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I've tried watching it but...something feels off. Something is wrong with this anime and I can not explain what. none other reviews mentioned it, so I have to figure it out on my own.

So, let's start with graphics and they are just good. Really nothing to say here.

Music. Opening and endings kinda don't fit the anime. Too upbeat opening and too moody ending. Anything else...is just there, nothing is memorable.

Characters. Well, they have a character, they have a story. They...most of them feel like they can be removed and nothing will change. Ah, here we go. Basically about 4 characters actually do something that works. ... Something that actually moves the story and/or solves the problem. All the rest are just background noise, they just exist to show how worthless they are. Weird right? Guess that explains why the anime was cut short.

Monsters. Rather...bland. Basic shapes that have nothing to do with who the monsters are. Same with their abilities. They just do stuff and look menacing. With the exception of few...well, 2. Just 2. The ones who are actually important for the story. All the rest are rather...meaningless.

Story. There is a story...I guess. It barely feels like a story actually, more like several somewhat connected stories, some with basically no build-up. Things just happen and they happen to be happening near the main characters.

And about some details... Eating monsters is a major red flag. But everybody act as if it is just fine. They are basically eating the "mystery meat", and considering some of the monsters are humanoids, this is basically cannibalism. And everyone is fine with that. Some reviewers mentioned how the anime have Buddhist philosophy in it...well...I am pretty sure eating mystery meat is not part of it. Maybe there is some kind of commentary, but...probably, likely it will not end good for the monster eating club. Maybe it is the case, but I don't feel like watching further.

Aaand I've read the manga now so I can compare how different the anime is from it. In short - the anime is very good!

Nice graphics, iconic even and seems like manga is using very similar style because of it.
Nice character design and characters themselves...tho manga is likely closer to the novels since there almost everyone are asshats, but I like anime characters much more. They are also much more complex in anime.
Nice story with the ending that leaves some questions yet answers more than what manga does. Also I like the worldbuilding here more.
No weird sex stuff at all, not even insinuations of such.

Seriously, ... watch the anime first, both of the movies and then read manga. And forget about the novels. Unless you are into graphic description of violence and weird sex stuff.

Only thing I don't like in the anime is how hunter gang main weapons are...kinda stupid. In manga they at least have somewhat viable stuff.

In short - it is Great!

Imaginative graphics. Simple yet intriguing story. Memorable and super well designed characters. Surprising amount of restrain in gore (yes, there could've been more and far worse) and weird sex stuff departments in comparison to the novel. I mean, seriously, last one is the worst part of the novel. Many details about the world are here to see, so since I really dislike novel having all this stuff, I can watch anime and explore this world a bit more.

What else can I say... Well, the ending was satisfying and true enough to the novel to still be not a happy ending.

It's good, but...

That's how you can sum up my review. But let's write some more.

Graphics is good and they also used 3D and cell shading in some moments, which I have not seen as much in anime of the time... But I did not like how sloppy some of it is made. Not terrible, but the first dance is a bit...rough

Music and songs are good. But...I mean they used a lot of classical compositions, so it is a bit of cheating. I don't mind tho

Characters are well done and have development though the story. But some of them just stopped at some point and were ... left as is till the very end. Some obvious lessons were not learned or ignored entirely. Some characters did not get enough of spotlight, while some get too much.

Story is good. From the start it gets slow but steady development...but in the second part it started rushing towards the end and things just happen with minimal explanation of why and how.

It is historical, but...some moments are warped due to how things entered Japanese culture. So it is definitely not accurate, yet still not terribly off

And that's how it goes. It is good, but there are the details here and there that are off and emotional perception also changes too much in the moments, to the point where you lose the reasoning. I mean some parts are just cruel for the cruelty sake, and the perpetrator is just let go, learning nothing pretty much, with some vague message attached to it. Main message of the story is also off, cause...it is not true, things did not change, and where they changed it is definitely not for the better. It is probably like that cause it was rushed. 50 episode were not enough. And they were too many, cause some episodes were totally out of place and some moments took longer than necessary. Creators relaxed knowing they had whole 50 episodes to work with and then they understood that they have ONLY 50 episodes. Or at least I feel this is the case

I decided to (probably) drop it. On episode 15 I had a strong feeling that this anime will break my heart. And will likely annoy me at some points with some tropes I strongly dislike. After that I've read a bit about what future episodes and OVAs and such have in them and...yeah, it seems that my gut feeling was correct. But the thing is - I do not dislike this anime. It gives you exactly what you expect. It's just...I have no need for this pain. I've been hurt before. I understand it well enough.

But if you like it and don't mind it breaking ... your heart - go for it. It is a decent story, full of emotions and fun moments. It will immerse you into itself. Just probably be careful not to get in too deep. As for myself - I am considering reading the manga instead...some day, probably.

