Mashle: Magic and Muscles (Season 1 Anime Series) Review

 

Sometimes, the joy of something is being silly. Take a premise you know and be silly with it. This doesn't avoid the notion of both enjoying the source and it doesn't mean mockery of it makes you hate the source at the same time. It comes from a knowledge of something, the ridiculous and the wonderful.

 

Mashle is that! A anime that ostensibly laughs at and also loves the silliness of the world building of wizard school as a genre and while taking a different approach then similar shows like Little Witch Academia, a very earnest and comical sendup that leans more to adoring the tropes while deconstructing them, Mashle leans into how fucking ridiculous the tenants of this fiction is and ruthlessly makes fun of the pomp and circumstance while staying true to the sincerity of friendship that runs core to the best aspects of the fiction.

 

What if the main character of a wizard school show had no magic and maximum physical strength instead? Simple as it comes. Every task, be it puzzles, deception or trickery, or even raw magical power exist for Mash, the titular main character to slam into. It's actually a fiction that is again, not uncommon; another show by name of the Misfit of Demon King Academy, about the reborn Demon King attending the school of his descendants and absolutely slamming their rules and regulations apart with raw power, runs a similar vein. The idea of a character being underestimated and then rubbing the victory in the villain's or bullies faces is a trope that is not only widely common across anime as wish fulfilment, but is a root thing those who might have felt ostracized will empathize with. I bring up these examples as while the specific target of genre might be semi-new, it's still ground that is already being tread currently and not a new source of analysis.

 

So while it does not exactly factor as new, what does Mash do? It is sincere in both where you know it will go while upping both the animation and absurdity in the level of physical greatness it will rise to. Though you might expect what will happen, there are moments where it genuinely rises to surprise with me how ridiculous the situation it will put Mash in becomes as silly as you might hope it be, or to excel it.

 

I hope you enjoy how silly this show is. I did. It does not do something different nor avoids not hitting similar notes. But the notes it plays are loud and catch attention. And that is something.

 

Art from Bleeding Cool and Crunchyroll.