Magi: the Labyrinth of Magic

[Talon87]

A boy named Aladdin travels through a desert land. He has with him a magic flute which summons a djinn named Ugo. The djinn has a huge and muscular body but cannot remove his head from the flute, giving him a headless appearance and frequently causing even people he is trying to rescue to mistake him for a monster. The two meet Ali Baba, a seemingly greedy and aloof young man who is trying to get rich. Ali Baba realizes that Ugo would be a powerful ally in his bid to explore a nearby treasure-filled dungeon. As Aladdin and Ali Baba adventure together, they become true friends, along with Morgianna, a slave girl from a distant land whom they free from her master. (edited from Wikipedia)

[Talon87]

Characters:


Aladdin: a young boy capable of many mysterious and wonderful things. He appears to be one of the legendary mages whom Ali Baba has heard of in stories. Around his neck is a flute which is home to the powerful djinn, Ugo.


Ali Baba: a young man who dreams of becoming rich. To achieve this goal he plans to explore one of the fourteen labyrinths or dungeons which mysteriously appeared all over the world many years ago. Rumor has it that the labyrinths house great treasures beyond a mortal man's wildest dreams. Ali Baba hopes to obtain some of these treasures and to become a very wealthy man indeed.


Morgiana: a young slave woman whom Ali Baba and Aladdin meet in the market one day. Her fate and the destiny of the two boys seem to be interconnected.


Ugo: a powerful djinn and Aladdin's loyal friend. How he and Aladdin met is still somewhat steeped in mystery but the two became friends after Aladdin shared with the djinn what his one desire was.

[Talon87]

Members' thoughts on Episode 01 as shared in bbb's discussion thread:
bbb's thoughts
lilbluecorsola's thoughts
Talon's thoughts

Pictures I took for Episode 01 (but failed to include in my Episode 01 discussion post):

Episode 01 opening scene:

Spoiler: show

Ali Baba tells Aladdin about the labyrinths:

Spoiler: show

Meet Morgiana:

Spoiler: show

Shocked looks when Aladdin busts out Ugo for the first time:

Spoiler: show

Aladdin's thing for boobs:

Spoiler: show

No, I don't have any pictures of the first scene.

Animation samples:

Spoiler: show

When I wrote in my post that sometimes the animation was absolutely stunning, some of you were probably very surprised. I wouldn't be able to appreciate your surprise for myself until I sat down and watched Episode 01 a second time. The difference was that while the first time I watched it from afar, the second time I watched it up close to my computer monitor. What a difference that made! Any of you who feel that Magi is disappointingly poorly animated I would encourage to watch it from a good distance from your TV or computer screen. The problem seems to be one of detail and art direction: Magi appears to have stunning art direction coupled with abysmally simple detail. The result is that, when viewed up close, sometimes the most gorgeous scenes of all can fail to impress because your eyes are instead drawn to how crudely, plainly animated a lot of the stuff on screen has been drawn. But when you watch it from further away, those details tend to jump out at you less and you're better able to appreciate things like balance, hue/color, light/shading, and so on. And I think Magi really shines in these regards. (From time to time. Not always! )


Here's a sample picture of what I'd call plain artwork no matter how far away you're viewing it from.


Here's an example which took my breath away when I first saw it from far away but which looked a lot less impressive close up.


And here's a sample which is gorgeous close up as well as far away. Of course, it's also a still frame so it was a lot easier for the team to make look so pretty compared with their normal stuff.


Here's another example of stuff that I appreciate in this series. Yes the animation is very simple as far as detailing goes but as far as what's actually being shown it's really pretty and nice. Many studios wouldn't bother to zoom in on the fruit stand like this but Magi does and it's really pleasant to look at and gives you a good appreciation that we're in the Middle Ages caliphate.

Miscellany:

Spoiler: show

[unownmew]

Wow, a Japanese adaption of the Story of Aladdin, with liberally generous artistic liberties taken.

I'm in. The first episode was pretty good. The, unusualness of the world was a bit jarring, [spoiler]Giant underground tentacle plants that drink wine? Dungeons that randomly appeared in the world?[/quote]
But overall it was good. Not too fond of Aladdin's overt obsession with boobs or the "simple character designs" for obvious "emotional effect", but I can overlook them.

