Hello everyone,
here we are for another review of a light novel/manga/anime series named Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou that while being original in the concept it failed in the execution producing a mediocre anime series.
Let's start with a synopsis :
The story revolves around Koyomi Morishita, a clumsy high school freshman girl who is often mistaken for a grade-schooler because of her shortness. Koyomi becomes a disciple of Misa Anehara, a 25-year-old graduate student who happens to be one of the most powerful modern-day magicians.
The real cool concept is all about the magic being "programmed" like a normal computer and while to an expert of the field like me it may sound a lot dumb in the code they show during the series it is a pretty nice and original concept.
The story by itself isn't bad (and is probably a lot more original than other works I end up liking), but for some reason I just can't relate to it, ending up to feel the story as boring to me reducing the level of enjoyment of the series.
The best episode was most likely the little arc revolving around Koyomi Morishita going back in time to save the young Yumiko (how cute she was when young!) from a phantom magician.
The characters are mostly likable and each one of them have a rather distinct personality resembling one of the stereotypes of the anime characters. (clueless girl, ojou-sama, etc...)
There is some level of growth in the personality of the characters by the end of the series, especially in Koyomi and Yumiko's relationship.
My favourite character is by far the beautiful, quiet, cool and normal Kaho Sakazaki in both personality and body appearence that for these properties stand out in the midst of the dumb Koyomi Morishita, the whiny Yumiko Cristina Ichinose and the criminal Misa Anehara.
The graphical quality of the series is very good (I loved the girls design in both manga and anime, especially Yumiko's one), but the animation lack consistency showing a clear lack of budget for this work. (there are many problems unfortunately)
The sound quality is pretty good with famous seiyuu working on this project side to side with less famous one. Notable is the role of Haruka Tomatsu as Yumiko Cristina Ichinose.
Very good is also the opening named "programming for non-fiction" by Natsuko Asou (the same as the OP of Baka to Testo to Shoukanjuu)
Concluding, this isn't the best series out there for either production values or story quality, but if you got some spare time and want to see a rather original story give it a shot!
See you soon,
feal87