Review of MÄR

MAR is a series that embodies a lot of the worst qualities of shounen anime and brings nothing new to the table. Almost immediately, the story steers itself into a ditch with an interminable Tournament Arc that lasts well over half the run of the series. While there are a handful of decent moments in the 70 or so "X vs Y" episodes that follow, most of it is an agonizing waiting game, slogging through one utterly predictable fight after the next, with no sign of plot progression for dozens of episodes at a time. When the end of the Tournament Arc blessedly arrives though,the story fully goes off the rails into an extended denouement that is totally confused, full of questionable narrative choices and other decisions that make it apparent that they had no real plan for where to take this story beyond the Tournament Arc. The ending is heavily telegraphed and feels unsatisfying when it arrives, both because of the middling story content and the sense that it probably should have wrapped up about 20 episodes earlier than it did.

The writing is juvenile and character motivations are thin and riddled with cliches (oh, you want to become stronger so you can protect everyone's smiles? I've never heard that line before). Action scenes are often boring due to the lackluster animation - likely a necessary sacrifice to produce weekly TV for 2 years straight, but that's hardly an excuse when it cuts into the core appeal of an action anime. More unforgivably, the CGI used to animate the summoned Guardians is absolutely hideous and badly composited to boot. These are supposed to be the most powerful weapons a person can wield, but they have all the visual majesty of a guy summoning some stray PS2 assets. The character designs are also uninspired and feel like a conscious attempt to mimic Dragon Ball. See if you can count how many boys with similarly spiky hair are in this series.

So what was actually good about this show? Well there isn't much, to be frank. Dorothy is a pretty fun side character, though her obsession with the main character can be overbearing. The relationship between Dorothy and Diana (left vague to stay spoiler free) is one of the few compelling plot threads on offer here. Every once in a while, you'll get an interesting battle when 2 people have special abilities that combine in a unique way, though the obviousness of the outcome of every fight dampens any thrill you might get from that.

Overall, I can't say my time was well spent watching this thing to its conclusion. I recommend simply skipping it, but if you are at all curious and inclined to give it a chance, watch until the first fight of the War Game and you'll know by then if this series is going to do anything for you.