“We have an adventure to start, don’t we?” -Aladdin
Summary: Welcome to the world of Magi! Where flying carpets, magic flutes, and djinns are all par for the course. Loosly based in part on the characters and stories from One Thousand and One Nights, Magi introduces us to the hero of our tale, Aladdin, a pipsqueak kid (who may or may not be totally human) who is traveling the world in search of friendship and adventure along with his magical recorder flute. Hardworking and good-natured Alibaba just happens to have the pleasure (or misfortune, depending on how you look at it) to become one of those friends in this first episode of what will surely become this seasons Shounen fan favorite.
Tenderfoot’s First Impressions:
Oh goody, this looks like it’ll be a seriously fun ride. As far as first episodes go, I’m glad that they chose to focus on just Aladdin and Alibaba instead of trying to introduce the whole (seemingly giant) cast in one go. We did get some glimpses of Morgiana, but she takes a backseat in the episode in favor of focusing on the boys. I’m sure she’ll reappear next episode with a proper introduction. The episode was a good mix of silly humor (I chuckled a couple of times, which is more than I can say for most shows) and action, with some cute thrown in for good measure. There were even a couple of more serious moments that were done well, like when Aladdin is telling Alibaba that he should stop lying to himself before he starts to believe what he’s saying.
The animation was really pretty, which I wasn’t really expecting from the previews, and fluid for the most part. I always judge shows on how well they can make characters walk up stairs, and they did an alright job with that here (I’ve seen much, much worse). The whole last scene where they’re fighting in the desert was great, with Aladdin dramatically taking off his turban and Alibaba jumping in to try and save Morgiana and the kid from being eaten. Backgrounds were good, nothing super fancy, but not bland either. The opening and ending themes seemed pretty standard, but I liked them none the less. The voice cast is full of stars (I guess you could call them that?), and I heard some familiar voices in there. Aladdin’s voice is suitably cute to match his appearance, but not in a grating, too-high-pitched way. Speaking of cute, on a scale of one to 11 how badly do you just want to squish Aladdin? From the opening, it looks like this show will have no shortage of handsome older guys around, but for right now I’m more than happy to languish in the cuteness.
Look’s like next episode will see Alibaba and Aladdin join fources to inter the first dungeon, and I’m excited to see what surprises are waiting for them. I was joking in the season preview write-up that this show was going to be super long and how I’d stop watching it at like episode 300, but honestly if it keeps up this quality, I wouldn’t mind watching 300 episodes or more. It’s a good quality show that doesn’t require you to think too much, so you can just sit back and enjoy the action.
Possiblilty of Watching: Quality animation + general sillyness + enjoyable characters = me watching it.
Possibility of Blogging: Hell Yes. (Even if it’s partially so that I’ll have one show a week I won’t have to break my brain thinking/writing about)