I was very happy to be able to review the second part of Magi: The Kingdom of Magic and quickly chewed through both discs in the DVD set in just a few sessions without losing interest, which is a big improvement on the first season as mentioned in a previous review. Season 2 part 2 follows Aladdin almost exclusively, showing him attending the magic school at Magnostadt and wrestling with some heavy philosophical and ethical questions. The school itself springs from a very, very questionable foundation, and we see Aladdin wrestling with the fundamental wrongness of it versus the goodness he can sense in the head teacher of the academy.
This series has a heavy focus on redemption – no matter what awful things someone has done, Aladdin will see their good side and try to save them from themselves. There don’t seem to be any truly two-dimensional bad guy characters so far, with Aladdin always trying to view things from their side of the story, though Hakuryuu’s mother’s motives remain to be seen. She certainly doesn’t seem like she has any redeeming characteristics so far!
Animation-wise, the odd face here or there occasionally looks a bit wonky in places, but they tend to put the effort back in for the important scenes so it doesn’t end up detracting too much from the experience in the end. The animators really go all out in the fight scenes this season, with everyone’s magical powers getting so much bigger and more impressive. It’s hard to imagine how they haven’t obliterated entire countries by accident, the spell effects are that gigantic. The costumes are extravagant, and it’s unusual and fun to see both males and females with battle outfits that are ridiculously impractical and over the top.
My personal favourite character Hakuryuu doesn’t show up at all until the very end, and the denouement of his character arc being left as a cliffhanger is rather frustrating as he was the most interesting part of the first half of the season. Even though Magi: The Kingdom of Magic finished airing in March 2014 there’s still no news about a third anime season (though there was spinoff prequel announced just recently called Magi: Adventure of Sinbad.) It makes me wonder when we’ll see what happens to this wide world of swords and sorcery, and it may ultimately end up being another one of those series where, if you want to see what happens, you’ll have to go out and get your hands on the manga and find out yourself.
A review copy was provided by Madman Entertainment to the author for the purpose of this review.
