Review of Gushing over Magical Girls

Oh boy. I'm not even sure I can write a sensible review about what I have witnessed on this one. I've seen some heavy fanservice anime before but THIS... this is something else. Story: Gushing over Magical Girls doesn't really have much of a story to speak of because you're not "really" watching it for that anyway. The basic gist of it is that Utena, who is obsessed with her town's three magical girls, gets recruited by Venalita to be an evil magic girl. Utena transforms, and Venalita basically blackmails her with her embarrassing transformation sequence and that's the basis of Utenajoining the evil side. From there, Utena is tasked with ridding her town of their magical girls, known as the Tres Magia, but Utena's obsession leads to her sadistic side coming out in every interaction with those magical girls.

This series is basically as far as Ecchi can go without really being considering Hentai. Bare breasts, BDSM, sadism... yeah this series is not intended for a young audience at all. Because of Utena's obsession, she basically does whatever she can to embarrass the Tres Magia, often resulting in her stripping them and playing with them that way. No real physical harm tends to be involved, except near the end, when there's a few half-serious fights.

The sense of humour that this series takes on is kind of linked to how much you enjoy watching Utena and company beat up on their opponents in their own magical way. Some of it is actually pretty funny, and while others weren't terribly impressive, I could at least see the appeal.

To say this series matches a bit of a niche audience would be an overstatement, but hey, judging from the MAL score, it probably does that pretty well. I'm not going to sit here and say that it was an awful series - it's not. Was it what I expected? Nope. And maybe that was enough for me to want to watch it all the way through. Maybe. Some of the story elements were less over-the-top though and led to some great character moments. (5/10)

Characters: Surprisingly, I didn't mind a lot of the characters that were presented here. I've touched on Utena already, but I should mention that her character from the start to the end of the series takes a pretty drastic turn. She starts out as being pretty timid, and she lets herself "out of her shell", she clearly gets more comfortable with being able to interact with others. It gets out of hand at times, but she at least had character growth. Kiwi is another villain that joins Utena's crew fairly early on and she's a bit of the overprotective type. Strangely, I liked her. She admires Utena as much as Utena admires the Tres Magic, maybe even more, but she's not afraid to jump into the action to protect Utena. Korisu isn't much of a character - she's a little kid through and through. She's mostly just kind of there. That being said, due to her age, I thought she'd be a bit of a pain in the neck as a character and she wasn't.

Haruka, Sayo and Kaoruko make up the Tres Magic trio, and there were solid personalities here. Haruka is easily the least remarkable of them though, as I really didn't feel she brought much to the table, outside of being part of the main group. Her personality and tendencies never really shine, outside of being "always" nice, and that gets boring, quick. Sayo easily has the most story elements put upon her, and by the end, you can kind of see why. Like Utena, she goes through a lot of growth in the story, though where they leave off with her is highly questionable... in a weird way. Kaoruko is the most aggressive of the three, which is hilarious for someone who uses shield magic. She has quite the temper, and it's a nice mix for the group.

As we meet the "other" villains - I use quotation marks because they act independently of both Haruka and Utena's groups - you kind of realize why Utena's gang opposes them, but the story elements that two of them brought were very welcome. I'm talking about Matama and Nemo. They have a sweet backstory, even if it gets a little intense at times. I found myself liking them, especially their interactions with each other. They bicker like an old married couple, and it was great. The rest are kind of forgettable, outside of the key fights near the end. (8/10)

Art: Animation is... there. As I've already pointed out, the fan service is way past excessive for an Ecchi series. That being said, the rest of the animation is actually pretty solid. Look, it doesn't have to be the most 3D looking anime from studios like ufotable, but Asahi Productions put out a good looking series. I was impressed! This is now their top MAL scored anime. Good for them. (8/10)

Sound: The OST was pretty much what I expected with sounds that make you cringe, and an OST that I'd expect to hear from a cartoon. It was fine. VA work was fine, though I'm sure some of them thought "what am I getting myself into?" a few times. (7/10)

Overall: Okay, look, if a magical girl Ecchi is your thing, then Gushing over Magical Girls will probably be a big hit with you. It's definitely not my top magical girl anime, but there's enough appeal outside of the fan service that I could see people enjoying it immensely. I'm halfway to saying I don't know how to review this series, just because it was "that" wacky. Watch this if that interests you! (6/10)