marianne57 - 2016-12-19 04:08:30

loved it and want more

ocie46 - 2016-09-09 20:38:28

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad has a lot less of the flavor that made the original Magi entertaining. That flavor mainly being the themes that were brought up about kingship, genocide and the morality of war and peace alongside a very interesting medieval and arab setting that was well explored. But most of that was left absent from this spin off or not touched upon to the degree in which the original series went to, which made it feel very underwhelming and more shounen-like and superficial. Now lets get on with it, and let me remind you that I watched the original two seasons of magi two years ago so my memory isn't the best.

Story
The story begins with a boy being born, Sinbad of course, and when his conception took place the world's sky went crazy in a burst of magical energies because of how great he was and many characters from the original series looked on in awe and wondered "wow a great power has entered the world". This is where i immediately saw red flags for what the shows' story was going to become. The fact that the rukh (the magical energies of this world) reacted so heavily to his birth was because he was fated to be a great king. Which basically meant that because of luck or random chance he was fated to be great no matter what. It took away any chance he had of failing and removed a lot of his agency from his actions. Which means he is essentially doing everything he is doing because of destiny. Which makes the story seem less like an adventure and more like a checklist of things he has to do before he can become a king. While this could work from an existentialist perspective this show is very far removed from those ideas.

So back on track. Sinbad is born and many years later in his boyhood experiences the horrors of war which end up forcing his newfound friend and farther to lead each other to their deaths. This motivates him on a journey to create his own kingdom and bring peace to the world. So he is enlisted into a force to capture a dungeon (basically like a dungeon in an mmo and if you complete it you get the power of a god). In his exploits here he makes an interesting idealistic contrast of his want to bring peace to the world to that of the more selfish and fearfilled actions of the state. While it was somewhat interesting at first to see some kid give a finger to the man it got old after like, I dont know the second time he did it. And he does it a whole hell of a lot in this show. Basically the entire show is just comprised of him going to point A and B and pressing his very idealistic and unrealistic views on people and being so fucking OP because he is blessed by god that they just believe him after he shows his power. So things quickly get stale. It gets to a point where Sinbad and his crew are captured and stripped and then thrown into a giant pit which is also filled with deadly snakes, and as if acknowledging their own inability to fail then proceed to make gags about it for 10 minutes like the audience isn't even supposed to care. While it would be interesting to see the turn the story would take if he failed and he had to question how ridiculous his ideals for world piece are, it never happened, and a sequel may also never happen.

Animation
This is definitely the shows greatest asset. The characters designs are vibrant, varied and interesting. The settings are also visually interesting with some great and consistent background art. The fights and general visual presentation is way above the standards set by the standard Toei or Pierrot shounen.

Sound
The sound just faded into the background for the most part for me and I never really got attracted to any of the pieces. I'm not sure if they were the same tracks used in Magi but I just wasnt feeling it. It wasnt bad enough to make a note of it but it also wasn't good. Then again that might also be influenced by the short run time and also my disinterest in the story. For several scenes they tried using electro music to make a moment more hype but was very off putting and clashed with the setting. It was also often overly bombastic like at the ends of character arcs where its expecting you to have a connection to a basic character you have only known for an episode or two.

Characters
Sinbad is boring. He is just goes through his same shtick of helping people and beating people who disagree with him over and over and never changes throughout the course of the series. Of course ignoring the first episode. He never really gets upset, doubts himself, doubts his friends, doubts his beliefs for long enough to make him feel human and in turn makes him very unrelatable. But what that does do is it makes him a good symbol for what a king is. Which is why the supporting cast follows him. An emotionally strong leader dead set in his ideals who backs down to know one and takes on the impossible. Which seeing how this show turns out makes me realize how he  was much better suited for his supporting role in the main series as a contrast to Alibaba. But he could still be an interesting character as long as the messages that he gives causes the supporting cast to change.
While this does happen the pay off is not there as most of the supporting cast is only given a few episodes at most to meet Sinbad, go "wow he is so kakui" and have a renewed belief in themselves. After that they are basically background decoration and don't do much for the story besides comic relief or running errands. Not to mention they are mostly one note and only act seriously when its required which can make it hard to get engaged with them especially with the little screen time they get. Especially characters like Ja'far who makes a complete 180 from a blood thirsty assassin into a cutie pie shota because magic and love. If only it was so easy.
But there is still a glimmer of hope in the character Drakon, who was the leader of the troops sent into the dungeon with Sinbad. He was given his position because of his noble birth and ended up being a bit of a selfish snob because of it. So when he loses to sinbad and hears his ideals he rethinks and questions himself on why he cant win when he is trying his best and doing it for his country and his men and so he can come back alive to see the girl he loves. Only to discover that when he gets out of the dungeon he is shamed by his people for not being able to take the god of the dungeon for himself and he also discovers that the girl he loves has just entered a political marriage with his brother that doesnt care for her. This makes him a very interesting character in relation to Sinbad because he is going through a similar unfairness brought upon by war that Sinbad went through in his boyhood except he is in a position of power and therefore appreciates the benefits of a militaristic society and would be more apt to weigh the pros and cons. His character also changed a lot more slowly compared to the rest of the cast which felt more believable. But sadly the series ended and it went nowhere.

Summary
Magi: Adventure of Sinbad is a good time passer just to see the magi aesthetic again but it never managed to become anything more than that. Even though the beginning had some interesting prospects they weren't realized because the show did not end.

alysa56 - 2016-07-11 15:38:59

AWSOME AND INTERESTING STORY.