Parody anime can be a hit or miss. Tropes of various settings in anime or live action settings are made fun of, but in order to stand out, it has to nail its comedy, and while comedy is always subjective, this one just didn’t nail it, all the time. It obviously is an attempt at parody of magic academies like Hogwarts, but unfortunately, it just fails to stand out at all in most ways. Perhaps you’ll think I’m “taking a parody anime too seriously”, but when most of the characters are the most stuck-up jerks with little meaningful depth, there just wasn’t much to enjoy. To be honest, this kind of feels like a generic isekai or fantasy anime in a way, with the main character having none of the powers that the people around him have, but still ends up overpowering everyone in some way or another. Way too predictable and frustrating to watch at times, though it’s still watchable with some moments of goodness.

The premise centres around Mash Burnedead, a boy in a magical world, but without any magic power of his own. People without magic are persecuted and captured, so Mash has to blend in with his environment, and pretend to know magic as he attends a magic academy. Mash’s specialty is having huge physical strength, which allows him to overpower his enemies with sheer force rather than magic. I haven’t watched One Punch Man myself, but I assume that’s what the comparison comes from, along with Mash’s overall deadpan, quiet personality. The story plays out like any shounen would, the baddies come along, and Mash and his friends conquer said challenges. Not anything special there.

The animation isn’t bad, but it felt disappointing considering what A-1 Pictures has done in the last few years. This was probably the product of rushed production, mainly due to the poor schedules of Aniplex, which has resulted in many issues and delays in this year of anime already. It had a couple episodes with more standout animation, but otherwise, it wasn’t all that stellar, just okay.

Shounen anime mostly have similar formulas, so the characters are huge part of how one can stand out from the crowd. Other than Mash, the rest of the cast was very forgettable, with generic archetypes and poorly written villains. In terms of its comedy, it was funny at times, but it wasn’t enough to make me dismiss the poor writing. The deadpan humour worked more than the some of the other comedy that was attempted.

Perhaps this was just the beginning, and it gets better down the road, but for now, this anime hasn’t done much to keep me invested beyond a couple chuckles here and there. It’s a very light hearted anime, so maybe you’ll find some enjoyment in that though. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, but it might be yours.

If this anime was an advertisement for cream puffs though, it most certainly succeeded, as I got a box of cream puffs last week.