Magi Episode 19: The Name of the Culprit is Sinbad

“Would a man known as the Conquerer of the Seven Seas really do something crude with a women while hopelessly intoxicated? Not that such things haven’t happened before, but…” -Sinbad

Summary: Aladdin practices magic with Yamuraiha, Alibaba gets a new sword, and Sinbad finds himself in hot water with a certain princess. Plus,  Hakuryuu Ren!

Impressions: Let’s not beat around the bush; this was a filler episode. Hilarious filler full of fluff and shenanigans, but filler none the less. But hey, lots of half-naked Sinbad makes it alllll good, right?

We get a little bit of a magic lesson for Yamuraiha to start things off. Turns out that as you get better at using magic, you can start to give the rukh more commands, leading to more complicated and powerful spell casting. For example, she makes herself invisible by telling the rukh to not only gather water, but also to convert it into steam and to refract the light. By giving all these commands at once, she’s able to do more nuanced spells that Aladdin’s giant fire-ball of doom, which is a very simple spell in comparison. Yamuraiha even says that with a bit of training, someone with Aladdin’s powers would be capable of wielding high magic, which uses hundreds of simultaneous commands to cast even better spells (and can I just point out how hideous the music is during all this? Ouch, my ears. It’s like elevator music meets triumphant march music with an extra helping of sad, pathetic, awfulness.)

Meanwhile, Alibaba trains with Sharrkan, which isn’t going so well. He’s small dagger is still broken, and he’s using a sword that’s much bigger than he’s used too. Sinbad comes along and takes him to pick out a new sword, all the while explaining about the metal vessels that are used to house a djinn. It’s a little too convenient that he happens to have a dagger that’s roughly the same size as Alibaba’s old one, and was given to him by Alibaba’s father. The story of why the dagger was so important to Alibaba was very cute though, and that makes up for it. With Amon safely transferred to the new knife, Sinbad wants to equip Morgiana with a household vessel, so that she can fight for Alibaba if she so wishes. The bit with the metal bracers that Alibaba picks out for her was one of my favorite moments of the episode, since Morgiana is extra cute with her little pouty/happy face. But it turns out that she doesn’t actually want to use any of the fancy metal objects that Sinbad offers her, she’s rather use her old shackles, which she hasn’t been able to throw away. Since they hold a lot of memories for her, of all the people who’ve helped her become free, she see’s them more as a treasure than a reminder of her days of slavery. Before they can really do anything with them though, the ship from the Kou empire arrives.

Our semi-new character this week is Hakuryuu Ren, who is a stickler for rules and honor and has a huge scar over half his face. Of course, with him comes his sister, Kougyoku, who is royally pissed off at Sinbad. As it turns out, while he was in the Kou empire, doing his diplomatic stuff, he also may or may not have slept with Kougyoku while he was drunk. It’s certainly easy to believe that this happened, since she did wake up with a totally naked Sinbad in her bed. With one very moody princess to deal with, the rest of the episode focuses on Sinbad trying to prove his innocence. It’s all very funny, with some great facial expressions all around, Sinbad trying his hardest to convince his generals plus Aladdin, Alibaba, and Morgiana that he’s not the type to do something like that while everyone knows that he actually totally would do something exactly along those lines. Let’s just say I chuckled a bit (well more that a bit actually.) Inside all the comedy, we actually do catch a glimpse of what Masrur and Ja’far were doing before they were found by Sinbad. Masrur as a gladiator seems almost like a given, but Ja’far as an assassin? And a super scary looking one at that? I didn’t really see it coming, to be honest. He seems so mild-mannered, it’s hard to imagine him as a stone-cold killer.

Eventually the conflict is resolved with some help from Yamuriha’s magic, and a confession by the actual criminal, who turns out to be Ka Koubun. He knocked out the princess and put her in Sinbad’s bed in the hopes that the scandal would then force the two into marrying. Once they had a child, he would be able to control it and essentially rule the country. Hakuryuu apologizes, and begs Sinbad to let him stay, which Sinbad readily agrees too. Even though Ka Koubun apologizes to Kougyoku for his deeds, something tells me that’s not the last we’ve seen of his scheming ways. The episode ends with Sinbad and Hakuryuu having a discussion about the Kou Empire. Even though Sinbad says he wants to remain on friendly terms with them, Hakuryuu knows that it’s a lie. As it turns out, the reason that Hakuryuu so desperately wanted to stay was because he actually wants to destroy the Empire, and he warns Sinbad that trouble is already brewing with its eyes set on Sindria.

Final Thought: Jeez, this is turning into Magi no Basket. So many of the same voices, especially this episode. It’s really weird to hear Kuroko’s voice coming out of Hakuryuu’s mouth.