When I was perusing the page on MAL with the list of upcoming shows for the season not long before the season started, and then several times after the season started in the first few weeks or so, I saw the poster image and read the synopsis for this series, but for some reason it didn't appeal to me at all. I guess I was just bored and kept randomly stumbling upon it or something about the fairly colorful poster caught my eye because for whatever reason, I ended up coming back to its page a few times during that time period. I think I read the synopsis four or five times. Each time I pretty much immediately thought to myself "Nah, not interested". One, because it sounded like just another new isekai (probably lying on a spectrum of somewhat to incredibly generic) and while I watch some of them, I tend to be more choosy on them and don't watch the majority, and since there's an abundance of them I typically need some kind of intriguing hook. And secondly because for whatever reason, maybe because of it having a clear male main character, my mind made some fantastical leap and I bizarrely thought this was some kind of yaoi bishounen show, which isn't really my thing.
Anyway, you know how, when everything is working correctly assuming there's no bugs and glitches, the MAL system currently in place only lets reviews start to be posted and remain up for airing series after the third episode is released? Well, yeah, I checked back a short while after that (after episode three aired) and read the reviews. Some positive things, but actually more negative things I saw being said about and attributed to it piqued my interest since I was pretty sure that what turned some people off about this anime would be more likely to appeal to me (namely, different plot threads and the plot in general being all over the place).
Well, nine episodes and three-fourths of the way through the series I think I can safely say by now that I'm glad I decided to watch it, it has ended up quite quickly in fact becoming one of the better series (top three, I'd say) of every new series I'm watching this season, and yet even then, it still does disappoint me and doesn't fully deliver because I think it could do a lot more with its premise, setting/settings, and characters, and the way they are used.
I wish there was more and better usage and screentime for Otonari. I wish the same for Magical Pink and the Mahou Shoujo fairy subplot and tie-in involving their origin and third alternate world or dimension, I wish the clandestine government agency (the bureau overseeing psychics) and the whole conflict between government-trained loyalist psychics and rogue criminal psychics was taken a little more seriously and they went a lot more in-depth and fleshed that out more. For the secondary world (let's call it the isekai or "second" world, since it's the second world/universe depicted in the show after our Earth and before the possible third Mahou Shoujo-land), I like mostly the aesthetic of it or parts of it, and some of the concepts toyed around with in it - the trading companies, details about monetary conversion and time dilation between it and our world, Elsa as an immature and slightly bratty but aspirant to improve her house's/family's position being a fun character, subtler details like showing non-human humanoid angelfolk and beastfolk-looking characters apparently integrated and living peacefully as background characters in cities, etc., but in general I actually find this side of things the least interesting part of the show. Since the factional dispute among nobles which became something of a long-running staple subplot is nothing you can't see a more interesting and intricate version of in any historical drama involving royal courts and royal houses, and a lot of fantasy dramas too. It's okay, but time could be better spent on other things, whether inside the secondary (isekai) world or outside of it.
It comes down to the fact that what I still maintain is this series' greatest strength - the willingness to incorporate and juggle multiple different plotlines and settings which blend genres and could seem like they all came from different anime shows entirely - this is exciting and fresh and creative, as I've never seen all these specific disparate elements cobbled together for one show. And yet it's also simultaneously the series' greatest weakness in the execution because I feel that even more than usual it's leading to certain things which could be fascinating rushed through or skipped over - the pacing is off in a lot of parts and reliant on verbally just summarizing what happened instead of allowing certain whole segments of the show to unfold naturally (and therefore much more slowly). And some whole subplots, as mentioned above, getting short shrift. Now, maybe that won't matter in the long run if the series goes on to have another or multiple more seasons. If it went on, hypothetically let's say, to air for years and have 200 episodes (quite unlikely, I know), then I assume there would eventually be time to more properly and adequately get to everything and those complaints wouldn't matter at all and be null and void. But I can only judge the show for what it is as a 12 episode season and series right now, and especially only on what's been released so far.
Because of both the good and the bad, I'd like to be able to end up giving this series a 7/10 by the end, and who knows, maybe I will? But right now if I'm trying to be fair and honest it's more like a 6/10.
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