Overall the art though, when not using the simplistic character designs, is absolutely stunning.

Looking forward to next week.

[The Morg]

There was already an anime adaptation in the 80's or something. Cool to see a modern take, even if the story is only loosely inspired.

Really interested in checking this one out =3= until I saw the boob scenes :V

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by dosuser

There was already an anime adaptation in the 80's or something. Cool to see a modern take, even if the story is only loosely inspired.

Really interested in checking this one out =3= until I saw the boob scenes :V

Any Aladdin would be obsessed with your boobs. ;O

[Talon87]

I quite enjoyed Episode 02 right up until the very end. That final scene was kinda frustrating -- the sort of cliffhanger which is only a cliffhanger because you're shown something and not told what it is -- but aside from that it was an entertaining episode. Morgiana continues to be super cute. (And voiced by Tomatsu Haruka.) The dungeon wasn't quite what I was expecting --

Spoiler: show

It was pretty damn short, for starters!

-- but I look forward to seeing what comes next week.

Wish I had more to say. I don't, but that's not always a bad thing.

[Doppleganger]

I was not expecting that ending. This show is full of pleasant surprises!

[lilboocorsola]

Episode 02 was fun.

Spoiler: show

The dungeon wasn't what I was expecting either. Those bugs seemed more suited to an alien invasion story than ancient Arabia. ^^;

Nice to get an explanation as to why Aladdin's stealing food all the time. So the power of his stomach actually summons Ugo, huh? That's... Unique. XD

Ah, unlike SAO, here's a shameless bad guy I can get behind, since he's so over-the-top it's almost played for laughs. XP Kinda confused as to whether he actually killed one of his slaves though. >.>;

Liked the trick Ali Baba played on him. That was clever. Shows just how strangely smart he is too. Wonder what's is story...

Morgiana was cute, especially during the chainless dream sequence (dem teeth though!). And dang, they weren't kidding when they said she had a powerful kick. o.o; Look at her run up those walls! ...I still don't get why the boys keep leaving her behind though. ^^; They've seen what the Shari does to his slaves, even when they haven't done anything to deserve punishment. =/ If this weren't a "kids show" she'd most certainly be dead by now.

The "two right hands requirement" at the end was cute. Subtle way of stressing the moral of friendship and cooperation. ^~ Looking forward to seeing what the cliffhanger was all about.

[Talon87]

Episode 03 was ... I hesitate to say "disappointing" but it raised a lot of questions and/or featured a lot of plot holes.

Spoiler: show

Why was Morgiana shown in this episode to have been the governor's slave since they were children yet in Episode 01 she's the property of that one merchant and is being carted off to parts unknown? I have a suspicion that it's because Episode 01 may have featured some original content (read: made-for-TV bullshit) which included introducing Morgiana earlier than she originally showed up in the manga. The manga probably introduced her as the dude's slave when Ali Baba ran into them in the dungeon whereas the show, for whatever reason, wrote her into the "how Ali Baba and Aladdin met" story. But if I'm wrong, then this is just one hell of a plot hole on the original author's part.

If dungeons can be destroyed by the power of other magi, why should we accept that all fourteen dungeons were available at the time our story began? Wouldn't it be far more reasonable, if you were one of the magi trying to ensure that your lord became king, to decimate as many dungeons as possible? This could be explained away by saying that they didn't actually destroy the dungeon -- it was going to be destroyed all on its own once someone cleared it and all the bad guy was really doing was, as Amun said, trying to seal Ali Baba and Aladdin inside. But I got the impression (given all the rubble falling and such when the attack began) that the destruction of the dungeon was the villainous magus' doing. So ...?

What was the deal with Necropolis? Is that going to be coming up again or was it just a one-time thing with Amun's labyrinth? It seemed like it was sort of like a portal between where the boys had been in the dungeon at one point in time and where they wound up at a later point in time, like some sort of plane of existence separate from the dungeon's plane (which in turn seems to be separate from the regular world's plane).

