- Genre: Comedy, magical girl, idol, supernatural, romance
- Episodes: 12
- Studio: Pierrot
You, yes You! Do you want to see a show about Magical Girls? How about idols. Cute girls, cute boys, manly men? Yuri, yaoi? Strong parental figures, Yakuza, corporate heck (literally). A show about adorable teddy bear demons with buff bodies, and devoted superfans. A silly parody that pokes fun at the twisted structures of fame and the entertainment industry while lovingly mocking traditional anime tropes? Well do I ever have a show for You! Magical girl Ore is here to cater to your every anime whims and many more. This isn’t a show that’s afraid to try things. All the things ! Did I mention it’s really very bloody?
I remember watching the first minute of episode 1 as it aired and promptly setting this show aside for later binge consumption. With my ongoing viewing of Shin Sekai Yori, all the silly comedies are making their way to the front of the line for contrast, and that’s how Ore got back on my watch schedule. I really liked that first minute. It had a lightly irreverent tone I enjoy. I couldn’t help but notice though that since then, the rating for the series has gone way down. Currently at an aggregated 6.5, It might as well be pure garbage. Let’s try to see where it all went wrong.
The art style is decent. Good even. Sakie’s magical boy form kept reminding me of Masrur from Magi and that’s high praise. It’s true that the goofy plot often plays with art quality for comedic purposes but on average it’s a good looking show. The animation is nothing to write home about, as you would expect. However, they overcame technical and budget limitations by hiding the shortcuts through humour.
For instance, it uses the old Royal Tutor trick (it’s a common technique but it was used so much in the Royal Tutor that I have associated the two together forevermore), of creating a few impressive animation showpieces to impress the viewers, then moving the bulk of the movements offscreen letting the audience infer the action from the sound effects and environmental cues. In this case the blood splatters. Once again…this is a bloody show.
I loved the voice acting. This cast has great chemistry. Saki and Sakyo’s roles being shared by two voice actors each, the performances could easily have been disjointed or uneven, but they maintain a perfect flow. It’s one of those shows that manages to really get the most out of obviously limited resources and even use some of those limits to its advantage. So really, I don’t think you can fault production for much, other than not being lavish.
I’m sure anime fans aren’t all abject snobs who will disregard any show that hasn’t poured in the moula. Surely the problem lies with the narrative.
Well it is a pure goofball comedy, with all the ills that implies. The humour is hardly what anyone would call sophisticated, and relies mostly on magical girl trope parodies, 4th wall breaks and playful chiding of anime culture. It’s generally kind-hearted though, avoiding anything even resembling a bitting commentary. So as these things go, if the humour doesn’t happen to line up with your sensibilities, it’s doubtful you’ll find much of interest in the show.
If your taste are anything like mine though, you’ll love it. Without ever speaking to me on a deeper level or anything, this show just made me happy. I caught myself grinning like an idiot through most episodes and was a little let down when they ran out. I enjoyed the premise of untalented idols for instance. I don’t remember when I heard such skillful bad singing. I mean it’s not the type of bad that sounds like someone is singing badly, it honestly sounds like someone is trying hard to sing well but is not good at it.
I also enjoyed the gender bending conceit. Of course the trick gets old pretty quickly but it’s treated earnestly enough to remain a little endearing rather than become annoying. And there’s enough random craziness going on at all times to keep you interested once one joke has grown stale.
Moreover, I really enjoyed the characters in this one. All of them in fact. They each had their own personality and quirks without becoming overbearing in my opinion….
What I’m saying is that I have no clue why people were so harsh on this particular comedy compared to other similar shows. This is a failure of a post! I’m sorry I’ve let us all down. Maybe I’m just too simple minded compared to the average fan. Or maybe it’s that light silly shows always get comparatively low grades. The comedy bias again. People should learn to enjoy laughing more! It’s fun…
But seriously though, this review is just bad at being a review. It’s all over the place yet goes nowhere at all. It’s a shame, because this shows made the evenings go by pleasantly and I would love to share it with some of you. One line summary: I liked Magical Girl Ore a lot. If you’re one of the rare few who did too, let me know
Favorite character: Konami Yamo
What this anime taught me: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover even when that cover is super accurate
Instead of complaining, I just wine
Suggested drink: Magic Hour
- Every time there’s a 4th wall break – take a small sip
- Every time there’s a colour or art fail – take a sip
- Every time you spot a classic anime reference – take a bow
- Every time we see the breakfast gag – get a snack
- Every time there’s blood everywhere – take a sip
- Every time a character bawls there eyes out – take a sip
- Every time there’s a heart motif – make one with your hands
- Every time we see an idol show – cheer
- Every time Hyao is really touchy feely – pay attention
- Every time the fairies are in chibi form – take a sip
- Every time anyone is bad at hiding – take a sip
- Every time Mohiro sings – claps
I watched about three episodes as I recall, and found it hilarious. I loved the gender bending and playful tone. At the time I was watching in a rather public place and had to quickly shut it down a few times – NSF really IMHO so I set it aside to binge at another time. Thanks for reminding me 😀
It actually gets less raunchy as the episodes progress and more just silly (a little stupid but in a funloving way)
Sounds absolutely wonderful! Love that meta stuff.
