Spoiling without warning.
Cute girls doing cute things and magical girls. Already seen, already experienced. Nothing new under the sun. And yet…
Being original, let's begin with the plot. 『Machikado Mazoku』's plot is basically episodic, like the good ol' anime; but it doesn't recycle as much as the good ol' anime would do, which is great ngl. There's a central plot, the "battle" between the dark and the light — that is the demon girls and the magical girls —, which is used as a core and comes back at every occasion to explain the reasons why everything is happening; but that's pretty much it: it's the core reason, but the twists and turns of the anime look more like a slice-of-life or a shoujo, weaving a relation between the characters (esp' the main ones). The main thing repeating itself is Shamiko's motto « Don’t think you’ve won! » (これで勝ったと思うなよ！, Kore de katta to omou na yo!), used as an announcement for new adventures to come [back].
A compilation of Kore de katta to omou na yo!
About this humor, 『Machikado Mazoku』 runs obviously a lot on derision. The humor is absurd, as is the plot; it’s taken seriously and laughed at at the same time. Without breaking the Fourth Wall, the anime often takes looks at itself a lot, all the while criticizing itself and its situations. For instance, while Yuko’s costume is to be expected in a realm of magical girls and demon girls, the other characters always criticize it for being too exhibitionist. Another example is when Yuko is in Momo’s dream, something somewhat weird happens and she calls it « surreal ». Nonetheless, 『Machikado Mazoku』 uses derision very well: so well that, while the animation is not great, since the absurdity of the situations and the dialogues do everything, it just works and we're happy with it. It’s like a piece of absurd theater, very Japanese-like, bit 『Nichijou』-like, where everything at the screen is absurd: the explanations, the drawings or the characters (special thought for the cat announcing its « Toki wa kita » (« The time has come ») with its heavy voice 🤌)… all that while being a contrast between kawaii and serious.
can't get enough of this « Toki wa kita » 🤌
And so we've got here 『Machikado Mazoku』's main force: it mixes pretty nicely its diverse genres. Slice-of-life, shoujo, magical girl and cute girls doing cute things; no matter for which one, you can't help but smile by watching 『Machikado Mazoku』, be it for the kawaiiness, the comicalness, the relations between the characters or the absurdness—there's always a -ness you can cling onto.
All that being said, I've got to reproach to 『Machikado Mazoku』 one important thing: its side characters, who are not well treated in comparison to the main ones. Much importantly, we always feel too much their purpose of side character. This is not so much the case for Shamiko's sister as it is for Mikan, who never really acquires a real role or enters the plot. This is at its worst for Shamiko's classmates, who leave totally the episodes as the anime moves forward…
『Machikado Mazoku』 has a few defaults: it doesn't have great side characters, it has no great animation, and it doesn't create something new; but it does offer an interesting mixture of old recipes. It is not an exceptional anime, but it's definitely good at what it does.