'Farmagia' is an anime that has a reputation for being bad. I originally wanted to watch it 1) to get some taste for what's bad to feel the contrast between what I consider good to great, and 2) to lower my MAL average score. The truth is, it has some things that make me cringe and some aspects that make it decent or good. § Overview After the death of the world of Felicidad's ruler, one of the Oración Seis, Glaza immediately sets himself up as the ruler. Glaza's minions immediately attack the Avrion continent where the protagonist Ten and his friends live. In response, Ten and hisfriends must fight Glaza and other members of the Oración Seis to regain their freedom.

§ Notes

1. This is Fairy Tail meets Pokemon/Digimon. The characters were designed by Mashima Hiro, the mangaka of Fairy Tail. Although Mashima did not write Farmagia, there are clear parallels. Ten corresponds to Natsu; Leii corresponds to Gray; and Arche corresponds to Lucy (perhaps). Both main characters have pets; Lookie-Loo corresponds to Happy. (I don't know the analogues for Chica and Emero.)

2. With the usual disclaimer, if you don't like Mashima's works, you will not like this anime. The same goes if you like his works.

3. If I were a person who usually drops anime, I would have dropped this before reaching halfway. I was facepalming at how dumb the characters were. It was not encouraging.

I suggest that you keep at it. It gets better.

In fact, the character designs don't seem to pop initially. But by the end of the anime, you will know which is which because of how invested you become in their respective story arcs.

4. I love that we get the respective story arcs of each protagonist, and this makes them so memorable. This is in sharp contrast to so many anime that have an ensemble but fail to characterise and give justice to each cast of characters. (I'm looking at you, 'Promise of Wizard' and 'Cheer for You.)

5. The opening song for Farmagia is decent. Some dislike it, but come on. It's from Asian Kung-Fu Generation, the band that sang one of the bangers of the original Fullmetal Alchemist.

The ED by miss-dystopia is okay but has the energy to become a banger.

6. The animation is decent enough compared to the usual, but it probably pales in comparison to top-tier battle shounen. (By the way, the source material is a game so we don't have the usual demographic categories as shounen, shoujo, seinen, and josei. But with the way the content is too similar to Fairy Tail, it's safe to use the term shounen.)

7. The pacing is mostly decent. At first, the events are happening so fast that it seems it's not good pacing. But after watching, you realise that the 12-episode format has helped this anime. Even if you feel that the anime is bad or cringe, as I often experienced, because the cringe aspects are similar to Fairy Tail, you can't help but feel that each episode is way better than the average episode of Fairy Tail. The single cour format made the director only to include the essentials and not bother creating fillers that don't add much to the plot.

Thus, plotwise, Farmagia is good.

8. You can, however, nitpick some plotholes such as the personnel not being too numerous for a continent. It's not perfect but decent.

9. Its greatest strength is the lore and world building. Despite my wanting to hate this anime, this is an aspect that convinced me that this anime is not really bad.

I won't spoil you because the world of Felicidad's mythology is tied directly to the plot. I will list though the place names. If you got a kick out of the character names in Frieren as German words that characterise the characters, you might like this aspect.

• Felicidad, which is the world our characters are inhabiting. It means happiness in Spanish.

• There are five continents within Felicidad, and I like the map.

1. Avrion. You can't find a meaning for it, but it seems related to the word of French origin, avion, which is any machine that flies or an aeroplane.

2. Perfectus. Latin for perfect.

3. Rahatluk is the Bosnian concept of 'the art of enjoying.'

4. Sonrisa is Spanish for smile (or even forced smile).

5. Nadeyat'sya is Russian for hope.

§ Conclusion

Farmagia is that one anime considered by others as bad. Indeed, it has some cringe elements. Yet, I was surprised that it has so many decent elements that I cannot ignore.

I'm grading it a 5 and a recommended mark. It's not bad and can be good. It's hampered by how the characters can act like idiots, and this prevents me from giving it a higher score.