So we learn that Ali Baba is likely former royalty. But this begs the question of why he is what he is today: a pauper who dreams of becoming wealthy. Most paupers who were formerly royalty become paupers by choice. They leave the riches of palace life behind to join what they see as being the real world. So for Ali Baba to be somebody who dreams of acquiring great wealth, it kind of begs the question: where did you come from and how did you get to where we met you?

And we learn that Aladdin isn't just a magus: his very existence is all about finding a candidate to be the realm's next king. So the question must be asked again: why doesn't he know this before Amun tells him? Amnesia? Lack of education? Separated at birth from his people? Other?

Speaking of magi and their masters, what's the deal with the villainous magus' master? He was the governor dude's teacher, we found out via flashbacks. So like, I assumed he himself was a magus. But apparently he's not? 'Cause he has a magus of his own? Or maybe this is an FSN Caster deal all over again and we have a magus who himself has been tapped by another magus to become king?

Apparently the djinn don't reside within metal vessels inside the labyrinths? Apparently they only do the metal vessel thing once they want to leave? I mean, I guess we'll find out next week. But like, I had assumed that the flute Aladdin carries was Ugo's own vessel from Ugo's labyrinth, not a flute the boy owned and which Ugo took up residence inside of. Yet we clearly see Amun taking up residence inside of Ali Baba's knife, a knife we know he had before entering this dungeon. So like, yeah. =\

What happened to all the treasures inside the dungeon which Ali Baba failed to retrieve? Gone? ^^; So if he neglected to get the cure for cancer or the perpetual motion system that's just too fucking bad and it's gone for good?

Why were they in space at the end there for a bit? Are the labyrinths' interiors somewhere else in the cosmos? (Apparently so! )

Why did the trio become separated at the end? Given Morgiana's words and given the sneak peek's bit with Aladdin at the end, I thought, "Well maybe everyone was sent back within 50 kilometers or so of where they started from." But that can't be right because Ali Baba was sent back to where the labyrinth had been rather than back to his original kingdom.

But perhaps the most important question of all raised by this episode was ...

Spoiler: show

WHEN WILL WE BE MEETING ONO SINBAD?

[big bad birtha]

I really hope this isn't a 13 episode show. There's obviously so many characters to meet, and so many places to go, and 13 episodes just will not cut it.

Anyway, thoughts about episode 4. Of course I enjoyed the episode. Sure, it was predictable, but I still enjoyed it. Episode 4 spoilers and whatnot

Spoiler: show

I hope it's explained how Aladdin was warped all that distance away.

I expected the old lady to die the entire episode, and as the episode was about to end, I let my guard down. Then when she said "I need to live on with my kids.", I was like "Oh shit! It's happenin'!".

I forget, is that girl the redheaded guy always hanging over his girlfriend or his sister...or both? I sort of didn't pay enough attention forgot.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by big bad birtha

I really hope this isn't a 13 episode show. There's obviously so many characters to meet, and so many places to go, and 13 episodes just will not cut it.

Anyway, thoughts about episode 4. Of course I enjoyed the episode. Sure, it was predictable, but I still enjoyed it. Episode 4 spoilers and whatnot

Spoiler: show

I hope it's explained how Aladdin was warped all that distance away.

I expected the old lady to die the entire episode, and as the episode was about to end, I let my guard down. Then when she said "I need to live on with my kids.", I was like "Oh shit! It's happenin'!".

I forget, is that girl the redheaded guy always hanging over his girlfriend or his sister...or both? I sort of didn't pay enough attention forgot.

She's his

Spoiler: show

girlfriend, hence the old woman's "perverted face" at the end. (Not that I blame her. Hot damn that clan has some beautiful people. -^^-; )

On that note, wasn't expecting her to die. All the while I kept thinking "This is such a kid's show; cute, but cliché" - then BAM she took an arrow to the knee back.

Random, but I liked the bit in the beginning where Morgiana was all *straight face* "I think I might be grateful too". D'aw.

[Midgeorge]

Spoiler: show

Okay I didn't expect that

Madoka episode 3 all over again

That is all

[Talon87]

So I totally neglected to post about Episode 04 even though I watched it several days ago. Whoops. I enjoyed it! It was a decent enough episode. The grandma character seemed to borrow half from Miyazaki's stock old granny characters while being half fresh and new.

