Magical Sempai – Ep. 1 (First Impressions)

So here’s the first short series of Summer 2019. As the refreshingly simple name suggests, Magical Sempai is about a magician (Kaede Hondo) and she is indeed the upperclassman of her newfound assistant (Aoi Ichikawa). Oh and some lewd stuff happens here and there because why not? It’s an anime after all.

Frankly, I found the fan service to be the worst part of the whole package. Sempai (yes, that is what she’s called in this show) screwing up her magic tricks and getting put in compromising positions is a decent vehicle but I don’t think the show gets creative from that point on. In one scene, Sempai accidentally ties herself up and it ends up looking like bondage and oh look, you can see her panties. The next bit, you see her unable to get out of her magic box and look, you can see her panties again when the Assistant (who’s also in need of a name) opens the box. After that, milk spills on her and her pet pigeon (whose name I will admit is pretty darn funny) flies into her cleavage. It’s all low hanging fruit is what I’m trying to say. Maybe subsequent episodes will crank the absurdity up but right now, I feel I’ve seen this kind of naughtiness already in other anime.

It also doesn’t help that the visuals are little rough from time to time. At this point, I’m thoroughly convinced Hanebado! ran Liden Films dry. Their efforts since then haven’t been as impressive and this show is no different.

To end on a more positive note, I did find Sempai and her Assistant themselves pretty likable. Sempai’s stage fright and incompetence is pretty charming and those qualities contrast well with Assistant’s more ordinary and less energetic demeanor. Maybe things can get a bit droning having just these two but for a single twelve minute episode, they’re fine together and there’ll apparently be more characters in the principal cast.

Unless Summer 2019 is sparse or I have a ton of time to kill, I probably won’t go out of my way to watch more Magical Sempai. The characters’ chemistry is decent but if the show is going to bank on lewd content, it’d better lewd better.

OP: “FANTASTIC ILLUSION” by i☆Ris

ED: “Dame wa Dame” by Minori Suzuki

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