Mahoujin Guruguru (2017)

Nike was a simple boy from Boering Village, and the last thing he ever wanted was to become a hero. But when a sign appears from the king of Ainshent Castle Town recruiting heroes to slay the Demon Lord Giri, Nike's father enthusiastically forces him out the door. Along with Kukuri, a member of the Migu Migu Clan, Nike sets out on an adventure to become the legendary hero that the world needs.

As Nike and Kukuri travel across different continents, they attempt to learn the secrets of Guru Guru Magic, a strange but powerful type of magic used to seal Demon Lord Giri's power. While reluctantly taking on their assigned quest, the duo does not fail to acquire new comrades and have fun along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kukuri Main

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Nike Main

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Eldol, Udberg Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Gipple Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Shunamur, Jujuku Supporting

Taichi, You Japanese

Reido Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Toma Supporting

Fujii, Yukiyo Japanese

Miucha Supporting

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Bajani Supporting

Kanemitsu, Nobuaki Japanese

Sappari Fairy Supporting

Taichi, You Japanese

Fukudome, Shun Producer

Yoshitake, Shintarou Assistant Producer

Itou, Genki Assistant Producer

Ikehata, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 24, 2023

whiteflame55

Recommended

A remake of an anime from the mid-90's based on a manga that was being written at the same time, this was a fun romp of a watch. It's organized chaos as we follow a young hero who is literally thrown into action to defeat the Demon King by his parents putting him in a giant slingshot. Hilarity ensues as our hero Nike meets a young girl named Kukuri who literally crafts magic out of her imagination with Guru-Guru magic circles. I don't think I've ever seen a show with so many references (I'm aware Gintama has a lot, so maybe that would rival it) ... and such rapid-fire comedy. The show takes a pretty basic premise and manages to tell its story in such a dynamic and unpredictable way that it just kind of works. Not all the humor lands, but the jokes come so fast that you won't be groaning for long. The cutesy art style and video game-like setting work in its favor, and while this is a bit kiddish at times and you can predict the overall course for the show (they make it pretty blatant from the start), it's a fun ride.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 19, 2021

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Recommended

Someone who doesn’t know anything about Mahoujin Guruguru and watches the trailer or perhaps sees the poster and reads the synopsis will most likely think it’s a show for little kids like Dragon Quest. And someone who goes in blind will most likely expect it to be a run of the mill fantasy adventure ala King’s Raid. Well let me tell you this. It’s an anime made specifically for fans of old JRPGs, while at the same time it pokes at the clichés of the genre. And even then it’s not just a plotless parody, since it has an ongoing plot and a solid ending. ... You are not going to find many shows that manage to do all that.

Let it be noted that I knew about this anime thanks to the previous version it had during the early 90s. I liked even that one, since it was one of the better anime to come out at a time when the industry was in trouble and was given reduced budgets. And guess what, even as a remake the newer version manages to be better than the previous one, something which is also very rare. The animation, despite no longer being hand drawn, looks way more polished, the pacing has been improved tremendously, some of the not so funny jokes got removed, and they bothered to actually complete the plot instead of leaving it incomplete because the money ran out. This is what good reboots are supposed to be all about. Taking something that is already good and improving it.

Speaking about improvements, most modern anime fans will look at the first episode and, spoiled as they will be by Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, they will think ‘How is this and improvement? How bad was the older one?’ The artwork is simplistic and the songs are silly, and yet they fit the type of a show it is. It has an easy going fairy tale-like atmosphere, it has a comedic tone, and it does occasionally change the animation style to something else for the heck of it, such as making it look like cut scenes from an NES game. Prettier colors wouldn’t add anything to it. It’s all about looking crude like an old sprite-based videogame.

Now regarding the comedy, it’s not exactly the smartest thing around. It has crude slapstick and basic fan service jokes you have seen a lot of times already. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, since the main point was to make you laugh with JRPG stereotypes, such as crisping enemy monsters and helping people only for food and money. And I know a lot of people will not like the sexual jokes, because the characters are drawn to look like they are five year olds and it comes off as pedoshit in some regards. It’s not that bad, since it’s not ever-present or extreme, and especially for something that was originally made in the 90s it’s fairly tame. There are no rapist villains or fully exposed nude scenes, which is what actually aged very badly when it comes to fan service. It’s mostly juvenile panty jokes, okay? If it looks offending to some nowadays, it’s because people became so sensitive they threaten to murder the animators over five seconds of something they didn’t like.

By the way, all I said thus far are not the best part of the show. It’s the attention to the plot and the lore. Although it’s not the most complex story out there, since it plays out like a generic fantasy JRPG, it has a decent amount of world-building, it has actual plot progression, and a solid ending. As I said, it is not a plotless slapstick comedy and it is not left incomplete. Same goes for the major characters. Although they don’t have super amazing character development, they do change in simple ways as the story goes on, so it’s not like everything is dumb fun with no actual end goal. There are even a few sad moments regarding the past of the witch and what happened to her people. Even the supporting characters are funny and memorable in their own silly little way, such as the exotic belly dancing old man and the poodle archmage.

These are the reasons for why I consider Mahoujin Guruguru a far better series than Made in Abyss, which came out in the same year by the way. It feels like a complete show with actual world building and character progression. It’s not an incomplete tortureporn about a hole in the ground with no lore and with little naked kids constantly suffering because the mangaka is a sick pedo.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 3, 2018

simple_hypocrite

Mixed Feelings

Mahoujin Guruguru is an anime with all the necesarry to be a good show, a decent paicing, charismatic characters, decent comedy and an animation that remember to the retro esthetic of the first serie, but more polish; although that, the anime has some mistakes.The most evident problem are the principal cast,of the three protagonist, kukuri ,nike and the old kita-kita. The history takes to much attention in kukury and her evolution around grown and the love,which eventually becomes annoying,to the point that forget develoment the other two characters.While the old kitta-kitta is an unnecesary comic relief, since the series already possess many caracters that fulfill ... the position, nike doesnt have a propose apart of being the romantic interest of kukuri, to two share the same level of complicity with the secondary characters that appear, in at least,6 episodes like juju and kaya. In general, is a petty simple anime without big downsides and something that I recomend in case of that the modern anime dont like you and prefer the old (and always best) anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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