Hello everyone,
Let's go back in time today and let's do a review of a light novel/manga/anime supernatural anime that aired years ago (end of 2007) that I think got too little credit for the quality showed.
Let's start with a synopsis :
Due to his father's disappearance, Itsuki Iba has to take over the family business: a magician dispatch service called 'Astral'. Astral basically employ countless magicians and other supernatural beings in order to send them out to help those who need magical assistance. As a leader, Itsuki now has to be tough, commanding, and reliable, but there's one problem, he's a coward. Also, in order to run a successful business, he has to connect with his employees, which is more difficult than it seems due to his personality and lack of magical ability. But not only does he have to deal with his own employees, he also has to deal with those who threaten the family business.
The story all go rounds this magical company and the various cases he has to resolve to basically survive and pay the bills after the disapperance of the father of the protagonist.
The quality of the story is pretty high even if a little clichè and have numerous references to various magical practice/books in the world (it is pretty fun to go search on wikipedia and see what they say about each practice as they all exist), like Adelicia "Ars Goethia" that is an art to evoke demons and is based over "the lesser key of Solomon" or the Honami druidic origins.
The main downside of the anime adaptation is the fact that they decided to air the series in a "Suzumiya" fashion with an order of episodes that only a madman can think of. (Or at least it makes no sense to me, it is a lot more enjoyable to watch it normally)
The recurring characters are few and well defined in both personality, body and powers and you'll learn to distinguish between them very soon. There is some growth during the series in some of them (and probably more growth in the light novel as the story continues)
My favourite character, like probably you already detected, is Adelicia Lenn Mathers and her tsundere behaviour. Especially when she becomes dere is a wonderful thing to watch her trying to get some of Itsuki's time/attention.
The visual quality is top notch for the time, and the anmation mostly consistent with some minor screw up in the animation in some particularly action packed episode.
Opening and Ending animation was pretty enjoyable and original, but maybe a little too much spoilerish (the opening)
Audio quality is also top notch, we have Jun Fukuyama as Itsuki (I especially liked his voice when he act like a true captain), Daisuke Ono, etc..
I especially liked Mikako Takahashi's Adelicia role (maybe you remember her for Sairenji in To Love Ru?) with her great different voice depending on the emotion state.
Concluding this is a rather enjoyable work with a nice clichè storyline that anyway attract the viewer for the maniacal cure to insert detail into each action of our characters.
I think it got too little credit when it first aired and I'm still hoping for a second adaptation in the future.
See you soon,
feal87