characters are great. Hibana, the cursing mahou shoujo had me dead every scene she was in from just how vulgar she is. Mira’s evil company colleagues were just as nice as he is, which kind of begs the question, who are they supposed to be evil to? These people are all genuinely amazing. I wish we would’ve seen a little more of them honestly, but sadly that’s probably just due to Fujiwara sensei not being able to finish the story and flesh things out more. You can definitely feel there was some more story to squeeze out here and we’ll just never really know unfortunately. The show looks gorgeous. I haven’t seen a ton of Bones stuff, their work is usually solid, but I’ve never seen it look this good. It’s so pretty, vibrant and even though it’s a seinen manga, there’s some shojo vibes going on. This is a big part of my enjoyment of the story because Mimori’s faces are so cute, I love the chibi style they go with in some scenes. Just a really sweet time. Mahoaku episodes are only 12 minutes long and don’t overstay their welcome, so if you’re into romance anime there’s really no reason not to check this one out. It’s a very sweet and wholesome story that will feel like a sugar rush. I’ll miss it. My only reason for not giving it a max score is that we don’t see a kiss or actual relationship by the end which again is likely because Bones didn’t want to disrespect the original work by going too far ahead and giving an original ending. Mahoaku gets 9 out of 10.

cunoung★ 7

It is an incomplete story as its creator passed away during its creation & it was made into an anime out of respect/passion. It lacks a satisfying ending and while it explores a lot, it lacks further clarification to its elements understandably due to the above. It features wholesome, cute and sweet moments & comedy between the two main leads with beautiful & incredible art/animation. It has dark humour between the wholesome sweetness that varies in severity. One review on here says that it is "kid safe" and I highly disagree as it features sexualisation, exploitation and assault by parties other than the two Main Characters & an unclear/questionableage gap. Lastly each episode is about 10-12 minutes in length. Honestly, if you can overlook the ecchi/assault/exploitation, enjoy the magical girl & romcom genre and also want diabetes this is for you.