Mashle: Magic and Muscles

At first glance, you think it's another anime where you have to defeat someone, but after watching the first episodes, you understand that it's something new.

In summary, it's about a boy who has no magical abilities, but instead he is very strong. The protagonist is not very smart (nicely expressed) and is forced to go to a magic school to become the best mage, without magic skills.

The genre is comedy, adventure and fantasy. The jokes are like in "Onepunchman". The story is not perfect and is often silly but it fits the story quite well.

I advise you to watch it if you like "Onepunchman" or "Mob psycho 100".

Pros:

• A lot of good action
• Very clean, no sexual content at all

Cons:

• Jokes were overly repeated and not very funny to begin with
• Overly copies Harry Potter, doesn't bring a lot of new material but does have some.

• Character personality is fairly poor and quickly felt predictable. I didn't find myself very excited for any one individual to come on screen.

• Every fight would be heavily interspersed with talking and flash backs which made things slow

Overall I was just a little bored and found myself finishing more for the sake of checking off a box and finishing what I started than anything else. If you don't mind the heavy copying of Harry Potter and aren't too critical you may enjoy this one.

This anime is funny and entertaining and basically a parade of Harry Potter if it was an anime. From Quidditch to Draco Malfoy, it's basically mocking the entire magic school genre, with a main character with no magic, but instead of being an angsty, poor unfortunate outcast, he's a musclehead whose so dense he doesn't realise half the things happening around him, and the scenarios he ends up in because of it are simple hilarious.

I'd recommend it, purely on its comedy chops, but the animation and voice acting are nothing to sneeze at either. I've only watched the dub, but the voice acting is also solid.

I hope we get a 2nd season. I had a blast.

Review for Season 1:

This show didn't quite work for me towards the end.

It's at its best when it's trying to be a parody of a magic anime. Whenever it does so, it's very funny because of the voice acting and A1 Pictures' editing. The plot setup itself is obviously funny.

But it's at its worst when it tries to be a serious action shounen, using the most mediocre shounen tropes out there. For instance, Mash's character was supposed to be funny because he was very dense yet ridiculously strong. But towards the end he sort of changed his enemies into good characters (another shounen trope) and it just made no sense to me.

In the end, I was looking forward to a magic parody anime, instead of just another action shounen (this plotline just doesn't fit a serious shounen story). I'll still watch season 2 but I hope I get to see the parody moments a lot more.

Edit: Enjoyed it more on a re-watch once I knew what's coming.

Review for Season 2:

Mashle picks up from right where it left off and everyone's favourite fitness freak is back! He has returned to entertain us by outsmarting magic in all different, hilarious ways.

Season 2 is more of the same and I definitely did enjoy it plenty. Just like Mash, it's offbeat and stylishly funny. I'm actually very impressed by A1 Pictures' work for this anime because the animation was very good. And I love the editing because it makes this anime even more hilarious. The soundtrack is again great and there were some new tracks this time that I admired.

The friendship between the main characters is wholesome. Finn Ames actually gets some moments to shine this time and I like his character more after Season 2.

But whenever Mashle becomes serious and it goes into some sad flashback or a serious shounen action scene, it loses me completely. Because this is a parody setting and it doesn't fit at all. Whenever Mash arrives and does Mash things, that's where this show regains my attention.

Overall though, this is another fun season. This is definitely a unique and entertaining comedy. Hopefully we'll get a Season 3.

This is a combination of Harry Potter, One Punch Man, and Black Clover. Throw in some ultra goofiness and the power of friendship for a complete picture. If you're good with that it can be fun.

The above stated, it does nothing new. That's not a problem if the familiar is well done, but it isn't. From the combat, quirkiness of the hero, villains introduced and friends found, it's all very much common and uninspired. There's some okay humor but it's exactly what you'd expect for anyone familiar with standard anime tropes.

I hope there's more to this in the coming seasons, but as it stands right now Mashle is a forgettable experience.