littel.rudolph - 2016-12-22 01:06:45

I like moeblob shows. I like Non Non Biyori. A moeblob show with Non Non Biyori’s director should make for a phenomenal slice-of-life anime, right? Well, let’s look at Stella no Mahou.

Tamaki Honda is a high school first-year with no particular ambitions except for drawing, something she has in common with her best friend, Yumine Fuda. Yumine suggests that Tamaki join a club, but Tamaki doesn’t find anything that really interests her…until she stumbles upon the precariously-named SNS club (which sounds a bit too much like a nod to Haruhi Suzumiya’s SOS Brigade). Remembering her childhood hobby of designing crude board games for her friends, she resolves to join the SNS club to create a game everyone can enjoy.

Although this slice of Tamaki’s life is a little more plot-directed than your average moeblob SoL anime, it tries a bit too hard to straddle the line between having a structured plot and sticking to the tried-and-true vignette structure of most SoL anime. This holds the story back from being truly memorable, although I would not say the execution of this story was horrible. If the writers had come to a consensus on whether to be plot-focused or not, I feel the story might have come out better.

The strongest part of this show, as should be the case of every SoL anime, is the characters. While not every character gets the same amount of focus, the ones that stand out really stand out. Tamaki is incredibly relatable and adorable as a main character. She reminds me a lot of one of my little sisters, who is also very much into drawing and has similarly dumpy hair. But I think what makes Tamaki one of the stronger SoL protagonists is her initiative and willingness to change herself for the better. Throughout the entire show, her focus has always been on improving her talents as an artist, not just because it’s fun, but also because her friends are dependent on her and she wants to please her father. Even the slightest bit of suspected disapproval or criticism of her work crushes Tamaki, but not so much that she quits from the stress. She keeps going, aiming to disprove her critics and win back the favor of her friends, even if the perceived disapproval is largely a result of low self-confidence.

Other characters in the show include: Shiina Murakami, a heavily-introverted programmer who has her own self-confidence issues, although it’s more related to her status as the club leader rather than her relationship with her fellow club members; Ayame Seki, a writer with enough raw talent and social confidence to act as the club’s public relations figurehead; Kayo Fujikawa, the club’s sound designer and perhaps the most prolific person in the group, which is part of the reason we never really see much of her in the show; Yumine Fuda, Tamaki’s aforementioned best friend who has also taken up drawing, although like many artists, her work reflects her not-so-wholesome interests; and Minaha Iino, Tamaki’s self-proclaimed rival who adores Ayame’s writing, although she isn’t convinced Ayame actually wrote it. There’s a few more minor characters within the show as well, but honestly they aren’t quite as important as the ones I’ve listed here.

The show’s animation was done by Silver Link, which I know for Non Non Biyori’s quiet yet breathtaking visuals. Stella no Mahou’s art style is much more obviously moeblob in its character designs than NNB, but there are moments when the focus is on the environments rather than the characters. This is where the artwork truly shines, but Stella no Mahou is still a fairly good-looking show regardless. The show’s opening, “God Save the Girls”, fits the kind of show Stella no Mahou is supposed to be, but I wouldn’t really call it catchy. The background music does fall into the same sort of pleasurably calm style that the genre offers, and I daresay that I really liked some of these tracks. I should look for the soundtrack when I have the time.

I don’t expect Stella no Mahou to be ‘Anime of the Year’ on anybody’s list. As much as I wanted this show to be as fantastic as Non Non Biyori, it has some shortcomings that leave it a bit slow in the race. At this rate, Mob Psycho 100 is looking to be my favorite anime of the year, but I’ll still remember shows like this one and High School Fleet for how much fun they were to watch. Heck, I’d say this show touched my heart in more places than either of the previously mentioned shows! That’s gotta be something, right?

Category breakdowns:
Story – 7/10
Characters – 9/10
Animation – 8/10
Sound – 7/10
Enjoyment – 9/10
Overall – 4/5