Spoiler: show

It was pretty surprising how she turned out to be a genuinely nice person despite how creepy-sinister she physically looked at times. I kept expecting the episode to reveal that Aladdin had been too naive and that this old woman was planning on doing something bad either with him or to him. It was therefore quite nice to discover that, no, she was a nice old matriarch who bore Aladdin no ill will and genuinely took him in as a surrogate member of her proud tribe.

Spoiler: show

The bit with the royal princess from the empire of Kou, was it?, was interesting. The foreshadowing at the end -- with the assassination of the tribal matriarch -- is especially telling. All episode long the princess was depicted as somebody nice who simply had corrupt underlings beneath her. When Aladdin goes and talks with her, he's really won over by her and you even get the worried feeling in your gut, if even only for a few seconds, that he's going to ditch Ali Baba and try to help this woman become queen instead. But Aladdin flies off in the end, so sure enough you know that at the back of his mind or from somewhere deep within his soul he can tell that she is not the one who should be king ... and sure enough the end of the episode then hints at this. It looks like she was merely wearing the veneer of the Good Cop to contrast with her subordinate's Bad Cop routine and that she may well be as wicked as he is. Next week's episode will probably shine more light on this.

Not much else to say othe than to repeat that it was enjoyable but it was definitely the first episode of a new story arc, that you could tell. If 01, 02, and 03 formed the first story arc of the series, 04 was definitely the first episode of the second. So it'll be a few more weeks, probably, before things really start getting under way.

[Doppleganger]

I'm all caught up. That ending to Episode 4 was a surprise. Wasn't expecting it in the slightest, I don't see how one can call that aside from looking at other, similar groups lead by a matriarch (such as in Utawarerumono).

[Talon87]

Bah. ^^;

Episode 05:

Spoiler: show

I guess I should be pleased that I was wrong about everything? Because it means that I got to be surprised? But alas no, my disappointment that I gave Magi too much credit last week far outweighs the pleasure of mild surprise. Seriously: it was the asshole vice-commander after all? The princess is good? The grandma didn't die? Well, okay: that last one they ended up taking back before the episode ended. But the others? I was sorely disappointed by this stories-for-8-year-olds turn of events. I thought it would've been plot-suitable to have had the princess be a villainous rival for Ali Baba. Instead she's this lovely Chinese magical girl who channels the powers of a sex goddess to vanquish evil. I'm disappointed!

The one surprise that I did like was that the evil Magi (I can't write that in lowercase -- it's magus, dammit!) is in the employ of Kou and has tapped the princess to be the next world ruler. So she is going to rival Ali Baba ... just not villainously. Or at least, she won't be the one acting wickedly, it's her evil Magi who will. Question: how come Aladdin can't easily get back to where Ali Baba is but this black Magi is already back in Kou after leveling Ali Baba's town's dungeon?

The grandma referred to Aladdin this week as a "child of Solomon." Does that mean he's not Solomon reincarnated? Does it mean he's just a Jew a descendant of Solomon's? (Magical Chinese Jews with genies, never thought I'd see the day ...)

Paimon. :nosebleed: And thank God it wasn't censored to Hell! Funny that the one show all these weeks not to be censored is the one for the kiddies with the giant unclothed boobs and the nipple rings. Figures. Fuckin' figures. Anyway, she's quite the addition to our roster of genies. We've got old man Amun with fire, sexy Paimon with wind, and our main guy Ugo with super strength. Wonder what the other genies will be like.

I do like how the author is telling us each of the main trio's stories in short sequence like this. We've got Aladdin's out of the way and so next week we're on to Morgiana's. Should be fun!

[Doppleganger]

I've told BBB this, but there seems to be a trend with me that I love the gallant/knightly noble girls, and Hakuei Ren is no exception. I'm smitten! That outfit, that voice, that personality! I totally want to ship her with Aladdin now. Morgianna can be the new Kouzuki Kallen for all I care.

