Magi: The Kingdom of Magic Episode 22: What You Want To Protect

Impression

It was a short, but tense confrontation between Alibaba and Ren Kouen at the start of the episode – had things not worked out right, Alibaba could have easily been overpowered by Kouen and his giant household. It’s a case of the conquered meeting his conqueror, as Kouen has pretty much assumed control of the recently formed Republic of Balbadd – and all it took were a few words for Alibaba to feel humiliated by the man who, for all intents and purposes, took his country from him. Although the Kou Empire were fighting together with Alibaba and Aladdin for the duration of the episode, I think it’s definitely a ceasefire in light of the situation rather than any feeling of camaraderie or mutual support, especially with Kouen’s aggressively expansionist foreign policy. The Kou Empire did initially turn up with the intention to conquer Magnostadt after all.

Titus met a sudden, tragic end today. Although he finally decided what he wanted to do (with the help of the surprisingly mature Marga) it definitely came at too high a price. Myron (the Fanalis girl) was completely wrong in accusing Titus of not helping them out with the black djinn – the vast magoi stored in his body was unleashed all at once for the express purpose of stopping Mogamett from merging even more with the black mess. It actually reminded me of Solomon’s Wisdom in the sense that he saved Mogamett from being consumed completely by the vortex, although it’s true that Mogamett’s magoi never reverted to white in the aftermath. And of course, Titus was reduced to a pitiful skeleton. He showed such selflessness at the very end… I would have liked the episode to dwell more on his sacrifice, but it was overshadowed by the massive new threat that’s appeared (literally).

That’s probably the most tragic thing about Titus’ actions – he’s saved Mogamett, the 200,000 people living in the 5th District and gotten rid of all the black djinns… and ultimately, nothing’s really changed. Even though we’ve all assumed that Mogamett had complete control over the black rukh, it turned out to be independent after all – it was just using Mogamett, rather than the other way round. With the way it completely stole Mogamett’s magoi all at once (instead of slowly sapping it like it’s been doing up until now) it looks like it never intended to keep him alive all along. While I didn’t really feel anything from his predictable death, it’s still sort of pitiful seeing his skeleton lying next to Titus’ like that. Now poor Marga’s left all alone in the basement ;_;

It’s fairly clear what the climax of the series will involve – and it’s not the war. Al-Thamen’s finally fully reared its ugly head, and it’s goal is apparently for that giant spherical Medium to hit the ground – and when it does so, all those dreams featuring a ruined Alma Toran will be reproduced over Magnostadt. Seriously, someone needs to hurry up and get rid of Gyokuen for good.