Maburaho Vol-1: Betwitched and Bewildered (2003)
Animation Production: J.C. Staff
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 1-4
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

If you took the crazy characters of Urusei Yatsura (or any of Rumiko Takahashi’s popular works) mixed them in with Harry Potter and then added a sprinkle of Tenchi and Spawn you would end up with something very similar to Maburaho, a romatic comedy series about young magicians and the crazy situations they get into over one young student by the name of Kazuki Shikimori.

Are you ready to enter this magical anime realm? I thought so.

Story

"High school student Kazuki Shikimori comes from a line of powerful magicians with extraordinary DNA. Unfortunately, his powers are not up to snuff where they should be! He can only use his magic eight times before he turns into dust. When three magical hotties enter the game, he can’t resist using his magic to get them out of trouble. Are the girls after his heart or his DNA? "-- DVD Box

Review

Volume one of ADV’s domestic release ofMaburaho contains the first four episodes in the series which include:

Episode 1
Welcome to Aoi Academy, the place where the world’s top magic users come to learn how to use their powers and understand how to best control them as each uses depletes the predetermined amount of times that any one person can use their magic powers. The higher the number of times someone can use magic the better their standing in society. Among these top members of the magic class we find Kazuki, a young man with great lineage and amazing powers, unfortunately he can only use his pmagic eight times and when he does he’ll turn to dust! This makes for a hard life, but things get a lot more difficult when suddenly Kazuki finds a girl in his dorm room claiming to be his wife! What’s more two other girls are now suddenly after him, one for his genetic material and the other to kill him so that she doesn’t have to marry him!

Things will get crazier before they get better. One thing is certain though, Kazuki’s life has taken a new direction and where it leads remains uncertain.

Episode 2: It Fell
Kazuki’s class will not accept his supposed marriage to Yuna! The time has come to judge their relationship and clear things up for everyone.

Episode 3: It Appeared
A ghost has moved in with Kazuki and Yuna! Can they help her get back to the mansion that she was banished from? Who is this ghost and why does she still traverse the human plane?

Episode 4: I Saw It
Kazuki is having nightmares involving Behemoths! Will his dark visions come true when strange rumblings and animal noises are heard across the school during the academic day? He may be the only one able to stop these mystical creatures, but are they real?

After a Sunday afternoon viewing this show proved to be more fun than you would be led to believe by the box packaging, which unfortunately focuses almost entirely on the fan service aspects of this series. As I mention in my intro it mixes many elements found in other popular works in anime and North American pop culture to create a universe that is filled with young magicians, love, powerful spells and a lot of comedy. There is a strong emphasis on the entire magic premise that reminds one of Harry Potter in some respects, but enough is done differently here that it manages to retain a unique flavor and feel that is distinct from the very popular British book series.

The central focus of the story is Kazuki Shikimori who as we come to learn is the descendant of many great magicians in history. However this information is surprising in that there is nothing particularly striking about this character at first, if anything, it’s the opposite. In the universe of Maburaho magic is treated in many ways as a form of currency and indicator of social status and Kazuki while having very powerful lineage only has the ability to use magic a total of eight times, which casts him as the lowest of the low. Normally this would mean that he has nowhere else to go in the world but down, but as the Academy’s head doctor points out our protagonist’s genetic material contains all the aggregates of his ancestors and his child will be an extremely powerful individual.

This revelation is the catalyst for what the series evolves into as every girl from Kuriko (the third year student whose family has great financial and political powers) to Rin (a sword wielding student whose family is desperate to regain its place in society) decides to go after Kazuki in the hope of bearing his future child. In the midst of all this confusion we also find Yuna, the young girl that Kazuki helped out when they were very young by making her wish of seeing snow come true and now wishes to be with him forever as his wife.

So in many ways Maburaho is another take at what’s popularly referred to as the harem genre of anime as each story revolves around the crazy situations that Kazuki gets into as a result of all the girls that are after him and the consequences that follow. Compared to other series in this genre Maburaho proves to be an above average entry that carefully balances all of its constituting elements to great effect. While the fan service moments are plentiful they didn’t detract too much from everything else and in the end the show had a couple of good laugh inducing moments intertwined with more serious character development situations that made for an entertaining experience.

The characters, which are what make or break these types of shows, are an interesting assortment of personalities that while not terribly original work well together and add up to some good exchanges and situations with each other. Kazuki seems a little devoid of personality early on, but as he is put through the paces by each of the girls now surrounding him he begins to break out of his shell and becomes a more interactive and energetic personality that can stand side by side with the more eccentric characters. It’ll be interesting to see where he is taken given the limitations of his magic use and his hinted-at hidden powers.

As far as the production itself goes this is pretty good for a TV series although it lacks a little bit of the polish that many recent productions have had. The animation itself is quite smooth and the color palette is very bright as it uses a pastel-heavy range of colors (always a plus in my book). Visual effects are put to good use here and their heavily used to depict magic spells and environmental effects.

On the sound front I absolutely LOVED the opening theme. It was the perfect segway into the world of Maburaho with its cheerful/hopeful inclinations and softness. The in-show background music tracks were fun to listen to and were a good fit for the series with its lighter atmospheric sounds. The voice acting was fantastic all round, which is good, since the character portrayals tend to add a lot of these particular types of shows (thinks of Urusei Yatsura and Ranma ½’s casts).

The DVD release for this title was nicely put together and included somesolid extras that complemented the episodes nicely. Inside the DVD box there’s a small insert that’s basically designed to be a mini newspaper with news on the day’s events at Aoi Academy. Despite being short it made for a fun read and lived up to the series’ light hearted spirit. Extras within the disc itself included clean copies of the opening and closing themes, original Japanese promos, the Art of Maburaho and an interview with the series’ translator which personally I thought was the best of all the extras.

The video and audio transfers are as perfect as could be hoped for given how recent this show is. The audio in both the Japanese and English dubbed soundtracks are encoded in Dolby Digital with the English one benefitting from being recorded in 5.1 Surround Sound. Subtitles were easy to read and moved along at a good speed.

Final Thoughts

I’m surprised I liked this show given the fan service inclinations, but I guess that when you have an interesting set of characters, a solid premise and good follow through with the execution that’s what happens. There a lot of good laughs and character moments packed into this one so don’t let it slip by you.

Even if you’re not a fan of the magic theme try giving Maburaho a shot. If you enjoy romantic comedy anime this one should be at the top of your list.

Jeffrey Couto