[value:7]
Honestly, this is one of those series that outside of the internet I'm a closet fan of. Because there are just some aspects of it that cater to the baser side of humor and well, to use some wappo jargon, the moe side of said base humor.
Case in point, the racoon episode. It just proves that there are some things that will only show up in anime. Which to a more or lesser degree is a good thing. That said the show is still a fun to watch, with your doors locked, using headphones, and a "Do not disturb sign".
I'm not trying to give the impression that I loathe the genre this is in, but it's something with questionable value since the gags are based around a group of what seems to be mid-teenaged girls trying to understand an unfamiliar world (in fact I'm pretty sure that's what the Opening sequence is supposed to illustrate). But the way it's done is by having the girls poke fun at each other for not washing their underwear or how they're unable to come to terms with the opposite sex.
Again, there's room to enjoy the series, but it's fluff with a hint of ero and some good gags at best. If that doesn't work for you, don't watch it.
Then again, the group that doesn't work for should be a minority.
[Animation:8]
Reasonably strong here, they're not pushing the envelope, but the character designs are pleasing to the eye, if a little on the underdeveloped side of things. It's pretty obvious who that's catering to, but it's not to hard to get over.
Pretty much nothing to complain about here, but it's not like it's the latest groundbreaking anime from studio XYZ with uber 3-D effects integrated beautifully and so on. Just well a well animated comedy that gets across to who it was meant to.
[Sound:8]
The Opening is the clincher here. Otherwise I'd be rating it a 7. It's just so different from what you get within the show. It's dark, moody, and with vocals only the Japanese could come up with. If the vocalist for this song showed up next to the definition of whiny in the dictionary I would not be surprised. It's still a good tune though, but that's mostly the guitar.
The endings were a series of character based theme songs(sung by the seiyuu), which were entirely forgettable. I'm sure someone enjoyed them, but in addition to the song the animation was just as plain (wind-up cars going by a series of images), so they had very little impact.
Background music takes very little importance in a comedy in this vein, and it was as per usual, copmpletely forgettable.
Watching it in Japanese left me with the usual expectations, and they were met. Solid performances all around, and in particular for some reason, Momoko Saito's job as Uma stood out, she just seemed really into her role.
[Characters:8]
What we have here is: a) the tomboy b) the meido c) The flat chick d) the airhead. Which makes for some great gags, but don't expect anything deep.
These are characters that don't know what a mailbox is, or that forget to wear underwear. The most character development we get is along the lines of "and then they lived happily ever after". Which is more than enough.
It might seem a necessary to talk about how Uma is a witch, or Pachira is a vampire, but those are just used as punchlines more than anything else.
Overall they're somewhat quirky, if a bit conventional characters- but that's what you should have been expecting when you decided to watch Magipoka.
[story:8]
There basically isn't a story. What we have is episodes split into short stories which follow the exploits of the princesses with an emphasis on how clueless they are.
It's a comedy so there isn't any overarching plot, surpisingly, the lack of any sort of antagonist makes ythe series more enjoyable than it otherwise might be.
But again, most of this is gags based on them not being able to find a boyfriend, or something about Pachira being flat, or Uma forgetting her panties.
So it's just above average, especially because of some of the well executed gags. But it's staying there because of the tendecy for them to go into rants like what each of the girls ideal man would be.
[Enjoyment:9]
While I might seem to dump on the series for being pretty shallow, I enjoyed it a lot. Then again, I'm a somewhat shallow person. It just really needs to be noted that if you can't enjoy that kind of thing this show is not for you.