I don't think I've ever heard an "adolescent" Nana Mizuki voice prior to this role - I've heard soft-spoken child (Fate), bonkers/flustered adolescent (Tsubomi, Ricotta) but not this. It's new. Like Yui Horie's gruff worker-girl voice that she used for Natsu no Arashi!'s Kanako.

By contrast I did not really care much about Paimon. People seem surprised, but I don't think un-censored nipples are really all that controversial in Japan. We have to recall that the movement toward 4Kids censorship is something that's only happened over the past 20 years...manga in the 1980's had no problem showing nudity or even porking in panels! It would probably strike everyone as un-common, although given this is Sumomomo Momomo's author, it's probably more fanservice than old timey social norms brought forward.

Spoiler: show

My attitude toward this episode is the complete opposite of your's, Talon. I thought it was obvious that the conniving general was behind it all given his blatant insubordination. I didn't foresee him dying, or Ugo killing all the rebellious soldiers. Given the story was trying to force peaceful resolution, that was a somber if necessary culling. Garkus having a sword of the clan was something I completely missed.

I'm a bit surprised that Morgianna is kind of stand-offish toward Ali Baba. She displayed super obedient traits to the corrupt caliph, but she has this weird aversion to him given all he's done for her. It's difficult to explain, almost like she's reverted back to a normal girl in his presence, but still acts like a slave otherwise. And I don't think it's un-natural behaviour either, just weird.

Cool episode.

[Talon87]

It was too blatant. And that was why I rejected it last week. And why I am still rejecting it (just in a different sense) this week. Too obvious and cliche = hi children's TV = you've disappointed me, Magi.

Also, why are you worried about Morgiana pairing with Aladdin? She is CLEARLY going to Ali Baba, whether they wind up as each other's ultimate partners or not.

[lilboocorsola]

Spoiler boxes, boys, please! x.X

[Talon87]

Why are you yelling at me? X_x I was going to PM Doppel my own complaint but I'm tired of people accusing me of being fussy about this shit so I decided to let some heads roll so you see I'm right. (Sorry it had to be you, Yuki. ) But I'm pretty sure my own reply is devoid of spoilers the way that I carefully worded it. In fact, I took special pains to word it in such a way that, all on its own, it wouldn't be a spoiler post at all.

[Doppleganger]

That came out wrong, I was trying to make a Geass analogy with Hakuei Ren as C.C., but it feel flat and I didn't delete that sentence. It didn't help that I subbed Aladdin for Ali Baba when the only scene with Morgiana involved her and AB.

Aladdin x Hakuei Ren and Ali Baba x Morgiana = OTP

O FUDGING TP

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Why are you yelling at me? X_x I was going to PM Doppel my own complaint but I'm tired of people accusing me of being fussy about this shit so I decided to let some heads roll so you see I'm right. (Sorry it had to be you, Yuki. ) But I'm pretty sure my own reply is devoid of spoilers the way that I carefully worded it. In fact, I took special pains to word it in such a way that, all on its own, it wouldn't be a spoiler post at all.

Sorry, I just saw your post after glancing at Dopple's so it seemed to correspond. =x

[Talon87]

I'm pretty sure Hakuei is scheduled to pair off with her blue-haired attendant. But if that's a girl and not a guy (and assuming Hakuei isn't a lesbian XP) then never mind. But I think you're going to be disappointed there with your one true pairing. ^^; I get the impression that Aladdin, despite his thing for boobs, is not one for intimacy. Hey waiiiiiiit a second ...! D:

Spoiler: show

HOW COME ALADDIN DIDN'T LEAP INTO PAIMON'S CHEST? Some boob fan he is.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

I'm pretty sure Hakuei is scheduled to pair off with her blue-haired attendant. But if that's a girl and not a guy (and assuming Hakuei isn't a lesbian XP) then never mind.

I was confused about this. I thought the general was referring to the blue-haired boy as her younger brother. Then they showed another brother back at the palace. Are they both related to her?

Also boobies.

[Doppleganger]

Oh yeah, is there some kind of pun floating around here, Talon?

Paimon = bare-chested djinn, but "pai" means "tile" in Japanese. Also, 'oppai'.