August 2017. Puella Magi Madoka Magica has been dormant for what's about to be 4 years. But who's in the distance but f4samurai, coming through with a Madoka Magica Gacha Game. And only about half a year after the game's story wraps up, here comes an anime adaptation. Now the question is, as with every adaptation...does it hold up?
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Magia Record follows Magical Girl Iroha Tamaki. Someone's gone missing. Someone VERY important. After a strange dream involving her missing sister leads her to the city of Kamihama, where Witches are gathering en masse and Magical Girl can supposedly be freed from their curse. During her search, she forms a group comprising of "A single mom and her four adopted Magical Girls" and kind of maybe sorta uncovers a cult using new entities known as "Uwasa".
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This has to be said now, Magia Record keeps its messed-up stuff more on the down low than its parent series. It's not as in your face about it, and at times, it can feel like a fucking slice-of-life. Trust it, it gets a little odd.
The first episode is really just there to set up the plot and also introduce a character that wasn't AND STILL ISN'T in the game. f4, where's our Kuroe banner? The whole thing with Iroha forgetting her wish is actually an interesting hook to differentiate the spin-off and grab attention. Boy, I sure hope they don't forget about the premise for half of the fucking season. Also smol Kyubey. They're there, I guess. To be fair, it's not really the most important in this part even in the game.
The Friendship Ending Staircase, on the other hand, is the first arc of the season to show how episodic this season's gonna be. None of Team Momoko is really much of note (except they manage to actually make Rena hateable), though the Adjuster Mitama will become more important later. But at least in Season 1, she's just what can be boiled down to "Magical Girl Therapist". Anyways, if there's any positive, it's the innate connection to human emotion and desire the Uwasa of this season have and the Staircase is one of the better one. We've all had that friend we can't fucking stand, and turning that idea into the center of a short story works as well as it probably could for it only being 2 episodes covering one chapter. Time for me to break my "avoid comparisons" rule, though. I didn't like the back to back transformation sequences in Rebellion, and the only way it's any better here is that there's one less Magical Girl to run through. Also, surprised they didn't just reuse the game's summon animations. Still a waste of time in a series already strapped for time, though.
The Rumor of the Seance Shrine lends into the feeling of wanting to see the ones you miss (the perfect trap for literally the entire main team except Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa). The Seance Shrine Arc introduces Tsuruno Yui, my personal favorite character of the MagiReco crew. What can I say? I like my genki girls to be held together by fucking duct tape. We'll get to that, but now's not the time. This arc, like Tsuruno's 5-star art (seriously f4?), is a lot more stacked than the one that came before. Between our first main team addition, it being the first (and one of the only in S1) lead on Ui, and the reveals of both Mifuyu and what will later become known as a Doppel make this Uwasa of the Week actually feel like the series is starting to build toward something. More than I can say for seasons of some of the most critically acclaimed anime out there. This is the first arc to include a main series character as well. It's Mami, as well, the only one to kind of matter. So keep that...in your head. But there is one small change out here that makes something else awkward at the end of the season.
This is a line from the game. The entire exchange is along the lines of "You're not as bad as I thought, but you've gotta be even better if you want to bring your sister back.". They cut the entirety of Yachiyo acknowledging Iroha, that small little bit. Two lines going missing takes away what ends up being a midpoint for their dynamic's development in S1 and makes things feel that bit forced later on.
The Lucky Owl Arc is, well, it has Felicia. Implusive, emotional, and fucking tragic, I find Felicia to be about on par with Tsuruno is terms of quality. Sadly, we don't really get her full backstory in the anime, so that's kind of rough. It's also serves to introduce us the the Wings of Magius properly, along with Mifuyu's connection to the org- it's a fucking cult. All this arc shows us is that they wanna get rid of the Witches. The how and why? We'll get to that. I also appreciate how it opens on part 1 of Felicia's character story of the game. Sadly, this is also the first arc to focus almost exclusively on the new Magical Girl, putting the preexisting team members to the side. Keep note, it'll be important here in a bit. Also Kyoko's here. No reason, she's just chillin'.
