Magic schools in this anime is no different than concentration camps. Oh and BTW, I’m lazy to take more screenshots, so you have to settle with this one.
Rental Magica should have been included in the wave of 2007 anime reviews that ends earlier this month, but I didn’t do it. Anyway, I managed to watch it anyway thus here is the review for it. This is a 2007 anime, thus it will compete with Nodame Cantabile for the Anime of The Year 2007 award.
Story:-
Our protagonist Itsuki Iba was forced to become the president of a magician rental company because of his father’s disappearance. He then has to deal with customers demands and fending off rival companies as he struggled to control his bumbling and diverse employees.
In essence, this anime is quite similar structurally with Zero no Tsukaima, but maybe a little bit better. This anime started slowly, with its chronologically confusing character’s introductions episodes before dipping into the admittedly average storyline. The story developed nicely, albeit in a pace slower than I would have liked, and the lack of substance in the story after the characters introduction episodes is really apparent.
The ending seems to be tacked in without a seamless integration with the preceding storyline, considering that the main antagonist for the ending only make his appearance in the last 3 episodes or so. I wonder whether the ending is set up that way so that a second season can be accommodated, but personally I think an ending that is more jointed to the storyline would have been better for the purpose of a second season. If my sister is stupid enough to download the second season, I may watch it.
Character developments are done very well despite the slow pacing for much of the middle portions of the anime, but there is no one that really stands out from the rest. With this anime being just another Zero no Tsukaima harem version, there should be nothing you can expect in this aspect.
Character Design:-
Your bog-standard shounen story character design applies here, which means that the character design is just average. The main male protagonist has black hair though, and that will always be good for Japan.
Voice acting:-
Just like the character design, the voice acting in this anime is also just about average, and no one stands out in either. Mamoru Miyano who voiced the antagonist in the ending arc has a better outing here compared to his gig in Gundam 00, but still not as good as the ones in el cazador de la bruja and Dragonaut – the resonance. It probably has to do with the low airtime which limits his development.
Music:-
This anime completely fails in this aspect. Enough said.
Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is generally good, on par with other 2007 anime titles. The quality of the animation also do not suffer in most of the fast-paced scenes, but some battles that has extremely fast-paced animations like the one in episode 19 or 20 suffered from jerky framerates. The choreography is ordinary at best, and the same can also be said of the directing.
Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. The same as Zero no Tsukaima, and Nodame Cantabile’s throne is just a pipe dream.
