Soushin Shoujo Matoi – Series Review
All is well and all is normal…
 |
A missive from the lazy skylion…Well, I’ll tell you, nine episodes is far to many to cover in one go, really. I don’t want to mine the episodes for images that much, nor do I want to go back and take each episode apart beat by beat, scene by scene. So instead this will be an overview of favorite things from the series and a brief on the narrative scope the series tackled. |
Learning Curves
Despite some of the serious things the series tackled, it never used that as an excuse to go dark, or even dork, or to take the show off the rails enough to sabotage it’s underlying points. It’s following the basic structures of the mahou shoujo series, and that is usually hallmarked by personal growth; handling complex issues, especially when all the experiences you’ve had to that point could only prepare you so much. You have to go further. This could be dealing with friends or adversaries, bullies or true villainy, the powerful and the powerless. Matoi, both the and the character herself pretty much dealt with a sense of sexual maturity, specifically the ideas of motherhood, and it’s own sense of hidden dangers and rewards.
A loved moment of mine from a lovely ED (by sphere, no less!)
They did this in some small steps, let’s face it, the show is spectacle, so they doled in out in that fashion. Ideas were rather obvious from the get-go and never really needed to go beyond that very much. Matoi was the ingenue, Yuma was the surprisingly mature one in an otherwise package with personality overload, and Clarus was nearly the opposite of that. None of this ventures into “unfortunate” territory given those themes, but puts them in play in terms of that old mahou shoujo standard; fighting monsters, and taking the right level of personal responsibility. Which are some of my favorite moments in the show in terms of both storytelling and animation. The Nights are kept this side of colorful without going to far into horrifying; chilling and a bit macabre, the show wants to entertain not terrify. White Fox really stepped up in terms of flash and color and it never failed to pop, while also maintaining a great degree of control (a few places here and there had some off modeling especially the last episode when they didn’t focus on the three girls).
But I think that the show really did well for it’s intended audience in terms of it’s story. Matoi’s relationship with her parents was well crafted and handled. The need to see her father as both a protector and her actual father after a period of being separated was handled pretty well (despite the dumb moment early on). But the abstraction of her mother as unseen hero, until she has grown to see that, is where the story really hits home. The odd levels of the Unseen World/Quantum Reality was on so much metaphor. Kids take their parents for granted, and this is the story of doing that a bit, and then not doing that a bit, and then life goes on in that pattern.
The best of show..
She won’t let it get her down….
I’m sure those that watched have plenty of favorite moments, so if you’re so inclined you’re welcome to comment, and I’ll share mine. I wanted to keep this one short and just be a space for a wrap up, not a wholesale review; mostly because site traffic for the three episodes I did blog were very very low. So I think a small amount is exactly what to venture. For this one, I’ll always love Yuma’s antics and her little familiars, they were awesome and kick-ass in a pinch; it’s worth watching the show for just her sometimes. But, as I said about two months ago, it was a shame that this one didn’t get on more people’s radars, as it is a very fun show, with many good qualities to it. Maybe the pure mahou shoujo train isn’t the thing any more? It’s gotta be dark and stuff? Ah well, them’s the breaks. Happy Holidays!
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Actually, the reason I didn’t watch this at first is because I was afraid it was going to go dark. Fortunately it didn’t, so when the last episode came out I marathoned the whole thing. A good, enjoyable series. As serious as it needed to be without getting too overbearing, as comedic as it needed to be without becoming ridiculous, this was a good time. Friendship and willpower allowing the girls to achieve the impossible for the sake of the wishes they hold in their heart… a traditional mahou shoujo ideal that I love to see played out properly.
This was a good show. It may have worked better for me watching it all at once than the folks watching it week by week, I can’t say. But It is definitely worth the time to take a look at.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
They never once forgot this as their thesis statement. Thanks for bringing it up so well.
I’ve become curious in my binging habits; I crave variety more than most, so more than three would be too much. But I understand how some binging can work for some shows, and this one looks like it might benefit from it. Yep, very much worth the time.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I watched about half the episodes, then because I felt I had too many shows to keep up with this was one of the ones I dropped. Maybe I should go back and marathon it. I really was enjoying Yuma and her antics.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Her antics do become more pronounced, but I’ll underscore how restrained the show can be, she’s not to loud about.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I found her antics to be at an acceptable level.