The Rumor of the Anonymous AI reflects a desire to run from all of life's problems. The Eternal Solitude Arc is honestly the best episodic story of Magia Record. Way to end on a higher note, but it's not perfect. An entire episode is just the crew looking into Iroha's problem with the Uwasa spamming the shit out of her phone. Episode 9 picks up the slack with its focus on Sana and Ai, but it caps off with the worst possible reveal they could have given to our first full Magius, Alina Grey. She just rolls in and interrupts the end of a story on its way out. And while psycho bitch Alina is an entertaining villain to watch, her insane artistic views are cut in exchange for getting clowned on by a newbie Wing of Magius. Granted, that "newbie" is fucking MAMI, but still. Thankfully, Episode 11 ends the arc on a decent note with a bittersweet scene of Sana saying her goodbyes to the family that didn't love her.
Memory Museum, dear god. Okay, first of all, I want to punch Touka in her dumbass face. If you thought Rena was annoying, Touka'll have you pulling your hair out. It's that signature look of superiority and the way she talks like everyone else is a fucking brainlet that makes her more puntable than a football. Also, let's not ignore the fact she just expedition-dumps shit anyone watching should know going in. TWELVE EPISODES IN. The only thing worthwhile about this is an exploration into the exactly brand of PTSD that plagues Yachiyo, Mifuyu, and in a different way, Tsuruno. Three cheers for Survivor's Guilt! Anyway, it takes 18 minutes for the episode to finally move on to explaining the Doppel. At this point, it raises a question for every answer. This is how Magius plans to free Magical Girls? Okay, so the question becomes "What's causing it?". It keeps the mystery of Doppels going, which will be a bigger factor moving forward.A number of changes happen in the final episode, so let's start from the top. At the beginning of the episodes, everyone on the Gondala are already gone with the only explanation being "Magius up and left with them". In the game, it's explicitly shown that they were brainwashed. I reserve judgment as of now since this change really only affect S2. The ending is also changed, but first, let's talk about Sayaka vs. Holy Mami.
This is the first real "spectacle" fight of the MagiReco anime, and while flashy, the substance isn't all there. There is almost no narrative weight to the outcome of this farce, and hell, Sayaka gets sidelined the second Iroha and Yachiyo summon their Doppels. However, if there's any visual I can appreciate, it's the more in your face application of Sayaka's superior regenerative ability. Girl just straight loses her arms and grows it back in a split second to go back to throwing back a magical blast so powerful it BROKE the cannon that fired it.Now, the ending.
Yeah, this is not how Iroha gets kidnapped in the game. It's also VERY early. Everything else in regards to this change will be covered in the S2 review, so let's discuss the weird way they handled Yachiyo.
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Backstory is something the anime can't decide whether to have or not, and how much. Tsuruno's story of wishing for money only to it to be wasted by her dickhead mother and grandmother is completely missing. Meanwhile, Felicia gets the part where her parents die in a fire, but lacks how it was her fault and she then wished to "make it to where it never happened", leading to memory manipulation. Sana, however, gets a very good chunk of her backstory and it caps off an arc tied for longest in the season. Yachiyo's only gets a pass since
and 2. It applies to more characters than just her, justifying its high screentime.
There's Connects to talk about, as well. In the game, all they are are buffs that one unit can pass to another after attacking three times. What Connects are in the anime can described simply as "Combo Magia" (Magia just being a super attack). The anime loves these, to the point it starts relying on them too much to wrap up fights.
Finally, only 13 episodes...to cover 6 chapters. Of 10. The show can feel like it's going at blazing speeds in order to fit what it does into the short runtimes. Yet somehow, it still feels like some episodes could be cut down even more ~~12~~.
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But the overly fast pace (a byproduct of the allotted runtime) and odd handling of Yachiyo's character bog Magia Record Season 1 down to not being anything more than mid.
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