Oh, yeah, I've seen some people antagonizing some characters (mainly Hikaru and Kasuga). Well...please don't. Or at least figure out the reasons for it, so you understand yourself better. They (characters) are here for you

In short - this one is rather dysfunctional. The guild and the manga. I was hoping it to continue story that original manga did not, but no, it is mostly about a revers harem full of characters that barely work. I mean...they do not really act like people. Not like real people or like the MMO players. And all the positive messages that the author tried to put in feel insincere. Maybe it is a translation's fault, but...likely not.

If this was real and I get trapped into the MMO...well, I be shocked first, but since the body will not actually be my own shock will ... not last long (ya know, chemistry). After that I will just go explore what the new body can do and the world itself. I know that some people will go PK'ing instantly, not even waiting for someone to die first, cause it still feels like a game and follows the preexisting rules that everybody accepted. Morality will come later when people will really understand that they are stuck in this world. At first there be chaos, all the 4chan regulars will go wild understanding the amount of freedom they suddenly received.

Also...this is not a secret that most of the MMO players are dudes. And probably half of them play female characters. And since it's not SAO, where bodies get corrected, this time there will be tons of people stuck in the wrong bodies. It will mess up brains of people, both observers and the players themselves. And it's not just sex, but age and shape too. All those newbies will not look like children also. So basically majority of people will be confused about who they are or who people around are. Now this will be a global problem, not some "oh no, can't log out, I am depressed" problem.

Also I find it hard to believe that exploited newbies will not just leave the guild that exploited them. Having a possibility to leave the guild at any time is something all the MMOs have. There can be some threat of extreme violence preventing people from leaving...tho not like they really show it here. Also it is kinda weird that someone can just add person to their friend list without any confirmation from the other side. Don't remember it being the case in any MMOs I played.

I decided to drop it when I understood that it will just keep beating around the bush, inventing unrealistic situations and solving them in some BS way. Yes, there was this "hey, how about we stop killing each other, organize and start solving our common problems", but it was not given a proper spot, instead main focus was perverted dunces and their "WTF was that?" interactions, so I just stopped expecting this manga to get somewhere.

I've seen anime, all 4 seasons that are up now (counting 2.1 and 2.2 as separate). After that I decided to read the novels.

At first it was fine and I was able to skip things I knew already and read only stuff new for me... Then I get to a new arc (Arc 6) and it was generally fine. And then it started...

I had to basically skip a ton of the amnesia crap. It is lazy and it is hard to follow the story that you have to pretend to forget for some reason. Though it was not as bad as the things to come... ... And the things to come are - the author being overly wordy for no good reason. Dialogues in anime are like that too, but at least they do not explain again and again every tiny detail, repeating some constantly.

I basically started to skip everything but the dialogue lines at that point and I missed nothing, cause often those lines explain whatever happened between. And it still get worse later, cause dialogue also started to be filled with pointless repeating of stuff and I had to skip even more of the book for it to stay enjoyable. And I had to stop when I skipped almost ENTIRE volume and still missed nothing.

Those books are a mess. The author uses 1000 words to say one and it gets only worse and worse.

At some point the story just stops following the main character and goes sideways, adding more words and staying like that for ages. And after it returns to the main character author jokes about what he have done with a line from one of the characters "It wouldn’t be interesting otherwise. You can’t keep the star actor off-stage; that’d be a sacrilege in a proper story!" HE KNOWS HOW ANNOYING IT IS! Yet still he persist.

Other annoying thing - too many freaking characters. And ALL of them are considered very important for the plot, so ALL of them get equal amount of attention. But for the most part it is just worthless, just thousand words about nothing.

Honestly, I am just angry with this book. I made it this far only cause the main plot was still interesting, and there were still fun new ideas. But it just get unbearable to read further. It turned into a chore.

Even if my grade for it is this high, there is no point wasting time on it. Just wait for the anime or manga to catch up.

UPDATE

I decided to continue reading...that was a mistake. At some point author just decided to shit on his own story... This is horrible...

Ok, so, I've finished it. I mean...that was quite a ride. Not my favorite genre, but this anime is very different from what I've expected from it.

First of all, yes, it is magical girl anime. And it has some things in it purely to sell toys. And it has a repetitive transformation scene, tho for some reason best version of the scene is in the opening. But the opening is good, so I am not complaining about it, it is just weird how the transformation scene that is inferior to one you've already seen watching the opening is repeated in every single episode as if ... it was a requirement of sorts...and it likely was tho.

Speaking of magic, Emi can do a wide variety of things with it: Telekinesis, Dreamwalking (as entering and altering dreams), Teleportation (self, objects and people), Illusions (visual and audial), Creating (or teleporting from somewhere) objects and small animals, Creating energy (guess mainly some kind of magical fairy energy). And it is mainly used during performances. And those are actually rather small part of the anime. I respect it, she is not just using magic to solve everything, guess it is a lesson this anime has.