it certainly doesn’t stay inside its box much
Watching. Loving. What a hoot!
Glad you like it
I watched a couple episodes but the humor just didn’t move me.
Too bad
I was excited to see this review on my reader! I adore this show because like with you it made me happy and I spent the entire thing grinning like a huge dork haha! I’m surprised at how low the rating this series is because I thought it was brilliant but that’s down to my humour I guess! This show is just a ton of fun! Also that introduction was brilliant and should be the official synopsis for it! As always I love your writing style!
Thank you fellow Ore lover. There are two of us now!
No problem and yes there is! 😄
This one the comedy didn’t land for me so I didn’t get past the first episode. That wasn’t to say it was bad, it just wasn’t the kind of thing I enjoy and I knew it so I didn’t follow the show. Glad you had fun with it.
Good call – it stays pretty even keeled.
Cactus Matt’s post could have come from me, too (except that I don’t remember what was in what episode; the episode I loved the most was the one with the anime-deadline Kaijuu). I pretty much always enjoyed childhood-flashbacks, and some serial jokes hit home. The ending made internal sense. But since buff is an aesthetic I don’t enjoy, the show came with diminishing returns.
I’m sorry to hear that
Well, there’s still plenty to like. Mum was cool; Mohiro’s Disney Princess mode (singing in the woods for small animals), and so on. It’s definitely underrated.
Also, I know what it’s like to like unpopular shows. I’m still the only person I know who likes Dog and Scissors. The worst offender is topical this season: it has a zombie idol main character. Francesca: Girl’s be Ambitious. As long as I watched (5 episodes) it was basically a zombie idol with her zombie dog teaming up with William S. Clark (of “Boys be Ambitious”) and his statue to fight undead Shinsengumi, but there are hints that our zombie idol has a rather apocalyptically dangerous alter ego. After 5 episodes, though, even the fansubbers lost interest, and aside from living in Japan there was just no way to watch this. The efforts of Crunchyroll and others to bring every single show, however unpopular, over here as a legal stream is a blessing I can’t emphasise enough.
You know I haven’t heard much but Dog ad Scissor but the little I’ve hear was always fairly positive
These people don’t seem to live in my corner of the internet. I mean, I know they must exist, since MAL has 183 people who have the show among their favourites. But I don’t know any of them.
I loved Yamo so much….He’s probably responsible for a lot of my enjoyment here.
I’ve already publicised my feelings for this show, but this show’s kinda wonky on a few fronts and can never decide if it wants to be good or bad. Then again, it has enough heart and stupid jokes to make up for it (by a narrow margin, because it wants to have beefcake, fanservice and pseudo-porn in one show, meaning sometimes it’s just plain embarrassing to watch). The parts where it was clearly anime-original were worse, IMHO.
Yamo, huh? Just by remembering the karaoke episode, I can see why he’s your favourite…
The first episode was brilliant. The 5th episode was brilliant. Everything else was just middling good to okay. This show was funny, occasionally brilliant but also WAY too inconsistent. There were times where I was just so bored by this show that I wish I’d never watched it while other times it was *two thumbs up*. All-in-all not great, but definitely good.
Obviously I liked it more than you did. I think you line up much better with the average fan.
Very true people need to sit back and enjoy things haha! I still need to watch this my spring and summer lists were really short. And you know me I love a good fun ride ;).
I think you’ll enjoy it!
Darn, I had high hopes for the show. I’ll save it for a rainy day. I hope you do finish Shin sekai yori and give your thoughts on it however, that is by far one of the most amazing anime I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. It’s hella depressing too.
I did finish it. Writing a post is a challenge. SSY is just such a rich show I’m having a though time wrangling my thoughts.
I was so curious about this show when it came out, but I never got around to watching it. I might have to do that now! (Also, I’m throwing it out there again that I love the tone of your writing.)
Thanks Shoujo! And if you do – I hope you tell us about it. It’s great for a few laughs