Speaking of Mai. Is she really clumsy? No, I don't think so, she is a kid who is still learning. There are episodes when she is actually very capable. So...I do not support "oh, she is just clumsy" joke. Luckily they did not do it too much.

Speaking about other things they did not do too much. Tropes. There were moments where they went this way, yet there were many more moments when they did not make me think "oh no, they are doing this bit", au contraire, they went in unexpected direction and made me feel puzzled and amazed.

There were things that just came out of nowhere and felt inappropriate, but those felt more like an inside jokes among creators. And they just put them in and just left them as is. I can respect that too. Also I can respect how the creators clearly added stuff they experienced themselves, both from normal life and anime/idol industry.

For the longest time I felt kinda weird that they had only one song in the anime. I mean they basically reused Opening during performance scenes every time. Which is I guess realistic for Idols, you repeat one song a lot. Luckily creators understood that one song will not carry the show for much longer. So they made another one, far into the anime. And it is also good, even if not as good.

Oh, and another thing, the setting of the anime feels much larger than what surrounds the main cast. That is huge. You can literally see and feel how some unknown forces and entities just come and go, making you think what else is there, what happens beyond. Works great to support the mystery.

The ending of the anime, even if it feels a bit abrupt, was actually very...good, sad, but it was a decision made by both characters and creators. It ended on a high note. And I appreciate that they made couple of OVAs and a music video that gives you a hint into what happened after. Which is very interpretive, but I have a feeling that characters have a happy life beyond the scope of the series. And likely some more adventures and maybe even more interactions with mysterious forces that were seen and unseen.

And to finish it all, I just want to copy here description from some other site (filmaffinity):

Mai is a little girl who idolizes Emily Howell, a famous magician. She is given a magic bracelet to transform into Magical Emi when she says "Puritto! Pararin Ririkaru Parapora Magicaru". She soon becomes a very successful part of her grand parents' show "The Magicalettes" while keeping her eye on a handsome boxer.

Why? Cause current synopsis is a bit inaccurate. First of all - Emi is 16, it is confirmed in the anime itself. And second - both keeping secret identity unknown and romantical feelings explored are not the focus of the anime. Former is barely given much attention, latter is much more subtle. Yet I think replacing current synopsis is not necessary.

It's good! Very good even! After trying to watch anime I stumbled upon a recommendation to read the manga and... Yep, I've been disappointed by the anime, but the manga righted its wrongs to me.

And, oh yeah, it is not Inuyasha. The tone is different and the anime was the same. But the difference is - anime had close to no story in those 12 episodes I've seen. Manga starts very similar to anime, but it grabs you and immerses you into a story and did not let go till the very end. To be fair, I think some moment were a bit too much ... of a "with our friendship and power of anime we can do anything". But it was awesome, so I will not complain about it. If we have to compare it to Inuyasha yet again, it has much less of a buildup and character development. But it was much shorter too, and I think they (whoever worked on it, I suspect there were more people then who get credited) did a good job making a coherent story... Thing that anime was failing at. Yes, it is entirely possible that anime get better after those 12 episodes...I just don't care enough to watch it further.

Wel...so I watched half of it. And...there are issues. Big issues. And I suspect not the ones everyone talks about.

1. Characters are inconsistent. One moment one girl says to other that she is naive for not noticing demons, other moment she completely ignores obvious dangerous demon herself

2. Characters repeat stuff for no reason. Like when Moroha applies her lipstick explaining to everyone around what it does...right in the middle of the fight. Slowly

3. Characters overexplain stuff. Same as above, yes. Right in the combat. While demons are politely waiting. After everything was already explained by other means before. Demons do the same too.

4. Nothing really ... moves the story. New demons every time doing some random stuff before getting defeated.

5. Is it really Sengoku Era? Where are the clashing samurai armies, bandit gangs and villagers suffering from that warring period? Seems like demons are the only problem...and more of a mild inconvenience at that

6. Why the main cast of Inuyasha is nowhere to be seen? We know how active they were before, we learned some things about them in the beginning... And they are nowhere to be seen after it, only hinted at doing some shady stuff...for...reasons? This anime is a continuation of the story, isn't it? Yet it barely connected. Yes, there is the answer...I found it in google after I started to lose interest to the show...

And I think I know why everything of the above is like that. First of all - to enjoy this anime you should not know anything! About Inuyasha series. about Sengoku Era, about demons and yokai, about combat, and, as it feels sometimes, about what happened in the previous episodes. And the second is - yeah, everything of the above again, cause it is targeted at very different and "new" audience. Which is weird, cause it won't be too hard to target both new viewers and returning "old" ones. But it still requires effort...and guess no one was ready to actually do it. Shame

P.S. Oh, thanks to someone advising it. Basically anime is half baked mess, to actually get the story - Read Manga! It's much better and explains everything